It was one of "those" days...

So...
.......yeah....
One of those days...

I waKe up feeling, fit, fresh, fantastic, and pumped about the infinite possibilities stretching out before me...

...I was suppose to have some company along the way on what would end up being one of the best solo trips I've ever had. Mr. Migz ends up having to go handle some adult details at his new job and I wish him well. I invite some people to meet me up @ the art institute to enjoy the closing week of what was the !!!FREE MONTH!!! all that amazing art...NO DOLLARS! I thought about running around there will my good friend emily, invited my most favorite ninja TMY, but once I got there I realized what is I'm going to be doing these next couple months and needed to go this one alone. @ any rate I'm getting a little a head of myself.......as I tend to do.

I purchase a 3day CTA pass and figure that I'm going to make this ole girl work for her worth :D I really had no idea how much I'd make her work, or how hilarious it would be but I definitely go my 14 dollars worth; and as it would happen to happen Randimous is running around doing something similar on it right now (fuck the man(or the system(or something))). HOP ONTO THE BLUE LINE from Belmont, make sure to lay down false sents on other trains in case rival ninjas might be out tracking me today, and head to the loop to meet my homey VLaD for some tasty eats.

------------How I know Vlad is a lot like how I know a lot of you. However, Vlad and I bonded in a real way the first evening we met. I ask questions...More importantly I listen to the answers (90% of the time) and I watch the firework display on your face as you answer. I asked Vlad at this party, yeah I know the name, but ya know, at this party, it was all about love if I remember correctly...I asked him what was troubling him. He looked a little out of sorts and he went in about "Caring" way to much what people think. I was taken a back because I was struggling with the same dilemma (EVERYDAY!!!!) and so we chatted bout this and that and came to some great conclusions. More importantly we started laying ground for an amazing friendship-----We meet for lunch, he tells me stories about his new relationship, work, and we laugh about this festival we raged at this past summer. He's a great guy......and trys to buy me lunch...for the second time. I still owe him so I say, you get yours, i'll get mine......but soon here, I'm taking that bastard out for a fucking FLAME ass lunch!

My ASS!!! The entire DAY previous, DROPPING BOMBS, crop dusting the shit out of so many people. I think i ate some bad meat at my house the day before. I knew I shouldn't of but it was going and I didn't want to waste it. So I ate it all and the poor unsuspecting people at the "ButterFly Social Club" fell victim. So yeah I get out of eating lunch with Vlad and my stomach is right back on that mission from the day before. I hop across the street to city hall and hot air scoots me about the chambers of mediocrity. I take my little ticket and I wait in a room of not so enthusiastic looking people. Were all waiting on permits, or somesort of something saying we can do the things we want to do, but need to wait for acceptance from an invisible higher power that I assure you isn't god! (I think I meant to put another "O" in that last word but what's the difference) Yeah, I wait, and wait; It's bad when your stanking your self out with Ass gasses but fuck it. I let em rip and hope this tactic will expedite my wait...it doesn't...but finally after sometime I end up getting to chat with a very tightly well kept public servant. We do a little dance, I play a song or two from my rectum, and before I know it I'M A LICENSED street performer!!! HAHAHAHA watch the fuck out CHICAGO, I'm going to be out there hustlin...straight HUSTLIN all year...MICHIGAN AVE IS GOING TO BE MY BITCH, oh and I'll bring some friends a long too. I head downstairs and get my picture taken...shit eating cheeeezy grin, and I kept my hat on. 100dollars to get legit and just watch me flip that shit in a few weeks like uhhh lickety split.

A hop skip and jump over a few blocks and I surprise my friend susu. She is an amazing fashion designer and is going to be helping me with this costume idea I have for a video I'm shooting this summer. Her hair has magically gone missing since last I'd seen her but this new dew shapes her face loverly. Our visit is brief and sweet and before I know it I'm back out in those city streets.

My plan had been after all my running around to head to the art institute and take advantage of the free month they were having. Before I head in though I stop into a jamba juice to grab a drink and use there restroom. I'm told to take the yellow banana and I don't know why this maybe me laugh like it did but I ended up locking the banana in the bathroom. I'm told I'm not the first...I ask the young man behind the counter "Are they going to let me take this delicious smoothie into the museum with me?" and he says "Not sure but you can just tell them Spencer says it's o.k.". So I head across the street to the museum and Spencer was SooOOoooO wrong. I don't stress, i walk about the lobby, sip my smoothie and take out two pieces of paper to ingest. Before my journey even begins things get weird...but like good weird.

About two days ago I was sitting on my couch thinking about things. All of a sudden I thought about this great friend I had in high school and how I hadn't seen her in years. Acidenough right as I'm throwing my smoothie away and talking to Dre (he clicks the clicker when you walk by) she comes walking right up to me. !!!YIKES!!! We talk about this and that, I learn that she's happily married to one of our old class mates and she's slowly mastering her universe. I'm over joyed to see her and I feel this will be a great omen for the next twelve hours. Not more then two minutes after she leaves, I plow into this very enthusiastic young man who is Dottcom's "biggest fan and we start instantly talking about the party where he threw me into a group of people because I said I wanted to mash. He's a massive young man and I'm glad to have him on my side. I tell him about Leprechaun Disco and how we are going to absolutely demolish that place. He says he'll be there no doubt and then we peace out. I maybe get 25ft into the museum and I walk into two more ravers I know. This interaction is brief and sweet...I need to take my seat in front of my favorite picture in the whole museum(click here to see this picture). I can feel her taking over me and as I stare into the textures of the painting they all begin to swirl. Life, death, consequence, and overcoming uncertainty with only what your given in this life. That is what I'm staring out at, slowly becoming more lucid, and peeling back the un-needed layers of myself.

I keep to myself on the come up and love the way the sculptures whisper through my headphones. At one point I join a large group of peoples peeping out this . I come to a shocking realization that down in the far right corner there is a monkey...just chillen. I walk up to this younger dude staring at the picture and I say.

"Uhhh, FYI, there's totally a monkey chilling @ that park..."

To which he replys

"WHOA! I've never noticed that before......Oh my god it doesn't even have a leash on."

I fade off in the background after a parting greeting and I laugh at life must have been like when monkeys could just walk freely about parks. The rest of my visit is mild in my mind and I really just spend a large bulk of time in front of a few favorite pieces. I decide to beat the closing rush and head out into the windy winter streets with a gigantic smile on my teeth.

I head over to millennium park to begin what will be a productive day of filming some dance footage. I get a lovely shot of my favorite skyscraper...I call her the smurfette. I watch a fantastic melting pot of face skate around the ice rink and I think how this is the third winter in a row I didn't have anyone to go with. It's not all boo-who but it seems hard to find a lady to go ice skating with. Most are like...HELL NO!!! to cold and then the other camp is like...I Don't know how. Still got a few weeks left...maybe...will see...i got one hopeful :D

I start down Michigan Ave as the sun starts to slink back behind the steel and glass. Everywhere my eyes wander, OH! that would be a nice spot, I see some competition, and I start to dream about making these city streets scream and spill cream for me and my team. Will start slow but by the summer will have a ridiculous show. I hope some of you stop by and throw some shiny in my bucket :)

As I'm passing all the stores and watching the shifting facial expression of fellow peoples I get this crazy idea and take off running. My good friend Tommy is suppose to visit his dads jazz bar tonight and I happen to be a few block (I think) away from it. I decide...it's time to Ninja the ninja master. I set out to find this dank like jazz bar called "The Underground Wonderbar" that I had been to previously once before. Walking around aimlessly for what had to be an hour bent on dica and bumping beastly tunes out of my headphones I end up somehow getting lost...very lost. At one point I wander into a church, celestial directions, but instantly get lost in the wood work. Every single piece has such lavish details carved and burned into it. I can feel my intrigue being manipulated and pulled into this presbyterian vortex. When suddenly I'm saved by a ringing in my pocket...It's D-skreet (please check this amazing dancer out immediately). He calls to ask me questions about the workshop were having tomorrow and see what I'm doing this evening. He keeps me on the phone long enough to break the trance of the church and I start heading to the jazz bar once more.

There are a few things that just don't seem to work on this substance. The theme that continually finds it's ways into my acid trips is getting lost. Not in the metaphorical way, I mean that happens to, but, I'm talking about taking a right when you don't need to or know why you did and then riding that right for way to long. I give up and give in...I walk up to some knowledgeable looking bell hops. Instantly I'm given the directions I need and head to the bar.

As I enter I realize how stupid I'm about to sound but I just go into it anyways.

"Yo! uh...So I have a friend whose going to be coming to this spot later in the day. He's a ninja, well I'm a ninja too, were both ninjas, and I just want to get some video footage of me dancing around this place to be all like...Bam! ninja'd. I mean, it's just going to be a funny joke really, and it would make my day that much mo...."

He tells me it's all good and chuckles the full kind, the real kind, and i set my camera up. What's really trippy...like trippy trippy...is this TRACK comes on. I remember right as I'm pressing record he's spitting something about friendship and loyalty and as I begin to dance I think a lot about syncronicity. Funny enough, as I get done smashing that track and pack up my stuff...Daft Punk comes roaring through the speakers and I'm reminded of one of my other favorite peoples in the world. Probably my most favorite :D

(27 going on 28...still playing favorites...It's what I do and makes me me but trust me I have crazy love for everyone in my circle...That circle seems to grow more every week.)

Yeah so I sit at the bar...order a jameson so as to blend in and the dialog pours about as the spirits do. There are only three of us in there but the philosophy is rich and the jokes are many. I learned that barry bonds hat size went up two sizes while he was using...wonder if peoples contacts prescriptions change after years of acid use? who knows...I buy RICO's next drink and dip out to the Red Line thinking..."WHY E YIE E SUPERMANS DEAD!!!" hahhaha just ripping it through my head phones singing loudly. So much as I completely forget where I'm going and get "lost". However I start asking passer byers if they know where Chicago (the street) is and no one seems to know. I bump into the most RANDOM dentist ever...he was charming, quick witted, and from Seattle. We walk to stretch of two blocks before he verges off on a new path. Hope he emails me...our exchange was classic...made me re think all my previous conceptions of that profession.

So, I end up in the basement of the red line, I push pass the panhandlers and this amazing vocalist...no time, sorry, my blatter is full and I've also got the urge to groove down here. I set up my camera and get to snapping right fast quick and in a hurry. I love the rush...THE EXTREME rush of spontaneous creation in obscure venues. The looks I get are fitting and I finish the track in time to catch the next silver bullet. This is where the night gets tricky...

...

My tummy starts to rumble and it becomes a struggle to choose a place to dine. I'm coming up to north avenue and I remember a delicious Bacci's Pizza being on the corner. So I hop off bumping some tortured soul through my buds. I'm singing a long, probably at an obnoxious volume, and it gets the attention of Rinatta the CTA worker. I make some direct eye contact as I sing the lines "Did you miss me everyday that I was gone, ARE YOUR FEELINGS DEEP ENOUGH..." it goes on, she smiles and I exit the station. Come to find that Bacci's is under construction along with the whole station. So I head over to Borders to take a quick shake and then decide to climb up this parking garage. Once to the top I take in this ridiculous view. I remember I have an orange, get to peeling it, while dancing about listening to more TS, and trying to pack a bowl. It's weird, I have a knack for doing 3 things at once, and eventually I get them all done. The night is crisp and I watch my breath twist and shape into a trillion designs barreling towards the city skyline. I admire my new found vantage point but then realize the orange is only a temporary fix to a real problem.

I go back down to the RED line and Rinatta is there with a huge smile waiting. I come through and tell her the name of the group I was singing and her smile widens. Then she turns up her radio, some Marvin Gaye track that escapes me as I type but we both laugh a bit. Then this really weird tension comes through our interaction as she opens the door to her booth. She begins flirting with me and I'm instantly flattered but at the same time WAAAAAAAY over my head. I do my best to dodge any sort of seriousness and slip away with the next big crowd that comes storming through.

Once back on the train I ride a few more stops and hop off because I think to myself how I'd like to revisit an old memory at a Potbelly's. So I jump off and make for a delicious sammich on Belmont, where I once made a very sad Polish girl laugh a thousand times harder then we both expected. However, I get a few feet from the station and I think that my stomach isn't really as sentimental as my brain and I turn back to hop on the train again.

Back on...

...Then off...only to remember there is this dank grill right on the corner of Broadway and Lawrence that I haven't eaten at in a long while.

So I ride my shiny bullet down to where I need to be and B line it for satisfaction. This is going to work out good because I'm suppose to be meeting TMY @ kinetic and it's literally in spitting distance. Plus the grill is right next to where I once had the largest implosion on stage EVER!!! oh yeah...on acid...hahaha! I guess my gut was feeling sentimental. I walk by the green mill, look inside and laughter takes over my senses. I remember it so vividly, her standing in the crowd, the mic chord dropping out, being laughed at, boo'd, and just pushing through it all to present a really meaningful piece. SNOBS!!! I'll be back one day, see, now I know what I'm dealing with, before I was just an ignorant poet from off the streets, but next time...

I'm thinking about heading in and getting something to eat when this man approaches me. I actually saw him sizing me up before he even began with the left right left. So I listen to his pitch, it's one of sincerity, something about a child, his wife, labor issues, and now him being stranded. He won't leave me be, I make note that he's not looking me in the eyes as he's begging me for the money so I don't trust him and so then he comes at me with full tears.

"You don't understand, I've been stuck out here, I have no way to get on the bus I need too. I'm about to be a father..."

It just goes on and on...

So I call him out on it and he then goes into even more details. Starts showing me identification and adding more complexities to the story. It's been cold all day but it's definitely dropped down into something super chilly at the moment. My stomach is telling this guy to fuck off but the humanitarian in me wants to really go round and round with his wits. I make sure to let him know that I know he's nothing more then a junkie. I let him know that I'm the type of person who'd help anyone, also I'm the type of person whose seen so many different forms of substance abuse wash over so many various faces that I can always tell when I'm dealing with an addict. HE STILL PERSISTS!!! and now I'm getting a little pist...so I say, follow me, I'm going to take out some money for you but your going to listen to what I have to say before I give it to you.

There is always a choice!!! ALWAYS!!!

Addiction, so many of us suffer from it, and you sir are no different. You give in and grab a quick fix instead of figuring out a better way. There are clinics, medicines, outreach programs, and many other services to help you clean up your life. Instead, you'd rather try to beg money from people, LIE, steal, and take from those who are actually struggling to get by and carve out a decent life. This to me makes you one of the most worthless forms of human life on this earth. However, I'm the type, that is on some just in case, and since you've decided to bring a child into your story I feel EXTREMELY obligated to help. PLUS, I'm a writer and this experience will benefit me in some way, shape, or form.

There is more to my rant but it's been many weeks since that night and I can't remember. I hand him 20bucks, my business card, and the firmest look I can muster up. "PROVE ME WRONG MOTHERFUCKER. Send me a picture of your new born with you holding it and hell I'll take your whole family out to dinner to get the real story." He takes the money, the business card, and is shook the fuck up. Still though, you can tell he's chasing a fix that he hasn't had in quite sometime, and his parting words are left deaf on the door step of my canal. I breath deep as he leaves my site and I'm thinking Oh What a Night. Twenty bucks I didn't really have to spend but at the same time I'm left wondering what if. I could have read him wrong, my gut could have been more focused on food then the needs of that man but as time will soon prove he was just another junkie. These sorts of situations sadden me greatly but what are we suppose to do. The world grows colder, people become more desperate, and we fill that gaping sucking hole with poisons instead of Love. Whoever he was, I hope he got to where he was going, and in the midst of becoming a new father and blah blah blah, lost my card. I kick myself in the ass on the way into the diner and think how my step father would have been proud.

Bout a year, A year previously from this one, I walked into this very same dinner and met Claudio. We chatted it up something fierce and he told me the secret to learning Spanish. A year later and two failed attempts at picking up the basics of the language I shake hands with him. I tell him I was here the year previous and he instantly does a brilliant reconstruction of that night!!! TERRRRRRRIPPPPPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG!!! Glad I didn't go to pot bellys, glad Bacci's was under construction, and I'm very glad to have brought my pen and pad. 1/2 a tasty gyro later, Claudio and I make plans to exchange greetings next year. He tells me to trust him, the easiest way to learn Spanish is to date a women who speaks it. Ohhhhh Claudio...hahahahhhahaha!
The world moves about with strange amazing winds, paths cross, criss, and back across sometimes. We know not why but I'm learning to trust in the insides, engage and unwind.

Sooo, I head across the street to kinetic...On my way in a person panhandling by the red line get's the last of my generosity. I figure I'm going for broke this evening and he had an honest face. Or something similar and rationale...

...I get to kinetic...
It costs some serious money and the music is...meh...I mean VibeSquad did a great job but I'm trapped in between a lot Bro's and listening to Electronic Jam bands is low on my list of priorities. These be the last few hours of my lucid experience so I'm feeling extremely introverted......

The day was one of productivity, dancing, writing, observations into the minds of many minds, and whimsical adventures through THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD!!!

LET ME GET SOME ACTION FROM THE BACK SECTION

I'm all about danced out and pretty much socializing with peoples here and there. I tell TMY that I'd like to get going, he says something about sticking around for a few more tracks. I say coo coo and wander about the drunken attendees. Then from the land of no where she comes into view, up on stage, dancing with little to no cares, clutching a beer, and serendipitously fulfilling my deepest of tripper wishes.

We'd been chatting it up a lot these past passing days. Wouldn't ya know it...!BAM!...Head on collision right after I was suppose to have already left. We wave and all of a sudden my urge to stay has been renewed. As soon as I decide this though, she disappears, and so I go back to dancing. The day is long!!! The night is at a nice length but I can't help want to crack open a couple conversations with her. The problem becomes...WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GO?!?!?!?

After a little bit she comes out from hiding. Dancing around up on stage again behind the final musical act @ the playground. I watch he beat up some poor unsuspecting stage light and my stomach feels like a 60 piece trapeze act. We exchange numbers before I leave and I don't stay round much longer...
...What a DAY!!! So many more amazing ones to come... Spring to me is all about anticipation. There are more then just a few things to be excited for, I pass out on the floor of HQ with my sleeping bag and pillows. Kitties cuddle up and I slip quickly into a lovely coma...rest easy legs.