For the most part my what’s new page announces and invites readers to my professional activities, most in the form of performances, recordings, broadcasts, publications, workshops, soundwalks, and conference presentations. There is another small set of posts that are of more personal nature that I feel it necessary to share. These posts memorialize the losses that I experience, those of my close friends and associates who pass away, and who by their deaths create a significant shift in what we know, what we remember, and what we could have expected for the future. This thought precedes my recollection and it forms the basis for a greeting, oddly you may think, but really only a simple, factual statement: a lot of people have died this year. I have given myself the license to share a small amount of information here about my personal life that I rarely do.

Following the lovely time I had in New York with my partner, Deirdre Harrison visiting with her daughter, Bea three people have died who were close friends and family members. Two were artists I made music with. One was Deirdre’s father.

Edward Harrison had lived with us for the past year and died on February 18.

My friend, Kris Goralka died in January 2019. We had not been in direct contact over 30 years. Despite this temporal distance, I cherish the close friendship and collaboration we shared with Tom Tomek and Werner Herterich. We played together in a band we called AgitProp. I learned of Kris’s passing from my friend, Rich Christianson, my good friend and creative partner ever since we met as freshman at Northern Illinois University (NIU), in 1976. Kris and I were friends at NIU. With my friends John Goss and Rich we spent time in the electronic music studios at NIU recording, and shared few cassette tapes under the name Art Banned, in 1980. One year later, when I was new graduate student in Time Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Kris found a house we rented on Wellington Ave. We enjoyed a close creative partnership, from 1981-82. Kris contributed to the Artworkers Collective and the KnowWhere performance art zine. I extend my condolences to Kris’s sister, Laurie Goralka and all her other friends and family.

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Bill Talsma died by his own choice last month. To learn this is always disturbing. For a relatively young and inventive person, this loss is shocking and depressing. Bill was a gentle person with an inspiring mind and courageous instinct, an alum from SAIC, drummer in Ribbon Effect, a performer in Lucky Pierre, and a collaborator with me on Plasticene’s Come Like Shadows. I’m so sorry he’s gone. I extend my condolences to Bill’s friends and family.

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