395/365 - A South Side Skin Welcome

August 30, 2014.  Squared Off had a show on the South Side at last, playing An Seanachi in Blue Island with locals Fighting For Scraps, and Rockford's Court Street. It was certainly a raucous affair, and Fear City Skins made it a lot of fun, even if we did disappoint at least one by not playing "Safety Dance." Dave Simon of Deal's Gone Bad, Anger, and The Crombies showed up and received this warm, exceptionally physical welcome. He survived, and was last seen seeking a ride back to the North Side (we had absolutely no space with gear, merch, and bodies).

394/365 - La Fashionista

August 29, 2014.  Sensible shoes and all that. Speaking of sensible, I took advantage of the sale at Macy's and bought a hand-vac and a nice 1-1/2 quart saucepan.

393/365 - Street Drummers

August 28, 2014.  The drummer with the makeshift kit and the Ludwig Supraphonic snare is often at the corner of Adams and Wabash near my job. He's quite good and that snare sounds great. I've often wanted to stop and photograph him, but not without throwing a couple of bucks in his bucket. Today, he was with another drummer that I've seen in the subway several times, and in the same spot yesterday with a sax player playing "Fantasy," by Earth, Wind, and Fire. They were just killing it, and I had to stop and take photos (and drop some bills). The drummer on the right also appears in one of my Subway Metal photos - Day 82, actually. And of course, "Remember The Alamo!"

392/365 - Saint Hyacinth

August 27, 2014.  The light of the setting sun looked quite nice on Saint Hyacinth Basilica as I was on my way home, so I rode over and took a few photos. I would have liked my photo of the day to be from the parade for Jackie Robinson West, the baseball team who were US champions and played in the Little League World Series championship game. It went very near my work and ended with a celebration in Grant Park just a couple of blocks from me, but we had lunch service coming up and all had to stay in the kitchen. I did end up feeding people that had been there, though.

391/365 - National Dog Day

August 26, 2014.  I had no idea that there is a National Dog Day until Instagram and Facebook let me know. I actually saw far more dogs out this evening than usual, too.  I saw them getting walked as I rode my bike. I saw them at almost every restaurant that has sidewalk seating that I passed. They do make the best of friends, and it would be nice if there were one for me to share National Dog Day with. For now I'll be happy with all the dogs out and about in Chicago.

390/365 - Getting Swayzed

August 25, 2014.  I had a show with my band Squared Off at Chicago's LiveWire Lounge with Brick Assassin and Teenage Schizoid.  Bishops Green, from Vancouver BC, was supposed to have played as well, but had to cancel their US tour after paperwork difficulty with US Customs. We made a lot of noise and had a lot of fun anyway. Here are Kevin and Jim from Brick Assassin enjoying the movie Roadhouse before the music started.

389/365 - Breakfast For Dinner

August 24, 2014.  It seemed like a pretty good eating day to me. In the morning (approximately), after a couple more episodes of the Simpsons and Rick and Morty, Martin and I went around the corner to get tamales for breakfast. After more Simpsons, a White Sox game, and the Little League World Championship game, I left to pick up some bike stuff, then treated myself to dinner - with breakfast. I had an omelet, potatoes, and cinnamon roll pancakes, and it was delicious.

388/365 - Birthday Selfie

August 23, 2014.  These are my friends Martin and Deena taking their own photo. We were at the Lagunitas Brewery Taproom celebrating Deena's birthday with food, beer, and a delicious cake made by the baker there. Afterward, the party continued at their place, where all three couches ended up with sleeping people, including myself. Two of us fell asleep watching some of the Simpsons episodes being aired in a week-and-a-half long marathon of every episode of The Simpsons (552, I believe). Party!

387/365 - Marisa Ayala

August 22, 2014.  Marisa Ayala performs at her first showing with Midnight Owl Collective. She told of her personal transformation with regard to vanity, the theme of the month, and showed paintings representing her previous self before performing a song on the same theme. There were several other participants in different media, and you can find more information on their facebook page.

386/365 - White People

August 21, 2014.  This is one of five groups of people clad in white that I saw making their way from Millennium Park to Wabash Avenue and then north. I assume it was for some sort of wedding fashion themed event. The people were not all white, though. Several members of several races were there. I just called them that because of their clothes.

385/365 - Shower

August 20, 2014.  I mentioned being hot and sticky in the photo "Fan," posted below. Having just done laundry, there was no way I was going to get into bed feeling like I did, so a shower was in order. And, well, I had not yet gotten a photo for the day. So, Hi!

384/365 - Lake Street

August 19, 2014.  This is Lake Street, near the rehearsal space Squared Off uses. I enjoy riding the streets that run beneath the L tracks. If the pavement were smoother, it would be a blast.

383/365 - An Inelegant Exit

August 18, 2014.  I suppose a number of people must drink excessively before and during baseball games. This one was well on her way early in the game and unable to climb the steps on her own by the time they left in the seventh or eighth inning. The game had already fallen apart for the White Sox, so she at least provided some entertainment for a few minutes.

382/365 - Fan

August 17, 2014.  Another Sunday with nothing going on. I would have caught the Chicago Air and Water Show, but I didn't feel too much like going, and it was cancelled anyway due to fog. It was a fairly cool day, too, which is why the fan isn't moving. As I write this, I'm really hot and sticky, and this fan is definitely on.

381/365 - Sox Sunset

August 16, 2014.  It was a beautiful evening for a ballgame, but it's a shame the Sox lost to the Blue Jays. After the game, there were delicious tacos at L'Patron and peanut butter pie from Bang Bang at Parts and Labor.

380/365 - What Time Is It?

August 15, 2014.  After a group of us ate dinner at Tara's house, I caught this photo of her absentmindedly stretching in her kitchen.  You can see a few of her clocks in this photo.

379/365 - Grad Dance

August 14, 2014.  Molly, a Fabulous Lady of Fitness, is now officially Nurse Molly. This month's Fabulous Ladies of Fitness party at Cole's Bar in Chicago was a celebration of her graduation as well as Mariah Carey. There was cake and dancing, and there were dozens of partiers decked out in their finest caps and gowns.

378/365 - Midway Monster

August 13, 2014.  Because of construction on my usual route home, I took a detour which led me to a carnival being assembled at Saint Hyacinth Basilica and school. I made a handful of photos of various rides before continuing home.

377/365 - Bar Doodle

August 12, 2014.  After rehearsal with Squared Off, we went to LiveWire Lounge, where our next show will be. We put up flyers and left handbills out. At least one of them quickly became sketch paper.

376/365 - Flowers Below

August 11, 2014.  I went out on my balcony to look at the sunset sky, full of storm clouds, and noticed some of my new neighbors' plants from above.

375/365 - So Sleepy

August 10, 2014.  I spent all of  Sunday at varying degrees of sleepiness or sleep. That's also true of the past hour or two.

374/365 - Creepy Neighbor

August 9, 2014.  If you've been home all day Saturday, you'll probably find yourself late at night making a trip to the store for ice cream. Maybe you wouldn't, but I likely would. That happened, and on my way down my street, this strange youngling sat on its stoop watching me walk past. I did not offer to share.

373/365 - Mush

August 8, 2014.  Mallory gets a smooch when Tara and I visited her working in Millennium Park.

372/365 - Other Uses

August 7, 2014.  Oblivious skater is just turning around after bikes go flying around him blocking the passing lane of the bike path. His headphones prevented him from hearing the warnings of the bikes approaching, much like several cyclists I run across daily, all far slower than I am (and other cyclists), and some unable to hold a straight line allowing safe passing.

371/365 - Unthink Long Walks

August 6, 2014.  The Art Institute of Chicago has a significant amount of advertising around town with the theme of "Unthink," seemingly in conjunction with their current Magritte exhibit. This installation is at Oak Street Beach, and is apparently quite climbable.

370/365 - Eamon

August 5, 2014.  Eamon slept soundly on the couch with me while I watched TV. This was in between bouts of sleeping on me.

369/365 - Shake

August 4, 2014.  We had an after-work get together with tacos and tequila, and here Josh mixes up some drinks.

368/365 - Mizz Amanda Marie

August 3, 2014.  The stunning Mizz Amanda Marie came over for a photoshoot this evening, and we seem to have gotten some good stuff. The rain stopped just before she arrived, and we got to go out on the balcony, where she found a spot just outside of the puddle that covered most of the surface. Her hair is growing out from being bald, which is how she had it back in February when we last shot. (That was day 200).

367/365 - Brauer Haus From My Drums

August 2, 2014.  Squared Off was apparently broken up for a month, and are apparently a band again. We played one of the shows that had supposedly been cancelled with Death and Memphis and Nightcap at the Brauer Haus in Lombard, Illinois. Not only is it fun to play there, but they give us a delicious pizza from their kitchen. Now that I've thought about it, I'm hungry all over again.

366/365 - Infinite Possibilities

August 1, 2014.  It's the first daily photo after completing a year of it, and I'm back to color. Today was the first day of Lollapalooza, taking place very near my work, and the streets were swarming with festival-goers. Here are a few of them headed toward Grant Park mixed in with the Loop's working people and their umbrellas at the beginning of a short rainstorm.

365/365 - The Girl With The Alpaca Bicycle

July 31, 2014.  I've completed another 365-day project. Maybe I should have had a preconceived photo to mark the occasion, but I just didn't do it that way. I did encounter this lovely woman on a bike covered in luxurious white fur. I'm going to continue with a photo a day, and will continue to count based on the same 365. I haven't decided whether to continue the same count until I stop, or to make January 1 the beginning of a new 365. In any case, August 1 will be 366 of 365, and I'll bring back the color to separate the year's photos.

364/365 - Body Art

July 30, 2014.  I didn't get much in the way of photographs, but I did get this one of a girl drawing all over her legs sitting on a Michigan Avenue sidewalk. She chose a light blue and a purple, which gave the appearance of her doodling varicose veins on herself.