Gene Lee says goodbye Dec 29
20 comments Latest by Justin
Photo Credit: Jasmined
Anyone who spent time in Chicago’s Wicker Park over the last few years probably ran into Gene Lee “the dancing Asian guy.” Insert “weird” or “questionable fashion sense” at your discretion. Sadly, Gene recently passed away.
Gene was important because he represented an increasingly elusive burst of color and character. As our cities homogenize, our street corners fill with banks, and our old buildings are replaced by cookie cutter replicas of the uninspired cinderblock box next door, we’re reminded that it’s the people – especially the local characters – that flavor the city. Gene was one of those people.
Wicker Park has its share of street people and neighborhood fixtures. But most of them are ignored and fade into the chaos of cars, commuters, and city bustle. Gene, however, was impossible to ignore. It was fun to just watch people react to him. They didn’t look down, they didn’t just walk by, they didn’t ignore him—they smiled. They pointed and laughed too, but usually in a “hey, good for that guy!” kinda way. He cheered people up.
It’s so easy to go through your daily routine and never look at what’s going on around you. Gene snapped you out of that funk.
According to his brother, Gene was haunted by addiction and bipolar disorder. When he was dancing it was hard to tell if he was happy, miserable, or like most of us, somewhere in between. But he definitely made a lot of people smile. I hope that’s how he’s remembered.
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20 comments so far
Rishi 29 Dec 07
This guy was awesome. I lived right across the street and it was refreshing watching him dance after getting off a jam packed train ride.
Seth 29 Dec 07
Sad that dude passed.
My favorite SF colorful character is Frank Chu. I don’t know what I’d do if I went up there and didn’t see him stomping around picketing the 12 galaxies during the weekdays.
jan korbel 29 Dec 07
What you say is really interesting and caught me of my guard so to speak. You see, I live in the Czech Republic and I think if someone behave like this on our streets (at least in the small town I live) he would be taken by the police to check if he is not ready for asylum…
And that I am thinking he would be taken away and that it wouldn’t suprise me tells me how deep the communism cut scars into us. You behave differently, out of the line, then you must be crazy because no one “sane” would not do that.
Hmmmm, interesting… Thank you for this post.
matt 29 Dec 07
Couldn’t believe it when I saw this post!
In Kew, Victoria, Australia, we’ve got a guy called Robin who’s just like him. Robin doesn’t even have loudspeakers, he just dances to music on his headphones. He has a similar effect on MOST of the people who see him: most will smile, or toot (he’s usually on the corner of a VERY busy intersection) while the conservatives try and avoid him. Very nice guy.
He definitely gets a reaction though, and is appreciated by many. Check him out (Youtube).
Scott Magdalein 29 Dec 07
Like you said, every city has characters like this guy, even down here in the sleepy city of Jacksonville.
It’s really cool of you guys to honor him with a post on this blog. It gets tons of hits with tons of readers. You could have posted about anything, but you chose his passing. It says a lot about you and 37 Signals as a company.
FredS 29 Dec 07
I loved when he’d grab onto the light there and start doing pull-ups. RIP Gene.
Anonymous Coward 29 Dec 07
Gene Lee doing pull-ups.
Anonymous Coward 30 Dec 07
Gene’s not dead…
Andy G 30 Dec 07
I’m sure Gene would be pleased by the positive effect he’s had on people, and to know that he inspired those increasingly important, “Oh hey! I do not live in a homogenous place run by some elusive heartless machine” moments, but I think it would be a mistake to wish that there was more of this. It seems symptomatic of the malaise, not its cure. He’s a gem, for sure, but I hope we haven’t relegated any expression of color and character to folks who are “colorful” because they are insane. Thanks for the wonderful post.
Anonymous Coward 30 Dec 07
Andy, people with bipolar disorder are not “insane”. They have mental health issues, but that doesn’t make someone insane.
ollie 30 Dec 07
How Sad.
gee, i thought this guy was doing some kind of PR for Apple…he was in front of the apple store sometimes and always had an i-pod and i became more suspicious of this with his NY plated SAAB …any how …. condolences to the family….
iamkingmob 31 Dec 07
Thanks for the post Jason. He will be missed.
Anonymous Coward 31 Dec 07
this is a bad bad joke people. gene lee is ALIVE and he doesnt even live in chicago, he’s in oakland and upon leaving the city his last words were “you’re alla buncha drunks.” please dont perpetuate this ego-induced madness he is pulling. it’s a prank. and it’s mean.
Jared Brown 31 Dec 07
I was surprised to find that Gene did not have a wikipedia entry. He was an important part of Wicker Park. Check out the page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Lee and add anything you find lacking.
David Holtz 31 Dec 07
I’ve also been told this was a prank. Now I don’t know what to think.
Journalists need at least 2 sources, maybe it’s different for bloggers. But I think we can all agree that linking to a myspace profile or blog is hardly reputable.
Anybody know the truth?
Christopher Scott 01 Jan 08
I will always remember him as someone who made me smile.
He will be remembered. . .
Jamie 02 Jan 08
I used to live in New Farm, Brisbane, Australia. There was a middle-aged guy who stood in a doorway of a shop around the corner from my house for, I dunno, 16-ish hours a day, and all he’d do was say hello and wave to people as they walked by.
He obviously had some sort of mental-health issues – he wasn’t quite all there – but he caused no harm or bother to anyone and I loved getting a cheery hello from him every morning on the way to the bus stop and a hello when I came back from work.
One day he wasn’t there.
The next day there were bunches of flowers in the doorway. Dozens and dozens of bunches of flowers in the doorway and across the sidewalk. He’d passed away.
I wonder if he had ever realised how much people liked him and looked forward to seeing him every day?
Pete 02 Jan 08
I knew him from Syracuse. http://web.syr.edu/~jcmorris/eugene.html (not my site—warning, one popup)
AJG 04 Jan 08
I’d really like to know if this is a prank as well. Gene is/was a good friend of mine, and the possibility that it is indeed a prank is making this really hard to properly process.
Justin 04 Jan 08
I miss that stupid coffee house.
Comments are closed