All in Street
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for three additional amazing photographs, as well as additional commentary]
Regular readers have seen this photograph before, but this one is very different from the earlier one. It's later afternoon, with the sun streaming in between two skyscrapers, providing a wonderful glow to the scene.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
A few weeks back I said that I have had trouble capturing an image of the Jean Dubuffet sculpture that sits in front of Helmut Jahn's State of Illinois building. While heading out from today's 50th-anniversary reenactment of the the unveiling of the Picasso statue in Daley Plaza, I passed the west wall of the Daley Plaza. I had noticed the reflection before, but today the colors were striking and I liked the tableau of pedestrians. Not much more to say.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and commentary, including a listing of other public work in Chicago]
Today, the City's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events held a reenactment of the August 15, 1967 unveiling of the Picasso statue that sits in Daley Plaza. Although a major tourist attraction, as well is should be, Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate has usurped the Picasso's stature with city residents and visitors. Personally, I prefer the Picasso, which includes many classic Picasso motifs folded into its Cor-Ten steel outline and shapes.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
Photographers always find new opportunities whenever a new building is completed. 150 North Riverside Plaza provides many opportunities given the elevated public space in back of the building and the promenade running along the Chicago River. Once it opens, the Starbucks may also offer some interesting opportunities, but that will depend on the depth of the outlet.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
Last year at this time, the building under construction at 150 North Riverside Plaza had not yet topped out. The plaza abutting the Chicago River was filled with building materials and construction equipment, with steel and glass being hoisted by a crane. I have photographs to prove it.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
Ah, yes, we all remember being a kid and partaking in the joys of summer. No school, so head down to the Daley Plaza, and then use the Picasso statue as a slide.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
Let's face it, one of life's simple pleasures in lying in the sun on a hot summer day in July. This gentlemen has it going on: The towel behind his head, the sunglasses slightly askew, and dressed in white head to toe. All serve to emphasize his deep tan. He is gracing one of the new lounge chairs that line Navy Pier. Yes, there is nothing better than lying out in the sun on a hot summer day in July.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary and photographs]
Several stores opened pop-up shops on Navy Pier as part of the festivities surrounding the launch of the 109th Chicago-to-Macinac Island sailboat race held by the Chicago Yacht Club. One of the stores offered patrons the opportunity to acquire what looked like some high-end cigars and to then smoke them under a small tented area overlooking Lake Michigan.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
Just about every event passes through the Trump filter in this day and age. Today, the Lions Clubs International held a parade on Chicago's State Street to commemorate the Chicago-based organization's 100th anniversary. One parade participant proudly told me that the Lions Club is the largest service organization in the world, with 1,400,000 members in somewhere around 200 countries. The organization focuses its efforts on visual impairment, hearing loss, disaster relief, diabetes awareness, and other good causes.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for commentary, as well as 40 or so additional photographs]
Everyone knows what happens in Chicago on the last Sunday in June: The Gay Pride parade. Having lived on the periphery of Boystown for over two decades, I've been to my share of Gay Pride parades. Each year the parade is a little more corporate and a little less outrageous, reflecting the mainstream acceptance of gay people.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional photographs and commentary]
Today, I saw what I perceive to be my first pro-Trump rally in Chicago. Ostensibly the rally was to protest the possibility that Sharia law would be instituted in the United States, but at the end of the day, at least some of those present were Donald Trump supporters who were making a symbolic stand in front of the bronze statue of an 11-foot high George Washington on the northwest corner of Wacker and Wabash. Not surprisingly, a group of counter-protesters was in place at the northeast corner, which often serves as the locus for Trump protests in Chicago.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional photographs and commentary]
Rain was in the forecast today, but on North Avenue Beach, it was nowhere to be found. Sunny, warm, but none of the July and August humidity was in the air, which probably kept beach attendance down a bit, but there were still plenty of people milling about. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Volleyball, touch football, castles in the sand, and the smell of a little reefer in the air.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge the photograph and for commentary and additional photographs]
Chicago is known for the sound of the electric blues, but long before Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, and all the others plugged in, Chicago was an industrial center, home to foundries, transportation hubs, and animals headed through shuts to their slaughter. In the words of Carl Sandburg, the City of Broad Shoulders. Emblematic of those shoulders are 27 or so bridges that tie one side of the Chicago River with the other.
Today some 40,000 Chicagoans participated in the March for Science, a nonpartisan demonstration that had heavy partisan overtones. There certainly weren't Trumpians in evidence. It is hard not to be anti-Trump if you are scientist: Trump wants to cut funding for science; Trump wants to politicize scientific research in an effort to support his anti-science policies (anti-vax, anti-climate, anti-research); and Trump wants to rely on alternative facts.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary and photographs]
I decided to take a little walk today. Down Roscoe, down Broadway, down Clark, down Wells, down Franklin, and arrive three hours later in back of the Merchandise Mart.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary and photographs (lots)]
26 U.S.C. § 6103 Returns and return information shall be confidential, and except as authorized by this title, no officer or employee of the United States, . . . shall disclose any return or return information obtained by him in any manner . . . .
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
The sun continued to burn with intensity as the afternoon turned into twilight, spaying the the Chicago River with intense light. It was so intense that it lit the underside of the bridges, which is what caught my attention. You gotta love the clouds and that deep blue sky.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
Here is one more from Thursday afternoon's excursions. The colors are gorgeous, if I don't say so myself. That the Fuji GFX 50s at work, handheld medium format.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
It isn't raining, but it sure is a purple sky. I am standing in Maggie Daley Park, looking westward toward the strip of skyscrapers on Michigan Avenue.
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional photographs and commentary]
Today was "Not My President's Day" in Chicago and throughout the country. While I share the sentiment, it was a rather lackluster event in Chicago. Wabash and Wacker has become the regular meeting ground--directly across the river from the Trump Tower.
