Archive for the tag "wesley willis"

• Collapsing margins and broken box models suck a capuchin monkey’s musty ass with Hoisen sauce! #

Wesley Willis, one of my favorite people in Chicago, died yesterday.  The news is spreading fast; I just found out five minutes ago from a post on Metafilter.  I’m so sad about this.  I haven’t seen him in several years now. I met him almost as soon as I moved to Chicago and for awhile there I saw him and talked to him on a near-daily basis.  He would always ask me to tell his demons to shut up, which I did, and it was no joke; his demons were very real.  I bought his CDs, I admired his artwork and I really respected him as an artist.  Poor Wesley!!  I had no idea about all the health trouble he’s had recently.  Didn’t he have enough troubles already without this?  It doesn’t seem fair, but then… much of his life was not fair either, but look at everything he did!  I just hope he’s at peace and finally did get rid of all his demons.  I really believe he was a great person, a real hero.  He accomplished a hell of a lot more than most of us ever will, despite mental, physical and social barriers that I wouldn’t even wish on my worst enemy.  Rock on Wesley!!  I will never ever forget you!!

At the World Cafe in Chicago sometime in January ’97.  Photos by Mike Bell.

Well, I have moved my ass to Chicago, y’all! If you’ve arrived at this page then you know I’ve already switched Internet providers… my new e-mail address is XXX (now invalid).

GUESS WHAT… there’s a big fat feature story about my music in this week’s edition of the Chicago Reader. This is the first time I’ve done a real interview for a real newspaper with a real photographer and all. whoah…

I played my first gig in Chicago at the Empty Bottle on Friday night, it went great! I got to open for Rebecca Gates, the singer from the Spinanes, who I dig a lot. You know, she played a cool cover of the Pretenders’ "Talk Of The Town", and I was sick because I had come *this* close to playing an old country tune called "I’m The Talk Of The Town," a totally different song — it would’ve been perfect!! Maybe we oughta do it up as a split single, eh?

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