Carbon and Carbide

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Here is my favorite building in Chicago.

The front door.....





The north facade:





This is what the side of the awning on the north facade looks like:





This detail is over the building's name on the north facade:





More details. I don't know that I love all art deco, but I love this art deco.....







This one is from higher up -- and I think it is the best for showing the color of the building. Definitely greenish.




This one was auto-smartfixed by Photoshop Elements. The color isn't as good, but the decoration is nice and sharp.





More detail near the top of the building.





One of the things I love about this building is how different it looks in different light. You can really see that in this pic which shows a shadow across part of the top.



A sunny pic, and then a hazy/rainy one.







They don't build 'em like that anymore!



In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these Chicago posts, a link to the next one is here.

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The Harlot visits Ann Arbor

Today The Harlot visited Ann Arbor.

I only have a blog because I had to show off the cool buttons I designed for the Knitting Olympics (ok, and to show off my Olympic Socks, too!), so it is only fair that Stephanie feature prominently today.

Here she is, taking her obligatory pic of the crowd. Well, part of the crowd. She spoke in the Ann Arbor District Library's large meeting room, which only holds 130. Luckily the library building contains the school district's board's meeting room, with closed circuit tv, so the overflow crowd could be seated there (where it was cooler!) and they could see and hear almost all of it (a few technical difficulties at the beginning). I understand there were about 350 of us, all told, and I know people came from Indiana and Ohio as well as all over Michigan.





















She is, as everyone says, a very entertaining and funny speaker. She rolled beautifully with the interruptions as they tried to get her a mic that worked, never losing her train of thought for a moment. We know she has been on the road for a week -- her stamina is impressive!





















Here we see the Harlot paraphernalia (except the computer!). The Olympic Sweater rests in that humble bag. It is just as beautiful in person as you'd expect.



















I didn't take pictures of the crowd, or of the book-signing, which went on for nearly 2.5 hours. She was friendly and patient to the very end -- did I say her stamina is amazing? She still looked like this at the end (though I bet her hand won't recover for days!).

Come back any time, Stephanie! Michigan will turn out in force.





















And now the news you've all been waiting for -- the blue sock is underway again. See, Stephanie? Even without the Olympics you are a positive force.

The stripes are embroidery floss.

















I think I'm going to leave these ends hanging, not quite as long as this, but with half or three-quarters of an inch of ends, hanging........ Note excellent cupcake stitch marker, which I blogged before but am too braindead to find reference now. I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow.

Chicago Art Institute

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On my way to the Art Institute, I walked through Millenium Park again.








Here's the Carbon and Carbide building from Millenium Park:





The Art Institute has varied and extensive holdings of all sorts of wonderful things. I'm going to show you some of my favorites.

There are many miniature rooms. I love that you can look through from the main room to another room, or to a view of the outdoors in many of the rooms. To the left of the hutch with the dishes, you can see the bedroom.





This is my favorite of the dozens of rooms:





There are artifacts from all over the world. An Egyptian ram.



A Greek donkey. (He is a drinking vessel.)





Portrait of a Roman who lived in Egypt (found with his mummy).




A Mayan warrior.





A Chinese bottle.





A Japanese woodcarving.





An art museum presents some of the same obstacles to the photographer that are found at the zoo. Barriers, barriers, barriers and reflections. I couldn't get the angle I wanted, a fair amount of the time, because I had to avoid the worst of the reflections. Luckily I can photoshop things back to square, even when I was forced to shoot them from the side, or from underneath.

If you look at my "portrait" shot posted yesterday, you'll see two effects of reflection -- the light areas on the left, and a pretty clear image of moi on the right. I try to be conscious of everything in the frame when I'm taking pics. It's so easy to see only my intended subject, and miss "noise" like reflections, busy backgrounds, whatever. Even though I try, I often am too single-minded (single-eyed?) to notice things that will be (sometimes impossibly) distracting in my photo.

This comes up now, because the Cornells have glass on their fronts, so I did a lot of shifting around, trying to avoid the worst of the reflection.......

The Institute has a large collection of assemblages by Joseph Cornell. Cornell makes really good use of the "3-d-ness" of his objects -- look at how prominent the shadows are.....





Of course the Institute also has miles of paintings, including La Grande Jatte.

This is one of my favorites. It is by William Trost Richards, an artist whose work I wish I knew better. I love the way the water reflects the light not only from the sun, but also from the clouds.





This is perhaps the very first image of a comb-over mohawk.





Of course, as it is Chicago, there is a collection of architectural embellishments.

This one's for you, Mom. I think it's cool that the colored bits are iridescent.





In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these Chicago posts, a link to the next one is here.

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self-portrait as photographer

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Photo Friday's theme this week is "portrait."

Unintentional self-portrait, Thorne room, Chicago Art Institute.

The photographer is always present in a photograph, sometimes more visibly than others.

Click on the pic for a full-size version.


(While we're on the topic of portraits, check out my favorite portrait in the Art Institute. Love his comb-over mohawk.)






In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these Chicago posts, a link to the next one is here.

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architecture

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My third day in Chicago, I met one of my sister CorgiAid volunteers. We had worked together for years, but had never met in person. She grew up in Chicago, so meeting there was perfect. I was so glad we finally got to spend some time in the same place!

We took an architecture-focused boat trip. Unfortunately, the weather was not conducive to outdoor activities. It rained hard enough that sitting on top of the boat wasn't attractive. Worse, the river level was so high that it wasn't certain the boat could make it under the many bridges. This required going out on the lake, instead of upriver. Ok -- but there's a lock at the mouth of the river, so a good 10-15 minutes were wasted, each way, getting out and in.

Note corncob apartments on the right, and belvedere atop the building on the left.





Not all of the plants along the river were planted by people.





Chicago values its waterfront. There are new condos going up everywhere, beside the river, and anywhere in view of the lake.





Here is one of the many bridges over the river. They all open, so that sailboats with tall masts can get through. I guess, for a long time, they could get through whenever the fancy took them (imagine what that did to the traffic!). Now they have to make an appointment, and the briges only open on certain days.





You know there's a low ceiling when.......

(Note lock sliding from left to right behind the boat.)





Now you can see the lock, almost closed.





The tall dark building with two spikes on top is the Hancock building. It was written up in Life magazine when it was brand new. I remember a pic of someone lounging on the diagonal bracing which was inside their apartment....

Last time I was in Chicago, I went to the top of the Hancock building, and rode the Ferris wheel on Navy Pier.





And that was the last pic I took on the boat.

After a very nice lunch, some walking around led to Marshall Field's, a department store of the Old School. It is huge, and has some amazing architecture and decoration, including this stunning tiled barrel vault.





Another building in the same neighborhood has incredible metalwork all over the facade.









A very photogenic city!



That evening I had dinner with one of my high school friends. We had been in lots of classes together, over the years. It was great to have a chance to get caught up with her (and enjoy a lovely dinner -- my lunch and my dinner, both, that day, were delicious!).



In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these Chicago posts, a link to the next one is here.

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Chicago's Field Museum

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The Field Museum is currently hosting an exhibit of things from Tutankhamun's burial. Many of them have never been out of Egypt until now. There are some amazing items on display -- but unfortunately they won't allow pics.......

The Field does own ancient Egyptian things, and it's ok to photograph them. The collection includes a lot of vessels in gorgeous shapes, made from a wide variety of materials. I've never really understood alabaster (thinking of all those cheapie tourist-trap doodads), but the Egyptian vessels..... Very nice.





Of course, one of the most famous items in the Field Museum is Sue, the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton ever recovered. It's hard to get a decent pic of her, given busy backgrounds and all.





It's a very big museum, and has many different collections. There are shoes from around the world. There are what I think of as "natural history museum displays" of birds and mammals in "naturalistic habitats". There are displays of artifacts from all over the world (not just shoes....).

Here is a taste of the eclectic variety.....

This sash was made by a Hopi weaver.





The fringe is woven nearest the sash, then it bursts forth into wild stuffed balls, before subsiding into decorous plied yarn.





This cute little guy is Chinese.





There are bugs. (As with T. rex, I'm glad I only need to contemplate these at a distance!)





There are all sorts of rocks.





There are WAY more things than a person can possibly give attention to in a single day. I'm sure I haven't mentioned half of them. Go there. Spend at least a day.


I can't leave the museum without showing you this.

You know there are various souvenir-making machines, which you feed with quarters, and an object commemorating that particular place, is made just for you, right then. You know about the mashed pennies, for example. Well, when I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s, you used to see these things, too. You feed in your quarters, and the machine makes you a molded plastic ... dino, in this case.





The really amazing thing about this is that I still have the stego I got at the Field Museum, way back then. Of course I couldn't resist getting a new one. The wierdest thing is that they are identical -- except that the new one is smaller. They can't have been made with the same mold, but the new mold is *just* like the old one, bump for bump, wrinkle for wrinkle, plate for plate, except that it's smaller.

Sometimes you *can* go back to your childhood, if just for a minute. My bronze stego and my orange one are side by side on my kitchen shelf, old and new, then and now. A tiny bit of continuity in a changing world.





In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these Chicago posts, a link to the next one is here.

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