What if your home once echoed with the chords of a musical legend? Join us as we welcome Jay Stanek, a high school history teacher from Evanston Township, who discovered that his house was a creative haven for the legendary songwriter John Prine. Jay shares captivating stories about how his home was a frequent stop for Prine and the previous owner, Dan Hogan, where they would not only play guitars but also work on cars. We delve into the fascinating history connected to John Prine's album "Pink Cadillac" and how it all ties back to the iconic Sun Studios on Union Avenue in Memphis.
Our conversation shifts gears to explore Chicago's illustrious music scene, with a special focus on the blues. We reminisce about Mike Bloomfield's influential role in Bob Dylan's electrifying shift and the unforgettable moments at the Newport Folk Festival. We also highlight Chicago's legendary venues such as the Aragon, the Riv, and the old Uptown Theater, sharing personal anecdotes that paint a vivid picture of the city's rich musical heritage. From memorable shows at the Double Door to reflections on musicians like Steve Goodman and Peter Gabriel, this episode is a nostalgic dive into Chicago's cultural landscape.
Balancing professional life with personal passions is no easy feat, and Jay provides an insightful look into this juggling act. We discuss the challenges of preventing burnout in teaching, the necessity of hobbies outside of work, and how incorporating music into education can be transformative. We also touch on local developments like the rebuilding of Northwestern's football stadium, the financial impact of the university's tax exemptions, and the evolving architecture of Chicago. Tune in for a rich blend of music, history, and personal stories that bring the interconnected world of Chicago's real estate and music scenes to life.
Connect with Karen and Andrew at Be Realty: Be Realty Group
Email the Show: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com
Guest: Jay Stanek of Evanston Township High School
Link: Furious Frank
Link: John Prine - Pink Cadillac
Link: Double Door
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Records and Real Estate, a podcast about
well, records and real estate.
You'll be entertained andinformed as we explore the
intersection of these two worldsthrough interviews with
Chicago's most interesting andsuccessful people from both
industries.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That was Andrew Wendt and I'm Karen Sanvas.
We are Chicago real estatebrokers, property managers, avid
music lovers and your hosts ofRecords and Real Estate.
Hi, karen, hi Andrew.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm good.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm great.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Excellent, it's Sunday morning.
I mean it's Saturday morning.
Oh boy, you're trying to skip aday ahead.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I lost a day.
It's Sunday morning, I mean,it's Saturday morning, oh boy
you're trying to skip a dayahead.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I lost a day.
It's daylight savings time.
Yeah, it's Saturday morning.
We had an early morning guest.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
We did, yeah, because he's a teacher at Evanston
Township High School, yep, anddoesn't have the flexibility to
come in during the day to record.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So we became flexible during the day to record.
So we became flexible.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We'll go to you, you can come to us.
It could be first thing in themorning, it could be late at
night, although that's gettingharder and harder.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
But yeah, I'm quite happy with the.
You know early, you say early,it was 10 o'clock.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Hey, to those of us who don't have children, that is
early on a Saturday, but I'msince five.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Anyway, lovely, lovely just history teacher, and
he brought in Show and tell,show and tell like props.
He told stories about thethings that he was showing to us
.
You know, nobody could actuallysee them because this is a
podcast, but he described themin such wonderful detail that I
think everybody got a vividpicture of what he was sharing.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, and it was another guest who's a nice
amalgam or intersection of musicand real estate in a fun way.
From a history perspective,which I thought was very cool.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, yeah, he had a lot to share and a lot of
stories to tell.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, good guy, all right, want to do it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, let's get into it.
We're here with Jay Stanek, andJay is a friend of another Jay,
our first ever guest, jasonTaylor.
He was our guinea pig.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
We have to have him back.
I'm always saying we have tohave the first six guests back.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah because we didn't really know what we were
doing and the sound quality isbad.
Yeah, karen's worried about thesound quality.
I was worried about the contentbecause we really didn't know
what we had or what the purposeof our podcast was.
We would ask questions likewho's your favorite band?
You know just stuff that.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well, I'm sure he'd love to come back.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, he would love to come back, but he's been
great and he's introduced us toyou, so thank you for coming in
today.
Yeah, I wanted to sort ofestablish right off the bat why
you're here, your adeptness attelling a music and Chicagoland
story, and I hear that there issome connection to your garage
(02:57):
with John Prine.
Yes, yes Is that?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
true.
So for people who don't knowJohn Prine, he's probably best
known as a songwriter Songs likeAngel from Montgomery Paradise,
donald Lydia, great Compromisesongs like that but just one of
these great, great Americansongwriters.
He's not necessarily the bestsinger or even the best guitar
player or anything, but justcuts right to it with a lyric,
and I'd always been.
(03:19):
I was introduced to himprobably in high school and
really just kind of wanted, youknow, I wanted to start figuring
out how to write a song after Ihad heard what he could do with
one.
And so, anyway, I live inEvanston, kind of the northwest
corner of Evanston, and thehouse that we bought was from a
guy named Dan Hogan who was abridge design engineer at
Northwestern.
So I actually found likeschematics of, like you know,
(03:41):
the Golden Gate Bridge stylesuspension bridges in the
rafters and stuff like that.
And I also learned he was amusician and kind of just an all
around you know eccentric kindof handy guy.
He had like this weirdgenerator.
So I thought maybe he's like asurvivalist.
Right, you know all theselights off in the corner of the
basement.
He's like, hey, he's growingsomething.
I don't know what's happeningdown here, but anyway, I learned
(04:02):
from a neighbor that he's like,hey, you know somebody who's
kind of famous used to come overhere and used to hang out.
Like I can't remember the guy'sname.
He's just getting this from aneighbor and I learned later
that it was John Prine, becausewe got a Christmas card from
Patricia Prine.
I'm like okay, wait a second.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I had to do a little sleuthing.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
And it turns out that there was a family connection.
He was friends with Dave Pryne,who worked at Northwestern with
the owner of the house, and soDave and John and the owner
would get together and theywould play guitar and hang out
and work on cars.
And I actually brought a copy of.
It's funny.
I'll be in Memphis in four orfive days and this is an album
that this is called PinkCadillac.
(04:41):
There's no Pink Cadillacinvolved here.
I don't think the pink Cadillac.
There's no pink Cadillacinvolved here.
I don't think the car that wasrebuilt in my garage in Evanston
is that car right there, whichis.
You can't really tell becauseit's a black and white photo,
but it's a blue Porsche and youcan see an engineer.
This is Union Avenue in Memphis.
This is where Sun Studios is.
So Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewisand Johnny Cash and all those
people this is Sam Phillips, bythe way.
(05:02):
You could tell Sam Phillips.
He's got the kind of longerhair and, like the 70s you know,
izod shirt.
Yeah, and he seems to bepontificating about something
really really deep and heavy,saying something philosophical.
You could tell with his handgestures, but anyway, they
recorded it in Sun Studios,elvis and everything.
And so there's a song calledAutomobile which is just about
(05:24):
it's just kind of a bluesy songand they use the sound of the
car revving the car's engine andyou can see the engineer
setting up the mic.
Well, anyway, that car was, theengine was rebuilt in my garage
.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Get out of here.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
And I kind of got that information through various
sources over time.
I love that album and the guyson the flip side that's the band
(05:59):
and it really is.
I love that album.
Now this is three or four yearsafter becoming a rock star or
whatever and he sought out thepeople that he knew from his
hometown and so all the guys onthe back are Chicago area
musicians, including a guy namedkind of skinnier guy with the
tie is John Burns.
He kind of looks like JacksonBrown a little bit.
I got a story about him too,but but they really are Chicago
(06:20):
guys and this was kind of late1970s I guess.
But yeah, it was just kind ofneat to see that the house we
were, you know, we were workingon the house, so we're like
ripping out walls and I'm kindof looking for stuff and like
one time I found a set of banjostrings like oh, wow you know,
like you know, hit gold orsomething like that.
When we were working on thehouse I kind of had a I love, I
(06:40):
love ghost stories.
We're going to hopefully go seethe new Ghostbusters this
weekend.
I don't want to say I reallybelieve in ghosts, but I had
this kind of strange experiencewhere I found a picture of the
owner.
It was kind of out in themiddle on a table, just like
this one, almost like he wasletting me know that he was
still there in the house and I'dfound the banjo strings already
(07:01):
.
So I figured, okay, well, theghost of Dan Hogan, he likes the
banjo.
Okay, so I'm going to come downhere and I'm just going to sit
and play banjo in the basementfor like an hour and maybe
that'll appease the spirits andstuff like that.
And I think it did, because Dannever bugged me again.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Oh nice, we're cohabitating.
If he's still there, as long asyou play him some music every.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
We actually still have his table that he used as
sort of a workshop.
It's kind of like you know, themodel and Lego shop for for my
kids, which is kind of neat.
It's still kind of where he hadeverything set up, that's so
cool.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I love the history, I guess that's kind of a real
estate story.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
No, it's perfect.
I mean, this is theintersection of music and real
estate.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's all got to happen somewhere, you know four
walls.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, yeah, I mean lots of good stuff has come out
of garages, right.
Absolutely that is a lot of fun.
I wonder, given the fact thatyou're a history major like if
you would have I mean, obviouslythat's a very fun story, it's
very germane to our podcast andalso music in Chicago and a
well-known figure music inChicago and a well-known figure.
(08:03):
But I wonder if you would havefound something like that at any
house you bought, you know,some sort of history story, just
given your sort of predilectionfor history.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I definitely would go looking for it, that's for sure
.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Well, you're a musician and a history buff and
a music fan and an Evanstonianand a history teacher.
Which one of those aspects ofwho you are define you the most?
Oh man, I don't know If you canpick one.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I just love going to work.
Yeah, being a history teacheris you know we were talking
before we hit record about youknow kind of the challenges of
teaching these days.
But what I get to do every dayand you know, talk about ideas
and you know, see the lightbulbs go on with kids.
It's just the the neatest thing.
So I guess if I had to pick one, that would be it.
That's awesome.
I could still do all that otherstuff too.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Right, right, right do you do world history or us
history?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
yes, all of it so a team taught class with an
english teacher.
So we kind of let the textsdecide where we go.
Like you know, if we're doingthe odyssey or Juliet or
something like that, I teach aEuropean history AP class to
seniors and it's interesting totalk to.
You know, this is thegeneration that people that are
graduating now kind of came ofage during COVID and it's
(09:14):
interesting to see how.
You know how we've come out onthe other side of that.
You know definitely.
You know we learned importantstuff during COVID but there are
challenges.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah.
Are you seeing a difference inthe kids graduating now or
coming out of school now versusthe ones that didn't have to
experience?
Covid?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Maybe, and you know, I don't, I don't think kids
change that much.
I mean, obviously technologychanges and all that kind of
stuff changes, but I don't know.
I mean I think, you know, in my22 years now, kids are, kids
are mostly the same.
What is different is just kindof like we kind of got rid of
testing, yeah.
So I've had kids come back fromcollege saying the first time I
(09:48):
ever took a test, like ahigh-level test, was in college.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I don't know if that's entirely true, but you
know we got rid of like finalexams, for instance.
I still test Kids write a lotand they work really, really
hard, but it's not testing theway people of our age might
remember it, but it's nottesting the way people of our
age might remember it.
There's like a test or a quizevery Friday.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
That just kind of doesn't happen anymore.
Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
At least in history and English.
I think our expectations havechanged.
There's so many things to sortof think about and look for and
obviously you want to see a kidgrow and there's lots of ways
other than testing to do thatand we've kind of gone down that
way.
But I think what we're seeingis that, you know, at least in
places like Yale and Harvard,they're coming back to testing,
like oh yeah, we got rid ofthose standardized SATs and ACTs
(10:32):
.
Oh, they're coming back.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So that may be just the pendulum swing that we're in
the middle of right now.
And we'll kind of see whathappens, because it's also
Evanston right, it's alsoEvanston University town,
northwestern, yeah, but it seemsto me that it would be like the
liberal, like, oh, we don'twant to test our children and
put them under that stress, kindof thing.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I think that's how it started that kind of
conversation and it sort ofmeandered around over the last
few years and then COVID sort ofinterceded, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
So, speaking of history, I also have learned
that you know the history ofSmith Park Well.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
I used to live Division Street, the band that
you might know from Jason Taylor, the Otis Problem we have.
There's two songs calledDivision Street.
There's an eastbound and awestbound.
Oh, fun.
And so that album, along withthis one, the 1140 album, was
really kind of written in andaround division street, in and
around that neighborhood.
So we lived at 1228 NorthCampbell and you know when the
(11:29):
kids were in strollers that waslike my direct route, that was
the closest park.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Other than Humboldt Park to go to.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And my kids loved seeing that there's a tank like
an old World War.
I maybe it's a World War IItank kind of a smaller tank down
at the corner across from wherethe CTA yard is.
But what I learned about thatpark is that it was kind of its
own little mafia fiefdom in theyears after World War II.
There's a social club on thecorner I guess it would be just
north of the park, andapparently some mob boss I don't
(11:56):
know what his name was he ownedone of the bigger houses and a
lot of the people in theneighborhood were just sort of
part of his little world orwhatever.
It was Interesting and if yougo there you notice it's kind of
cut off from everything elseand this is such a Chicago story
, you know, like train yards andbig streets just kind of divide
neighborhoods and people.
But it was his own kind of like.
(12:17):
I like to call it the mafiafiefdom.
Yeah, his own little ward orsomething like that.
Yeah, yeah, I don't have toomuch information on it but you
can if you go around and youkind of see it.
There's kind of a Mediterraneanstyle architecture.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, totally, totally.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
What are these guys thinking yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Something out of.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Goodfellas or whatever.
Yeah, yeah, what's the name ofthe park again?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Smith Park, west of Western Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I love that little neighborhood I mean, and
especially you know.
I mean obviously you knowChicago is always changing and
the neighborhood surroundingSmith Park has certainly
redeveloped over the years, butfor a long time it was just sort
of this little pocket amongstyou know, sort of more of a
dilapidated neighborhood andit's also connected across
(13:03):
Western with the Ukrainianneighborhood Ukrainian village
and so you'll see, you know,definitely you'll hear Ukrainian
being spoken in the park andstuff like that which is
interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I, when the war started two years ago that you
know, I I felt like I had to goback there you know, and feel
just connected to the place.
And who knew that the war wasstill going to be going on two
years later?
But yeah, I remember, likethere's there's two churches, st
Vladimir and St Nicholas, andmy oldest son, his name, is
Nicholas, so I can't help butthink that that's maybe where
the idea for his name came from.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Do you know how the tank?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
got there.
Don't no idea about the tank.
I'm going to have to find out.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Because that has to be a thing Like there's got to
be a committee and then atransportation issue.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Nobody drove it there , Like how do you get the tank
there, right?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Nobody just lost the keys and left it there.
Right, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Ran out of gas and never you know, it's like the
Great War of Smith Park, the Tin.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Man just needs a little oil can type of thing,
that's right Get it going again.
Do you remember how you came toknow that information, or you
just kind of put it together?
I think, like I said, I justkind of.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
You know, we found it pushing the kids around in
strollers and then go oh let'sfind out a little bit more.
Let's you know let's read thenewspaper or the archives, or I
probably, just probably justlooked it up on Wikipedia or
something.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Is that I mean?
Do you try and instill thatsense of curiosity in your
students?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I just love feeling connected to where you live and
you can do that in a lot of ways.
You can do that through storiesand one of the first books that
really kind of when I wasstarting out studying it was
going to be a history major incollege was a story called Black
Elk Speaks, which is theOgallala Sioux, and this is in
the context of, like, the Battleof Wounded Knee and you know,
back into the 1870s and 80s andit's basically an oral history
with this guy, black Elk, with ahistorian, and I guess it would
(14:48):
have been the 20s or the 30s.
But it just kind of got methinking about feeling connected
not just to the people but tothe spaces that we inhabit.
And the more you can learnabout the history, the more you
can kind of feel connected tothe whole thing, to the universe
, to the whatever.
Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Have you always had that notion, even as a kid or
did something?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
you know how did that ?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
fascination start.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, I just love maps.
As a kid that was like I couldjust kind of pour over maps and
I think that was that was whatmaps and globes and stuff like
that.
Were you the navigator in thefamily then, like you know,
getting to family vacations orwhatever, I was probably, you
know, the voice in the backseatthat needed to shut up.
Yeah For sure, yeah, backseatdriver.
And you know, having taken ourkids now, like every other
(15:33):
American family, we went toYellowstone during COVID and I
saw, like people from Evanstonand people that I went to high
school, in the parking lot byOld Faithful, everybody went
west that one year.
That's funny, we've been kindof southeast and now we're going
to go to Memphis and just kindof a little bit of music,
history probably, but also justkind of feeling connected to the
(15:54):
whole place.
You can't do that in too manydifferent ways other than just
go in there, get in the car andgo.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It seems to be kind of a thing now, because you were
mentioning how you want to taketrips to places, just random
places that you've never beenlike within the US.
Yeah, without making it a big,you know European excursion or
whatever.
That'd be nice too.
Explore, that would be nice.
But, to explore.
You know, the United States isa big place.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
It's a big place, yeah, with a lot of different,
you know, viewpoints, and thenthat was my thing.
We went to I mean it's not likedeep south, but we went to
Charleston, savannah, yeah, andpart of the reason is I just
wanted to be in an area that hadpeople that thought differently
than I did and they catered totourists.
And I have young kids, so it'snot like I'm bellying up to a
(16:38):
bar, talking to somebody downthere and getting their
perspective, but yeah, I meanthere's.
So talking to somebody downthere and getting their
perspective, but yeah, I meanyou know there's so many places
to visit in the United States,but now, you know, now things
are kind of back to normal.
You could take a flight, soEurope is open.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
So Sun Records down in Memphis, Chess Records up in
Chicago.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Chess Records in Chicago and I brought another
little thing that I found.
I'm not sure where I got this.
This is a record called Fathersand Sons which is part of a
live album.
It's Chess Records but it'slike later Chess Records.
So if you know anything aboutthe story of Chess, leonard and
Phil Chess were like the kind offounders of it.
(17:21):
Leonard would go out and findthe artists and I think Phil
kind of ran the business andtheir son, marshall, kind of
picked up.
And you know, I mean this is bythe 1960s and 1970s and you
know the market was changing,music was changing, maybe trying
to find a new audience forthese older artists like Muddy
Waters, and so the idea of likeolder musicians and younger
(17:44):
musicians.
There's actually anotherEvanston connection to this guy
named Paul.
There's Paul Butterfield, who'sa Chicago guy, but Mike
Bloomfield on guitar, who wentto ETHS, and my former colleague
, chip Brady actually wasneighbors with his brother, tim
Bloomfield, and he always likedto say that Mike died of the
musician's disease.
(18:04):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and he had sometime in the mid-70s with
substance abuse or whatever.
Yeah, yeah yeah.
But had gotten involved with youknow, like catered to all the
blues and really got into it andreally studied it and then got
to be on records, like I know hewas on at least one Bob Dylan
record.
I guess that would have beenwhat Highway 61, and maybe
bringing it all back home andthere might be a third one in
(18:24):
there.
But that's the moment whenDylan goes electric.
It makes all the folkies reallyangry at the I think it was the
Newport Folk Festival.
Dylan has gone electric andit's terrible, pete.
Seeger said I'm going to go andcut the cables.
But Mike Bloomfield is thatgeneration from ETHS, of course,
as I said, but it's aninteresting kind of later part
(18:45):
of the story.
When people think Chess Records, you think Muddy Waters and
Holland Wolfe.
Of course Holland Wolfe startedoff.
He recorded first at SunStudios in Memphis and then came
up to Chicago and recorded forChess.
But just a really neat part ofChicago music history.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I was very lucky growing up and probably by the
time I could drive, butcertainly like maybe by the time
I was 13 or 14, just jumping onthe orange line.
I grew up in the Southwestsuburbs and go into the Chicago
Blues Festival.
You know, and for yourlisteners I mean, chicago Blues
Festival is the largest freeblues festival in the world.
It's happening what 6th throughthe 9th of June I think, and
(19:21):
this year Buddy Guy is playing.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
And Buddy Guy has said this is his farewell tour
or whatever it is.
And maybe it is, and Buddy Guyhas not played the Blues Fest in
a long time.
Buddy Guy likes to get paid.
Going to see Buddy Guy for freeis a treat, so I don't think
it's going to line up for us.
I wanted to take our kids to gosee Buddy Guy, but other people
should, so go see Buddy Guy onJune 9th.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
That's good, that's a good idea At the Blues Fest.
So when we were talking, kindof preparing for this you
mentioned, was it chess that youmentioned, that you had stories
of, or was it a recordingstudio that you?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Well, this the record is.
It was I don't know that it wasrecorded at Chess Records,
which is 2120 South MichiganAvenue.
Yeah, it had a differentlocation on it, but that was
also the office of the businessside of Chess Records.
Apparently, that's where ChuckBerry was living when he was
running from the law Okay,violating the Mann Act, all
right, transporting young peopleacross state lines.
He had to go live in thebasement for a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
You got to run for the law somewhere, you know.
Mm-hmm, we manage a buildingyou know we manage a building,
you know, at 45th and indiana,and it has a.
It has a basement thatapparently used to be a
restaurant, which is verystrange for like it sounds like
theresa's lounge and we're not.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
It might not be that place, but theresa's was a place
.
Indiana sounds familiar and at40 sound familiar too, but it
wasn't a basement.
Teresa's Lounge was a placewhere Buddy Guy and Junior Wells
had a standing gig.
Okay, cool.
Apparently there's a booth thatwas at Teresa's where.
This was where Junior Wells theharmonica player.
(20:57):
This was his booth, right, thatwas his booth.
He'd fallen asleep there a fewtimes too probably so.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
the story about this basement is that Martin Luther
King used to eat there, in thisbasement, and I don't know how
we found that story.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Well, what?
I would guess?
King had an office in Chicagoin 1966.
Okay, so kind of later, thelater stages of his career.
Actually, in a few days we'regoing to be visiting the Civil
Rights Museum which is housed inthe Lorraine Motel Sure, where
he was killed, of course.
But he was using the unionoffices of the United
Packinghouse Workers, upwa,which were a packinghouse.
(21:32):
Meatpacking in Chicago goesback to the 19th century.
The UPWA was known for socialunionism, kind of more of a
progressive agenda.
Doing things like sit-ins atthe Gold Blats to desegregate it
in 1947 was kind of them, a lotof them.
You know a lot of the thingsthat we associate with the civil
rights movement sit-ins andmarches.
(21:53):
I mean, they just learned thatfrom the union people who had
been doing that since the 30sand even the 20s.
But yeah, I know he was usingthe UPWA offices, so it makes
sense that he would be part ofthat and I think it was a little
bit further south on Indiana,maybe 48 or 49.
Yeah, right there walkingdistance.
Walking distance for sure.
Do you know the name of theplace?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I mean, honestly, it's just a six flat I don't
know what the name of therestaurant was, but you can see
it had been tiled and frankly, Imean it's nice, it's nice space
.
I mean, you know, if Tom andMeryl are listening, they should
perhaps put a unit down there.
That would be our, you know,professional recommendation.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And they should call it.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Teresa's Lounge they should call it Teresa's Lounge.
Did Chicago play your mom'sprom?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
No, I was wondering about that question and I'm like
is this a typo?
What?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
is he asking the band Chicago no?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Band Chicago.
I have no connection to that,Other than the younger Satara
brother used to sing in therestaurant where I was a bus boy
.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
This is not Peter, this is Tom.
Okay, tom has a terrific voiceand, tom, if you're listening,
you're a great singer.
But he was the youngest Satarakid.
He had like seven Satara kidsand they're all musicians.
They're all from the South Sideand he would come in and sing
Chicago songs.
That's my only Chicago in theband.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
How did you hear about this?
Is this on?
Speaker 1 (23:10):
his Facebook page.
That's a fun story.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
It was about different strokes.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
If you were talking about a prom, I may have
mentioned that my mom her highschool prom for St Gregory High
School was at the AragonBallroom, Because I think we
were talking about venues andlive music places.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
You've got the.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Rive and you've got the Aragon.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Well, to be clear, Jason Taylor might have planted
this idea.
He lies a lot.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Jason misrepresents things he does.
He's untrustworthy.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Makes for a good story, though.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
That's why I'd be a good guest to have on again.
So that's funny.
So your mom's problem was atthe Aragon ballroom.
My grandma used to go to theAragon ballroom.
You know from Palatine to takethe bus to actually go ballroom
dancing.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, no, that was it was.
It was a destination and, yeah,the place acoustically a lot of
people complain about it musicplace, but it's not set up for
listening and set up for dancingRight, it's a dance floor,
Right.
That's, that's what people aresupposed to do there.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I'm assuming they were dancing to live music,
right, live band, I would guessso.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, probably a big band.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Ah, that'd be so fun.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Oh my gosh, Do you?
We talked a little bit aboutthis, um teaching deeply,
rewarding or deep pain in one'sbutt yes, you know it's, it's,
it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
I just, I still feel like I'm the luckiest kid in the
world that I get to do this,talk about history and connect
with the kids.
And you know it's, it's, it'sawesome.
I mean, I still love going towork.
Yeah, that's great it's you know, but it burns a lot of people
out.
Yeah, it takes a lot of energyto kind of connect with the
energy of the kids and theenergy of the topic and just
what's going on in the worldright now.
(24:46):
But no, it's a great thing andI'm lucky to be able to do it.
How do you prevent?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
burnout.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I mean, do you?
Speaker 1 (24:53):
recharge in the summer or just take what you
need.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Teachers have this weird luxury.
For some it's not, because inour district we don't get paid
in the summer, so we have tofigure out other stuff to do,
and that's getting easier astime goes on.
We're compensated nicely.
No complaints there.
But yeah, no, I think you gotto have something else.
(25:16):
I think you got to have otherareas of your life outside of
work any work, you know, becauseand also it's funny, you know
you've seen kids talking to highschool seniors who are about to
go off to college and thestandard now, you think, is
people are going to change jobsor careers five, six, seven
times.
And I'm a weird guy.
This is my first big kid job.
I did 24 out of grad school andI've been in the same place for
23 years now almost, which ispretty rare, I think, these days
(25:39):
.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Do you get to talk to some of your students about
music?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I mean, do they know that you're a musician or a
music?
It always, it always comes upsomehow, or like a student will
like do a Google search on me,mr Stanek, do you have a band
Stuff like that, you know?
And it comes up.
It doesn't show up a lot and Idon't you know.
I thought maybe when I startedmy career I would be like you
know the music history teacherguy, right, once in a while I
don't really play for my kidsvery often, like once in a while
I have a guitar hanging in theroom and once in a while, like,
(26:08):
mr Stan, why don't you playsomething?
I'll just pick it up for aminute, but I don't find myself
incorporating it.
I did that a lot at thebeginning, right when I was, you
know, in my 20s, just finding asong that has a historical
topic, maybe just because Iliked it, but also that it
connected with kids and it wasjust another way and it was a
great way to get kids' attention.
(26:29):
Oh my gosh, yeah.
And also I think I did it oncewas like I was being observed by
an administrator and I was kindof like, well, I'm just gonna
go.
Whatever trick I got in my bagI'm gonna use today.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
So I guess it worked.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Nice got my bag I'm gonna use today so I guess it
worked nice.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I have a memory of.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
So I went to a catholic uh school at st giles
in oak park.
Excellent school.
Yes, it was very good and wehad it was all nuns teaching us.
Except, like they just kind ofopened it up one year and we had
non-religious people coming in,we had a male history teacher
and you know it was a huge dealscandalous we were all like in
awe of this guy and one of theexercises that he did was so
(27:07):
cool like he was.
We were talking about the mediaand you know whatever like how
that plays a role in society.
And then the song dirty laundry.
He brought in like a littletape recorder or like a boombox
whatever and he played dirtylaundry and we like listened to
all the lyrics and we likedissected the song and what it
meant and it was like thecoolest lesson yeah I can never
(27:30):
remember that's a good song yeah, it's a great.
Every time it comes on, I'mlike, anyway, I'm gonna put that
on their playlist.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah absolutely great song.
There's a version that themedia in quotes sent to don
henley, with them sort ofspoofing themselves making a
music video of that.
I don't know if there was anactual video besides that, but
it's, you know, like SamDonaldson sticking his tongue
out on camera and stuff likethat Just goofy.
You know bloopers from newspeople.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Oh, I'm sure I can find it on YouTube Dirty Laundry
Great song.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
One of my favorite papers that I wrote was sort of
dissecting Wish you Were here,and I don't know if I wrote it
for an English class or ahistory class or a music class
in college, but yeah, I mean itwas basically, like you know, a
breakdown of the lyrics and howthey related to Sid Barrett, you
know.
So who?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
showed up in the studio when they were recording
that song and they didn't knowwho he was.
And he didn't recognize me, hiseyebrows shaved and he was you
know whatever.
But another funny thing aboutthat song is the end of it,
where you just hear like thewind was supposed to be.
They had recorded StefanGrappelli, the violin player who
played with Django Reinhardtfor all those years, and Stefan
(28:37):
lived a long time.
He may still be alive, he diedpretty recently, but a long time
he may still be alive.
Or he died pretty recently.
But they had Stefan Grappellijust playing this, you know
violin solo to take the band outand fading out or whatever.
And then they listened to itand it just wasn't right.
It wouldn't work for the song.
It doesn't make any sense.
I'm sure Stefan got paid.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
But, somewhere.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
there's a version of that with Stefan Grappelli, you
know, wishing that DjangoReinhardt was here, Maybe hey.
I'm getting paid, no worrieswho's this fan Pink Floyd.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
So one big change happening in Evanston is
Northwestern is rebuilding theirfootball stadium.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Wow, I drove past it and it's one of those things
where you want to photograph it.
Yeah, because I have these.
It's funny, I've never actuallybeen to a football game there.
I'm a U of I person still inthe tournament by the way.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, good luck to you.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Right, but taking my kids to, like you know they
would have movie nights on thefields.
The kids could run on the fieldand run around and watch some
movie.
So they have that memory, youknow, growing up in Evanston and
seeing it go on, gone.
Yeah, you know, it waspolitically it was a, it was a,
it was a hot potato for a whilebut when the mayor finally said,
okay, uh, the thing's just, youknow the, the gears of progress
(29:47):
.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I mean, they were ready.
Everybody you know.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I think it's fine.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
What's the background of it?
Is it, was it just old, Was it?
It was like yeah, I mean it?
Was.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
I mean I guess all of the above I mean Northwestern
is a Big Ten school I meanobviously there's tons of money.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
And if you live right next door to it, I understand
why you might not want sixgigantic Taylor Swift concerts
there a year Right.
And that was one of thecommunity was sort of pushing
back on that.
So they are going to haveconcerts there.
It's going to be a concertvenue, football and lots of
other things.
Supposedly we, the taxpayers,aren't paying for it, but we'll
see.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Well, Northwestern, I mean, can't afford it, I'm sure
, but you indirectly pay for itbecause they get a big tax break
or they pay any taxes you knowthey got the we were here first
card.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
The Garrett Methodist Seminary predates the
incorporation of Evanston, sothey pay no taxes, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I mean, and that's one of the reasons, you know,
not to get too political, butthat's one of the reasons why
Evanston has high property taxes, because they need to make up
for it somehow.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Wow, really, I mean, I would assume.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I guess I've never really had somebody tell me that
, but that seems to make senseto me.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
And they're great partners in other ways.
They actually have an office inour high school and they do.
They're always doing stuff withthe high school and I think
there's a great workingrelationship there.
But you know it always bugspeople a little bit yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Oh, I mean the, the the town is is really not
centered around Northwestern,but it's a big part of it.
You can't separate it and I'mnot bashing Northwestern at all.
I'm just mostly curious aboutthe new venue, because I mean,
there's so many new venues outthere right now.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
And there's a lot of stadiums where people it seems
like there's like an arms racegoing on, yeah, a little bit,
yeah, oh with stadiums.
With stadiums with, I mean justthe nature of live music and
concerts you can go see theRolling Stones and it's going to
cost you a thousand bucks,right, and you know.
Then you got the, the placedown the street.
You know the empty bottle orthe.
You know some of the placesthat we were talking about, yeah
, and there doesn't seem to be alot in between, right, right,
(31:55):
so it's, it's going to beinteresting.
Everybody's selling theircatalogs.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
So the next time you hear you know Hotel California
or Dirty Laundry right, dirtyLaundry is going to be like you
know and product placement RightBuy the product you know like
wait a minute, how did thathappen?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Right, definitely for Tide, or you know.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Sure, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
You heard it here first, folks.
That's right.
I think we got some good ideas.
Well, on that note, we'll letthat idea marinate.
We'll take a quick little breakand come back and talk more to
Jay Awesome.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Andrew.
Yes, karen, guess what time itis?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
It's time for Record of the Week.
No, you start.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
It's time for Rob Rat .
No, you first.
You's time for Rubrat.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
No, you first.
Record of the week.
Record of the week.
Record of the week.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Okay, what do you got ?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited to talk about this
record.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I know because you've been talking about it in
multiple ways throughout thispast couple weeks.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
I know it's kind of crazy.
The final piece of the puzzlejust became clear to us when we
were doing a little bit ofresearch on it.
So it's a band, you guys, it'sa band.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
What's your favorite band?
Speaker 1 (33:13):
The band's name is Frico, f-r-i-k-o Correct, and
they're a Chicago band.
They just released their firstalbum, which is called when
We've Been, where we Go Fromhere, and so I didn't know
anything about them.
One of our guests, mauricioReyes, who used to be a DJ at
Chirp Radio, is big into music.
(33:35):
He started a podcast a couplemonths ago and didn't have
anywhere to record it.
So he's like, can we use yourequipment?
And we said sure, and so sohe's come in and recorded a few
episodes and most recently he'slike it's just going to be me
and our producer, jesse D, whohappened to be the DJ at my
wedding A side note and we'reinterviewing this hot new band
(33:57):
called Freako.
I'm like great have at it,didn't care, you know.
I mean, how many hot new bandsare there?
Right, hot new bands?
But I guess if Mauricio thinksthey're hot and is willing to
get them in and somehow got theminto our office to record a
podcast, I mean they must besomething.
So anyway, I didn't think muchof it.
(34:18):
Never washing this microphoneagain.
Apparently I mean seriously,apparently they have such a buzz
about them that, yes, I mean itcould be a story Frico sat at
this exact table, anyway.
So I go see this dentist.
This dentist's name is Scott Iforget his last name, but he has
always there dental care andI've always known that he was
(34:38):
big into music.
Another guest of ours, andyHockman I've always known that
he was big into music.
Another guest of ours, andyHockman, introduced me to this
dentist office and to thisdentist and they're actually
buds and so, anyway, so I'msitting in the chair, I'm just
randomly texted Andy, you know,the lobby is very distinct.
And so I took a picture of thefloor and I'm like guess where I
(35:01):
am?
And he's like, oh, you're, youknow, at Always Air Dental Care.
And he said tell Scott yeah, Idon't know what he said exactly.
I think he told you know, tellScott that he's, you know, he's
a fucking bastard or somethinglike that, something, perfectly,
Andy Hockman.
And then show him this video.
And so I show Scott this videoand he's like who is that?
I'm like it's a friend of yours, he used to live here.
(35:22):
He's like I can't place it.
I'm like Andy Hackman.
He's like oh, so, andy is, youknow, moved out to Colorado and
is managing a band called RubbleBucket.
Rubble Bucket shares theirbooking agent with Freako.
And Scott's like oh, rubbleBucket shares the booking agent
(35:45):
with this hot new band that I'mmentoring, mm-hmm, okay.
And I'm like, oh, what's thename of the band?
He's like Freako.
I'm like get the freak out ofhere.
They're going to be in myoffice tonight, yeah.
And I show him the text fromMauricio and he's like get out
of here.
That's crazy.
So there's all of this stuffhappening, all right.
So I look up Freako.
(36:06):
The album is outstanding.
The singing sort of reminds meof Daniel Johnston, who was this
phenomenon in the 80s, butmixed with, you know, this big
sound of music kind of likeArcade Fire, like they build
yeah they build.
But then their ballad let me seeif I can find the name of it
real quick.
Their ballad is For Ella.
(36:27):
It's just lovely.
It's just lovely.
So a very dynamic band.
I would highly recommend thealbum.
They're playing at Reggie'swell, after this will have aired
, but it's a sort of secret XRTshow.
Please go see them if you canCheck out the album.
And here's the final piece ofthe puzzle.
Okay, I did some research onthem.
I was like, oh, they're fromChicago, they're from a Chicago
(36:49):
suburb, they fricking went, theyfreak out and went I'm sorry,
that's terrible To Evanstontownship high school where our
guest Jay Stanek teaches.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yeah, and we did not line this up.
We didn't line this up.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
All serendipity.
I wish we would have knownwe're recording this after Jay
has left, this bit after Jay hasleft, because we could have
asked him about Freako.
Yep, We'll have to have himback.
Anyway, check out the albumFreako, where we've been, where
we go from here.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Love it.
I just realized that I'mwearing my chicago neighborhood
shirt yeah, let's go.
This is riot fest 2012 and Idon't know how far back riot
fest goes, because it didn't useit that this was maybe the
second or third like festivalyear, but what it had been
before I think it was just fouror five bars, they would all
(37:40):
have you know bands, oh really.
And then they're like, well,why don't we do a festival?
Yeah, and they, they usuallyhave my number.
I got to take my 14 year oldson this year.
So my wife, my wife, actuallywent to two, two days and I and
I went to all three.
But then I got to take my, my14 year old, and cool, we saw
insane clown posse.
Sure, how are they?
(38:00):
Well, I was, for me.
We actually didn't see much ofthem because they started late
and we wanted to see Mr Bungle Idon't know if you know Mr.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Bungle yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
I was really excited to see Mr Bungle but it was more
about seeing the fans Like whowants to go see Insane Clown
Posse?
I need to see these people.
I need to go a little culturalanthropologist for a minute here
, what did you find?
You know punk rock comic booknerd and you know something else
.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Do they dress up?
Do they paint their face and doall the clown?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, you know where you are when you see the painted
faces and the masks and stufflike that.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Like, what's the name of those people that follow
them?
There's a name for them, rightthe followers of Insane Clown
Posse.
That sounds right?
I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Maybe it's just that, maybe the followers of Intake
Is there an acronym?
Speaker 1 (38:46):
That would be an understatement, icp that's right
.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
All right, we can edit that out.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
No, no, we're rolling .
This is all staying in.
I love Riot Fest.
Although I've been a coupletimes, it was really.
I mean, I'm disappointed and Iunderstand.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Well, they can't have it a humboldt anymore, but that
was such a great location well,I remember that year and
basically it rained all fridaymorning like hard, and then the
people showed up and, yeah, thegrass was toast.
I think that the ride festpeople did right by their
promises it was.
It's basically it costs youmore to use your insurance bond
(39:24):
than it does to you to justreplace the grass.
So like, well, we'll just fixthe grass.
But the local I don't know ifit was the alderman, but was
kind of had an issue with it andprobably wanted to get rid of
them anyway.
Yeah, and it was just, you know, sort of a bad relationship.
But the spot that they're in nowin Douglas Park, and I love
that, the fact that we've movedfrom one S to two S, we go from
(39:45):
Stephen A Douglas to Frederickand Anna Douglas, that's right,
the two S's Right, whichactually started as a graffiti
exercise.
So somebody literallygraffitied an extra S.
You know.
For those of you who don't know, so Stephen A Douglas is, you
know, mr Popular Sovereignty andthe guy who the senator from
Illinois who defeated Lincoln in1858, the Lincoln-Douglas
debates and of course.
(40:05):
Frederick Douglass born intoslavery and wrote the book and
advised Lincoln and did lots ofother important things.
He has two S's in his name.
Stephen A Douglass has one, sosomebody just started
graffitiing the second S on andthe city's like let's just go
with that, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Let's just add the S Right, you don't have to worry
about it.
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Looping back around Juggalos.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Juggalos, that's right, that sounds fascinating.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
That's the name of people who follow the Insane
Clown Posse.
Thank you, did not know that,juggalo, how do you spell that?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
J-U-G-G-A-L-O-S.
Wow, what venues do you like toplay at?
Anyone that will have me.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Usually it's my driveway.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
We play our block party every year and they can't
stop us.
That's so nice In Evanston,really lucky to have space,
which is really terrific.
It's funny.
It reminds me of Park West insome ways.
If you've ever been to ParkWest, it's kind of wide
Spatially.
It's not very big, but you canget a lot of people in there.
(41:08):
Sound is just marvelous.
It's a cool old building in acool neighborhood and a really
neat place.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
I have a question here what do you love most about
Evanston and why is it spaceRight?
I?
Speaker 3 (41:21):
thought that was a typo too.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
No, no.
What do you love most aboutEvanston?
Speaker 3 (41:26):
You know, when I lived here in Lakeview, I took
for granted living by the lakeand just being able to walk to
the lake and feeling the lakebreeze and just kind of feeling
connected to that.
And I lived, you know, furtherwest for about a decade or so,
but you know just that if I wasgoing to miss one thing, it's
just living close to that bigbody of water and in Evanston
(41:49):
you really do feel the lakebreezes.
You know, we don't live realclose to the lake so I don't
find myself walking there really, but it's a quick bike ride and
just a really something thatwhen people come to visit
they're like wow, all the housesdon't look the same here, right
, you know, you have.
You know, most places inChicago, like the housing boom
(42:10):
is like the 1920s, right, and welive in this weird, you know
mid-century ranch house whichisn't like any of the houses
around us.
Then, of course, you have thenew monstrosities, the really
tall, whatever you call the newhouses that everybody you know
every ceiling is like 16 feet ortaller.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
McMansions, mcmansions.
I don't get the tall ceilingthing.
Why do people like I'm short,so maybe that's part of it Like
I?
Just?
I love Frank Lloyd Wrighthouses where the ceilings are,
you know, eight feet tall.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Yeah, that's my jam.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
What is the draw for the big ceilings?
To me, it's cold and cavernous,I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
I mean I think you know there's always pendulum
swings.
I mean, you know, I think thatyou know what got me into being
a real estate broker is myfather decided to do some
development of single familyhomes and so we built some of
those bigger sort of mid-2000McMansions, I guess I mean ours
weren't that big, but yeah, Idon't know.
I mean ours weren't that bigbut yeah, I don't know.
(43:04):
I mean it was just what peoplewanted, which now seems a little
silly because they're they'reprobably, you know, energy
inefficient and I don't know Ithink you get a sense.
I mean a lot of times you knowthe the tall Williams, the tall
ceilings can go along with tallwindows, and so you do have a
lot of nice light and air thatyou can get in when you have
that type of structure.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
And so I think, and also houses built before World
War II have this sense ofcompartmentalization, like you
want a separation between thekitchen and the dining room and
now nobody wants that.
You want a big open space andkind of open air and the open
floor plan and stuff like that,just a really different approach
, I guess.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
I always think about changing the smoke alarm
batteries or the light bulbs, ordusting the fan well, it's
dusting the fan.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, tough, I mean the light bulbs last.
You know, if you put leds theylast 10 years now, supposedly,
and most of those smoke alarmsare hardwired and so but you do
need to change them out everyone of them.
Okay, you got an answer foreverything I mean technology is
like is really the reason whyyou're able to do that stuff?
To do that?
Yeah, Because you did have.
You know you had energyefficient furnaces.
(44:11):
You were drawing air from theoutside, I mean.
So there are legitimate reasonswhy you could now build those
cavernous homes.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
But, yes, and it's funny if you go around certain
neighborhoods I see them inEvanston sometimes you could
probably find around here.
You know those coal chutes onthe alley side.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Right People that was central heating, much different
technology 1890 or whatever.
What venues do you like to gosee music at?
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Oh, let's see, it's really interesting.
You know, thinking about wewere talking about Uptown and
some of my first shows we'regoing to see.
Like I remember going to seePublic Enemy and Anthrax and
Primus at the Aragon I wasprobably 16 or so, 15 or 16.
Wow, and it's great that thatlittle area is still.
You know that place, the RIV.
(44:59):
We're always thinking about theUptown Theater.
You know, like people haveliterally sunk, you know, tens
of millions of dollars to reopenthe doors and nothing's done it
yet in 30 years it's crazy.
There's a story that one of thelast shows that was there was
the Grateful Dead in about 1980or 81.
And during one of the showsPhil Lesh hit some kind of
really low bass note in a pieceof concrete.
(45:20):
It fell right on the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Nobody got hurt by that.
The venue didn't last too longyeah after that though it wasn't
the last show, I think it waslike an elvis costello show or
something like that that finallyliterally brought the roof down
, wow, and they haven't.
They haven't seen the light ofday since.
But you know, you hope thatsomebody maybe the city, maybe
the state, you know somebillionaire right, but nothing's
worked so far.
Right, and you have this ideaof I mean, it's a historical
(45:47):
market.
You can't tear it down.
Let's just do something coolwith it and really make that
neighborhood Uptown theentertainment venue that it
always was.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
That was the idea in the 1920s.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
I've heard that Dumbledore has found a new space
in Uptown.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
I thought they would be open by now.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Yeah, wilson, it was like an old bank building.
Yeah, and I drove past it theother night.
I didn't get a real good look,but it's, you know, it's a very
modern looking space.
It's not like the old DoubleDoor at all.
That place.
I mean going, you know, goingback to living in Ukrainian
village, for you know, about 15years the Double Door was one of
my favorite places.
I remember seeing the head cat,which is Lemmy, from Motorhead.
(46:26):
That's the head part.
And then the cat part was theStray Cats.
It was Slim, Jim, Phantom andLemmy and then a guitar player
and they were just doing oldrock and roll tunes.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Eddie.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Cochran and the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, Wow.
And then they were the openingact that night for Dick Dale.
So I got to see, you know theking of the surf guitar and like
the weirdest motorhead show youever saw.
And it was, you know, one ofthese hot summer nights, and I
don't think that the double doorhas, uh, any kind of air
conditioning At least it didn'ton this night and Dick Dale
(47:01):
comes out in full leatherbodysuit and it's like 100
degrees in this place already.
Like this guy's going todisappear in that suit, it's
going to be terrible, but seeingLiving Color there, I remember
when it came on the radio thatthe Rolling Stones were playing
there.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
And I think it was like I can't remember the year
exactly but like I was around,you know I could have, like I
maybe could have pulled it off,but unless you were standing
outside of the venue when, theannouncement was made, you
weren't going to make it, but itwas just one of those kind of
wonderful classic, uniqueChicago venues I feel like it
was in.
I don't know if you've seen themovie School of Rock.
I think the opening scene itsure looks like the double door.
(47:43):
Another great one that we justwent to for Mardi Gras is
Fitzgerald's in Burwood.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Oh, I love that yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
And I'm so happy that place has survived.
The owner had basically saidI'm done, and it more or less
coincided with COVID, but thenew owner who I think I got to
meet him name escapes me, butdoing really good stuff with it,
that's great.
They have a terrific Mardi Grasshow show.
You get a great band, alow-down brass band.
You get a cup of gumbo and ahurricane.
(48:07):
All right, the gumbo wasn'tquite up to par this year, but
they have a good party overthere at Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
That's awesome.
We had a guest on who I thinkyou'd really be great friends
with.
You might know his name.
His name is Mark Guarino.
He wrote a book.
What's it called?
Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (48:23):
It's the History of Country Music in Chicago.
Yes, I Um.
He wrote a book.
What's it called?
Do you remember it's?
Speaker 3 (48:25):
the history of country music in Chicago.
Yes, I know the book.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's so good, I want to get you a copy.
Yeah, I want to get you a copy?
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Yeah, he talks a lot about John Prine.
He talks about Fitzgerald,probably Carol's pub, carol's
pub have you been to.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Marvelous Sounds great.
We got to see I think one ofthe first shows that was there
the inside, phil Lesh andFriends.
Phil Lesh from the Dead, andhe's actually.
They just celebrated hisbirthday at the Capitol Theater
in Port Chester, new York, andhe's actually not one but two
(49:05):
terrific bands, one called the Qor the quintet and the other
one that's more focused on uh,on his son, graham.
I got to see him with Wilco Fun.
That was kind of a one-off.
I had a festival that onlyhappened once.
It was called the sacred Rosefestival.
It was out at I think theystill call it Toyota park, sure,
the soccer.
I think they still call itToyota Park in Bridgeview the
soccer stadium.
But they weren't in the stadium, they were just using the
(49:26):
parking lot and running anextension cord from the stadium
or something so the festival hadsome problems and they only
made it one year.
But it was this weird, theycalled it Philco and it was Jeff
Tweedy and Nils Klein and thenight before they played in like
Connecticut or something andthe next night they were playing
like New York.
So they literally flew in,played a show with Phil and then
(49:46):
flew out.
So I guess it was just one ofthese ones.
You know, maybe not once in alifetime things, but just a cool
moment to see Phil Lesh who'sgot all this history with
another band that I absolutelylove and obviously has a Chicago
connection Wilco.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
And seeing just kind of how you know just how people
can mix it up on stage and coolstuff can happen.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Are you a big Grateful Dead fan?
Is one of your bands a GratefulDead band?
Speaker 3 (50:11):
It's funny if you think about, like Furious Frank
and how Furious Frank haschanged over you know a decade
and a half Wow, that we had thisidea that it was going to be
something like you know, theoriginal idea of, like a weird
mariachi band, but it becamesomething more like, you know, a
cross between the pogues andthe grateful dead, you know,
where you had sort of kind ofyou know, traditional
(50:31):
instruments but also this kindof willingness to jam and kind
of leave things open-ended andsee what comes out right, that
kind of improvisational spiritand, mostly because we didn't
know what we were doing, we hadto make it up right but I think
that was kind of my originalinspiration was probably going
to see the dead in high schooland then just being hooked on,
(50:52):
you know on, obviously just thecrowd and the scene and the band
was good too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the people outside were atleast as much fun as the people
inside Right and I was justhooked from the get-go.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Nice yeah, and I was just hooked from the get-go Nice
.
I took Karen to her first Phishshow when they were at the
United Center.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yeah, it was that same thing of just the awe of
such a lovely crowd andeverybody just into it.
It was really beautiful.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
And the band was good .
Speaker 3 (51:17):
My first experience with Phish was probably 94, 95
at Deer Creek.
So I guess that's boy, that's30 years ago.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
I know I was talking to my mom yesterday and I was.
You know I'm actually workingon this book about kind of
related it's somewhat related towhat we're doing here where we
kind of cross music and realestate.
I am in three different fantasyfootball leagues and I've
actually got a lot of businessout of you know the people that
I participate in fantasyfootball leagues and I've
actually got a lot of businessout of you know the the people
(51:47):
that I participate fantasyfootball with and I I had to.
I had to stop myself when Itold her that you know one of
the leagues, my college league,is 25 years old.
I'm like, oh my God, that'sterrible.
Um, I think.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
I don't know if it's holding up.
Good for an old guy, thank you,thank you Likewise.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Likewise, there's actually a over the 4th of July.
There's a three-day festival atSalt Shed and it might be
related.
It's called Rose on the Riverand something about the meters.
Speaker 3 (52:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
The meters my morning jacket, andy Frasco, that
sounded really interesting.
Thundercat Wolfpack.
Speaker 3 (52:18):
But it's outside, right, it's outside, so they may
have something in the shed, Ithink they actually have it?
Speaker 1 (52:23):
Well, they might, because they have that big
parking lot, right?
There so maybe that's where itis.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
No, that's going to be really interesting and what
they've kind of done with thatspace and how it's changed over
the years.
I mean, you know we're talkingabout venues and the history of
the hideout.
You know a hideout has been onthe chopping block.
I think it's still there.
The hideout's not going to behere anymore.
Right right, they're stillhiding back in the fleet
management parking lot orwhatever.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Well, and the new development?
That hasn't happened yet, butthat was going to swallow up the
hideout.
They pushed back because theywere going to have a music venue
.
But yeah, they're surviving.
They're surviving.
Speaker 3 (53:00):
Yeah, that's a unique place.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
You've been to the hideout, right?
You and I went to the hideoutone night, right?
Isn't that where we went?
Speaker 3 (53:05):
I don't think so Just randomly.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Oh no, it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
Somebody said it was like taking Austin, texas, and
plopping it down in the middleof an industrial park in Chicago
.
It sounds about right.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Yeah, it's a wonderful place.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
Any fun stories that you didn't get to say to our
audience.
I brought a couple of recordsand the one record that we
didn't talk about is anotherChicago guy you probably know,
steve Goodman.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
He used to live right down the street yeah, I think
it was Wayne, Okay and Wayne,maybe 3700 North or something
like that, closer to Southport.
So a lot of these songs I thinkwere kind of written there and
it was one of these places wheremusicians would come and visit.
Like Jimmy Buffett was part ofthat scene, which you don't
really associate Jimmy.
Buffett with people like SteveGoodman, but I mean, you know
the kind of 70s songwriter thingand obviously Jimmy Buffett
(53:56):
went off and did somethingdifferent with it, but a lot of
the songs that were kind ofwritten there.
And the other guy that I wassort of thinking about was this
guy named John Burns who kind oflooks like Jackson Brown a
little bit and I was.
I happened to put this record onnot, it was.
I was working at a place calledthe Third Coast, 1260 North
Dearborn great little restaurantstill there.
I worked there for many years,played music there and happened
(54:18):
to be working an early morningshift and I put on this record
and I put on the song LincolnPark Pirates no-transcript 40s
(54:51):
or the 50s or something likethat.
A guy, as Steve Goodman says,with the comic timing of Groucho
Marx and also a really, reallygreat musician.
And I'm like, wow, just becauseI put on this record and I get
this whole weird Chicago storythat you know kind of brings it
(55:13):
all together, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:14):
Yeah, I'm going to tell a story we might've told it
, you know, forgive me listenersif we've already told this, but
, speaking of grandfathers, wedo this listening party here for
, like our guests to come in andplay records, and you know we
do them about once a quarter.
And long story short, we have aspeaker outside of our office
that plays what we're playing inthe office and we were playing
(55:36):
this like really deep cut ofPeter Gabriel and so we had this
.
You know this person, myneighbor, our neighbor, walked
in and said oh my God, becausehe's a big peter gabriel fan.
And he said later, like if itwas a sledgehammer or something
like that, he'd been like oh,that's cool, and then just
walked on.
But because it was this deepcut, he came in and you know
he's had all these great stories.
He, he was a guitarist on ummiss lauren hill's like
(56:01):
follow-up album to themiseducation of lauren hill, and
you know her kids were runningaround and and their kids are
like, play grandpa bob, playgrandpa bob.
And he's like who the fuck isgrandpa bob?
Well, she's married to one ofbob marley's sons.
So grandpa, grandpa bob, it wasbob marley.
Like it would not connectgrandpa bob, I don't think no,
(56:22):
with bob marley that would bethe last I got to see Peter
Gabriel this year.
Speaker 3 (56:26):
It took my 14-year-old.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Oh, how was it?
Speaker 3 (56:28):
He loves the song Salisbury Hill.
Of course, yeah, and that was Idon't know.
That song sort of reappearedsomehow, maybe it was in a movie
, I don't know how young peopleknow about it specifically.
Speaker 1 (56:37):
Stranger Things.
Maybe, no, Kate Bush gotreignited because of Stranger.
Speaker 2 (56:45):
Things.
Is that what's happening?
Because, I hear her on theradio all the time.
Speaker 3 (56:48):
I asked my 10-year-old like why do you know
?
Speaker 2 (56:50):
Master of Puppets, I'm happy that you know, master
of Puppets, yeah, yeah, but he'slike oh no, stranger Things.
I'm like okay, fine, I rememberwhen James Brown passed away
and my mother was like, who'sJames Brown?
I was like how do you knowMeatloaf's song, but you don't
(57:13):
know who James Brown is.
Speaker 1 (57:17):
Your kids like music.
Speaker 3 (57:18):
They do.
We have a really good orchestraprogram at their schools in
Evanston.
So the older one plays cello,the younger one is starting on
violin.
But they've had, you know,piano lessons and we kind of
have a band set up in thebasement.
Last night we were doing likebass and drums oh, fun guitars
and stuff like that, so it's alot of fun.
Yeah, I mean, and theydefinitely have the bug.
They like to play, they like tolisten, so it's neat to watch.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
Are they also in the history?
Speaker 3 (57:50):
I think so Nice, I think so it's different though.
I mean, like you know, and I'mnot, I'm not so worried about
kids because you're gettinginformation right.
You're just not reading right.
You're not reading books right.
And old, old people like me arelike you gotta read books, you
gotta read books.
And frankly, there's just somany different ways to get stuff
and the ways to listen, andobviously what we're doing
podcast is kind of like I, andobviously what we're doing
podcast is kind of like I don'tknow.
Maybe this is the future, maybethis is how ideas are going to
spread, and all this.
If you look at the old Greekphilosophers, they're like
(58:11):
reading books is stupid, I meanthe only way you can do
philosophy is by talking topeople, walking and talking and
thinking and bouncing ideas offeach other, and you know that's
what can happen in a podcast.
Speaker 1 (58:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (58:21):
You know, we have to use these books because that's
all we have, you know, and it'ssort of a hindrance.
But now we have these sort ofmultimedia possibilities and so
you know, obviously the learningis going to look different.
It's you know, reading is goingto be different.
Listening to music, we know, isso different now, but it'll
just roll out and I guess we'llbe okay.
Yeah, as a species or whatever.
Speaker 1 (58:44):
Yeah, we're survivors .
Speaker 3 (58:45):
I hope I hope, I hope you're right.
Speaker 2 (58:46):
I hope you're right.
That's a nice optimistic note,yeah Well should we end there?
Let's do that.
Speaker 1 (58:51):
All right.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
Well, jay, thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
It was great, good stories.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
And we'll see you again.
Speaker 2 (58:59):
Appreciate it.
Yes, cameron, why should webelieve in ghosts?
Speaker 1 (59:07):
That's a good question.
I guess you're presuming that Ibelieve in ghosts.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
Why should we appease if there are ghosts in an old
building that we move into?
Yeah, you know.
Why should we do anything aboutthat?
To appease our ghosts.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
I love that, I love that question.
I, you know, I, I do certainlythere have been absolutely times
in my life where I have feltpresences in various buildings
that I've been in.
And you know, I, I don't know.
I mean, I guess I guess, likemy logical, the logical side of
my brain is like, well, it'sjust it got to look.
And so you feel like you knowit has something going on like
(59:45):
that.
But you know, usually you cankind of put those, you know, if
you are thinking logically, youcan put that aside, but then the
feeling still, you know, sticksaround and you just, yeah, you
feel like there's somethinggoing on there.
I think, if you know, if thereare sort of lingering spirits,
(01:00:06):
it's because they have somethingthat has been unresolved, most
likely.
And I think as individuals weshould help people, living or
dead, try to resolve theirunresolved issues.
I just think that's just partof being a human is helping
people with their personalchallenges, whatever they are.
Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
So that they can just feel more at ease.
Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
More at ease.
They can feel more connected tothe people around them.
Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
So that's why I think we should.
Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Speaking of connection, I was just listening
to another podcast by SimonSinek, who I listen to.
It's A Bit of optimism, as it'scalled, and he was interviewing
some researcher who was goingaround Is that the name of the
(01:01:00):
podcast?
World, to find there's likefive or six places in the world
where octogenarians, notoctogenarian, centenarian, the
people who live over 100 um, arevery common.
Yeah, and so like, what are youknow?
Ones in japan, ones in you knowafrica ones?
They're all over right, whatare the commonalities?
And they were talking about howconnection is really one of the
(01:01:22):
most, is the most importantthing.
Like maslov's hierarchy ofneeds starts off with food and
shelter and connection is social.
Connection is actually third.
They're like, yeah, no, that'swrong.
Social connection should befirst because it is really, it
affects our mood, our you knowour rate of heart disease, our
rate of Alzheimer's, all thisstuff.
(01:01:42):
For people who have moreconnection in their lives, all
of those things are bettermetrics in their health status.
So anyway, I just bring that up.
So maybe even in the afterlife,the connection and making
resolutions to connect withpeople eases that.
Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Yeah, I think I mean, if there is a presence, I mean
they're reaching out for apurpose and probably that
purpose is to make a connection.
Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Yeah, so I like the idea of, you know, honoring the
people who have been before usand we tell stories in this
podcast today.
Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Yeah, jay talks a lot about understanding where
you're at through the history,as you guys have heard.
Yeah, I love that story abouthis garage and John Prine.
Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Yeah, exactly, and and going out of his way to look
into that history and to becurious about that history and I
thought that was very cool.
Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Well, and and also you know the reason why this
question came up is because hefor the previous owner of his of
his house.
So that's of his house, that'sright, he's a very thoughtful
human and we hope you guys gotthat from our interview with him
.
Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Yeah, it was lovely.
Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Anyway, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Great thanks.
Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
This has been an episode of Records and Real
Estate.
Thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoyed it.
Today's episode was brought toyou by Be Realty.
Be where you want to be.
Be Realty.
Welcome to Records and Real Estate, a podcast about
well, records and real estate.
You'll be entertained andinformed as we explore the
intersection of these two worldsthrough interviews with
Chicago's most interesting andsuccessful people from both
industries.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That was Andrew Wendt and I'm Karen Sanvas.
We are Chicago real estatebrokers, property managers, avid
music lovers and your hosts ofRecords and Real Estate.
Hi, karen, hi Andrew.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm good.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm great.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Excellent, it's Sunday morning.
I mean it's Saturday morning.
Oh boy, you're trying to skip aday ahead.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I lost a day.
It's Sunday morning, I mean,it's Saturday morning, oh boy
you're trying to skip a dayahead.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I lost a day.
It's daylight savings time.
Yeah, it's Saturday morning.
We had an early morning guest.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
We did, yeah, because he's a teacher at Evanston
Township High School, yep, anddoesn't have the flexibility to
come in during the day to record.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So we became flexible during the day to record.
So we became flexible.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We'll go to you, you can come to us.
It could be first thing in themorning, it could be late at
night, although that's gettingharder and harder.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
But yeah, I'm quite happy with the.
You know early, you say early,it was 10 o'clock.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Hey, to those of us who don't have children, that is
early on a Saturday, but I'msince five.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Anyway, lovely, lovely just history teacher, and
he brought in Show and tell,show and tell like props.
He told stories about thethings that he was showing to us
.
You know, nobody could actuallysee them because this is a
podcast, but he described themin such wonderful detail that I
think everybody got a vividpicture of what he was sharing.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, and it was another guest who's a nice
amalgam or intersection of musicand real estate in a fun way.
From a history perspective,which I thought was very cool.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, yeah, he had a lot to share and a lot of
stories to tell.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, good guy, all right, want to do it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, let's get into it.
We're here with Jay Stanek, andJay is a friend of another Jay,
our first ever guest, jasonTaylor.
He was our guinea pig.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
We have to have him back.
I'm always saying we have tohave the first six guests back.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah because we didn't really know what we were
doing and the sound quality isbad.
Yeah, karen's worried about thesound quality.
I was worried about the contentbecause we really didn't know
what we had or what the purposeof our podcast was.
We would ask questions likewho's your favorite band?
You know just stuff that.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well, I'm sure he'd love to come back.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, he would love to come back, but he's been
great and he's introduced us toyou, so thank you for coming in
today.
Yeah, I wanted to sort ofestablish right off the bat why
you're here, your adeptness attelling a music and Chicagoland
story, and I hear that there issome connection to your garage
(02:57):
with John Prine.
Yes, yes Is that?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
true.
So for people who don't knowJohn Prine, he's probably best
known as a songwriter Songs likeAngel from Montgomery Paradise,
donald Lydia, great Compromisesongs like that but just one of
these great, great Americansongwriters.
He's not necessarily the bestsinger or even the best guitar
player or anything, but justcuts right to it with a lyric,
and I'd always been.
(03:19):
I was introduced to himprobably in high school and
really just kind of wanted, youknow, I wanted to start figuring
out how to write a song after Ihad heard what he could do with
one.
And so, anyway, I live inEvanston, kind of the northwest
corner of Evanston, and thehouse that we bought was from a
guy named Dan Hogan who was abridge design engineer at
Northwestern.
So I actually found likeschematics of, like you know,
(03:41):
the Golden Gate Bridge stylesuspension bridges in the
rafters and stuff like that.
And I also learned he was amusician and kind of just an all
around you know eccentric kindof handy guy.
He had like this weirdgenerator.
So I thought maybe he's like asurvivalist.
Right, you know all theselights off in the corner of the
basement.
He's like, hey, he's growingsomething.
I don't know what's happeningdown here, but anyway, I learned
(04:02):
from a neighbor that he's like,hey, you know somebody who's
kind of famous used to come overhere and used to hang out.
Like I can't remember the guy'sname.
He's just getting this from aneighbor and I learned later
that it was John Prine, becausewe got a Christmas card from
Patricia Prine.
I'm like okay, wait a second.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I had to do a little sleuthing.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
And it turns out that there was a family connection.
He was friends with Dave Pryne,who worked at Northwestern with
the owner of the house, and soDave and John and the owner
would get together and theywould play guitar and hang out
and work on cars.
And I actually brought a copy of.
It's funny.
I'll be in Memphis in four orfive days and this is an album
that this is called PinkCadillac.
(04:41):
There's no Pink Cadillacinvolved here.
I don't think the pink Cadillac.
There's no pink Cadillacinvolved here.
I don't think the car that wasrebuilt in my garage in Evanston
is that car right there, whichis.
You can't really tell becauseit's a black and white photo,
but it's a blue Porsche and youcan see an engineer.
This is Union Avenue in Memphis.
This is where Sun Studios is.
So Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewisand Johnny Cash and all those
people this is Sam Phillips, bythe way.
(05:02):
You could tell Sam Phillips.
He's got the kind of longerhair and, like the 70s you know,
izod shirt.
Yeah, and he seems to bepontificating about something
really really deep and heavy,saying something philosophical.
You could tell with his handgestures, but anyway, they
recorded it in Sun Studios,elvis and everything.
And so there's a song calledAutomobile which is just about
(05:24):
it's just kind of a bluesy songand they use the sound of the
car revving the car's engine andyou can see the engineer
setting up the mic.
Well, anyway, that car was, theengine was rebuilt in my garage
.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Get out of here.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
And I kind of got that information through various
sources over time.
I love that album and the guyson the flip side that's the band
(05:59):
and it really is.
I love that album.
Now this is three or four yearsafter becoming a rock star or
whatever and he sought out thepeople that he knew from his
hometown and so all the guys onthe back are Chicago area
musicians, including a guy namedkind of skinnier guy with the
tie is John Burns.
He kind of looks like JacksonBrown a little bit.
I got a story about him too,but but they really are Chicago
(06:20):
guys and this was kind of late1970s I guess.
But yeah, it was just kind ofneat to see that the house we
were, you know, we were workingon the house, so we're like
ripping out walls and I'm kindof looking for stuff and like
one time I found a set of banjostrings like oh, wow you know,
like you know, hit gold orsomething like that.
When we were working on thehouse I kind of had a I love, I
(06:40):
love ghost stories.
We're going to hopefully go seethe new Ghostbusters this
weekend.
I don't want to say I reallybelieve in ghosts, but I had
this kind of strange experiencewhere I found a picture of the
owner.
It was kind of out in themiddle on a table, just like
this one, almost like he wasletting me know that he was
still there in the house and I'dfound the banjo strings already
(07:01):
.
So I figured, okay, well, theghost of Dan Hogan, he likes the
banjo.
Okay, so I'm going to come downhere and I'm just going to sit
and play banjo in the basementfor like an hour and maybe
that'll appease the spirits andstuff like that.
And I think it did, because Dannever bugged me again.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Oh nice, we're cohabitating.
If he's still there, as long asyou play him some music every.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
We actually still have his table that he used as
sort of a workshop.
It's kind of like you know, themodel and Lego shop for for my
kids, which is kind of neat.
It's still kind of where he hadeverything set up, that's so
cool.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I love the history, I guess that's kind of a real
estate story.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
No, it's perfect.
I mean, this is theintersection of music and real
estate.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's all got to happen somewhere, you know four
walls.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, yeah, I mean lots of good stuff has come out
of garages, right.
Absolutely that is a lot of fun.
I wonder, given the fact thatyou're a history major like if
you would have I mean, obviouslythat's a very fun story, it's
very germane to our podcast andalso music in Chicago and a
well-known figure music inChicago and a well-known figure.
(08:03):
But I wonder if you would havefound something like that at any
house you bought, you know,some sort of history story, just
given your sort of predilectionfor history.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I definitely would go looking for it, that's for sure
.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Well, you're a musician and a history buff and
a music fan and an Evanstonianand a history teacher.
Which one of those aspects ofwho you are define you the most?
Oh man, I don't know If you canpick one.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I just love going to work.
Yeah, being a history teacheris you know we were talking
before we hit record about youknow kind of the challenges of
teaching these days.
But what I get to do every dayand you know, talk about ideas
and you know, see the lightbulbs go on with kids.
It's just the the neatest thing.
So I guess if I had to pick one, that would be it.
That's awesome.
I could still do all that otherstuff too.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Right, right, right do you do world history or us
history?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
yes, all of it so a team taught class with an
english teacher.
So we kind of let the textsdecide where we go.
Like you know, if we're doingthe odyssey or Juliet or
something like that, I teach aEuropean history AP class to
seniors and it's interesting totalk to.
You know, this is thegeneration that people that are
graduating now kind of came ofage during COVID and it's
(09:14):
interesting to see how.
You know how we've come out onthe other side of that.
You know definitely.
You know we learned importantstuff during COVID but there are
challenges.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah.
Are you seeing a difference inthe kids graduating now or
coming out of school now versusthe ones that didn't have to
experience?
Covid?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Maybe, and you know, I don't, I don't think kids
change that much.
I mean, obviously technologychanges and all that kind of
stuff changes, but I don't know.
I mean I think, you know, in my22 years now, kids are, kids
are mostly the same.
What is different is just kindof like we kind of got rid of
testing, yeah.
So I've had kids come back fromcollege saying the first time I
(09:48):
ever took a test, like ahigh-level test, was in college.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I don't know if that's entirely true, but you
know we got rid of like finalexams, for instance.
I still test Kids write a lotand they work really, really
hard, but it's not testing theway people of our age might
remember it, but it's nottesting the way people of our
age might remember it.
There's like a test or a quizevery Friday.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
That just kind of doesn't happen anymore.
Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
At least in history and English.
I think our expectations havechanged.
There's so many things to sortof think about and look for and
obviously you want to see a kidgrow and there's lots of ways
other than testing to do thatand we've kind of gone down that
way.
But I think what we're seeingis that, you know, at least in
places like Yale and Harvard,they're coming back to testing,
like oh yeah, we got rid ofthose standardized SATs and ACTs
(10:32):
.
Oh, they're coming back.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So that may be just the pendulum swing that we're in
the middle of right now.
And we'll kind of see whathappens, because it's also
Evanston right, it's alsoEvanston University town,
northwestern, yeah, but it seemsto me that it would be like the
liberal, like, oh, we don'twant to test our children and
put them under that stress, kindof thing.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I think that's how it started that kind of
conversation and it sort ofmeandered around over the last
few years and then COVID sort ofinterceded, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
So, speaking of history, I also have learned
that you know the history ofSmith Park Well.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
I used to live Division Street, the band that
you might know from Jason Taylor, the Otis Problem we have.
There's two songs calledDivision Street.
There's an eastbound and awestbound.
Oh, fun.
And so that album, along withthis one, the 1140 album, was
really kind of written in andaround division street, in and
around that neighborhood.
So we lived at 1228 NorthCampbell and you know when the
(11:29):
kids were in strollers that waslike my direct route, that was
the closest park.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Other than Humboldt Park to go to.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And my kids loved seeing that there's a tank like
an old World War.
I maybe it's a World War IItank kind of a smaller tank down
at the corner across from wherethe CTA yard is.
But what I learned about thatpark is that it was kind of its
own little mafia fiefdom in theyears after World War II.
There's a social club on thecorner I guess it would be just
north of the park, andapparently some mob boss I don't
(11:56):
know what his name was he ownedone of the bigger houses and a
lot of the people in theneighborhood were just sort of
part of his little world orwhatever.
It was Interesting and if yougo there you notice it's kind of
cut off from everything elseand this is such a Chicago story
, you know, like train yards andbig streets just kind of divide
neighborhoods and people.
But it was his own kind of like.
(12:17):
I like to call it the mafiafiefdom.
Yeah, his own little ward orsomething like that.
Yeah, yeah, I don't have toomuch information on it but you
can if you go around and youkind of see it.
There's kind of a Mediterraneanstyle architecture.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, totally, totally.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
What are these guys thinking yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Something out of.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Goodfellas or whatever.
Yeah, yeah, what's the name ofthe park again?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Smith Park, west of Western Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I love that little neighborhood I mean, and
especially you know.
I mean obviously you knowChicago is always changing and
the neighborhood surroundingSmith Park has certainly
redeveloped over the years, butfor a long time it was just sort
of this little pocket amongstyou know, sort of more of a
dilapidated neighborhood andit's also connected across
(13:03):
Western with the Ukrainianneighborhood Ukrainian village
and so you'll see, you know,definitely you'll hear Ukrainian
being spoken in the park andstuff like that which is
interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I, when the war started two years ago that you
know, I I felt like I had to goback there you know, and feel
just connected to the place.
And who knew that the war wasstill going to be going on two
years later?
But yeah, I remember, likethere's there's two churches, st
Vladimir and St Nicholas, andmy oldest son, his name, is
Nicholas, so I can't help butthink that that's maybe where
the idea for his name came from.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Do you know how the tank?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
got there.
Don't no idea about the tank.
I'm going to have to find out.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Because that has to be a thing Like there's got to
be a committee and then atransportation issue.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Nobody drove it there , Like how do you get the tank
there, right?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Nobody just lost the keys and left it there.
Right, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Ran out of gas and never you know, it's like the
Great War of Smith Park, the Tin.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Man just needs a little oil can type of thing,
that's right Get it going again.
Do you remember how you came toknow that information, or you
just kind of put it together?
I think, like I said, I justkind of.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
You know, we found it pushing the kids around in
strollers and then go oh let'sfind out a little bit more.
Let's you know let's read thenewspaper or the archives, or I
probably, just probably justlooked it up on Wikipedia or
something.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Is that I mean?
Do you try and instill thatsense of curiosity in your
students?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I just love feeling connected to where you live and
you can do that in a lot of ways.
You can do that through storiesand one of the first books that
really kind of when I wasstarting out studying it was
going to be a history major incollege was a story called Black
Elk Speaks, which is theOgallala Sioux, and this is in
the context of, like, the Battleof Wounded Knee and you know,
back into the 1870s and 80s andit's basically an oral history
with this guy, black Elk, with ahistorian, and I guess it would
(14:48):
have been the 20s or the 30s.
But it just kind of got methinking about feeling connected
not just to the people but tothe spaces that we inhabit.
And the more you can learnabout the history, the more you
can kind of feel connected tothe whole thing, to the universe
, to the whatever.
Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Have you always had that notion, even as a kid or
did something?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
you know how did that ?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
fascination start.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, I just love maps.
As a kid that was like I couldjust kind of pour over maps and
I think that was that was whatmaps and globes and stuff like
that.
Were you the navigator in thefamily then, like you know,
getting to family vacations orwhatever, I was probably, you
know, the voice in the backseatthat needed to shut up.
Yeah For sure, yeah, backseatdriver.
And you know, having taken ourkids now, like every other
(15:33):
American family, we went toYellowstone during COVID and I
saw, like people from Evanstonand people that I went to high
school, in the parking lot byOld Faithful, everybody went
west that one year.
That's funny, we've been kindof southeast and now we're going
to go to Memphis and just kindof a little bit of music,
history probably, but also justkind of feeling connected to the
(15:54):
whole place.
You can't do that in too manydifferent ways other than just
go in there, get in the car andgo.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It seems to be kind of a thing now, because you were
mentioning how you want to taketrips to places, just random
places that you've never beenlike within the US.
Yeah, without making it a big,you know European excursion or
whatever.
That'd be nice too.
Explore, that would be nice.
But, to explore.
You know, the United States isa big place.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
It's a big place, yeah, with a lot of different,
you know, viewpoints, and thenthat was my thing.
We went to I mean it's not likedeep south, but we went to
Charleston, savannah, yeah, andpart of the reason is I just
wanted to be in an area that hadpeople that thought differently
than I did and they catered totourists.
And I have young kids, so it'snot like I'm bellying up to a
(16:38):
bar, talking to somebody downthere and getting their
perspective, but yeah, I meanthere's.
So talking to somebody downthere and getting their
perspective, but yeah, I meanyou know there's so many places
to visit in the United States,but now, you know, now things
are kind of back to normal.
You could take a flight, soEurope is open.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
So Sun Records down in Memphis, Chess Records up in
Chicago.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Chess Records in Chicago and I brought another
little thing that I found.
I'm not sure where I got this.
This is a record called Fathersand Sons which is part of a
live album.
It's Chess Records but it'slike later Chess Records.
So if you know anything aboutthe story of Chess, leonard and
Phil Chess were like the kind offounders of it.
(17:21):
Leonard would go out and findthe artists and I think Phil
kind of ran the business andtheir son, marshall, kind of
picked up.
And you know, I mean this is bythe 1960s and 1970s and you
know the market was changing,music was changing, maybe trying
to find a new audience forthese older artists like Muddy
Waters, and so the idea of likeolder musicians and younger
(17:44):
musicians.
There's actually anotherEvanston connection to this guy
named Paul.
There's Paul Butterfield, who'sa Chicago guy, but Mike
Bloomfield on guitar, who wentto ETHS, and my former colleague
, chip Brady actually wasneighbors with his brother, tim
Bloomfield, and he always likedto say that Mike died of the
musician's disease.
(18:04):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and he had sometime in the mid-70s with
substance abuse or whatever.
Yeah, yeah yeah.
But had gotten involved with youknow, like catered to all the
blues and really got into it andreally studied it and then got
to be on records, like I know hewas on at least one Bob Dylan
record.
I guess that would have beenwhat Highway 61, and maybe
bringing it all back home andthere might be a third one in
(18:24):
there.
But that's the moment whenDylan goes electric.
It makes all the folkies reallyangry at the I think it was the
Newport Folk Festival.
Dylan has gone electric andit's terrible, pete.
Seeger said I'm going to go andcut the cables.
But Mike Bloomfield is thatgeneration from ETHS, of course,
as I said, but it's aninteresting kind of later part
(18:45):
of the story.
When people think Chess Records, you think Muddy Waters and
Holland Wolfe.
Of course Holland Wolfe startedoff.
He recorded first at SunStudios in Memphis and then came
up to Chicago and recorded forChess.
But just a really neat part ofChicago music history.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I was very lucky growing up and probably by the
time I could drive, butcertainly like maybe by the time
I was 13 or 14, just jumping onthe orange line.
I grew up in the Southwestsuburbs and go into the Chicago
Blues Festival.
You know, and for yourlisteners I mean, chicago Blues
Festival is the largest freeblues festival in the world.
It's happening what 6th throughthe 9th of June I think, and
(19:21):
this year Buddy Guy is playing.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
And Buddy Guy has said this is his farewell tour
or whatever it is.
And maybe it is, and Buddy Guyhas not played the Blues Fest in
a long time.
Buddy Guy likes to get paid.
Going to see Buddy Guy for freeis a treat, so I don't think
it's going to line up for us.
I wanted to take our kids to gosee Buddy Guy, but other people
should, so go see Buddy Guy onJune 9th.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
That's good, that's a good idea At the Blues Fest.
So when we were talking, kindof preparing for this you
mentioned, was it chess that youmentioned, that you had stories
of, or was it a recordingstudio that you?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Well, this the record is.
It was I don't know that it wasrecorded at Chess Records,
which is 2120 South MichiganAvenue.
Yeah, it had a differentlocation on it, but that was
also the office of the businessside of Chess Records.
Apparently, that's where ChuckBerry was living when he was
running from the law Okay,violating the Mann Act, all
right, transporting young peopleacross state lines.
He had to go live in thebasement for a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
You got to run for the law somewhere, you know.
Mm-hmm, we manage a buildingyou know we manage a building,
you know, at 45th and indiana,and it has a.
It has a basement thatapparently used to be a
restaurant, which is verystrange for like it sounds like
theresa's lounge and we're not.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
It might not be that place, but theresa's was a place
.
Indiana sounds familiar and at40 sound familiar too, but it
wasn't a basement.
Teresa's Lounge was a placewhere Buddy Guy and Junior Wells
had a standing gig.
Okay, cool.
Apparently there's a booth thatwas at Teresa's where.
This was where Junior Wells theharmonica player.
(20:57):
This was his booth, right, thatwas his booth.
He'd fallen asleep there a fewtimes too probably so.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
the story about this basement is that Martin Luther
King used to eat there, in thisbasement, and I don't know how
we found that story.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Well, what?
I would guess?
King had an office in Chicagoin 1966.
Okay, so kind of later, thelater stages of his career.
Actually, in a few days we'regoing to be visiting the Civil
Rights Museum which is housed inthe Lorraine Motel Sure, where
he was killed, of course.
But he was using the unionoffices of the United
Packinghouse Workers, upwa,which were a packinghouse.
(21:32):
Meatpacking in Chicago goesback to the 19th century.
The UPWA was known for socialunionism, kind of more of a
progressive agenda.
Doing things like sit-ins atthe Gold Blats to desegregate it
in 1947 was kind of them, a lotof them.
You know a lot of the thingsthat we associate with the civil
rights movement sit-ins andmarches.
(21:53):
I mean, they just learned thatfrom the union people who had
been doing that since the 30sand even the 20s.
But yeah, I know he was usingthe UPWA offices, so it makes
sense that he would be part ofthat and I think it was a little
bit further south on Indiana,maybe 48 or 49.
Yeah, right there walkingdistance.
Walking distance for sure.
Do you know the name of theplace?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I mean, honestly, it's just a six flat I don't
know what the name of therestaurant was, but you can see
it had been tiled and frankly, Imean it's nice, it's nice space
.
I mean, you know, if Tom andMeryl are listening, they should
perhaps put a unit down there.
That would be our, you know,professional recommendation.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And they should call it.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Teresa's Lounge they should call it Teresa's Lounge.
Did Chicago play your mom'sprom?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
No, I was wondering about that question and I'm like
is this a typo?
What?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
is he asking the band Chicago no?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Band Chicago.
I have no connection to that,Other than the younger Satara
brother used to sing in therestaurant where I was a bus boy
.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
This is not Peter, this is Tom.
Okay, tom has a terrific voiceand, tom, if you're listening,
you're a great singer.
But he was the youngest Satarakid.
He had like seven Satara kidsand they're all musicians.
They're all from the South Sideand he would come in and sing
Chicago songs.
That's my only Chicago in theband.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
How did you hear about this?
Is this on?
Speaker 1 (23:10):
his Facebook page.
That's a fun story.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
It was about different strokes.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
If you were talking about a prom, I may have
mentioned that my mom her highschool prom for St Gregory High
School was at the AragonBallroom, Because I think we
were talking about venues andlive music places.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
You've got the.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Rive and you've got the Aragon.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Well, to be clear, Jason Taylor might have planted
this idea.
He lies a lot.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Jason misrepresents things he does.
He's untrustworthy.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Makes for a good story, though.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
That's why I'd be a good guest to have on again.
So that's funny.
So your mom's problem was atthe Aragon ballroom.
My grandma used to go to theAragon ballroom.
You know from Palatine to takethe bus to actually go ballroom
dancing.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, no, that was it was.
It was a destination and, yeah,the place acoustically a lot of
people complain about it musicplace, but it's not set up for
listening and set up for dancingRight, it's a dance floor,
Right.
That's, that's what people aresupposed to do there.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I'm assuming they were dancing to live music,
right, live band, I would guessso.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, probably a big band.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Ah, that'd be so fun.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Oh my gosh, Do you?
We talked a little bit aboutthis, um teaching deeply,
rewarding or deep pain in one'sbutt yes, you know it's, it's,
it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
I just, I still feel like I'm the luckiest kid in the
world that I get to do this,talk about history and connect
with the kids.
And you know it's, it's, it'sawesome.
I mean, I still love going towork.
Yeah, that's great it's you know, but it burns a lot of people
out.
Yeah, it takes a lot of energyto kind of connect with the
energy of the kids and theenergy of the topic and just
what's going on in the worldright now.
(24:46):
But no, it's a great thing andI'm lucky to be able to do it.
How do you prevent?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
burnout.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I mean, do you?
Speaker 1 (24:53):
recharge in the summer or just take what you
need.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Teachers have this weird luxury.
For some it's not, because inour district we don't get paid
in the summer, so we have tofigure out other stuff to do,
and that's getting easier astime goes on.
We're compensated nicely.
No complaints there.
But yeah, no, I think you gotto have something else.
(25:16):
I think you got to have otherareas of your life outside of
work any work, you know, becauseand also it's funny, you know
you've seen kids talking to highschool seniors who are about to
go off to college and thestandard now, you think, is
people are going to change jobsor careers five, six, seven
times.
And I'm a weird guy.
This is my first big kid job.
I did 24 out of grad school andI've been in the same place for
23 years now almost, which ispretty rare, I think, these days
(25:39):
.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Do you get to talk to some of your students about
music?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I mean, do they know that you're a musician or a
music?
It always, it always comes upsomehow, or like a student will
like do a Google search on me,mr Stanek, do you have a band
Stuff like that, you know?
And it comes up.
It doesn't show up a lot and Idon't you know.
I thought maybe when I startedmy career I would be like you
know the music history teacherguy, right, once in a while I
don't really play for my kidsvery often, like once in a while
I have a guitar hanging in theroom and once in a while, like,
(26:08):
mr Stan, why don't you playsomething?
I'll just pick it up for aminute, but I don't find myself
incorporating it.
I did that a lot at thebeginning, right when I was, you
know, in my 20s, just finding asong that has a historical
topic, maybe just because Iliked it, but also that it
connected with kids and it wasjust another way and it was a
great way to get kids' attention.
(26:29):
Oh my gosh, yeah.
And also I think I did it oncewas like I was being observed by
an administrator and I was kindof like, well, I'm just gonna
go.
Whatever trick I got in my bagI'm gonna use today.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
So I guess it worked.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Nice got my bag I'm gonna use today so I guess it
worked nice.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I have a memory of.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
So I went to a catholic uh school at st giles
in oak park.
Excellent school.
Yes, it was very good and wehad it was all nuns teaching us.
Except, like they just kind ofopened it up one year and we had
non-religious people coming in,we had a male history teacher
and you know it was a huge dealscandalous we were all like in
awe of this guy and one of theexercises that he did was so
(27:07):
cool like he was.
We were talking about the mediaand you know whatever like how
that plays a role in society.
And then the song dirty laundry.
He brought in like a littletape recorder or like a boombox
whatever and he played dirtylaundry and we like listened to
all the lyrics and we likedissected the song and what it
meant and it was like thecoolest lesson yeah I can never
(27:30):
remember that's a good song yeah, it's a great.
Every time it comes on, I'mlike, anyway, I'm gonna put that
on their playlist.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah absolutely great song.
There's a version that themedia in quotes sent to don
henley, with them sort ofspoofing themselves making a
music video of that.
I don't know if there was anactual video besides that, but
it's, you know, like SamDonaldson sticking his tongue
out on camera and stuff likethat Just goofy.
You know bloopers from newspeople.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Oh, I'm sure I can find it on YouTube Dirty Laundry
Great song.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
One of my favorite papers that I wrote was sort of
dissecting Wish you Were here,and I don't know if I wrote it
for an English class or ahistory class or a music class
in college, but yeah, I mean itwas basically, like you know, a
breakdown of the lyrics and howthey related to Sid Barrett, you
know.
So who?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
showed up in the studio when they were recording
that song and they didn't knowwho he was.
And he didn't recognize me, hiseyebrows shaved and he was you
know whatever.
But another funny thing aboutthat song is the end of it,
where you just hear like thewind was supposed to be.
They had recorded StefanGrappelli, the violin player who
played with Django Reinhardtfor all those years, and Stefan
(28:37):
lived a long time.
He may still be alive, he diedpretty recently, but a long time
he may still be alive.
Or he died pretty recently.
But they had Stefan Grappellijust playing this, you know
violin solo to take the band outand fading out or whatever.
And then they listened to itand it just wasn't right.
It wouldn't work for the song.
It doesn't make any sense.
I'm sure Stefan got paid.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
But, somewhere.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
there's a version of that with Stefan Grappelli, you
know, wishing that DjangoReinhardt was here, Maybe hey.
I'm getting paid, no worrieswho's this fan Pink Floyd.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
So one big change happening in Evanston is
Northwestern is rebuilding theirfootball stadium.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Wow, I drove past it and it's one of those things
where you want to photograph it.
Yeah, because I have these.
It's funny, I've never actuallybeen to a football game there.
I'm a U of I person still inthe tournament by the way.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, good luck to you.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Right, but taking my kids to, like you know they
would have movie nights on thefields.
The kids could run on the fieldand run around and watch some
movie.
So they have that memory, youknow, growing up in Evanston and
seeing it go on, gone.
Yeah, you know, it waspolitically it was a, it was a,
it was a hot potato for a whilebut when the mayor finally said,
okay, uh, the thing's just, youknow the, the gears of progress
(29:47):
.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I mean, they were ready.
Everybody you know.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I think it's fine.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
What's the background of it?
Is it, was it just old, Was it?
It was like yeah, I mean it?
Was.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
I mean I guess all of the above I mean Northwestern
is a Big Ten school I meanobviously there's tons of money.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
And if you live right next door to it, I understand
why you might not want sixgigantic Taylor Swift concerts
there a year Right.
And that was one of thecommunity was sort of pushing
back on that.
So they are going to haveconcerts there.
It's going to be a concertvenue, football and lots of
other things.
Supposedly we, the taxpayers,aren't paying for it, but we'll
see.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Well, Northwestern, I mean, can't afford it, I'm sure
, but you indirectly pay for itbecause they get a big tax break
or they pay any taxes you knowthey got the we were here first
card.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
The Garrett Methodist Seminary predates the
incorporation of Evanston, sothey pay no taxes, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I mean, and that's one of the reasons, you know,
not to get too political, butthat's one of the reasons why
Evanston has high property taxes, because they need to make up
for it somehow.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Wow, really, I mean, I would assume.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I guess I've never really had somebody tell me that
, but that seems to make senseto me.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
And they're great partners in other ways.
They actually have an office inour high school and they do.
They're always doing stuff withthe high school and I think
there's a great workingrelationship there.
But you know it always bugspeople a little bit yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Oh, I mean the, the the town is is really not
centered around Northwestern,but it's a big part of it.
You can't separate it and I'mnot bashing Northwestern at all.
I'm just mostly curious aboutthe new venue, because I mean,
there's so many new venues outthere right now.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
And there's a lot of stadiums where people it seems
like there's like an arms racegoing on, yeah, a little bit,
yeah, oh with stadiums.
With stadiums with, I mean justthe nature of live music and
concerts you can go see theRolling Stones and it's going to
cost you a thousand bucks,right, and you know.
Then you got the, the placedown the street.
You know the empty bottle orthe.
You know some of the placesthat we were talking about, yeah
, and there doesn't seem to be alot in between, right, right,
(31:55):
so it's, it's going to beinteresting.
Everybody's selling theircatalogs.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
So the next time you hear you know Hotel California
or Dirty Laundry right, dirtyLaundry is going to be like you
know and product placement RightBuy the product you know like
wait a minute, how did thathappen?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Right, definitely for Tide, or you know.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Sure, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
You heard it here first, folks.
That's right.
I think we got some good ideas.
Well, on that note, we'll letthat idea marinate.
We'll take a quick little breakand come back and talk more to
Jay Awesome.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Andrew.
Yes, karen, guess what time itis?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
It's time for Record of the Week.
No, you start.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
It's time for Rob Rat .
No, you first.
You's time for Rubrat.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
No, you first.
Record of the week.
Record of the week.
Record of the week.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Okay, what do you got ?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited to talk about this
record.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I know because you've been talking about it in
multiple ways throughout thispast couple weeks.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
I know it's kind of crazy.
The final piece of the puzzlejust became clear to us when we
were doing a little bit ofresearch on it.
So it's a band, you guys, it'sa band.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
What's your favorite band?
Speaker 1 (33:13):
The band's name is Frico, f-r-i-k-o Correct, and
they're a Chicago band.
They just released their firstalbum, which is called when
We've Been, where we Go Fromhere, and so I didn't know
anything about them.
One of our guests, mauricioReyes, who used to be a DJ at
Chirp Radio, is big into music.
(33:35):
He started a podcast a couplemonths ago and didn't have
anywhere to record it.
So he's like, can we use yourequipment?
And we said sure, and so sohe's come in and recorded a few
episodes and most recently he'slike it's just going to be me
and our producer, jesse D, whohappened to be the DJ at my
wedding A side note and we'reinterviewing this hot new band
(33:57):
called Freako.
I'm like great have at it,didn't care, you know.
I mean, how many hot new bandsare there?
Right, hot new bands?
But I guess if Mauricio thinksthey're hot and is willing to
get them in and somehow got theminto our office to record a
podcast, I mean they must besomething.
So anyway, I didn't think muchof it.
(34:18):
Never washing this microphoneagain.
Apparently I mean seriously,apparently they have such a buzz
about them that, yes, I mean itcould be a story Frico sat at
this exact table, anyway.
So I go see this dentist.
This dentist's name is Scott Iforget his last name, but he has
always there dental care andI've always known that he was
(34:38):
big into music.
Another guest of ours, andyHockman I've always known that
he was big into music.
Another guest of ours, andyHockman, introduced me to this
dentist office and to thisdentist and they're actually
buds and so, anyway, so I'msitting in the chair, I'm just
randomly texted Andy, you know,the lobby is very distinct.
And so I took a picture of thefloor and I'm like guess where I
(35:01):
am?
And he's like, oh, you're, youknow, at Always Air Dental Care.
And he said tell Scott yeah, Idon't know what he said exactly.
I think he told you know, tellScott that he's, you know, he's
a fucking bastard or somethinglike that, something, perfectly,
Andy Hockman.
And then show him this video.
And so I show Scott this videoand he's like who is that?
I'm like it's a friend of yours, he used to live here.
(35:22):
He's like I can't place it.
I'm like Andy Hackman.
He's like oh, so, andy is, youknow, moved out to Colorado and
is managing a band called RubbleBucket.
Rubble Bucket shares theirbooking agent with Freako.
And Scott's like oh, rubbleBucket shares the booking agent
(35:45):
with this hot new band that I'mmentoring, mm-hmm, okay.
And I'm like, oh, what's thename of the band?
He's like Freako.
I'm like get the freak out ofhere.
They're going to be in myoffice tonight, yeah.
And I show him the text fromMauricio and he's like get out
of here.
That's crazy.
So there's all of this stuffhappening, all right.
So I look up Freako.
(36:06):
The album is outstanding.
The singing sort of reminds meof Daniel Johnston, who was this
phenomenon in the 80s, butmixed with, you know, this big
sound of music kind of likeArcade Fire, like they build
yeah they build.
But then their ballad let me seeif I can find the name of it
real quick.
Their ballad is For Ella.
(36:27):
It's just lovely.
It's just lovely.
So a very dynamic band.
I would highly recommend thealbum.
They're playing at Reggie'swell, after this will have aired
, but it's a sort of secret XRTshow.
Please go see them if you canCheck out the album.
And here's the final piece ofthe puzzle.
Okay, I did some research onthem.
I was like, oh, they're fromChicago, they're from a Chicago
(36:49):
suburb, they fricking went, theyfreak out and went I'm sorry,
that's terrible To Evanstontownship high school where our
guest Jay Stanek teaches.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yeah, and we did not line this up.
We didn't line this up.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
All serendipity.
I wish we would have knownwe're recording this after Jay
has left, this bit after Jay hasleft, because we could have
asked him about Freako.
Yep, We'll have to have himback.
Anyway, check out the albumFreako, where we've been, where
we go from here.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Love it.
I just realized that I'mwearing my chicago neighborhood
shirt yeah, let's go.
This is riot fest 2012 and Idon't know how far back riot
fest goes, because it didn't useit that this was maybe the
second or third like festivalyear, but what it had been
before I think it was just fouror five bars, they would all
(37:40):
have you know bands, oh really.
And then they're like, well,why don't we do a festival?
Yeah, and they, they usuallyhave my number.
I got to take my 14 year oldson this year.
So my wife, my wife, actuallywent to two, two days and I and
I went to all three.
But then I got to take my, my14 year old, and cool, we saw
insane clown posse.
Sure, how are they?
(38:00):
Well, I was, for me.
We actually didn't see much ofthem because they started late
and we wanted to see Mr Bungle Idon't know if you know Mr.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Bungle yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
I was really excited to see Mr Bungle but it was more
about seeing the fans Like whowants to go see Insane Clown
Posse?
I need to see these people.
I need to go a little culturalanthropologist for a minute here
, what did you find?
You know punk rock comic booknerd and you know something else
.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Do they dress up?
Do they paint their face and doall the clown?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, you know where you are when you see the painted
faces and the masks and stufflike that.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Like, what's the name of those people that follow
them?
There's a name for them, rightthe followers of Insane Clown
Posse.
That sounds right?
I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Maybe it's just that, maybe the followers of Intake
Is there an acronym?
Speaker 1 (38:46):
That would be an understatement, icp that's right
.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
All right, we can edit that out.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
No, no, we're rolling .
This is all staying in.
I love Riot Fest.
Although I've been a coupletimes, it was really.
I mean, I'm disappointed and Iunderstand.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Well, they can't have it a humboldt anymore, but that
was such a great location well,I remember that year and
basically it rained all fridaymorning like hard, and then the
people showed up and, yeah, thegrass was toast.
I think that the ride festpeople did right by their
promises it was.
It's basically it costs youmore to use your insurance bond
(39:24):
than it does to you to justreplace the grass.
So like, well, we'll just fixthe grass.
But the local I don't know ifit was the alderman, but was
kind of had an issue with it andprobably wanted to get rid of
them anyway.
Yeah, and it was just, you know, sort of a bad relationship.
But the spot that they're in nowin Douglas Park, and I love
that, the fact that we've movedfrom one S to two S, we go from
(39:45):
Stephen A Douglas to Frederickand Anna Douglas, that's right,
the two S's Right, whichactually started as a graffiti
exercise.
So somebody literallygraffitied an extra S.
You know.
For those of you who don't know, so Stephen A Douglas is, you
know, mr Popular Sovereignty andthe guy who the senator from
Illinois who defeated Lincoln in1858, the Lincoln-Douglas
debates and of course.
(40:05):
Frederick Douglass born intoslavery and wrote the book and
advised Lincoln and did lots ofother important things.
He has two S's in his name.
Stephen A Douglass has one, sosomebody just started
graffitiing the second S on andthe city's like let's just go
with that, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Let's just add the S Right, you don't have to worry
about it.
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Looping back around Juggalos.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Juggalos, that's right, that sounds fascinating.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
That's the name of people who follow the Insane
Clown Posse.
Thank you, did not know that,juggalo, how do you spell that?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
J-U-G-G-A-L-O-S.
Wow, what venues do you like toplay at?
Anyone that will have me.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Usually it's my driveway.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
We play our block party every year and they can't
stop us.
That's so nice In Evanston,really lucky to have space,
which is really terrific.
It's funny.
It reminds me of Park West insome ways.
If you've ever been to ParkWest, it's kind of wide
Spatially.
It's not very big, but you canget a lot of people in there.
(41:08):
Sound is just marvelous.
It's a cool old building in acool neighborhood and a really
neat place.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
I have a question here what do you love most about
Evanston and why is it spaceRight?
I?
Speaker 3 (41:21):
thought that was a typo too.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
No, no.
What do you love most aboutEvanston?
Speaker 3 (41:26):
You know, when I lived here in Lakeview, I took
for granted living by the lakeand just being able to walk to
the lake and feeling the lakebreeze and just kind of feeling
connected to that.
And I lived, you know, furtherwest for about a decade or so,
but you know just that if I wasgoing to miss one thing, it's
just living close to that bigbody of water and in Evanston
(41:49):
you really do feel the lakebreezes.
You know, we don't live realclose to the lake so I don't
find myself walking there really, but it's a quick bike ride and
just a really something thatwhen people come to visit
they're like wow, all the housesdon't look the same here, right
, you know, you have.
You know, most places inChicago, like the housing boom
(42:10):
is like the 1920s, right, and welive in this weird, you know
mid-century ranch house whichisn't like any of the houses
around us.
Then, of course, you have thenew monstrosities, the really
tall, whatever you call the newhouses that everybody you know
every ceiling is like 16 feet ortaller.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
McMansions, mcmansions.
I don't get the tall ceilingthing.
Why do people like I'm short,so maybe that's part of it Like
I?
Just?
I love Frank Lloyd Wrighthouses where the ceilings are,
you know, eight feet tall.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Yeah, that's my jam.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
What is the draw for the big ceilings?
To me, it's cold and cavernous,I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
I mean I think you know there's always pendulum
swings.
I mean, you know, I think thatyou know what got me into being
a real estate broker is myfather decided to do some
development of single familyhomes and so we built some of
those bigger sort of mid-2000McMansions, I guess I mean ours
weren't that big, but yeah, Idon't know.
I mean ours weren't that bigbut yeah, I don't know.
(43:04):
I mean it was just what peoplewanted, which now seems a little
silly because they're they'reprobably, you know, energy
inefficient and I don't know Ithink you get a sense.
I mean a lot of times you knowthe the tall Williams, the tall
ceilings can go along with tallwindows, and so you do have a
lot of nice light and air thatyou can get in when you have
that type of structure.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
And so I think, and also houses built before World
War II have this sense ofcompartmentalization, like you
want a separation between thekitchen and the dining room and
now nobody wants that.
You want a big open space andkind of open air and the open
floor plan and stuff like that,just a really different approach
, I guess.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
I always think about changing the smoke alarm
batteries or the light bulbs, ordusting the fan well, it's
dusting the fan.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, tough, I mean the light bulbs last.
You know, if you put leds theylast 10 years now, supposedly,
and most of those smoke alarmsare hardwired and so but you do
need to change them out everyone of them.
Okay, you got an answer foreverything I mean technology is
like is really the reason whyyou're able to do that stuff?
To do that?
Yeah, Because you did have.
You know you had energyefficient furnaces.
(44:11):
You were drawing air from theoutside, I mean.
So there are legitimate reasonswhy you could now build those
cavernous homes.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
But, yes, and it's funny if you go around certain
neighborhoods I see them inEvanston sometimes you could
probably find around here.
You know those coal chutes onthe alley side.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Right People that was central heating, much different
technology 1890 or whatever.
What venues do you like to gosee music at?
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Oh, let's see, it's really interesting.
You know, thinking about wewere talking about Uptown and
some of my first shows we'regoing to see.
Like I remember going to seePublic Enemy and Anthrax and
Primus at the Aragon I wasprobably 16 or so, 15 or 16.
Wow, and it's great that thatlittle area is still.
You know that place, the RIV.
(44:59):
We're always thinking about theUptown Theater.
You know, like people haveliterally sunk, you know, tens
of millions of dollars to reopenthe doors and nothing's done it
yet in 30 years it's crazy.
There's a story that one of thelast shows that was there was
the Grateful Dead in about 1980or 81.
And during one of the showsPhil Lesh hit some kind of
really low bass note in a pieceof concrete.
(45:20):
It fell right on the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Nobody got hurt by that.
The venue didn't last too longyeah after that though it wasn't
the last show, I think it waslike an elvis costello show or
something like that that finallyliterally brought the roof down
, wow, and they haven't.
They haven't seen the light ofday since.
But you know, you hope thatsomebody maybe the city, maybe
the state, you know somebillionaire right, but nothing's
worked so far.
Right, and you have this ideaof I mean, it's a historical
(45:47):
market.
You can't tear it down.
Let's just do something coolwith it and really make that
neighborhood Uptown theentertainment venue that it
always was.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
That was the idea in the 1920s.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
I've heard that Dumbledore has found a new space
in Uptown.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
I thought they would be open by now.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Yeah, wilson, it was like an old bank building.
Yeah, and I drove past it theother night.
I didn't get a real good look,but it's, you know, it's a very
modern looking space.
It's not like the old DoubleDoor at all.
That place.
I mean going, you know, goingback to living in Ukrainian
village, for you know, about 15years the Double Door was one of
my favorite places.
I remember seeing the head cat,which is Lemmy, from Motorhead.
(46:26):
That's the head part.
And then the cat part was theStray Cats.
It was Slim, Jim, Phantom andLemmy and then a guitar player
and they were just doing oldrock and roll tunes.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Eddie.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Cochran and the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, Wow.
And then they were the openingact that night for Dick Dale.
So I got to see, you know theking of the surf guitar and like
the weirdest motorhead show youever saw.
And it was, you know, one ofthese hot summer nights, and I
don't think that the double doorhas, uh, any kind of air
conditioning At least it didn'ton this night and Dick Dale
(47:01):
comes out in full leatherbodysuit and it's like 100
degrees in this place already.
Like this guy's going todisappear in that suit, it's
going to be terrible, but seeingLiving Color there, I remember
when it came on the radio thatthe Rolling Stones were playing
there.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
And I think it was like I can't remember the year
exactly but like I was around,you know I could have, like I
maybe could have pulled it off,but unless you were standing
outside of the venue when, theannouncement was made, you
weren't going to make it, but itwas just one of those kind of
wonderful classic, uniqueChicago venues I feel like it
was in.
I don't know if you've seen themovie School of Rock.
I think the opening scene itsure looks like the double door.
(47:43):
Another great one that we justwent to for Mardi Gras is
Fitzgerald's in Burwood.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Oh, I love that yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
And I'm so happy that place has survived.
The owner had basically saidI'm done, and it more or less
coincided with COVID, but thenew owner who I think I got to
meet him name escapes me, butdoing really good stuff with it,
that's great.
They have a terrific Mardi Grasshow show.
You get a great band, alow-down brass band.
You get a cup of gumbo and ahurricane.
(48:07):
All right, the gumbo wasn'tquite up to par this year, but
they have a good party overthere at Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
That's awesome.
We had a guest on who I thinkyou'd really be great friends
with.
You might know his name.
His name is Mark Guarino.
He wrote a book.
What's it called?
Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (48:23):
It's the History of Country Music in Chicago.
Yes, I Um.
He wrote a book.
What's it called?
Do you remember it's?
Speaker 3 (48:25):
the history of country music in Chicago.
Yes, I know the book.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's so good, I want to get you a copy.
Yeah, I want to get you a copy?
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Yeah, he talks a lot about John Prine.
He talks about Fitzgerald,probably Carol's pub, carol's
pub have you been to.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Marvelous Sounds great.
We got to see I think one ofthe first shows that was there
the inside, phil Lesh andFriends.
Phil Lesh from the Dead, andhe's actually.
They just celebrated hisbirthday at the Capitol Theater
in Port Chester, new York, andhe's actually not one but two
(49:05):
terrific bands, one called the Qor the quintet and the other
one that's more focused on uh,on his son, graham.
I got to see him with Wilco Fun.
That was kind of a one-off.
I had a festival that onlyhappened once.
It was called the sacred Rosefestival.
It was out at I think theystill call it Toyota park, sure,
the soccer.
I think they still call itToyota Park in Bridgeview the
soccer stadium.
But they weren't in the stadium, they were just using the
(49:26):
parking lot and running anextension cord from the stadium
or something so the festival hadsome problems and they only
made it one year.
But it was this weird, theycalled it Philco and it was Jeff
Tweedy and Nils Klein and thenight before they played in like
Connecticut or something andthe next night they were playing
like New York.
So they literally flew in,played a show with Phil and then
(49:46):
flew out.
So I guess it was just one ofthese ones.
You know, maybe not once in alifetime things, but just a cool
moment to see Phil Lesh who'sgot all this history with
another band that I absolutelylove and obviously has a Chicago
connection Wilco.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
And seeing just kind of how you know just how people
can mix it up on stage and coolstuff can happen.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Are you a big Grateful Dead fan?
Is one of your bands a GratefulDead band?
Speaker 3 (50:11):
It's funny if you think about, like Furious Frank
and how Furious Frank haschanged over you know a decade
and a half Wow, that we had thisidea that it was going to be
something like you know, theoriginal idea of, like a weird
mariachi band, but it becamesomething more like, you know, a
cross between the pogues andthe grateful dead, you know,
where you had sort of kind ofyou know, traditional
(50:31):
instruments but also this kindof willingness to jam and kind
of leave things open-ended andsee what comes out right, that
kind of improvisational spiritand, mostly because we didn't
know what we were doing, we hadto make it up right but I think
that was kind of my originalinspiration was probably going
to see the dead in high schooland then just being hooked on,
(50:52):
you know on, obviously just thecrowd and the scene and the band
was good too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the people outside were atleast as much fun as the people
inside Right and I was justhooked from the get-go.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Nice yeah, and I was just hooked from the get-go Nice
.
I took Karen to her first Phishshow when they were at the
United Center.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yeah, it was that same thing of just the awe of
such a lovely crowd andeverybody just into it.
It was really beautiful.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
And the band was good .
Speaker 3 (51:17):
My first experience with Phish was probably 94, 95
at Deer Creek.
So I guess that's boy, that's30 years ago.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
I know I was talking to my mom yesterday and I was.
You know I'm actually workingon this book about kind of
related it's somewhat related towhat we're doing here where we
kind of cross music and realestate.
I am in three different fantasyfootball leagues and I've
actually got a lot of businessout of you know the people that
I participate in fantasyfootball leagues and I've
actually got a lot of businessout of you know the the people
(51:47):
that I participate fantasyfootball with and I I had to.
I had to stop myself when Itold her that you know one of
the leagues, my college league,is 25 years old.
I'm like, oh my God, that'sterrible.
Um, I think.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
I don't know if it's holding up.
Good for an old guy, thank you,thank you Likewise.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Likewise, there's actually a over the 4th of July.
There's a three-day festival atSalt Shed and it might be
related.
It's called Rose on the Riverand something about the meters.
Speaker 3 (52:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
The meters my morning jacket, andy Frasco, that
sounded really interesting.
Thundercat Wolfpack.
Speaker 3 (52:18):
But it's outside, right, it's outside, so they may
have something in the shed, Ithink they actually have it?
Speaker 1 (52:23):
Well, they might, because they have that big
parking lot, right?
There so maybe that's where itis.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
No, that's going to be really interesting and what
they've kind of done with thatspace and how it's changed over
the years.
I mean, you know we're talkingabout venues and the history of
the hideout.
You know a hideout has been onthe chopping block.
I think it's still there.
The hideout's not going to behere anymore.
Right right, they're stillhiding back in the fleet
management parking lot orwhatever.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Well, and the new development?
That hasn't happened yet, butthat was going to swallow up the
hideout.
They pushed back because theywere going to have a music venue
.
But yeah, they're surviving.
They're surviving.
Speaker 3 (53:00):
Yeah, that's a unique place.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
You've been to the hideout, right?
You and I went to the hideoutone night, right?
Isn't that where we went?
Speaker 3 (53:05):
I don't think so Just randomly.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Oh no, it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
Somebody said it was like taking Austin, texas, and
plopping it down in the middleof an industrial park in Chicago
.
It sounds about right.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Yeah, it's a wonderful place.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
Any fun stories that you didn't get to say to our
audience.
I brought a couple of recordsand the one record that we
didn't talk about is anotherChicago guy you probably know,
steve Goodman.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
He used to live right down the street yeah, I think
it was Wayne, Okay and Wayne,maybe 3700 North or something
like that, closer to Southport.
So a lot of these songs I thinkwere kind of written there and
it was one of these places wheremusicians would come and visit.
Like Jimmy Buffett was part ofthat scene, which you don't
really associate Jimmy.
Buffett with people like SteveGoodman, but I mean, you know
the kind of 70s songwriter thingand obviously Jimmy Buffett
(53:56):
went off and did somethingdifferent with it, but a lot of
the songs that were kind ofwritten there.
And the other guy that I wassort of thinking about was this
guy named John Burns who kind oflooks like Jackson Brown a
little bit and I was.
I happened to put this record onnot, it was.
I was working at a place calledthe Third Coast, 1260 North
Dearborn great little restaurantstill there.
I worked there for many years,played music there and happened
(54:18):
to be working an early morningshift and I put on this record
and I put on the song LincolnPark Pirates no-transcript 40s
(54:51):
or the 50s or something likethat.
A guy, as Steve Goodman says,with the comic timing of Groucho
Marx and also a really, reallygreat musician.
And I'm like, wow, just becauseI put on this record and I get
this whole weird Chicago storythat you know kind of brings it
(55:13):
all together, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:14):
Yeah, I'm going to tell a story we might've told it
, you know, forgive me listenersif we've already told this, but
, speaking of grandfathers, wedo this listening party here for
, like our guests to come in andplay records, and you know we
do them about once a quarter.
And long story short, we have aspeaker outside of our office
that plays what we're playing inthe office and we were playing
(55:36):
this like really deep cut ofPeter Gabriel and so we had this
.
You know this person, myneighbor, our neighbor, walked
in and said oh my God, becausehe's a big peter gabriel fan.
And he said later, like if itwas a sledgehammer or something
like that, he'd been like oh,that's cool, and then just
walked on.
But because it was this deepcut, he came in and you know
he's had all these great stories.
He, he was a guitarist on ummiss lauren hill's like
(56:01):
follow-up album to themiseducation of lauren hill, and
you know her kids were runningaround and and their kids are
like, play grandpa bob, playgrandpa bob.
And he's like who the fuck isgrandpa bob?
Well, she's married to one ofbob marley's sons.
So grandpa, grandpa bob, it wasbob marley.
Like it would not connectgrandpa bob, I don't think no,
(56:22):
with bob marley that would bethe last I got to see Peter
Gabriel this year.
Speaker 3 (56:26):
It took my 14-year-old.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Oh, how was it?
Speaker 3 (56:28):
He loves the song Salisbury Hill.
Of course, yeah, and that was Idon't know.
That song sort of reappearedsomehow, maybe it was in a movie
, I don't know how young peopleknow about it specifically.
Speaker 1 (56:37):
Stranger Things.
Maybe, no, Kate Bush gotreignited because of Stranger.
Speaker 2 (56:45):
Things.
Is that what's happening?
Because, I hear her on theradio all the time.
Speaker 3 (56:48):
I asked my 10-year-old like why do you know
?
Speaker 2 (56:50):
Master of Puppets, I'm happy that you know, master
of Puppets, yeah, yeah, but he'slike oh no, stranger Things.
I'm like okay, fine, I rememberwhen James Brown passed away
and my mother was like, who'sJames Brown?
I was like how do you knowMeatloaf's song, but you don't
(57:13):
know who James Brown is.
Speaker 1 (57:17):
Your kids like music.
Speaker 3 (57:18):
They do.
We have a really good orchestraprogram at their schools in
Evanston.
So the older one plays cello,the younger one is starting on
violin.
But they've had, you know,piano lessons and we kind of
have a band set up in thebasement.
Last night we were doing likebass and drums oh, fun guitars
and stuff like that, so it's alot of fun.
Yeah, I mean, and theydefinitely have the bug.
They like to play, they like tolisten, so it's neat to watch.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
Are they also in the history?
Speaker 3 (57:50):
I think so Nice, I think so it's different though.
I mean, like you know, and I'mnot, I'm not so worried about
kids because you're gettinginformation right.
You're just not reading right.
You're not reading books right.
And old, old people like me arelike you gotta read books, you
gotta read books.
And frankly, there's just somany different ways to get stuff
and the ways to listen, andobviously what we're doing
podcast is kind of like I, andobviously what we're doing
podcast is kind of like I don'tknow.
Maybe this is the future, maybethis is how ideas are going to
spread, and all this.
If you look at the old Greekphilosophers, they're like
(58:11):
reading books is stupid, I meanthe only way you can do
philosophy is by talking topeople, walking and talking and
thinking and bouncing ideas offeach other, and you know that's
what can happen in a podcast.
Speaker 1 (58:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (58:21):
You know, we have to use these books because that's
all we have, you know, and it'ssort of a hindrance.
But now we have these sort ofmultimedia possibilities and so
you know, obviously the learningis going to look different.
It's you know, reading is goingto be different.
Listening to music, we know, isso different now, but it'll
just roll out and I guess we'llbe okay.
Yeah, as a species or whatever.
Speaker 1 (58:44):
Yeah, we're survivors .
Speaker 3 (58:45):
I hope I hope, I hope you're right.
Speaker 2 (58:46):
I hope you're right.
That's a nice optimistic note,yeah Well should we end there?
Let's do that.
Speaker 1 (58:51):
All right.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
Well, jay, thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
It was great, good stories.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
And we'll see you again.
Speaker 2 (58:59):
Appreciate it.
Yes, cameron, why should webelieve in ghosts?
Speaker 1 (59:07):
That's a good question.
I guess you're presuming that Ibelieve in ghosts.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
Why should we appease if there are ghosts in an old
building that we move into?
Yeah, you know.
Why should we do anything aboutthat?
To appease our ghosts.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
I love that, I love that question.
I, you know, I, I do certainlythere have been absolutely times
in my life where I have feltpresences in various buildings
that I've been in.
And you know, I, I don't know.
I mean, I guess I guess, likemy logical, the logical side of
my brain is like, well, it'sjust it got to look.
And so you feel like you knowit has something going on like
(59:45):
that.
But you know, usually you cankind of put those, you know, if
you are thinking logically, youcan put that aside, but then the
feeling still, you know, sticksaround and you just, yeah, you
feel like there's somethinggoing on there.
I think, if you know, if thereare sort of lingering spirits,
(01:00:06):
it's because they have somethingthat has been unresolved, most
likely.
And I think as individuals weshould help people, living or
dead, try to resolve theirunresolved issues.
I just think that's just partof being a human is helping
people with their personalchallenges, whatever they are.
Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
So that they can just feel more at ease.
Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
More at ease.
They can feel more connected tothe people around them.
Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
So that's why I think we should.
Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Speaking of connection, I was just listening
to another podcast by SimonSinek, who I listen to.
It's A Bit of optimism, as it'scalled, and he was interviewing
some researcher who was goingaround Is that the name of the
(01:01:00):
podcast?
World, to find there's likefive or six places in the world
where octogenarians, notoctogenarian, centenarian, the
people who live over 100 um, arevery common.
Yeah, and so like, what are youknow?
Ones in japan, ones in you knowafrica ones?
They're all over right, whatare the commonalities?
And they were talking about howconnection is really one of the
(01:01:22):
most, is the most importantthing.
Like maslov's hierarchy ofneeds starts off with food and
shelter and connection is social.
Connection is actually third.
They're like, yeah, no, that'swrong.
Social connection should befirst because it is really, it
affects our mood, our you knowour rate of heart disease, our
rate of Alzheimer's, all thisstuff.
(01:01:42):
For people who have moreconnection in their lives, all
of those things are bettermetrics in their health status.
So anyway, I just bring that up.
So maybe even in the afterlife,the connection and making
resolutions to connect withpeople eases that.
Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Yeah, I think I mean, if there is a presence, I mean
they're reaching out for apurpose and probably that
purpose is to make a connection.
Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Yeah, so I like the idea of, you know, honoring the
people who have been before usand we tell stories in this
podcast today.
Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Yeah, jay talks a lot about understanding where
you're at through the history,as you guys have heard.
Yeah, I love that story abouthis garage and John Prine.
Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Yeah, exactly, and and going out of his way to look
into that history and to becurious about that history and I
thought that was very cool.
Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Well, and and also you know the reason why this
question came up is because hefor the previous owner of his of
his house.
So that's of his house, that'sright, he's a very thoughtful
human and we hope you guys gotthat from our interview with him
.
Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Yeah, it was lovely.
Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Anyway, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Great thanks.
Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
This has been an episode of Records and Real
Estate.
Thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoyed it.
Today's episode was brought toyou by Be Realty.
Be where you want to be.
Be Realty.
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