Spreading confusion over the internet since 1994
Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: John S
Film: Kodot Verichrome
Flash: Off
there’s a new iPhone phone app called Hipstamatic that’s sweeping through the Flickr community. Sort of a quirky application, but fun nonetheless. I’ve already snapped dozens of shots in a few hours worth of use. Doesn’t seem like it saves high resolution versions though, which is a flaw, imho.
Another way to pretend our fancy smartphones are toy cameras or Holgas.
North Branch of the Chicago River
from last Yom Kippur1, if I’m not mistaken. I smooth-talked us into celebrating in nature instead of wasting time in a shul2
Ooops, my mistake, taken on Rosh Hashanah3 instead.
Footnotes:the former Carson Pirie Scott building, now empty, though with big plans for the future.
(Embiggen)
has anything moved in yet?
It ain’t Bennigan’s, that’s for damn sure.
As the Goat — which has moved to 430 Lower Michigan Avenue below the Wrigley Building and added seven other locations — celebrates its 75th year in Chicago, what is Mr. Sianis’s favorite story?
“There are too many stories,” he said this week as he took a break from flipping the cheezborgers made famous on “Saturday Night Live.” But he did fondly recall one exchange with
Mike Royko, the columnist who spent as much time at the Goat as behind a typewriter.“Royko says to me, ‘What would you do if someone gave you $1 million?’ So I said: ‘I’ll tell you what I would do. I’d take the money and go home, and then I’d turn around and come right back down here.’ ”
Perplexed, Royko said, “Why wouldn’t you take a vacation and go see somebody?” Mr. Sianis, smiling as he stood in his bar crammed with tourists, said he told him: “This is my vacation. Why go anywhere to see anyone? They all come here to see me.”
[Click to continue reading Chicago News Cooperative – The Pulse – Where Everybody Knows His Name – NYTimes.com]
I took my folks to the original Billy Goat Tavern on a recent visit, but had to convince them to keep walking long enough to find the place (unless you remember the Billy Goat’s specific address, it can be a bit difficult to find down below Michigan Avenue). Glad we did, I had a beer, and shared a burger with my uncle1. The walls of the Billy Goat are stained with the brown of years worth of story telling and cigarette smoking…
Footnotes:Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. – Sun Tzu
Randolph Street, Chicago
Embiggen:
decluttr
I support the mission of Chirp, though to be honest, I never even consider listening to the radio these days. The pool has been brackish and dead for too many years thanks to the corporate radio model utilized by such behemoths as Clear Channel and their ilk. Now I just keep an iPod or an iPhone with me anywhere that I might have listened to the radio in years past- car, walking, biking, riding the CTA.
What will set Chirp apart, Ms. Campbell said, is not only the sheer breadth of its offerings, which she described as “a diverse array of independent and under-appreciated music from a wide range of eras and genres,” but also its D.J.’s passionate love for the songs they play.
“Maybe I’ll play a great new local band sandwiched between a David Bowie song and a Yo La Tengo song,” said Mr. Drase, who will co-host a show. “You never know what you’re going to turn people on to.”
Unlike most commercial stations, where the average play list might include about 500 songs, Chirp has a catalog of nearly 50,000 albums, which were donated. And the idea, said Billy Kalb, the station’s music director, is to play as many as possible.
“We want to be like the friend with the really amazing record collection,” said Mr. Kalb, 24, as he sorted through donated CD’s. “We want to play enough new music to keep things interesting, and the local bands that other stations probably won’t touch.”
[Click to continue reading Independent Station’s Power Lies With Its People – NYTimes.com]
If Chirp had only been launched fifteen years ago, before we all started carrying around our music libraries1 nearly everywhere we go…
Here’s what they say about themselves:
Footnotes:The Chicago Independent Radio Project, or CHIRP, was formed to bring a truly independent music- and arts-focused community radio station to Chicago.
At a time when corporate-owned radio grows ever more bland, repetitious, and commercialized, community radio is more important than ever. The volunteers at CHIRP are true believers in radio that is diverse, exciting, live, and locally-based. Community radio is non-commercial, and is created by regular people from all walks of life, not just broadcast professionals. It is committed to playing music the big stations won’t touch, and to focusing on the vibrant culture of a community that often flies under the radar. This is the kind of station CHIRP is creating.
CHIRP is launching its new service on the web at CHIRPradio.org in the fall of 2009. In addition, we are working to change the law so we can eventually apply for a broadcast license. In order to do this, CHIRP and its allies must convince Congress and the FCC to change rules that say there is no room for new low power FM radio stations in big cities like Chicago.
CHIRP must raise money to cover the costs of its day-to-day operation, which includes costs like rent, streaming, utilities, and equipment. The organization also needs funds on hand so that it is in good position to apply for a new broadcast license at some point in the future.
Fortunately, these goals are well underway. Studio buildout is nearly complete. Congress and the FCC are in the midst of reconsidering the law that limited LPFM to rural and exurban areas. And CHIRP has already raised thousands of dollars thanks to the generous support of individuals, bands, venues, and foundations.
[Click to continue reading CHIRP: The Chicago Independent Radio Project]
one wintery day
Embiggen:
decluttr
Bitter cold on this day, can you tell? Probably not, which is a failure of the photographer, not the viewer.
Calvary in Rogers Park
played hooky, went tramping about on the edge of Evanston, by the lake, and including a sojourn through Cavalry Cemetery.
CALVARY is the oldest existing cemetery that had been established by the Archdiocese of Chicago, although it is not the oldest Catholic cemetery in the area – there are churchyards that predate it. Catholic cemeteries had previously existed closer to Chicago, but health concerns and the value of the land prompted city officials to reinter bodies in more remote locations. Calvary, Rosehill, Graceland and Oak Woods all saw their first burials in 1859.
At the border between Chicago and Evanston, Calvary sits on the lakefront behind Sheridan road. Between Sheridan and the lake is a breakwater consisting of piled up white limestone boulders. The main entrance is on Chicago Avenue (Evanston’s name for Clark Street), with the rear entrance directly across on Sheridan. A wide road connects the two gates. Originally, a small lagoon lay in between, roughly two-thirds of the way from the east end, but it was filled in to create shrine sections. This dramatically changed the appearance of the cemetery, as did the loss of many trees to Dutch Elm disease in the 1960s.
The west entrance of Calvary is beneath a large stone gate with three arches. The center arch is surmounted by a triangle in the Gothic style. Designed by James Egan (who is buried in Calvary), this represents the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, which are Catholic symbols of God as the beginning and the end.
