Discriminating Weirdos

It's All About The Movement!

Sears Tower is no more.  Before you run screaming for the hills, the tower itself is fine.  Only the name is changing, much to the chagrin of many Chicagoans.  From now on, the Sears Tower will be known as Willis Tower.

Change is difficult to deal with, especially when landmarks are concerned.  Undoubtedly, Chicagoans will never actually call the tower by its new name.  It will always be the Sears Tower to them.

Em and I were thinking last week that the new name is an opportunity for Chicago to finally pay tribute to one of its native sons - Wesley Willis.  Willis was a musician with the sort of cult following that most bands can only dream of having.  He lived to rock, and he mentioned Chicago in nearly every one of his songs.

Let it be known that there is an official movement afoot to change the name of the Willis Tower to the Wesley Willis Tower!

Wesley Willis, for those not in the know, was a staple of the Chicago underground music scene until his death in 2003.  His early life was anything but easy.  His father left him and his abusive mother when he was a baby, and he ended up being placed with a foster family.  He grew up in a housing project, where he and three of his brothers were raised on welfare.

From the Wikipedia page about Wesley Willis:

In 1989, Willis began hearing what he called "demon mullets" and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He was institutionalized for two months after his diagnosis. He often mentioned that his demons were named "Heartbreaker," "Nervewrecker," and "Meansucker". He called his psychotic episodes "hell rides", and alternatively, he declared rock and roll to be "the joy ride music".

In early 1994, Willis recorded with the Canadian industrial-metal band Monster Voodoo Machine and appeared on their Juno Award winning debut album Suffersystem(RCA Records). In 1995 without his band, Willis was signed to American Recordings and went on to record two albums while producing dozens of other albums independently, becoming a minor novelty rock sensation.

One of Willis's trademarks was headbutting with his fans and friends. Typically when approached by a fan, Willis would gingerly hold his or her head between his hands and say, "Say....RAH!" and then he would say "Bump my head." The fan would respond as instructed and Willis would bump his head against his or hers.  Willis would repeat this over and over as long as the fan or friend would tolerate it and he would then express joy and delight from this unique connection. The large callus in the center of his forehead resulted from this habit of "bumping heads."

At the time of his death, he had recorded over 1,000 songs but his total life savings were less than $200. Having sold out hundreds of venues across the country, the question still remains where all of Willis' money went. 

CLICK HIS PICTURE FOR A WESLEY WILLIS VIDEO!

Ask anyone to name some famous people with Chicago connections, and you might hear any one of a hundred or more names.  Wesley Willis probably won't be one of them, and that's sad.  Tune in tomorrow for some goodies that will help promote the movement!  (ADAM)

Round Frames

I've spent quite a bit of energy over the past year looking for cheap, interesting ways to frame round pieces of embroidery.  For some reason, most of the frames in the world are rectangular, and rectangles just don't work that well for embroidery pieces that have been created in hoops.

I have ben storing a few finished pieces while I experimented with round framing.  Basically, I wanted to do something special with them, especially the ones from the Lovecraft series I've been working on.  Everywhere I look, people have been "framing" by placing the embroidery in a hoop, trimming off the excess material, and hanging it on the wall.  I wanted something different.

But after several experiments, and finding nothing but cost prohibitive prices on actual round frames, I decided to go back to the "hanging hoop" method.  All it took was a little black paint and some felt to enclose the back.

Here are a few examples of the finished products.  (ADAM)

 

Eyeglass (2008) Five-inch hoop

Red Spot (2008) Six-inch hoop

Dark Water (2008) Eight-inch hoop