Tag: Chicago
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Recent Views
More photography here. Partly cloudy in the Windy City: Feeling reflective at our park: Fishing class with the five year old: First time downtown with the lads: Enjoying the hotel room balcony at Timber Ridge Lodge: Burgundy boy blending in with the fallen leaves:
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series on books, movies, and music I’ve encountered recently. A Clockwork Orange. Had been putting this off based on what I’d heard of its disturbing content, but finally bit the bullet for the sake of the AFI 100. Typically impressive Kubrickian cinematography and dark satire. An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago…
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Asleep at the win
This is the story of how I didn’t see the Cubs win the World Series. I married into Cubs fandom, so I wasn’t emotionally invested in their 2016 World Series run. Still, like everyone in Chicagoland, I followed them throughout those playoffs and every game of the World Series. Until the bottom of the ninth…
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Fly the L flag
On my way to a concert last night, I noticed the flag-like design of the Chicago L train platform and tracks when viewed from above: Track, platform, and the space in between. “The space between” being, in essence, what public transportation is.
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Life as a CTA rail operator
“In that motorcab was my serenity.” Another great Chicago story from WBEZ’s Curious City: what it’s like to operate the L trains.
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Ain’t no road just like Lake Shore Drive
And there ain’t no road just like it Anywhere I found Running south on Lake Shore Drive heading into town Just slippin’ on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound — “Lake Shore Drive” by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah I’ve had occasion to drive into or through downtown Chicago several times recently, which is unusual. A…
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Pattern-spotting in a Chicagoland alley
Though the cold, wintry weather has extended into April this year, the other day the sun beamed and the temperature jumped into the 60s. I decided to take a break from work and go for a short walk, and I soon ambled down one of the countless back alleys that cut through Chicagoland. (Here’s the…
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America in Five Cities
It dawned on me recently how the names and locations of the top 5 most populous cities in the United States tell the story of the nation: New York, in the east, with the English name, representing the history of our relationship with England. Los Angeles, in the west, with the Spanish name representing the…
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Recent Views
More photography here. Flying above Idaho, returning from Portland. I usually don’t take pictures from airplanes, but I’m a sucker for mountains, especially ones as pretty as these. They sparkled: Chicago at sunset, as lonesome and resolute as the celestial orb overlooking it: William Fitzsimmons concert. I liked the natural quadrants that formed outward from the violinist,…
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Not Fine: On Library Amnesty
Chicago Public Library is embarking on a fine amnesty drive this month. The last one seemed to work really well for everyone: The library reported receiving 101,301 overdue items, valued at about $2 million, and waived $641,820 worth of fines. The late materials ranged from items only a few weeks overdue to one book that…
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A Morning Brush with Rahm
This morning, I was catching a train at the Clinton green line stop when I go through the turnstiles to see a phalanx of reporters and cameramen gathered before a podium with the Chicago seal affixed upon it. Turns out Rahm Emanuel was due for a press conference on the L’s newly installed security cameras.…