I was not super close to Randal Keys (later Randall Goffin), but I did value her friendship. I used to see her and husband, the talented Jesse Goffin, at the ever so secret order of the lampreys meetings in Pilsen. All the regular members of the mock art cult had to produce an art piece based on a theme or dance like a chicken until the dogs barked. I’m not sure I remember the chicken part correctly but I have been thinking about Iggy Pop lately, and I’ve always liked his line, “We’ll dance like hypnotized chickens.”
Randall and Jessie were semi regulars at lamprey, and they also attended all of the sensational pig roasts and glorious Saint Patrick’s Day parades. I sometime referred to Jesse as Randall’s husband even though they were unmarried, and I think this may have irritated them a bit, but they seemed more in tune and suited for each other than most real married couples that I knew, and they did eventually got hitched
There was an incident where someone threw water at me at a lamprey meeting, and I instinctively threw water back at him (The scene could have come from a silent comedy) and I accidently drenched Randall’s laptop, and it would not turn on again. I ended up giving her close to a thousand dollars to replace the ruined laptop, and I offered to give me some extra money to do a project for me.
For many years I was trying to break into big time journalism (I never made it), but I did make a small sum of money selling reviews to some small newspapers and I had amassed close to a thousand pieces (mostly for the defunct Star newspapers, but also for Chicago Artists’ News, Kilter, The Daily Herald, and I also had a few letters in the Chicago Tribune.) Oddly enough I never got anything in the Chicago Reader, and it was my favorite Chicago publication at the time.
Anyway, Randall had recently graduated from Columbia College (where I used to teach) she was very tech savvy, so I offered her some extra money to design and maintain a website for me to post new things and keep my old writings in the public eye. In the back of mind I thought it would help get me more writing gigs, but I have not been getting any paying writing jobs for years although I did make a little money off my poetry book A Passion for Apathy.
Anyway, Randall did a bang up job designing the web site, and I thought it looked very appealing. We also went through some trials and tribulations because I almost lost the domain name, and I forgot or lost all my code words to get in. Randall helped me to get through that and get the name back.
Randall moved out of state and we kept in contact through e-mails. I think she ended up in California then Vermont which I usually associate with my personal hero, Bernie Sanders. I do remember that we had a long on-line chat one time in which she confided with me about a terrible thing that happened which involved a mutual friend, and I told her and her husband about some heavy things when we lived in the same city.
I had not seen Randall in person for many years, and I was told that she died tragically in very abrupt circumstances. For a while I was sending messages to her, and her husband was responding, and I did not even know she was deceased.
This writing is overdue, but I am more adept at writing about art than personal things. I am sorry I did not write something about her death right away, but I tend to have a delayed emotional reaction to things. I still have not written much about my dad who died four years ago, and I don’t think I ever came to terms with it, but I only wrote a poem about how he was used in a kind of real life government experiment.
But Randall was a very bright, hip, technologically astute, sweet, smart, lovely, and caring person, and I am sorry she is gone. I regret I did not get to know her better. I am also deeply sorry that her husband lost her so prematurely.
So although this new (well kind of new) website www.artinterviews.org was redesigned by the former Ausgang editor, Melinda Fries, (thanks Melinda) most of the content was taken from the old website www.artinterviews.com that was designed by Randall, so the website is here because of her (The old one is also still up). Thanks Randall and Happy Birthday. This site is dedicated to you.
Here’s an interview I did with Jesse, about his sound engineering and other music work.
http://www.artinterviews.org/jesse-goffin-interview/
the ausgang publication is at http://www.ausgang.com
Randall’s profile is also still on Facebook under Randall Goffin, her married name, in case you want to leave a message about her or check out her pics.
