|
31 Mar 03 - 07:11 PM (#923005) Subject: BS: Chicag they came in the middle of night From: katlaughing It seems paranoia knows no bounds, apparently. Someone correct me if I am wrong? Mayor Daley, of Chicago had Meigs airfield, a small airfield near downtown, destroyed in the middle of the night, without warning. He was afraid and said now the city will *feel* safer. Several people have small airplanes stranded there now. Others disagree. You may read about it here. Strange stuff... kat |
|
31 Mar 03 - 07:21 PM (#923013) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Coyote Breath Having lived in Chicago and having worked in the Loop, I agree with Mayor Daley. I thought Meigs had already been closed. He is right about the proximity of the field to "targets" in downtown. What does Art Thieme think? I don't feel that Daley is being "paranoid", but, unfortunately, cautious. Now he should concern himself with port security since Chicago is a seasonal ocean port with a great deal of container traffic passing through the area. CB |
|
31 Mar 03 - 08:30 PM (#923036) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Mark Clark Here it is in the Chicago Sun Times. - Mark |
|
31 Mar 03 - 09:50 PM (#923069) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: katlaughing I just thought the way he went about it, i.e. in the middle of the night, no warning to airplane owners, etc. was weird, if not paranoid. I'd like to know what Art thinks of this,too. Thanks,guys, kat |
|
31 Mar 03 - 10:14 PM (#923093) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Forum Lurker Regardless of security concerns, which seem quite valid, I have to question the motives of closing the field down without warning, leaving privately owned planes stranded. |
|
01 Apr 03 - 01:25 AM (#923161) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme In Chicago's early days it was the department store magnate, Montgomery Ward, who was instrumental in starting the movement that saved the city's lakefront for the people of the city. The next generations made that entire six or seven mile stretch from Jackson Park on the South to Hollywood Ave on the North into the sparkling green belt gem that it is today. As it stands, now, there has already been too much building along the shores of Lake Michigan. But the eyesore Illinois Central Railroad tracks have been, for the most part, eradicated or built over. The huge exposition hall, McCormack Place, is the main eyesore now to my way of thinking. But that's just me. Still, taking that little sirport away from the corporate jets is simply in keeping with the original intent of Burnham's great plans for that part of the lakefront. The original wording from the laws passed in those other times that were in keeping with Monkey Ward's original idea when the area was supposedly saved was: FOREVER OPEN, CLEAR AND FREE That was the vision. Folks, an airport wasn't ever in those plans. I, personally, am happy to see this Mayor Daley use his dictatorial clout to help the area stay with the people of that good city. It makes up a small bit for all the shit his father pulled in 1968 when he gassed and beat so many of my friends in that very same Grant Park because they were protesting our involvement in a war. (Day job vu, all over again.) And this recent Mayor Richard Daley is the man who made it possible for the Old Town School Of Folk Music to get the vacated Hild Library building on North Lincoln Avenue for the amazing total sum of ONE DOLLAR ($1.00) Jim Hirsch then worked with the community to raise the millions of dollars it took to renovate that building into the showplace and the success story of this folk world of ours that it is today. They may have glitzed it up a bit much for my old folkie beatnik tastes, but that's cool too. Different strokes for modern folks. To everything there is a season !!! Love, Art Thieme |
|
01 Apr 03 - 01:43 AM (#923168) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme And I'm the guy who said of the first Mayor Daley, Richard J. Daley, that "They had laid him out face down when he died so everybody could kiss him goodbye." That was on WFMT-FM radio, live, on New Years Eve a week after "da mare" (as we used to call him) died. That was their all request night --- and I can vouch for the fact that, that night, I got some unique requests----but my guitar wouldn't fit !!! ;-) Art Thieme ---(and I say it again here 'cause I'll never forgive the bloated old asshole for doing that.) |
|
01 Apr 03 - 08:51 AM (#923401) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: katlaughing Thanks for that, Art!! Good to get your take on things and to hear another story of those days. luvyakat |
|
01 Apr 03 - 09:23 AM (#923442) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Teribus Thanks Art - best laugh I've had today - power to you!!! |
|
01 Apr 03 - 11:36 AM (#923621) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Mark Clark Great thoughts, Art. I had a chance to visit the new OTSFM in February and was very plesantly surprised. I was also surprised to find them teaching Velvet Underground tunes to begining guitar classes but that's another story. You'll no doubt recall Hizzonor Da Mare's famous speech in which he said that for those who didn't like the way he ran Chicago he had mistletoe on his coattail. - Mark |
|
01 Apr 03 - 12:40 PM (#923677) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Mark, That's great. But, no, I don't remember da mare saying that. He did say plenty of amazing and outrageous crap back den though.It sure is amazing how dis new Richard D. is sounding just like da ol' man dese days. His blustering denial dat "de midnight move on da air strip was LEGAL and ta hell wid errybody else" was Chicago at it's finest and living up to da great city a Chicaga's use o' da good ol' adage, "It's easier ta get forgiveness dan permission." But this morning's radio talk shows were takin' off on da man for da midnight raid on da pavement o' dat good airstrip like dey was goin' after his ol man for all da stuff we went after da man over for all da years he was da mare dere. Hell, I even voted write-in for Dick Gregory over Richard J. in dat one election----but to no avail. Dat Richard was as made o' teflon as dis Riuchard seems ta be.------------- Still, it was fun at a tribute concert night at da Old Town S. O.F.M. in honor o' WFMT's Ray Nordstrand to get up on stage and bring up dose words I'd said on da radio dem many years ago and hear da "Boooo, Boooo, Boooooo" sounds comin' out o' dat new upscale audience dat's taken overt da good school of folk music. Indeed, dese folks have, more often dan not, dropped da words "Folk Music" from da name o' da venerable old place dese days. Frank Hamilton, da firs' teacher dere and a founder of da school, was dere dat night too if I remember right. Whad da ya tink of da place nod , Frank??? It'd be fun to hear... And Mark, you were da mare o' a town out west o' dere in dem fields o' drems if I remember right !!??? Did you ever have da clout to do dis kind o' high falutin' maneuvering??? ;-) **smile** Seems to me dat dis stuff only gets done by da guys and/or gals (da Mare Jane Byrne) dat can actually get away wid it. After ten or twelve consecutive re-election wins like Daley's done, it seems ta me dat de people are pretty much behind da guy. As da first Richard D. would-a said, "It's dem lakefront liberals dat're talkin' 'bout dis. Ta hell wid 'em!"--------------- And I was and still am one o' dose guys even do I now live 100 miles sout'-wes' o' da big town. Yeah, I'll always be a Chicagoan. Nelson Algren really did buy me da first beer I ever drank in a bar at da old Second City on Clark near Wisconsin Street when I was underage & used ta go in dere and drink Coke ta listen to da hip palaver and intellect stuff goin' down. It was cool as all hell I thought back den. And I still get a kick-and-a-half out o' thinkin' 'bout it. Dem was good times even if, like most tale tellers, we remember things that might've not've happened quite that way. Love again, Art Thieme |
|
01 Apr 03 - 12:47 PM (#923684) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: katlaughing WhaHoo!!! The Fine Art is on a roll!!! Encore, encore, tell us more!! Frank Hamilton, let's hear some from you, too, please!? Great stuff!! |
|
01 Apr 03 - 05:03 PM (#923879) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: GUEST |
|
02 Apr 03 - 06:06 AM (#924340) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Peter K (Fionn) The world can only marvel at what terror that handful of Saudis have managed to spread with their little boxcutters! I don't like the proliferation of airports and air travel (aviation fuel untaxed, etc) so I shouldn't bemoan the loss of Meigs Field. But what a spectacularly mean, petty, sneaky way to go about it. It means my Flight Simulator software will have to be rewritten again. |
|
02 Apr 03 - 09:40 AM (#924441) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Rapparee Aw, no, not Meigs! My cousin worked a ticket counter there many, many, many years ago! And several years ago my very own brother flew into Meigs with the Number One Head of the Illinois State Police (brother was giving a speech on "Future Crime" and was not, to everyone's surprise, a prisoner); on the way out he bought a sandwich from a vending machine and was sicker'n hell for the next eight hours. Gee, where will I park my Learjet when I fly to Chicago in the future, if I had a Learjet or even had a pilot's license??? 8-) |
|
02 Apr 03 - 09:50 AM (#924455) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: GUEST Dear Art, You are a god. I enjoyed a good, Black Irish grin at your above truthful wit. It's about the most amused I've felt since March 19. Love, Katy |
|
02 Apr 03 - 11:23 AM (#924531) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Katy, Thanks ! All others-----You can be happy that the overworked gastroenterologists of the town will be working a bunch less now because all us cab drivers around Chicago (I did that 30 years ago along with my music) will have much less gastronomic distress since, finally, that fungus-filled coin-operated beverage dispenser where, when you press the hot chocolate button, you always got hot chocolate with an inch of rancid chicken soup on top-----that will finally, alas, be crushed by the bulldozer and sold off for scrap. (Thanks to my friend Chloris for reminding me of that sad monstrosity at Meigs Field.) As a kid, it was fun to see the little prop planes barely missing the Adler Planetarium as they took off and landed and plunged, headlong, into Lake Michigan. Now those same kids ask their extended families, "Step, step, stepfather, "What's a propeller??" Those of you who have the STRAWBERRY Mudcat CD:::: Now we could write a new few verses to my CHICAGOTOWN BLUES on that record. I will always love that city. It's politics and audaciousness, it's brash brass and swagger---the neon streets and mesmerizing nightlife. Wandering those streets from gig to gig hand in hand with someone special will always be tops in my memory banks for as long as I can remember anything at all. I think I'll call her on the phone right now. E-mail doesn't make it for some things. We are still in touch even though that was 40 years ago... Art Thieme |
|
02 Apr 03 - 11:35 AM (#924541) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme The first Mayor Daley, Richard J., was da boss who hired all the patronage workers. Patronage workers were the ones who got jobs from Daley and his henchmen aldermen. They ALWAYS voted for the "machine" because that was how they made their livings.--------- (In that verse of my song, one of the patronage workers at City Hall dies. The mortuary men showed up to get the body but couldn't take it away until later in the day when quitting time came. It was the only way they could figure out which one was dead !! And it was also Richard J. Daley whose people kept the old practice of buying the votes of down-and-out winos who voted over and over (and over) again using the names of dead people. That's another verse of my song. Ah, the memories. Art Thieme |
|
02 Apr 03 - 11:55 AM (#924558) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Troll Here is Neal Boortz' take on the action. Boortz is a private pilot and is active in AOPA the private pilots assoc. THE DESTRUCTION OF MEIGS FIELD Do you have Microsoft Flight Explorer? If you do, the default airport is Meigs Field. Meigs Field is no more. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has wanted to close Meigs Field for quite some time. To be more accurate, Daly's wife has wanted to close Meigs. She wanted to build a park there. In December of 2001 Daley signed an agreement in which he promised to keep Meigs open for another 25 years, this in turn for certain improvements and expansions at Chicago's O'Hare airport. Daley was only buying time, waiting for the right time to strike. Sunday night seemed to be the right time. At about 11:00 p.m. Daley ordered bulldozers to destroy the runways at Meigs. He used terrorism as his excuse, though he admitted in a press conference that there is not nor has there ever been a specific terrorist threat to Chicago related in any way to Meigs. The action taken by Daley doesn't seem to be too popular in Chicago … even with the non-flying public. A Chicago Tribune Poll this morning shows that 70% of the 16,000+ people who have responded oppose the mayor's action. So, yet another politician exploits national security concerns to advance a personal issue … and it looks like Daley's wife is going to get her park. Politics as usual in Chicago. At least I had a chance to visit Meigs in 2002 in N750DB ... before the Mayor's wife got her wish." troll |
|
02 Apr 03 - 12:21 PM (#924577) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Uncle_DaveO How do the owners get their planes out now? And who pays? Dave Oesterreich |
|
02 Apr 03 - 05:28 PM (#924787) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme There is a taxiway that any decent pilot can take off from. Friends, it's the Enron etc. jets that this airport served. It is a very small airport and making this area a part of the museum campus and park that is there already will be a good thing, not a bad thing. If 70% of the people are against this taking of the airport, well, so be it. It's still wrong to have an airport there. No, that isn't democratic, but so be it. It is still the right thing to do. The people elected Richard Daley to act in their interest and he has done just that even though they're too whatever to see that fact. For those that don't have the chops to take off from the taxiway, Daley said he will pay for the moving of their planes. Art Thieme |
|
03 Apr 03 - 09:58 AM (#925241) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: MAG Ah, Chicago. How well I remember Daley jr's goons showing up at my little Library on North Ave. to strongarm me for the names of citizens who had come in to register to vote. How well I remember pollwatching in Mr Banks' ward (the only all-white ward in the city) and having the air mysteriously let out of my tires. How well I remember Daley sr. re-politicizing the Library and turn it into patronage jobs when he needed a bunch more jobs. How well I remember the teamster drivers who refused to put our sacks of stuff on the trucks (so I ended up doing it myself). The board Pres putting his mistress in charge of branches. The high official whose wife cleaned a few treasures out of the old main library. The director who was sleeping with the City Treasurer. You get addicted to stress like anything else. I'm still detoxing from working for the City, much as I miss so many things about the city otherwise. |
|
03 Apr 03 - 10:52 AM (#925266) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: GUEST,Jim Hirsch First, thanks to Art for the nice comments about the Old Town Hild Library project. I now work downtown at the Chicago Theatre and, like most Loop workers, have never felt threatened at all by the proximity of Meigs Field. Daley is BSing everyone when he claims he did this for the safety of the people. He has wanted Meigs closed for ages and this gave him the "cover" he needed to move unilaterally. What is disturbing about this, and everything else that is happening in our country right now, is that the "big lie", perfected by Goerbels during the 1930s, is again coming into vogue. The Bushies practice it religiously, and now even our good old mayor is getting into the spirit of political discourse, 2003 style. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and Meigs Field's destruction has nothing to do with public safety. The fact is that we are no safer from the risk of some wacko piloting a plane into a building then we were a week ago. I'd rather see the land used for a public purpose so I'm not broken up about the loss of the airport. I am concerned about how he did it, and worse, how he blatantly and unashamedly invoked the "big lie". |
|
03 Apr 03 - 11:53 AM (#925317) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: catspaw49 Among other things that have interested me over the years (the lockstep rise of big-time wrestling and big-time religion), I've thought at times about how cities develop identities and their societies match the identities well. What I mean by that is that a certain type of politician does well in Chicago but wouldn't work out as well in New York, and vice versa. The same is true with other aspects, including the gangsters. Capone was a Chicago kind of guy and Sam Giancana even moreso! Just a thought that passes through what's left of my mind once in awhile. Spaw |
|
03 Apr 03 - 11:54 AM (#925320) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Jim Hirsch is correct, people. It is good that the land will revert back to the people ie. "Forever open, clear and free" ! But I was wrong sanctioning the way it was done. As much as I disliked the first Daley, I now see that I was probably allowing my nostalgic feelings for my own times in that city back then to keep me from seeing properly how much this move smacks of the tactics of Dick Daley the first. Jim, it's nice hearing from you. People, Jim Hirsch is the guy that brought the Old Town School Of Folk Music back from certain ruin. He deserves, and ought to get , all the credit for today's successes. Art Thieme |
|
03 Apr 03 - 12:11 PM (#925335) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: katlaughing I just want to thanks all of you for making this a Classic Mudcat Thread! This is just wonderful to read and will be a treasure for many people over the years. As I've said before....encore, encore, more, more!**bg** luvyakat |
|
03 Apr 03 - 12:28 PM (#925341) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Mark Clark Yes, I did serve a couple of terms as da mare of a small Iowa community after serving on the Council for a couple of terms. Patronage wasn't really an option there because there were too few public jobs so I had to let go of the dream. When the encumbent learned that I was running, he dropped out of the race so I always ran unopposed. I figured, why should Jack Cooke be the only mayor in bluegrass music. I was actually hired once by the hizzonor da mare's organization, to play for a campaign rally at Medinah Temple. Art, do you remember a guy named Joe Klee? He wrote a song for the occasion and he and I and Herb Jones and, as I recall, a woman whose name escapes me at the moment played the gig. Paid pretty well as I recall. Much later, our bluegrass band used to get hired for the First National Bank Plaza concerts in the summertime. Does that make me a patronage worker? I also remember hizzonor da mare saying that he didn't believe anyone in the City of Chicago was hungry and inviting anyone who was hungry to give him a call. That would have been in the late 1960's sometime. - Mark |
|
03 Apr 03 - 12:29 PM (#925342) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Spaw, Yes. Paddy Bauler, Win Stracke, Nelson Algren, Ed Balchowsky, Studs Terkel, Mike Royko, Bill Veeck, Al Capone, Paul Powell, Chloris Noelke, Pat Tuit, Earl Pionke, Upton Sinclair, Ben Reitman and Emma Goldman, Meridell Lafleur, Big Bill Broonzy, Big Bill Haywood, Big Joe Williams, big Wally Friedrichs, Cap and Ma Streeter, Anna Matindale, Gus John, Gus Hall, Doc Stanley, Bill Smith, Bob Gibson, Paul Durst, Cornelia Honchar, Floyd Dell, Maxwell Boddenheim, Vachal Lindsey, Casey Jones the chicken man of Clark Street, the Haymarket rioters and martyrs, Duke Nathaus, the St. Valentines Day massacre, the 1968 Democratic convention "Police Riot" and massacre------it all made for great drama and better literature. And if you were able to live through it, it made unique, if not exactly wonderful, memories. These are damn exciting memories of my well-spent youth. All's well that ends well, I suppose. Art Thieme |
|
03 Apr 03 - 01:00 PM (#925371) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Mark, I just lost my post so I'll try it again... If you were da mare anywhere you are a better man than I am. A belated conbgratulations on attaining that office. Did you ever sing "Tom Joad" for those folks/ I recall you did a great version of that good song. JOE KLEE has his own website. Put his name in the Google search engine and there he will be. He might even show up in a forum search here. I posted a song of his a while ago---one he sang at, and was about, the first University of Chicao Folk Festival in 1961. To the tune of "Tam Pierce". Joe must've been way younger than he looked back then. Oh, father, oh, father, Can I take the car, Hootenannys and picking and shootin' the breeze, For 57th Street is rather far. For Tom Paley, Mike Seeger, The Stanley Brothers, Sandy Paton, Elizabeth Cotten and all, Appearing out at Mandel Hall. There was more but that's all I recall after 42 years. Art Thieme |
|
03 Apr 03 - 01:26 PM (#925395) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: GUEST,alinact Art, and all, does Steve Goodman fit into this picture at all? Allan |
|
03 Apr 03 - 08:48 PM (#925715) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Stevie was a huge part of Chicago's folk scene. Check the thread titled Who Is Steve Goodman. I've mentioned in various threads that CLAY EALS of Seattle is working on what ought to be a wonderful biography of Steve Goodman. I'm really looking forward to it. Also, the section of Lincoln Ave. in Chicago where the Old Town School Of Folk Music is now located was designated STEVE GOODMAN WAY (or something like that). The street is actually still Lincoln Ave. but it was a nice tribute to a fine musician and singer I thought. Art |
|
03 Apr 03 - 10:23 PM (#925757) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: katlaughing I should have named this thread "Art Thieme's Chicago - read & enjoy!!" Keep 'em coming, Art and you others who were there! Thanks, again!! |
|
03 Apr 03 - 10:38 PM (#925763) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: MAG Jim, say Hi to Michelle for me. -- Mary Ann G. |
|
04 Apr 03 - 05:40 PM (#926353) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Peter K (Fionn) Art, I can readily see that Meigs had to go. But what's wrong with a "closed" sign? Ripping it up at 2am seems a bit extreme to me, or does the mayor do all his business this way? |
|
04 Apr 03 - 06:41 PM (#926391) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Fionn, hello. All I can say is that his father did things this way when he was in that seat, but when he did his hardball games, real heads rolled and lives were sometimes taken. This new mayor D. usually gets a concensus before going in and doing things. It could just be that Bush has set an example that he couldn't ignore. And Bush's war also set a smokescreen that'd push this story off the front pages and into the middle of the papers. The folks bothered by this move are gnerally not Democrats. And the Democrats ARE Chicago. Daley is King of the Democrats in Chicago. Daley the First did horrendous things with his clout. Chicago enjoyed his chutzpah though and kept electing him even though those of us he ran roughshod over are still angry with him all these years later. But who will be angry with this new Mayor Daley for making the park better? The few Enron-type corporate jets and their billionaire pilots who have to land their silver birds somewhere else and then put up with a 2 and a 1/2-hour trip in a barely moving parking lot going down the miles of expressway they now have to traverse to get to their boardrooms, that's who. --------- Not that it's only Enron and Arthur Andersen Accounting types that might suffer for having the airport gone. Some innocents will suffer, I know. But this old world isn't fair. --------- I love it. That's a character flaw we old school Chicagoans seem to share. I'll have to remember to deal with it when I grow up. ;-) Love, Art |
|
21 Apr 03 - 10:10 PM (#937479) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Coyote Breath A belated thanks, Art. Doc Stanley! damn I'd forgotten him, he used to MC the hoots at the Poison Apple. And in "Old Town" where I first experienced a "terrorist bombing" (some Serbs blew out the front door of the Yugoslavian Consulate on (Walnut, Maple?)) Mike Bloomfield worked at the Fickle Pickle and played piano with Paul Prestopino and others doing "classical" banjo pieces interspersed with blues. And the Chicago anarchists urging everyone to write in Dick Gregory during the Goldwater debacle (1964 presidential election) because they heard that poll workers had to hand-count write-in ballots and the act would delay final tallies. I suspect the poll workers just destroyed the ballots rather than count them. The Old Town School of Folk Music! I heard Doc Watson for the first time up there and I think that I paid one dollar for the pleasure, fitting that they got their new digs for that same price. I wonder if the delicatessen down at the end of Belden is still there and if the Dill Pickle is still in the alley behind the old Fischer Building? sigh. I prefer to live in "the country" but if I had to live in a city it would be Chicago (during the 1960's). Pour Richard's, Mother Blues, Old Town Gardens, Koch's and Brentano's (Henry Tauber) The Jazz Record Mart (Dave Koester) Delmar Records, The Open Door, Lawrence Avenue hillbillys, The Conference of the Southern Mountains. The "outfit". Maxwell Street. Bissel Street, Armitage Avenue, The Ravenswood "L". CB |
|
22 Apr 03 - 12:15 AM (#937548) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Little Hawk I've seen Chicago, but only from the air. It's horrifying. However, I'm sure if you grew up there you'd find a lot to be sentimental about, as with any big city. It sounds like a place with a pretty dramatic history. - LH |
|
22 Apr 03 - 01:22 AM (#937578) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme ...and Nelson Algren & Warren Leming and Slim Brundage's College Of Complexes and Ed Balchowsky and Meridel Laseeur and Bill Smith 'king of the beatniks' and Maury's Book Store on State Street and Bob Koester hiring my go to Washington D.C. and peruse the Libr. Of Congress Archive for old Broadway 78 rpm records in their collection. Back in Chicago he paid me in Big Joe Williams LPs saying he was broke. And Art the junkie's pad on Wells Street where more roaches were housed than any random 5 square miles anywhere else in town. When I turned on a burner on his stove once the roaches running from the heat looked like some bizarre Chicago-style modern painting of God-rays emanating from the back-lit sun-filled heavens with angels descending down 'em. And Doc Stanley playing his regularly strung National guitar and singing "Deep Elum Blues" at that coffeehouse on Sedgeick called the ERECTHEON because the local powers that be couldn't stomach an establishment called THE ERECTION. Tom Meis........r's banjo, Roger Luzwick's seven foot tall painting that I bought of the Devil swirling in the stormy clouds above that big old church in Old Town. I sold it after Carol, my wife, got religion. Mike Slosson was trying hard to be a folksinger---but he fell a bit short. Joe Klee who was one of a kind asking me tearfully after a Monday night hoot at Mother Blues, "Art, are they laughing with me, or at me??" ----- And I lied when I gave him my opinion ! Sweet Michelle was a speed freak I was sure I could save so we moved in together in that coach house on Cleveland Street until I came home and found her with a Chicago narco-cop. ------------ Ah, Tom, it's fun taking a nostalgialogical time warp trip with you. Were those times as good as we think? Probably not if you believe the revisionist historians. But sit down with a double neat scotch and read Shel Slverstein's amazing notes on the back of the old Elektra LP----BOB GIBSON AND BOB CAMP AT THE GATE OF HORN. It's all pretty much there in black and white. You can bet I'm one old folkie who knows down deep that it really was the best of times. After doing a TV show for Chicago Public TV on a New Years Eve about 1995 or '96, Michelle called me on the phone --- (she'd seen the show). Hearing her say who it was felt like a time warp sledge hammer had just hit my stomach after it had fallen from some great height. I expected that cop to knock my door down and bust me for the joint I'd smoked forty years earlier. But we had a nice talk and we told each other how surprised we were to see we were both still alive----and had somehow lived through all that. Before we hung up she called me "honey" or "hon"----like the waitresses around here do thinking it might increase their tip or whatever. It was a turn off coming from both sources. Our conversation, like that other era, was pretty much over--------. I've mentioned before that a few favorite lines of mine come from Lawrence Durrell in THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET. He said, "There are three things to do with a woman. You can love her. You can suffer for her. Or you can turn her into art."------------It looks like I might've done a bit of all three for M. Art Thieme |
|
22 Apr 03 - 01:44 AM (#937589) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: katlaughing Wonderful, CB and Art!! Keep it up, fellahs! |
|
23 Apr 03 - 01:59 AM (#938269) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Mark Clark Art, You're really taking me back. Thanks. I looked for Joe Klee's Web site but came up empty. He did take a lot of abuse from audiences and performers alike but he seemed undaunted through it all. He was pretty good at knocking out a quick song in a pinch. As I recall he'd worked as a writer for the Dave Garaway Show. I can't remember what his day job was when I knew him or why he was living in the same dump on North Dearborn that I called home. I knew why I was living there… $16.00 a week and some weeks that seemed like a lot. Now who were the guys who often played for open mikes at the old Rising Moon on Pearson? One sat and played a tenor banjo, the other stood and played clarinet? - Mark |
|
23 Apr 03 - 06:41 PM (#938829) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Mark, that is really going back. I'd forgotten that the Rising Moon was on Pearson before it moved to 1305 N. Wells.----That address would later become the home of mother Blues. --- Do you remember Jim Kweskin bopping into town and making a splash of sorts at the Rising Moon's Monday night hoot. Anyone who was especially impresive at the hoot was given a weekend night with pay. Kweskin did Ella Jenkins' radio show called The Meetin' House to push his gig. At the same time Jim was teaching an advanced guitar fingerpicking class at Pete Leibundguth's old music store, The Fret Shop, on East 57th Street in Hyde Park. I was teaching beginning guitar there too. The tape I made of Jim Kweskin on that radio show provided wonderful arrangements for me for over 30 years. I love that tape. Still have it. Freddy Holstein learned many of Kweskin's solo renditions of several of those songs from my tape too. "The Days Of '49" was one Fred did. I learned and sang "San Francisco Bay Blues", an amazing and subtle guitar picked version of "The Cuckoo" and "Stacker Lee" as well as "Days Of '49" and "Wave To Me My Lady" (from Elton Britt). It was in that shop that I met the old Wobbly hobo fiddler, Paul Durst, who was living in Pete's back room. I recorded him in '61. That whole line of shops there on 57th St. in the Hyde Park---University Of Chicago neighborhood ---- were left over curio sheds from the big Columbian Exposition of 1893. These store fronts were called THE ARTIST COLONY after the fair left. It was cheap housing for all kinds of bohemian thought---writers and artists. Vachel Linsey, Carl Sandburg, Maxwell Bodenheim. Flod Dell's novel, The Briary Bush", took place in those dirt-floor, cold water spaces. The first Mayor Richard Daley tore them down. We tried to save 'em with a street festival in 1963 but there was no way to fight City Hall. I might'vesaid before that my first gig was across the stree in a coffeehouse owned by Norman Tong called the LIMELIGHT CAFE. I was to get 25% of the door---and I went home with a quarter. And Ella Jenkins is still in town and singing up a storm all over the country. We talked last week. What a great person and folksinger she was and still is. I think she did 50 kids LP albums for Folkways !! I'll try to find that Joe Klee web page again and get the info to you. Art Thieme |
|
23 Apr 03 - 08:51 PM (#938907) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Coyote Breath Bob Koester! not Dave! Well I'm gettin' old(er). Ya know, I have such GOOD memories of that city. Mike Green's old red '37 knuckle head. That I sometimes forget I only lived there from 1963(late) to 1966! Those must have been extremely important years. (Tom ....enheimer by the way, and thanks for remembering!) Yow! Jacqueline Harrison's incredible paintings (I visited with her in 1995). I had forgotten about the Fret Shop and Jim Kweskin! The Southside. Pepper's Lounge, Silvio's on the Westside. Well this is definately creeping thread fer shur. But Chicago, even though I lived there for slightly more than two years had been part of my life ALL my life. I was born and raised in Milwaukee and Chicago is where we went to do stuff. My Grandfather ran both the Morrison and Southmore hotel dining rooms. He was a chef and a Maitre D'. A drinker and a pony-player and had a huge collection of friends of "importance" from EVERY walk of life. My uncle Ted played in many of the clubs there and in Milwaukee. Beiderbeck,"Wild" Bill, Teagarden, all played with him and/or played his music or his arrangements (He wrote "Serenade to a Jerk" and "Overheard in a Women's Washroom", really!) He was a member of Davison's Beau Brumells for a couple of years. Born in 1907 and died last year out in Laguna Niguel, California. My Aunt Catherine "Bunny" Smith, Ted's "kid sister" was a genuine "flapper". She claimed she once went to a party thrown by Frank Nitti AND that she knew Elliot Ness. She was even more of a character than uncle Ted. As we trade this nostalgia back and forth I find myself longing to see Chicago again. When I get back from Yellowstone this season, I think I'll ride the Indian on up there and hang out for a couple of days. Eat me some Yacht Club pizza should it still exist. CB |
|
24 Apr 03 - 01:31 PM (#939312) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: katlaughing Boy, I love this! There's no tellin' when a Mudcat thread might spin off into incredble realms of memory, each hitting off of the other, sparking more stories...grand stuff, ya'll! Art said he'd passed on Joe Klees' addy to Mark, but I asked him for it, too, as I am always interested in reading about folkies you all bring up, so anyone who is interested may click HERE. I didn't think he was the same guy that came up on google as Joe H. Klee, jazz reviewer, so missed this one. Anyway, thanks, Art! kat |
|
24 Apr 03 - 05:58 PM (#939525) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Art Thieme Yes, Kat, that IS the same Joe Klee. Just a whole other life. He seemed old to me in '64 so I can't even begin to guess his age now. There were always the cigars and the bald head---and the truly off-the-wall songs he sang at the hoots. There were hoots at differnt clubs every night of the week and a learning folkie could stay fed and lubricated if he just had a place to lay him down. ----- For me, it's just good to know Joe is still keepin' on... Those hoots really were a great place to get your music together. They were places where a younster like me had the luxury of having a place to be bad where the bigger audience wasn't watching. Art |
|
29 Jul 05 - 12:47 AM (#1530927) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: GUEST,Art Thieme Folks, I've done 3 forum searches for the old thread called WHO IS STEVE GOODMAN and all I get told is that it doesn't exist and never has existed. I know it's here. Please, can anyone out there try to find it?? Art |
|
29 Jul 05 - 12:58 AM (#1530933) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Amos Here's one about Steve (http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=76527#1356901). And here's Who Is Steve Goodman (http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4587#25032). A |
|
29 Jul 05 - 01:28 AM (#1530942) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: Big Al Whittle great thread! wish I felt that good about where I live. fascinating to hear from someone who knew people who played with Bix, Condon, Freeman and all those guys. I saw wild Bill play, though he didn't look too wild, he seemed like a rather timid old gentleman - still a great trumpet player though - a 'big' tone! he played riverboat Shuffle and If I Had You brilliantly. Still I bet his wild days were pretty wild. In Condon's book I remember theres this this description of a bessie smith gig in a cellar club in Chicago 'with rats running round as long as your arm'. |
|
29 Jul 05 - 02:59 AM (#1530976) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: JohnInKansas SHOCK, HORROR, and What the F..K This is aparently a thread I missed when it was new. Probably because it happened when I'd just come back from the WVA fest. I'm gonna have to bookmark it to come back later. #1: I didn't realize that Meigs field had been shut down. I'm going to have to take a heavy duty look at the why. This was one of the few places that small planes could land in/around Chicago, and I have/(had) some very good friends who used it fairly often. I wonder why nobody mentioned it. (Maybe 'cause I didn't answer their letters?) #2: This is one of the few threads where Art Thieme gave us some real opinions. He's a hero of mine and I've got to get this digested. #3: The "politics" sound 'way too much like what I've been seeing in my local area. If the locals are studying the Daley clan, I'd best be understanding how they work. #4: This is a rare thread where Art has talked about "the good old days" and "the good old guys/gals." Keep it coming, Art. John (day late, dollar short, confused as ever) |
|
29 Jul 05 - 10:55 AM (#1531210) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: GUEST,Art Thieme NOW-----TODAY---July 29, 2005 ---- A new happening that's making waves in Chicago even as we speak--and for the last few weeks!! It's a question of ethics---all over again. After all these years of very real impotence, the Republican Party of Chicago's sharks are smelling Richard M. Daley's blood in the water -- or so it seems. They have offered a $10,000.00 reward for anyone who can come up with information leading to the CONVICTION of the mayor of Chicago. Strange times we are living in, folks. Art |
|
29 Jul 05 - 12:21 PM (#1531276) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: wysiwyg Cheap ass reward-- they must be counting on a high degree of non-financial motivation! Sharks, piranhas, and toxic waste-- oh my! It being Chicago, however, I am sure people will negotiate the reward bucks effectively. :~) "Ah, I have some good stuff-- what's it worth to you, hm?" ~Susan, former Chi-an |
|
29 Jul 05 - 03:22 PM (#1531406) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: GUEST,Vito Art I second John in Kansas' point #4. Keep it coming. Please. If we can't get you to post an "Art Thieme's Chicago" thread (as suggested here on Mudcat years ago) then maybe we can coerce Clay Eals into using his Steve Goodman bio as merely the first installment in a "Chicago Folk Trilogy", with a certain banjo picking blues guitarist as the subject of the second book. (ya know, dis is Chicago, so maybe my friend Tony "Three Fingers" Palermo could help convince youse and Clay to, I don know, ah.. See da light?) |
|
30 Jul 05 - 11:56 AM (#1531550) Subject: RE: BS: Chicago they came in the middle of night From: GUEST,Art Thieme I don't have all that much to say. But what I do have is scattered in all the threads I've posted on various topice: Demise Of The No Exit, obit for Fred Holstein, this thread, The other Steve Goodman threads. And others... Also, when I thought I could shed some light on things, I added lengthy written out pieces to many of my 40 years of Folk Scene Photos collection which (once again ;-) is on the web at Bruce Kallick's site. Just go to: http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html Clicking on any of the thumbnails where the word "MORE" is there up on the site will enlarge the photo. Scroll down and there will/might/ought to be some extended verbage and observations from me below the photo. (You will need to enter the word "mudcat" for both the user name and the password when prompted. Bruce tells me he's done things that way to discourage too much traffic up there.) Art |