Francois

K, that is. At Smartbar last Saturday. Where I will be found again this Friday for DJ Harvey.

Gangway Spotlight

There's finally still a bit of sunlight when I get home from work! And more to come!

Se Vende

Lots of vans in my hood at work. This one is for sale. Which I already understood, extrapolating from the French vendre. In other news however, I took my first beginner Spanish class last Monday, and am excited to be formally learning a new language.

Ronald

At the Clare, MI Irish Festival parade last Saturday.

Neverending St. Patrick's Day

Last weekend I again got swept up in the green festivities, this time in Clare, MI, my girlfriend's home town. Named after the county in Ireland, Clare has a big annual Irish festival. One of the highlights is the Scottville Clown Band, seen here performing at the local moose lodge. These guys were awesome. Local dudes who were all excellent musicians, playing raucous, raunchy music, while dressed up in a variety of wacky costumes. They would fit right in at a Burning Man event whether they knew it or not.

Only

Nuff said. For now.

Erin Go Blerggghhh!

Inside the party at Marina City last Saturday. Chicago's big St. Patrick's Day celebrations are always the Saturday before. So although today is the day, it now seems long in the past. Here we see some serious flip cup action, with everybody fully decked out in ridiculous green gear and trinkets.

Top o' the Cob To Ya

Another somewhat vertiginous shot, this time from the roof of the east tower at Marina City (AKA the corncobs) where you could see a bit of the freshly dyed river last Saturday.

At Least the Beer Was Green

Because for whatever reason, the green in the river didn't spread very far. This is 4 or 5 blocks from where they dye it, a couple hours after the fact. It was at a St. Pat's party on the 54th floor of the east tower at Marina City. I was able to get on the roof too, so I did get some shots of the green river from that vantage.

Interact

My lady, plugged into a fuzzy thing that played a continuous loop of original Stereolab recordings made specifically for this installation. It was in a gallery of all interactive pieces at the MCA, during their First Fridays event. Pretty cool stuff. It was a nice change of pace to touch and feel the works in an art museum. But it didn't seem overly gimmicky.

Bunny Up

"Magic Circus Band" Environmental Encroachment entertain, and blend in with the crowd at the Chiditarod starting line.

Tow Zone

Does that apply to a replica of the Titanic built on two shopping carts?

Sesame Street Emerges

As you might be able to see on Oscar's trash can, this Chiditarod team was called "Kill it in the Butt".

Chiditarod 2011

This was at the starting line, where they have the carts line up around a building, to be funneled into a big courtyard where they open the gates to let em all loose at once. It's a pretty crazy sight, although one that I didn't get to see this year since I had to hustle over to one of the checkpoints. I was at Nick's Beergarden all afternoon yesterday, and below is what my view there looked like while waiting for the teams to arrive. When they did, it was chaos for a couple hours, so I didn't get a whole lot of other pictures in the bar. Got a couple good ones there though, as well as outside the bar and back at the starting line. More to come!

Drift

What's left of the big snow drift in my back yard. I really meant to jump off my garage into it when it was a giant wave of soft powder. That became less and less advisable as time went on.

Busy recently! Lots of material coming from Chiditarod this weekend.