I Hate Shooting Santa

Because I Can, LV

Because I Can, XL

Laughing Yoga

This is Jeremy Chapman, laughing yoga instructor, and head of the Chicago Laughmore Club (I think that's the name, but as with all organizations like this, it's a little loose and hard to get a handle on some basics.) They meet every once and a while, and laugh. No purpose, no point, except the physical, mental and emotional health benefits of laughter. Yes, I'm going to go back and just do this instead of covering hopefully in the future.


Special thanks to my cuz Jackie who spotted this one while she was visiting Chicago. I, alas, totally walked by it without even noting it. I've become too hardened to seeing the strange of this universe.

Because I Can, XXXIV

Dancing in the Park

The city had going on today, and again on Wednesday, some dancing in Millennium Park. I didn't get to stick around as long as I would've liked, but hey, whatever. Got an okay image or two, and I always love good break dancing.

If you want to see it it will be happening again on Wednesday from 4-6pm, starts at Crown Fountain (the spitting fountains on Michigan Ave.) and works around the park from there.

Another Day on the Job, II

This is what I wore to work Saturday night. Note the always sexy fanny pack. It's hot, oh yeah baby, hot. Also, the farmer's tan, it's hard work to get that strong of a farmer's tan.


More images from this event will follow...when I have time.

Just Checking Another Item Off the List

This quote is from the coordinator of an event I'm trying to cover this weekend. He is giving me advice on how to successfully cover the event and do so in a way respectful to those participating.

"wear few if any clothes (seriously)"

Now...I don't know what to say here. Someday I'm going to have seen it all, done it all. Being asked to strip for work, that's a new one for me. And not all that nice to those around me (time to take on those body image issues). Do what you got to do I guess.

Anyone know where to get some Marvin the Martian boxer briefs in Chicago? And a fedora? Seriously.

Urban Golf

So, as I've already established, Monday was just incredible, on so many levels. Well, not to rub it in, but this was Sunday.

Sunday started at the loving time of 5:30am, for leaving the house at least. I spent from about 6am till 10am covering Bike the Drive, the annual closing of Lake Shore Drive so that bicyclists can takeover and enjoy it. It was harder to photograph than I expected, but I got a couple of okay images out of it. Suffice it to say, it got covered.

Later in the day was urban golf, through Cudgel. Basically the idea behind urban golf is you get a golf club, a tennis ball, a series of alleys, dress like a 70s golf rock-star hero, and drink your way through the course. It's a good time, it's utterly, and totally ridiculous, hence good time. So I got to spend a few hours hanging out with some awesome people, who were fabulously dressed ("I want to look very meticulously terrible.")

I also decided, that besides wanting to cover this again in the future, when I do so, I'm playing next time. It's not so rushed that I can't, and hell, my journalism has to get more gonzo. (If you don't know what Gonzo-journalism is, first and foremost I hope you aren't a journalist, if you are a journalist and don't know that term I'm kicking your ass. The wikipedia entry is pretty good. I tend towards being a bit more factually accurate, but the whole getting into the middle of events thing I'm all into. While I may be an observer of life more than a participator, I'm at least going to observe from pointblank range. I believe that I can only truly portray a situation if I feel a situation which means being absorbed by the situation which done by being totally and wholly in a situation. Got it?) I need to be more gonzo. I'm doing better, but I must get more involved, almost every image I'm happy-ish with comes from a situation I'm totally absorbed by and in.

Live and learn.

(and the dork in the yellow, is the reporter I was working with. For a reporter (which sets the bar pretty low) he's pretty good all around.)

Because I Can, XX

Because I Can, XIX

Because I Can, XVIII

Mapplethorpe

You can say many things about Mapplethorpe, and personally there is much of his work I don't think is artistically all that impressive. On the other hand, there is much of his work that I that I think is spectacular. The man could make a print that would make your mouth water just on the pure technical qualities. Don't believe me? See some of them, then see if you disagree with me.

And if you think Mapplethorpe was only pictures of gay men, well, there are plenty of those, but his body of work is much more diverse and impressive than just the images that pissed off conservative Senators.

At the same event I got to view many Mapplethorpes, Artopolis, a gathering of hundreds of the worlds high end galleries, I also got to see some Salgados, Warhols, Greenburgs, some of the best and worst of modern art, "Ohhh....look....another painting in a single solid color, how innovative!!!" There seems to be something of an interesting movement to get 2d art to reflect and incorporate 3d art. Interesting trend.

An inspiring day.

Brains

My Unbiased Opinion

As a journalist, I am fair and unbiased. (Actually, I pretty much am, weird huh?)

I ain't saying I don't have a point of view on things though. This might not see publication, haven't decided yet. It's funny for me. Don't like it? I don't bother to moderate the comments, so have fun. And he full well knew what I was doing.

Plus, you got to admit, this is just so wonderfully, ridiculously over the top, how could I possibly pass this up? (Got to admire his make-up.)

Because I Can, XI

I'm going to see about working on a new series of images. As with all new series', it will probably fall by the wayside, but for right now, I want to see where it goes.

I want to explore the relationship between the solo and pair (maybe even group). As in the solo person, and the pair dynamic. Or put simply, and bluntly, between being single, and being in a relationship. Not all the images will be that simple, but that's the genesis idea.

This is from a Zombie Pub Crawl I covered this weekend (more images to follow). The first bar was packed, way packed. Evelyn was sitting on her friend Kathy. There was a large group in a circle, talking, chatting it up, the usual. Evelyn would flirt with her boy, on the left in the frame, kiss him, whatever.

Kathy seemed to be enjoying herself, though not nearly as engaged in the conversation as the others. I enjoyed watching her reactions. In this case, the group was toasting something, probably Brains. They were Zombies, everything was about Brains. Kathy did her own thing.

Because I Can, X

7 Days, This is 7 Days

Alright, this is to help give you an idea of what 7 days in my life looks like. This doesn't cover it all, there are some images I'd like to have in here which are missing, just no time to work on them, others have already been posted. There are, of course, things I did, very happy events, which I enjoyed, didn't document. But this is 7 days, from Friday, March 28th till Thursday, April 3rd.

The theme of my seven days was awesome people.

This includes some former residents of the Henry Horner CHA projects. They had a great conversation, which I was minimally part of, about the past. Basically, the past is the past, we've made our mistakes, it's where are we going, who are we now. It's one thing for me to say this, it's another to hear this from a man who's done some time. It's also always fun to hear stories about the projects, and how wonderful they were, how much fun, how strong of community there was. It's so easy to see what we want to see, or what was most recent, to forget that there is so much more there, there once was so much more there, if we just sit down and listen. Stories about kids growing up, and parents having to sneak out to have a drink because they couldn't be seen drinking in front of their kids. Doors left unlocked because it was community. Kids goofing off, and while going up the stars getting a whoppin' from adult after adult for their misbehavior, till they got home, the parent thanked all their neighbors for whoppin' their kid and then gave em' a whoppin' themselves. The kids learned quick, communities are wonderful things.

Lloyd Bradbury, a blind painter. He can see just a few inches out of one eye. He's happy, a kind of sarcastic in a fun humorous way, funny, intelligent, and a pretty decent painter. We had a good talk about how art has to come from what the artist feels. He's good people, good people, and someone who I look forward to talking to again.

Otherwise, a week of good friends, good to awesome talks, some really hard stuff, really hard. I hate watching bad things happen to really good people, but it does, and it sucks, I wish I could protect my friends, but alas....

Other more random photos:

The man with the bat is Ernie Banks. Not to exciting the PR shot essentially, but cool, because it was Ernie Banks, not to mention Hank Aaron was there, we just goes to neat'o in my book.

The building is the Chicago Cultural Center, and it's Escher like nature. I'd been meaning to shoot that space for a while, and I've still got a lot of exploring of it to do, but it was fun to spend some time there before having dinner with a friend.

The play was something I shot as a job for a buddy of mine. The usual theatre stuff.