Top O The Shroom

To ya. Um yeah. Guess that's it!

Toadstool

A wacky building at Addison and Wolcott, occupied by a holistic health care office.

SMART

A quick snap out and about today. My kitties were almost outta food after my trip - that's PETsmart, not that you don't find those in other cities. Pretty cool looking sign to me though against the electric blue sky.

I'm Baaaack

Spent an awesome long weekend with my lady in NYC. That's her in Central Park where we went to chill on the first of three beautiful days after seeing Cai Guo-Qiang's I Want to Believe at the Guggenheim.

We left on the night of my birthday, for which I had received a little while earlier a copy of Photoshop CS3 (thanks M+D!). I hadn't gotten around to installing it until I got back and had a chunk of pictures to process. And hey hey is it cool! Digging a few bells and whistles I hadn't had in V7 already. Especially the quick select tool, without which it would have been a lot trickier to adjust the fore and background lighting seperately to make this pop.

Line of Defense

I've never had much of a pest problem in my garden. Is it because of the marigolds? Apparently the jury's out on their effectiveness. They look nice though.

NOTICE

Pulled over on my bike today crossing the Chicago river when this life preserver box caught my eye.

For Savings

I think they got the timing off on that neon. That wouldn't even make sense in Kelvin.

Will be gazing upon the original version of that statue in a few days!

Botanica(rrrrrrrrrr)

A local botanica with unique storefront.

Bleeding Heart

So I went by the Buddhist temple where yesterday's shot was from last night, but I guess I was too late. They had shut down the display for the night. Perhaps I'll get another chance if they keep it up this weekend for Buddha's birthday.

On the way home I spied the sign for this place, and figured I would capture some other wacky neon.

What the?

Spotted this driving down Ashland last night after a show at the Neo-Futurarium. Thankfully my lady said something or I don't know if I would have stopped. And this is the best shot I got. Think I'm going back tonight with a tripod. More explanation with a better photo.

Blue Line

The CTA Blue Line train heading away from downtown, descending into the Logan Square stop.

Quicksilver

Just a random puddle down the block from me.

Verdigris

I realized when I uploaded this photo to flickr that this and the previous two post pictures featured copper patina. This one is an old bank deposit door I assume, now on the outside wall of a Walgreens.

Weather Whale

Atop Kuma's corner.

Busy busy with parents in town this weekend!

TRADE MARK

You see these cool (old - I think) Schlitz brick inlays on bars around Chicago. This one is one Schuba's, a music venue I've seen some cool stuff at.

A Little Egyptsheen

A little Egyptshine. A strangely anglo-looking head of a sphinx guarding the entrance to a mausoleum in Graceland Cemetery.

Fissure

A weathered headstone at Graceland Cemetery.

Graceland

No, not that Graceland. This one is an old cemetery on Chicago's north side. Some may think this an odd place for a stroll on a beautiful spring afternoon. But it's quite nice actually. Like a park with history, if you're not bothered by all the dead folk underfoot, which my lady and I are not for some reason. It's fun to speculate about the lives of people buried there given their birth and death dates and maybe some other little tidbits.

And this particular place has a wealth of famous Chicago names buried there in grand style. This shot is of Potter Palmer's sarcophagus, whose name I recognized and assumed must have been associated with the Palmer House Hilton. I found a good bit of information about him here, plus others I spotted yesterday. Folk such as Daniel Burnham, whose island I saw on the way out but didn't realize was his family's plot; Louis Henri Sullivan, whose headstone I noticed but second-guessed because for some reason I had his first and middle names flipped in my mind; and Martin Ryerson, some old rich guy with the distinction of having his name on the computer science building at U of C where I spent most of my time in my years there.

PS Video from my Looptopia experience is here!

Went for It

So after one last weather check on TV we decided to go for it. One storm did pass through but we were able to hang out under an awning while it blew over. I suppose I should explain exactly what this wackiness was I took part in. My friend Nikkos put together a concept for this year's Looptopia of a wandering band of street musicians basically with the core idea of being as attention-grabbing as possible. So, hence the orange jumpsuits to begin with. And he had a thumb piano with a pickup that ran through an effects pedal and a portable amplifier strapped to his back. The rest of the crew was on percussion, the loudest components being a djembe drum and washboards struck and stroked with various implements. Oh yeah, and whistles.

I only have a few pictures from our preparations before heading out since my hands were occupied with the music-making when we were out and about. But I did rig a monopod to my back to mount my video camera. And I'll have something cobbled together for youtube hopefully before too long. But here's another shot of us I found by some random person on flickr. I imagine more will show up in the coming days as there were lots of people shooting us along the way.

Not Lookin Good

For performing in Looptopia tonight that is! I'm supposed to be a part of a traveling band of musicians wandering the streets of the loop. But several of us are electrified in various ways and I'm not sure what the rain contingency is, if any. Hmm.

PRODUCTS

OK! Back to Chicago shots. Although from their reception I'm glad I shared some of what I got in St. Louis last weekend.

This is some unassuming industrial building, but I really like the aesthetic of its facade. Wish that darn tree wasn't in the right foreground though...