Okay—somehow—between our show on Friday night and today, Jordan—without his car—has found his way to Chicago’s Near West Side and an encampment of hackers there. Anarchist hackers, no less. (Doesn’t this sound like the beginning of The Matrix?) He says it’s led by the founders of hackthissite.org, which doesn’t mean a thing to me, but Jude knows what it is. Jordan has always had this sort of restless impulsivity. Nicknamed “Gorilla Man” in high school because of his meaty hands and his apeish, physical humor, he applied to several universities and was accepted into two, yet since he wasn’t offerd any financial aid beyond the standard subsidized loans he’s eschewd the idea of going to college altogether and is currently living off several fresh lines of credit along with cash made from selling various computer parts that he’s collected and refurbished over the years. His own drive sometimes blinds him. I wonder how long it will be before he quits the band.
Early rise and shower, doze with wet hair and fan a-blowin; then we head to breakfast, and now I’m back at the room in order to practice hurriedly for what will prove to be a very chagrind guitar lesson with Dr Filip. Instead here I am chatting with Jordan on AIM, as distracted by him as he is by these anti-establishment guerrilla “hacktivists” he’s telling me about, who in addition to taking down right-wing websites are involved in shit like sneaking into the UIC computer labs at night to print out flyers and pamphlets, or gathering (sometimes stealing) food and water for the upcoming antiwar rally in Washington City this weekend, and the like—tho he says he may not go.
He says.