From Clay Sander

Don and I have a history that is filled with incredibly great moments and shitty shit moments. A biography of my life (a surefire best-seller....) cannot be told without Don Hall taking up several chapters.

To him, I pay my highest compliment - He's always interesting. Piss me off? Sure. Confuse me? Most definitely. But, bore me? Fuck NO. And, he can make me laugh...hard.

I look back on my days at with Don at WNEP with a great fondness.

My favorite memory was performing Armageddon Radio Hour around Christmas-time at the Halsted space. The smell of Lysol-mixed-with-paint-and-cigarette-soot wafted in from the behind the smoke-obscured lights as my wife sang "Let it Snow" to an appreciative audience.

I remember, vividly, standing on stage and glancing at Don in his Charles-chair, smoking a cigar, listening to the song with a big grin. I realized Don was absolutely NOT in character. He looked almost serene. I realized the moment was special and, as I try to do often, started to take a mental picture just so I would always remember.....
It was at that very point that Don sensed my gaze, nodded towards me, smiled and winked - relaying without words, that everything, right then, was just so. fucking. beautiful..... I'll always appreciate that about Don - the absolute fantastic quality that allows him to make me feel completely warm and joyful.

That was before the drama of the space closing, the incredibly cold winter, the subsequent shitty-shit that we both went through that damaged our close relationship for some time. The sad confrontations that emerged were a result of me being less of a friend and more of trying to be right. I'll take this opportunity to offer a long-overdue apology for my actions then, Don. As our birthday's grow further away from thirty, it's time to say that I really feel like you're the older brother I never had. I truly love you for it.

It's just too bad you're such a bleeding-heart liberal jackass.

Happy Birthday and thanks for everything.