City of Destiny

January in Chicago

2012-01-31T21:55:00.000-08:00

Anything I could say about the year past or the (rest of) the year ahead is as dated now as the scene in this photo (dying Christmas decorations), but at least the photo is recent...January 29. And this is Roosevelt Collection, a fairly new development. Late-January holiday decor tends to be confined to shabbier locales, so this was a bit strange. (Also...it's been close to 60 degrees out at the end of January.) Taken on a short, fruitful trip to a few spots along Roosevelt Road in Chicago the other day. Anyway, I haven't managed to blog at least every week of the year but at least I'm off to posting every month. It's a start! Big things ahead!

happy holidays

2011-12-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

It's still the holiday season. It's still the 12 days of Christmas, for that matter, and thus okay to post my Christmas photo a little late. (It's on Flickr, too, with my incredulity that my transparent attempt to post a specific photo that everyone would say "Merry Christmas!" or whatever on, didn't work.)

A photo store in downtown Belleville, IL (which still has small businesses: an office supply store, a sporting goods store, a hardware store, a craft supply store--as well as chains), seen on Black Friday 2011. (There's a photoessay waiting about the gingerbread display contest there! And on the CTA Holiday Train, and on shopping mall decorations...)

Just a fond message to the many great photographers I've met through the Internet and in person (especially the one who made it possible for me to take photos in Belleville) and to anyone who supports any of the work I do.

(And now to see if I feel like writing a 2011 wrap-up piece.)

waiting for the train

2011-12-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

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):

and day 30

2011-11-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

...and I'm trying to end this National Blog Writing Month on a good note, but I stayed in (well, after catching the CTA Holiday Train for the first time this season, that was cool) when there were some great events going on, hoping to get iPhoto and blog things done, and ended up dozing off and catching up later. Oops.

I'm still happy I did this project, even if it was a bit of uh, quantity over quality. Especially because traveling to Detroit, Toledo, St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis again, and Cincinnati in November meant I didn't have much time for posts. And I got virtually no response to this on social media (heard from a couple friends in person/via email, at least) and I'm not so great at pursuing projects without external feedback. (I guess hitting the 200th post on my blog is unimpressive in the Tumblr era. People still like a blogiversary, but I don't know when to say I started this blog!)

Also, I haven't looked, even once, to see if I got any comments on the blog all month. That's kind of a problem I have, too. But if anyone did comment in a non-spam manner, thank you! I signed in and posted to the blog ten times as much as I did in the previous six or so months--that counts for something, right? I may even get going on the blogroll, design, and profile overhaul, in time for a 2012 relaunch of sorts. Yes, you've heard this before...

Because I'm too overwhelmed with which new photos to post, here's an old favorite (taken 2006, South Chicago) posted very, very early in my Flickr stream:

away in Cincinnati

2011-11-29T23:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, a Megabus trip (and Greyhound return) barely 24 hours after I got back from the St. Louis Thanksgiving one. However, StL was unplanned. Since I had no way to tweet from the road and haven't yet tried scheduling posts to post later, this is written/dated after the fact. And of course, still no way to post new photos, so here's an alternate version I liked from photos of my Cincinnati trip a little over a year ago:

My Flickr set of Cincy photos.

as seen on the Red Line

2011-11-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Sunday in St. Louis

2011-11-27T22:07:00.000-08:00

Even slower and weather's even drearier than Saturday's (about a thirty degree drop from the fantastic Friday) and I will just note this: the bar we impulsively chose on the way back from Small Business Saturday shopping for a quick dinner, local institution the Bleeding Deacon, turned out to be having its second to last night before an indefinite hiatus? closure? closure before relocation? that night. I am so glad I went: good beer menu and impressive food menu (vegetarian and non-, gourmet touches, probably lower prices than a similar place in Chicago--and embarrassingly, I couldn't think of an equivalent place in Chicago). And I'm glad I took a few photos, even if I can't upload and post them yet. So I will take the extremely rare step of posting someone else's photo, since I actually got to ask permission in person and all. Here's one Darren took two and a half years ago:

Flickr link to it here. I also recommend his other photos of the bar, including him hugging the jukebox, an entry in the GroupHug St. Louis photo contest earlier this year.

Saturday in St. Louis

2011-11-26T18:47:00.000-08:00

Was a somewhat quiet, drizzly day here in St. Louis. Observed Small Business Saturday in a few neighborhoods. Again, since I can't get new photos uploaded yet, here's a shot from one of my first visits in 2011, for a nice corner grocery, Gustine Market. I've seen this sign out on every trip this year.

Link to this on Flickr

Black Friday 2010 and 2011

2011-11-25T23:24:00.000-08:00

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...)

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T23:48:00.000-08:00

Brief post from the road, from the unexpected trip mentioned late Wednesday. I made it to St. Louis all right and on time (a little early). I had a relaxing morning and a great day of taking photos of mostly abandoned/vacant things in suburbs I hadn't seen before. In between the photo opportunities, a pleasant afternoon watching the National Dog Show on NBC (a Thanksgiving tradition I haven't done before) and then eating at a restaurant with my host Darren's parents. (I was the only one who ordered a Thanksgiving-type meal; couldn't resist.)

Relaxing in the evening (looking at Black Friday ads in the StL paper, though I didn't intend to shop much this weekend), then a house party at his friends' where we probably consumed more calories of snacks (so much cheese!) than during the afternoon meal, and I bravely tolerated watching some of the Cardinals World Series 2011 commemorative DVD surrounded by Cards fans (reliving the infamous Game 6, which I got to watch with my parents on my most recent Iowa visit and the one kind of substituting for visiting for Thanksgiving, wasn't bad).

I've had good Thanksgivings with my family and good ones going on adventures around Chicago--seeing what stores were open on Thanksgiving one year; my first visit to the great Korean grocery store Chicago Food; my then-longest-ever bike ride in Chicago (about 50 miles on what I've told everyone was a 60-degree day, but from the forecasts this week saying Chicago was about to have its first 60-degree Thanksgiving in 13 years, I guess I was off a little); an excursion to an abandoned trade school in 2007 (one of my all-time favorite posts here)...This was a chance to do something a little different, and I'm glad I took it.

mmmm, cooking

2011-11-23T21:49:00.000-08:00

I was all excited about how I'd posted a longer post than usual for NaBloPoMo yesterday--and earlier in the day than usual, too!--but today, just hours before I was about to go out and buy groceries for a Thanksgiving meal I was going to make for myself tonight/tomorrow morning (and possibly bring some of to a friend's--and I should clarify I didn't absolutely promise I'd be at a friend's so I'm not backing out of anything. I think), the chance to go out of town and spend it with someone came up. Yes, when I literally hadn't unpacked from the last trip!

Anyway, I figured I could go ahead with my plan for a sweet potato pie, since I needed to use the sweet potatoes and I should bring a dish with me, so I biked to the Aldi on the Humboldt Park/Garfield Park borderlines. Lines weren't as bad as I'd feared. I didn't find the premade pie crust--that and (soy)milk were what I went there for--until I got to the checkout. Somehow I wound up with three bags of cranberries and a package of mushrooms because they were 25 cents each (!) and cheap celery and cheap Yukon Gold potatoes even though I had some at home already...er, well, now I'll have ingredients (and I cooked some of it) when I get back from the trip. The pie (a vegan recipe I found online, put in a probably non-vegan crust) appears to be a success. I'm appalled I didn't have ground nutmeg (how could I be out of nutmeg?), but I used allspice with the three other spices called for.

But since I still can't upload new photos of the pie, I dug up these photos of orange cinnamon rolls from Aldi (purchased at a discount at Stanley's produce market, oddly), showing off that I do use my wonderful Le Creuset cast iron skillet. To cook a 99-cent package of highly processed pastries.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you're celebrating! (And warning, I'll have to blog from a laptop for a few days again.)

vacant Hot Wheelz and more

2011-11-22T21:46:00.000-08:00

I promised myself I wouldn't do any blogging-a-photo-direct-from-Flickr during NaBloPoMo. But I admit I was hit with the "photo I thought would be popular but hasn't gotten any response yet on Flickr and I'm going to blog it too" for this one. It's got primary colors, it's got something "abandoned," and best of all, it's got a possibly legally actionable name (uh, Mattel?). But I want to do MORE, so here are a few other shots from a photo excursion to the industrial West Side with two friends, earlier this month.

I limited myself to car-related ones, or I'd end up feeling I needed to include all the primary color-themed shots I took that day, and food mart shots, and industrial shots...

a quick word on Occupy

2011-11-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

Writing a political blog isn't my thing. Okay, right now writing a blog isn't entirely my thing. I've tried to stay out of the Occupy Wall Street/etc. debates on social media and, somewhat shamefully, I admit I've spent more time seeing Occupy movements in other cities (well, I walked by the ones in Detroit, Toledo & St. Louis all in the space of a week) than I have seeing Chicago's, which I went by once. Once. But this impressed me enough to get a screenshot and post instead of wrangling today with what photo or photos of mine to post:

Re: the pepper-spraying cop, of course there's this about the pepper-spraying-cop meme.

serendipity, MO

2011-11-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

I was finally going to try a photoblog of my day on the day it happened, since I got home early for once, but for reasons too boring to describe (hasn't stopped me from telling friends!) I can't upload new pictures right now. Hopefully early in the week. So here's one from Independence, Missouri, as previously mentioned a few times, that I think stands alone in a pleasant way.

Saturday in Missouri

2011-11-19T23:48:00.000-08:00

One week ago today, a drive across Missouri. Many decent photo opportunities were missed because I didn't know of them in time to get my camera ready (whereas I'm at least aware of what I keep meaning to shoot in time between Chicago and St. Louis). A few never-making-it-Flickr shots, I guess. Also, as tiny a deal as this may sound to others, I'm pretty thrilled I actually posted some of the photos onto Flickr--night shots from a Saturday night in sleepy Independence, MO--in less than a week. And even before my traveling companion, Flickr's plasticfootball, had posted from there, though he's posted Boonville already. Now, the next frontier: a night where I post photos of an event that happened that day, such as the DIY Trunk Show or Chicago Book Expo I went to, and only photographed.

titling these is the hardest part

2011-11-18T23:51:00.000-08:00

Not really, some days, writing is. And this was a strange, challenging day I don't want to discuss right now, so: I'll randomly link to my Flickr set of Phoenix. Just photos in it from 2009, which reminds me I still have two other cities from that trip to post! And much more Phoenix. My habit of taking thousands of photos a month is catching up with me, and there are specific people I don't want to disappoint. As long as I'm glancing through Flickr photosets (and cringing at all the private ones of stored photos, which make organizing my public ones a challenge), a personal favorite that also got a little overlooked: through green windows.

more than halfway

2011-11-17T23:35:00.000-08:00

I'm going to admit daily blogging has been a bit of a challenge, but I'm keeping it up. Here's a scene from my aforementioned bike ride to Central Park Ave.--I'm not sure I ever noticed this in ten years living nearby.

cold-weather bicycling

2011-11-16T23:20:00.000-08:00

Just a simple city shot today, taken recently after I left my first Tweed Ride in Chicago early (it was fun, but didn't have enough actual riding) and went to Cafe Mustache in Logan Square. Today I had my first bike ride in days, though the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees from Tuesday (a day I mostly spent on a Greyhound bus) and it wasn't bad--sunny and 40 degrees. It helped that the trip was to buy nice cold-weather food like borscht at Tony's grocery (Fullerton & Central Park) and a bowl of chili at The Brown Sack nearby, an overdue visit to both. I'd post a shot of The Brown Sack but haven't uploaded much from my trip yet (or the photos since)!

the return (and post 200)

2011-11-15T23:57:00.000-08:00

I have returned from the Missouri-Kansas trip; now to get the 1000-some photos onto my computer. And enjoy the other things I've brought back: half a variety 12-pack of Boulevard beer, winter hats from both home sports teams I saw play on the trip, books retired from the Boonslick Public Library collection, cheap postcards from gas stations (many still showing the old Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis), locally made candies, an out-of-print 1970s book on hobos and trains, etc. Here's a quick photo from, I believe, Higginsville, MO, where I got pumpkin-flavored coffee at the gas station. (After pumpkin beer in Boonville and before pumpkin pancakes in Independence.)

Blogger is telling me this is my 200th post on City of Destiny, and since I've spent National Blog Writing Month talking about discovering Blogger stats, and hitting 200,000 photostream views and 1,500,000 overall views on Flickr, I suppose I need to point this out too. ("All I have are my pageviews!" I told my traveling companion, half-kidding, before leaving St. Louis.) I'll assume that means posts that are actually posted (there may be some drafts floating around). As with the Blogger stats, that seems quite low for having been on here in one form since 2005 and another form since 2007. But this trip was an escape from the negativity about my creative output I've been bogged down in recently, so I'd better not dwell on that, and think about how it might be possible for me to hit 500 by the end of 2012...As before, thank you for anyone who's read and supported this blog!

K of C in KC day 3

2011-11-14T23:54:00.000-08:00

One more excellent day on the road (then a partial day returning to Chicago on a bus from St. Louis): Independence, a bit of Kansas (but not Kansas City, Kansas, apparently), Kansas City, MO (but neighborhoods and not really time for downtown), and my first (I think) stop in Columbia, MO, on the way back. I thought of #kofcinkc for my @kofchicago Twitter a little too late and was too busy having fun and trying not to check my phone to tweet/post during the day anyway...

a note from Kansas City

2011-11-13T23:52:00.000-08:00

Still on a wonderful Kansas City (and other Missouri) trip with good company (whose laptop I'm using, but I don't want to go through the hassle it'd take to post photos using it right now). I now have a Kansas City Flickr set starting with photos from my 2010 trip, after posting a few as the latest round of "Guess the City" on my Flickr. This trip is as good as my Quad Cities trip around my birthday this year (and I've found pizza I like even more). Both sets are in the around the Midwest collection on Flickr, still missing a few cities I've visited (that are left for "Guess the City").

hello from Independence, MO

2011-11-12T23:55:00.000-08:00

Having a lovely time! Been up since 6:30 am arrival in St. Louis. Then a drive across Missouri with a surprisingly nice stop in Boonville, instead of finally seeing Columbia nearby. We attended an entertaining hockey game in Independence, saw the downtown, and had a late dinner at Denny's. Then got the motel wi-fi to work, and I showed off a bunch of vintage postcards I'd bought at an antique mall in Ames, IA, and we tried to decipher the writing on back of them, and now I CAN'T STOP THINKING IN A POSTCARD-WRITING VOICE.

Kansas City tomorrow. Photos to follow!
Katherine

wandering

2011-11-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

A quick shot from the trip I just returned from, posted just before leaving on another. We'll see what posting from a borrowed laptop or from my phone is like...Oh, this is Toledo--I didn't know about this bridge. Can't wait to go back...

Sheffield & Addison, November

2011-11-10T23:54:00.000-08:00

Just another night shot (with the new camera that takes them fairly well).

Flickr again

2011-11-09T23:56:00.000-08:00

So, a three-part Megabus trip I just took would have gotten a glowing review from me, but a confusing situation on the last bus made us get in well over an hour late, and posting a whole new piece or even choosing a photo is too much right now, so here's a photo I really like that I put on Flickr:

Taken last Sunday, near a school demolition site. That photo was at the top of my Flickr page when it hit this on 11/9/11:

1.5 million overall views. Again, thank you to all who've appreciated my work on Flickr, even the several commenters who've frankly been annoying me recently in various ways and I should really say something. And the people I haven't heard enough from recently. I could tell, checking on the Detroit hostel computer last night, I'd almost certainly miss seeing it EXACTLY at 1.5. But hey...the 201,234 I see above is kind of neat.

notes from the road

2011-11-08T21:26:00.000-08:00

I honestly can't recall if I've ever done what I've imagined for years, posting a blog post while traveling (from those travels long enough for me to stay at a hostel with computers or with friends or family, which isn't the majority of my trips!). To get one in for NaBloPoMo, I'm making a quick visit online at the new-ish hostel in Detroit. It's my third stay here in 2011, one night each time, and every time I've been almost the only one using this computer (since everyone else is either too preoccupied while traveling to do anything online, or has a laptop). I can't do some of the functions I could on my home computer, so no images, but it's better than trying to blog from my phone or just doing another blog-from-Flickr.

It's been a decent visit (on-time Megabus arrival, mild weather, Tim Hortons, familiar and unfamiliar photo opportunities, no major hassles, a fun game even if it involved the Red Wings winning) but I have to get up early for another Megabus...

question of the day

2011-11-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

Seen while walking a Chicago industrial zone Sunday morning with friends (which produced many enjoyably bleak photos I haven't had time to look through yet):

No answer was provided.

(I had a discussion with someone about if this blog recently, i.e. during NaBloPoMo, is sounding too sad. I can't help it that the start of the month corresponded with an excessively stressful week, but I CAN try to watch what I say. But I also don't want to make any promises about what I'll be posting; signing in here every day is a huge deal for me, in itself.)

on a sad Sunday

2011-11-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

This is a day where I wanted to go on an evening cooking jag, or reading jag, or uploading today's photos and actually writing about the day that just passed jag, but I'm too tired and sad. I was sad at not hearing from people so I shut my phone off completely at 4:30 pm and don't feel like turning it back on yet (though I need the alarm on it to wake up in a timely fashion, theoretically). And though I tried not to be, I'm sad thinking about a year ago today when I spent time with one friend and first met another through him, and not knowing if they remember this, and not being in touch enough, well, certainly not with one of them, to talk about all the strange turns life has taken (from getting to know both of them, and from everything else in life) in that year. The picture above is a previously unposted one from a nice photo excursion that day (Pilsen, I think, hence the tag). I'm also sad to write a piece that's passive (or passive-aggressive?) communication, but it's better than no communication.

briefly noted

2011-11-05T23:51:00.000-07:00

200,000! Thank you to all my viewers and supporters! I'm sure I'm not the only Flickr user who likes seeing nice round numbers. I average about 50,000 photostream views per year (it's slowed down, which seemed wrong, since I keep getting more PEOPLE [or sometimes bots] viewing, but then it really sunk in that I post 2-5 photos a day average, when I used to do 8-12...and you would not believe the backlog I have) so I knew I'd be hitting this in the fall. Got up a few hours after waking up today and to my delight it was at 199,999. Of course that means it inexplicably takes forever for ONE person to bump it over to 200,000, but it happened, and I got screenshots.

When I neared 100,000 views, I was on a trip to a Boston-area friend, needing to leave soon to get my bus back to Chicago, and I was so anxious to see the round 100,000 I had to sign myself out of Flickr, view my account to get the right number of views, and sign back in to see 100,000 on the screen, so I could save the image. (Probably via an actual photo of the screen, since I still don't know how to do screenshots on non-Macs.)

And: the number of photos it shows is extremely different from the number I actually have posted. Disregard. And also: getting very close to 1,500,000 of ALL types of views on my account all-time, but I'm not counting on being at the computer when that happens.

thrift store, Davenport, IA

2011-11-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

It has been a strange and somewhat terrible week, but I'm very excited about signing into Blogger for four straight days now for NaBloPoMo and it's only going to get better (except for a few days when I don't have time for more than a random photo like this) from here; I'm full of ideas. Including the one that'll explain just why this blog semi-vanished the past few years... Photo taken on my birthday, 2011.

Humboldt Park/Garfield Park, cloudy night

2011-11-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

Two night photos, from a walk home from Kedzie & Chicago, which I'd never walked around at night, as far as I know, after getting items at the Dunkin Donuts there 15 minutes before closing, after a Chicago Ave. bus ride from an artsy event downtown that was cool but went badly, just like an event did last night. (Material for a post I'm working on.) At least this time, I got views I rarely see.

statistics

2011-11-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

I am too tired on day 2 of NaBloPoMo (from things that happened today, not from the blogging itself; I have plenty of ideas now) to post anything except this amazing fact: November 2, 2011 was the first time I looked at ANY statistical information for this blog--pageviews, links, etc. THE FIRST TIME. And I've been on Blogger since early 2005. (With some very long breaks, but still.) I've checked my Flickr statistics probably at least 5 days a week since I first could access them, but my attempts to figure out where stats were here never worked.

And then, after I posted last night, I sampled the new Blogger look--an introduction since I'd last signed in in spring--and BOOM, there it was, whether I wanted to see it or not. Already I want to find how to hide it. I'm more interested in search terms, which are consistently entertaining in my Flickr stats (today's successful searches included "i love boilers" and "want my house to be filled with books"), than I am in numbers. And, well, my numbers seem very low compared to Flickr views. But it's good to know the information's there. (Also: this post is my first written using the new design in the "new post" section, but I'm too tired to do more than a basic text post.)

Nov. 1. NaBloPoMo

2011-11-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween...or a bit after Halloween. This photo is from two days earlier, of a pumpkin given to my parents in Iowa, which was already falling apart (the top fell in the next day) and a bit moldy. I did virtually nothing to celebrate the holiday, since I was away from Chicago over the weekend (and away from parties I didn't know about/wasn't invited to). All I saw were a few costumes at the Iowa State Cyclones hockey game, and then on Halloween back in Chicago while taking the CTA. It's always a lost holiday for me--I have material (vintage clothes, uniforms--including some found in abandoned buildings!) for literally hundreds of costumes, but nowhere to wear it. At least I like pumpkins and I like candy. Day after Halloween, I almost forgot to look for candy except at my local Family Dollar, which didn't have much (Walgreens is a better bet). I bought a bag of candy corn for 50 cents and ate too much of it already. The store had Halloween decor still hanging from the ceiling all over...and plenty of Christmas decorations already up. Little trees on top of the refrigerated cases on both sides of the entrance. (They start stocking winter holiday merchandise the first day of fall every year.)

This is my first time actually signing into Blogger in months, since its redesign (which I haven't explored much yet). It appears I still can't combine my old Blogger account with my Gmail account and it appears posting photos still isn't any easier. But I wanted to try NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, established in 2006 as an alternative to National Novel Writing Month (which I kind of hoped to try last year, but I know my limitations!): it's now hosted at BlogHer. I need to officially list myself and promote myself and figure out how I'll handle posts on a few days I'm out of town in November, but I'll try to have something up every day.

where I've been

2011-09-15T22:35:00.001-07:00

closing Borders, Ames, IA
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

Many places since--I don't even know the last time I posted. Trips in the spring, then lots going on Chicago and major tasks I had to do in the summer (I don't travel "all the time" like so many people think--I didn't travel for two months!), then a bunch of trips in August including this one to my hometown.

I've been documenting as many closing Borders bookstores as possible, just like I did earlier in the year when the first round of store closings happened. This Ames store is one of the saddest for me. So much I could say about my relationship to this chain but I'm working on the best way to say and show it--I warn you, I might post a LOT here when I'm able. The last stores close this Sunday, Sept. 18.

goodbye, Mayor Daley

2011-05-16T09:17:00.001-07:00

new library, Kedzie near Chicago
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

Real life (good and bad) has interfered with this blog again, but I would be remiss in not posting something on Mayor Richard M. Daley's last day in office. (Yes, Friday was his last working day, but I heard from most sources today is the technical"last" day. I got back from an overnight bus from St. Louis before the inaguration ceremony going on as I'm writing this.)

Daley's legacy is better told on other sites--and I'm looking forward to books about him--so I will simply note that he's the only mayor I've ever known in Chicago, and I've lived here longer than many or most of my friends and acquaintances. (Since 1995. Most people I know here are either lifelong Chicagoans or moved here since the late 90s or later.) This is kind of a big deal. I don't know whether to be more scared or excited.

This library, by the way, is the first in many years to break the Chicago Public Library's policy of no longer naming library branches after people. It is the new Richard M. Daley branch, not far from where I live.

springtime

2011-03-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

Just trying to make sure I post at least once a week, and signed into Blogger, not just posting from Flickr. This photo, of public art/decoration in downtown Highland Park, IL, on a brief visit via Metra last Sunday afternoon, just screams SPRING. Especially the dreary spring we've had here so far (the old "lousy Smarch weather" Simpsons reference has been most useful); it was cold that day, and since.

This photo also happened to be my first photo of the day on wbez.org in quite some time (I hadn't been submitting many), not since they redesigned the site so it cycles through the past few weeks' worth of photos (and I couldn't find a permalink. But trust me, it was there), so that was nice.

I was neither up to doing a proper photoessay on my recent suburban trips (or other travels) nor writing a personal piece tonight; I really need to work on the blogroll I've barely touched since early-mid-2010. Bear with me as it changes...and so does the blog design...

The green, 2011

2011-03-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

A few scenes--a very few scenes--from the extended St. Patrick's Day week in Chicago:

Saturday, March 12: the Chicago River is dyed green. Too early in the day for me, but I did see it live for the first time in 2009. I went by in early afternoon, and as always completely missed the parade downtown. No signs of it at all except vendors, and teens on the way to drunkenness.

I guess I wasn't in the right place to see the river bright green:

But Monday the 14th (no longer any South Side Irish Parade on St. Pat's Sunday to endure), I heard from someone on Twitter that the river was still green, so I biked the miles downtown and back just to check it out. Taken from a little west of the previous shot, it's greener. I don't get it...more sunlight? The dye shifted in the river?

I had my first visit inside Hoosier Mama Pie Co. on W. Chicago on the way back (though I had had their pies before), a rare time they were open on a Monday, for Pi Day (3/14).

On St. Patrick's itself, I checked my Twitter list of Chicago businesses to see who had good specials. Swim Cafe on W. Chicago, a place I don't get to nearly enough (especially since they have the lowest-priced bottomless coffeeshop coffee I've seen in the greater West Town/Wicker Park/Logan Square area--$2.25 when I've seen $3, $3.50). I had the Irish stew I'd read about, a creamy vegetable soup. With bread: this was a lovely presentation. Breaking the square format here:

I biked home with a couple goodies for later. This was the only overt sign of the day, seen on Milwaukee Ave. around 3:15 pm:

I stopped at the local liquor store later. Guinness seemed too obvious so I picked an Irish cider. This is the corned beef and cabbage hand pie I got from Hoosier Mama before the Swim visit, and a green velvet cupcake from Swim. There was a chocolate-beer one, but I'd had a Guinness chocolate cupcake from Milwaukee last week. And a vegan one; I was curious but only wanted to buy one, and I've been hooked on red velvet for a couple years now. (I'm sure someone somewhere does a blue velvet cupcake...)

The hand pie was fantastic. Notice you can almost see through the bag. The cider was fine and cupcake delicious. Beyond that: completely avoided bars, all week. I'm curious about Irish soda bread and wondering if I can still find some post-March 17...

This was Chiditarod 2011

2011-03-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

(Hey there! I felt like returning to the long-threatened “real” blogging with something remotely timely, and of an ill-advised personal nature, and rambly, though I assure you I DO edit. But at least it has a lot of pictures! And since the last time I signed into Blogger--spring 2010?--it hasn’t gotten any easier posting them. Dammit.)

Chiditarod, the urban Iditarod shopping cart race through Chicago, is one of those things I’d missed every year previous in Chicago (five times) and it makes no sense why. It involves art and creativity, it’s organized silliness, it takes place generally in my part of town, it goes to bars I’m familiar with, and it’s for a good cause (raising money and collecting food for the hungry). A quick look at my Flickr friends showed many had photographed it extensively in past years. Where was I?

I don’t know, but I wasn’t going to miss it this year (March 5), especially not after the guy I was seeing was going to be part of a team with friends from work. I knew it’d take up a lot of his time in February but I had a lot of my own things planned anyway and--and then I got broken up with at the start of February, during the week of the huge blizzard.

Oh. Well, I wouldn’t get to follow the team’s preparations closely but I could still cheer them on. A bit of awkwardness with one person wouldn’t keep me away. We’d resolve things by then, we’d be’d cool, mostly, right?

Here’s where I skip over a difficult month so as not to be a jerk communicating passive-aggressively via blog. Except to say there was less communication than I’d expected, and it’s not like people are going to tell you upfront how little. Going from little response to my sad-sounding messages to little or no response to happy ones...I puzzled over it. Still attracted and wanting to avoid me (if so, I cannot emphasize enough how this is an experience I’m not used to), or was I annoying and a burden to deal with? I’m not good at figuring these things out, but had enough awareness that even if it was possibility A, needling someone about getting in touch with me would precipitate possibility B. Anyway, I eventually decided to stop personal contact and restrict it to social/public media (there was no reason for unfriending). My last message was when Chicago’s Earwax Cafe, a 21-year-institution, was going to close and I figured texting a longtime Chicagoan was justifiable. No response (and the damn place reopened anyway) and I felt idiotic again. Okay. I’d see him at Chiditarod, a couple weeks from then, and then figure out what to do, but no attempts till then.

And then the day before the race, minutes before I needed to leave to meet up with photo friends Don and Rachel for an all-day photoshoot adventure (Don is who I met him through, four months earlier on his last visit to Chicago; they’d been friends for years), I skimmed my Twitter messages from overnight and learned...he’d just gotten a job in San Francisco and would move there...in a “couple weeks.”

I’d actually guessed this from a few clues online, especially a big cryptic announcement he was getting congratulations for the day before (I refused to break down and ask). I...I...was happy for him. Huge relief that this must have been part of the distance in the past month. This changed everything. I felt it expedited the process of friendship...but probably ruined the ideas for things we could do as friends--some abandoned buildings he’d never visited to photograph, and a few other things around Chicagoland. Or at least we wouldn't have time for much now. I left a congrats and photoshoot invite on his Facebook and it meant a ridiculous amount to me to get a smiley-face response from him again.

And yeah--I had to see him at Chiditarod, because I had no idea when I’d see him again otherwise. I was afraid to get my hopes up about what we’d do before he left, especially since I’d only known him for months and his family/friends/coworkers of years’ standing would want to see him. I distracted myself with an awesome day taking photos and getting ice cream with Don and Rachel, and broke my don’t-text-him ban late afternoon Friday.

The race would start at noon. Around 11 Saturday morning, CTA Bus Tracker, which I finally started using this year both on my smartphone and Mac, alerted me that I couldn’t possibly make it there by bus in time (using my day pass with a couple hours left). Biking there and biking all day it’d be. Really no way to get around and see it quickly otherwise. I didn’t have breakfast. I got to the assembly point, Hubbard & Wolcott, around 11:40 and walked around to shoot the teams lining up.

I ran into Erin and Nick, friends serving as bike marshals, and told them both the outline of my awkward situation. His team must have thankfully been in the crush of teams behind the fence in a lot (you needed participant ID to get in. they were getting pancakes!), so I didn’t see him. I didn’t want to bug him then and hoped he wasn’t dreading running into me. It certainly wasn’t a secret I was going, at least. Was I pathetic and stalker-ish or was I being a friend supporting him in both the race and the move?

So many teams, well over 100, the most ever. It didn’t get started till well after noon; spectators were getting chilly and a little cranky. And then, finally, they were off! I shot the starting line as a video because I couldn’t have possibly gotten photos fast enough. Rushing by were Devo, Blackhawks, “Slap Shot,” Windy City Rollers (the real ones), the Titanic, Muppets, a steam locomotive, “Back to the Future,” various pirates, zombies, and video game characters, unicorns, Borders bankruptcy (yup)..

(Not mine; another woman had ridden her vintage Schwinn to watch the race.)

I knew what his costume would be and saw him run past a couple feet away. I think I called his name, then felt stupid. I’d started following one of his teammates (who I’d met, at a party) on Twitter the day before and worried how that looked, but his team was pretty active on Twitter during the race and I’d wished more teams did that; it was fun to follow along.

The teams scattered off onto the streets and sidewalks. I’d been told to bike side streets, but where to go? It was probably a couple hours till anyone hit the endpoint. Well, it was cold; I’d make a rare visit to Atomix coffee at Damen and Chicago.

After I parked my bike and went to check my money at Dominick’s, the Muppet team passed by, the first team I’d seen since the start. They got honked at and I had my first of several chances to explain Chiditarod to curious drivers. Nasty wind blew a picture from their cart down the block into a puddle and I rescued it for them.

I spent the good part of an hour at Atomix nursing a coffee and a refill (all I could get with my cash, so still no breakfast), warming my extremities and reading an urban planning book. I figured I should hit some checkpoints. Not understanding how the checkpoint system worked or what route teams would take went in my favor of not wanting to be stalker-y. I’d just hit as many as I felt like, briefly, then. If the weather had been nice I’d gladly have visited them all.

I should have gotten food. I had time, I had money, I’d already been biking a lot. This is where I point out I haven’t had an eating disorder but there’ve been a lot of times when I don’t feel like eating this year, even if I can and even if I should. A lot of late-day “breakfasts” even if I wake up in the early morning. I just get stubborn and lazy. I hate talking about things like they’re “symptoms” and I hate worrying that I sound like the symptoms are anyone’s fault. (They aren’t.) I had the hunch I’d be biking around for hours in winter weather, caffeinated, hungry, and nervous. This is why I didn’t get drinks; I had to put limits on the discomfort.

I could have headed west to Darkroom but went east to Five Star, a bar I’d never been in, instead. I stopped at Walgreens to get a beverage and cash back to use whenever I got around to eating. At Five Star a red Chiditarod flag was in front--along with a shopping cart fixed up to cook bacon. Teams parked their carts in the adjacent lot for a funeral home.

It was warm and cheerful inside and I gawked at teams in skimpy outfits (I admired their commitment) and ran into Erin and Nick. We talked about the proliferation of Angry Birds-themed teams (4, really?) and Black Swan and White Swan teams and Charlie Sheen references but the lack of other possible timely themes (was there really no Rahm Emanuel?). I had my first of several restroom visits where I’d run into someone in an old-timey costume.

This may have been the worst of the weather that afternoon, windy and sleety and low visibility if you have to wear glasses while biking. But it really wasn’t that bad compared to thinking about what the race participants were going through. I got to Phyllis’ on Division, a long-ago haunt from my days of attending open mic nights. I’d maybe seen it in daylight once. Plenty of participants were there or in the beer garden. Hey...this was starting to seem like an excuse for hipsters to drink all day.

At Inner Town, a corner bar on a side street, I locked my bike and got compliments from a tipsy participant. I used to visit Inner Town a lot both with a guy I’d dated and with school friends, but it’d been a while. For once it wasn’t brutally crowded; I considered a drink but felt sad sitting there alone. I moved on.

Up to Wicker Park’s main drag, parking my bike across the street from the Titanic, now in front of the Flatiron building. Not many participants in the Flat Iron bar checkpoint, but someone there did a New Year’s countdown (?) and singing.

A little south, the checkpoint at Nick’s was even emptier. No one I could define as Chiditarod participants seemed to be inside. An older group of Blackhawks fans, who either put “Chelsea Dagger” (Hawks goal song) on the jukebox or the bar did. I stayed through the song then moved on.

And now it’d been one coffeeshop, five bars, and no food. Filter coffeeshop, then. I’d been there on a date with him and that was bumming me out a little but they had the food I wanted, so. Packed but I found a sofa spot, got a cafe au lait and tofu reuben (breakfast! at 4 pm), and stayed a little longer than I meant charging my phone via an outlet on the floor, alert to prevent anyone tripping.

Off down Milwaukee and down Ashland to Cobra Lounge. I locked my bike with both locks and prepared to take photos outside a while...because it took me minutes to realize this wasn’t the end point, that was Bottom Lounge a few blocks away. Ooops. I didn’t go inside, figured I’d better move on since it was almost five and almost the official end time.

(They're putting a pair of women's underwear on him.)

The unicorn team got to Bottom Lounge just as I did. I parked and watched teams check in at the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation truck, and pose for photos, and leave their carts in the lot. I stepped back out and saw his team checking in at the truck. I had a brief moment where I thought I would fall down dead of nervousness, breathed, and went to say hi.

Since I’d seen him last (not that all the following are things we’d have discussed, just making a point about the passage of time) there’d been the blizzard. The Super Bowl (a great time to finally make my first visit to otherwise-packed restaurant Kuma’s Corner, as it turned out), the Grammys, the Oscars. Chicago’s election. Borders bankruptcy (hey, I loved hanging out at Borders) closing most stores here. The Wisconsin uprising (and Ohio and Indiana), and of course protests in the Middle East. I’d been to Iowa once and Ohio twice, I’d been to the Chicago Auto Show (my first event at McCormick Place!), I’d had another hard drive replaced, I’d had my first time almost getting jury duty for a criminal trial, I’d made steps to see a therapist for the first time in years. And he’d gotten a new job and would be moving across the country.

He was smoking, which I think he’d only restarted recently. He had friends and teammates around and now I kick myself for not saying hi. We talked about how the race had gone and I realized I hadn’t understood all about how it works. I’d read a little on the Chiditarod website for spectators but should have read the part for participants. There were 12 checkpoints, counting the finish line, but teams only had to hit 6. (I’d made it to 7.) And they had to spend at least 20 minutes at each checkpoint (all the standing around drinking made more sense). I also didn’t know a lot about the culture of sabotage and bribery in the race--so much to learn! His team had been to some of the same bars as me, but fortunately at completely different times. Every checkpoint they'd tweeted was far from me at that moment.

(I'd heard the Loch Ness cart was good, but missed seeing it in action.)

We went inside. The lower level was completely filled with Chiditarod folk; I was used to going there for Blackhawks-related events. (Turns out the Bobby Orr pinball machine is always there.) After a couple minutes I went to talk to him again. I asked if I could hug him in congratulations for the job and did. It felt good, it really did. Maybe this encounter was a brush-off and I didn’t realize it (“talk later”) but I believed him when he said he’d had two hours of sleep and was worried about getting the cart back. I hugged and said congrats again (I meant for the race but added for the job, again). I thought I wouldn’t see him more at the event (I was right) but I stayed for awards.

I went to tear up, briefly, in a stairwell and headed upstairs for the music and party. Bought a tallboy (the Chiditarod special, in tubs) and sipped it staring out the window at the L. I ate a tangerine that’d been in my bag all day (with seeds, that was a mess). I didn’t see anyone else I knew. On one of my trips downstairs a costumed man asked if his tie looked tied right. Close to six I tuned in WGN radio intermittently to hear the preview of the Blackhawks-Maple Leafs game (in Toronto, so an early start). I shut it off for the Chiditarod awards. The Muppets were the Best in Show (two teams, actually, co-winners).

I came downstairs and the Blackhawks had already scored two goals against Toronto, during the awards. Wow. I stared at the screen and a guy at the bar beckoned to me. It was the man with the tie, and a friend. They said their team placed third in fundraising. The friend noticed my thrift-store coat and said there’s a custom (somewhere) of giving women fur coats for their 30th birthday, though he knew it was fake fur, and wanted me to think he thought I’m under 30. Tie guy showed me a handwritten acrostic poem for “CHIDITAROD.” The C-word was not “Chicago.”

Tie guy offered drinks, then gave me a tallboy so I quickly finished my first and started it. Then there were shots. Whatever it was was good. Then there was a bit of another shot. I had to bike home. I wasn’t feeling super-social. But why not make up for a day of not drinking? Tie guy said several times I reminded him of someone he knew who studied engineering. Did I go to RPI? No. Did I want to hang out with them somewhere else? Ehhh... Drinking with strangers has little effect on my “morals” but it does put me at risk of blurting out that I’m famous on the Internet. (I know, not really.) I managed not to but I did tell the friend my screenname. Tie guy patted me on the head before he moved on.

I sat on a bench watching the Blackhawks a little more, assessing my condition to go home. Yeah, good enough. Went outside and a shopping cart was now parked at the same pole as my bike.

I’m kind of a lightweight and here I was biking home in winter on icing-over streets in the dark after drinks with strangers while emotional. And I was listening to the Hawks game (but with one earbud! and I biked mostly on the sidewalk!). I was unsurprised to find myself crying a lot of the way. At least I was on near-empty streets.

Home to watch the end of Hawks-Leafs on TV (Chicago won). I would have given up seeing the entire game to hang out with people, but anyone I knew had left. Damn, I wished I’d hung out more with those guys. Distraction. It was only about 8 pm but I was in for the night. I had a good cry, or several, that night, my mood ricocheting between insecurity, sadness, relief, and joy.

(And that’s where I leave it so as not to go the extra-terrible step of blogging an unresolved situation up to the present. I had fun. They raised lots of money. I actually posted photos quickly to Flickr and they got a good response and I got some on Chicagoist, and a Windy City Roller contacted me about a shot with them because they’d forgotten to take their own, and I finally started a YouTube channel to post the starting line video that was too long for Flickr. And I’d love to participate next year, at least as a volunteer.)

(Forget) February

2011-02-28T22:57:00.001-08:00

thank you for voting, 2/22/11
Originally uploaded by mod as hell

It IS over. Isn't it? Easily the worst month for me, personally, I've had in a long, long time (2010 overall still was worse, since this blog hasn't recovered from it yet). Not just that there's one unresolved situation that started the month off badly and gnawed at me every day (if considerably less so by the past week), but...well, other frustrating things, many of them having to do with Chicago, the kinds of stories I've wanted to talk about to get this beyond a personal blog and be respectable again.

Such as: the election! This photo is a quick shorthand for the lousy month (and my timing isn't completely bad, since 2/28 was the day of the big reveal of the identity of the @MayorEmanuel Twitter. I trust you can find plenty about it elsewhere). At least I voted...

Oh hey, it's Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T21:51:00.001-08:00

Valentine's decorated Thrift (Salvation Army, S. Western)
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

At least I know I haven't posted this photo here before, since I only posted it on Flickr a few days ago (it's from 2010, hence the lack of mountains of snow). And if there's anyone reading this blog who somehow hasn't seen my "What nerds do for Valentine's Day" candy hearts image, just search that on Flickr.

I am on the verge of writing a real post again and a serious one and it'll be about Valentines and self-improvement and such, and late but I don't really care...I'm trying to be in a good enough mood to write something a bit depressing, if that makes sense (i.e., never write while crying).

Today wasn't terrible: I had some fun on the internet. I know that's not what's supposed to make me happy, but it's about all I've got right now, so...Waking up to hit 500 Twitter followers for the first time, and as promised when I reached that number, changing my icon temporarily to a mildly racy photo of myself (uh, this was timed very awkwardly for Valentine's Day). I found out someone had first tried Jeppson's Malort on a previous V-Day and coined the term "Malortiversary," to the delight of several. (My own first experience with said beverage was at a party in summer 2010.)

I had my first bike ride of a couple-miles-plus round-trip in a while, and went to a usual haunt (New Wave Coffee), fueling myself to work on the aforementioned personal piece but right then they started blasting very obnoxious (at least under circumstances of wanting relative quiet for introspection and contemplation and all) music loudly. (Also, I had their delicious breakfast sandwich for the first time--an online friend had it the first time he visited NWC, and I was sitting at the table we'd sat at, and we're not in touch much but right as I sat there he texted me about another Chicago visit. Eeerie!) Even better, I got my bike back in the garage for the first time since before the blizzard!

And then I should have gone out, but bought Berghoff and Goose Island beer at the nearby store instead, and I'm debating the other piece and writing this for now. Hoping all of you had a good Valentine's Day.

This is 2011.

2011-02-08T18:43:00.001-08:00

buried garage, Humboldt Park
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

It appears every time I try to re-commit to this blog I fail more spectacularly, so I'll make no promises now. Just...hey, happy no-longer-new year! Thank you to anyone who supported me and my work in 2010. I am definitely interested in finally getting this blog to be more of a place for photoessays and travelogues than the random personal stuff and isolated photos I've been doing.

I've made progress on the computer issues, I've had some good experiences in the past few months, but right now things are very challenging, and besides the functioning computer setup I need to commit myself to getting a roommate, a job, and I guess, a therapist. (Any assistance greatly welcome, through email or social media since apparently this blog only attracts spam comments, I've been told.) There's a heavy essay delving more deeply into all this I've been afraid to write and afraid to post, but I can't avoid it forever.

But at least today, a week after the 2011 Blizzard, I got my bicycle back and working. (I walked about three miles round-trip just before and as the blizzard hit to retrieve my bicycle from a CTA station and leave it at a store to get a flat fixed.) Even a few blocks in the brutal cold was exhilarating (it'd be better if the brakes functioned better; not much room for error when the streets are full of slush.) Alas, the garage still looks essentially like this photo. You can find a small (well it is right now, because I was only able to post photos taken with the camera on my new smartphone) set on Flickr.

NaBloPoMo, day 2

2010-11-02T22:00:00.001-07:00

Trains Magazine, August 1975
Originally uploaded by mod as hell

It's late, I'm sleepy, I fell asleep during election coverage and waiting for my computer to restart and having to redo things I was working on. I picked an image nearly at random. I may write tomorrow about Election Day...I may even have a new image from the day. Here's something from my vast collection of train-related things on this Flickr account.

NaBloPoMo, day 1

2010-11-01T21:59:00.001-07:00

"My Favourite Collects"
Originally uploaded by mod as hell

So I've decided to participate in National Blog Posting Month, in which I'll post something every day to BOTH my blogs (which I haven't been on much in a while, but I won't give another explanation right now). I found out about it too late last year to join in, but I figured I'd try it. (I've also signed up for its precursor, National Novel Writing Month--but haven't started yet. I don't write fiction, so my results will either be disastrous, or thinly-veiled nonfiction, or straight-up memoir, making me a NaNoWriMo "rebel."--that's a category on their site.)

Hopefully I can finally move from blogging-from-Flickr to my long-planned ideas for turning this blog into more of a blog of photo essays. And I've got a lot to add to the blogroll. And need to delete all the spam comments I was told I've gotten.

Right now I'll just start slow with a random photo from Flickr (I'd forgotten this one, but it had the most recent activity on this Flickr account, so why not).

See you tomorrow! No, I mean it.

oh! the big announcement!

2010-08-10T21:56:00.001-07:00

post-storm sunset, Humboldt Park
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

I didn't mean to vanish from this blog or my other one for weeks, but I've had computer trouble I haven't addressed yet (or more accurately, the hours I spent at the Apple Store earlier this year didn't help).

The next post was supposed to be about a huge project called 50 Till 15 (with #50till15 on Twitter), counting down the 50 days until my 15 year anniversary of living in Chicago. Featuring photos taken over my 15 years of carrying a camera virtually every day and seeing every neighborhood in that time (which, can I just suggest, would make a person a fascinating subject for an article or interview?).

That didn't happen...so I changed it to 15 Till 15 (and #15till15). Still couldn't do it. Now it's almost time. I will post something on August 11, the Chicagoversary, but my exciting and not-too-sappy ideas for what I was going to do to commemorate this time will have to wait. (My most important/essential Chicago places, most missed places, biggest regrets [about living in Chicago--not about work/relationships/etc.], zany accomplishments, etc.)

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY!

2010-06-22T17:14:00.001-07:00

...THE PLACE!, Logan Square
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

...what's with all the caps? Anyway, a few days ago it occurred to me something was coming up, and I should do a variety of projects to commemorate it. Including something every day on this blog and my main Flickr account, and possibly my sports blog and my other Flickr account, since I'd like to post on all four of those every day if possible, and this project has something for everyone. Oh, and I'll put it on Twitter, too, with an annoying hashtag.

Later tonight. Right now though I want to go for my 4th bike ride of the day. I only got my bike working again last Friday, and I have a lot of catching up to do. I don't want to be out long, as my k of c Flickr page is less than 500 views away from 1 million all time and I'd like to see that when it happens...

let's go Hawks

2010-06-09T17:35:00.001-07:00

GO BLACKHAWKS
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

It's been hard to get much done at this blog when Chicago has a Stanley Cup Finals going on for the first time since I moved here. And when my main blog for months (even if I've been neglecting it too) is my other one about sports, A Little Chippy, and hockey is by far my favorite sport. (Most of my sports content goes on the other blog but I have a few stories and photo essays I'll be cross-posting...)

So, here's a small, tasteful message for the team, taken on my first Metra ride in weeks (okay, months), passing through Galewood on Chicago's northwest side, last Sunday.

(Apologies for the much-delayed update of how the literary reading I announced below went. It was great--photos/links coming.)

Two days from now!

2010-05-26T17:20:00.001-07:00

KofC reads at this event, Friday 5/28
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

I'll be reading at this. Yes, posting two items in a row on the same event but it's a pretty big deal! And I'll post again on Friday! And I've got to work on the piece right now!

this is kind of a huge deal (to me)

2010-05-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

This reading. The first literary reading for my longtime Chicago friend Jason's arts/literature center, and, oh, MY FIRST READING IN YEARS. Four or five years? I'm not sure. I haven't performed live since sometime before I reestablished (am I allowed to say "rebranded"?) myself as "Katherine of Chicago" in 2007 (I actually worry people won't know it's me with the name on the flyer!). I've missed it very much. I've thought of organizing my own events--about Chicago, about public transit, about urban exploration/abandoned buildings, about hockey--who knows. But reading at someone else's event is a good start. Especially since he picked a theme of urban decay/renewal!

May 28 in Hyde Park. More announcements to follow. I'll be writing a new piece...about the best story that's happened in my KofC days that I haven't yet told (well, it's a story I've told partially on Flickr). I'll have to look somewhat decent. I'll have to bring booze.

play ball!

2010-04-15T08:48:00.001-07:00

Wrigley Field 7/5/09
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

This year I can't be expected to pay attention to baseball until hockey season is over, but if I can make it to an early game I will. I'm of the understanding that the Cubs and White Sox have had a few spectacular wins and a few spectacular losses, right? I'm covering a tiny bit of baseball on my other blog but mostly catching up on the hockey season and playoffs.

Here's a shot from my last visit to Wrigley, a July 5, 2009, win over the Brewers. My best seat there ever thanks to a friend. I've taken enough Wrigley Field photos by now that I'll try out a photo effect like cross-processing now and then. (That month I didn't realize my camera was set on the wrong color balance setting and I've had to adjust for terribly blue photos, which is a good excuse to just turn them b&w or x-pro.)

spring colors

2010-04-04T17:21:00.001-07:00

store, Milwaukee
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

Do I even have to say why I'm posting this here? *sighs* I don't care if it sounds arrogant or not, I'm just going to create an "underappreciated" set on Flickr. (I have a set called "I'm not interesting" that automatically picks my 100 "least interesting" Flickr photos according to some weird formula, but it works strangely and I don't like seeing the set showing up on the page for photos even if it is a joke. I also have an "I'm interesting" set.)

Anyway, taken in Milwaukee in September, a very cute storefront that I thought worked well for spring/Easter. I don't have a bunch of adorable family and/or candy and egg shots like everyone else...

Beautiful green

2010-03-17T11:31:00.001-07:00

Chicago River: after
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

Well, the Chicago River looked beautiful the one and only time I went to see it dyed green, in 2009. Can't remember if I posted this photo or not. I missed it this year due to watching what turned out to be a heartbreaking Blackhawks game on Saturday, but the weather was so lousy I probably wouldn't have bothered to go downtown anyway.

I do remember that I meant to do a photoessay here on the South Side Irish Parade. 2009 was the second time I attended; I brought a friend along. It wound up being the last year of the parade, so now I've got to post more of those shots on my Flickr, for historical value. I'll post it here, too.

and this is another one of those photos

2010-03-03T13:06:00.001-08:00

mysterious animals
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

...that I liked much more than everyone else. I'm finally posting shots on Flickr from my last visit to Iowa, August 2009. I posted them to get photos with blue skies up again (yes, not in this photo, I know, but most of my trip was sunny), since it's been so white and cloudy everywhere I've been in the Midwest in 2010.

Ironically, the sun is out today, but I'm wasting time with the NHL trade deadline on Twitter. Where, after a hockey player named Scott Walker got traded, I posted lyrics from a great song by Scott Walker the musician, "Little Things (That Keep Us Together)" and no one got the reference. I really expected some crossover. Or that one of my non-sports-fan followers would get it.

Wow, it's been three weeks since I wrote here? Apologies for missing the entire Olympics. I'm still catching up with them on my sports blog.

inaccurate business names of Buffalo, NY

2010-02-10T13:13:00.001-08:00

Just Pizza, Buffalo, NY
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

"Just Pizza," huh? I think our language needs a word indicating "things that I find hilarious (or in this case, moderately funny) but no one else seems to." I face this often on Flickr, or elsewhere. Though, the person I was with when I took this also was moderately amused, at least.

I wondered on Twitter today if there's a word for "celebrities you weren't aware of until their deaths became a Twitter trending topic." For me, recently, Captain Phil Harris, and Casey Johnson. Not that I want to have more silly Twitter words--I can barely stand saying "tweets" (but have realized it's easier than saying Twitter posts or updates).

I agree with this booklet

2010-01-28T23:50:00.001-08:00

Cooking is Fun
Originally uploaded by mod as hell

Didn't mean to have that previous post be at the top of the page for so long. Oh well. Tonight I finally got the rest of this 16-page recipe booklet from 1955 (1961 reprint) posted on Flickr (the full set is here). It's from the National Dairy Council out of Chicago...and does seem to have a lot of dairy in the recipes, now that I think about it. Adorable front and back cover, lots of basic kitchen tips, many decent recipes and some terrifying ones, as is standard for this era. (Well, prunes aren't bad per se, but "Prune Whip with Ice Cream?" For kids?)

I've made soup from scratch several times this year already and I'm quite happy about this. It's easy and it makes meals for days. Going to Soup and Bread nights at the Hideout in Chicago (okay, only been to one so far) has inspired me even more in soup-making.

Ugh, so much to catch up on. I might be inside a lot the next couple days blogging, what with the weather, and waiting to buy a CTA pass. This weekend is the last weekend (in over 20 years!) that Metra passes will be $5 (going up to $7, still probably the best transit bargain in the U.S.) so I need to make it out at least on Sunday...

it happens every winter

2010-01-19T21:23:00.000-08:00

As I agonize over what to post next (all those end of year/new year posts seem more pointless by the day, but I still want to do them) I should take a hint from my sports blog (a little chippy) and just post something every day or so. I've been to Boston & Providence, Columbus, and Indianapolis since that last post (hey, four state capitals--that was unintentional) so...well, that's kind of an excuse. Today was dispiriting for various reasons, but this cracked me up, as it never fails to crack me up since last winter when I learned I get a fair number of views on my main Flickr page (katherine of chicago) from links on this forum:

Unfortunately since I'm not a member I can't see which photos it links to, but I'd assume it's the ones of me in a puffy winter coat. Who knew? I have not yet posted any photos of myself in the very cheap reversible brown/pink coat I got this winter (so cheap the zipper already doesn't work)...

welcome...back?

2010-01-05T23:45:00.000-08:00

I worry that my year of barely posting has scared away the friends and followers I had--people blogrolling or commenting or "following" on Blogger (I could do that thing where I post the box with their images, but right now the number is so low, compared to the number I'M following, that it's just embarrassing). Of course, people might have other reasons for not being around here. Anyway, if you hadn't noticed (I tried to go a few posts without self-conscious stuff about how much I was or wasn't posting), I've been posting much more lately, enough that I feel I have to post something hours before I go on a trip, so that I won't go a whole week without anything new. I've changed nearly everything about how City of Destiny is designed and organized (it's easier than I'd realized. I think everything seems to run easier on Blogger now). Maybe a longer post about that later. And hopefully by mid-January, my 2009 year in review (of things I did). Welcome back! Feel free to comment, I'm getting tired of various forms of spam here (I guess listing something in your profile means people spam you about it). Why, I've even started/returned to commenting on some of YOUR blogs...

The image was found in the file cabinet of $3 photos at Grayland Station, a transportation collectibles store in Chicago. It's a favorite, and posted to my secondary Flickr account (mod as hell).

one more visit to Standee's

2010-01-01T18:03:00.001-08:00

Standee's, Edgewater, Chicago
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago
I'm a little slow in posting about my visit Tuesday. Turns out they're open through this weekend, so I'll be going Saturday around noon, should you be interested/available. It'll be COLD here but I've got to visit one more time before they move (supposedly move--I'm still sad about Filter! though maybe they are opening? see the photo linked on the Flickr photo), probably not bringing the sign along.

edited to add: I meant for this to be an announcement I'd delete later because it's not "good" enough to be the first post of 2010 (but I'd repost the photo), but I'll leave it since I've been slow coming up with another post due to travel plans. That was why I turned comments off--wanted to save them for the "real" post. It's worth clicking on the photo to see the discussion of it on Flickr, if you missed that. Photos from my last two visits on the way...

last holiday-themed post

2009-12-30T22:49:00.000-08:00

Maybe. These photos are just too sad for my Flickr account, so here you are. The lousy weather meant I didn't try to go to Iowa for Christmas. Then my family called on Christmas to see if I'd come the next day or later, but by then I'd given up on the idea of going, and besides I'd started coming down with a cold the night before (when I had a nice night out with an out-of-state friend here to visit her family, going out for a big dinner in Chinatown and drinks in an apartment in a former paper factory, I think it was). So I didn't go to my hometown, didn't have family here, and didn't know if it was okay to call friends (some of who turned out to be here, and would have invited me to dinner and to get glogg at Simon's [which was kind of my dream day if I was stuck here] if they'd known I was also in Chicago). But I was too sick, not very sick but sick enough I didn't want to make things worse, that I couldn't have gone out with them anyway. Nor could I go out and have fun seeing what was open in the Thai neighborhood, or ride Metra when hardly anyone was on it, or check out an unguarded abandoned building.

So on Christmas I had a cold, and only went out (because I needed to go somewhere, briefly) to the 24-hour Starbucks at North and Wells (open till 7 pm on Christmas, however). My breakfast was a ~~large~~ venti eggnog latte and lemon pound cake, and I spent a few minutes reading a coffee-table book on the past few decades of the Boston Bruins.

When I got around to dinner, I made some cheap staples (soup and macaroni and cheese) from Family Dollar, but fortunately I had salad ingredients from Treasure Island and a beer from Olde Main in my hometown, so the dinner wasn't too pathetic. Also, in the evening my friend in Boston called and it turned out he hadn't gone home (Albany) for Christmas either because of car trouble, so we had that to talk about, and hockey, lots of talk about hockey (I still don't have a Chicago friend to regularly talk sports with).

Dessert/late-night snack was hot cocoa (Penzey's mint mix) and cookies from another friend. I didn't get to make any cookies this year. What I didn't do for Christmas (cooking, decorating, sending cards, giving or getting gifts), and won't be doing for New Year's (though at least I'm going to the Blackhawks game, the last one I got a ticket for before the prices went absurdly high), would fill volumes. So, I'll try not to think about it too much. It wasn't a terrible day, but I can't believe I did so little. Except listen to the all-Christmas-music lite station incessantly for weeks (as noted previously). And it did switch, right at midnight, to a non-Christmas Tom Petty song.

Next up (what I should have blogged tonight, but I want to get back to that Bruins book so I can technically finish reading it in 2009): the impending closure of Standee's, the 24-hour grill in Edgewater. Which the Chicago media hasn't covered much, maybe because this happened so suddenly? And they're supposed to move across the street, but we'll see...They have amazing stories to tell there. And when I ate there with a friend the other day, the food was the best I'd ever had there. Go figure, I start to like the place right before it closes.

Rust Belt Gingerbread Spectacular 2009!

2009-12-29T01:02:00.000-08:00

As good a time as any to explain what photos I post here and which I post on my Flickr pages. (This discussion takes place in the alternate universe where I've actually been posting 2-4 photoblogs a week here, not the real one where I'm so overwhelmed by the 1000+ photos I often take a week that I barely know where to start...) On Flickr I post images "artistic" enough to stand alone, and/or images that document an event or place I think needs to be documented in a way that will allow people to 1) easily search for it on Flickr 2) conveniently comment on it.

But photos that group well together and/or tell a story work well here (may include ones I've posted or will post to Flickr)...and that means I put some here that I don't quite want to "waste" space on Flickr for. Such as, well, a Stanley Cup in gingerbread, as you'll see later. Interesting enough to post, but I'm not putting a gingerbread Stanley Cup on Flickr unless it's one I make myself when--oh, you know when.

The first set of photos was taken in the Tower City shopping center in downtown Cleveland, after 7 a.m. on Sat. Dec. 5, after an overnight ride from Chicago on Megabus, long before the stores opened. Needless to say, this gingerbread display was a tad eerie at that hour.

After a Greyhound ride through Akron and Youngstown, both of which I once again really wished I could explore for real, I was in Pittsburgh, with all afternoon to kill in lousy weather before heading to Mellon Arena. I'd thought of going to the Heinz History Museum, but all the holiday displays downtown were tempting, especially when I saw a huge gingerbread structure exhibit. A lot of it was in window displays across from the ice rink and Christmas tree, while some was indoors with an impressive model train layout running through it.

LOTS of sports...here's PNC Park, where the Pirates play

And a Steelers fan

And where the Steelers play

Out of gingerbread, someone made...giant non-gingerbread cookies. Ridiculous? Brilliant?

The window display had a few trains running by

And a gingerbread trolley

And...yes. "Hail to the Chief"

And there's the Stanley Cup! But I didn't see a gingerbread Mellon Arena

But there's PPG Place, where the exhibit was

For comparison...

The Titanic? Wow. Okay, time to see the indoor display...

"Christmas at McDonald's"

This was pretty nice

PPG Place again, this time more realistic

Gingerbread White House, with Santa stuck in the chimney

A diner! And other architecture, beautifully done

Gingerbread trains!

Real trains! Er, real model trains. This one, a streamliner, was my favorite.

ideas for a future Christmas/holiday post

2009-12-25T22:44:00.000-08:00

Well, first off, Merry (what's left of) Christmas to those who celebrate. Hope all my readers (spammers who seem to be the only recent commenters here excepted) are having a great holiday season. I finally got back into blogging via my sports blog a little chippy but haven't transferred all that energy over here yet, so I missed out on the pre-Christmas posts I'd wanted, but I can throw a few ideas out here for the future and hope no one outright steals them...

First off--has anyone done any real investigation of the popular wisdom that the Christmas season (at least from retailers, radio stations, etc.) "starts earlier every year"? I'm just not buying it. I'm sure it's changed if you go back a generation, but Christmas products in stores soon after Halloween (or often before)--that's been around as long as I can remember. Yet every year people act shocked, SHOCKED, that Christmas stuff shows up well before Thanksgiving. I wrote a paper in 8th grade where I actually spoke to people at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target and maybe the mall in town (this was in central Iowa). I believe Target said they put out holiday products in September. (Yes, I know that's anecdotal evidence, to put it mildly...) The earliest I saw this year--the Family Dollar store very near me in Chicago started stocking Christmas products the last day of summer. (I was in the same store the day earlier.) But I'm pretty sure I saw it that early as a kid, too. So, I'd love to see a story on "The Myth of 'Christmas Creep.'" I might not be the one to write it, but expect this little rant again next year. (I'm not saying I'm OKAY with stores doing this; I'd prefer seeing much less Christmas stuff, and not till Thanksgiving; I'm just saying I think it's been a problem for a long time, not getting worse all the time.)

The "War Against Christmas?" That's not even worth the space to refute...but, I grew up Christian in an overwhelmingly Christian town saying "Happy Holidays" (or at least sending cards that said that) because I took the phrase to mean "Merry Christmas"/"Happy Hanukkah" AND "Happy New Year" (and I was often a little late with my cards). I don't remember anyone freaking out about it then. Shakesville had a lively piece on the War on the War on Christmas, and an awfully strange reaction to the "war," Deck the Cross.

look, "Happy Holidays" in the title of a 1950s Christmas cookbook! does Fox News know about this?!

On another note...10 Things I Hate About Christmas, at Jezebel, is a reasonable, and entertaining, list, but...there's so much contrarian/curmudgeonly stuff out there about Christmas, I want to be a counter-contrarian (er, possibly not a word) and say: dammit, I LIKE cheesy Christmas music! I've been listening to the lite station since they switched to all-Christmas music, before Thanksgiving. (I wish they didn't end it right at midnight on Christmas; it should at least go another few hours...) I've grown to tolerate or like many of the songs I used to hate ("Santa Baby," even "Wonderful Christmastime," but there's no question that "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a really disturbing song). And I love eggnog! Or at least Silk soy versions or the regular kind diluted with milk. And I even love fruitcake--or at least our family recipe for it, which is lemony and slightly boozy and delicious. I keep meaning to make it myself someday; I think I bought the lemon extract and candied fruits oh, 5 years or so ago and they're probably still in the pantry. I'll make the family recipe, I'll try to make a vegan version of the family recipe, I'll try a different recipe for comparison, and I'll write a "Fruitcake Isn't that Bad" post. (I'm sure some foodie blogs and magazines have already done stories like that...)

that's "Fluffy Fig Pudding," which may or may not be that bad

(more holiday cookbooks of decades past from my collection)

More reading: the excellent blog Sociological Images had Fun with the 2009 Target Catalog and looked at Gendered Gifts Galore, as well as Santa's Evil Side Kick, Krampus. The Sexist reports on a story on different stereotypes of unhappy women at Christmastime.

Now, I'm off to play my "A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector" CD yet again, which, if last year is any indication, I'll be listening to every day well into January...

and now, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

2009-12-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

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....

first day of winter

2009-12-21T23:56:00.000-08:00

(or, it's Christmastime in the city)

all photos taken Dec. 21, 2009, posted from earliest to latest.

in the heart of the Loop

near the Sedgwick Brown Line station, Old Town. taken two weeks after this photo on Flickr...

can't believe they're still there. I didn't notice the pumpkin (hidden on the left) last time...

taken from the #72 North bus, Lincoln Park. CB2 is a sort-of hipper version of Crate & Barrel

(but they didn't add the graffiti)

Wal-Mart, west side of Chicago

bus stop across from Wal-Mart. strawberries in the snow, similar to one of the all-time great cosmetics color names (I shouldn't have to tell you, but it's Cherries in the Snow)

parking lot graffiti, bakery, Humboldt Park. there for a week now.

the city's Graffiti Busters were supposed to come out

Humboldt Park sidewalk

Humboldt Park alley

another Humboldt Park alley.

I would have taken more photos, but it was getting dark really early for some reason.

why, these photos seem sort of cynical...

I love my neighborhood.

2009-11-22T09:03:00.000-08:00

You'd think I'd write about it sometime, wouldn't you? I've lived in Humboldt Park for years and I don't recall if I've even ever posted shots of Humboldt Park-the-park, or the two bakeries near me, or the construction and demolition that occasionally goes on (an entire building a block away from me completely disappeared this week and I didn't know until it was an empty lot. It was one I don't particularly miss; I'm just a bit perturbed because it shows I didn't get out much this week). Here's a couple shots I took on a brief errand Friday. My neighborhood is not actually this color; I've just gotten into digital cross-processing on Flickr this spring...

The nearby shopping center (seems too small to call a strip mall) recently got resurfaced, and the store below now has windows. Big windows. I stopped first at my favorite dollar store of the ones near me (well, it's gone from three to two dollar stores, not counting Family Dollar. They're a decent store but NOT a real dollar store, though when they turn up in news broadcasts [I swear Chicago has a lot of Family Dollar calamaties--roof collapses, shootings, I forget] they're referred to as a "dollar store"). It was a short visit, made even shorter by the fact that the store had the overwhelming smell...of skunk. Well, that's a new one in my Chicago retail experience. The store IS near a park, but...huh? The clerk explained when I paid for my stuff--a man smelling of skunk had been in the store. Possibly raises more questions than it answers.

On to the liquor store, for cheap beer for the weekend, and empty boxes to sort things in my apartment. I noticed the unrefrigerated 16 oz. 6 packs of Old Style were still marked as $3.99 (I used to buy the commemorative Cubs cans of the stuff) so I grabbed one. The clerk didn't know the price and had to ask someone else, which took a while. He said it was $5.79. I said the sign still said $3.99 and he said it was just the Colt .45 6-packs that were $3.99. I went back and got a 12 oz. 6-pack of Hamm's, same price, instead, glancing again at the sign (still said Old Style). I told them they should change the sign. I wasn't going to argue my way into paying less for Old Style, I like to think I have SOME dignity.

Another employee saw what I'd bought and asked if I could carry 2 6-packs. "I'll pay for one." Shocked, I managed a "yeah." And he bought me another 6-pack (of Hamm's, though I didn't notice that till hours later), pointing at the Old Style and saying "as long as you never buy that again!" In a mild state of shock, I thanked him, grabbed some empty boxes on the way out, and walked home. I wanted this post to be a little more in-depth than "I GOT FREE BEER," but I won't deny, that's the main reason I posted.

Under repairs

2009-11-17T19:35:00.001-08:00

Project Section: How to Decorate Without Going Broke (Woman Alive, 1974)
Originally uploaded by mod as hell

I should have just found some kitschy old image that would signify "closed for repairs" and put it up a while ago. Well, blog's not closed, I still mysteriously get a hit or two a day of photos here showing up in my Flickr stats. But I AM going to drastically redo the blogroll--adding at least one new category, combining others, fixing the links of people who keep changing to new sites (some photographers I know, ahem), getting depressed at which blogs are now set to private, etc. I'd really like to change this to a three-column format, but Blogger bizarrely doesn't offer any as an option. Learning to split it into 3 columns myself (I've already searched this out) would be preferable to trying to move the whole blog over to Wordpress, however.

I've finally put the effort into getting a feed for blogs I follow (Bloglines) and bookmarking (Delicious), and I've got a new email address (I don't think I ever put the old one up here, which actually prompted a few people to start Flickr accounts just so they could email me there!) I'll post, and I may have started or restarted a few other places online, so there'll be a lot more "where else to find me" stuff here soon.

I even impulsively started a Tumblr blog and posted a couple dozen times, but because 1) virtually no one I know is on Tumblr 2) no one I'm following there added me back 3) it's just not very interactive, I will be...get ready for this...starting a SECOND blog on Blogger. It's for a different audience but I trust there'll be some overlap. It means I have to repost all my Tumblr content on Blogger, but at least I decided on that quickly (so it won't be like how I was uploading Flickr photos from the wrong directory for my first 6 months and then had to replace 1500 photos one by one). My brilliant theory is that I'll be signed in all the time to keep THAT blog frequently updated, so I'll have no excuse not to be signed into THIS blog all the time. Because I haven't been...since spring. Did I mention that many times already?

Also! I'll probably change the template here, though I do like this one quite a bit.

sadly, goodbye to Mercury Cafe

2009-10-03T05:06:00.001-07:00

Mercury Cafe
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

It was bad enough that Mercury Bar, the long-awaited coffeeshop (with good food) across from Detroit's infamous abandoned Michigan Central Station, closed earlier this year.

"At least Mercury Cafe is still open!" I thought. This Chicago coffeeshop (with good food) and art/event space in West Town (what used to be called East Village when I moved to Chicago, go figure) was opened years ago by someone I knew from a scene I was in the Chicago some time back, and I went out of my way to visit (it's the kind of place that's hard to get to, because it's not very far from me but requires two bus trips, and it's easy to get lazy about visiting places like that) when I could.

Apparently they're closing for good this weekend, Oct. 3-4, so if you're around Chicago, I encourage a visit.

it's that time of year again

2009-08-29T07:19:00.001-07:00

vacant bridal shoppe, downtown Cleveland
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

Birthday time! You can tell how cheerful I am about my birthday by my choice of photo, although it's actually NOT as depressing as it might seem (click on it if you've missed the lively discussion--20 comments as I post this--on Flickr). And I'm retroactively declaring it a birthday gift to fellow Flickrer Seth Tisue (whose birthday is also today), since I know he appreciates bleak sub/urban scenes as much as I do (and frankly has been a big influence on me on Flickr).

It's a bad sign that I can't even recall the last MONTH I posted or signed in here, or updated links (I know some need fixing). Soon, soon...Delay due to personal reasons, travel, etc. I will force myself to re-learn Picasa photo posting here, and be back. For now, I've got to see if Margie's Candies will give me a birthday treat (I got burned by them when I last tried, in 2007), check out the open house at Argonne National Laboratory (I've never been), and see my first Gary Railcats game tonight in Gary (vs. Fargo-Moorhead. You're invited!).

Uh, hi there!

2009-06-06T06:50:00.001-07:00

Thermo Dynamics by Trindl (featuring Therm-o-Tron Pipe Thawer)
Originally uploaded by mod as hell

Is it spring yet? Oh, it's summer? (though not "officially"). For the longest time I've meant just to post something, anything here. Too many exciting things have been going on in "real" life and I've neglected this place again, and even Flickr has become a chore as I drown in 1000s of photos from short and long-distance travels. Here's something from my secondary Flickr account (which sort of languishes in obscurity, still, unless the photos have certain words in their captions or tags, then I get weird attention, and...never mind). Rescued from Washburne Trade School, which at last, sadly, is getting torn down. I should do a photo-essay (or 10) about that...

See you soon! With news about what I've added to the blogroll, and many photos of trains, and more about the Metra station project, and Rust Belt adventures, and probably refreshingly little about my personal life. And no, exciting things in real life doesn't mean having a job, not that I've been trying much. Should you have any hint how I can turn any of this into anything that pays in any way, uh, I could use some help...

in these troubled times

2009-04-29T00:30:00.001-07:00

where to go
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

...Whoa, do I keep forgetting to post here? Well, here's something that's better than nothing, even though since I meant to post it it's already been linked on Gapers Block, so it's not fresh or anything. Taken shortly before my big trip to Boston, which was shortly before my not-so-big but also fantastic trip to Detroit. Needless to say, I am drowning in photos. BTW the discussion on this photo is amusing, as I actually missed the specific message of the ad until some time after I posted it (kind of a fail on the ad's part...or mine). So click on that if you want, or through my rapidly-approaching-5000 photos on Flickr, and I promise I'll write here soon. With lots of photos!

obligatory Barbie 50th birthday posting!

2009-03-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

From Barbie's 50th birthday

Oh, where to start. Monday, March 9 was the official 50th anniversary of the creation of the Barbie doll. This snuck up on me, so I didn't have time to unearth my actual Barbie collection, which is massive and consists of many vintage dolls (mostly bought back when you used to be able to go to a Barbie collectibles show or two a year in Chicagoland), collectible and vintage reproduction dolls (some bought at Cut Rate Toys, who are on my links list), and untold amounts of dolls, clothes, and accessories for actual kids to play with (hours and hours in toy and discount stores).

From Barbie's 50th birthday

Neshachan on Flickr posted a lot of new shots from her impressive Barbie collection for the birthday; here's one of a Mod-era Barbie (my favorite Barbie era). I didn't do that, but I at least could observe some media coverage and take weird shots of the TV screen.

From Barbie's 50th birthday

The top photo, from a CBS evening news piece, was when the screen changed, showing the original striped-swimsuit Barbie and her latest incarnation; then some NBC shots of the original Barbie (or a reproduction?).

From Barbie's 50th birthday

Talking about Barbie's influence, I guess; that's Andy Warhol's portrait of Superstar Barbie in back.

From Barbie's 50th birthday

So I had a few requests...or hopes...for the news and entertainment media when discussing Barbie:

1. Must you use the song "Barbie Girl" for your reports? You have to admit it's a tad grating. It's funny, though, that that band got sued by Mattel but won in the end, having their song apparently the go-to soundtrack for any piece about Barbie from now until the end of time...

2. I haven't heard this in a while and it's impossible to quantify, but I could swear, so many pop culture references to Barbie mention "Malibu Barbie." This was a doll only around for a few years in the 1970s, yet the name lived on for decades (I don't mind the doll on The Simpsons being "Malibu Stacy"). My theory was always that all the comedy writers for years were kids in the 1970s and that was their frame of reference. I actually don't know if anyone knows what the hell I'm talking about here, or is a fraction as pedantic as I am...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

3. The discussions of Barbie's influence are always "Barbie's body shape is so unnatural!" versus "Barbie's had all these careers!" Well, actually, I can't quibble with that, they're both true and you just can't expect much more in a two-minute TV news piece...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

4. Re: the Talking Barbie controversy of years ago (that inspired the amazing Lisa Lionheart/Malibu Stacy episode of The Simpsons): the doll didn't say "Math is hard," it said "Math class is tough." I don't think that's a terrible thing to say, but I'd say it was ill-advised to have a doll say it when there are still real issues with women's advancement in math and science. Make your point about Barbie and stereotypes of women, sure, just get the quote right!

From Barbie's 50th birthday

5. And...I had faint hopes that by the time Barbie turned 50, we'd no longer have the thing of talking about Barbie as if she's an actual woman turning 50, and saying how good she looks, or speculating on hot flashes (yeah, that was you, Kathie Lee), or whatever...yeah, no luck with that. Maybe if Barbie lasts to 100 that'll go away...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

The above shots were all from The Today Show on NBC; I caught some of the ABC and CBS evening news pieces Monday too. ABC showed the infamous German Lilli doll that inspired Barbie...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

That's Barbie's creator, the late Ruth Handler (she started Mattel with her husband Elliott). There's a new biography I want to read, Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her. Jeopardy had a Barbie category on Monday's show and the hardest, $1000 answer was Ruth Handler...no one knew it, sadly.

From Barbie's 50th birthday

Obviously I LIKE Barbie and can admire Handler as a pioneering woman in business and all, but...one of these pieces said that she created Barbie, and the early TV commercials reflected it, to help "tomboyish" girls learn to be feminine and get along with guys or whatever...and I almost cried at that point. Really, can't it just be a fun toy with nice outfits? No, I know it never can be...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

(I always check the Barbie aisle when I'm in a store that has one; this is the Toys R Us in Riverside, IL) Barbie has never actually gotten married; she just dresses up for it with different outfits every year. I know there was some "breakup" with Ken a few years back, but I thought they got back together. But I noticed the "groom" doll here didn't seem to have a name at all...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

I'm not attempting much of an analysis of Barbie; that's what the books I list below are for. Barbie, for me, was always kind of on a level with the ground-breaking Sex and the Single Girl--freeing (middle/upper-class white) women from certain 1950s roles and establishing others. I suppose today's version is evangelical religion versus "raunch" or "hookup" culture, both rather limiting, but I'll leave that to the blogs I've blogrolled to critique...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

That's Day-to-Night Barbie, which I never owned, but Day-to-Night Ken was my first male doll. These magazine covers, and the "Barbie Drama" stories enacted with dolls, ads for appalling 1980s clothes, and more are in my new Flickr set of Barbie magazine scans. This is the earliest issue I ever owned...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

This Seal Press anthology was put out in later editions under the name Body Outlaws, so I'm glad I got the first edition with the title Mattel forced them to change...

From Barbie's 50th birthday

See, Barbie's had all kinds of exciting jobs, even astronaut...even if this outfit does have a bit of a B-movie feel to it, perhaps...

Now a little recommended reading: So much of my Barbie obsession was piqued by M.G. Lord's Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, a book I loved so much I have the original hardcover with color illustrations, and bought the 10th-anniversary paperback with extra material, and if there are future editions I'll buy those...

If you can read cultural studies (which I enjoy in small doses), Barbie's Queer Accessories is full of fascinating ideas.

Ten years ago, a number of women writers were anthologized in The Barbie Chronicles: A Living Doll Turns Forty; it's pretty good. For a fiction and poetry anthology, there's Mondo Barbie, from the early 1990s, where I first read A.M. Homes and David Trinidad, among others.

It included poems from Denise Duhamel's excellent book about Barbie, Kinky. Her poem "It's My Body" somehow inspired me to take and post a near-nekkid shot of myself for the first time (no, I'm not linking; it can be found, I'm not that many places on the Internet, I mean, it's not on Goodreads), which probably got a lot of views because of searches for words in the poem and the book title. I just got inspired to post something "authentic"...it's also been a strange week where I might regret things I've put on the Internet. Or might not... By odd coincidence, maybe, I wrote most of the text here while blond hair dye is on my head; it's basically searing my skin off at this point so I'd better go...

somewhat newsworthy

2009-03-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

$1.29, now $2.89: Office Depot going-out-of-business sale FAIL
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

So on this Flickr photo I said "someone should blog this" and since it appears to not be exactly huge breaking news, I guess it'll have to be me. The next paragraph is the text I put on the caption (there's a little more discussion on the actual photo):

Wow. I'd heard this happens at some closing stores, now I've got proof. I'd noticed the Evergreen Park Office Depot was closing, with deep discounts on everything, and finally made it there Thursday. I haven't shopped at Office Depot in a while, but I did find it odd that nearly all the merchandise had price stickers on it, and the prices of pens, stickers, etc. seemed high. I noticed almost all the price cards in the plastic holders were gone. Then looking at these colored pencils, I saw this package has a $2.89 sticker on it...and the price card of $1.29 was STILL THERE. So these are 40 or 50% off of $2.89. Do the math, the "clearance" price is higher than what the store used to charge! I took this photo, put back the markers and pencils I'd selected, and only bought some 59 cent glue sticks and two laminated Rand McNally maps (the price is printed on them, so I knew they couldn't scam me on those). There were some items, like phone cords, where the price card and sticker matched, but I'm suspicious of the prices on a lot of the stuff here...BTW there was a 12-pack of smaller colored pencils, but it was also more than $1.29...but if there's some logical explanation for this I've missed, I'd like to hear it.

In addition: I discovered this sale while looking for another going-out-of-business store in that shopping plaza (which I don't think existed). It took me almost a week to get back. I wasn't planning to buy much (I'm sure I have unused stuff from the closing sale of the Office Depot that used to be near North & Wells, and has been a gym for many years), but I did want to stock up on basics. So this was a bit of a letdown, but worth it to get this shot. This is why I'd tell people it's such a good idea to carry a camera at all times...well, it meant more to say that before so many people got cell phone cameras...

how the Metra-riding obsession started...

2009-03-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

I've always said my biggest regret in my years in Chicago (just in terms of photography; thinking of regrets in all areas of life here would be a ticket to unending misery, wouldn't it?) was my failure to document the tremendous changes going on in the city--in particular, the old Maxwell Street area, Wicker Park/West Town (I've lived not far from there virtually all my Chicago years), and the South Loop (I went to school there for years, starting when "South Loop" only went to Roosevelt at most, not all the way to Chinatown). Then I added my failure, until 2007, to get the concept of "urban exploration" and get more intimate photos of the buildings I've seen vanish. Now I'd add how infrequently I took Metra commuter rail until the past couple years. I've never needed to take it for family, school, or work, so it's been purely recreational.

From Metra March 2008

Not until 2008 did I get the idea of Metra-hopping (visiting many stops on a line so I can explore the communities they're in, using the $5 pass that's good all day Saturday and Sunday), and I believe what I'm picturing here, March 8, 2008, was my first true day of this. I had specific aims in mind--to visit the (closing in 2008) smallest Macy's/Marshall Field's store in Chicagoland (Lake Forest), my interest having been piqued by this piece on Chicago Public Radio, and to revisit parts of the North Shore I'd spotted out the car window (and wanted to photograph) on a long Valentine's Day drive up there with someone.

From Metra March 2008

This trip came in the midst of my project to photograph every station on the Chicago Transit Authority. The idea to photograph every Metra (and South Shore) station didn't hit me until much later...in fact, after much of my summer 2008 Metra travel. That's the project (among many others) I'm engaged in now. At first I wanted it to be open-ended, because it could take years (the fact that several Metra lines run only on weekdays, with limited stops, no $5 unlimited pass, messes things up). But now the hyper-organized side of me has taken over and I wish I'd set an official time frame. If I started it in summer 2008 (I'm not counting this trip, because I wasn't really making an effort to photograph all the Metra stations themselves), how about I finish shooting all the stations that are open every day sometime in summer 2009?

Anyway...I boarded a northbound train on the Union Pacific/North line at the Clybourn station (which is not near the street Clybourn; a recent issue of the Metra commuter newsletter "On the Bi-Level" explains this mystery; quoted by Jennifer). You can see I was already taking shots of passengers and approaching trains...

From Metra March 2008

I started off in Lake Forest. Everything was green and tasteful, discreet signage instead of a typical Walgreens. This is something you find on the North Shore...McDonald's that don't look like McDonald's because of some sort of tastefulness ordinance or something.

From Metra March 2008

The very small Marshall Field's there was part of the well-known Market Square shopping plaza, designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw.

From Metra March 2008

Unfortunately, I was weeks too late to actually see the store...

From Metra March 2008

More tasteful green, a post office this time.

From Metra March 2008

Even more tasteful green.

From Metra March 2008

A very nice independent bookstore.

From Metra March 2008

I haven't taken many interior shots of Metra stations, because a lot of them are closed on weekends, or there's no real "interior" to the station; this is Lake Forest's.

From Metra March 2008

And then I went to Highwood, which originally developed next to Fort Sheridan. Many Italian immigrants settled here in the early 1900s, and there's now a substantial Latino population; all of these make Highwood different from all the other North Shore communities I visited that day.

From Metra March 2008

Side view of this; the front was attractive too.

From Metra March 2008

I ate lunch here. Charming, but the prices were higher than I'd expected...

From Metra March 2008

Sweet. This is what I'd spotted out the car window and NEEDED to come back and shoot. Like most of these photos, I need to go back again and get better photos for Flickr...

From Metra March 2008

Brief wandering in another direction turned up the Highwood library, so I went inside for a few minutes.

From Metra March 2008

Puzzling...

From Metra March 2008

And then I moved on, and the sun came out, but mostly just for Highland Park (which couldn't be more different from the Highland Park by Detroit I'm now familiar with).

From Metra March 2008

Wow, wow, wow...

From Metra March 2008

Part of the Metra station in Highland Park, I think.

From Metra March 2008

And now, a shopping area in Winnetka. I stopped in Winnetka, then went to Wilmette, but with the help of a Pace bus went back to Winnetka. Fun fact for non-Chicago readers: Chicago's public television station, WTTW, has been jokingly called "Wilmette Talking to Winnetka" (both posh North Shore communities) for as long as I can remember (does anyone know the origin of that? a Google search was no help; in fact, almost no one has quoted this phrase online).

From Metra March 2008

This toy store had a huge window display of kid's Lego projects.

From Metra March 2008

A cooking supply store, I think. I liked the sentiment (even if I prefer white for grilled cheese sandwiches at least).

From Metra March 2008

Now to Wilmette...

From Metra March 2008

There were a few cute buildings...another attractive cleaners.

From Metra March 2008

I came back mostly to spend a few minutes visiting the Winnetka library.

From Metra March 2008

And to reshoot a few things...there was a little bit of sun.

From Metra March 2008

Another attractive clock.

From Metra March 2008

Heading back towards the Winnetka Metra station...I believe this did end up, as I'd predicted at the time, being the strangest and most random graffiti I saw anywhere in 2008 (Huckabee was already out of the presidential race by then).

From Metra March 2008

A little bit of pre-Union Pacific history there...

From Metra March 2008

Another attempted shot of passengers and approaching trains...

From Metra March 2008

I finished Metra-hopping by ending at the Davis station (next to the Davis CTA) in Evanston. I must have gotten a very early start (8:30 on a Saturday!), because looking at my photos from the day I went on to shoot CTA stations in Evanston and the North Side, and stop by a demolition site, all before dark, in winter.

I didn't do much more Metra travel until summer, when I finally took my long-awaited trip to the end of the UP-N line, Kenosha, WI (I loved the idea that I could get to a different STATE on Metra...even if we no longer have the interurban that runs from Chicago to Milwaukee, sadly). And that was my first trip on Metra with a bicycle! Though I've had a few more trips to Kenosha, I feel I've neglected this line and hope to get out shooting on it again soon.

(Oh, and I still like using a lot of lowercase letters for things, especially on Flickr, but I've already dropped it as a habit in my writing here, because I'm not trying to be cute. Well, I am, but not in my writing...so back to standard sentence form...)

the abandoned Googieesque gas stations of East St. Louis

2009-02-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

From TAGGSOESL

oh, I know you've been waiting for this one...if you're one of the few people I mentioned this to over drinks, if I ever even did that, maybe I just imagined it. but I've been wanting to post it for a while. really just a photoblog entry, since the history of gas stations is something I haven't learned yet. I certainly could on Flickr, but I'm trying to learn more about trains and transit (and as always, architecture), so I haven't put much effort into learning the history of gas stations, chain restaurants, motels, department, discount, and grocery stores, etc. I imagine when I post more of these on Flickr I'll get some help.

From TAGGSOESL

photos of this first place were taken mid-June 2008:

From TAGGSOESL

flowers that go rather well with the fallen sign:

From TAGGSOESL

yes, another large symmetrical shot looking out! the rest are from my trip on September 9. 2008:

From TAGGSOESL

okay, this one isn't Googieesque, I just thought it had interesting signage, and it was across from the previous station:

From TAGGSOESL

both these trips were on absolutely gorgeous warm sunny days, when I took the Metrolink from St. Louis by myself and wandered around downtown East St. Louis for the afternoon, including into several abandoned buildings. the followup will be the terrazzos of downtown East St. Louis (and I should post the abandoned buildings eventually!).

(okay, that was three new posts in three days, but I'm not locking myself into a daily format here--hopefully several posts a week, though)

start the year off right

2009-02-26T09:31:00.000-08:00

and write about it when I get around to it...fortunately I've never boxed myself into the idea of posting in any kind of timely/linear fashion. so, New Year's Day, 2009. I did nothing on NY Eve itself...I'd had a good idea for celebrating in an abandoned building (which is what I did with Flickr friends the previous year, but I had a different place in mind)...but it was barely 20 degrees and I stayed in, hence the screenshot. my biggest excitement was probably immediately uploading a new photo to Flickr at midnight...wow that's sad.

From 1/1/09

well, at least I had New Year's Day plans to drive around with Sam, aka akagoldfish on Flickr. (we'd first met to shoot the CTA Holiday Train in December.) we met at the Oak Park Metra; I'd gotten there via a couple bus rides. I tried to get self-portraits of myself waiting for the bus and on the bus but it's quite challenging to do that without being noticed...while waiting I observed this vacant building in downtown Oak Park:

From 1/1/09

we headed out for a few hours driving around western and northwestern suburbs, looking for rail-related photo opportunities.

From 1/1/09

and anything else interesting...I don't know if I'd ever seen this before:

From 1/1/09

we agreed on the absolute bleakness of this. I made a brief trip here weeks later to get a good shot of the Hooters billboard overlooking this railyard, too:

From 1/1/09

I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me to stand above where Metra trains pass to watch them, but I've done it on Roosevelt Road and elsewhere since this:

From 1/1/09

a few random sightings, including a Walgreens corporate something-or-other:

From 1/1/09

that was around the Bellwood Metra station, and now Berkeley--I'd had an unfortunate delay at this station on a cold Sunday night, but now I got to see the plastic flowers in all their glory by daylight:

From 1/1/09

I love places like this and meant to go back and reshoot it, but I posted this shot on Flickr this week and it was very popular...maybe I got it right the first time:

From 1/1/09

we were a little obsessed with this one, in an industrial district I'd never seen before...it turned out to not be a thrift store, but some kind of thrift outlet for a candy? nut? company:

From 1/1/09

and now some other wanderings...

From 1/1/09

I don't know that they "originated safety first," but this old Chicago & North Western car was great to see, especially with that building behind it:

From 1/1/09

tank cars, train graffiti...I've been paying a lot more attention to these since I took this photo:

From 1/1/09

it's pretty much a law that I have to get a shot of myself next to any sort of "reject" or "discard" sign I see in an industrial setting, but it didn't really turn out and I don't post photos of myself here anyway:

From 1/1/09

we were going to visit a snack shop in Oak Park I'd never eaten at before, but they were closing early on the holiday, so we ended up in a bar/grill in Forest Park instead. and then in Oak Park...I've always found solar houses interesting, and Sam showed me this striking one, unfortunately just as it was getting too dark for my photos to turn out:

From 1/1/09

if this post has lacked color, then here's the BLUEST SKY EVER, after I was dropped off back in Oak Park, before meeting my visiting parents in the Loop:

From 1/1/09

these photos have been sitting in my Picasa albums for weeks but I kept delaying this post for reasons including but not limited to the fact that what I was going to write about it substantially changed; gone is the whole bit about how I had fun but I'm not going to be one of those people who's all obsessed with trains. and then somehow I spent January getting obsessed with trains. not because of this excursion, though that did help it along a little. but that's a story for another day...

I guess it's betterlatethannever around here

2009-02-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

this was taken at my first visit to the Hideout in Chicago post-election. my friend Mike and I were there for the reappearance of beloved local literary event the Dollar Store. I needed a shot of this and Mike made the excellent point to make sure the Old Style sign was visible...two Chicago favorites. (this became one of my most popular photos on Flickr; I hope a few "random Europeans"--the people who show up commenting on some of my photos that make it into Explore--will check out the Hideout if they're in Chicago!)

From Obama

and then Inauguration Day. I'd wanted to be there taking photos even though I knew it'd be intense...but I just didn't put much effort (looking at listings for D.C. and Baltimore hostels the days after Election Day, then doing nothing) on how to get there or if anyone I knew from Chicago was going. and then I didn't go to any celebrations in Chicago, not in the Loop, not in Hyde Park. I just watched it and tried to get a few shots of the moments...and it went so fast.

From Obama

so I didn't have to deal with this.

From Obama

I tried to set up some shots with the Obama (wait, wait, how long till all the spellcheck programs I use ACTUALLY RECOGNIZE "OBAMA"? this is getting old) family paper dolls (really!) but that didn't work. I didn't go to any parties but I watched this WGN report from one and I can honestly say I've never seen any of the local Chicago anchors in a dress like this one. well, it was a day to dress up, I suppose. if I'd done more than go out to get coffee and books about trains at the downtown library, I might have.

From Obama

and then later (this was 1/31), on one of those crazy Metra-riding weekends I should be writing about, after getting back to Millennium Station, I walked past Macy's/Field's on State and saw these windows. glad I got this, it was gone next time.

From Obama

sorry I didn't have more to report on the historic day of history, or closer to it, but I figured it was well covered elsewhere. oh, and if you've followed my Flickr you've noticed I've switched almost exclusively to lowercase photo titles, usually lowercase captions, sometimes lowercase comments. yet I've never been into the all-lowercase thing, though there are others I think can get away with it. I don't know, hope it's not grating, it's what I'm used to now. actually I think it's a trick to fool myself into acting like my blog is like my Flickr, and is as easy and rewarding...whatever it takes to get me back here...soon I'll be getting back into reading your blogs, and adding some long-overdue ones to the blogroll...

do come back

2009-02-12T15:39:00.001-08:00

come again
Originally uploaded by mod as hell

It's not just that my Flickr account has been infinitely more active and better than my blog, it's that my *secondary* Flickr account (which a lot of people have finally noticed and added recently--thanks!) is infinitely more active and better than my blog. For instance, here's the back cover of "A Trip Through the Chicago Sun-Times," a 24-page booklet giving you a tour of the now-demolished Sun-Times Building and a look at newspaper production circa the late 1950s. Perhaps I should put pages of it on here and discuss it, but instead I'll just point you to the set (click on this photo and you'll find it; it's in order).

I've had a lack of motivation keeping me from adding to the blogroll, reading anyone else's blog, registering or re-registering to leave comments on others' blogs, etc. I've been overwhelmed with so many ideas of things I should write and hampered by an ill-fated idea to restart a "52 Weeks" self-portrait project on Flickr with each photo linking to a blog post...of course, I wasn't writing the blog posts and wasn't sure which photos and stories to choose, and...eh, never mind. Also, if you've followed the K of C Flickr page, you've noticed a new hobby/obsession developing...and that WILL be the next post here.

Random postcard!

2009-01-17T09:26:00.000-08:00

Dream of this, dream of this, dream of this, dream of this:

From Postcards

Bought in a used bookstore in Champaign, IL--and now there's yet another category of vintage postcards I'm interested in. This is the Orange Blossom Special, which apparently was famous (although not being much of a train expert--to be discussed in a post I've been putting off for a while now--I hadn't known about it). I don't think I can recreate the excitement this image evokes by riding on the Metra today and buying a bag of oranges, but we'll see. Oh, and I've decided to try writing notes for the pieces I've been putting off--it's not just the photo uploading that I'm having trouble with, it's getting writing done.

Better than nothing

2009-01-07T18:05:00.001-08:00

why? why? why? why? why? why?
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

I was in the midst of writing a "real" post again, but I see I won't get it done before I leave on another brief trip, my second of 2009. So, here's abandoned donuts (11, from a box that probably held 12) seen in downtown Evanston, IL in December. Apologies for not posting, for neglecting this in favor of Flickr (because, I don't know, it's a billion times easier to use--I like Picasa/Blogger albums but I'm running into stupid problems when I try to delete the "From [album]" it automatically puts under every photo I post in a blog), for Flickr becoming my blog (and even though I'm quite proud of the Flickr page I want this to exist too), for neglecting your blogs, for constantly forgetting to leave an email address here so people don't try to reach me through comments I might not find till much later, for...annnnddd there goes any resolutions about not wasting blog space on what I'm not doing with the blog.

Merry...

2008-12-25T08:26:00.001-08:00

Christmas Cookies, 1960
Originally uploaded by mod as hell

I've been paralyzed with indecision with what to post next, and having many troubles this month...but here's a lovely recipe booklet from 1960. Merry Christmas, if that's your thing...Now I've got to see if I'm making it on a Greyhound to Iowa or not.

50 years later

2008-12-03T15:32:00.000-08:00

Photos from November 26 and December 1, 2008. Some text and links for this post later; in a hurry right now (when I posted it and when I'm updating it...going out of town for a few days); I'm testing out blogging photos with Picasa.

From Test

Oooops

2008-12-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

I've had so many ideas for what to post here next that it's paralyzed me from posting anything at all (and when I'm not posting, I'm hardly looking at anyone else's stuff, so there's catching up to do). Before something requiring much effort, here's shots from a Sunday morning and the next Sunday morning, of at least the third car I know of to crash on this block in my neighborhood...at least the second to crash into a building.

I'll also confess that I have a very strong urge on the blog to not post anything new until the previous post gets comments. I'll make exceptions if something's timely (like around election day) and I need to post new material, but otherwise I keep waiting. I finally gave up on the architecture cruise post--I do know people read it (I don't check stats here) because they joined the groups I mentioned...but it's been about a month since any new comments here. You can see why I'm so dependent on Flickr, it's always active!

But then, I see interesting posts on others' blogs all the time with no comments, and think "Why hasn't anyone commented?" Sorry I'm not more active on other blogs...it's all but hopeless if they aren't Blogger; I like the ease of signing in to post here and easily posting on other Blogger ones. Anyway...I've been rethinking what I want to do here; I'd like to turn it into more of a photoblog (sometimes with stories, sometimes without) even though: 1) I'm at 13% of my space for images here and have no idea what happens after that (a yearly fee?). 2) I have to rotate photos in iPhoto first, then upload all vertical photos from one directory and all horizontal ones from another. 3) There's no drag-and-drop function for rearranging photos, just cutting and pasting html blocks, having to remember "move the 5th one from the top to the 2nd from the bottom." 4) I can't post photos next to each other (can I?). In other words, I loathe the work that goes into putting photos here, but I want to post much more, making this much more interactive for all of us. (UPDATE: Okay, now I know how to put things directly into Picasa and put them here. Still not as easy as using Flickr, but should help with some of the problems mentioned. Thanks, Noah...)

The CAF River Cruise, finally

2008-11-18T22:14:00.000-08:00

[Note: I finally put the story/captions in on the Election Day post below this one, so it's like two new blog posts at once!]
In a few days I'll be disappointing people. Maybe that's not new, but I'll be disappointing them in a very specific way--telling them that the Chicago Architecture Foundation Architecture River Cruise is over for the season. (Last ones, Sunday Nov. 23.) On my first CAF volunteer shifts last year after the season ended, one visitor after another was somewhat crushed to hear there'd be no more boat tours till spring. But I'd remind them, and you, that's there's a pretty good line-up of year-round downtown walking and building tours, and bus tours, not to mention exhibits and lectures and classes at the Archicenter...

I finally took the river cruise again this year. I hadn't taken it since a little before (or after?) I moved here; I went on it with my parents then, and hadn't retaken it since becoming a CAF volunteer. As a longtime volunteer I have a membership and as a member I'd get one 2-for-1 admission each year, and this year I found someone to go with me.

Christopher ("You have a blog? Did you mention me? Did you say 'oh, that jerk?'"), aka Chocolate-Milk, was visiting from Milwaukee for a day, and we planned to go. I got the tickets at CAF and rushed to meet him at Union Station, and we got a cab to the dock.

I'll be posting a dozen or more shots from this, some the same, some different, on Flickr. I've turned an unofficial guideline into an actual rule here--I don't post photos of myself or friends on the blog. But on Flickr is fine...so that's where I am and where Christopher is.

Obviously, these have been photos of the boat, its bar (didn't have anything), the captain and the docent. I recommend showing up in plenty of time so you get to hear the docent--this one, at least--give a lot of supplementary information before the tour starts, I enjoyed it...Chris and I sat in the front row. It was a beautiful mid-September weekday.

I'm not actually going to name and explain these buildings; I just wanted to get the photos (in chronological order) up. It didn't hit me just how many bridges there are in downtown Chicago until the boat had to go under them all...and I took photos of every single one to document that. Most bridge shots didn't turn out.

There's the water taxi, which I've still never tried, in the background.

I like the birdhouse in this shot.

Older building with ugly balconies attached.

I don't think you see much ivy downtown.

The rare bridge shot that's not a blur.

I really enjoyed the tour and loved getting to see the familiar skyline from a totally different vantage point (many different vantage points), but is it weird that the most exciting thing to me was the appearance of this concrete barge?

Look how close we are to the concrete!

Many familiar buildings. This, of course, is often just called the "Wilco building!" (I searched that phrase on Flickr. Turns out there's an actual Wilco building, unrelated to Chicago, the band, or album covers.)

And to finish, some new construction...some popular, some not so much.

Those are the photographic highlights of the tour. I'm not sure I've done enough to convince people to go, but it's quite popular already! Chris and I stopped a few places on Michigan Ave. (two places I'd never been--the Chicago Blackhawks store [which I didn't even know existed], and a Chipotle [seriously, never been in a Chipotle before]--and Millennium Park, which I have fun showing to visitors). We went to Pilsen and both met Christa aka chloeloe for the first time to walk around Pilsen taking photos until it started getting dark. Then Chris and I hung out briefly at the bar at Union Station that's just off the old waiting room, and was surprisingly cheap.

More about architecture: So Flickr has at least two groups for photos of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, and one for Daniel Burnham, and even one for Warren and Wetmore, but had NONE for Louis Sullivan/Adler & Sullivan architecture. Until I finally started the Louis Sullivan group I've promised for a while. I started an Albert Kahn one as well, since I've become well acquainted with his work on my Detroit visits. Drunk with power, I created a Cass Gilbert group too...well, actually I haven't started that one yet because I haven't posted any of my own photos yet (from buildings in St. Louis and Detroit; there are no Gilbert buildings in Chicago). If you have any relevant photos on Flickr, please join and add them!

Election day photodiary

2008-11-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

Election Day, I more than made up for my lack of campaign/Barack Obama-related photos taken this year. I originally posted this without captions, but now I've added them. All images were captured on Nov. 4 (or early Nov. 5), and are in chronological order. You'll note I wasn't actually in the celebratory rally in Grant Park.

part one: vote
No lines at my polling place (an apartment building) very close by. In fact, the whole process took 20 minutes, including walking and taking photos outside. Voting itself only took 10 of those minutes, and of those, most was taken up by: sitting on a couch to fill out the ballot and realizing I was probably supposed to use the booth-like thing; realizing I knew next-to-nothing about all but the top few contests on the ballot; wondering if I should vote Green on those to support the theoretical idea of a major third party; being amused that a candidate (not who I voted for) for the Water Reclamation District was named "Clearwater"; leaving everything about judges blank and feeling bad about it; wondering if I made an error on one part and panicking I'd have to fill out another ballot. It went through the machine fine, I got my receipt, and left.

There were a few free goodies to be had with a ballot slip, but the only one I got was a Starbucks coffee, grabbed at the Damen/North store before catching the Milwaukee bus downtown. It occurred to me I could do that over and over again, getting free coffee at different locations, but only had the one. I was wired enough later anyway...

part two: Kenwood/Hyde Park

I picked up a fancy sandwich in Kenwood at a place that turns out be right by Eric (of "reallyboring" fame), so I dropped by for a little bit, finally seeing the apartment that's been in so many of his Flickr 365 Days shots. He was on his way to an election night party and we walked there, noticing the extra security and street closures near the Obama house.

I stopped by the Hyde Park Borders--not much of an Obama display--and the Walgreens, drawn in by the sign. Yes, there was lots of Obama merchandise.

His books, next to a pet foot care item. (Same display a few days later.)

Many styles of sweatshirts and t-shirts. (Some of these, and many new designs, there several days later. Costing at least $5 more.)

Stickers and buttons and a stray Valentine's-like balloon. (These were all gone later in the week, but there were plenty of new commemorative magazines.)

I hadn't seen this style of hat elsewhere, so I bought one. Total with tax, $6.12. (Later in the week, bought another, for $10 + tax.)

part three: in the Loop, pre-rally

So I headed from Hyde Park to the Loop on a very crowded (I got a seat!) #6 bus. People were very excited, and even cheered when it was announced Pennsylvania went to Obama. I got out in the South Loop and peeked at TVs showing news (of course I'd been listening to it, mostly NPR, all day).

Outside the Hilton, Michigan Ave.

The crowds were pouring in for the rally at Grant Park. I didn't have a ticket, nor had I tried to get one, nor was I trying to get in, or even to cross to the other side of the street. I just wanted to observe the excitement...

Walking further north...

Leaving, walking into the Loop, observing streets shut down. I wanted to go home for a bit to watch news, record stuff, and upload the photos I had already.

part four: the news (at home)

So when the news finally broke, I was half paying attention--looking online, watching TV, listening to NPR all at once. The actual moment seemed underwhelming. I'm sure it would have been more exciting if I hadn't been alone...but I did get a call from a friend before long.

I checked a blog first...then realized I should go to all the major news sites immediately and get screenshots of the news.

part five: post-rally

I took the same bus back downtown, but by the time I got back the rally was basically over. But again, still an interesting scene for photos. Much celebrating...

I always like an "aftermath" shot. (I liked the angle, and the "real power," here.)

I wondered where the powerful smell of onions was coming from. Turned out it was the median strip filled with decorative chive plants, a bit crushed by now.

Finding a restroom in the Loop after midnight isn't the easiest thing, but I knew Metra stations would work. I decided to go into the Van Buren station--I've passed through it on trains before, but never actually been in the station. I actually had to go through (minimal) security to get in--making sure I didn't have any glass bottles of booze or whatever.

Plenty of merchandise from official and unofficial vendors was available. I found a giant "HOPE" poster slightly crumpled in a box and took it (buying one would have only been $5).

The hot-off-the-presses Tribunes were available outside the L station, 2 for $1 (the Trib is normally 75 cents). I wanted one to commemorate the moment and get this shot, and thought friends outside of town might like some, but didn't want to carry much stuff, so I only bought one, biggest mistake ever when I wound up spending hours and hours the next day fruitlessly searching for papers in a far-flung corner of the city (well, I did find one copy of the Tribune, and Polish and Spanish papers). I can't believe I only bought one. Oh well. A different version of this became my "most interesting" photo on Flickr, my first to get more than 20 favorites, and comments from people around the world congratulating America. I wish I'd done more that day to actually be social, it would have been nice to be in Grant Park for the big moments, but I'm happy with what I did.

Current events

2008-11-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

Found at a semi-abandoned hospital, Nov. 2007.

"Some famous guy's house" was my original title to a different version of this photo on Flickr (which recently got picked up by a French news website!). Seen at the beginning of the Chicago Architecture Foundation's Kenwood tour in Sept. 2008. I wanted to make sure I caught the Kenwood tour this year in case this family is living in a different house next year...

Hope, and cynicism. Seen at Chicago & Leavitt in Ukrainian Village, Chicago, Oct. 2008.

More hope. Broadway in Denver, Oct. 2008.

Barack Obama merchandise. 16th Street Mall in Denver, Oct. 2008.

More merchandise, Eastern Market, Detroit, Aug. 2008. I always thought it'd be a great project to get out and document the fascinating assortment of Obama t-shirts for sale, especially around Chicago, but didn't get around to it. Chicago Public Radio had a good story about it this summer, at least.

Downtown Denver, Oct. 2008.

That's it? That's all the Obama/campaign-related photos I got, though I've taken tens of thousands of photos in numerous cities this year? I wish I'd done more.

Honestly, I'm not someone who's expecting a lot of "change," but I will vote. I've never voted in a presidential election before (well, what do you expect, I am only 20 after all!) (note to anyone who stumbles on this: I'm older than 20).

The latest additions

2008-10-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

There are topics I can discuss at length: the advantages and disadvantages of various egg substitutes for vegan baking (this knowledge coexists with the fact that recently I had two roast beef sandwiches at the Rax restaurant in Joliet, by the way); obscure and failed sitcoms of the early 1990s (knowing what shows Matt LeBlanc and Jennifer Aniston were on before Friends, for instance); groups, splinter groups, and internecine debates of the early women's liberation movement...But the furniture stores and other buildngs of Vliet Street in the Hillside neighborhood of Milwaukee? I don't have much to say. So for no reason these photos illustrate this post about my latest additions to the blogroll/links list.

I've moved some links to different categories, but never mind that. And, in the more political blogs, deleted a few that became password-protected, or were too much of an inside joke.

In the top, Chicagoland categories, I'm now adding photo sites and photo blogs. Please enjoy the fine work of Christa Lohman (chloeloe), Chris Brunn, Chuck Janda, Noah Vaughn (Rubbish), and Nick Suydam (Sights and Sounds). I've been so distracted by finding blogs for many other cities, I haven't looked for more Chicagoland blogs in a while except from people I already know. I'd love to find blogs about specific neighborhoods, but many of the neighborhood blogs I find (certainly for Uptown and Rogers Park) aren't necessarily coming from viewpoints I endorse...

I added the website of Chicago writer Lee Sandlin, who I had the pleasure of meeting over a long lunch in Lincoln Square a few weeks ago (thank you again, though I was quite embarrassed that one glass of wine made me forget how Cairo, Illinois is pronounced). And two blogs from Jessica of Elgin. She found some photos from my brief Elgin trip on Flickr, invited them to a Flickr group, then featured some on Life in Elgin, which was nice. She also has a personal site, We Love Thrift Stores.

Most of the adds are to the "City life/built environment (beyond Chicago)" section, mostly from a manic day or two of looking for blogs on many cities and areas I'm interested in, not all of which I've visited this year. If they feature abandoned buildings, if there's a historic preservation bent, if they discuss transit and infrastructure, and/or there's a real enthusiasm for their city, and I don't see anything that frightens me, and they seem to be fairly active, I'll probably add them.

I'm mostly sticking to the Midwest, Rust Belt, Great Lakes, Third Coast region (by the way, Ted McClelland's recent book The Third Coast is HIGHLY recommended; I hope to interview him about it if I can). I love New York City, and San Francisco, and Seattle, and Portland, and Austin (well, I've only been there once), and I'd enjoy reading about them, but frankly I don't think those cities need much publicity. I'm much more interested in people seeking to improve and promote overlooked and "uncool" cities.

Newer stuff: Detroit (Faded Detroit, and the hugely popular Sweet Juniper). Indianapolis (The Urbanophile, Urban Indy). Columbus (All Eyes and Ears). Cincinnati (Building Cincinnati, and I added Cincinnati, As I See It, but that ones's completely vanished). Youngstown (Defend Youngstown, I Will Shout Youngstown). Pittsburgh (Cleveburgh Diaspora). Louisville (Broken Sidewalk). Buffalo (Greater Buffalo Blog). St. Louis (Mississippi River Valley Girl, Vanishing STL). Twin Cities (Twin City Sidewalks, Uptown Mpls Blog, and the extremely entertaining, fairly new Mall of America blog, by "wolf," who is "a guy who goes to MOA...a lot...").

And two that feature people from many different cities: The Where Blog, and Rust Belt Bloggers (I noticed I got a mention on the latter, so I've joined in the community). I haven't yet found Omaha blogs that fit my criteria, or any from my home state of Iowa, sadly; if anyone knows if there's good built environment/urbanism/city life blogs from there, please let me know! I may start looking for Denver and Phoenix blogs as well (even if those cities are a little too "popular" for my criteria, heh).

I added Chicago Steel Heritage Project to Organizations, Chicago History in Postcards to Even more Chicago stuff (formerly Random Chicagoland fun) and a bunch more to the non-Chicago/non-blog built environment section: Braddock Pennsylvania; Forgotten Ohio; Forgotten Buffalo; Preserve Minneapolis; Omaha (Historic Omaha, Landmarks Inc) and Denver (DenverInfill, Historic Denver), and more architectural foundations (Michigan and Denver). I've become quite fascinated with roadside America, Route 66, Lincoln Highway, etc. recently and that'll probably be the next batch of additions...

My blogroll categories are organized roughly by how much those topics turn up on City of Destiny. City life and Chicago and buildings the most, books, food and shopping somewhat less, politics the least...it certainly doesn't mean I consider those the least important. I'm sort of a wuss who tries to avoid conflict and controversy here.

The only political blog I've added is Rustbelt Intellectual. I added Healing Self-Injury to the mental health section, just because. Nothing new in the body image or adoption categories right now. In the latter, Marley at The Daily Bastardette has done a fine job covering the fiasco of Nebraska's Safe Haven law...it was definitely on my mind on my recent Omaha visit (another teen was abandoned that day, I believe). If you've never been exposed to views on what's wrong with "safe haven" laws, I highly encourage checking her blog out.

That's it for now...I hope to have a zany-adventure post up soon to compensate for my long absence. The photos keep piling up...as anyone following me on Flickr knows, I've been to Omaha and Denver on my first-ever Amtrak trip recently, plenty to say about that... (And yes, that trip happened after the date on this post--don't ask!)

Ruins at sunset

2008-10-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

As promised, some late afternoon exploration at an abandoned, ruined, and since my last time by, partially demolished industrial facility in Chicagoland. Enjoy this horizontal photo; it's the last one you'll see for a while. And all but this one are in chronological order.
I may be well past the "why does every abandoned building have so many chairs and sofas?" stage in my exploring career, but I'm still in the "why do so many abandoned buildings have pianos?!" stage. This was a fantastic sight.

It's an imposing building from the outside. I'd driven by with a friend, but we didn't go in that day. I'd been at the nearby Metra stop, but it was too busy around to try. Finally, Saturday I biked downtown for a bike/Metra trip.

Stay 25 feet away?
I didn't start off here. I started with my first solo trip to what might be the most fantastic ruin in all Chicagoland (not counting Gary). My trip there with a friend, a year to the day earlier, was incredible. (It's in the archives. Not a story, though; I still haven't written the story from last year; both trips merit their own post, later.)

After more than two glorious hours there, I biked to another nearby spot...well, I couldn't find it. I'd never been in. Then I biked to find a place I'd only briefly explored after discovering in the spring. Went the wrong way, couldn't find it either.

But this site was there, if missing at least one building. As is common for a new place, I went in a more difficult way and found the easy way later. It was all easy, except for the building sealed up for asbestos abatement. I could have gotten in but decided to take those signs seriously this time.

I still had plenty to see, even if much of it was emptied of anything but a few signs, pieces of equipment, and yes, chairs.

I walked through all of two low industrial buildings, one much bigger, and by then, giving off a beautiful late-afternoon glow.

As with most exploration spots I've seen this one in other's photos. But I didn't study them before I went, I wanted the place to be somewhat fresh.

Of course, now a lot of it's missing or less accessible, and I wonder if that's where all the stuff (the research labs) were, and if I should have tried the abatement building, or if it'd been cleared of anything intriguing anyway.

Rubble + nature = another cliche of Katherine's photos!

And factory windows, factory windows...I did what I could with the back buildings and figured I'd better try the main one before it got dark.

This beautiful stairway awaits at the main entrance (seen in the first vertical photo). I didn't do much on the first floor because of debris blockage. So I went up and zipped through the second and third floors of this enormous building, stopping where it met the sealed-for-abatement adjoining building.

One part is extremely open to the major street in front. The sign across the way says "Outreach Plaza." Outreach Plaza and signs for new condos viewed from this rubble--a little too perfect, another cliche of Katherine's photos!

I had more trouble than I anticipated getting down from the third floor, making a dozen or so unnecessary jaunts down this hall or that, wondering where the stairway had gone. I think I handled being alone in a very ruined building I'd never visited before, in an impoverished suburb, as it was getting dark, and I only had a small flashlight, with aplomb, or at least a minimum of panic. (And why is this quality never mentioned in personal ads instead of tedious requests for a woman who's equally comfortable in jeans and a party dress?) Oh, past that door at an angle, there's the stairs. I got out quickly, so exhausted, yet ready for more, I left my bike locked outside that Metra station to come back the next day.