Remembering Pinsan Jun: Chicago, December 1987, After Medusa’s
Remembering Pinsan Jun: Chicago, December 1987, After Medusa’s
Jun Rivera would have turned 58 today. A street corner in Albany Park, his Mustang, and the three of us fresh out of Medusa’s on a night I still can’t pin to a date.
Jun Rivera would have turned 58 today. I already posted one photo of him earlier today, the Blue Rock Springs birthday party in Vallejo in 2004. This is the other one I wanted you to see.
It is 2 or 3 in the morning on a street corner in Albany Park, and the three of us are standing there. I was 21, Jun was 19, and his brother Allan was 17. We had just left Medusa’s, and I think it was the first time for all of us. Jun’s Mustang, an ’85 or ’86 by my memory, is parked in the bottom right corner of the frame. They were driving me back to my other home away from home.
Medusa’s served no alcohol, which is why a 17-year-old like Allan could walk in. Now I need your help: was this the last week of December 1987, or the New Year’s Eve that turned into January 1988? Allan, Jason, what do you remember?
💬 Please comment below ↓
Sayawan — sa-YA-wan
A dance party. Medusa’s was a sayawan that welcomed punks, goths, house heads, and a Fil-Am kid from Vallejo with his cousins.
The message I sent to Jason
I scanned this photo for Jun’s birthday and sent it to Jason Palma first, with a short note: “I scanned a photo from Dec 1987 for Jun’s bday. We had just left Medusa’s. I think it was the first time for all of us. I was 21, Jun 19, Allan 17.” Jason went to Gordon Tech High School with Jun and Allan, and I am sending him this link, so Jason, this one is for you too.
Gordon Tech has a small place in my own story. When my family lived in Chicago, my sister Joy and I thought we would end up at Lane Tech if we went public, or I'd go to Gordon Tech if we didn’t. We moved to Vallejo in 1979 and I became a Hogan Spartan instead, so I think it’s cool that my cousins ended up there.
Which night was it?
I can’t say for sure. It was either late December before New Year’s Eve, or right after it. It could even be January 1988, because the New Year’s Eve that turned 1987 into 1988 is the only one I ever spent in Chicago. I went clubbing that night with Liza and her friends, two other couples besides us. Liza, my Chicago BFF, is the one who took this picture.
Medusa’s, a short walk from Barr Tower
Medusa’s stood at 3257 N. Sheffield Avenue in Lakeview, at the corner of Sheffield and School. Dave “Medusa” Shelton opened it in 1983, and it ran for nine years, closing in the summer of 1992. It was a juice bar with no alcohol, so teenagers were welcome, and by 1986 it had started all-ages nights on Saturdays. The music ran from industrial and punk to house, and the DJs included Frankie Knuckles. Chicago’s nightlife crowds had long been kept apart, and Medusa’s put them under one roof.
For me it was also close to home. Medusa’s was within walking distance of Warren Barr Tower, where our family lived at 856 W Nelson Street from 1976 to 1979. As a kid I walked the blocks around Belmont Street over and over, always inside the one-mile boundary I had set for myself around the building. I never imagined that a few years later I would be coming back to that neighborhood at night, with my cousins, for the sayawan.
Albany Park, my other home
The Albany Park house was Liza’s family home, and for me it was a second home in Chicago. I have a lot of photos to scan from there. I also need to post my digital phtos from July 2022, when Chesca and I vacationed in Chicago and I asked her to stop by the house with me. That one is a future post.
We were the kabataan then, a barkada out past any reasonable bedtime, and Jun was the one with the car. Jun died on December 19, 2009. Happy Heavenly Birthday, pinsan. Salamat for the ride home.
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J.F.R. Perseveranda
J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.
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