Category: Chicago-esque

Chicago related, duh

See Ya Later Kirk Hinrich

swanksalot1 Comment
Kirk Hinrich
Kirk Hinrich, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

with a pool of blood (or Chicago skyline screen)

see ya later Kirk
www.nba.com/bulls/news/hinrich_traded_100708.html?rss=true

The Chicago Bulls announced today that the team has traded guard Kirk Hinrich, the draft rights to forward Kevin Seraphin and cash considerations to the Washington Wizards in exchange to the draft rights to forward Vladimir Veremeenko.

“During this free agency period, we wanted to aggressively position ourselves to explore every avenue possible to improve our team. That said, it was not an easy decision for us trade Kirk, but one that we felt was necessary in order to make the Chicago Bulls a better basketball team,” said Chicago Bulls General Manager Gar Forman. “Since Kirk joined us back in 2003, he came to play every time he stepped on the court and he always gave 100 percent. We will miss Kirk and wish him the best of luck.”

…

Hinrich leaves the Bulls ranking first in team history in three-point field goals made (812), first in three-point field goals attempted (2,144), fourth in assists (3,004), fourth in steals (655), fifth in turnovers (1,116), sixth in three-point field goal percentage (.379), sixth in disqualifications (30), seventh in minutes played (17,502), eighth in points (6,902) and 10th in field goals made (2,510).

Illinois Law Requires Testing All Rape Kits

Seth Anderson0 comment

Amazing that other states don’t already have this requirement, and that Illinois has been so slack in processing rape kits.

Wheels Go RoundFacing criticism that physical evidence from sexual assault cases in Illinois often went unanalyzed, Gov. Patrick J. Quinn this week signed a law requiring the police to test all rape kits. State officials and victims’ advocates said it is the first such law in the nation.

Over the past year, critics had exposed a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits in Illinois, and officials said the law would send an important message.

“As a direct result of this law, we will increase the number of arrests and prosecutions of sex offenders and get them out of our communities and into prison,” said Lisa Madigan, the state’s attorney general.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch released a report showing that since 1995, only about 20 percent of rape kits, which contain physical evidence obtained from victims, could be confirmed as having been tested in Illinois. More than 4,000 kits had gone untested, the report found.

Testing of evidence like semen, saliva and other DNA samples can be used to identify an offender, to connect a case to another rape or to exonerate innocent suspects.

“Illinois’ failure to test DNA evidence is not only an insult to rape victims — it puts all women at risk by leaving rapists who could be identified at large, some of whom may attack again,” said Sarah Tofte, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.

The problem is widespread, with reports of thousands of untested kits in cities including Detroit and Houston.

(click to continue reading Illinois Law Requires Testing All Rape Kits to End Backlog – NYTimes.com.)

Also, who is funding this? The State of Illinois isn’t, as there isn’t any money to be had. The Federal Government has more important priorities – war, tax cuts and subsidies for Fortune 100 corporations – so talk is good, but execution will be proof.

But some worried that that language provided an out if funds were not available for tests — a distinct possibility, they said, for a state already facing a budget deficit of at least $12 billion.

Mr. Quinn said the state would apply for federal grants to test the backlog and find additional state money if necessary.

Human Rights Watch said the law could be a model for other states. “It’s a landmark piece of legislation, but there is this big loophole,” Ms. Tofte said. “The law is not going to be effective if the funding is not there.”

Fresh Picks – Awarded USDA Grant

Seth Anderson0 comment

Excellent. I’ve been a customer of Fresh Picks for nearly two years, and have been1 quite pleased with the quality of their foods, and the friendliness of their staff. If they deliver to your area, give ’em a try.

CHICAGO, July 2010– Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks, the service that brings the Farmer’s Market to your door all year-round, has been awarded an $81,000 grant by the United States Department of Agriculture. Owner Irvin Cernauskas states, “We are honored to be recognized by the Small Business Innovation Research Grant Program as an innovative business that has the capacity to i

Morel Mushrooms

mprove the health of people, farmers and the environment through our work.” Partnering with local sustainable farmers and the University of Illinois, Fresh Picks will use the grant to increase the fair trade supply of local food.

The Small Business Innovation Research Grant Program is very competitive, with only 15% of applications being awarded funding after review by an expert panel. The purpose of the Grant Program is to provide an opportunity for small businesses to submit innovative research and development projects that address important problems facing American agriculture and have the potential to lead to significant public benefit if the research is successful.   Along with taking the local sustainable food community to the next level, Fresh Picks aims to improve distribution of food into Chicago for local farmers. Co-owner Shelly Herman states, “With this project, we’ll encourage even more local organic food making its way to folks in the Chicago region. Our goal is to design ways to alleviate distribution bottlenecks so the many benefits of local food, principally to public health, the environment, and rural economies, can be increased and more broadly enjoyed.”

(click to continue reading Fresh Picks – Awarded USDA Grant.)

I love supporting local farmers and artisans, but find that actually getting out of my office to go the various Farmers’ Markets more difficult than it should be, so for me, having fresh, delicious produce and groceries delivered right to my door is awesome. I got two bags of stuff today as a matter of fact: various sprouts, fruits, brown eggs2, herbs, vegetables, cheese, a couple of steaks, even an onion bagel.

Via GapersBlock

Chuck Sudo of the Chicagoist added

Ah, vague press release boilerplate. For the plainspeak, we called Fresh Picks co-owner Shelly Herman. Herman said that she and her partner Irvin Cernauskas are looking to use the grant to streamline their distribution pipeline. “Our biggest challenge is getting food here from the farms we deal with,” Herman said. “With this grant, we’re making a concerted effort to create local hubs to aggregate food collection.” Herman hopes to eventually reduce the length of travel for farms to get their food to Fresh Picks and provide even more variety for her customers.

(click to continue reading Irv & Shelly’s Wins Grant – Chicagoist.)

Footnotes:
  1. mostly [↩]
  2. so much more delicious and fresh than the eggs you find even in a high-end grocery store like Whole Foods [↩]

CTA Red Line fire

Seth Anderson0 comment

Clark and Division Red Line

We happened to be walking past this area, and noticed the commotion:

Investigators worked late into the night Sunday to figure out what had sparked an extra-alarm fire on an underground track that sent 19 people to hospitals for smoke inhalation and respiratory problems.

Five people were transported with serious injuries, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado said. The injured included a 10-year-old boy who was being held overnight at Children’s Memorial Hospital for smoke inhalation. The extent of their injuries was not known Sunday night.

“The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see across the aisle,” said passenger Dillon Johnson, 23. “We all started to sit down on the floor where the smoke wasn’t as bad.”

Fire officials said railroad ties caught fire just before 5 p.m. on the northbound track between the Red Line stops at Chicago Avenue and Clark/Division. Black smoke could be seen billowing from several subway grates and vents in the area, including near Gibsons Bar and Steakhouse on Rush Street. Red Line trains and several bus routes were redirected while firefighters fought the small underground blaze.

Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said it’s unclear what sparked the fire, but that railroad ties occasionally catch fire during the summer heat.

(click to continue reading Red Line fire: 19 people injured in CTA track fire – chicagotribune.com.)

Easily twenty fire trucks, plus various Chicago Transit Authority police cars, a couple of Water Department trucks, and police too. They had cordoned a large area off from cars, but were allowing pedestrians to still walk through, so of course I had to see what was going on.

Also yesterday witnessed a large arrest of some sort on Chicago and State Streets, an arrest that involved 7 or 8 police cars and SUVs, and a dude being detained on the ground in hand cuffs. Still don’t know what that was. Oh, and earlier called 911 when we witnessed a young boy riding his bike swerve against an oncoming taxi1 and ram his head right into a street light post. We heard the collision from a block away. He was with his father and a couple of brothers, all on bikes, but we were worried he might have sustained a concussion. Didn’t stay to see however, just called for an ambulance.

Crazy day.

Footnotes:
  1. the bikes were going the wrong way on a one way street [↩]

Blues Brothers and Jane Byrne

Seth Anderson0 comment


“The Blues Brothers (Widescreen 25th Anniversary Edition)” (John Landis)

Netflix

Jane Byrne was the first mayor after Richard J Daley died1, and she was willing to do things differently than Daley. Thankfully, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi waited, or else an iconic Chicago film wouldn’t have gotten a green light.

John Belushi walked into Jane Byrne’s office, sweat beading on his forehead. Dan Aykroyd waited outside the door. He gave Belushi, a Wheaton native, the breathing room to appeal to the mayor, hat in hand, local boy to local girl. Belushi was nervous. Byrne expected him to be. She sat at her desk stone-faced and silent, she recalled, offering no relief.

Mayor Daley the Dictator

Belushi and Aykroyd wanted to shoot a movie in Chicago, but, as everyone knew, Chicago government wasn’t exactly amenable to movie production. There wasn’t an official policy or anything. Movies did shoot here. Brian DePalma shot “The Fury” here a year earlier. A lot of commercials were shot here. There was even a cottage porn industry in River North. But the cooperation needed for a large-scale Hollywood production — the kind Belushi, Aykroyd and director John Landis had in mind, only bigger — was out of the question. It had been for years.

It was 1979, and Byrne had just started her term. Mayor Richard J. Daley, the reason movie studios usually didn’t consider Chicago a viable location, had died three years earlier. Byrne, now 76, remembered that Belushi “looked kind of fat, a sweaty guy already, but he wore a suit jacket and I thought he looked sick, to be honest. To the point that his hair was getting wet. I was a fan of his. But, of course, I wasn’t going to say this right away.”

So, for a laugh, she let him drown. She thought it would be funnier if she “acted like the first Daley, nodding like Buddha.”

“I know how Chicago feels about movies,” the comedian said to the mayor. Byrne nodded. Belushi said the studio would like to donate some money to Chicago orphanages in lieu of throwing a big, expensive premiere. “How much money?” she asked. He said, “$200,000.” She nodded again.

“And so he kept talking,” Byrne recalled. “Finally, I just said, ‘Fine.’ But he kept going. So again I said, ‘Look, I said fine.’ He said, ‘Wait. We also want to drive a car through the lobby of Daley Plaza. Right though the window.’ I remember what was in my mind as he said it. I had the whole 11th Ward against me anyway, and most of Daley’s people against me. They owned this city for years, so when Belushi asked me to drive a car through Daley Plaza, the only thing I could say was, ‘Be my guest!’ He said, ‘We’ll have it like new by the morning.’ I said, ‘Look, I told you yes.’ And that’s how they got my blessing.”

And that, more or less, is how Chicago became a regular location for movie production.

(click to continue reading Blues Brothers movie 30th anniversary – chicagotribune.com.)

but it all wasn’t peaches and cream:

Few claim “The Blues Brothers” changed filmmaking here overnight — retired casting director Alderman, for instance, pointed out that the industry has gone through dramatic swings, generating $24 million in 2003, $155 million in 2007. But few debate that those 14 weeks of production in 1979 were the turning point. Indeed, to Byrne, “The Blues Brothers” should be remembered as no less than the dawn of contemporary Chicago, “part of one big push to remind people how attractive their city was.” “I didn’t see it any different from sidewalk dining or Taste of Chicago,” both of which started during her term, she said.Richard J Daley Bicentennial Plaza

Landis, however, doesn’t remember it as a bright, new civic dawn. By summer 1980, he was one of the hottest directors in Hollywood. His previous film was “Animal House.” “The Blues Brothers” was then one of the most expensive movies ever made (and became a blockbuster). But as he entered the lobby after the Norridge screening, he said the tension seemed elsewhere.

“These two Cook County commissioners approach Jane,” Landis said. “And they start shouting at her. They were really abusive, and you could see her getting mad. ‘How could you have let them do this?’ they screamed. ‘They ruined the floors! Troops on Daley Plaza!’ It was the most bizarre scene. She’s saying back, ‘They replaced the floors!’ A guy’s shouting, ‘No way we let this happen!’ She’s saying, ‘It happened months ago! And you didn’t even notice!'”

Footnotes:
  1. one term only, I think [↩]

Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers memories

Seth Anderson5 Comments


“The Blues Brothers (Collector’s Edition)” (Universal Studios)

Would have been fun to stumble upon The Blues Bar. Wonder which building specifically Dan Aykroyd is talking about?

1355 wells

On the Blues Bar:

“Here’s the story on that. When Second City switched companies with the Toronto company, which I had been a part of, I moved to Chicago. I lived there with John Candy. I was with Gilda (Radner), too. I fell in love with Chicago and loved being a resident. I explored the blues culture and would go to Checker Board Lounge and blues clubs on Halsted. I absorbed the culture. And at that time there was this bar on Wells, near Second City and the Old Town Ale House. It was yellow and had been one of the few houses to survive the big fire. So when we came out to make the movie, we found the lease on the place was up. So John and I took the lease and basically opened this (unlicensed) tavern. We would come to drink when we had time off. Weekends became precious to us during that shoot. We’d go across the street to see improv, wake up at four in the afternoon. We were living in Astor Towers. But the bar — we gave everything away, it was basically a promotional thing. But a lot of musicians came through. Jackson Browne. Joe Walsh.”

(click to continue reading Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers memories: On the 30th anniversary of The Blues Brothers, Aykroyd recalls filming the blockbuster comedy in Chicago – chicagotribune.com.)

Wells Street in the rain

Haven’t seen The Blues Brothers in years and years, not since before I moved to Chicago actually. Curious to how it plays now that I have some familiarity with the city and its history1

One more snippet from the interview:

“Our story (Jake and Elwood get their band back together to raise money for an orphanage) came from a newspaper story. The story was that the city was going to levy taxes on orphanages with schools located in them. So this is where we came up with this idea of dealing with state and religion, because if you look at many Catholic populations, in Chicago, and in Canada, where I’m from, the two are pretty linked. I think we used that as a starting point, then dealt with other cultural characteristics and figures.

Certainly when we were there, (the film) was spoken of as this great event, and the city, of course, became a character alongside all those great musical numbers and beautiful musicians, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown. The antagonists are the state, and Landis did a great job — Chicago looks as good as Paris the way he treated the architecture and drawbridges and the grit of some of the factories on the South Side. … Certainly Chicago was this known cultural entity. In Europe, they know Capone and the blues and the architecture, so I think the city was already famous, of course, but what we did was enhance its beauty while poking fun at its institutions. But it was John Landis’ picture. It wasn’t perfect, but to this day if you have someone who has never been to America before, (that film) might provide them a lot.”

Footnotes:
  1. Netflix [↩]

Buddy Guy’s Lament for the Blues in The Backyard

Seth Anderson0 comment

Buddy Guy's Legends - Chicago's Premier Blues Club

[the old Buddy Guy’s Legends Blues Club]

Buddy Guy said he was worried about the blues.

…

When Mr. Guy arrived here in 1957, it was the heyday of Chess Records, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, and there seemed to be a blues venue — like the 1815 Club, Theresa’s, the Blue Flame Lounge — on every other corner. Some were no more than tiny rooms that could fit 35 people if no one took a deep breath.

There were so many clubs, Mr. Guy said, “you couldn’t count them all.”

One reason the clubs thrived, he said, was because “back then, everybody had a job.” People could afford to go out, and everybody wanted to hear the famous Chicago blues.

“When the Beatles started, they came here,” Mr. Guy said. “When the Rolling Stones started, they were on 21st and Michigan, trying to find Chess Records.”

Those days are long gone. The relocated Legends, which opened its doors on May 28 at 700 South Wabash Avenue, is one of the city’s few remaining venues dedicated to live blues. Mr. Guy hopes his club will provide emerging blues musicians with the kind of exposure he got playing at the 708 Club and the Blue Flame.

“If there wasn’t a club when I came here, nobody was going to see me walking down 47th Street and say: ‘There goes Buddy Guy. One day he’s going to be a guitar player,’ ” said Mr. Guy, an energetic 74. “I had to go into those clubs and play.”

Lincoln T. Beauchamp, known as Chicago Beau, is a musician, magazine publisher and author of a book about the city’s blues history. The blues community that once flourished on the South and West Sides, Mr. Beauchamp said, fell victim to changing social and economic conditions.

“Pre-integration, the black community was a lot more vibrant,” he said. “Along 47th Street and Cottage Grove, you had a community that was able to sustain itself, and the blues and jazz clubs were part of it, not just socially but also politically.”

(click to continue reading Chicago News Cooperative – A Lament for the Blues in Their Backyard – NYTimes.com.)

Times are changing, but not always for the better

Chicago Corruption

Seth Anderson0 comment

Nice spin by Ronald Safer – Chicago isn’t more corrupt than other cities, it only seems that way because the US Attorney’s Office is so effective at rooting out the corruption. Well, that’s one way of looking at the situation I guess.

Pillars of Construction

For more than three decades, the United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago has made its reputation successfully prosecuting public servants. It has sent to prison Cook County judges, scores of Chicago aldermen and other City Hall officials, as well as former Gov. George Ryan. But in terms of pure news media spectacle and national profile, the Blagojevich trial may be the biggest test yet for an office with a storied legacy.

“The hobby of the office has been public corruption,” said Scott Lassar, the United States attorney whom Mr. Fitzgerald succeeded in 2001.

Though there is a common perception that the city’s politics are corrupt, “I don’t think it is only because corruption is rampant in Chicago and nowhere else,” said Ronald S. Safer, who worked as an assistant United States attorney from 1989 to 1999 and is now managing partner at the law firm Schiff Hardin. “It is, in part, because the F.B.I. and United States attorney’s offices have gotten so effective at uncovering it” that Chicago has a higher percentage of corruption cases.

(click to continue reading Chicago News Cooperative – Passion and Success in U.S. Attorney’s Office – NYTimes.com.)

Blagojevich Country

The contrary view is that Chicago is incredibly and deeply corrupt, there are so many prosecutions here because the US Attorney’s Office doesn’t have to look very hard to find illegal activity.

Daley as Patron of the Arts

Seth Anderson0 comment

Really? Mayor Daley? I guess one could argue that the downtown has been revitalized since the 1990s, certainly more after-dark options in the Loop than there used to be.

Wicked TRI-X 400

The downtown Chicago Theater District honored Mr. Daley on its 10th anniversary, led by Broadway in Chicago, the potent operator of downtown theaters, as well as by the Goodman Theatre and the 250-theater Chicago League of Theatres. The celebratory tone came amid the mayor’s difficult year, replete with an awful economy, budget travails, the suicide of a top ally and his lowest popularity ratings in years.

“No one has worked harder and risked more than Mayor Daley,” declared Lou Raizin, president of Broadway in Chicago.

Mr. Raizin alluded to the Loop’s distinctly melancholy state not long ago — before the refurbishing of several theaters like the Auditorium, the expansion of Loop university campuses, and new restaurants — and the benefits of the revitalization for his firm. They include annual audiences of 1.7 million, a decade of payrolls totaling $100 million and the impact on other sectors, like hotels, with 6.7 percent of local hotel occupancy attributed to people coming to town to see his shows, like the musical “Billy Elliott.”

Some Daley critics might have winced upon hearing Mr. Raizin present the case for tax increment financing, or TIFs. They’re a development tool, used nationwide, that Daley has relied on to, critics say, benefit developers at the expense of other public entities such as public schools and parks. They’ve been essential to the downtown theaters, he said.

And if the activity in the Loop at night leaves a lot to be desired, you cannot deny the failure of previous mayors to turn matters around. Remember Jane Byrne’s ignominious State Street Mall gambit?

Roche Schulfer, executive director of the Goodman, called what has happened with the theater district “a signal achievement in urban development and private-public partnerships,” lauding the mayor’s “vision, tenacity and courage.”

Mr. Daley’s arts record is solid and goes well beyond the time he stood on the “Jersey Boys” stage and exhorted Chicagoans to go watch theater. For all the caricature of the monosyllabic, middle-brow politician, the mayor has been a force, in part due to his world travels and a propensity to borrow the ideas of others.

Whether it’s fiberglass cows on street corners, the handiwork of world famous architects or teaching Chinese in the public schools, the mayor has a sophisticated sensibility akin to a plodding baseball pitcher’s sneaky changeup — it’s frequently missed.

(click to continue reading Chicago News Cooperative – Daley Takes Center Stage as Patron of the Arts – NYTimes.com.)

Cadillac Palace BW

So I guess let the Mayor have his moment, he won’t be in office much longer, doling out the TIF dollars.

Everyblock and the Chicago Police Department

Seth Anderson1 Comment

I’ve been a long time fan of EveryBlock, from its earlier incarnation called Chicago Crime.org, through its purchase by MSNBC. I had noticed this police report information shortfall as well.

Sunday Morning Parking Lot

In Chicago, the police department declines to make any details available online to us or to EveryBlock, a five-member operation based here. EveryBlock was bought last year by MSNBC.com and cranks out daily updates for neighborhoods in 15 other cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Dallas.

The site’s frustration with Chicago underscores how scant our access is to public records at most levels of government.

Take the city’s Department of Public Health. It stopped updating its Web site last year. That means that for months, citizens haven’t been able to find out about, say, what restaurants have been hit with violations. In part, the department blames technological problems.

EveryBlock is the brainchild of soft-spoken, angular Adrian Holovaty, 29, well-known in the online world for innovations in computer code. He retains oversight and, with two colleagues, operates out of an airy but bare Ravenswood loft about a mile north of Wrigley Field.

Mr. Holovaty is asking his audience here to sign a petition, to prod the Chicago Police Department to change its ways. He links to the petition from each crime. ‘Would you like to see more information about this crime? So would we!’ he asks.”

(click to continue reading Chicago News Cooperative – In the Age of Information, the Police Department Lags Behind – NYTimes.com.)

What is strange is that the local paper The Chicago Journal has a page of police reports written in English. I guess these are hand-crafted by Chicago Journal reporters? They are not as extensive, of course.

If you have a second, take the time to sign the EveryBlock petition.

Chicago Police Bomb Squad

Chicago Police Bomb Squad

As I hinted, I love Everyblock – I receive a daily email about my 8 block area, and another email1 that contains all news in a hand-crafted area of my own choosing, plus I subscribe to an RSS feed that covers similar ground, and have the EveryBlock iPhone app installed.

Neighborhood demarcations are like country borders, they are useful sometimes, but in real life, are less meaningful. When I walk around taking photos, there is an area that I usually stick to – about a mile in some directions, but it is not a geometrically perfect circle. I walk west to Ashland, but usually not beyond, walk south to maybe Jackson, or occasionally Van Buren, but not beyond, walk north to Chicago Avenue, along the Chicago River, but not west of Halsted, walk into the Loop proper, but not too far. In other words2 my personal stomping ground includes portions of 4 or 5 different neighborhoods, but to me, it feels like one. EveryBlock allows me to mark a map and then pulls information from this marked “personal” neighborhood3.

Anyway, I strongly agree with Mr. Holovaty that the Chicago Police should open up their data for EveryBlock, I don’t see the downside for CPD.

It’s one thing to know there was a $300 theft down the street; it’s another to read the police officer’s description. “Clearly, there’s a huge difference between a random break-in and, say, an ex-boyfriend breaking into an apartment to get his stuff,” Mr. Holovaty says.

We can get those details if we go to the police station. But the department won’t make descriptions available online. The end result is ignorance, possibly about the real dangers in a neighborhood. Lack of context can breed fear and needless anxiety.

Chicago is not alone in arguing that there are privacy concerns, notably names of victims, and what can be raw descriptions replete with misspellings. But Mr. Holovaty underscores that EveryBlock, as a matter of policy, does not run people’s names on any of its listings, be they crimes, real estate transactions or granting of business licenses.

Further, he says he could devise algorithmic solutions to dealing with privacy issues like bad spelling and raw language. But he meets resistance.

“The trend in the law is fairly robust when it comes to access for the public,” said Eve Burton, vice president and general counsel for the Hearst Corporation. “But the practice among those implementing the laws is less good, and media companies are no longer putting the time, energy and resources into being the watchdog of government.”

If government wanted to live up to its obligations, technology could make everything from crime reports to restaurant inspections available. But instead, the cat-and-mouse game will continue, with government preferring secrecy and the likes of Mr. Holovaty banging on doors, or at least their data servers.

Footnotes:
  1. overkill I know, but what can I say, I adore collecting information [↩]
  2. for non-Chicagoans [↩]
  3. news, photos, real estate transactions, city permits, whatever [↩]

One Kind Favor

Seth Anderson0 comment

Skybridge, West Loop. Applied the new 3D filter in Photoshop CS5, can you tell? Pretty subtle, at least on this particular photo.
One Kind Favor

[Click to embiggen, natch]

My AlienSkin filters1 no longer work – they claim a new version of Exposure is to be released in June, taking advantage of the 64 bit architecture of Photoshop CS5. Haven’t attempted to run CS5 in 32-bit mode. Also haven’t tried my scanner to see if it will work, or if Epson has released new drivers yet.2

Footnotes:
  1. that emulate various films and darkroom techniques [↩]
  2. doubtful, but who knows [↩]

Threadless moving to West Madison

Seth Anderson0 comment

Cool, I’ll pop in there more often, perhaps.

Threadless on Broadway

T-shirt firm Threadless moving to West Loop | Crain’s Chicago Business: “Internet T-shirt retailer Threadless.com plans to move its headquarters from Ravenswood to a former FedEx Corp. warehouse in the West Loop. Threadless, which lets online visitors choose the designs of the T-shirts it sells, hopes to move into the 45,000-square-foot building at 1260 W. Madison St. in July, says Charles Stephens, the company’s vice-president of operations. The 10-year-old firm, which shipped two million T-shirts last year, is quickly outgrowing its operations in Ravenswood on the North Side, where it has two warehouses that would function more efficiently if they were in the same building, Mr. Stephens says. ‘We’ve got some pretty aggressive growth targets, and in order to scale up and meet that growth, we’ve got to eliminate that bottleneck,’ he says. Threadless signed a seven-year lease for the West Loop building with a five-year extension option, says Larry Bell, chief financial officer at JRG Capital Partners LLC, the Chicago-based firm that acquired the FedEx property last year. Mr. Bell hopes the Chicago City Council this month will approve a zoning change that would allow Threadless to use the building. “

(Via T-shirt firm Threadless moving to West Loop | Crain’s Chicago Business.)

This location1 was originally just going to be a mixed use condo building, Threadless is much better from my perspective.

Via GB

Had Enough for a Long Time
This photo taken on a friend’s balcony, right next door on West Madison

Footnotes:
  1. which I went to frequently when it was an active FedEx drop-off point, closing at 9PM [↩]

Churchgoers forced to pay parking gods to pray

Seth Anderson1 Comment

Poor, poor Christians, forced to pay the city a pittance. Not forced to pay property taxes or anything like that, but even contributing nickles and dimes is apparently too much of a burden.

No Parking

Churchgoers forced to pay to pray: Ever since the steeple of Chicago’s First United Methodist Church went up across the street from City Hall in the 1830s, worshippers have sought a place to hitch their horse or park their station wagon to pray.

But since the city privatized its parking meters last year, more churchgoers have encountered unanswered prayers for parking. Pricey meters and restricted curbside parking now surround historic houses of worship in the Loop, forcing the faithful to pay to pray or get free parking by volunteering for soup kitchens, tutoring or other ministries.

Some pastors are pushing the city to consider what churches contribute to city life and ease parking restrictions for congregants, especially on Sunday mornings when commercial and government traffic is light.

(Via Churchgoers forced to pay to pray.)

Fixing Another Parking Meter

If churches whine themselves into special treatment, I’m petitioning various businesses I frequent to become churches too; restaurants, bars, retail, whatever. Only makes sense, right? Food can be a transcendent experience, better than any bible thumping, at least for me. In fact, I’m declaring that I am a Church, so I demand the right to park anywhere in the City of Chicago for free, at any time.

A Moment In Time May 2nd 2010

Seth Anderson0 comment

The Lens blog of The New York Times invited all photographers, of all levels of skill, to submit a photo taken at 15:00 UTC, which translated into 10 AM C.S.T. for me.

May Day Lingerers Chicago

May 2nd. Activists lingering at the Haymarket Riot Memorial Statue, with guitars and so forth.

embiggen

Uploaded to the New York Times “A Moment in Time” global mosaic.

Where will you be on Sunday, May 2, at 15:00 hours (U.T.C.)?

Wherever you are, we hope you’ll have a camera — or a camera phone — in hand. And we hope you’ll be taking a picture to send to Lens that will capture this singular instant in whatever way you think would add to a marvelous global mosaic; a Web-built image of one moment in time across the world.

We extend the invitation to everyone, everywhere. Amateurs. Students. Pros. People who’ve been photographing for a lifetime or who just started yesterday.

What matters more than technique is the thought behind the picture, because you’ll only be sending us one. So please do think beforehand about where you will want to be and what you will want to focus on. Here are the general topics:

Religion
Play
Nature and the Environment
Family
Work
Arts and Entertainment
Money and the Economy
Community
Social Issues

[Click to continue reading A Timely Global Mosaic, Created by All of Us – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com]

I was reading my Sunday papers (including, coincidentally, The New York Times), drinking my first coffee of the day, and almost forgot about the project. However, I remembered in time to put on a clean shirt and strap on my camera for a brief walk up and down my street. I took about a dozen photos, a few of which I’ve uploaded to Flickr. The photo above, of the Haymarket Riot Memorial Statue is the one I submitted, even though I’m not that happy with it, truth be told.

Here are a few others I took this morning. Click a photo to enlarge it…

Everlasting Broken Windows
Everlasting broken windows

Sunday Morning Parking Lot
Sunday morning Parking Lot

Contrained Urban Living
Constrained Urban Living – Polapan Blue

Roofs May Second 2010
Rooftops

Green Roof-esque
Green Roof-esque

Chicago Ice Age
Chicago Ice Age

Anthony Bourdain Loves Him Some Chicago Dogs

Seth Anderson0 comment

Can’t say I blame him, New York City dogs are decidedly lesser than Chicago dogs. Also, deep dish pizza is like eating a big piece of bread, and I’m not a huge fan either.

Chicago Dog

Kevin Pang interviews Bourdain, including this question:

KPangWhat can you say about the Chicago food scene that would piss off Chicago foodies?

I don’t like deep dish pizza, except for Burt’s Place (in Morton Grove) which was quite wonderful. Most deep dish is awful and not pizza, I don’t know what it is. It’s ugly stuff. But that’s about it. I love Chicago. Chicago’s one of the few American cities that’s big enough to support a large number of high end restaurants. A lot of cities cannot support restaurants like Charlie Trotter or Alinea or Blackbird. There just aren’t enough wealthy people. It’s a big town, it’s got great food on the high end and low end. And I’m on record admitting the Chicago hot dog is far superior than the New York hot dog.

KP: Any places in Chicago you’re eager to visit?

Publican I’d like to try.

[Click to continue reading Anthony Bourdain interview: No Reservations star talks TV, food and more – chicagotribune.com]