Tag Archives: jeffrey

“Sounds lame”

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23:32 on 12 July 2011
Winnetka

or something to that effect were Jeffrey’s parting words for me tonight as he headed South for a night out in the Chi. He was commenting on my hopes for the evening: relax and get to bed early. I agreed with his sentiment then and now.

In fact, its exactly what I wanted to hear. Its what I need to be doing right now in order to reach my goals: be boring. It doesn’t mean I move back to Japan and become a monk, nor that I cease partying in Chicago and elsewhere.

What it does mean is that more often than I have been, I need to be boring, i.e. sitting at my desk and working. Just do it.

Tonight Dad and I watched 13 Assassins, which relates to this post in the sense that “true” samurai (or at least my interpretation of the movie’s definition) study the sword for life. When chosen for the film’s mission, many commented that they’d been training and preparing years for this opportunity.

Similarly, as I blogged about before, Warren Buffett worked for 6 years out of his house building his business. Furthermore bands are forced to toil in obscurity before the make it big, like OFWGKTA who started in 2007 and went 4 years hacking in LA before they got huge (and are coming to Chicago on Sunday).

Should also be noted that the majority of samurai, entrepreneurs and musicians never get a “big” opportunity for honor in battle, lots of profits or sold-out stadiums, and that some of those who *do* didn’t necessarily put the work in to get there.

Nevertheless, the point I’m trying to get at is that to reach my goals (i.e. make money via businesses I’ve started and have millions of people reading my prose) its time to be boring more often. DFW’s “late” book had some helpful ideas here too, according to one of his old classmates.

A good way for me to walk the walk would be by blogging here everyday.

tue. aftahnoon

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17:43 on 5 July 2011
CTA Bus 73 heading North

Today Jeffrey and Ashley were kind enough to let an old fart hang around with them. Following a delish “hot n’wet” [sic.] lunch (hat tip to the bro on the restaurant choice and for punking me in public when I suggested we go sit down, insisting instead we stand, to which I agreed), I did the old person thing and took ‘em to a museum.

Thx to Mom I knew Chicago’s acute Museum of Contemporary Art, or MCA, is free on Tuesdays.

Whilst there I was particularly impressed by the artist they showcased on the first floor:

Mark Bradford
(Cf. links to exhibition site, “How I Made It:” interview by Brian Ketih Jackson & his Wikipedia article)

mark-bradford-painting

His prose first struck me

I’m using abstraction to talk about the social conditions, but I’m using the tenets, the tools of it. I don’t really believe in the sublime of abstraction. … I’m trying to wrench the idea of the sublime out of this thing that has been a part of modernity … a sublime that when you put your bodies together something happens; when people are together there is an energy that happens.” [Ed's Note: Text is [sic.] and copied from an exhibition wall at the MCA, but not the Pinocchio-prose that’s the first thing you see.]

then it went deeper as my observant little bro noted the text was written over some sort of other painting. Turned out that was a theme of his work. I felt like 2 straight exhibitions of him was a little overkill (exhibition didn’t seem to highlight evolutions in style, save certain videos + this bad@$$ b@ll [Ed's note: linked-to image on Wexner Center for the Arts website]), but can’t deny throughout I was stuck by his work, particularly strawberry [Ed's note: linked-to image on MCA website].

Besides that, I enjoyed the work of the Japanese duo ____ and ____, as well as Joseph C_____, who sounds almost like Joe Cornelli, who I wrote that paper about paragogy with. It got published in the conference proceedings if you’re interested in reading or you can download it by clicking here.

p.s. Found this lovely photographer’s blog via the Mark Bradford Project website. Haven’t actually read the article, but his photo credits on the bottom of the page are instantly the best I’ve sen on a blog before. Props Mr. Dawoud Bey.

Photograph (from top): IMG_5342 mark bradford (work is courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York [sic.]) Copyright © 2008 libby rosof. CC BY 2.0 licensed.

p.s.s. Ashley wisely noted that sometimes its frustrating to have textual explanations next to art, ’cause it keeps you from seeing the painting. I totally agree with her, and at the same time do not know if an artist talking about their own work, e.g. “I DID NOT WRITE ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ simply to propagandize” [alt. link], is good or bad, but it has consequences.

Corrections & Amplifications

  • An earlier version of this post did not correctly note that the photo was Creative Commons Attribution licensed. 19:38 on 5 July 2011. Winnetka Public Library.

checking in #14

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diary
3 jan 2010
written around noon
my room, mom & pop’s, land of beautiful trees, illinois, yu-sared-gifts-open-clipart

Laying on my bed now listening to Chicago’s B96. Growing up I rarely listened to the station. It was around, but I spent more of my time at 101.9 the mix (alternative/sappy rock, e.g. early Jason Mraz) in high school, at 93 XRT (rock) and the Drive (classic rock) during college and on the college stations (Northwestern 89.3 and Loyola 88.7) after I graduated. Since returning from China I’ve dabbled in all of the above, but spent most of the time tuned to the mid-90′s.

B96 plays only top-40 corporate pop songs, and they have a rotation of maybe 15 – 20 they play throughout the entire day. These facts lead many intelligent people to hate the station for its repetitive playlist and mindless songs that have “killed” other forms of radio. Additionally there’s something “in” amongst smart people my age (less so than it was during our college years) about being anti-corporation, as if they are these mindless entities bent on destruction and only self- interest best exemplified with the 2008 fall.

Those ideas aside, I like the station because the songs are fun, they deliver immediately a bumping beat, and I can count on something worthwhile being played every time I turn the dial. To go further may not be appropriate here, but’d be more fitting in an essay as Rebecca Blood suggested can happen to webloggers ” “

Continuing on the music note, Jason, a friend of mine from high-school, recently started a tumblog titled “A Failed Entertainment“. Following a pair of DFW quotes, he gave his top-10 list of 2010 albums, which is helpful for a man so musically out-of-touch he’s discovering an affection for music popular with teenage girls at age 25.

I stayed with Jason for a week when I was in New Yawk, and last week when he was in the Chi. We heard live music at Kingston Mines and Green Mill, sipped free drinks at The Shrine, watched da Bulls and played Super Smash Brothers.

Carlos Sitting on a Clear Plastic Chair, H.Craig HANNA, Oil on Board, 229 x 229 cm

Carlos Sitting on a Clear Plastic Chair, H.Craig HANNA, Oil on Board, 229 x 229 cm

Friday morning family and I flew South for the inaugural Ticket City bowl, pitting Northwestern against Texas Tech. That night we ate a superb family dinner at Bob’s (most intriguing part were pickled cucumbers & red peppers waiting on the table) Jeffrey and I ventured out into the Dallas evening, to find what was waiting for us. Prepped with shots at a biker bar, then patronized “One World” formerly know as purgatory, with 3 dance floors. Dallas women were like a pitcher with a 100 mph fastball (naturally talented) but without control (not yet refined in attire/je ne sais quot).

Game the following afternoon was a blast. Missing their best player, ‘Cats let Tech get ahead, but did not give up and somehow battled back so with less than a minute left they had the ball, and a chance to tie the game. It didn’t come to pass,but they played with honor and can head into next season with their heads held high.

Washed down the game with home-infused spirits at Smoke, a sophisticated Dallas BBQ joint, including bourbon and tequila, which (following a caddy’s advice) I used as a digestif to help settle down my big meal. To Jeffrey’s chagrin I took a couple hour nap afterwards, then we went to Greenville (Dallas bar area rec’d by the concierge) which was better than Deep Elum (area we started at the night b4) and finished at Zouk a classy club we should’ve gone to the night before.

Flew home Sunday morning then got back to Chi-life with eggrolls & drinks at Kow Kow, then our Sunday pizza ritual at Burt’s.

images: “Red Gift” by, jeffdoute, 2010 on The Open Clip Art Library, public domain. “Carlos Sitting on a Clear Plastic Chair” by, H.Craig Hanna, 2001, on the Wikimedia Commons, Free Art License.

visiting america’s young folk

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Diary
Friday, September 24th – Monday, September 27th, 2010
Written Monday Morning in
The Family Room, Mom & Dad’s, Winnetka, IL, USA

the sphinx living room aug '09 ed.Photo of “Still life with cattle skull.” By, Will Brewer. Oil on canvas.

Early Friday morning headed East with Mom and Dad to visit Jeffrey for Allegheny’s family weekend. Arrived mid-afternoon and our first stop was Sprague, a local micro-brew that grew its own hops and was built out of a old barn. My favorite part was how they served all full pints in mason jars, something I hadn’t seen since Johnson City, TN.

Had a quick, lovely dinner at the Montana, where I got my first taste of a Cowboy Cut. Evening’s cultural entertainment was the Greek Sing. All the school’s ten greek organizations organized themselves to sing three or four songs together on stage. Naturally, the three of us were most looking forward to Jeffrey and his theta-chi borther’s performance. They did not disappoint, with tracks from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and “Oh my darlin …”

Sadly, though the boys did not come in second or first. Former went to the ’09 champion fraternity whose song and dance included cross-dressers, and the latter was a group that featured rap and the 4-chords song. That evening I observed Allegheny “Jeff”. Started with him arriving at his frat house excitedly greeted by two cute girls hugging him, one of whom then hugged me. We went downstairs to play beiruit, and represented ourselves well, winning the first three games, despite multiple non-positive Danoff comments. Patronized a local watering hole named “Sports Garden” afterwards. Highlight for me of said establishment was that they played “Sandstorm”. Jeffrey and his buddies were more concerned with “icing” one another, which was fun to observe. newton observatory aug '09

Started bright and early the following morning, with a pre-football game tailgate, hosted by the Danoff parents. Jeffrey rounded up five or six folks, and we ate sandwiches, chips and cookies, washed down with brews for three or four hours. It was so much fun, we never even made it inside to watch any of the actual game. For a little we discussed Friday’s sing, and Mom and I felt really out of the loop to hear the 4-chord song we were so impressed by, wasn’t actually original.

In the afternoon we took care of a little business, buying attire for Jeffrey’s upcoming interviews. Had a little fun with him when he told the store manager his waist size was “33″. Met up for dinner with one of Dad’s junior high school and high school friends at Springfield Grille. The food was delicious, especially the desert apple donuts, fresh-made and drizzled with caramel sauce. For three or four hours, Jeffrey and I got to listen too stories and adventures, shedding a little more light into the unknown of our father’s past.

Returning to campus that evening, the event was a dry dance party at the boy’s fraternity. Jeffrey headed over immediately to set things up, while I took the “fashionably late” approach with a few of his friends. By the time we did arrive the party was nearly over. I invited a special lady to dance, but she was scared off by a friends retreating from the floor saying “don’t go in there”. Jeffrey’d informed me it was coming to a close soon, so I decidedly to head in solo.

Dance floor was indeed a little out there, johnny_automatic_the_beer_snob but I found some open floor for myself then did what I do. One of the younger members of the fraternity was galivanting around in a catcher’s mask and a cape, dancing with whomever he pleased. At one point, he pushed me into two cute blonds dancing together. Just as I was touching, about to see if she’d accept me as a partner, the music stopped, lights flared on blindingly and Jeffrey proceeded to yell “Everyone out!”

I’d been meaning to head out to Allegheny for years, now I’m very happy I finally did. Definitely felt out of the loop and like the weird-old-guy hanging amongst all the young folk, but Jeffrey and his buddies did a wonderful job taking care of me, making me feel welcome and ensuring I always had a drink in hand.

Images: First two, “the sphinx living room aug ’09 ed.” and “newton observatory aug ’09” are from last summer, when Dad and I drove Jeffrey out to Allegheny. The one at the top is of a painting in Jeffrey’s home living room, done by one of his buddies. Both images are Copyright Charles Jeffrey Danoff, 2010, all rights reserved. The final image is “the beer snob” by, johnny_automatic, published in the Open Clip Art Library, public domain.

Amplifications and Corrections: 27 Sep 2010 20:44 USA CT – Added the title of the painting.

still not listening to myself

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Diary
Monday, September 20th – Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Written Thursday Evening
My Room, Mom & Dad’s, Winnetka, IL, USA

As a consequence of decisions I made Sunday evening into Monday, it has taken me some time to recover my adventure last weekend. I have learned that in order to get back into your productivity routine following a 2 to 3 day exursion, the most important thing is to not continue that excursion after arriving back home. Chilling with buddies Sunday evening and then indulging in very late-night snacks early Monday morning is evidence I did not heed my own advice.PeterM_Penguin_with_a_shirt

As such I have done some things this Monday to Thursday, but not as many as I would like and certainly less than I planned. I did keep the incoming cash flow by caddying three of the days (club’s closed on Monday). High/lowlight of said time was today as I misinterpreted a mustard bottle I was using to put the final touch on my caddy-lunch-chicago-dog and squirted roughly 60% of the condiment on the dog and its remainder on my formerly beautiful caddy shirt.

Aside from my daily devotional writing, biggest project time consumer has been that p2pu course I am teaching on collaborative lesson planning. I caught up with all my students Monday, sent out the week two homework Wednesday, and published a revised version of the syllabus today. This course has been a flipping awesome experience. I am teaching something I am profoundly interested in, and have almost complete freedom. All of this almost entirely eclipses the fact I am doing this all for no pay.

The naturally more wonderful just beacuse it involves somebody younger event has been yet another article submission by Hannah, the young lady I met as a student in Anqing, and who has continued to write for me. Her latest piece is on mistakes …

The big social news of the week is jeff squared, as in, Monday was the elder’s b-day and tomorrow we’re headed east for the younger’s parents weekend.

Image: Penguin with a shirt by, PeterM on the Open Clipart Gallery, public domain.

nights in the chi

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Diary
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Basement, Parent’s Home, Winnetka, IL, USA
cartoon-dirty-whites-bed-roll-written-up-hat-in-hand
Chicago has given me more eventful Tuesday and Wednesday nights than I am used to expecting this week. Tuesday I saw an enrapturing My Morning Jacket show, especially a part near the end where they played three to four songs in a row, but without breaking for applause. They gathered the energy of the crowd and kept it building and building until explosion. Had after show beers at The Revolution, a quiet Chicago microbrew I was pleased to discover.

Wednesday was Jeffrey’s last Chi town evening of the summer. Began with tasty vodka diets at the treehouse then headed into Lincoln Park. Same bar we went to previously and they had an swell deal again, $2.50 bottles, well drinks and more. Took pictures with some kind ladies there then headed to Kingston Mines, where we got to hear uplifting Blues music and dance until early in the morning.

Tonight was quiet as we had Jeffrey’s final dinner before school at Skokie and prep for his big trip tomorrow.

Not related at all, I posted another old lesson plan into the resource I am building on Wikiversity 5. Please have a read and share your ideas.

Image: “cartoon dirty whites bed roll written up hat in hand” by, J. Thorne Smith, Jr. from the Biltmore Oswald via zorger.com, public domain.

there and back again

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Diary
15 August 2010
Basement, Mom & Pop’s Home, Winnetka, IL, USA

Just got back from a one day trip out to grandparent’s hideaway. Got on the road about ten AM yesterday and made the drive in about four hours or so, enjoying as I bounced through Illinois, then Indiana and then Michigan radio. Started off with a Howard Zinn interview around Chicago, heard a lot about God past Gary and then finished up in Michigan with Opera.

Got to the gas station near their place, filled up and then sat down on a bench near the station by a small river and wrote down a lot of the different things I’d been thinking about on the ride, which was helpful, and the first time I’ve done something like that following a long car trip. I really enjoy how a long ride gives you a while to ponder, but I usually lose everything after I arrive and get excited with the hustle of bustle of the destination.

After scribbling I descended on the house. My Aunt was around, and we took the motorboat to Lake Michigan for a short dip, afterwards drying myself I tried somewhat successfully to re-create my recent near Satori experience. Afterwards, returned to the cottage, bathed, had drinks and dip [including the world famous working man's dip that may be coming soon to a store near you ...] before dinner. For the evening’s entertainment, we headed down to the beach to watch the fireworks in honor of Pentwater’s homecoming. Closed the evening out back on the pier watching meteors again like we did from the other side of Lake Michigan recently.

Started today off with blueberry pancakes and smoky links, which powered me through for the 5 hour drive home in time for the family Sunday ritual. Watching golf now, liable to pass out any time soon.

sword food

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Diary
22 July 2010
Parent’s Basement, Winnetka, IL

Yesterday was Jeffrey, my little bro,’s twenty-second birthday. For dinner he selected Fogo de Chao, a famous Brazillian steakhouse, where the meats are served on meter-long swords by handsome waiters who walk around from table to table. Amongst all the ones I tried, my favorite was the pork tenderloin strangely enough. I figured the meat would be delicious, but the tenderloin shocked me.

After wards I was invited by Jeffrey to go out for drinks with a couple of his friends to a nearby bar. They featured $8 pitchers, enough to fill four tall glasses, which made the night relatively economical. All in all it was a fairly quiet birthday for Jeff Jr., but it was by design, as it allowed him the rest to prepare for his classes this morning.

I am really fatigued at the moment. I think its adjusting back to life in the suburbs, and the past two weeks dancing my way back. An interesting observation has been Jeffrey’s comfort with working and doing different things with the TV on, while I am paralyzed by it at the moment. Perhaps I am just over-reacting, but as soon as I try to do something mentally exerting with the TV set on, I struggle. I had to retreat downstairs to the basement just to complete this post.

Also, I am continuing to put rough drafts of my lessons from the past year on Wikiversity, here is 7A Lesson 6. If you know how to edit wiki’s please go in there and help, if not and you’re interested in any way, please let me know.