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February 22, 2007
Art Sale: Jeffrey Gillis, a talented artist who may or may not have played naked badminton at 17 Southpoint with Bill Plowman back in 1995, is considering all "reasonable offers" for his paintings.
This is your chance to own some cool art, you uncultured slobs.
 Labels: art, life, umass
Posted at 4:04 PM
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February 2, 2007
The curse of MySpace: I was a fringe member of the Massachusetts Daily Collegian staff between 1993 and 1996. I wasn't part of the inner circle, the kids who sacrificed nights and passing grades to put out New England's largest collegiate daily each Monday through Friday during the school year, but they did let me do my thing, write a column and learn the power of the written word (being cornered in the walk-in cooler of the south Amherst Dairy Mart with an angry redneck chucking bottles of Snapple at you is a crash course in the impact your writing can have).
Casey Kane appeared in my consciousness sometime during my last year at UMass. She was dating the editor-in-chief, a likable guy who I had a friendly but not-too-close relationship with. Matt Vautour and I had both interned at the Daily Hampshire Gazette and we both covered the then-fledgling UMass hockey team, so we had some common ground -- we bonded by taking some friendly digs at some of the staff writers at the Gazette and occasionally talked sports and newspapers.
If I had a conversation with Casey Kane, I don't remember it outside of nodding the occasional hello. I'm pretty sure she was nice, friendly and somewhat on the shy side. I probably remember more about her writing. She was one of the few female writer's on the Collegian's sports desk and -- on a desk dominated by sports geeks who wrote articles crammed with stats, jargon and meaningless quotes -- she wrote stories. Bona-fide news stories with rich detail and compelling images.
Or so I think -- it was a long time ago.
After graduation they weren't going to be the type of couple I would think about often, as I'm sure they didn't give much more than the occasional passing thought on the "I wonder what happened to Dave Copeland?" question. A year or two after graduation RCF and I were back for a visit and bumped into Vautour, who was by then a staff writer at the Gazette. He and Casey were still together and I figured that was it: for the rest of my life I can assume that he and Casey lived happily ever after. And even if they didn't, I would be none the wiser.
They even came up in conversation when I was in New York last weekend. "Did Vatour end up with that Collegian girl?" RCF asked.
I said I assumed so.
But then along comes MySpace, the blessing and the curse that allows people from our past to check in on us. Last night I got a friends request from Vautour and I immediately tore through his page to see what he's been up to and if there's info on any of our mutual acquaintances. I rifle through his photo page and see that he still looks pretty much the same; if that journalism thing doesn't work out for him, I'd gladly cast him, his shaved head and his thick beard as a Russian gangster in Blood & Volume -- The Movie.
There is a photo of him and Casey sitting in Green Monster seats at Fenway. The caption reads "Me and Casey. I miss her." My gut instinct says they didn't stay together and he's having a bit of a rough time getting over it. I mean, really -- we're in our early- to mid-thirties -- what else could it be? Probably not a cool thing to put up there if your new girlfriend is going to check out your MySpace page, but hey -- his problem, not mine.
But then in his MySpace blog I see a link to something called Casey Memories. An article? A fickr page? I still want to believe things are good so I again think here's a guy having a really tough time getting over an ex. But when I click Casey Memories it's pretty damn clear that this is so much more awful than just a breakup.
As best I can tell, Casey died nearly three years ago of Hodgkin's disease. She would've been just about to turn 29 when she died.
I didn't read too much on the site -- I didn't know her and probably would've never seen her again. It felt too nosy to pore through these testimonials from people who really did know her and really did love her.
Yet it's been on my mind enough today that I've banged out several hundred words on her. I've been googling other acquaintances and old friends from UMass in hopes of making sure everyone else is okay, or at least still alive. I had a moment of panic when I thought about the people I'm close to now but may lose touch with and wondered if, when and how I'd learn about their demise? (Note to self: try not to lose touch with those people).
And I've spent a good chunk of the day cursing the Internet. Yes, places like MySpace are great for letting us know that old and forgotten friends are doing well, but they also interrupt an otherwise perfectly good Thursday evening and let us know when those same old friends aren't doing well. I curse cancer on a daily basis and cursed it a little harder today. I'm really resisting the urge to break out all the cliches about reckless, random death and the passing of someone who is so young.
Matt, it was great to hear from you and, while I'm glad you're still in journalism and doing as well as can be expected, I'm sorry you've been through so much these past few years.Labels: life, umass
Posted at 1:51 PM
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