Ted Leo and the Hoodie Conspiracy: A Timeline

October 2006
Ted Leo performs at the LaFortune Ballroom. Suddenly, then-Station Manager Catherine McGeeney realizes that Ted Leo worked at WVFI yet has no signature WVFI hoodie. The troops rally for a change. Unfortunately there are no hoodies to be had at the time of his visit.


Spring 2006
A fresh order of WVFI hoodies arrives at the station, yet no one has Leo's contact info. He remains without hoodie.

March 12, 2007
The first exclusively Leo MINDset post is made about a video on AOLmusic. If Leo would have owned a hoodie at the time, surely a WVFI plug would have made it past the video editing board.










March 20, 2007
Release of Living With the Living, Leo's fifth full-length album without possession of a WVFI hoodie. Meanwhile, MINDsetters Chris Wodicka and Joe Lattal decide to buy tickets (actually Chris bought them) to see Leo perform in Chicago later that season.





ca. April 25, 2007
An attempt at myspace message correspondence is made, notifying Leo that WVFIers will be attending his Chicago gig, and we hope to deliver a hoodie to him personally.


April 28, 2007, 6:30 PM
Plans to eat at a Giordano's on Belmont are screwed up by impossible parking conditions in Boystown and poor service (despite a perfectly executed order-ahead). Not only does the group head to Leo's show late (which now includes fellow MINDsetters Kelly Duoos, Christine Nguyen, and Steve Fabian), missing the openers Love of Diagrams, but they miss any chance of handing off a WVFI hoodie directly to Leo before he takes the stage.


8:00 PM
The group arrives at the venue only to find that the Metro floor is already packed, and the MINDset group will have to reside near the back. Ted takes the stage and opens with the closing chords of "My Vien Ilyn" before going into "Sons of Cain."

9:58 PM
Realizing that it's now or never for the hoodie, Duoos and Nguyen push me through a crowd to the front to attempt a hoodie launch. With only a few measures left of "Walking To Do," I heave it over his head, between Leo and his second guitarist, in an attempt for the hoodie to be seen but not interrupt the performance. Only one of those goals was met. No one seems to notice the hoodie on the stage. Leo continues with a cover of Chumbawumba's "Rappaport's Testament," while the second guitarist glances at the hoodie like a rag.

10:08 PM
The band leaves the stage, no one picks up the hoodie. But hope springs that someone will discover it, realize its intent for the upper half of Leo's body, and return it to its rightful recipient.

10:15-12:00 PM
Several phone calls are made to multiple contacts in my cell phone saved as "Ted Leo." No response. I leave several stress-saturated messages that there is a hoodie for him back at the Metro.

April 29, 2007
Phone calls continue in the afternoon, but now the calls go straight to voice mail.

May 23, 2007, 8:50 PM
Waiting for Holy F*** to take the stage before !!!, Carolina Surla suggests that I call Ted one more time to follow up on the hoodie. He answers on the third ring. I explain the reason for my call. He says, "oh, man. I didn't see it [the WVFI hoodie] there. I really want one of those." Leo tells me he will send me contact info to mail him one.

The legend continues.