Day 7 - Curbside Eats

Day 7 - Curbside Eats, originally uploaded by Mikey Brick.

Day 7 could have had a photo of my doctor during a physical, or a gangster I met in the park, but I missed those opportunities as well as a girl pulling a massive pile of tree branches out of her car on Milwaukee Avenue. Being hesitant with the camera does me no favors, but I got this instead.

Day 6 - Big Baby

Day 6 - Big Baby, originally uploaded by Mikey Brick.

Yep, a big, creepy baby. I wonder how many times I'm going to use a photo of street art in my 365, which makes me think I should have used the photo of caprese salad i took at Santullo's that night. I think this is one of my good street art photos, though, so I'm sticking with it. The artist responsible for these babies was previously plastering a Bananaman throughout the city.

Day 5 - Michiganders

Day 5 - Michiganders, originally uploaded by Mikey Brick.

For the second year in a row, Labor Day proved to be the end of summer in Chicago. These two came from Michigan hoping for some beach time, which they haven't had on previous visits. The weather didn't work out for that, but it was a really beautiful day despite being chilly and very windy. I saw the sky when I got out of work (Labor Day is the day that everybody in the US goes to work and declares a holiday, right?) and had to head for the lake to get some photos. The colors and the clouds were fantastic. The wind was pretty forceful, which resulted in crashing waves and sand everywhere. I'm still trying to get it out of my ears. I ended up with several photos that I'm quite happy with, including this one. The last gasps of warm weather are still to come, including one later this week, and I really am looking forward to it. Summer goes far too quickly now that I don't live in Texas.

Day 4 - BP

Day 4 - BP, originally uploaded by Mikey Brick.

My friend Bryan played at the North Coast Music Festival with of Montreal. This was taken in the green room at Cobra Lounge, Chicago, at an afterparty featuring his bandmate Kevin deejaying as well as a set from Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello.

Day 3 - Bubbly

Day 3 - Bubbly, originally uploaded by Mikey Brick.

Today we went to an "end of summer" party. It turns out our friends also wanted to announce to friends and family, who came from far and wide for the party, that they were recently civil-united. Cheers!

Day 2 - Piano Across America

Day 2 - Piano Across America, originally uploaded by Mikey Brick.

Today's project 365 post was quite unexpected. A thrift store in my neighborhood has a very well-endowed mannequin that is sometimes a bit provocatively dressed. This is accompanied by a disheveled appearance from the barely-on clothes to the messy wig which may not be on forward sometimes. I have opined that there may be an employee or volunteer doing it on purpose out of mischief, or there may be a sweet, somewhat batty older lady with little regard for detail or modesty keeping the mannequins dressed. In the early morning hours of day 2, I walked my dog by the shop window to discover that the mischievous prankster had given up on subtlety, or the batty lady really had other things on her mind. Busty Mannequin had the goods on full display, wearing a purple skirt and an open cardigan over her shoulders. Her hair looked like she had been rolling around a parachute and a pile of combat boots with one of the mannequins a few doors over at Belmont Army. She had on lovely earrings. Busty Mannequin has a very fair complexion, and I can now tell you, nipples of the most delicate shade of pink. Busty Mannequin was a shoo-in for Day 2 after upping the ante so high in her shouts for attention, but then I rode down Milwaukee Avenue on my way home from work. I looked to the sidewalk, where I heard piano playing, and what the heck did I see? Of course: a chihuahua with a sombrero atop a piano that has traveled 14000 miles so far entertaining people on the streets of the USA. Don't do anything crazy, Busty mannequin. Your day will come.

P.S. There's another shot in the comments section if you click through to the flickr page.

Day 1

Day 1, originally uploaded by Mikey Brick.

Today I'm beginning my third Project 365 - one photo a day for a full year. It's a somewhat difficult undertaking, even though I shoot nearly every single day anyway. Maybe this time will be a little easier since three friends began on the same day. My hope is that day 365's picture will be all four of us celebrating the completion of our projects. Two of us have done it before and are aware of how often we end up with mundane copout photos taken after 11:30 pm. Of those photos, it seems the obvious subjects to fall back on were our dogs and ourselves. Our averages for relying on those wasn't too bad, though - somewhere around ten (of our own) dogs per year and a dozen or so self portraits on average. I can't imagine doing this with a self portrait every day. My admiration goes to those who do it. I don't like to feel that I've used the same shot twice in my Project 365.

So here's the beginning - my bike with a new drivetrain after fifteen years, and riding great.