265/365 - Cobra

April 22, 2014.  The Cobra Lounge is a place I enjoy playing, and where I enjoy seeing shows, and it's just a couple of blocks from our rehearsal space, which makes it a convenient place to spend time on practice days. Sometimes I stop in before band practice for some food, and sometimes the band goes there afterward. Tonight was an after practice visit, and the scene was pretty quiet, as evidenced above.

264/365 - Jumper (?)

April 21, 2014.  This morning, as I came over the bridge on Kinzie Street behind the Sun-Times building, I saw a disturbance of some sort. A cyclist on the north side of the street was pointing out where she saw a man fall or jump from - a man whose body was partially in the bike lane I was riding in. A fire truck had arrived, and the feet of one of its occupants can be seen on the left side of the frame going to the body. An ambulance was coming up Kinzie, and people were beginning to gather. I took a couple of half-hearted hipshots while riding (thus the blur and bad aim), and carried on past the scene and to work. I am, after all, neither a photojournalist nor a disciple of Weegee. Despite not really wanting photos of the scene, I really fought myself for the next few blocks on whether to turn around and document it. It is an opportunity I'm fine with having missed, and I hope the grief of those he left behind is not too painful. If he survived, I hope his injuries can be overcome.

263/365 - Self

April 20, 2014.  It was a really beautiful day, which I planned to spend outdoors, primarily at the lakefront. I learned, however, that I am not enough motivation for myself to leave my apartment. If I'm not expected to be somewhere, I will apparently stay home indefinitely. At least I have a balcony.

262/365 - Yashica-A

April 19, 2014.  Often, when I shoot film these days, it's with this camera. I have a few 35mm cameras that need a repair or a cleanup (or a lens), so they don't really get the opportunity to be used. That's cool, though, because I love this camera when I can get it focused. It has a dark, grainy viewfinder, so that is a real issue for me, but it can be quite nice. You can see a few shots made with this camera by clicking here.

261/365 - Aki

April 18, 2014.  Squared Off began shooting a video with scenes at the apartment Hoser and I share. This is the director, Aki Uenami who had Hoser in his boxers and me eating and throwing cereal around. We have a few more shooting dates over the next few weeks, but I'm excited to see the final result. Anyone interested in helping to fill LiveWire Lounge during the bar and live scenes, please come out April 27th at 7:00 to 3394 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago.

260/365 - Cello Practice

April 17, 2014.  My lunch break wandering had me at the Stolti Garden of Grant Park, just south of the Art Institute and near Symphony Center. I find the interaction between people and figures in Steinunn Thorarinsdottir's piece "Borders" to be interesting, sometimes in the way people ignore the figures, and sometimes in the way they lean on them or lie on them.

259/365 - Wacker Crosswalk

April 16, 2014.  Here are two of the many people I see at the end of a workday as I bike home from downtown Chicago each day. This is a fairly picturesque intersection at Dearborn and Wacker, and I sometimes think of staying there and shooting for a bit longer than one cycle of the traffic signal.

258/365 - Chase

April 15, 2014.  This isn't actually a chase, but a woman walking to the L station and a man running by me in the same direction. It does look like it could be a bit ominous with the proper imagination, though.

257/365 - April Snow

April 14, 2014.  "Sometimes it snows in April," said Prince. That's probably truer in Minnesota than it is here in Chicago, but it definitely still snows in April here. Yes, just two days previously, I was finally riding my bike to and from work in shorts and a t-shirt and sweating. I photographed a nude model on my balcony as it got dark, and it wasn't too chilly. There were so many people on the street in Wicker Park in the afternoon - this street, actually - I was trying to find corroborating evidence of a street festival. And, yes, today it started snowing again.

256/365 - Rooftop

April 13, 2014.  I spent the rainy day indoors, mostly editing photos from the previous day with Roarie. I tried to get a photo of the rings in the puddles on my balcony but didn't really get anything good. I don't find this particularly good, but I'm going with it. It's the roof across the street from me, seen from the window next to my desk.

255/365 - Playing With Fire

April 12, 2014.  The warmest day yet meant my first chance to use my balcony for photos (excluding the night my friend Tara used it with ankle-deep snow), and model Roarie Yum rocked it. As we were on our way out there, a firetruck actually pulled up, siren blaring and lights on. I saved the sparklers until they left.

254/365 - Ollie Van Buren

April 11, 2014.  My ISO setting was appropriate when I was on the sunny side of the street, but a bit low when I was walking down Van Buren in the shade with a trio of skaters coming at me. I shot anyway, and despite the blur from slow shutter speeds, this photo is alright with me.

253/365 - Golden

April 10, 2014.  Fabulous Ladies of Fitness threw a party that celebrated both the Golden Girls and the Golden Age of Hip Hop. It was pretty fabulous, and I should have some great photos, but it was about as bad a time as I've had shooting, and I have a very small handful of images. Between equipment, gravity, and a mood I couldn't overcome the results are awful for me as a photographer. It was fun, though, for other people.

252/365 - Halftime Show

April 9, 2014.  OK, we've had a few warmish days in a row, and I really believe that spring will happen at last.  Today after work I went immediately to the lakefront and spent time shooting at some of the beaches. At North Avenue Beach, I met Jenny and her dog before they laid down for a rest overlooking the city and Lake Michigan.

251/365 - Over The River

April 8, 2014.  After work, I shared part of my ride home with Blake. We cruised up the two-lane Dearborn Street Cycle Path (side by side when there was no other traffic on the path) and enjoyed the cool spring weather. Here we are crossing the Chicago River, with Marina City and much more of downtown Chicago in the background.

250/365 - Bloomingdale Trail

April 7, 2014.  This is the viaduct at Bloomingdale and Leavitt in the midst of transformation of the elevated rail line into a park. The elevated park will run for several miles and feature cycling and pedestrian/running paths as well as park areas at street level where access points will be.

249/365 - Test Ride

April 6, 2014.  Sunday morning I rode over to Roscoe Village to attend a Cargo Bike Roll Call, an opportunity for people who own cargo bikes, as well as commuter bikes and touring bikes, to meet up and to show bikes to other people who might be interested in getting one for their own. I rode a couple of bikes and found that I could probably enjoy carrying large loads or other people via bicycle.

248/365 - Griddle

April 5, 2014.  Saturday held some great photo opportunities for me, but I didn't have enough money to go out. I did have some pancake mix and some MorningStar Farms sausage, though. Three cheers for breakfast! Once again, I've missed the Chicago Outfit Roller Derby spaghetti wrestling, and I'm kind of sad about that.

247/365 - Krank Daddies

April 4, 2014.  Squared Off played at Liar's Club with Teenage Schizoid and Krank Daddies. It was a really fun night and Krank Daddies turned it out with a lot of energy (and a couple of Kiss covers for Herb). Teenage Schizoid played their second show with a new guitarist, and we played our fourth with Larry on guitar. Next up for Squared Off is a video shoot, and continued work on a new LP.

246/365 - Bad Posture

April 3, 2014.  This is a photo taken while I was standing outside downtown after eating lunch. I will concede that he may have just been cold, but I prefer to think of this as the natural posture of this fellow, hunched and closing in on himself, fearful of the world around him. I also decided he's an art student, not uncommon in the area, and this insecurity may just lead to some brilliant art, right?

245/365 - Night Biking

I was thinking it had been a nice night for a bike ride home from work, but then I remembered that it was kind of cold, and the wind made for a physical challenge. Still, I think it was a nice ride, even though the traffic was heavy and occasionally inconsiderate. Even though some guy, also biking, insisted on shoaling every time I found myself sitting at a light - cruising up in front of everyone at the light, including the guy (me) that passes him as soon as there's room to maneuver after every light. Every light, from Kinzie and Milwaukee to Milwaukee and California. At least he stopped when he got in front, though. Some people roll up in front of you and trackstand until they're clear. But they don't stand. They zigzag (not quite) in place so you're not really clear to go around them on either side, and they might not ever be clear to go, because Chicago traffic is nonstop. If you're me, you go around them when the light changes anyway, between two cars and they yelp because they didn't know anyone was on the road with them, and they're startled and might fall into that taxi (or streetsweeper or cement truck or Audi). Still, it was a nice ride. I only had one person standing in the Dearborn bike path, and I didn't even have to yell at her. I shook my head as I was approaching, and she saw me before I got too close and went back onto the sidewalk. Marvelous! To clarify, that was only one on the way home, not one all day. Going to work there were a few, and I did get to use words. There are always a few, I think. You know what? It was a nice night for a ride.

244/365 - Cold Again

April 1, 2014.  It may have been a cruel joke, but it is April Fool's Day, after all. Yesterday was so warm and beautiful. Today looked nice, but my ride to work was barely above freezing and the wind was something to wrestle with even into the night. I did say in a previous post that I'd believe spring had actually arrived when we got two warm days in a row. I'm still waiting for that, even though I see lots of other signs that spring is upon us.