Burnin’

eBay didn’t work for me. I posted my Garcia print, “Poet Reflects The War” in two consecutive 7-day auctions and received no offers, just a note from a nice lady who remarked that my print was probably worth quite a bit more than I was selling it for.

What did work was reaching out to my own network of networked individuals. Thankfully, my network is filled with Deadheads so it turned out exceptionally well for all parties. My buddy Jeffrey Smith, a photographer and designer in Colorado, put my sell notice on a local email list. So the buyer was not a friend of Jeff’s per se, just an online associate in a group list, who trusted Jeff, then me to deliver on said intent to sell said goods in said condition. And with a little help from FedEx it all worked perfectly. I love it.

Few displays of American consumerism can compete with Chicago’s Miracle Mile. Pretty much every high-end retailer one can think of has a slot on this fabulous stretch of N. Michigan Avenue. Given that I’m not currently in the market for more material accumulation, it was oh so pleasant to drop out of the hustle-bustle in favor of high culture. Terra Museum of American Art, with its free admission, is an artful sanctuary in the midst of this commercial district and well worth investigating.

The show that brought us in, “Debating American Modernism: Stieglitz, Duchamp and the New York Avant-Garde” proved to be fascinating. It contains works by Max Weber, Man Ray, Georgia O’Keeffe, and several artists I was previously unfamiliar with. Then, as we descended stairs and explored other exhibits we came across the marvelous ethno-photography of Edward S. Curtis. I’ve often admired his images of Native Americans in books, but had never been afforded the opportunity to see 65 master prints up close. Incredible stuff!

Spider’s have held a somewhat holy place in my world since childhood and Charlotte’s Web. Spiders get ushered out of the house, not crushed in a Kleenex, for instance. Anyway, it occurs to me how knowledge itself is spider-like. One discovery leads to the next in an infinite progression.

Last Saturday night we dodged out of the German-American beer swilling festival, a.k.a. Germania, which had overtaken our lovely Lincoln Square streets, for the somewhat saner climes of Old Town School of Folk Music, where Roy Book Binder and Ramblin’ Jack were performing a late show. Both artists are consummate storytellers–noted weavers of dialectic yarns.

Roy told a tale of how Katherine Dunn’s novel, Geek Love influenced him as a blues player. And also the work of Florida writer, Harry Crews. In this tale told between songs, Roy spoke of how he once asked a young songwriter from Indiana if he had read those books too. The young man said no, which Roy found hard to believe since aspects of these literary lions’ writing were clearly present in the young man’s songs.

My point is there is so much to discover by simply following these threads. It requires that one capture these everyday references and follow them to a suitable conclusion. In the case of writers and performers, the acquisition of their published work is often a suitable conclusion.

Time is mostly a human construct, thus time can be made to bend to the will of the people. Daylight savings is one example of time’s transient nature. Another ironic twist to the time tale is our tendency to think of the city as being fast-paced, when what the city truly requires is a slowing of one’s internal clock, for things take longer in the city.

Chicago’s hurried pace is teaching me to exercise more patience. To lose patience in this environment is a pure waste of energy. Traffic will snarl. Lines will form. And with patience and grace I will be a citizen of this highly energized civilization, and wait my turn.

Word of mouth has always been the best form of advertising. Think about the power of everyday people selling for and working for YOUR company. It’s huge.

Yesterday I dealt successfully with not one, but three corporate entities, and today I want to sing their praises. Waking up on Tuesday–after moving to Chicago over the weekend–with no household Internet connection in place (a disgruntling fact), I decided to try my luck at Starbucks, wherein lie the much touted Wi Fi connection from provider, T-Mobile. I have a Mac and am always worried about whether the developers of “the latest cool thing” took my minority computing preferences into consideration. I’m pleased to say my iBook instantly sniffed out the connection and within minutes I was on the Net updating Web sites and reading email, all while stimulated by iced espresso.

After Darby got off work we found our way down Lincoln to Trader Joe’s, the California grocery wholesaler. Amazing prices on quality stuff. Maybe the jaded Californians take it for granted, but after growing accustom to the outrageous prices at Whole Foods and Wild Oats, it’s nice to have an option like Trader Joe’s.