Adeo Ressi

At 3:00 AM in a lounge while listening to live music on July 31st, 2008, my friend, Pierre, leaned over and said: “I have some bad news. JudgeCal is dead.”

In shock, and asked what happened, and I learned that he had been found dead in his apartment. A terrible sinking feeling came over me that he was alone, and I ran downstairs and hopped in a cab. After getting home, I called the morgue, which was closed, and then called the police precinct near his house.

“There are no reports, sir, of a Mark Chamberlain being brought in since July 20th anywhere in the city,” the officer said. Mark was the name that he had given up as a 15-year old kid on the street. JudgeCal matched his Judge Dredd tatoo and image as judge, jury, and executioner.

Of course, I was now hoping that this was all some type of bad hoax or new show. Awaking fully clothed and in shock the next morning sprawled on the bed, I grabbed some coffee and called the morgue. It was finally open, and I got transferred around a couple times as I asked for Mark Chamberlain.

“Nobody by that name has come in.”

I was about to hang up with the morgue when she asked, “maybe he was unidentified. Can you describe him?” I responded that he had a lot of tatoos on his arms and blond hair. She said, “platinum blond?”

A lot of people contribute to who you are, some in big ways, some in small ways, and some in other ways. Cal, as I liked to call him, was an “other way” contributor for me. He opened my mind. He helped me get back into gadgets and technology by showing his favorite video games or his radio frequency scanner. He always told the truth, and he always had your back. My first ride on the Nautilus at Burning Man was with Cal, just like my first all night video game deathmatch.

Across the thousands of people that come through my life, I have many great memories with JudgeCal. We were friends for just under 15 years, and I regret not having seen him in about a year.

IN MEMORY OF =JUDGECAL=

Born April 21, 1968. Passed July 25, 2008. =JUDGECAL’S= mission and GREAT WORK has been to awaken the sleeper in all of us. It is time to take up THE cause and BE responsible for our collective actions in an individual way.

FOR ANYONE THAT WANTS TO ATTEND FUNERAL SERVICES, PLEASE JOIN THIS MAILING LIST.