Daley Blames - Who Else? - The Media For Oprah-geddon
Chicago Gets Googled
Friday Flashback - Old School Oprah
Today's Transgender Day of Remembrance Honors the Dead
Review: Paramount Room
American Landmark Properties of Skokie is finally taking steps to recognize an iconic, if lesser-known Chicago personality. That's because today American Landmark Properties has made official the name change of the Sears Tower to the Willis Tower. And Chicagoist couldn't agree more - nearly six years since the death of Chicago busker, musician and artist Wesley Wiliis, he's finally getting his due in the form of a landmark office tower bearing his name.
If you're not familiar with Willis's oeuvre, don't feel bad. His fun and rollicking mix of rock 'n' roll and outsider art isn't the sort of thing that occupies the popular consciousness, at least not until today. Born Wesley Shabazz Willis on May 31, 1963, he grew up in foster homes here in Chicago and, in spite of the outsider status conferred upon him by mental illness and a creative streak that didn't fit into other social norms, he became a cult figure in the Chicago art and alternative music scene, releasing more than 50 albums, many with over 20 songs each. His musical style, which featured a simple musical structure which emphasized his humorous and clever lyrics left an indelible imprint on the popular culture of our city. Besides being a recording artist, Willis, who coped with his paranoid schizophrenia through his art, left not only a burgeoning catalog of music, but also a veritable cornucopia of drawings, offering all of us a glimpse of the city through his eyes. Although Willis passed away on August 21, 2003, his work and his perspective live on in his recordings and drawings, and now, thanks to American Landmark Properties, his name will forever be immortalized on the skyline of the city he called home. Thanks, Willis.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
OK
outstanding compromise. I will only refer to it as Willis Tower if I call it the Wesley Willis Tower.
I will call it the "Don't Go In The Ghetto" Tower in honor of one of Wesley's classics.
Rock over London, Rock on Chicago
Hey, wait...The Willis company is based in London...and now in Chicago... Did Wesley see this coming???
(yeah, yeah, i know the line is really the name of an old WXRT show..jk)
I believe this story may not be factually accurate.
Suck a racehorse's bootyhole!
Suck a cheetah's dick!
Suck my doberman pinscher's cock!
The glorification of schizophrenic by Mancow and hipster doofuses continues.
"Outsider Art?" The man was insane and clearly being goaded by people who would have, a few decades earlier, been bear-baiting.
A lunatic screaming over a casio and scribbling in the dayroom at Hartgrove is not art. It's sad.
Killjoy.
HA HA HA Sick people are FUNNY!
Look at that cripple in the wheelchair! That freak with crutches! Yeah! That guy with a cleft palette, I bet he sings real weird.
Grow the fuck up.
He was a sick man egged on by degenerates like Mancow and assorted hipster shitpiles.
Saying grow up to someone named Napoleon? Very insensitive.
I expected more from someone enlightened enough to be unable to find merit in the work of someone with mental problems.
To clarify, Nevins, I feel/felt the same way. On the one hand, hey, if the guy was happy doing what he was doing, I was happy for him. On the other hand there were too many shows with the brodudes and their chicks in the back who came to see the "freakshow". And I used to wonder if there was some old white guy with Altzheimer's who could play the harmonics, would he be fronting a band at Doubledoor.
I also rememeber sitting in Crash Palace (now Delilah's) and Wesley would come in, this big hulking black man, and asking petitie white girls to headbutt him, or he's start raving, and Carlos the bartender had to tell him to calm down. But once those same girls found out he was somebody halfway famous, they were all over him, buying his CDs.
So yeah, in some ways I liked what he was doing (happy making music, getting hipster white kids to pay cash for CDs from a schizoid black man)... In a bunch of other ways, not so much.
Anyway... stay off the hellbus.
I saw the guy in Wicker park back in the late 90's when I was in High School. Same thing as you described, he was "just another crazy" until people figured out her was "that guy".
He was clearly off his meds (no, I'm not a doctor, but I've worked in a hospice and it's not hard to spot) and drunk/high. People just kept goading him on.
Did he have an artistic voice? Absolutely. You spend time around the mentally ill and you find a lot of them find real comfort in art and music. There's a reason art therapy is a part of many patient's treatment.
This guy was sick and needed to be getting better care. Instead he was a pet freak for a morning radio shit-head. Just sadness is all.
This guy was sick and needed to be getting better care. Instead he was a pet freak for a morning radio shit-head. Just sadness is all.
Well, I'm, glad to see you had some compassion for him. I understand. But I believe he did get better care because he WAS able to sell his art and his music. Can you imagine the care he would get if he DIDN'T have that income? No, i didn't like the whole Mancow thing (I never listened to the show, but I heard he was on there and was pretty sure how it was being handled by that douche). I thought his "caretakers" (the guys in his band) should have nixed that stuff if they really cared about him. It was obviously exploitative. But like I said, he tried to actually write "songs", memorize them, etc. I've heard a lot worse from people with all of their faculties intact. And as for his art, I guess it's that old eye of the beholder thing.
Oh, and he wasn't just a lunatic screaming. Whatever you think of his "songs", he actually wrote them as such, memorized them, etc. He didn't just get up there and babble the first think that came to his head or just rant and rave incoherently. He honestly performed them as songs, no matter how you feel about their quality. Make the distinction.
There were undoubtedly people that exploited him, and there were undoubtedly people that just wanted to see a freakshow. But at the same time, I have no doubt he enjoyed performing and head-butting fans. And he did have real fans, too.
Of course he was sick. So what? That means he had no business performing and selling his art because some people laughed at him? Bullshit. If he enjoyed it and it was therapeutic for him, more power to him.
You might not like his music, but "I'm Sorry that I Got Fat" has been in my workout mix since the day I heard it, and always will be.
Rock over London, Rock on Chicago.
cut that mullett
Could he have been a gifted artists who was failed by society including those who pretended to admire him while at the same time supported (as best they could) by actually friends who appreciated his gift?
you forgot to mention how he whupped Batman's ass.
jess nevins, you don't know wtf you're talking about. Wesley took his meds, he had a severe form of schizophrenia that was very difficult to control and needed constant medication adjustments.
Unlike many mentally ill people, who end up homeless and alone, or locked up in horrible conditions, Wesley had a rich and happy life. He was surrounded by people who loved him and appreciated his work, and accepted him just the way he was. Yes, there were people who exploited him, what talented person isn't exploited? But Wesley had a great life, he loved drawing, he loved performing, and does not need douchebags like you feeling sorry for him.
i definitely think it's a double edged sword. i mean, what about the brian jonestown massacre? anton newcombe is effed up! and brilliant! and insane! and a genius! i can say without a doubt that there are people who go just to see how quickly he'll get crazy and go batshit on his instruments, the audience, his own band ....
so, what are ya gonna do? just dismiss the music altogether? maybe. it's always fascinated me how verythinthelineis between madness and genius.
You're missing a major part of this story.
The building is being named Willis Tower, because a European business by the name of Willis Group Holdings purchased 140,000 square feet of space in the tower (giving it naming rights).
Sure, in our hearts we can call it Willis Tower in honor of Wesley...but truthfully, that is not the case.
WHAT?!?! REALLY????
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
You're welcome! :)
His middle name was Lawrence. He never did drugs or alcohol to get high, ever.
His art is highly respected and has been shown in Egypt, Switzerland, Netherlands, et cetera
http://www.lespressesdureel.com/EN/ouvrage.php?id=1353
He loved performing and was unstoppable, even when sick with leukemia.
He was a fabulous room mate and a hard working artist who could give a rat's ass about what Mancow thought.