Thanks to the efforts of certain friends last night, getting up for work this morning was quite the chore. But while going through my project list for the day, I was treated to the dulcet sounds of a fire alarm. For 15 minutes. And there was no fire. At least the fire department showed up to make sure we weren’t burning - see above.

I think it’s going to be a long, good weekend, however. If you’re free tonight, swing by the party. The skinny: Durkin’s. 810 W. Diversey. $17 at the door. Open bar. 7 - 11 p.m.

Question of the day: When is legitimate to claim a piece of art? I’m working on updating the portraits of former bigwigs that hang in various locations around my office. Many of the originals date from the building’s construction, circa 1930, and are done in a variety of portraiture styles, from straight-ahead oil paintings to near-Impressionism to even pseudo-Surrealism. But I’m taking high-res digital headshots and running them through a Photoshop filter, then having them photo-imprinted onto sheets of canvas. However, I was instructed to put my signature on the bottom of each image I processed, and I’m not sure I should be doing that. Yes, I did some work on these images to prep them, and there is a need to be consistent with the existing portraits, as they’re all signed by the various artists, but doesn’t claiming something as my own ‘painting’ when all I did was click the mouse a few times, well, cheap? Either way, my signature’s already on there, so I suppose it doesn’t matter - I’m now a part of artistic history.