Mike - Ravenswood (Pages 21-26)

Mike has spent his adult life in front of people.  Whether it was during his stand-up career, running his own tour company, playing the blues on his harmonica in China or reading from his book, he's had to wrestle with a live audience.  It shows in his walk which has the gait of a former boxer.

Mike came down from Wisconsin in the Eighties and made a living working the numerous comedy clubs in Chicago.  When the bottom fell out of the stand-up scene, he migrated over to the tour guide trade which suits his sponge like intellect to a T. His tour of Chicago movie-locations got him the gig of co-authoring the 2nd addition of "Hollywood on Lake Michigan," with Arnie Berstein.  It holds a great interview with Wash U grad Harold Ramis along with many other interviews of non-Wash U grads.  Recently, China's had the pleasure of Mike's company as he travel the country playing blues harmonic.  He's back in town and ready for whatever comes next.

We recorded this in Mike's apartment just on the other side of the Brown Line tracks.

Important Links : 
Buy Holywood on Lake Michigan at Barnes and Noble
Mike's blog is cinemachicago.net
The facebook address is https://www.facebook.com/HollywoodOnLakeMichigan2


This reading has been brought to you by the novel Damien Loose - Episode One, Blood.  Now available at a number of fine ebook retailers including iTunes, kobo, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble.
And of course like Damien Loose on facebook.


Watch Mike reads pages 21-26 from Damien Loose in People & Blogs  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Ramona - Englewood/Vienna (Page 11)

Reading something aloud in a foreign language is intimidating especially if it's your third language.  Ramona is from Hungary but goes to school in Vienna.  She speaks Hungarian, German and, as you'll see, English.  The opportunity to work for a summer in the USA was one she couldn't pass-up.  When I met her she had just finished a two month gig at a summer camp in North Carolina.  On her way home she stopped in Chicago for a few days.  That's when I accosted her to do a little reading for me.  She said yes, and why wouldn't she?  She already had traveled thousands of miles to work in a land where she knew nobody and the pay sucked, so doing a little reading was the least of her bravery.

In Ramona's reading, Damien is trying to get some information about his Uncle Edmund's whereabouts from a unhelpful airline employee while trying to explain why he doesn't have a cellphone. One-year-old Zoe Berchshire takes a tumble and sacrifices her body to help her dad.

(notes on recording:  As you'll see, my archaic tech ability caused a little drama in the middle of the recording, probably more drama than what was actually in the writing.)

This reading has been brought to you by the novel Damien Loose - Episode One, Blood.  Now available at a number of fine ebook retailers including iTunes, kobo, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble.
And of course like Damien Loose on facebook.



Watch Ramona Reads Page 11 From Damien Loose in People & Blogs  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Chris - Lincoln Square (pages 13-15)

The first thing you hear about Chris is, "he lives in a magic shop," and yet this primal fact offers no insight into him at all.  He doesn't own the shop, work at the shop or perform magic tricks.  He's a musician, philosopher, theologian and publisher/editor of the magazine "Out Of The Blue" - the only periodical focused on Neo-Swedenborgianism on the north side.  As I look at what I just wrote, I'm thinking maybe I was wrong and the fact he lives in a magic shop does offer some insight into him.

Here Chris reads and plays guitar as Damien opens his front door and finds a dead body on the front lawn. We recorded this in the small theater at the back of the magic shop.

This reading has been brought to you by the novel Damien Loose - Episode One, Blood.  Now available at a number of fine ebook retailers including iTunes, kobo, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble.
And of course like Damien Loose on facebook.

(note on tech crap:  I'm trying something different, so instead of uploading this audio to blogger, I uploaded it to veoh and embedded in the blog.  Let me know if you have problems hearing Chris read.)

Watch Chris Reads Damien Loose (pages 13-15) in People & Blogs  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Annie - Englewood (Pages 1-4)

By the time Friday night roles around thirty people will be expecting a place to sleep in Annie's small two-story house, and lets hope the basement is tiled, the porch is painted and all the travelers are skinny French models. To make room for the throng, Annie has bartered the refinishing of the basement for space in her garage and the painting of her enclosed back porch for a weeks stay.   

Her frame house on the south side of Chicago looks no different than the other frame houses extending out down the block. Tourism isn't a big draw this far down the Dan Ryan, but inside Annie's house you'll find travelers from Russia, China, Slovakia, Ghana, Germany and St. Louis, Missouri all looking for the $15 bed promised to them on Airbnb. Most stay despite the initial apprehension caused by the four block walk from the Green Line. "The French never stay," I'm told. No refunds either way.

Some Chicago summer festival has tripled the need for cheap places to stay, and Annie has booked triple her current capacity, but like all good business people she understands "current capacity" is just a term used for yesterday's business plan.  Time for a new plan.  

We recorded this in a hurry and in one take on her newly painted enclosed back porch.

This reading has been brought to you by the novel Damien Loose - Episode One, Blood.  Now available at a number of fine ebook retailers including iTunes, kobo, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble.
And of course like Damien Loose on facebook.