Chain store changes

Two 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).

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.

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.

waiting for the train

Waiting to catch my first CTA Holiday Train of 2011 on the Cicero Green Line, abandoned Brach's factory in the background, multiple rush hour Metra trains going by between the platform and the factory, I got a couple quick and fuzzy videos. Really just posting this to see if I remember how to include video properly, and because I'm still in the habit of blogging daily (if not promising to do a NaBloPoMo for December, too):

as seen on the Red Line

I am back from the mostly wonderful St. Louis Thanksgiving trip, filled with gratitude for having been able to take it and good memories and a camera card I still can't upload from yet, so I must do another quick NaBloPoMo post of photos. These were taken on a recent night out using the near north CTA Red Line, and show old and not-so-old signs and advertising there.

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....

something better

There appears to be a theme here.









And it's my new obsession: reflective self-portraits in CTA bus shelters with ads that seem particularly ironic if you see my splint and/or cane in the photo. Legs, bicycling, hope...

If those are too depressing, how about this?



Photos taken Sunday June 29-Thursday July 3 in various neighborhoods. (None posted to Flickr yet!) Ads are for: iPod, Bikes Belong campaign (note the "lovely legs"--uh, I actually think it's kind of weird to encourage bike riding among women in the city by reminding them that guys will stare at their legs), "The Cleaner" TV show, U.S. Cellular? I think. And the happy car is in front of the Jewel around Roosevelt and State.

Discovering the abandoned CTA

Thanks to the wonderful Chicago-L.org, I learned of six still-existing abandoned CTA stations, and since I decided to visit every existing CTA station, I decided these are "existing" enough for the project. Plus, these are the intersection of my CTA obsession and abandoned building obsession--although I didn't expect to "explore" the stations (and didn't).





I set out one sunny March afternoon, taking the North bus to Western and stopping to snap a few photos of the threatened (and not especially attractive, but I like having a record so I won't forget what used to be there) buildings near the southeast corner, including this one that had been an Easter Seals building until quite recently. Then I got the Western bus to the Blue Line, Forest Park branch.

I started off with regular station photos of Western, Kedzie, and Pulaski, some of which I had to revisit in future trips to get anything remotely interesting. You have to work a bit harder on this branch of the L to find good shots, but there's some charming signage, and I kind of like the pastel brick station houses. I left the Pulaski station to walk the half-mile to the abandoned Kostner station, passing an area of block club signs, attractive greystones, and syringes underfoot across the street from an elementary school.

The Kostner station has steps and a walkway that allowed me to stand over the expressway and get shots of the not--too--exciting station house, stairs, and platform.





From there, I walked another half-mile to the next open station at Cicero. I somehow got onto Harrison and I believe I saw a stretch of that street I'd never seen before. I definitely want to thoroughly bike the West Side this year--I've done a lot of the South Side in the past couple years (and hope to see all that again, too). Miscellaneous industrial buildings, bars, churches--here's a cross protected by Brinks.



It was quite desolate there, which at least meant no one asked what I was taking pictures of. Signs I like, of course, and cute cats next to empty bottles of motor oil...

I'll have to go back to Cicero to reshoot Belmonte Liquors (which was nowhere near Belmont, needless to say). I got on the train again and got my shots of the Cicero and Austin stations.



From Austin, it was a confusing trek to find the abandoned Central station. I think the best way to approach it in the future would be heading south on Central, past the oft-overlooked Columbus Park, but on this trip I was walking east from Austin, trespassing an industrial area that was already deserted after 4, making my way over train tracks, some of which I was certain weren't in use, others that were (but not until I was out of the area).



There's no real station house left at the Central station, just a lot of platform area, overgrown by plants, surrounded by graffiti. I got very close. So close, in fact, that I could have gone into the station easily if not for the pesky issue of the electrified rail. I do have my limits. I looked around the tracks for a bit, then took the same path back to the Austin station, well-covered in prickly burrs.



I took the train to Kedzie and just barely grabbed a Harrison bus to the last abandoned station of the day, California. The sun was setting by now. The California station is at the top of this post. I noticed another bar walking north, though I'm certain it's long-closed. I got shots of the signs and as I walked away, a man jumped out from behind the building shouting "HEY! HEY! HEY!" at me. I don't know what that was about, because I pretended not to hear and walked north.

In this rather run-down stretch of California, I noticed a fancy mid-century modern furniture store, one of several things I want to come back and photograph. But when I saw the S. California bus coming, I wasn't going to pass it up.

I finally posted this because I'm just about to embark on a walking-and-photography trip that will make this one look tiny and insignificant...

Fooled

I wrote recently of my public-radio-fan nerdery, and here's another example: I was eagerly awaiting the April Fool's stories on NPR yesterday. Their all-time great hoax, in 1992, was that Richard Nixon (still alive then, obviously) was planning to run for president. The Museum of Hoaxes has a funny list of 1992 pranks (a giant banner in Los Angeles saying "Welcome to Chicago?" Cool!) and actually declared the Nixon gag #6 of all time. I overslept, so if Morning Edition had anything, I missed it. Chicago Public Radio ran a story in their afternoon news segments about how the Cubs, due to a MLB ruling, actually have won a World Series since 1908; the story's on their web page. Nice, but didn't fool me.

I knew there'd be a piece during All Things Considered and I expected it during the last part of one of their half-hours, but running it dead last on the show was too obvious. Something about a "subminimalist" classical composer, and they had a super-pretentious record review by a critic (why not their usual classical critic? wouldn't that make it more convincing?). Oh well, it was cute. (And having heard today's ATC comments, did fool some people.)

I had to stand outside the Whole Foods on N. Halsted to hear that story because radio reception dies in the store. Then I went in and bought fake coffee (I ran out of Pero and they didn't have it, so I bought the tastier, pricier Teecino. And today, forgot that you have to make it with a French press, it doesn't just dissolve in hot water like Pero. Oops) and fake milk (hemp milk, which I've wondered about for a while, was finally on sale. I tried vanilla--it's good, kind of like oat or almond maybe?). I also visited the new Belmont & Damen location of the Bleeding Heart Bakery for a vegan blueberry-lemon cheesecake bar (I far prefer vegan cheesecake to the "real" thing; it's hardly identical, and that's why I like it) and my second hot chocolate of the day. (In case you haven't picked it up, I'm still not drinking coffee--going two months without it.)

But on the bus home listening to Marketplace, I was well into a story, half-paying-attention, before I realized it was fake--something about IRS rebates being issued as merchandise, a couple in Phoenix getting an air conditioner. It definitely seemed weird when their regular commenter Robert Reich was rambling about free Viagra and toasters. See, this story worked because they ran it less than halfway into the show...I didn't spend much time looking up Internet April Fool's jokes, there's fake stuff on the Internet at all times, but thanks to a bit on Schadenfreude, I've learned what "rickrolling" is. I'm so late to these net fads, I was looking at LOLcats on Pandagon for months before knowing what they were...

One of my Flickr friends--and disappointingly few tried April Fool's gags--fooled some people with a disturbing story of vintage-Barbie-inspired violence at a flea market. I hope she doesn't mind the link; I should also say she's got more flattering photos of herself on her page, as well as many terrific photos of Barbie and other toys. All I did was put up another shot from the demolished school I've been visiting and claim the police showed up...maybe I should have made up a story about finding a finger in an abandoned building, as a friend once did.

So these photos are from an impulsive trip Monday of last week; on the way to a store, I saw a cluster of abandoned buildings, and went back to investigate. Fairly sealed up, and right next to active buildings, so I contented myself with observing the playground equipment. Katherine's Self-Promotion Corner time again! The first photo in the post was my first ever ChicagoPublicRadio.org photo of the day. I don't see an archive of them, but the past week's feed is here and my screenshot is here. (For the Flickr addicts out there, Monday night I finally learned to do screenshots, and how to add a widget to my profile, and how to create collections of my photosets, which I'd tried unsuccessfully before. And I learned that not only have I been in Explore, I've been in seven times!)

Other works published online since my previous self-promoting post: Chicagoist ran a different version of the frog photo from this post (my "most interesting" photo on Flickr now, really?) and a shot from the 18th St. Pink Line. Time Out also used the Clark/Lake CTA shot. And Chicago Magazine apparently has a photo blog and used this Merchandise Mart CTA shot. CTA photos seem to be my biggest hit, and I'll have an update of my every-CTA-station project soon...

Chicago birthday part two

Right after I wrote the previous post I briefly visited the Chicago History Museum, a place I get to scandalously infrequently considering how interested I am in Chicago history, and how it's just a bus ride away, in an area I easily visit 5 times a week, maybe? They were having free admission from 11-1 for Chicago's birthday party. I missed whatever performances took place. The Chicago Public Library had a table set up with lots of free copies of the books they've used for their "One Book, One Chicago" program. Now, I'm the last person in the world who needs free books, especially since for weeks now I've been taking out free books from this place. But I love "retired" library books, so I got The Things They Carried and The Coast of Chicago. It was the last copy of the latter, and a man browsing the table expressed disappointment to the librarian...he'd wanted to get a book set in Chicago on Chicago's birthday (my thinking too). Luckily, I pointed out that A Raisin in the Sun is set in Chicago, so I hope that helped. People who share Chicago's birthday were given a certificate or something, but my friend who does was probably at work at the time and like most people couldn't visit a museum at noon on a Tuesday. Oh well.

There's a nice sign section in the lobby, shown above, and an original L car. I also took a quick look at the Sullivan section of the architecture exhibit and the section on Chicago businesses and inventions. Surprisingly, the Chicago Food display doesn't have any of the Chicago candy companies (but it does have Wrigley and Cracker Jack). I picked up a few brochures. I've never been on any of CHM's tours but I hope to check out one of their L tours--they offer the Brown, Blue, Green (West) and Green (South). Green (South) is next Sunday...I think it's possibly the most interesting, and I'm planning to go.

I got some hot chocolate (just okay) and a potato bagel with honey butter (longtime fave) from Einstein. When I boarded the #72 at Wells, the driver said she'd be gone for "3 minutes" and I used the time (it really was 3 minutes) to take photos--no other passengers, and I don't know if I've ever been completely alone on a bus before. Unfortunately, the photos were blurry. But here's the inside of a CTA bus, for any of you who've never seen one.

Thriftiness

It's been quite a good week for several reasons (including the previous post) though I'm fighting off a bit of a cold and it's sad to have to consider above-30-degrees-and-partly-sunny (predicted for this weekend) as "wonderful weather." You were, at some point, promised this blog would mention thrift shopping, so I'll say a few words here. This first photo isn't where Village Discount's castoffs go to die, it's a shot from my second visit to this abandoned factory in Gary, Indiana, last Sunday.

Sure, that's the kind of goofy photo an annoying quasi-hipster would put on Flickr with a title like Perhaps I've gotten a bit behind with the laundry, but it's actually a serious story; a scandal in Gary involving these clothes that were supposed to be donated to the needy, but are rotting here instead. People in poor countries would probably prefer nice new Patriots Super Bowl shirts...




Anyway, thrifting: I've been to every Village Discount Outlet in Chicago (I made a point of that the 2nd or 3rd year I was in Chicago) and I'll try to hit all their Chicagoland stores this year. I started last Friday with Store #12, 4635 N. Elston, as an excuse to visit a nearby 24-hour restaurant; I'll write about them when I've made it through all 12 of their daily specials (a $5.25 dinner everyday, $4.25 soup & sandwich every weekday).

Then, Saturday, after meeting up at the very nice bakery/cafe Flourish (spinach croissant wonderful, hot chocolate just okay), I headed out with Kate, who I hadn't thrifted with in ages, to a VDO she hadn't been to, Store #13, 4027 N. Kedzie. (The Christmas decoration above was spotted as we walked down from the Sheridan Red Line platform.) This store is IMMENSE, possibly the biggest Chicago VDO, but it doesn't seem to have a furniture department. I liked this Barbie doll with a homemade toilet-paper dress but opted to photograph it rather than buy.

My haul at Store #12 was sparse. I pretty much bought the usual at Store #13: a vintage men's cardigan, a flight training videotape, a vintage nightgown that still has its original salestags, a Sri Lankan cricket team polo shirt. I got all that and several actually practical items (pants and PJ tops) for about $20 total at both stores. I felt a little let down at finding so little; I'd once bought so much at the Kedzie store (my only $100+ thrift trip) that I had to take a cab home. But I meant to hit another VDO Monday for their half-off-everything Presidents' Day sale, then woke up Tuesday realizing I'd totally forgotten. I'm amused to see VDO allegedly has a Facebook page, but when I clicked on it from Google I got the message "Sorry, more people must join this network before a page can be created for it."

My cheap thrills for Saturday night were to be a hot drink and reading at Borders in Uptown, but I hadn't anticipated huge concerts at both the Aragon (something Mexican) and the Riviera (sold-out three-night Wilco shows). The Lawrence bus from Kimball to Broadway (22 blocks) took a little over an HOUR. It turned into one of those situations where I just decided to see how bad it'd get, rather than get out and walk. It's easy to do that when you're not in a hurry to be anywhere. I ended up with 10 minutes at Borders, and getting a shot of these dubiously parked cars in front of the Riviera.

The coffee/tea/caffeinated pop fast is going reasonably well. I've discovered that putting Pero coffee substitute, cinnamon, and cocoa in a cup, then adding the boiling water, creates something that's almost a beverage. And the "Mayan" hot chocolate at Moonstruck is my fave of theirs so far, I had to treat myself after two hours at the Apple Store Wednesday working on my photo library (which now seems even more messed up). And it's a thrill to learn that some diner/family restaurant/grill places give you a free second cup of hot chocolate (Cozy Corner in Logan Square, Michael's in Old Town).

In other cheap and chocolately news: I finally went to the Garfield Park Conservatory Chocolate Fest after years of meaning to check it out. It seems to always be held the Sat. and Sun. before Valentine's Day. That Sunday was the 0 degree/negative windchill killer day. I have a certain place that's getting demolished that I'm committed to documenting every single Sun. while it exists. And I'm committed enough to go in 0 degrees, though my exterior shots were cut short when I realized I could barely move my right hand (despite two pairs of gloves). I went into the building for "10 minutes" that wound up being an hour of sorting books that I was sure would be Dumpstered that week (actually they were still there last Sunday). I hid lots of them and took what I could reasonably carry. I'd probably have stayed a dangerously long time if I didn't need to get to the Fest at the Conservatory nearby.

It's only a dollar (suggested) to get into the Conservatory! Going directly from an hour-and-a-half in brutal cold to an overheated indoor garden was not good for me, or my camera (note foggy photo) but I endured, and was rewarded with plenty of free samples for my trouble. A few places were running out by then, and there were many sugar-saturated kids bouncing around, but I liked it. Some samples are wrapped, but at others, the gloved workers just drop a pile of chocolate pieces in your hand--so you have to eat them right away! Here's the link for the Garfield Park Conservatory; when I looked at it they note "The Conservatory Celebrates It's 100 Year Birthday!" and typo aside, it really is one of Chicago's treasures, a place I visit scadalously infrequently for how close I live to it.

The Conservatory/Central Park Green Line station, renovated a few years ago, is one of the cutest CTA stations, so I made sure to get a lot of shots of it. This one with the icicles might be my favorite winter Chicago photo this year (I thought people on Flickr would like it more, but the hand-with-chocolate ended up getting all the views). I went on, despite the horrific cold, to photograph a few other Green Line stations that day.


And that's a few cheap Chicago thrills. I've got to get out now and take care of some library business (I should have given up checking out library books for Lent; it's certainly a vice when I've got stacks of several hundred to-read books I own right here between the computer and the TV) and visit that restaurant for another daily special. (Note: this was written and posted Fri. 2/22 but says 2/21 because that's when I created the draft with the photos. I'm sure there's a way to reset the time and date and I'll learn it eventually.)

Late January newsworthiness

I meant to be at a literary event (the debut of a new lit mag, Bruiser Review) Thursday night, but got scared off by the fact that the temperature sign outside my window said 0 degrees. And the temperature on the screen at CLTV said 00 degrees (!!). So I decided to stay in and combine some recent photos of the CTA (six different stations, all taken Mon. 1/21) with somewhat political content, for no good reason.

Monday morning I had my volunteer shift at the Archicenter and spent much more time on the computer than usual. I looked up a piece about the acclaimed urban/ruins photographer Camilo Jose Vergara that I'd heard on "Morning Edition" as I rushed around earlier, about Vergara's project of documenting Martin Luther King Jr. paintings and murals in American cities. I also found a story about this book by a journalist and photographer exploring the various streets named after MLK in America. Sounds intriguing, like the similar-themed MLK Blvd Flickr group and blog.

I also spent quite a bit of time on Chicago-L.org, looking up abandoned CTA stations and being amazed at the number of demolished stations and entire vanished lines. I knew about some of it, but still...I'll definitely have some full-fledged posts on that someday. I set out to photograph an image on the Vergara NPR page, and the abandoned station I'd seen on Chicago-L. A couple different explorer friends had mentioned the possibility of going to Gary on Monday, but one couldn't and one went when I had the Archicenter shift. I'd felt weird anyway about the prospect of white people romping around the ruins of Gary on the King holiday. So what did I do? I ended up photographing the ruins of Englewood. Oh well.

So, a good afternoon photographing, and a visit to my friend Shag--I hadn't seen him or his cats in ages. Then the gloom I've been in this week seized me again. Tuesday, I lay on the couch thoroughly depressed and listening to a very good "Talk of the Nation" discussion called Abortion Experiences: 35 Years After Roe v. Wade. Since it was the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, of course. The point was that abortion is extremely common but rarely discussed in terms of personal experience, and I was impressed with the diverse experiences/opinions I heard on the show.

There was obviously a lot in the more political parts of the blogosphere, but I'm not political enough here to say much about it myself, so I'll just link to a good collection of pieces at Alternet. I was especially impressed with Amanda Marcotte's piece that discussed adoption politics: “It seems women across the nation realized that if they had a right to abort a pregnancy, they also had a right to keep a baby, and didn't have to give it up just because their parents, church, and community said so. People treat "choice" like a code word for "abortion", but it really does mean "choice"--the choice to have an abortion, sure, but also the choice to be a single mother, to be childless, to delay marriage, never to marry at all, or to be a lesbian.” By the way, I've had a rant boiling in me for a long time about the hit-and-now-Academy-Award-nominated Juno, but I don't want to rant about movies I haven't actually seen. It isn't the typical feminist response ("what's with all these movies about unexpected pregnancy that don't discuss abortion?"), it's the way adoption appears to be treated in that film. But I need to see it first.

One more. Cristina Page has a blog at Birth Control Watch and the link right there is to another hugely important, not-discussed-enough part of the abortion debate: how religious right groups aren't just trying to ban abortion, but birth control as well, by actually trying to redefine forms of birth control AS abortion. First they try to confuse emergency contraception with the "abortion pill," then since EC is actually high doses of the birth control pill, they can redefine the pill as abortion. Her post about teenagers and pregnancy was decent but predictable; I'm annoyed at how often the socioeconomic factors around early motherhood get left out and everything's reduced to education/birth control access or morality. Reading about the 18-year-old mother of four in There Are No Children Here (who has a fifth by the epilogue), in a time and place when many very young women were mothers (I know I should know the statistics today, by comparison) really complicates things for anyone on any side of the abstinence vs. comprehensive sex ed debate, doesn't it? I'll point you to another essential read, Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy.

UPDATE: I got a comment from a good friend that strongly disagreed with some of the opinions here, and just posted a long excerpt in comments from one of the late Ellen Willis's essential essays about abortion rights, have a look. If I'm going to express opinions, I have to be willing to accept dissent/criticism (but I'm kind of thin-skinned, so it's not always easy).