Haven't been on here. Things have been kinda hectic lately. Moving to Chicago, then I went to Washington DC for four days for a conference, the past couple of days was introduction at Loyola and now I am going to Belgium for a week. This summer sure flew by all of a sudden....
Well, you hope that it won't happen, but you fear that it will. Turns out that the fiancee of a friend of mine was amongst the people who got injured in the bridge accident in Minneapolis. During my time in Minneapolis I would spend many Wednesdays at bars at which DJ Jake Rudh would spin his eclectic mix of Britpop, indie, new wave and all around good music. I followed Jake at all the different places he would DJ throughout the years and really admire the heart and soul he put into delivering good music in a cool, friendly atmosphere. These things are harder and harder to come by these days. I'd be lying if I'd say Jake was a close friend, but I quite liked the guy and enjoyed chatting with him during his gigs. He even "helped" me win some tickets to shows at his DJ nights. That's how I got to go see Travis a while back. On a couple of occasions I met his girlfriend/fiancee, and we never exchanged more than just a friendly greeting, but you could tell she was a really nice person. I wouldn't write this if I didn't think this to be true. I still receive Jake's weekly emails and was shocked to learn that his fiancee, Mercedes, got inured during the bridge collapse. I pasted the email below, I am sure Jake wouldn't mind. Somewhere in this email there is an address to which people can send get well cards. I know that readers of this blog don't know the girl, and that hundreds of people you don't know get into accidents every day, but maybe you could take a couple of minutes and send this girl who will be facing some tough months a get well card. I think it could be quite uplifting and surprising for someone going through some tough physical therapy to receive out of the blue a get well card from someone she does not know, or even better, form someone from a different country. Little things sometime make a big difference. Get on it!
Hi folks,
I'm sending out a quick email about my fiancé Mercedes who many of you already might know was severely injured coming home from work last Wednesday night crossing the I 35W bridge. We've been living a nightmare the past few days, but the support shown by those who already know about the accident has been phenomenal. I debated sending out a memo to my Transmission email list, but doing so truly covers almost every person she and I know...so it just made sense. Below you will find a message from my friend Jim who is taking the lead on setting up a benefit show at the Fine Line sometime in Sept. I'm also going to try to set up a www.caringbridge.com site sometime soon. Regarding the benefit, I'll be DJing it and there will be a handful of bands participating. There will also probably be a silent auction to raise money for the cause.
She is struggling to stay positive as this has been a traumatic experience, but she is the strongest woman I know and we're going to get through this. It sucks to think that this is affecting 3 of her favorite things in life...Palates, Yoga and mainly dancing. I pray everyday that she will be able to dance again without pain. The good news is that she'll be able to walk again. She needs to be in a body cast and wheelchair for the next few months and will have countless physical therapy sessions, but again...she's a fighter, and her will-power will prevail. She took a 60 foot plummet off of the bridge when the pavement below open up sending her nose first into the river bank below. Her airbag and seat belt saved her life...and we are extremely fortunate to still have her with us!
Thank you again to all of those who have already reached out. Please forgive me if you don't hear a response besides mass emails as there are just too many. I'll try my best to keep everyone updated. Below you will see a message from my buddy Jim regarding upcoming events. I'd give her current hospital address, but she is being transferred too many times to different areas as they specialize in different things. As for Transmission, I might have a sub for the next week or so, but I plan on continuing on with normalcy as that's what she and I want.
all the best,
Jake
As some of you are aware, Jake’s fiancé and our close friend, Mercedes Gorden, was seriously injured in the I35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis this past Wednesday, August 1st. Mercedes suffered multiple injuries, including shattered ankles, feet and shins, and a fractured spine. Mercedes has already endured four operations to repair her feet and will be in a hard-shell body cast for several months. She will require extensive and long-term rehabilitation in the hopes of returning to normal mobility.
Mercedes and Jake are overwhelmed by the immediate show of support from friends and colleagues throughout the Twin Cities and around the world. Your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated during this difficult period. They provide much-needed encouragement for Mercedes, Jake and their families as they begin the long recovery process.
How You Can Help:
Please consider sending a card of support to Mercedes at her current hospital address:
Mercedes Gorden
c/o Jim Froehlich
4036 Wooddale Avenue South.
St. Louis Park, MN 55416
USA
so far so good in Chicago. Het is druk geweest en weinig tijd gehad om te exploreren, maar het is wel degelijk een varandering van omgeving. Dit is een Stad, met alle voor- en nadelen vandien. Maar ik hou er wel van. Maar morgen vertrek ik voor een paar dagen naar Washington DC voor een conferentie, en daarna bijna meteen doorreizen naar Belgie voor een weekje Vlaanders, Chicago ontdekken zal dus pas voor later zijn.
Tja, ik zal maar positief blijven en het een kleurrijke buurt noemen waar we in zijn terecht gekomen. Op weg naar een koffieshop hier in de buurt stootte ik vanavond op een nogal bizar tafereeltje. Twee mannen, een blanke en een zwarte, stonden op ongeveer 10 meter van elkaar vandaan elkander allerlei verwensingen toe te roepen:
- my dog can kick your dog’s ass.
- Just give it a try, asshole, how much you bet?
- 100$
- fuck you asshole, you ain’t got no 100$
- bring it on!
- My dog will eat your dog, and you too…
Enzoverder enzovoort. Het bizarre was dat de zwarte man twee stevige terriers aan de leiband hield die eruit zagen alsof ze met graagte hun tanden in levend vlees zouden zetten terwijl de blanke man, een zatte slonzigaard in een onderhemdje, een chihuahua aan de leiband had. Een Chihuahua is zo’n Mexicaans hondje de grootte van een kat. Uiteindelijk kwam het niet tot een confrontatie, anders had ik wel geweten op wie mijn geld gezet….
Het valt toch op dat eens je iets in de krant leest over iets waarvan je goed op de hoogte bent dat je steevast wel wat fouten in de berichtgeving vindt. Ik was net De Morgen aan het lezen over de brug ramp in Minneapolis: "De Interstate 35 W brug, die de steden St. Paul en Minneapolis verbindt, werd in 1967 geopend." Klopt eigenlijk niet, 35W gaat pal noordwaarts, richting noordelijke voorsteden en Duluth en passeert zelfs niet in St. Paul, dat ten oosten van Minneapolis ligt. Het is natuurlijk maar een detail, maar het zet je wel aan het denken over de rest van de informatie die je op je bord krijgt en waar je niet veel van afweet.
goed en wel aangekomen in Chicago. Onze woning was in allesbehalve perfecte staat toen we aankwamen, vooral de keuken ligt er smerig bij, en ik ben niet echt kieskeurig wat dat betreft. Maar de microgolf bijvoorbeeld hangt vol met etensresten, oven smerig, stof en rommel overal.... Ooit zullen we hier smakelijk om lachen, maar nu nog niet. Buurt valt wel reuze mee, tot nu toe, maar veel tijd om te verkennen heb ik nog niet gehad.
We had left Minneapolis for about an hour or so when a bridge over the Mississippi collapsed in Minneapolis. Lotsa people killed and injured. What a f*cking mess. I could write how I or heather just recently drove over that bridge, but everyone who lives and works in Minneapolis drives over that bridge frequently, that’s why it is a freaking bridge! But in case you wondered, I am fine and everyone I know is fine too. Need to organize my thoughts about this one, it is a bit bizarre and surreal, this happening the day we leave and all. Is it really sick to say that I am frustrated that for once something major happens in Minneapolis, I just left town? There I am posting pictures of a minor collision on my blog, but when a whole bridge collapses I of course just left town..... Arrived safe and sound in Chicago by the way.
So there is an endless amount of things that are more depressing than leaving a city to move to another city, a bigger city, a more vibrant city, for a job that all things considered is pretty perfect. So I don’t want to complain too much. But still… When you leave a city after almost ten years of living there, happily most of the time, and you sit in an empty apartment with nothing but a blow up bed, a pair of fresh underwear and a suitcase full of memories, melancholy is about to set in.
So tonight was our last night in Minneapolis. Things moved much quicker than expected, the movers came earlier than we thought, and will get our stuff in Chicago a couple of days before what we anticipated. So before we could blink, our last night in Minneapolis was here. No big goodbyes or drunken, emotional farewells, just some drinks and pizza at our friends’ place. I met up with some people over the last couple of days I hadn’t seen in a while, but nothing too emotional. I prefer to just close the door behind me and move on, I’ll stay in touch with some people and lose contact with others, such is life. Whether or not we had a big hugfest when I was leaving won’t change that.
I did have a list in my head of things I wanted to do before leaving, visit some places, restaurants, bars, parks, places, museums, houses I lived in, but I just did not get around to it, and that’s probably just as well. As Morrissey would say, all these things, “it’s only bricks and mortar.” What you cherish about these places are the memories and these cannot be revisited, but as Boudewijn de Groot would say "die neem je mee zolang je leeft."
Yeah, I’ll miss things. The breakfast place below our apartment, which had become a second home, the bar with the late night happy hour where they know your order before you sit down, the Vietnamese lunch place where the waitress does not even bother bringing you the lunch menu because she knows you will have the chicken sweet and sour –again- and countless other places where I felt pretty comfortable. But these are just routines, and I am pretty sure that given some time, I will find my comfort zone in Chicago. There is perhaps one exception, the Urban Bean Coffee house, a coffee place in south Minneapolis where I wrote most of my dissertation. A very laid black hang out with a mixture of locals, grad students, clueless Marxists and other people with no real jobs or purpose in life. They always played good music and it was rarely crowded. If you would go there often enough you would always see the same people, which was enough to create a weird sense of community, without actually having to talk to anyone. I also downloaded a lot of music from other people’s computers there. That’s a place I will miss. I somehow feel that is a very unique , typically Minneapolis place. It is not busy and hopping like a big city coffeeshop, but somehow still had a cool, urban vibe. And in a way, that’s Minneapolis. Not a huge city, not a vibrant city, but a city with a cool laid back urban vibe with quite a few interesting people in it.
Otherwise, yeah, it feels a bit weird leaving town. Because I had a great time here. It’s like leaving your student town after you graduated. You can’t help but reminisce about all the good times that are quickly disappearing in the rear view mirror, but at the same time you realize that these times belong in the rear view mirror. As I write this, it is 1.41 am. I always thought that I would spend my last night in Minneapolis at a favorite watering hole, quickly downing drinks, surrounded by those who would dearly miss me, but I am spending it blogging (still with beer within reach), listening to “Late Night, Maudlin Street” (Morrissey) and “The Bauhaus Chair” (Nits). Things never pan out the way you think they will. Perhaps that’s not a bad thing.