iwrotetoyou.com

Coffee & TV... not so much TV actually

Well. Hello.

I’ve been spending all of my time working here, at Espresso Royale…. saving for a new camera (a Canon Rebel t1i), a used motorcycle, a currently unknown new destination… and really just drinking too much coffee and meeting some fantastic people. I can now afford to finish photo projects and start new ones. I am preparing to prepare for the GRE. And I am traveling - I’m writing from Memphis, TN.

So yes, things are going to get more interesting around here quite soon. I have an idea in my head of writing some songs and making a record again, but I need other musicians. So right now, I’m just going to continue drinking coffee and enjoy whatever Autumn throws at me, just hoping that it will be something plush and weightless.

My time in Chicago following hers...

I’m in Rogers Park this week pet-sitting, and really there’s not much to report. The only thing vaguely interesting is that I have nearly finished shooting one of my projects. At least I think I have - you see, I haven’t had the money to process any rolls of film from the project yet, so you never know until you have the negatives in hand. I may have to reshoot it all, which would probably just end up killing the project.

This particular project starting out as a personal/family thing. But since I recently broadened the focus of my work as a whole, it suddenly fit right in with the other work I’m pursuing.

My Yia Yia (Greek for grandmother) grew up a few short blocks from my first Chicago apartment. When I moved there five years ago, I had no idea it was her old stomping ground. I have made audio recordings of her childhood stories and have photographed all the places she talks about.

The stories are fascinating. My Great Grandfather was a shop keeper. He was killed crossing the intersection of Lawrence and Western in 1929, run over by a horse and buggy. Yia Yia was seven years old and the oldest of five siblings. She was also the only one in the family with a firm grasp on English. They lost everything and almost had to go back to Greece.

It’s a rags-to-relative-riches story, like a Twentieth Century version of an Horatio Alger novel. And the homes, schools, storefronts, and churches all still stand.

I also feel like I understand my Grandparents much better now - why they constantly try to push me in directions that think are best. Seventy years ago, they would have been right and I would have listened.

So I am excited to be at this milestone - I have the images and audio taken and recorded. Now I just have to work on the output.

And next week I will be back in Champaign-Urbana, resume in hand, ready to find a job that can help fund my real work.

PS. I’m very pleased with everyone that has started following me. You all post some interesting stuff. I just wish Tumblr was a little more interaction-based so I could comment more directly. But thanks!

Today -

I managed to explore forgotten places with fresh eyes.  Cafe Paradiso looks good to me for the first time in my life.  I don’t know why I never saw it before.

I ran into some old friends and probably made some new ones today.  And I’m excited.  Everyone seems passionate about what they’re doing - more so than I am used to.  It really hit me today:  I’ve been living in this heart attack city for five years where it took most of my energy just to get by.  And I think it wears everyone down and leaves 3 million people out of step with each other.

I expect great things in the next couple months.  I am ready, able, and willing once again… in the last place in the world I would have expected to feel this way.