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.