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THE NIGHT BEFORE
I was being chased by someone, maybe an ally or maybe enemies, but being chased nonetheless. I met a friend at an auditorium, a giant, opera house sized auditorium with industrial pipes and staircases and the hallways curved around the back where the seats were. For some reason, I had apparently been taking dance lessons from a girl friend of mine who taught me a dance in a specific time signature, so as a hint to my allies who might have also been chasing me, I told her that this time, I was dancing at a new time signature and that, I told her, was specifically what she needed to know. I wake.

THIS NIGHT
Is a continuance of the chase. There are gunshots and disease. I meet a group of allies, with one of the females injured and have some sort of fatal disease. We are at the bottom level of a museum, or school, in the dining room, where we lay her on a table so she can be examined. It’s too late to run further away, so we take her and carry her to the second floor, where we somehow find safety for a little while, but the woman dies regardless. I wake.

I return. Suddenly I am back at my old home, resting on the living room floor as we talk about something. The house is somber, however, because that woman who had died is now a child in this new chapter. That child, which is also my parent’s child, making her my little sister. After some sort of quarrel my father leaves for the funeral, as I sit here. I suddenly feel the urge to go see her again, before she is buried or cremated, but my dad has already left and I feel very sad inside.

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE NIGHT BEFORE
I had picked up a guitar, which the strap was too tight around my neck, but I somehow managed to play. I had climbed up onto a stage where Taylor Swift was getting ready for a concert. There were hundreds of audience members. She said to me, “Hugh, you don’t play the guitar!” And all I did was start playing, as suddenly where my hand was on the guitar was unimportant, and the guitar began playing itself. I woke.

BACK TO THIS NIGHT, AFTER THE FUNERAL
I picked up a guitar, a very special guitar that uses a synthesizer to play the notes, (specifically, the DG-10 by Casio). I began to play as again, the guitar played itself, but I could see my hands playing the notes, without being limited by any physical speed limits but my own mental rationality. My dad comes home in a slightly wet grey shirt (suggested tears) and I ask him how it was. ‘It was okay’ he says as he looks at me and we all appreciate life a little more. I wake.

I’m thinking of taking film classes or journalism next semester if I can.  I’m beginning to understand what I love about my current major, and why I chose it:  I chose urban planning for its relation to architecture, sure, but I think I chose it for something more.  It’s an obscure direction.  It’s an insider job, which no one sees, but affects everyone.  It brings to light the importance of community, and collaboration of people to work for the betterment of society.

Then if I take what is important to me, I realize I’m more in love with the idea of it all.  I’m in love with the idea of exposing and showing the small people, and bringing it closer to the world.  I’m in love with the candymakers, inventors, glass-blowers, shoemakers, and all the people who make the small things not because it makes a profit for them necessarily, but because they love their jobs.

I want to be in love with my job too, but I realize with the skills I have now, such as photography, design, and the variety of other hobbies I have, I feel like I could be a good documentarist of those people who are passionate about their work, their life as an artist (we all are) and more.

I want to be as passionate about my work as they are to theirs.  Somehow, I hope I’ll find it being passionate about them.

What does Gordon Freeman (yes it’s misspelled) have to do with all of this? Nothing really… just felt like drawing that in ms paint for mac just cause I can.  It’s really bad xD

So… I was watching a couple of episodes of CoolHunting video podcasts that were from maybe 2007 or so, and though I’ve seen them already before… I really started to appreciate what they do:  they not only take into view those people who are in essence, the independent, local shops, the proprietorships that exist in the world, but also those who are involved in larger companies: say, they did a piece on Jacques Polge, a perfumer who works for Chanel.  He goes on to explain his work, and why it is significant to be a perfumer, why perfume as an art is important to him, and all that is very interesting.

Now then I look at what the normal citizen sees every day – the shops that are like Target, and Walmart… then the higher end, specialty stores (I guess I’m speaking for downtown Chicago, especially) such as Banana Republic, Neiman Marcus, Calvin Klein, Chanel… so forth.  I think what has happened is that since a normal person cannot exactly afford to shop at any specialty store, they opt for stores like Macys, Target… which in hand, causes this further disconnect from the makers to the store.  These… say, “third-hand” stores open the market to a lower revenue market, and eventually (at least, this I feel true for myself,) the brand names become more of a wall of names… essentially, they lose meaning because I can go to one shop, and see “everything” there is that is available to me at my income.

Then I see CoolHunting again, and I notice that disconnect… that departure from the whole idea of relationship between a maker (and I use that term loosely) and their market.  Admittedly, the market is expanded, since they have the “third party merchants” that expose your product to the world, but I really am interested in the people behind the scenes; the people involved in creating that product in which probably most of us take for granted.

I know, I’ve made fun of many fashion fads, and arbitrarily hated many products designed for the masses, but there’s definitely a need to observe where products come from, because THAT’S where we go wrong:  when that disconnect happens, and when the designers can only understand their market through the select people their company interacts with, and the select friends that the designers themselves have, they definitely have a limited point of view – and I think, (this is just a guess, but) maybe that’s where design obsolescence comes from… maybe, that’s where we see all these unnecessary products built to last a year and then be thrown away –we see products poorly made, look cool, but are completely impractical… there’s just so much that we miss today because all we see is…. Target.  Macys.  Walmart.  so forth.

I respect these companies and their motives, because that’s exactly what’s driving the market right now.  I just think maybe it’s important to take a look at the core of these companies, and the people who drive their ideas.  Sure, we see a whole lot of douchbag designers who think they’re the shit, but they can’t all be that way, and I’m sure they want to be appreciated just as much as any worker.
It’s not as if I have a lot to say about being a worker like that, but I firmly believe that it’s NOT the brand, NOT the logo, not even the image that is completely important for these large companies, because by the time that company got corporate, that original idea has gotten diluted by the several, maybe hundreds of shareholders who also have ideas.  Sure, that’s important too, I’m not saying their visions aren’t important, but it’s always interesting for me to see that original vision and purpose of the proprietor to create that market, or societal niche for him or herself.

And maybe, iunno, maybe that vision was incredibly stupid… or just bad in general… but it caught the attention of people, right?
(I know I’ve ignored the proprietorships that are still small-scale stores, and maybe I’ll talk about them in another post too )

I can’t say that I’m not disappointed, but I’m relieved that the games aren’t coming here.  I feel bad for those who have put so much into the games that I understand their feeling of loss.  It’s really crazy how much money and advertising they put into this bid.  We even had Chicago 2016 themed PLANES.

Though, I’m not terribly impressed with our Chicago bid “trailer” movie.  It kinda makes you think… really?
That’s all you had to say about Chicago?

In any case, I’m glad we didn’t win.  We can avoid further bankruptcy, and gentrification of a lot of areas within the city.  I’m also glad that Douglass park will stay the way it is, and that school there (which is brand new, by the way) won’t be torn down like they proposed.

After the decisions, I was really interested in the reactions of people like Mayor Daley, and those government officials who depended so much on the games to bring some sort of profit and global connection to the US and Chicago, because they really did put so much money and time in this.  Daley is coming back home with more of the same problems with the city going under –now with less capital than ever to work with.

I saw the video of people downtown in Picasso plaza reacting to the video.  You can’t help but feel the disappointment too, though I didn’t care all that much until now.

I’m actually kinda worried about Gallery 37, since it depends so much on city revenue, and is an ever expanding program.  Also worried about the state of the city, and how it’s going to work out all its problems.  It’s going to be hard on us students too, since we’re already on the brink of losing our MAP grants, and other city/government provided scholarship/grants.

Yikes!

Congrats Rio!