Haymarket, one May Day.
Tag: Chicago
Been Waiting on the Bus All Day Part Two
I got my brown paper bag and my take-home pay
In re: nothing in particular, this photo taken while a passenger in a car, slowly creeping up Lawrence Avenue a few summers ago. Modified in Photoshop using Kodak T-Max p3200 emulation.
I know this isn’t a technically masterful photo, but I like something ineffable about it. Maybe it is the “fuck you” look, maybe the slight blur. Maybe the Dentist neon behind the dude in wife-beater wear.
Dreamtime, West Loop
Another view of two of the Presidential Tower buildings, taken a few seconds before this photo.
Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: Salvador 84
Flash: Off
Film: DreamCanvas
Dream caused by the flight of a bee near Presidential Towers
Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: Salvador 84
Flash: Cadet Blue Gel
Film: DreamCanvas
Lightbox version for your viewing pleasure.
Title stolen from Salvador Dali’s painting: Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, 1944
Election Day November 2, 2010
Outside my polling location. On the other side of this demarcation, a Rahm Emmanuel volunteer was collecting signatures to put Emmanuel on the ballot for Mayor.
Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone1
In 2008, we voted with electronic voting machines2, today, the ballots were paper: selection of a candidate was made by using a pen and connecting a line from one side to another. Wonder what happened to the electronic machines? I’m happy, actually, to use the older style ballot, seems like it would be easier to conduct a recount with this kind of document as opposed to a digital record.
- Lens: John S / Flash: Off / Film: Ina’s 1935 [↩]
- even though there was some sort of paper trail [↩]
West Loop Nocturne
Everyone Singing a Soft Tune
I’m a sucker for photographing lights. Never know what turns up. When I was younger, and hung out in night clubs more often, I often brought my 35 mm Nikon, which didn’t have a flash, and took long exposure blurred photos, aiming at whatever light was available. This isn’t par with those sorts of shots, but it is a distant relative.
Lightbox version.
Burden of the Beast
Hubbard Street, Fulton Market, West Loop.
by tiptoe
It was the first of a three part werewolf series which went up in Chicago and New York.
I’m glad to see it’s aging well.
The artist’s website has photos of some other work (that I’ve also photographed), check it out.
such as:
and
plus my sister took this photo in New York recently.
Interesting stuff, I like it.
When The Air Does Laugh
Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone1
Lightbox version
Yesterday, the Chicago media started drumming up fear and awe for a storm front that was rolling in, with stories such as:
A combination of strong thunderstorms, followed by violent and destructive winds, will make for one of the Midwest’s most dangerous storms in 70 years. The temperature Monday hit the 70s under partly sunny skies. But when Tuesday morning comes around, the Chicago area will be slammed with furious thunderstorms as a cold front passes over the area. Damaging winds will likely be a component of the thunderstorms, and there is a risk of tornadoes,
The severe storms are expected to sweep into the area between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. Tuesday, coming in the form of a squall line, which often means strong straight-line winds. The storms will be at their heaviest during the Tuesday morning rush. The rain and severe storms will pass out of the area by midday, but at that point, high and dangerous winds will roar into the area. The winds will maintain a sustained speed of 35 to 40 mph, and may gust to 55 mph or more. They will be most severe north of Interstate 88, particularly along the Wisconsin border, Kleist said. Over Lake Michigan, hurricane-force winds are possible.
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The National Weather Service reports that based on its records, this will probably be one of the most powerful storm in 70 years, Kleist said.
(click to continue reading Storm To Be Among Worst In 70 Years « CBS Chicago – News, Sports, Weather, Traffic, and the Best of Chicago.)
Of course, when the actual storm arrived2, it was mild. There were a few gusts of wind, and a splash of rain, but nothing End of Times-esque, as the media had promised/threatened.
The photo above was taken out of my window, during the worst part of the deluge. I liked how the light caught the water droplets on the window screen – they look like pieces of gold.
Footnotes:Doris Lessing comes to town
Roger Ebert carted around Studs Terkel and Doris Lessing in 1969 – that would have been a blast, I’m assuming.
Sinking into an overstuffed chair in Studs Terkel’s apartment with her legs curled beneath her, Doris Lessing looked small, vulnerable (and in the best sense) catlike. It was Sunday afternoon and she was sipping brandy and listening to stories about Studs’ trip to South Africa. And you thought: So this, after all, is Doris Lessing. And the next moment you thought: Of course.
Doris Lessing is the sort of novelist the Village Voice is inspired to describe as a “cult author.” That is completely wrong, but it proves a lead. For 20 years, and especially since the publication of “The Golden Notebook” in 1962. Ms. Lessing has given voice to a postwar generation which has reopened questions of politics, sexuality and personal identity.
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Out of some misguided sense of modesty, I suppressed an element in this story. When Studs gave Doris Lessing the tour of Chicago, I was the driver. That was because Studs, the quintessential city-dweller, had never learned to drive, and wanted me to drive them around. For three days, Studs showed Chicago to Lessing, and to me.
This was one of the great experiences of my life. We saw the hotel at Grand and Wells which Studs’ mother managed, and where he was raised. And the Biograph Theater, where John Dillinger was shot. And one afternoon we drove through Washington Park.
“Stop here!” Studs said. “You see that tree over there? That’s where Studs Lonigan kissed Lucy Scanlon. That’s where I got my nickname — from ‘Studs Lonigan,’ the Chicago novel by James T. Farrell.”
We got out of the car and walked into the park.
“This is where he kissed her, all those years ago,” Studs said.
(click to continue reading Doris Lessing comes to town :: rogerebert.com :: People.)
No Sense Of Time
Better in Lightbox
Both Metra and Amtrak use these rails to link to Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center so they are quite active with trains. Shot with my Nikon 18mm-200mm lens, and converted to black and white in Photoshop using the Alien Skin Exposure 3 plugin. If this area of the West Loop wasn’t so fouled with diesel smoke, I’d set up a tripod here, and get a better, long exposure shot, maybe even a photo that included a CTA train in the track in the upper right of the frame, but it is, and I’m impatient anyway.
Caught Without A Ticket
I know I’m probably repeating myself1 but the shadows under the El tracks were just too richly inviting to ignore. Franklin Street, Little Hell2 area. Shot using a Tokina 12mm-24mm lens, converted to black and white in Photoshop with the help of Alien Skin’s Exposure 3 plugin.
better in Lightbox
Footnotes:Montgomery Ward Park
a view of the eastern part of the newly named park at Kingsbury and Erie1
It took him two decades to win his personal battle to get rid of the seedy stables, railroad sheds and other eyesores along the lakefront to turn it into what would become Grant Park.
It took Chicago nearly a century to name a park in his honor.
A Montgomery Ward Park was officially dedicated Monday at 630 N. Kingsbury.
It’s named for Aaron Montgomery Ward, the retail catalog pioneer who famously declared that Grant Park should be “forever open, clear and free.”
“Based on his civic contribution, this honor is long overdue,” Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said.
(click to continue reading An honor a century in the making :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State.)
probably waiting for the various dignitaries to arrive2
another recent view of the park.
Footnotes:Today Ward is recognized for his hard work, generosity and vision.
“[He] pulled out his checkbook to pay for lawsuit after lawsuit,” Tranter said.
“We wouldn’t have had Grant Park to fight over … were it not for A. Montgomery Ward’s efforts to protect it,” Reilly said.Significantly, A. Montgomery Ward Park, formerly called Park 511, is on land once owned by the retailer.
The park, on the corner of Erie and Kingsbury, features rolling hills, small trees, a riverwalk and a playground.
Reilly said “some modest improvements” to the playground and riverwalk are in the works because of the park’s growing popularity. “In the summer months, you can’t find a blade of grass,” he said.
- I always have called it Erie Park, but apparently until this week, its official name was the generic sounding Park 511 [↩]
- Mike Riordan, president of River North Residents Association; state Rep. Ken Dunkin; Erma Tranter, president of Friends of the Park; Ald. Brendan Reilly, and former Ald. Burt Natarus. [↩]
Kass Is A Bit Clueless
John Kass has a point in his passionate defense of the Chicago Tribune; I have no doubt most reporters just do their jobs without resorting to Clear Channel-esque frat-house shenanigans, and admonitions to “show yer tits” as Tribune executives allegedly did. But his tired cliche about bloggers shouldn’t have made it past the editors. It was a cliche ten years ago, and even more so these days. The folks who are professional bloggers1 are just as much part of the 21st century media as ink stained wretches at daily newspapers.2
I told you what the Chicago Tribune is not. Now let me tell you what it is. It’s reporters, photographers and editors, analysts and designers, and others who help us with the work. Our newspaper is just one part of Tribune Co., and what the corporate bosses do is separate from what we do.
Chicago Tribune reporters work in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. They do not blog from mommy’s basement, cutting and pasting what others have reported, while putting it under a cute pen name on the Internet.
(click to continue reading Kass: Frat house atmosphere in the Tribune? Not in the newsroom. – chicagotribune.com.)
Randy Michaels is going to leave the Tribune, by the way, and while the New York Times recent story was probably the catalyst, there certainly were non-basement-dwelling bloggers involved too.
Randy Michaels, Tribune Co.’s embattled chief executive, has decided to resign his post at the Chicago-based media company and intends to leave the company before the end of the week, sources close to the situation said.
He will be replaced by a four-member office of the president that the sources said would comprise Eddy Hartenstein, president and publisher of the Los Angeles Times; Tony Hunter, president and publisher of the Chicago Tribune Media Group; Nils Larsen, Tribune Co.’s chief investment officer; and Don Liebentritt, chief restructuring officer.
The development comes after weeks of turmoil at the bankrupt company, brought on by assertions that Michaels and his management team displayed boorish behavior and fostered a sexist, hostile work environment. Even as the Tribune Co. board met Tuesday to discuss Michaels’ fate in light of the crisis, new complaints by current and former employees were emerging.
…
Michaels’ departure may have become inevitable when the New York Times newspaper ran an unflattering report earlier this month that colored the company as a sexist “frat house” increasingly populated with former Michaels associates from the radio industry.
That perception seemed to be confirmed several days later when Lee Abrams, whom Michaels handpicked as his chief innovation officer, sent all employees an e-mail containing a link to a video of a newscast parody with nudity and profanity that he labeled “Sluts.”
(click to continue reading Tribune’s top exec poised to resign – chicagotribune.com.)
Footnotes:
links for 2010-10-15
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The Apple logo was multicolor because the Apple II was the first color computer. No one else could do color, so that’s why they put the color blocks into the logo. If you wanted to print the logo in a magazine ad or on a package you could print it with four colors but Steve being Steve insisted on six colors. So whenever the Apple logo was printed, it was always printed in six colors. It added another 30 to 40 percent to the cost of everything, but that’s what Steve wanted. That’s what we always did. He was a perfectionist even from the early days.
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The corner of North Leavitt and West Randolph looks a far cry from the most dangerous neighborhood in America as reported my several large national and local media outlets.
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Mayor Richard M. Daley joined Near West Side residents and members of the business community in dedicating the national headquarters of CB2 — a sister brand of Crate and Barrel — in a re-developed department store building at 240 N. Ashland in late September.
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The name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is misspelled as Rich “Whitey” on electronic-voting machines in nearly two dozen wards — about half in predominantly African-American areas — and election officials said Wednesday the problem cannot be corrected by Election Day.
The misspelling turned up on touch-screen machines in 23 wards overall.
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Glenn Beck is urging his listeners to donate money to the Chamber of Commerce.
Now, the Chamber of Commerce is not simply an advocacy organization pursing an ideological agenda, like the National Rifle Association or the National Right to Life Committee. It is a trade association representing some of the largest corporations you can think of. Its board of directors counts among its members executives from Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, US Airways, JPMorgan Chase & Co., IBM, and Verizon. It is The Establishment incarnate.
And Glenn Beck is calling on his hardworking listeners to donate money to the Chamber.
