Black Friday approaching

I wrote about it last week, but this...yeah. I just had to post.

And in other fun things on the internet other people found for me, this site is still up:

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):

Truck Spills. 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?

Two weeks till Black Friday

Well, it's Thursday, but the giant shopping day Black Friday is also two weeks away, given that Walmart is moving Black Friday even earlier 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 Windy City Live on ABC 7), this story of a possible strike. Intriguing...

I of course have to give Picture Black Friday 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.

In 2010 I went to Chicago suburbs--my first visit to Orland Square Mall. In 2011 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.

I'd recently learned of a mystery/thriller called Black Friday (Alex Kava, 2010). Book description from Amazon:
"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.
What they don't realize is that instead of jamming devices, their backpacks contain explosives. And they're about to become unwitting suicide bombers.
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."

Um, wow.

I went to Amazon tonight to look up the title Black Friday 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:

Sure, a little reading before I head out to photograph November 23.

Black Friday 2010 and 2011

The following was taken Black Friday 2010, when I set out with a new camera (a late birthday gift, and a good camera that ran into problems within a few months). I think I Flickr posted a few of my shots taken in Chicago's Loop, and around the L and Metra, and of my first visit to Orland Square mall in Orland Park (after stopping in their Borders store a few blocks away for my first--and last--Cocoa Trio drink there), but I'd held on to the ones I considered/entered into the Picture Black Friday contest. (The site information was unclear, I've hardly ever emailed my photos before, and to this day, I have no idea if anyone at the contest saw the photos. Obviously I didn't place in the contest, but I loved the excuse to take the photos.)

Here's arrows taped all over the Toys R Us store across from the mall to facilitate orderly lines, which were happily quite minimum by the time I got there.



I need to do a photoessay of just the mall, and of where I spent Black Friday 2011. I didn't get out of the house until after the doorbuster sales had ended and I didn't go near any big box stores, but I did see the bustling and charmingly decorated downtown of Belleville, IL, and for the first time (looks like I'm making a new-to-me mall a BF tradition), the Saint Louis Galleria. When I get back to Chicago I'll see how they turned out.

(This post also marks me finally discovering a much faster way to post my photos and a way I can do them on someone else's computer. I'm embarrassed I hadn't thought of it before...)

and now, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Things here tend not to be in an order that makes sense--so, after yesterday's first day of winter post, here's my Thanksgiving/Black Friday excursions. Not especially impressive, but I got a few pics I liked.  

My approximation of a Thanksgiving dinner was the delicious (free!) food at the Whirlaway, a neighborhood bar in Logan Square. I hung out with some people that Wednesday night watching an amazing Blackhawks @ San Jose Sharks game, but I put that story on my other blog...

Since I've been in Chicago without family for the past few Thanksgivings, I consider it a big day to see a lot of the city. I think 2005 was my first time doing that--I took buses around, mostly to the far northwest side, and eventually found somewhere to eat. The CTA was on its holiday schedule, the weather was very cold and a little snowy, and I took 8 buses around. And waited a total--a TOTAL--of about 45 minutes for ALL the buses. I doubt I'll ever have such luck with the CTA again (for comparison, last week, I waited an hour in freezing rain for a bus that never showed up).

Then in 2006 (these link to my Flickr photos for each day, but I might not have many posted) it was sunny and 60 degrees F. I went on the longest bike ride I've ever had in Chicago, about 50 miles total, including bicycling all of Pulaski Ave. from south (111th Street) to north (Devon) within city limits. This needs its own post someday... In 2007 I had an exciting visit to my favorite, and now gone, abandoned building, Washburne Trade School. In 2008 I didn't do much, but had dinner a couple different places.

In 2009? I did even less. In fact, all I did besides stuff at home was go downtown for a brief visit before it got dark, to look at decorations and shop at Old Navy--they were open on Thanksgiving in the Loop.

I'll confess, I've done the early morning door-buster sale on the day after Thanksgiving--once. It was Target, years ago (they haven't done doorbuster sales--i.e. the 5 am-11 am Black Friday morning type of sales--in years), probably back when there was only the Logan Square Target in Chicago. I usually buy a few things that day but try to avoid crowds. I appreciate the spirit of Buy Nothing Day, created to counteract Black Friday hype, but...oh, I guess I now have 11 months to work on my rant about it (suffice it to say, I think it's a little elitist to have it on the day a lot of things people actually want are at a price they can afford, especially in this economy).

This year, I wasn't motivated to go shopping in the morning. But I felt like taking a look at the one Wal-Mart within Chicago's city limits, which happens to be just a couple miles down the street from where I live. 

It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. Kind of messy, though. I was there briefly in the early afternoon, snuck a few photos (Wal-Mart was being strict about photography/video this year because of negative publicity from last year's tragedy), bought a few things, and went home to watch a depressing Blackhawks game online, then went out to watch a not quite as depressing (but still a loss) Chicago Wolves hockey game in Rosemont.

I'd love to actually cook, or help cook, a huge Thanksgiving meal in Chicago, but it never seems to happen. A Thanksgiving potluck/big bike ride (if it's nice weather)/abandoned building excursion could be spectacular....