Friday (and today for that matter) was very 'spring-like', with temperatures reaching 50 degrees. So, after a lunch at a place we stumbled onto (Simply Soups), we walked around Oz Park, and watched the snow melt for a while. Err, something like that.
click for larger versions, natch
Cowardly Lion statue at Oz Park, Chicago.
Wall mural at the corner of Damen and Lake. I call it 50 50 poems poems poems because I don't know its real title. The socioeconomic status of this neighborhood is significantly less than it is perhaps 5 blocks away. You can tell by the vacant lots, prevalence of liquor stores, etc. However, there is something ineffably cool about this mural. I wish I knew more about the artist and subject. There should be a website, searchable by address, where you could look stuff up like that.
Update 2/17/05:In a follow up to this photo Sam Spratlin (also here and here) was kind enough to write:
i was on your blog whilst doing some random searching and i saw your post about the mural off damen and lake... it was painted by a guy named jeff zimmerman... he has done a number of other ones in various chicago neighborhoods... the subject matter of each is location-specific... he takes pics of residents and puts them in the work... he also paints a lot of paintings of ice cream trucks... keep an eye out, i'm sure he will have another gallery show sometime in the future.
A little google search led to Jeff Zimmerman's page
Thanks, Sam!
The proper name is Top of the World.
the infamous/famous Rainbo Club, in Wicker Park. Nelson Algren's hangout (if I'm not mistaken, Man with the Golden Arm mentions it), etc. Also where I had my Liz Phair “incident”.
What was the Liz Phair incident?
Oh, just some harmless flirting that I couldn't follow up with, because I already had a girl-friend. Even though L.P. was a rock star, I couldn't do that.