Credo

In the very beginning, the experience and the view are very small. There is a focus, a singularity, a clarity of purpose. The drives burn themselves into our minds and our hearts, the wiring is put in place. We are lifers.

Everything is recorded to and bounced off cassette, which gives the sound its own character, a separate life. The recordings feel more natural, the tidiness of digital editing had not yet arrived.

Posture

There had always been gangs in my life, Evanston and Chicago. I learned at a small age that the details matter. Aesthetic is important. Style is important. The way you walk, the way you carry yourself are important. The colors you wear, how you wear them.

Do not pretend to be a thing you are not.

Boasts

South Evanston has produced some of the greatest talkers of shit that the world has ever seen. From middle school through high school, every day there would be a couple of kids who would run up and run the dozens. So you either got quick with comebacks or grew a thick skin.

Lake

The first time I was in Evanston, in 1988, we went to the lake for a picnic. I was captivated by the massive chunks of concrete, forming a rough wall along the lakefront, separating Lake Michigan from lush green parks. Like any good South E kid, I spent many summer days crawling over the rocks between South Bully and Dempster.

There are no words to describe my feelings for that barrier of wreckage, the site of so many interesting times with so many people across so many years. In my last days in Evanston, I also dropped in on the lake to say goodbye.

Wild

We gathered in a pack that would number from 4 to 14, we ran havoc through every suburb of Chicago our boredom would lead us to.

We stole anything that wasn't nailed down. Trophies and treasures, as well as trash that was quickly disposed of. Some were about the take, not the keep. A rare few have been kept to this day.

Isaac's Van

The side door wouldn't open, you had to go in and out through the front passenger door, hop to the benches in the back. The time we were pulled over and the cop tried to open the side door, it almost fell off its track. It was our first distance drive, we were coming back from a show in Iowa. The van smelled like teenage boys and vegan farts, there were always empty takeout containers on the floor. The stereo was busted, the boombox on batteries was there for music.

The Rounds

We had arranged circuits of different stores that we would run through to boost on Sundays. We would move quickly through two Best Buys, a Blockbuster Music, a Kroch's & Brentano's and a Borders, bold as brass.

We did it so often that we ran out of things we wanted, you would boost out of habit. Once ---- had a handful of sensor chiclets he'd pulled off CDs he'd placed back on shelves.

He walked around the store, trying to sneak chiclets onto various shoppers. Then he stood next to the detectors by the door and whenever anyone would walk in or out, he'd toss one after them.

Not one of them went off.

Poundcake

The plan was for all of us to go see Pulp Fiction in the theater that night. We were at ----'s house to pick her up, she had to get some yardwork done so we 4~5 of us hopped out to help her. I also had a massive crush on her and offered to come back the next day to rake leaves. Her mom had made a poundcake and offered us some for the effort, it was a logical road snack. We snuck it into the theater and had this amazing cake while watching Pulp Fiction for the first time.