Don Hall 7/12/17 Don Hall 7/12/17

Acknowledging the Duality of Man | Applying Puritanism in the Modern Age

As both the Extreme Right and Extreme Left truck in moral outrage (Rage Profiteers) those left in the middle have to walk an increasingly cautious line. Any step or joke in the wrong direction results in personal destruction. And any human creative and ingenious enough to make something or do something notable better be perfect in every way.

This apparently includes those long dead as the need to revile those who made differences in times past are now held to the same revisionist scrutiny and Puritanical confines as anyone today and without the ability of defense. You know, cuz they’re dead.

Don Hall 7/11/17 Don Hall 7/11/17

On Recognizing My Own Hypocrisies | Fallor Ergo Sum

I write a lot. A lot.

Quite a bit of it is of the Socratic solipsistic nature, gazing hard into the ignorance of the world and commenting on how the collective we can do better. Not a bad preoccupation but presenting itself with certain limitations that bind the brain like a too-tight corset squeezing the blood in opposite directions until both your feet and your face get puffy.

I believe that every once in a while, in a ‘take myself down a peg’ sort of way, it’s necessary to look hard into oneself and catalogue one’s own bullshit a tad. Perhaps in an effort to know thyself, perhaps in efforts to change the self before leveling accusations at the collective, perhaps just as an exercise in seeing past the narcissistic image in the mirror and recognizing who one truly is. I dunno but it seems valuable and I’m going to be writing anyway, so why not?

Don Hall 7/10/17 Don Hall 7/10/17

I Believe...[The Safest Space]

...that the safest space of all, removed from micro aggressions and ideas that conflict with your belief system, is in your parents' basement with a padlock to keep your sister from snooping.

Don Hall 7/9/17 Don Hall 7/9/17

Is This What the Revenge of the Nerds Was Destined to Be?

It all amounts to a race to the bottom - seeking out insult, assigning blame for one's unhappiness on an oppressor, hoping for the sympathy of the crowd, and turning to the power of the mob to obliterate anyone who might lightly tread on the toes of what used to be self esteem.

David Himmel 7/8/17 David Himmel 7/8/17

The Opening Campfire: An (alternative) Introduction to "A Camp Story" – Author's Cut

My biggest concern, beyond not knowing anyone and just generally hating camp, was that I was going to spend a summer in the woods surrounded by swarms of big, disgusting, loud cicadas. It was 1990 and the 17-year cicadas had taken over Chicago. I had killed so many with such bloodlust that I convinced myself the winged beasts in Decatur had gotten word of me and were plotting their revenge for their brethren.

Don Hall 7/7/17 Don Hall 7/7/17

Dragging Dad, Kicking and Screaming into the Future [A Repost But Worth It...]

The mental picture (provided by my wife) is that the kids are taking dad to the future and want to get there now but can only move as fast as dad can move and he is slow and confused. Being a white man in his fifties, I guess I'm the dad in the metaphor and while I'm confused I'm also not about to cede the discussion to people still living like seven-year-old children and hoping their laundry gets done when mom comes down to the basement. A millennial who has never held a job or lived away from his or her parents doesn't get to lecture me on jack shit.

This is not a blanket condemnation of millennials, merely an old white guy's assertion that 98 percent of everyone under 25 hasn't lived enough actual life to know what the fuck he or she is bloviating about.

So, instead of lectures, let's ask some questions, cuz dad needs some clarification, or he's turning this station wagon around and heading home.

David Himmel 7/6/17 David Himmel 7/6/17

Notes from the Post-it Wall – Week of July 2, 2017

• Liberal rage confuses me. From day-to-day and outrage-to-outrage, I’m less and less sure about who is pissed at what and why. I’m thinking about joining the Klan. At least I know where they stand.

David Himmel 7/5/17 David Himmel 7/5/17

I Just Fixed Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean Ride

If Disney wants to make up for any wrongdoings, it can stop making Prates of the Caribbean movies.

Don Hall 7/4/17 Don Hall 7/4/17

What the Fuck Are We Celebrating Again?

Today is the 241st anniversary of the beginning of the country called The United Stares of America.

I’m in Marion, Kansas (arguably ground zero for the horrifyingly Monster Shit Experiment known as “Trickle Down Economics” in my lifetime) with my family as we eat too much food, drink lousy store-bought beer and blow up shit designed and manufactured by the Chinese.

I take it for granted why we do this until we are doing this. On this day, my question, in between sips of Miller High Life and carelessly lighting fuses with a tiny blowtorch, is why? What exactly are we celebrating today?

Don Hall 7/3/17 Don Hall 7/3/17

I Believe... [Small Minds]

...that the quote that goes around that posits "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people."? Yeah, I believe that.

Don Hall 7/2/17 Don Hall 7/2/17

The Hard-Earned Lesson I Learned from Lydia, Molly, Ian and Hedy Weiss

I swear to Gawd and All That is Holy that this will be my last word on two specific issues: the public shaming I endured this time one year ago AND Hedly Weiss.

Don Hall 7/1/17 Don Hall 7/1/17

On Becoming That Guy at the Party: The Dilemma of Poor Johnny One Note

Imagine you’re at a dinner party. (And for those less inclined to go to anything as bougie as a dinner party, imagine a house party or a party that includes people drinking and eating and talking—you know, a fucking party…)

David Himmel 6/30/17 David Himmel 6/30/17

Notes from the Post-it Wall – Week of June 25, 2017

• Success is by design. And when it comes to design, some people have terrible taste.

Guest User 6/30/17 Guest User 6/30/17

Now Available: Troll to Learn™ for All Your Internet Needs

Let TROLL TO LEARN™ remind you:
Antagonistic language is your tool, but be smart: Let the Trollee utter the profanities first. Be prepared to see the dark side of the Trollee you only assumed might be there. It has many shapes.

Don Hall 6/29/17 Don Hall 6/29/17

Nothing is Sacred. Not Even You

That was the saying above the theater that WNEP occupied for a couple of years on the corner of Halsted and Belmont.

It meant a lot of things in those six words.

You are not not exempt, as an audience member, from being required to participate.
Nothing in the content within the walls (and minds of the creators) is sacrosanct. Nothing is out of bounds. All sacred cows will be skewered, roasted and eaten rare.
We are artists and we are not somehow the world's very precious tellers of truth. Likewise, your opinion of our work means only as much as we allow it.

It meant that YOU (and WE) are not special.

David Himmel 6/28/17 David Himmel 6/28/17

Who's Afraid of Hedy Weiss?

The artist makes art. The critic deconstructs that art so that people who don’t understand art can try to pretend to understand art. The artist and the critic are not on the same team. They are opposite sides of the same coin. And the opposite sides of the same coin can never see eye-to-eye.

Don Hall 6/27/17 Don Hall 6/27/17

I Believe... [Street Fests Are SOOOO White]

David Himmel 6/27/17 David Himmel 6/27/17

The Pristine City Clerk Worker

No one likes having to go to the Office of the Chicago City Clerk. Not even those who get paid for being there. The desk workers on the first floor in the City Clerk’s office are of the same ilk as DMV workers. They are always tired, annoyed, smarter—yet dumber—than you, wield a surprisingly unnatural amount of power and have a general disdain for a good majority of humanity. And who can blame them? They work for idiots and get dumped on by the citizens who elected those idiots all day long.

Don Hall 6/26/17 Don Hall 6/26/17

How Communist Did You Have to Be to Be, You Know, COMMUNIST?

You didn't have to be a communist, you didn't have to have friends who were communists. All you had to have was the whiff of possibility—you said something to someone, you complained about your job, you cheated on the wrong girlfriend—if the Committee decided you were a communist, the power of public opinion and the scrutiny of those self-righteous fear mongers using hyperbolic language to paint you as a communist, you were guilty of being a communist.

Don Hall 6/25/17 Don Hall 6/25/17

Slippery Slopes Always Go in the Same Direction

Some might see the cultural desires to censor uncomfortable speech as the end all, be all of the problem but the culture of victimhood—the one that provides more rewards societally in playing the aggrieved than not—is the beginning of so many slippery slopes. Most of these slopes we cascade down begin as a struggle to expand definitions. "Hate speech." "Harassment." "Rape Culture." "Privilege." The expansion of discriminated classes and marginalized groups—from women, to POC, to Obese People, to Demisexuals—is the perfect example of a well intentioned beginning that slips downward.