Our friend Bill Linden
Just before Christmas 2012, my friend and former Chicago Sun-Times art director Bill Linden sent me a list of “50 things you might or might not want to know about Mr. Bill,” copyrighted. Bill died in his sleep in his Chicago home on Sept. 15. He was 79 years old.
I’m happy I kept the list.
You didn’t have to know Bill to read this list and understand how to live life to the fullest. And be able to laugh at yourself. As a gag writer for the comic strips “Shoe,” “B.C.” and “Wizard of Id,” Bill knew about economy and pacing. Bill was to punchlines as Dolly was to rhinestones. So there’s no [...]
Kurt Grahnke on Washington Island (photo by Eliza Grahnke)
WASHINGTON ISLAND, Wi.–The best books contain discovery on every page. Over the summer we had a book signing for my Camper Book at Fair Isle Books on Washington Island. We drove my blue camper van off the Washington Ferry (built in 1989 in Sturgeon Bay) on to the island of 35 square miles.
There are no bridges on this island, but there are timeless connections.
The cozy book store was one of our first stops. I always like to make sure my books are in the store. Book store owner Deb Wayman had a note for me. It was from Gwen Gotsch, an Oak [...]
When the spirit has been dragging like a comb in the hair of Gene Simmons, you find out who your true friends are.
And I’ve been fortunate.
Really fortunate.
This updated website has all kinds of stuff. There’s categories of travel dispatches, baseball stories, things on food-ways and immediate, unfiltered musings on life passages. I’ll also be keeping my eye on breaking Chicago cultural news, issues that are near to me like why the city ignores its musical heritage.
I wanted to share this rather blunt link with my friend and collaborator Paul Natkin of Photo Reserve, Inc., who had the misfortune to be [...]
Spoon me! Courtesy of Bill Linden
December 20, 2012—–
Global warming has put a chill in the air of community. It is five days before Christmas and we haven’t had a drop of seasonal snow in Chicago. Few strangers offer a welcoming nod. They cannot be in a dour mood from dibbing parking spots on a one-way street. But then where I work some guys don’t even look up to say hello in the halllway.
Most people have stopped sending Christmas cards—-I did get one from my parents where the shaky cursive broke my heart. It takes time to get it right. The rapid growth of technology (Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.) has made our space more personal, defined and [...]
