From that moment on, we became fast friends on Myspace. It would be nearly a year before I would ask Pedro’s band, Clean Boys to collaborate with me at Chicago Calling 3 in Chicago. And so began, one of the craziest yet greatest partnerships I ever formed with men I never even met yet! And all of this totally by accident, due to technology! Who would have thought it possible? Also, in 2008, I had taken and/or made a more different and interesting career turn; I performed on a fluke incident at an event entitled, “Lovable Losers Literary Revue,” a performance series mourning the 100 years since 1908 that the Chicago Cubs had been in and won a baseball World Series. Along the way, I had met a true cast of characters and became part of the show, but we all had something in common and that is, we loved baseball-not so much the Cubs for me, however. Among the connections I made, was Chicago Tribune columnist and WGN radio host, Rick Kogan, which not only would pay off positively, but negatively, to the point where I would eventually lose my livelihood, due to both personal envy and old sibling rivalry.
And so the phone calls begin; the traded thoughts ideas exchanged, both through cell phone and emails. Little did I know what was waiting for me on the other side, the night of the performance. Locally, I had put out a call for my own band, $2 Cockroach to come collaborate with us. Curiously, two of the three members came out; Mike Sviokla (guitar) & Rat Niptik (electric bowed bass). Wes might have been in Los Angeles by then and then the trio that made up Clean Boys. There was Andrej Morks (guitar), Jacob “Mulle” Nansen (percussion) & of course, Pedro Da Palma (bass). We settled on my poetry performance piece, "Jazz Haiku-A-Rama." They in turn, came up what they dubbed a little over two dozen "jingles" for the set. They wrote an intro and an outro for it as well. I was pleased.
The plan was simple. Broadcast hook-up via Skype (via the Internet). That was plan B. Plan A would have been holding my cell phone up to the microphone and have Clean Boys heard that way. When I arrived at Av-Aerie, (half loft/half performance space on Chicago near west side-now closed), I was told that the host venue’s Internet was down. Translated further: the owner of the venue didn’t pay his bill on time, so service was cut off. What to do? What to tell Pedro and his band mates? I chose not, thinking it would complicate matters. And boy did it; temporarily.
Mulle-Is this Sid Yiddish?
Me-Yes, yes it is.
Mulle-Sid Yiddish, you’re Sid Shittish! Fuck Off!
Bang! Down went the slammed phone. I began to cry and have a panic attack. Had several that night in fact. I didn’t understand why he was angry with me, when it wasn’t my fault to begin with. I didn’t know what to do. Again, my phone rang and I didn’t know if it would be a wise idea to pick it up. Slowly, I picked it up and on the other end was Pedro, who apologized profusely. He told me that Mulle was upset. Understandably, I thought, but it was no reason to curse me out. Finally, a miracle occurred; the Internet connection went up just as we were all going onstage; it was 10 pm Chicago time, 5 am Denmark time. Thank god, I thought. We did a quick nine minute live rehearsal in front of the entire audience and then performed together for an additional 23 minutes before Skype (Internet service) dropped again. Of course, being the last act of the night, we had a little upper advantage and poetic license to be a bit more creative. Shortly before we performed Jazz-Haiku-A-Rama as a “super group,” I passed out plastic toy panpipes, maracas & bird whistles to the attending audience.
The performance itself was maddening to say the least-not knowing which way it would go, as we plodded along, both Clean Boys and I were totally out of synch with each other. As a result, hilarity from the audience ensued, but all of us involved really dug it. One woman in particular was reallyintrigued by our performance as evidence from this edited (for space) rare email sent to me, one day later.
“Greetings Sid....
My husband and I were at the amazing Calling Chicago festival last night at AV aerie on Fulton Street. What an awesome evening it was. For us, it reminded us that art and thinking outside the box is still alive in Chicago...phew! We had a blast. What a cool concept of combining musicians from all over the globe to perform simultaneously. A positive effect of technology, to be sure. We enjoyed the evening immensely...We really loved the kind, open vibe of all those in attendance but we especially enjoyed your Haikuorama segment with the CLEAN BOYS and your group here. We only wish that we could have heard more of each...maybe next year. We feel very sad, and embarrassed that we had to cut out just as you were about to finish...forgive me, forgive us. We wanted to hoot and holler. (Our driver was not feeling well and had already stayed long after he was able to.) PLEASE pass on our kudos to your group and to the CLEAN BOYS. What a great group of musicians they all are. Hope you all had as much fun performing as we all did attending. And thanks for the maracas. How cool, fun and generous to give us each a music maker. So, no matter what happens, know you guys all did an amazing job. And once again, please pass on to your group of musicians and to the CLEAN BOYS just how great it was! You all rocked the world last night...literally!”
I remember getting a lift home from Mike that night-as we were headed north. We didn’t talk much. Mike isn’t much of a talker either in person or on a road trip, as I discovered later, I received another text message from Pedro. Would it be okay if he phoned me and we talk? Sure I said, even though I was kind of numb from everything else from beforehand and the performance afterward-I just wanted to think about it all silent and rest my voice and my mind. The telephone conversation didn't last long, but the gist of it was that working together was a good thing and we should do it again. And soon.
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