tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-118180632024-03-13T03:42:24.139-07:00City of DestinyCity of Destiny: adventures in and observations from the built environment, mostly Chicago/Midwest/Rust Belt.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.comBlogger238125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-22709285908090868422017-08-28T22:51:00.000-07:002017-08-29T07:00:27.276-07:00On dressing up again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A lot has changed since I last wrote; I hit a milestone age and I wanted to do at least one post while at that age. I've also had two Chicagoversarys, my 21st and 22nd (I moved here August 11, 1995). I'm about to hit ten years on Flickr (August 30), which also marks ten years on ANY social media (I only had email and this blog before that, a world I can barely recall). Which is ten years with photography as my main interest in life, even if the things I obsessively spend my time seeking out and photographing, and the people I do it with, have changed many times. But wait, I wasn't doing the Flickr reminiscing yet, I wanted to talk about something I did on Instagram, which I finally joined in late June this year. And IT'S changed my life, though nowhere near as dramatically as Flickr. It's more a process of accelerating things I was already doing, and giving me a place to focus on them and get feedback.<br />
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For example: Skirt Month. In July I pledged to wear a skirt or dress, preferably a different one, every day that month, and post a photo on Instagram. I'd done this for a week in spring (before IG). I succeeded in July, too, and later took this photo of every dress and skirt I'd worn. It's more than 31 because I own more than that, even just of summery clothes, and some of these outfits were too fancy or weird to wear an entire day!<br />
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What motivated this project?<br />
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1) I had tons of stuff I hadn't worn in months or years or had forgotten about entirely--I started searching my deep collection of vintage clothes, still bagged since I moved...years ago, late in the month, and found some great ones like that black with floral print and huge collar mod dress--and this would help me rediscover these outfits.<br />
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2) I was starting to enjoy posting photos of myself online again. After only a handful of self-portraits (I've done them on Flickr since long before "selfie" was a common term) on Flickr in the past few years, plus occasionally changing my profile pic on other social networks, Instagram had me posting a lot of photos of myself. Sometimes my IG is 1/3 or more photos of me...though it's settled down since July. (Until I do another daily project: my city/neighborhood/sports/band t-shirts?)<br />
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3) Some of those older pictures, taken by me or photographer friends, were more...adventurous than anything I'd posted in a long time. Wearing vintage slips, tights...I don't think I'd even worn fishnet stockings (still not a common item in my wardrobe) in a few years. I knew I had friends who appreciated these photos and I was finally willing to put up with encountering random online people who would too.<br />
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4) Mainly, it was a challenge to simply dress like this again, aside from photos. A little of it was anxiety about my weight and appearance, but much more, it's about things that are hard to discuss. That wearing anything tight, short, revealing, and/or just really bright and noticeable was hard for me. That I've felt uncomfortable for a long, long time at being LOOKED at. That although I haven't shut down from my body, I've wanted to shut off certain kinds of attention. That it felt unsafe.<br />
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And no matter how much you know rationally that clothes don't cause assault or harassment, it can FEEL unsafe to wear them. Maybe you don't avoid them because you actually think you'll be safer, but because you fear the blame of others if anything happens. This was a heavy thing to have on my mind this summer, but it was there. And I made it through. Going to festivals and bars and coffeeshops and on the CTA and riding my bike in these outfits (there's a few I couldn't ride in, but I could do most!) was okay and I got almost no negative attention.<br />
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5) And yeah, it felt good to get a lot of social media compliments again. (Honestly I was disappointed how few comments and compliments I got from friends and acquaintances in person, but oh well, the next day I'd get that online. A lot of people haven't seen me dress like this in a long time if ever; maybe it was startling.)<br />
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So I wore everything in that photo and had a few more summery things I didn't get to because they didn't fit quite right or were a bit too formal. The majority of items above were from thrift stores over the years, nearly all for $5 and under. A few cost a little more at vintage stores, and a few are sale items from Target and Old Navy.<br />
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If you want to find the photos, they're all on my https://www.instagram.com/kofchicago/ tagged #skirtmonthk of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-59591717878641404362016-02-29T23:49:00.000-08:002016-03-01T00:20:41.147-08:00Leap DayLeap Day! I haven't fulfilled my goal to post much more here this here (but I'm back to every day on Flickr), but can't not use a chance to post on a February 29 (the third one since this blog has been around, wow).<br />
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I don't seem to have anyone I know with a Feb. 29 birthday, but it's my half-birthday. Yes I know no one who's an adult notices half-birthdays and I wouldn't if it wasn't Leap Day. This year I notice because it's six months until a BIG birthday. It's also basically three years since I moved to my great apartment and neighborhood I love (Feb. 28, but I was still clearing a few things from the old place in March).<br />
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I didn't have any grand adventure today but did run around photographing a couple things closing today after decades. Then I went out in late evening to two of my favorite neighborhood bars, the first one on my own where I wrote up a list of [x] things I want to do before I turn [x] (I also need a list of [x] books, albums, films I need to finally read/listen to/see before [x]), the second one to meet up with a friend. An okay night out for a winter Monday where the weather got drastically worse since this afternoon, if not the party I wish I could have.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-83968898147053539922016-01-14T20:03:00.000-08:002016-01-15T08:59:56.036-08:00Kedzie and Elston<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A photo from two years ago still at the beginning of a camera card I haven't totally cleared off (it has 2014, 2015, 2016 photos on it now). The building on the right is completely gone and the one on the left drastically changed into a mattress store, but these vacant buildings were a sight I enjoyed passing.<br />
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This is Addison (E-W street) / Kedzie (N-S) / Elston (diagonal), the border of Avondale and Irving Park neighborhoods/community areas. Within a block or so of this corner: a 24-hour Jewel supermarket (a great thing to have in walking distance, I like Tony's better and it's closer to me but not open very late), a fancy coffee place/bakery (Sugar Hills, other locations are in suburbs), a burrito place and a Chinese buffet I've still never been to, a White Castle that was my first White Castle I ever went in before I moved to the neighborhood, then didn't get back to until it'd been completely torn down and rebuilt (and is quite nice and still 24 hours), a Chipotle, a diner that's pretty cheap and good and I'd visit more if it didn't close at 2 pm (and is completely closed Tuesday, which often seems to be the day I get the urge to go) (I didn't make it in in 2015 at all), a 24-hour Dunkin' Donuts that's my favorite of the 3 closest to me (not just because it's open late)...and this is four blocks south of another corner of 24-hour businesses (Walgreens, another cheap diner). And two blocks north of Revolution Brewing's excellent brewery and tap room.<br />
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Anyway. I like having a walkable neighborhood (aside from a few horrifying intersections) and walking or biking a lot is how I happened to get this photo. Not a spectacular sight but something you may miss a little when it's gone.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-67838451637455277632016-01-07T18:47:00.000-08:002016-01-07T18:47:51.679-08:00Happy New Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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From a Walmart in Ames, Iowa (the bigger Walmart on Duff Avenue, Ames has two) the day after Christmas. I liked the Christmas bear all tired out on the display of trinkets for the next holiday. I'm a little late with this (and my 2015-in-review posts) but I'm far ahead of blogging last year, since I only managed a sad post on 12/31 (it should have ended on a hopeful note, I forgot that!)<br />
k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-17990849357324941432015-12-31T13:13:00.001-08:002015-12-31T13:13:40.672-08:00on loss and writing(I figured out how to sign back into this blog to post at least ONCE in 2015, sorry for the absence. I'm afraid many of the post ideas I have in my head are even bleaker than this one, but I'll try to balance it out with upbeat posts about what I did in 2015. Also I'm ready to finally update the blogroll soon for the first time in years. The following post was posted elsewhere online and got some "likes" though no comments from the people involved, so I'm a bit nervous.)<br />
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A BELATED POST ON LOSS AND WRITING. This is a selfish post. Maybe
I'll write a less selfish one later, but here's where I am at now. Two
weeks ago the week started with the one-year anniversary of the death of
a writer friend, Lee Sandlin. I never wrote here about his
passing--which I learned while checking my phone at a hockey game with a
friend; I said nothing there--because I was so emotional at the time. I
was sad for those close to him, sad I hadn't gotten to know him better,
sad we wouldn't get more writing from him, but the fiercest hurt was
that...he was there as the person I wanted to FIRST read the personal
writing I was working on. Even though I only did this at one lunch with
him, he was who I thought of when the many pieces I imagined the past
few years (on visiting bars, on a bartender friend, on the
horrible events of 2013 [which I have not discussed here] and how I've handled things since, on exploring
abandoned buildings, etc.) swirled in my head. Losing Lee was a loss of
hope about writing, but I couldn't express it at the memorial events for
him because it seemed like a strange, selfish response.<br />
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That
week two weeks ago ended with learning of the hiatus/closure of the hugely influential, indispensable Chicago website Gapers
Block (explained in this much-shared link by editor Andrew Huff, http://gapersblock.com/goodbye/), a website that's in one way or another responsible for how I know so many
people and places in the city, a part of my life for over half my years
here. They'd used many of my Flickr photos for "Rearview" (photo of the
day) and it was thrilling, even if that very day I was cranky none of my
photos had been picked in months. (And I don't think any were in 2015, while seemingly every Flickr dude I know had 5 or 10 photos used in that time. I know I'm terrible for pointing this out, but GB was what's kept me posting to Flickr occasionally while I have an almost unusable computer.)<br />
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Even more than that, they were a
place where I potentially could have my writing published. I'd talked
about so many ideas with Andrew over the years and had trouble getting
them executed, but GB was always there as a hope. A place I could
potentially get my start like so many other Chicago writers (I mean my
start to a wider world beyond this infrequent blog). I
visited a different bar every day in January 2013 as a project and on
the final day, at a Gapers Block bar meetup, they said I should write it up
as a story. I still haven't. I visited 100+ other bars that year, many
more since, and because bars became such a huge part of my life in
terrible ways and wonderful ways, I've been overwhelmed with how to
wrestle that into a coherent story. But it was there as a place I could
publish. Though I saw how much of the work was carried out by Andrew and
how so many other worthy Chicago media outlets disappeared and thought
"well, just so I write the piece while GB is still around." Then...the
news that Friday afternoon, and again I was stunned, and again I felt
hopeless. I definitely wasn't upset at him for the decision, but I was
extremely hard on myself for my failure to finish anything. I
ended up with one of my drinking-and-posting-too-much-embarrassing-stuff-on-social-media
nights.<br />
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As with Lee's passing, I took the Gapers Block news
personally in a way that felt like a loss of hope about my writing, and
in both cases I felt guilty that that was my response, like what's WRONG
with me that I make it about ME and my feelings about writing?! There's
a downward spiral here tied in with a difficult year and a number of other
losses (that week I was also freaking out that my bartender friend
who'd helped me so much after a trauma had disappeared, and that I failed to submit to
an essay anthology I've desperately wanted to), because in most cases I
haven't had replacements for the people and things I've lost. (Photographer friends, road trip friends, friends to talk to late at night, favorite bar, favorite sports team...) I'm
embarrassed that this all prevented me from effectively saying the
public things I needed to about these writers. The thank yous, the best wishes, the we've
been lucky to have you for however long.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-36134117009257035402014-07-10T08:55:00.000-07:002014-07-10T14:06:05.439-07:00A hello, halfway through the year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hi to old and new readers. Of course I didn't mean to make it halfway (plus more than a week) into 2014 without posting, but it's been an unusual year. I feel I can still blame a lot on months of terrible winter, right? I didn't travel, I barely made it outside my closest neighborhoods, I even had six weeks during the worst of winter with no working phone, and until this week, rode all year on a bicycle without working brakes. But I'm back and here's what's up, briefly:<br />
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Big events of emotional significance:<br />
June 21 I had a high school reunion in Ames, Iowa. It went well (except for one of the most horrific Megabus stories ever, resulting in my missing the more casual Friday night event).<br />
It was also the first time I'd been to Ames since Thanksgiving 2013. I'd meant to come back for Christmas...or possibly New Year...or any of my family members' birthdays...or Mother's or Father's Day. For weather and other reasons, that didn't happen. (My mom kept my Christmas stocking hanging up a long time, though.)<br />
Then June 30 was my final session with a great therapist I've been seeing since spring 2011.<br />
Then July 4 marked one year since a very...interesting friend, a local bartender, came into my life, and has been a huge support during a lot of terrible things that happened since. My time at this bar has been a great source of photographic and writing material, if not in this space...yet.<br />
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Recent great news:<br />
After months on the aforementioned terrifying bike, a friend spent weeks fixing up a vintage Hercules (British brand, no longer around) bike for me and gave it to me this week. Enjoying it so far!<br />
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After nineteen years in Chicago, I've sort of made it: I am included, extensively (words if not photos, ah well) in a COVER STORY in the Chicago Reader, <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/urban-explorers-eric-holubow-abandoned-americas-vanishing-landscape-katherine-hodges/Content?oid=14190752">"The ugly beauty of urban exploration"</a>, by a friend and excellent local journalist, Ted McClelland. It may have gotten you to this blog, since I'm linked. (Sorry I haven't posted urban exploring stories here in ages but there's a few good ones in the archives. It got me named an editor's choice best local blog in the Reader! ...in 2008.)<br />
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And...there are rumors of my return, after four years, to the live lit scene, which wasn't even popularly called the "live lit" scene here when I last read, I don't think. First up will be a story about the bartender I mentioned.<br />
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Two current projects:<br />
I don't do New Year's resolutions, but I started something I called "Things I've Been Meaning to Do." Every day in 2014, I either visit a place I've meant to try or long meant to return to, or start or finish a task at home (organizing, signing up on a website, a food I haven't cooked before), or anything else that fits the description. On my worst days it may just be opening something dubiously old in the pantry; on the best, long bike rides where I try several restaurants/bars for the first time.<br />
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And 2014 is my fifth year of "New Place a Day" (and third posting it on Twitter as #newplaceaday), where every day of calendar summer I visit a new-to-me place or have a new-to-me experience in Chicago, or wherever I am at the time. Obviously this overlaps with TIBMTD, and for reasons of time, energy, money, most of the latter project counts as the former project. (But I'm doing a few things besides.)</div>
k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-6162155861526326062013-12-31T20:18:00.000-08:002013-12-31T20:18:23.598-08:00last day of 2013I did it again, vanished from this blog for months, over six months this time, looks like. Life changed in some big ways just days after that (wonderful), in another big way a couple months later (terrible), and the end of 2013 has been...well...I just can't do a recap of 2013 yet. As always I'll set the goal to do more blogging in 2014, but I won't make promises. Anyone still reading this before I do a relaunch or whatever--thank you!<br />
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In between my "adventures" today--yet another New Year's Eve day I've gotten a $7 Metra pass and enjoyed the chance to take Metra lines I can't take with a regular weekend pass--and going out in the neighborhood for New Year's Eve, here's my last time doing some of my banal neighborhood activities in 2013. Am I making fun of my blogging with this post? I don't even know anymore!<br />
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Walking home from Metra! Not the Irving Park Metra stop nearest me, but the Grayland stop further away on a different line. I was tempted to stop in the neighborhood bar next to it, Kennedy's, but didn't have enough cash on me. Also didn't feel like walking blocks in the snow after a cold drink (even though I may very well be doing that later on NYE).<br />
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Last coffeeshop visit of the year! At my closest Starbucks, Irving Park & Kostner, beautifully remodeled this year. I go here because as of the end of 2013 my neighborhood (all the way from California Ave. on the east to the railroad east of Cicero on the west) doesn't have an independent coffeeshop. I got a mocha (not a holiday one) and sat and read a couple chapters in a new book on writing I'd checked out from the Des Plaines library. My favorite suburban library is now much more accessible because of the Irving Park Metra stop.<br />
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Then I got my bicycle from where it was parked between the Irving Park Metra and Irving Park Blue Line, walked it to Walgreens at Pulaski, locked it though I really wanted to see if leaving a beat-up bike unlocked in snowy weather would be okay, and made a few small, semi-necessary purchases to get cash back to go out tonight. This was all too boring to photograph (although sometimes I take photos in Walgreens).<br />
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Now to enjoy my last couple hours of 2013 and first New Year's in the "new" neighborhood.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-44328084515090760072013-06-27T16:43:00.002-07:002013-06-27T16:43:40.888-07:00Summer is here!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After moving to a new neighborhood for the first time in over a decade--a complicated process I, of course, still haven't posted about here (or anywhere, at least not with photos) I'm trying to observe when I first see common occurrences of my old neighborhood (Humboldt Park, on the northwest side bordering Logan Square) in my newer one (Independence Park, in the Irving Park community area, so I usually just say Irving Park).<br />
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I'd gone weeks and weeks and hadn't had the daily Humboldt Park occurrences of hearing sirens or seeing wrong-way bicyclists even once. Then I was literally about to write another tweet about that and heard my first siren in the middle of a weekday right then. Many since, but not too bad (except when my parents made their first visit and stay to this neighborhood last week, and I heard as many sirens in two days as in all the preceding weeks, of course). I still haven't observed a wrong-way cyclist for more than a block or two (making it hard to tell if they just were in a hurry and stuck on the wrong side--it happens to me--versus making the conscious choice to bike against traffic as about half the people in my old 'hood seemed to). My first time seeing it at all was two young people on May 13...going the wrong way in the Elston <i>bike lane</i>.<br />
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And the photo above? The exceedingly cold and dreary spring and lack of warmth made me nearly forget there's such a thing as opening hydrants in hot weather and I genuinely hadn't thought about seeing it in my neighborhood, but there it was on Central Park Ave. It's less fun on a residential street where the flooding looked like a problem than when I've seen it near the Bloomingdale Trail underpasses in Logan/Humboldt. Or perhaps it just seemed strange because only a few people looked to be playing in it. If you're going to do something illegal like that, get all the neighborhood kids to join in!k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-1840131373205520222013-04-30T23:18:00.000-07:002013-05-01T07:19:31.585-07:00ChangesJust wanted to confirm I'm still here, although life changes that I thought would give me time and motivation to post regularly haven't done that yet. I moved for the first time in over a decade to a new place and new neighborhood (Independence Park/Irving Park), and I'm still settling in. Even after two months living there. Here's a photo that seems to work for now, taken in the new neighborhood (and this would be a good choice even if it hadn't been the Gapers Block <a href="http://gapersblock.com/rearview/archives/2013/04/30/">photo of the day</a>. See you here soon!<br />
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<br />k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-51964925348457356592013-02-21T13:10:00.000-08:002013-02-21T13:11:41.594-08:00Candy hearts and plush heartsThis is late for a Valentine's Day post (and I'm only doing one because I wanted a post of actual photos in between posts about what publicity I've been getting for my photos recently), but I didn't get the photos until a nice long photowalk on Sunday from downtown Des Plaines to Allstate Arena in Rosemont.<br />
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I'll definitely photograph a Valentine's-themed display if it includes a takeoff on conversation hearts. This was a church on Lee. Another view:<br />
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At the end of the walk, longer than I remembered it to be (so I missed warmups before a San Antonio Rampage-Chicago Wolves hockey game), I stopped in Target by the arena and caught the clearance display, with hints of an upcoming holiday in the background:<br />
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All right, this is mostly an excuse to post the 2013 update of one of my most popular Flickr images ever, 2008's <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katherineofchicago/2265357056/">"What nerds do for Valentine's Day"</a>, in which I sorted and cataloged a whole bag of Necco Sweethearts. 2008 I did an 18 ounce bag and alphabetized the hearts and put them on my scanner instead of taking a photo. 2013 I found a 7 ounce bag at the Family Dollar across the street from the apartment I'm moving out of the night before V-Day and put them on an old cookie sheet, arranged by themes and words, not alphabetized. (The two rows of messages escalating from "TWEET ME" to "MARRY ME" is my favorite part.) <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katherineofchicago/8473006045/">Flickr version with notes and comments here.</a> The update was nowhere nearly as successful as I'd hoped, but it was the kind of obsessive thing I had to do. (I may have a lot of 5-year updates of projects I did the year I really took off on Flickr and the blog. Also, in part, because I've never fully finished posting some of the original projects.) Oh, and I got followed by the authentic Necco account on Twitter before I even posted this, oddly. (I'd tweeted my dismay that the store I was trying to buy candy hearts at only had Brach's.)<br />
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k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-87205026858725035952013-01-19T12:43:00.000-08:002013-01-19T12:43:43.024-08:00Hello 2013, and good newsJust stopping in while in the midst of a complicated move to a new apartment (my first since 2001!) to share three things:<br />
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My main Flickr account hit 2 million all-time views. These things are always fun to watch for, but I missed seeing an exact 2,000,000...in fact I missed noticing at all for a while. Presumably happened last Saturday night/Sunday when I was moving stuff. Thanks to anyone who's been a part of this.<br />
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I made it to 2 million views (and five years on Flickr, and some other stats too arcane to tell you about) without reaching a number of milestones for my photography I won't get into now. But then suddenly I hit one--the first actual feature of my work anywhere!<br />
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My friend Jason--who's largely responsible for getting me on Flickr in the first place, as I joined the day after my birthday (when I'd talked about it with him at dinner)--put together this attractive piece on my work the past couple years photographing shopping malls. I'm the second in a new weekly feature on photographers. I answered a few questions, talking about some of the things I've observed, but didn't try to make a big statement about the decline of malls or anything.<br />
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You can go directly to <a href="http://issuu.com/jasonpettus/docs/featuredeadmalls">the feature here</a> or via <a href="http://www.cclapcenter.com/2013/01/cclap_photo_feature_katherine_.html">this post at the CCLaP site</a>, read a little more and choose a PDF version if you'd prefer. Also, <a href="http://kohoso.tumblr.com/post/40862881491/katherineofchicago">KoHoSo on Tumblr</a> put up this nice piece about it and my work.<br />
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The CCLaP piece includes dead malls in the Chicago area, Gary, Indianapolis, Madison, Omaha (and a few shots not technically from deadmalls but I guess they fit well). Also, this prompted me to do a lot of work organizing my Flickr photos, sets, and collections, and there's now a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katherineofchicago/collections/72157632544205632/">retail collection</a> for stores and shopping malls, a set for <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katherineofchicago/sets/72157632221881926/">all my shopping mall photos</a>, and many individual sets for malls, most recently, the very dead <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katherineofchicago/sets/72157632544199466/">Euclid Square Mall</a> in Euclid, Ohio, and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katherineofchicago/sets/72157632546302958/">Charlestowne Mall</a> in St. Charles, IL.<br />
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And since I missed coming by to promote this, I also made it into the Chicago Reader's annual Photo Issue (along with some fine people I know from Flickr/elsewhere). I have two photos in <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/photo-issue-2012-images-moments-year/Content?oid=8252957">the online version</a> and the houses/mattresses one made it into the print version.<br />
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Back soon when things are less hectic. Thank you again to anyone who's supported my work, and big things are on the way...I hope.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-23822518713706283332012-12-01T11:39:00.000-08:002012-12-01T11:39:18.400-08:00The November blogging experimentSo here's what happened: I intended to do NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month this year. I did it "successfully" last year. Successful in that I managed to get a post up for every day of the month, but most were so quick and self-consciously talking about <i>being for</i> NaBloPoMo, especially the ones I did when visiting a friend out of state and using his computer. I was glad I did it to get a habit of blogging, but it became too much of a chore.<br />
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I signed up on BlogHer again this year for City of Destiny to be a NaBloPoMo participant, and decided to go the extra step of blogging every day on my nearly dormant sports blog, A Little Chippy, too. And I gave myself the additional challenge of making absolutely no NaBloPoMo references when posting here (I was more self-conscious with it on the other blog), just trying to look like I was back to blogging. Sort of. I mean, they still weren't lengthy story/photo-essay posts like the best ones I did around 2008.<br />
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I enjoyed doing it, even if I was a bit dishonestly catching up on several days' worth of posts at a time sometimes. I thought that was better than just quitting a few days in. And I got into a weird trap where I felt I couldn't link posts on social media if they were from a couple days ago and I didn't have new posts updated to the current day, if that makes any sense.<br />
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But then I had two out-of-state trips in one week, with less than a day in between. I could have blogged from my friend's computer (or even from my phone, though I've never tried) and I could have blogged from a computer at my parents', but I just didn't care to do that. I came back from the Thanksgiving week trips--and by the way, November is a terrible month for NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo, given that many people travel for the holiday (or host, and have a lot to do) and might be in the same dilemma as me, if they don't have a laptop--with many days to catch up on.<br />
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I felt overwhelmed with catching up on over a week of posts, and wondered what the point was. It's not a whiny "no one's reading my blog!" thing; it's that I didn't know anyone else doing NaBloPoMo to support me (and I didn't read any of the other participants except for clicking on a few things through Twitter) or anyone I knew clearly following my attempt and supporting me and nudging me to get more done. I struggled with the thought of catching up on all those short posts on both blogs the last couple days of November. I felt bad I failed at this. Then I realized I didn't complete NaBloPoMo here, but that I got halfway through the month on <i>two</i> blogs, which is the equivalent of a month, right? (Actually a total of 31 posts.) That's not awful.<br />
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Just to prove I did think about what to possibly post on these blogs, here's a rare and odd glimpse into the thought process, a list of what I did or saw in the second half of November. I had photos, links, and screenshots to go with some of the items. Some will end up in posts eventually!<br />
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Thank you to anyone who read anything I did in November!k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-48730089245649117392012-11-15T19:04:00.000-08:002012-11-16T19:05:10.193-08:00Black Friday approaching<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I wrote about it last week, but this...yeah. I just had to post.</div>
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And in other fun things on the internet other people found for me, this site is still up:<br />
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And pointed out to me on Twitter, after I'd commented on this week's syrup AND flour (separate incidents) highway spills in Chicagoland, saying there needs to be a website devoted just to these stories (a quick Googling didn't turn up much):<br />
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<a href="http://truckspills.com/">Truck Spills</a>. Yeah! A very well-organized site. There are some here I don't particularly want to click on...Alas, the site hasn't been updated since 2010. Surely someone's doing this on Tumblr by now?k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-90347974321247633692012-11-14T23:46:00.000-08:002012-11-16T18:49:06.553-08:00Soup and sidewalksExciting to get to go to a favorite local event, Soup & Bread, held at the Garfield Park Conservatory (its usual season at Hideout on Wednesday evenings isn't till January). For a $5 donation I got to carry around a glass jar and try out an array of homemade soups inspired by ingredients found in the conservatory. I hadn't been in the conservatory at night before. It was fun to experience, if awkward to walk around (holding the soup jars and spoons and a map), and not great for photos with my camera. This one sort of turned out.<br />
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One of many soups I tried--this was beet and other root vegetables.<br />
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I'd gotten there with a just-bought CTA 1-day pass, and it's hard to be at the GP Conservatory and not want to hop on the Green Line and go to Oak Park, so I did, for a visit to the Whole Foods and Panera in River Forest. Buses home instead of the Green Line. At North and Harlem, an intersection I've been to many dozens of times, I saw this as I walked past Sears and just caught the #72:<br />
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What?! Another old sign of retail I hadn't seen before...k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-87342302626026821602012-11-13T17:44:00.000-08:002012-11-16T17:49:39.468-08:00Forgotten WoolworthThere's few things more exciting than stepping out on a beautiful morning and discovering something you never knew about a place you've lived near for over ten years! Hmm, I don't know that this exact experience had happened till I discovered my local Family Dollar in Humboldt Park used to be a Woolworth store:<br />
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And this is soon after I learned one of the other Family Dollar stores in Humboldt Park (Division & Washtenaw) used to be a Woolworth! Both long before my time in Chicago. The Woolworth chain closed not long after I moved here and I visited several of the still-existing stores besides the one I already frequented on State St. (Logan Square, Little Village, others?). Maybe at some point I'd heard this used to be one, but it was still a shock to see the labelscar on the store Sunday. (I took these photos later; the sun was too bright Sunday).<br />
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Admittedly this more clearly shows the labelscar of what it was after Woolworth, but the L is in there! I hope I get better photos before they cover this up somehow. It's been a Family Dollar for several years, after being a day labor agency for a while before that and vacant for some time in-between.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-55600152390079999722012-11-12T22:06:00.000-08:002012-11-16T17:08:49.270-08:00Chain store changesTwo photos from today can be grouped together with that title. Sort of. (Coming up with frequent titles is hard, okay?) I was headed to an appointment Monday afternoon and my #72 North bus went by the Damen/Milwaukee/North intersection just as the "W" went up on the former bank that's being turned into a Walgreens (and from the looks of it so far, a fancy one; a big improvement from the plain one two blocks south, and more convenient to me, if I'm still taking the #72 when it opens).<br />
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Post-appointment I took the Red Line to Division and walked to Barnes & Noble, exactly as I'd done a week earlier. I had better luck finding a section I couldn't last week, browsed a little, and decided to give in and have a first-of-the-season peppermint mocha. I'd had a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte the night before. This makes it seem like I'm at Starbucks much more than I am. I very rarely sit at a Barnes & Noble Starbucks, so I didn't realize the cafe had their drinks along with treats from two non-Starbucks businesses. Didn't know they mixed things up like that.<br />
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I noticed at an adjacent table that a man who used to hang out at the cafe of the Borders on Diversey and Clark seemingly every time I went in--one of the local characters--was settled in here. I don't think I'd seen him in a few years. I honestly didn't know if I felt relieved or troubled by this.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-9265430545254260182012-11-11T22:28:00.000-08:002012-11-16T16:32:39.296-08:00Colorful California AvenueBefore the sunny and 70 degree weather turned much worse--drizzle, rain, temperature drops of 20 degrees, then much more--I had an eventful late morning/afternoon excursion with a friend, much of it biking south on California Ave. As usual I only had a chance to photograph a few things that interested me on the way, always saving some for later. Here's a few random shots I liked together.<br />
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This, at 44th, was on my list to visit this summer, the one Tastee-Freez location in Chicago I hadn't visited, but I forgot. A great surprise, and it was still open this late in the year, and we ended up having a very inexpensive lunch. It was still warm enough for a mint chocolate shake.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-20727341788650799272012-11-10T23:57:00.000-08:002012-11-16T12:58:27.122-08:00Biking DuPage<br />
I biked to the Western Ave. Metra station for a 3:30 train on the Elgin-bound line. It managed to be an absolutely stress-free bike-on-train experience both ways (not a lot of other cyclists despite decent weather), except that I'm back to using my heavy vintage bike after a lightweight used one I had briefly was stolen.<br />
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I got out at the Schaumburg stop, and while trying to find my way out of the station and parking lot area, went the wrong way past the Boomers baseball stadium, even though I biked this route twice earlier this year. It's not easy to figure out and I'd have wasted much more time without a map on my phone. I made it to the major north-south street, Gary, and the unpleasant choice of going on a 45 mph road or on the sidewalk paths with a tendency to end in the middle of the block, necessitating walking the bike for a while or crossing the 45 mph road to use the path on the other side, until it inevitably disappeared too. I noted which side to take for the ride back (and forgot it anyway).<br />
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I made it to Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale without incident, except biking up to the mall I didn't see any bicycle rack and didn't have time to search. (Some malls do have them, and I'm always the only one parked there.) I locked it to the "K" (easy to remember!) parking area sign in front of Macy's and had a short trip around the mall. More vacancies than I remembered from a visit a few months ago, but too nice and crowded to be classed as a dead mall (a topic that will be explored a lot on this blog later). Santa Claus' area was set up but he wasn't arriving till Friday the 16th. (I'd have gotten a better view if security wasn't nearby.)<br />
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I was indecisive about the food court and needed to get cash without an ATM charge so I decided to go to the Meijer store across the street to buy some food and get cash back. It was getting dark by then and making it across the huge road and into Meijer's surprisingly badly-lit lot (on both sides; around the store itself was fine) was another ordeal. Nothing looked like bike parking, so I locked it to a stop sign/concrete thing (those things that keep people from driving too close to the store). As I did, a man walked by and said "Biking in November?" in a quizzical tone. (Er, I guess that's implied with the question mark.) He was wearing shorts. In November, because it was warm. I think this is an area where bicycling seems strange at any time...<br />
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I got a better meal for $5 than I would have at the food court (Meijer premade sandwich, blackberries on sale for $1, Meijer brand cola), and left the lot. Trying, not successfully for the trip, to recall which side of the street I needed to bike on back north to Lake. And being unpleasantly surprised that there are blocks and blocks in the suburbs that don't have street lights, except at intersections. You're limited to house or business lights, if any are around, approaching headlights, or whatever is on your bike, which, uh, wasn't enough.<br />
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I found the Coachlite Skate Center in Roselle, where I'd be seeing DuPage Derby Dames rollerderby for the first time, in their last bout of their first season. I looked for bike parking. Again, I had to lock the bike to a sign. I'm usually the only one biking to suburban sporting events, even in the midst of summer baseball season. The rollerderby was fun and concessions were inexpensive, but it ran to within about a half-hour of the last inbound Metra of the night, and I got nervous. The ride from Coachlite to Metra was shorter than from Stratford Square to Coachlite, but plagued with the same lack of light and disappearing paths. I got to Metra three minutes before the final train.<br />
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I try to use the #bikeCHI tag on Twitter often, to describe the joys and hazards of bicycling in Chicago. I ended up tagging this #bikeDuPage and #donotbikeDuPage.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-13462923480373643642012-11-09T19:15:00.000-08:002012-11-10T12:14:49.827-08:00Tree installation!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So this is happening already, if you're the type who freaks out about how early Christmas/winter holiday things appear. Once it's less than two weeks before Thanksgiving, I'm not too bothered by it, though I was taken aback on this visit when listening to WBEZ and they mentioned a certain FM station had switched to its all-holiday-music format that day (and given the problems with reception downtown, it was bleeding into WBEZ on my radio at that very moment).<br />
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I'd come downtown to catch the #6 bus to Hyde Park to visit the Seminary Co-op Bookstore on their last weekend in the space they've occupied for 51 years. They move next week to a nearby spot. Even with CTA Bus Tracker on my phone, I just missed the bus I needed and had 20+ minutes to the next. So I got a few shots of the tree and Christkindlmarket getting installed in Daley Plaza.<br />
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I checked and all the signs said "NO TRESSPASSING."<br />
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I'd meant to have another pumpkin-y drink at the Joe Muggs cafe in Books-a-Million (I got pressured into buying a membership/discount card at the BAM that replaced the Borders in my hometown, and now I <i>have</i> to buy things with it) but ended up with a gingerbread latte, and just missed the next #6 bus. Under the excruciating circumstances of having to run down the block for one, assuming the crowd of people waiting for it will give you time, then seeing it continue on because <i>no one else was waiting for it.</i> That's when I gave up on making it to Hyde Park, not having time to wait for a third bus, and bought a few staple items at the City Target on State. Also decorated for holidays, but not overwhelmingly so yet.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-53793419667245409862012-11-08T22:26:00.002-08:002012-11-08T22:28:36.482-08:00Two weeks till Black FridayWell, it's Thursday, but the giant shopping day Black Friday is also two weeks away, given that <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5958799/walmart-moves-black-friday-into-thanksgiving-dinner-time">Walmart is moving Black Friday even earlier</a> on Thanksgiving, starting doorbusters at 8 pm instead of 10 pm. That news may have been why Black Friday was trending on Twitter this morning, or (and strangely I found this out from the local morning talk show <i>Windy City Live</i> on ABC 7), this story of a possible strike. Intriguing...<br />
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I of course have to give <a href="http://www.pictureblackfriday.org/main.html">Picture Black Friday</a> a mention again (even if it's a contest and I selfishly don't want to tell other people about contests they could enter). It's one of the things that kicked off my obsession of the past few years of photographing shopping malls.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katherineofchicago/archives/date-taken/2010/11/26/">In 2010</a> I went to Chicago suburbs--my first visit to Orland Square Mall. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katherineofchicago/archives/date-taken/2011/11/25/">In 2011</a> St. Louis suburbs--my first visit to Saint Louis Galleria, and a pleasant visit to downtown Belleville, IL. In 2012, if in Chicago I have some ideas. If visiting my family in central Iowa, oddly it might end up being my first chance to see an entire college football game in person (and college hockey that night), plus whatever stores I can get to.<br />
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I'd recently learned of a mystery/thriller called <i>Black Friday </i>(Alex Kava, 2010). Book description from Amazon:<br />
"On the busiest shopping day of the year, a group of idealistic college
students believe they're about to carry out an elaborate media stunt at
the largest mall in America. They think the equipment in their backpacks
will disrupt stores' computer systems, causing delays and chaos,
disrupting capitalism, if only for a moment.<br />
What they don't realize
is that instead of jamming devices, their backpacks contain explosives.
And they're about to become unwitting suicide bombers.<br />
FBI
profiler Maggie O'Dell must put her own political troubles aside to work
with Nick Morrelli and figure out who's behind this terrorist plot—a
massacre that's all the more frightening when a tip reveals that
Maggie's brother is one of the doomed protestors."<br />
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Um, wow.<br />
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I went to Amazon tonight to look up the title <i>Black Friday</i> and there are many novels and nonfiction books with that name or variations thereof. Mostly not referring to the shopping day (some are about the financial scandal of 1869), but I did find this:<br />
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Sure, a little reading before I head out to photograph November 23.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-91284617681858107432012-11-07T20:16:00.000-08:002012-11-08T15:27:17.494-08:00Election resultsI ended the Election Day piece with my voting around 5:15; then I was in for the evening--with no alcoholic beverages, not intentionally, just didn't have them--with the radio and TV and internet all going all evening. And cooking a couple big dishes of healthy food, so I wouldn't be stressed out and just eating the cookies I'd made the night before. (I was more worried about being prepared for the day after, depending how things turned out.) I expected to be up extremely late, but instead the live news wrapped up by 1 am, and I fell asleep to "Nightline" airing after 1:30 (was it live, or one airing earlier but postponed during local coverage?). A few TV shots from the day and night:<br />
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And in the morning. Well, by the time I got up to take any photos, regular less-newsy things were airing on the network morning shows:<br />
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Local shots, from Valois in Hyde Park (wish I'd known about this free breakfast in time; they did it in 2008 too):<br />
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Obama campaign offices in Chicago:<br />
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And since I was glued to Twitter more than anything else, I'd be remiss in not posting a shot of breaking news there (the Jennings one is an obvious joke, but I didn't have the nerve to retweet it):<br />
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I especially liked the moment when Iowa's results broke and my timeline was a lot of "IOWA!" from people around the country. My home state did well in some regards, not so well in others. (Confession: I haven't even looked at all the results yet, not even for things I voted on in Illinois.)<br />
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And what Chicagoans were talking about around the time of the acceptance speech:<br />
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Unfortunately I didn't make it far to take photos in the real world. I had a headache (puzzling because again, no alcohol and not up that late) for hours, but otherwise I've been reasonably happy.k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-8464791137867293732012-11-06T22:57:00.000-08:002012-11-08T14:04:04.040-08:00Election Day!I feel like I should have done more to document election day 2012 in Chicago--I certainly did for 2008 (think I even posted that here, but I'm bad about looking up old posts)--but I was a little lazy since it was about 40 degrees and drizzly out. Not too lazy to return books that were due today (Election Day was a convenient way to remember) at two different Chicago Public Library branches, so I headed out by bike. (Yes, you can return books to any branch, not just the one you checked them out at, but I worry they'll take days or weeks to get delivered back to the proper branch. If it's a new and/or hard-to-find book, I'll try hard to bring it back where I got it.)<br />
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I went by the newer (and awkwardly named) Daley, Richard M.--W. Humboldt branch on Kedzie, then over to the Manning branch on Hoyne near the United Center. (I'd say the "eerily quiet" United Center, but that only applies in a Blackhawks lockout context. It was actually a few hours before a Magic-Bulls game.) Rewarded myself for my civic duty by finally visiting the new Dunkin Donuts east of the UC, finishing a small latte (99 cent special) on my ride home. This is the only real Election Day photo I have, a polling place on Damen:<br />
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I got home just as it was getting dark, put away my bike, and walked one block to my polling place, two hours before it closed. I'd seen reports of long lines, especially during early voting (one, two, more hour waits), but this entire process took 20 minutes. Including the walk. The man waiting before me had been switched from the 29th to 26th precinct--a significant percentage of voters had precincts switched this year--and was given an address about a mile away and a friendly admonition to actually make it there to vote. I'd read the <a href="http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/bottom-of-the-ballot/">Bottom of the Ballot</a> series at Gapers Block and taken a few notes, and it helped me as I filled out my paper ballot. (I chose this over touchscreen.) How exciting to actually feel informed about the Water Reclamation District candidates! I still felt too intimidated to do anything about voting for judges to be retained or not--I only had a few names to vote against, so I left it all blank.<br />
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Not until I'd left did I realize that easily 99% of the negative political ads on TV I've had to endure (because I have the TV on a lot, and my mute button isn't working) for weeks and weeks were for candidates in races I didn't even get to vote on (Dold/Schneider, Walsh/Duckworth, Foster/Biggert). Ugh. I also felt like I'd just been to that polling place "a few months ago" for the mayoral and other local races...of course, that was a year and a half ago.<br />
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We get receipts, not stickers, here. Way too much space taken up on social media by people complaining about not getting stickers, or on the question of whether it's legal to take a photo of your ballot, or whining that too many people were posting "I voted" photos.<br />
k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-19968260888241363122012-11-05T22:24:00.000-08:002012-11-08T10:26:26.478-08:00So we went to Ukraine2012 has been a momentous year for me personally, mostly for overwhelming/challenging/alarming things I won't be writing about on a blog, at least not yet. But also for huge and exciting things, some of which I'll write about. For now, I'll say the trip I referred to in May before I vanished from posting here for months: two weeks in Ukraine. And my mother wrote a piece about it that's been published in a major newspaper. Part of the "Iowans on the Go" series in the Des Moines Register. <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012311040006&nclick_check=1">Here it is</a>, with a photo of me, even (you might have to click on "more" if it's not all displaying).<br />
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As for me, I have about 8000 photos, two crates'-worth of souvenirs, and pages of observation in a notebook that I've got to wrestle into a series here. And I'd love to write about it for other sites, too. Here's one photo of my first moments setting foot in Ukraine (it was a while before I got anything other than airport photos):<br />
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k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-64938749809030871332012-11-04T23:51:00.000-08:002012-11-05T13:54:14.331-08:00Weekend videosStill in testing-out-blogging-after-a-long-absence phase, and now I'll test how it works to upload my own videos. Two short ones from the weekend, that represent this weekend well without having to go through the 400-some photos I took and tell those stories right now.<br />
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Sat. 11/3, the sign at Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket in Willowbrook, IL, a Route 66 classic (first visit for all four of us driving around Chicagoland/south suburbs that day):<br />
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Sun.11/4, some kind of tubes I don't think I've ever watched go by on a freight train before, on a train past the abandoned Brach's factory on Chicago's West Side:<br />
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k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11818063.post-45789342865705152702012-11-03T23:26:00.000-07:002012-11-04T11:59:27.719-08:00Logan Square Farmers Market 2012I try to get to the wildly popular <a href="http://www.logansquarefarmersmarket.org/">Logan Square Farmers Market</a> as many times as possible every season, if for little else than people-watching and taking a few photos of shoppers, kids, dogs, and of course the beautiful merchandise. I made it at least once a month or so in 2012, though it was several visits before I bought anything (I never seem to have cash Sunday morning--although I should point out some vendors take cards), and I don't think I bought actual <i>produce</i> all year, just goodies like hand pies and pastries, and hot cider on this last visit. (At the much smaller Garfield Park Conservatory farmers market the same day--also its last day this year, and I'd never been--I bought two small decorative gourds and they threw in free tomatoes, which I carried in my bag through many hours of bicycling. They were very appreciated in the breakfast sandwiches I made during the week.)<br />
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Fallen leaves, squash, cider, and plenty of Chicago Bears gear around (the game had already started by the time a friend and I were there after noon, and due to a busy day I didn't learn Bears won till 5:30 pm)...here's a few terribly autumny photos from October 28:<br />
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That sign appears to have 2011's dates on it, but I assume people knew the market was ending that day, not Tuesday...<br />
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And since it was the morning after the biggest party night of this extended Halloween season (see my lament posted Nov. 1), it wasn't too strange to see a "bloody" prom dress in the trash on the nearby corner as we got our bikes:</div>
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<br />k of chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14726192719787418051noreply@blogger.com0