Phone Messages

In the late eighties, publishing a college literary journal could be filled with late night stress.

Feeling bad is a relative thing, and according to Daniel Johnston, a better life brings better orgasms.

Daniel Johnston was a musician and visual artist who embodied the eccentric spirit of 1980s Austin.

In 1989 Richard Linklater filmed a love letter to the city of Austin and redefined the concept of Slacker.

John Moschitta Jr. became famous for talking fast in a 1982 Federal Express commercial. His skill proved hard to imitate.

In Chicago, if you want to have a jam band in your apartment, it's helpful to have neighbors who are doing equally loud things.

Madison Wisconsin in the 1980s was a great place for campus activism, but personal experiences around this activism were often complicated.

Bob Marley died in 1981, Peter Tosh in 1987, but their spirits remain strong, especially in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush.

In fall of 1988 I went to visit my grandmother in Lakeland Florida. She was born not just before answering machines but also before the technology of automatic switchboards were widespread.

What happens when some Chicago kids confront a novel technology? The answering machine was invented in the 1940s but was still uncommon in 1980s homes.

Emile was my college dorm neighbor and a decent musician. He also inspired a song by Chris Pearson.

My pet rat Albert died in fall of 1988. He was buried in an empty lot behind Bret Harte Elementary School.

In the 1990s, Chicago became the center of a so called "post-rock" scene. Did my record collection, passed on to James Warden, play a role in this?

Brian Omelia hails from the Quad Cities, where my father's parents also have roots, specifically in Davenport's Germantown.

Madison Wisconsin, known for its hippie lifestyle and radical politics, also had great dance clubs.

Chris Pearson describes his life in 1988 Chicago and how he entered his career as a decorative painter.

Albert Ayler lived a brief high intensity musical life in search of spiritual unity. John Coltrane and a few other supporters saw him as visionary, but he was largely underappreciated in his time.

David Durenberger served as Minnesota Senator from 1978 to 1995. He fell in the moderate middle of the Minnesota Republican Party,

Was it Anne that left this message in Fall of 1988? If it was Anne, which Anne was it? And where was I that night? Did we go up north as planned? This and other mysteries are explored.

While living in Hyde Park, the north side of Chicago provided a space to escape our neighborhood joints and dance in nightclubs like Club Berlin and the Smart Bar.