Peace on Earth

December 1st Snow - Chicago - 2006

I like snow storms; that is, I like them when viewed from a window with a cup of coffee in hand. "Snow was general, all over" Chicago.

Agora - Chicago

Agora - Chicago
Originally uploaded by therese flanagan.

When you get a chance you have to stop by and see the new art installation at the south end of Grant Park. It's called Agora, and is comprised of 106 cast iron figures, pictured here, by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz.

I saw them the day after the exhibit was officially dedicated to the city. There were several people there, and I liked seeing some kids playing on them. I have mixed emotions about the figures. The fact that they're all of one color and configuration -- not to mention headless and armless -- is a bit strange. Walking through them is like walking through a forest of legs. Might remind you of being a kid.

Ice-skating, Chicago Style

It's that time again...time to wipe down those blades and hit the ice. And I'm afraid that if I go, that's exactly what will happen -- I'll hit the ice! I may do it anyway, but I think I'll wait until after Christmas and once cabin fever gets the best of me. In the interim, it's not bad to be a spectator. Plus, it's easier to sip hot chocolate when you're not standing in skates.

Joy

This shot was taken at Crown Fountain in Millennium Park back in May. I was just going through my photos when this one caught my eye.

First Snow of the Season - Chicago 2006

I'm still waiting for optimum autumn colors and it decided to snow yesterday! Snow, I tell you. I love it, but all in due time. It came in quickly and it melted just as fast.

I Remember Sky

What a storm we had last night! It lasted for at least four hours and came in two waves. First there was the lightning, which lasted for more than an hour, and then we had sheets of rain, making it impossible to see much. It quieted down and I thought it blew over, but then the second round came.

I left my tripod in Florida, so my shots are handheld and on the run.

Storm Sounds

For the first time that I can recall, the emergency sirens sounded last night during the storm that came through Chicago. The sound was eerie; the clouds were mesmerizing. Luckily, we didn't suffer any real damage. I have to come up with a better plan than just looking out the window taking photographs!

Blue Angels

The air show is this weekend. I'm out of town for another month, so I'll miss it this year. To watch these guys in action is amazing. The precision required over time strikes me as impossible to maintain, but they do it flawlessly. It's unnerving to watch them maneuver through a city. They're fun to watch, but I'd give it up for a day of peace in the world.

Ceres - The Chicago Board of Trade Building

Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain, atop the Chicago Board of Trade Building. This sculpture was created by John H. Storrs; I added the light-work in photoshop.

The Chicago Board of Trade Building

I love the look of this building -- it's art deco style, topped off with a statue of the Roman goddess, Ceres, the goddess of agriculture. The Chicago Board of Trade building crowns the end of a long canyon of office buildings on LaSalle Street, where it meets West Jackson Boulevard; it's perfectly situated.

Memories of a Cool Chicago Night

When I'm away from Chicago for any length of time there are certain photos that I have taken that bring me back home again. This is one of those shots for me. It was taken from the ladies' room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock. The skyline from that height is just fantastic. When you visit Chicago, you have to go have a look for yourself. Not the ladies' room, necessarily, but the lounge will do just as well.

It's sweltering in Chicago right now. That's why I chose a night shot, taken in November, to remind you that cool nights will be yours again. Then there will be the cold weather to complain about.

Lightning

The storm blew in over the city and there was a lot of lightning. I grabbed my camera, thought I had the right settings, and started shooting. I didn't have the right shutter speed, and this was hand held, so the result is less than stellar, but I still like it.

Fog

Carl Sandburg 1878-1967

Chicago Poems 1916

FOG

THE FOG comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.


Yesterday, Mother's Day, Chicago had a high probability of rain. The rain stayed away, but the fog rolled in. The John Hancock building, and much of the city, was enveloped in a thick fog for most of the day. As I looked out my window, Carl Sandburg came to mind. I read some of his Chicago Poems in anthologies while in school. Anyone who lives in Chicago has heard of the city referred to as the "city of the big shoulders," a line from his poem, Chicago :

CHICAGO

HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

He went on to write Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, and he received a Pulitzer Prize for the work. Some additional information about Sandburg's life can be found here.

Buckingham Fountain

One of the sure signs of spring in Chicago is when Buckingham Fountain is up and running. The fountain, one of the largest in the world, has been a part of Chicago since 1927 when Kate Buckingham dedicated it to the residents of Chicago in memory of her brother, Clarence.

The Chicago Park District site lists all of the particulars about the fountain. From that site, the following:

• The water displays are powered by three pumps:
  
  - Pump 3: 75 horsepowers for 1,600 gallons of water a minute.
  - Pump 2: 190 horsepowers for 5,500 gallons of water a minute.
  - Pump 1: 250 horsepowers for 7,000 gallons of water a minute.
  
  
• The fountain has 134 jets in the following configurations:
  
  - 36 jets point upwards from the top basin, including a central jet to produce a 150-foot geyser.
  - 34 jets at the consoles.
  - 12 jets in the upper trough that arc into the top bowl.
  - 12 jets in the inner trough that arc into the upper trough.
  - 12 jets in the lower trough that arc into the inner trough.
  - 8 jets spout from the sea horses' mouths.
  - 20 isolated jets.
  
  
• The fountain's water capacity is 1.5 million gallons. Depending on wind conditions, major displays use approximately 14,100 gallons of water per minute conveyed through 134 jets. Water is re-circulated from the base pool after the basins are filled and not drawn from the outside except to replace losses from wind and evaporation.

The Essential Chicago

Chicago's skyline seeps into your soul. I especially like the mix of architectural styles and building ages, which gives the building landscape a geological dimension. Chicago's skyline is ever changing and sometimes I find the rapidity of the changes to be worrisome. What building mix comprises the essential Chicago?

I look out my window and watch as the luxury condo development rises in the spot where the Dr. Scholls' School once stood. To my eye, the school was housed in a magnificent old brick building, that had a center structure with four wings, that looked, from above, like a star. I watched as it was torn down, brick by brick, to make room for the new. I know enough about real estate to understand how these things happen, but it saddens me, nonetheless. It also got me thinking about how much of the city and its past is tied to these buildings. Once these buildings are gone, what effect, if any, does it have on the city? Is there a ratio of new to old that keeps a city in balance? I don't have answers, just questions.

Bughouse Square

This is Washington Square Park, also known as Bughouse Square. The land for the park was donated to the city in 1842, making it one the oldest parks in Chicago. It was a favorite among soapbox orators in the early 1900's. In These Times featured an article detailing the early history of Bughouse Square, and how it became the locus of free speech in the city.

If you walk around the perimeter of the park, you'll see the Newberry Library, the Scottish Rite Cathedral, and as you walk a bit south on Dearborn you'll notice a cluster of masonry buildings that represent the largest group of dwellings still in existence built by some of Chicago's wealthy citizens in the immediate aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

IBM Building - Mies van der Rohe

I took this shot right after they tore down the Sun-Times Building and just as they were laying the groundwork for the new Trump condos that will be built on the site. So, for a few weeks, we were able to see Mies van der Rohe's IBM Building without any blockage whatsoever. It looks, to me, like one of the tablets from '2001 - A Space Odyssey.' I know I'll miss this way of viewing the building before it is dwarfed by the new.

This was to be Mies van der Rohe's last building designed in the USA. You might want to check out the website archiseek for more information.

on hearing of Jane Jacobs' death

I decided, a while back, to break the routine and take a different route on my walks, even if my destination was to be the same. It keeps my eyes fresh. One thing about a city is that you get used to certain landmarks, and from seeing them in certain ways. After some time, you're not seeing them at all. I'm pretty familiar with the John Hancock Building, so it was interesting for me to view it at this angle, layered with the older castle like building in the forefront, as I walked north on Clark. This sort of surprise comes with great frequency, once you decide to start looking around.

I read of Jane Jacobs' death in the New York Times. She wrote a book called, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," that made quite an impact at the time it was published and it is still highly regarded. From the excerpts I've read, she analyzes how cities work at a very human level. It sounds interesting to me, and I'm surprised I haven't read it yet. I've got it on my list of books for my next library visit. If anyone has read it and would care to comment, I'd love to hear your impression of her work.

Chicago Harbor Lighthouse

Built in 1893, the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse sits at the northern breakwater. It used to sit at the mouth of the Chicago River, but it was moved to its current location in 1919. You see a structure like this and you can't help but think about the history of lighthouses. PBS had a special back in the late nineties that featured America's lighthouses (PBS). It was there that I found out that the first lighthouses were mere bonfires on the shore, and the light from those fires would guide the ships safely to land. Then came the structures, and oil lamps, and still the need of people to tend the protective light. Eventually, electricity made the need for the light tender unneccessary. But the lighthouses still grab our attention. There is a great effort, worldwide, to restore and maintain these structures, if only as historical artifacts.

Old Colony Building

The open lakefront gives the city of Chicago its distinctive border to the east. The lakefront places Chicago on the map; it's the reason the city was founded here. The city's architecture gives it its style. Chicago gave the world its first skyscraper in 1885, a building supported by steel frame. It was the Home Insurance Building.

The Home Insurance Building was the world's tallest building for five years, and with that possibility, cities began to scale upward. I've always loved the architectural details on the Old Colony Building that I've photographed here. I love the rounded windows and the stone. This is an early example of what became known as the Chicago Style building. It was completed around 1894, designed by the architectural firm of Holabird and Roche. It's a designated landmark. Some more information can be found at The Chief Engineer.

The King

Lincoln Park Zoo is located within walking distance of my apartment. Its proximity means that I go there often; it marks the midway point of a good walk. Lincoln Park Zoo is open year round and is free. Lincoln Park Zoo

The zoo was founded in 1868, making it one of the nation's oldest zoos, but it's also one of the most modern. I always enjoyed going to the zoo when I was a child, but now I have a great deal of ambivalence about caging wild animals. My gut response, from observation, is that I think it's a bad idea. It's just painful to watch an animal, like a polar bear, reduced to levels of boredom that are manifested in repititous bodily movements. Even a state of the art containment pen can't provide what the natural habitat for these animals provides for them.

The argument in favor of zoos would point out the educational possibilities the wild animals provide to a public eager to view them. Since the 60s there has been more of an environmental awareness, and with that awareness came a movement against zoos. Zoo keepers have responded by becoming more environmentally aware themselves and now argue a conservation stance, that they provide a haven, or oasis, for the animals and save them from the ravages of a planet that is facing overpopulation, pollution, and destruction of natural habitat. They may have a point; a self-fulfilling human point, but a point, nonetheless.

I started wondering about the history of zoos. Who was the first person who had the impulse to keep a wild animal and attempt to take care of it? I look at the lions and tigers (okay, and bears, oh my!) and can't help but wonder why anyone would want to spend their days keeping these animals penned up. For a brief look at the history of zoos I recommend this site:
A Brief History of Zoos

Thunder and Lightning

I've fallen in love with photography in the last few years. I think I have a lot of company. Digital cameras definitely made the difference for me. To be able to do some post-processing on a computer, rather than working in a darkroom, really opened up a new world for me; I couldn't take the chemical odors of the darkroom. There's also the instant feedback with the digital camera, and I really like the possibilities of expression using photoshop.

The digital camera makers seem to have adopted the same pattern as computer makers. You buy a camera and within twelve months, something offering more features is available for about the same amount of money that you spent on the old camera. I'm trying to ignore those desires to upgrade, just as I do with computers, though I love looking at what's new.

I took this photo using a Nikon D70s, with the new lens they have, the 18-200mm with image stabilization. I was surprised and delighted to be able to get the lightning, after many misses, but doing it all hand-held.

John Hancock

This shot was taken from the top of the John Hancock Building, which is located on Michigan Avenue, and it's taken facing north. The John Hancock has an observation deck on the top floor. It's well worth the price of admission, which is about $10.00 for adults and $6.00 for children. You can even purchase your tickets in advance, on-line, and avoid the wait in the ticket lines. (The John Hancock Observatory)

Every August, Chicago hosts an air show and the Hancock provides a good perch to watch the Blue Angels performing their maneuvers. You'll see some residual exhaust in this shot from the jets that just flew by. You'll also notice the speckled sand, people dots! It gives you an idea of the beachfront area I was telling you about in my last post. The air show draws over a million people up and down the waterfront.

I'm always amazed by Chicago's ability to absorb a million people for an event and still function. I can't even pull off a dinner for two without complications.

Lakefront

If you're new to Chicago, one of the first things you'll notice about the city is the lakefront, and the thing that is most striking about it is that it's a great, open expanse. By design, the majority of Chicago's prime real estate along the lake is designated to remain as public land, forever open and free from private development. Much of that land, over the years, has been transformed into sandy beachfront and walkways. On any given day of the year, you'll find Chicagoans, or its many visitors, out jogging, bicycle riding, or strolling along the lake's edge.

Living in Chicago, that space along the lake becomes part of your backyard, the mental landscape of what you think of as your city. I think that single fact, the foresight the city's founders had in keeping that land as a park for all of its citizens, makes Chicago a jewel.

If you'd like some more information about the lakefront and the many recreational activities offered there, here's a link to the Chicago Park District

Chicago Scenes

I love Chicago. I don't know if you can have a love affair with a city, but I seem to be having one. This will be a photo journal of my wanderings around Chicago. Through my photos and writing, perhaps I'll be able to convey the reasons for my affection.