trespassing with intent to loiter... | physician heal thyself...

The Invisible Man Wears A Hat

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:37:33 -0600

Hello out there! I realize Lam and I have been rather absent from this, our digital home and although some of it is certainly attributable to laziness I can assure you, we have been a little bit busy trying to get more work done an the myriad projects we are in the midst of. The physician heal thyself releases we have been planning for, well...forever are still working, albeit slowly but I am currently working on setting a good friends poetry to music, working part time in a video store that predominantly stays alive due to pornography, a story unto itself I can assure you and one that will show up here at some point assisting Laura with her various performances and projects and trying to work on some of my other creative outlets where I can fit them in.

I have been planning to join in the fun at our Wednesday hangout recently. As many of you already know, my girlfriend Laura is an actress and cabaret singer and as some of you know I was an actor in school years and years ago and also a singer from time to time. We spend time at a piano bar called Davenports that has an open mic night on Mondays, wednesdays and I think also Sundays. We like to go on Wednesdays when our friend Beckie is the host and piano player and sometimes on Monday when our friend George hosts and plays piano. Both of these people are wonderful humans and terrific musicians and very welcoming to newcomers and there is definitely a family atmosphere vibe there as most of the people know one another and it is a fairly "safe" place to throw yourself to the wolves.

To be continued...

Uh-oh, I've been thinking, everybody duck!

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:14:11 -0500

It has been weird few weeks here in the sanatorium my friends. I thought a very cool job was on the horizon and I was really looking forward to it and then the fellow I was talking with about the job just fell off the face of the Earth. I found this somewhat depressing and financially alarming, however, this was not the serious disappointment for the month of my birth.

And before you all get cute, no, it was not the fact that I was born 41 years ago this month. Sadly a friend that I was just really getting to know and really appreciate passed away. What makes it worse is that his wife is also a friend and a really lovely person and I just can't fathom that level of grief. If there is a bright side to his passing it is that it really got my mind racing the past few days about a lot of things.

First, I started thinking about a lot of the petty, unimportant stuff that I bitch about on a daily basis and I feel a certain level of shame. When I consider the kind of man my friend was I begin to question what kind of ass I really am. My friend was a very happy man who was friendly and really seemed to enjoy himself and the people around him no matter where he was. I'm not going to pretend he was a perfect person, I'm sure he had his moments of anger and disappointment but he certainly did not broadcast them. For a man who could sometimes seem very awkward he was, in many ways, far more graceful than the rest of us. I don't mean to suggest that it's bad to complain or express feelings of anger or frustration, sometimes it is unavoidable. I will tell you this - some people have a way of bringing light into an otherwise dark place and I am going to miss those random occasions where I was fortunate enough to bask in that kind of sunshine.

OK, I am not really known for getting sappy in public so I will now move on to my next point which, in a way, can still be related back to the previous. I have been doing a lot of reading about various political, artistic and philosophical movements from the past 150 or so years and it really got me thinking about some very important points. Over the course of the past 100 years there have been movements that were founded on what I think are excellent principles that would make our lives and the world a much more pleasant place to be. My question is this, and I aim this query at myself as well as I am certainly no less guilty than anyone else, with all these great ideas why is everything still so unbalanced and fucked up? Why have we not had a revolution here in America to match some of the social revolutions of other nations like China or France? I'm not saying we should wake up one day, revolt and then expect the world to be different and perfect, failure is, after all, part of the learning process but DAMN! Can't we at least try?

Complacency is a bitch!

what's happening in "the clinic"

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:56:51 -0500

Well hello there! So nice to see all 0 of you coming around for a visit! There has been a lot of activity here at "the clinic" - lot's of work on new material of a couple different mediums, lot's of job hunting for Eric B. and, of course, as usual it would not be wise to get into all the mess that Lam has been up to in a public forum, suffice it to say no good could possible come of it...

Anyway since there is a lot going on but nothing is finished or near enough to completion to talk about we will keep this one brief. We have been working on an "audition piece" to score a film for a local film maker but have been having some problems with what we originally laid out as our concept and at this point we are not sure if we are too late to even submit, I suppose we will have to get some clarification on that! My gal Laura (www.laurafreemansings.com) started her Doris Day show this past Friday and it will be running for the next three Fridays. If you are here in the Chicago area and like that sort of music you should definitely check it out, she is certainly a master of her craft!

Well, like I said, this time around it's going to be short but while you are here, please check out the second "blog" here called "notes on a dirty napkin" this has always been here but up until a few weeks ago was pretty much left dormant. We have decided to make this the page where we bring you a taste of the things that get us excited, motivated, interested, inspired etc. Perhaps you will find that some of these things also do something to brighten your day as well. Anyway, got to go - there is work to be done!

Thanks for coming by,

Eric B.

Subhuman and Second Class

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:11:45 -0500

So I am unemployed, have been since last May which is troubling as some of you can imagine and many of you know first hand. I had spent several days being depressed about my situation, especially in the face of multiple interviews for jobs I am more than qualified for but competing against hundreds if not thousands to get. Lam has been consistently suggesting a new career as a bank robber as he has a romanticized notion of the whole thing - a notion that is solidly unfounded since he is primarily bank rolled by Kim Jong-Il and I can only imagine what kind of robbery that involves...

Anyways, although the thought of quick money is certainly attractive, I'm not a very violent person and am pretty sensitive about peoples emotional state and I always thought that robbing someone at gun point might, in fact, hurt their feelings.

However, while looking for a suitable picture for this segment (see above) I found this picture of a bank robbery on progress on the same page as the following banner:

So, what exactly are they attempting to suggest here? Are all unemployed people really latent criminals? It seems to me that many of the unemployed in this current state of affairs are unemployed due to the criminal activity, or at very least, the criminal neglect of our own corporations and government - oops, I did it again! (Sorry Brittany) I forgot that these institutions are one and the same. Instead of faces of the unemployed - how belittling - maybe it needs to be the faces of the mother-fuckers that robbed us of our futures. Oh well, I'm not one to sit around idly whining, I just thought I'd take a moment to share this as I had no other topic to discuss and needed a new entry and when I saw that banner - oh my! Only slightly related, I also found this image of a bank robbery in Myanmar:

Is this a midget in a mask robbing a bank or am I just wishful thinking? Have a great week everybody!

Hiding in the corners, alleys and shadowy places...

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:59:57 -0600

So we (Laura and I) went to a comedy show on Thursday. Being my typical skeptical self, I was not expecting much...at all but, as usual I was pleased and surprised to find yet another jewel in in the unknown places in this glorious town! The Lincoln Lodge, I think, is both the place and the comedy troupe that we saw and we had a very good evening. The location is in a side room of the Lincoln Restaurant with the big Lincoln head for a sign.

The show was hosted by the Puterbaugh Sisters who were funny and got the audience involved in the show. The show also featured Tia Ayers and Elliot Rahal (the latter being a member of the actual troupe and the former being a new transplant from L.A.) the show also had another witty, and musical, performance from Dan Polydoris who sang a song which included "the little bit of Spanish that he actually knew" - limited Spanish aside it was pretty clever and awfully funny. I should also mention their "man on the street" interviews which focus on a member of the cast, Paul Sigwerth in this case (I believe) who accosts random people in front of the venue on Lincoln Avenue at Irving Park and attempts to get them to come inside. On this evening he was 2 for 4!

The standouts of the show, however, were Allison Leber who had a hysterical, semi-self deprecating act focusing on her weight and back hair - sounds maybe not so funny I know but trust me, she WILL make you laugh!

The other stand-out act was a gentleman by the name of Monte. Yes, thats right, just Monte - at least that i know of. His act is not so much a comedy routine as it is a series of restaurant reviews with food samplings from one of the featured venues. This may sound out of place in a comedy show but it actually somehow fits right in as Monte himself has a very Chicago charm and is very excitable and witty.

The location has a lot of odd, naugahyde charm and serves some giant 34 oz. mugs of beer for only $6.50!! The shows are every Thursday and Friday at 9:00 P.M. and the cast changes every week. Get there early, especially on Friday as it is not a huge space and does fill up pretty quickly. Have a beer and a laugh - go on, it's good for you!

If you want more info about the Lincoln Lodge or Monte, go to:

http://www.thelincolnlodge.com/home.html

http://monteism.com/Welcome.html

http://flickr.com/photos/monteism/

http://www.vimeo.com/monteism

the new addition...

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:25:10 -0600

Hi there! Those of you who know me well know that I, like many, are a fan of musical instruments of all types but especially of guitars. For the past several years I have been very keen on aluminum neck guitars like Travis Bean and early Kramer.

I have been playing a TB for a few years now but in 1996 at the Touch & Go 25th anniversary/Hideout 10th anniversary block party I saw the Band Uzeda (if you have not heard them you should check them out) play. Their guitar player, Agostino Tilotta, played an instrument that appeared to be of all aluminum construction and needless to say I was more than intrigued.

Fast forward several months and I now know that the guitar was built by Electrical Guitar Company of Pensacola Florida. Kevin Burkett, the owner and chief designer/machinist has been making these guitars for a veritable who's who of the indy music scene including not only Tilotta but also Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins and memebers of Torche and one of the most well known keepers of the aluminum flame, Steve Albini.

Now fast forward a few more months and i finally contact Mr. Burkett about having a guitar made for me. I have to tell you, not only is Kevin Burkett a very nice person and very easy to talk to, he has the patience of a saint. Again, as those of you who know me can attest, I am the pinnacle of obsessive /compulsive and when I am obsessing I can be more than a little one-track and annoying. Kevin worked with me over the phone and email for a number ow weeks to hammer out exactly what I wanted in my EGC and he never once said "boo" about my numerous questions and ideas.

Now we fast forward to today, I received my EGC on Saturday and it is one of the most wonderful instruments I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Whether you are in the market for a new guitar or not, you really should check out his website (which is currently in the process of being revamped and updated) or his MySpace page and have a look at this mans fine work...

Since I can not say it better...

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:01:31 -0600

I saw some excellent live music on Friday, two different bands at Uncommon Grounds on Devon here in Chicago. Since I can not possibly review Styles Bitchly any better than my significant did in her blog I will just direct you all to her page to read bout them: http://www.laurafreemansings.com/sets_in_the_city/

Now, I will tell you about the Vessela Stoyanova Trio. An excellent trio that played what I would call Creative World Jazz for lack of a better term. Vessela Stoyanova, an inhabitant of Boston, MA and member of the band Fluttr Effect, teamed up with Matthew Longbons and John Maloney of Styles Bitchly and formerly of the Ghettobillies, to play some very intense original compositions as well as some traditional songs from her native Bulgaria to amazing effect.

Having excellent qualities ranging from tempestuous to emotional they played with a precision and passion that is sadly, seldom seen in a world full of prefab everything. On top of being a trio of masterful musicians bringing something fresh to the stage, the introductions to the songs were intriguing and poignant and the stories were universal to experiences that we all share. A story about a misled lover with presumably magic abilities and a penchant to prevail was a definite highlight of the set.

I don't know when this trio will play again but if you see the name pop-up anywhere you can make it, I suggest you make the time and the trip...