TSG Sun

Hey, we were no Dead Relatives, but McWilson burned brightly for a few months. Formed expressly to open for Naked Raygun’s (Thanks to Oreo!) first show in Champaign at Mabels. Members include Evil Tom, Randy, Neil, and Don Gerard. Not shown is sometimes guitarist Dave Titlebaum, or Dave Uglybum as we used to call him. He kind of thought we were a joke (we were!) but when he found out we were opening for Raygun he got interested real fast. The good reception we got at the show convinced him to stick it out for a few more gigs. Click the image to see it bigger. Photo by Ted McDougall

Leroy garbage picked a Farfisa organ or keyboard or whatever it is called. I think he saw a guy pushing it down the street in a shopping cart? Maybe he paid $25 for it. I can’t remember if we ever got it working, but as you can see, we did get it taken apart. Galva was doing all the actual fixing attemps. I think I was just fiddling. Leroy took this picture in the office of Propaganda. Click on it to see it bigger. Check out the awesome old Mac on the desk. That’s where Galva worked on the accounting program for two or three years without ever actually doing any accounting. I think the most use that thing got was when we used it to play Risk for hours on end.

I added a bit of code to show the Author’s name after every post on the front page. Now you can tell which one of us blowhards is writing what.

I also added a link to Propaganda Silkscreen on the list of sites. Does anyone else have an affiliated site they want added?

Let’s hear from some of you other guys!

Ok, Pete Zelchenko is not a TSG. Technically, either am I for that matter.

However, I’m confident at least a few of you know Pete. He went to U of I for a while, worked at the Daily Illini and then the Thrifty Nickel. He was involved with Propaganda when it was first started. VERY nice guy. Smart. Brilliant in fact. A character. He is currently running for Alderman in Chicago as an independent. I would vote for him if I was in his ward. He probably won’t win, but I respect the fact that he’s running.

Pete made the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times for a hole he found in the Board of Elections database. Here is the story linked below.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/108366,CST-NWS-hack24.article

While catching up with Andy O’Neil in Champaign several weeks ago, he gave me a bit of background regarding his unfortunate divorce. The good news is that he and his wife actually both live in a two-flat. One upstairs and one downstairs, so their three kids are always coming home to the same place.

While that is pretty cool and interesting, perhaps the more interesting story was that one of Eric J’s adopted brother was the “other man” and was the reason Andy and his former wife got divorced. So, in an odd way, Eric J and Andy are the opposite of inlaws, I guess you could say “out-laws.”

Here’s the story of how I learned that Galva wasn’t his real name. This picture is from the early Propaganda days.

One time an old lady called the house and asked for Brian Robinson. Who? I told her there was nobody there by that name. She insisted that her grandson did and then sounded kind of confused after I quite firmly and possibly even rudely told her there was absolutely nobody living there by the name of Brian Robinson. When someone asked who was on the phone I told them it was some confused old lady with a wrong number looking for her grandson Brian Robinson.

The ramp behind the third house on Springfield in Urbana. When we moved to Chicago to start Propaganda, I spent a couple of hours trying to dismantle it, but gave up. Latter on some kids took the remains and shortened it into a mini ramp. A couple years later I went back to Champaign to hang out with Brad and I was skating it at some kids’s house without realizing it was originally mine. Praise Coslows.

Brad Krohn. He’s Veterinarian now, lives in Portland Oregon, well the suburbs technically. Lake Oswego.

So we decided that we were going to knock out one of the double wide doors that had been drywalled over to make a bedroom in the second house. It was a dining room converted into a bedroom. Eric J was the current resident and he wanted to move his bedroom to the living room because it had doors and nobody ever went into it. Knoccking out the drywall would connect it to the kitchen, and Eric could have more room to work on his motorcycle in his bedroom during the winter. We had these croquet balls in the house for some reason, and Lars Eric and I were throwing them at the wall/doorway that we were knocking out, trying to see if we could get them to go through both side in one throw. I can’t remember if we did or not, but the important part is that Charlie Dold walks in from off the street, sees what we are doing and and says “Cool! Can I try?” We say “sure” and hand him a croquet ball, which he proceeds to whip at the first wall he sees, which unfortunately is not the wall we were trying to tear down. See, he just thought we were fucking things up as usual, cause it was perfectly within reason that we would just be destroying something for no reason. Anyway, we all burst into laughter and Charlie was really confused until we explained it to him. Here are a few pictures of the aftermath.

Click to enlarge.

This is the frame work for the “who needs a girlfriend?” ramp in the front yard of the second TSG house. That’s Eric J’s motorcycle.

Me on the curb outside the first house, photo by Ted.

The first of many… Too many. Click to enlarge.

Randy and Mike on the Quad

Mr Grubby Doug Evans outside the French Building. Check out the chick’s outfit behind him.

Swiv boneless on the quad with Galva lurking behind him. I think That’s TK behind swiv. See the converse high tops and extra skateboard?

Neil makes the first purchase from Randy’s ill-fated skateshop that had Mike Timble as a silent partner. It was called You Mom’s Skate Shop. I think we made one wholesale order. Somewhere in my basement I still have a baggie full of kingpins. This was taken in my bedroom in the Yellow House or second TSG house across the street from the first one on Nevada.