Hand in Hancock

Chicago and the John Hancock building

Paintings by Roger Brown 

Cartoonist, letterer, colorist

I must go see the original pages. Will I find any spots of white covering edits or mistakes? 

Doubtful.

Chris Ware at The Carl Hammer Gallery.

Chris Ware: master of memory and melancholy.

Some pig

P. came to Chicago on business. I met him at The Publican. I didn't wake up and think, "I'm gonna be bad today!" but these things happen.

The pig painting is enormous.  Several of these porcine cuties decorate the restaurant.

Ham as an appetizer

Perfect frites; crispy with a faint scent of bacon fat...

A waffle for dessert, because breakfast shouldn't be limited to the AM

Contrast

In 1949, Look magazine published a series of photos for a story titled, Chicago, City of Contrasts. 

The photographer, Stanley Kubrick, was 21 years old.

Tiny clues

Frances Glessner Lee

Frances Glessner Lee was born in 1878, the youngest child of a prominent Chicago family.  Like other wealthy girls of that time, she had a formal debut, toured Europe and married a proper husband. Her close friendship with her brother's Harvard classmate, Dr. George Burgess McGrath, changed the trajectory of her domestic, society life. He became a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, and chief medical examiner of Suffolk County, and piqued her interest in forensic science.

In the 1930's Frances Glessner Lee constructed a series of dioramas that illustrated her belief that crimes could be solved by scientific analysis of visual and material evidence. Her eighteen miniature scenes, The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, were used in lectures on crime scene investigation and as training material for police officers.

Goodbye World

To spend time with a globe is to wonder.

People and places, future and past, space and time.

A globe is a reservoir for all of this.

--from the Replogle website

Luther Replogle began creating globes with his wife in their Chicago apartment in 1930. The company grew, creating a wide range of globes from affordable tin to elaborate handcrafted models with mahogany bases that retailed for many thousands of dollars. The digital age transformed the way people access news and information. Now, as it is with books, magazines and newspapers, globe sales have decreased steadily. The large Chicago area Replogle facility has been sold, the company will continue to manufacture in smaller digs. I would have loved to have spent a day there.

Second City

Chicago is the third largest city in the USA,

behind New York and Los Angeles.

Referred to as "the second city" implies

a rivalry or runner-up status (to New York probably) but

the label denotes the city's resurrection.

John R. Chapin

The Great Chicago fire of 1871 raged from October 8th to October 10th, destroying 18,000 buildings that left 100,000 people homeless. Reconstruction began immediately: between 1872 and 1879, more than 10,000 construction permits were issued. The do-over took more

than a decade, developing mastery of steel framing that would

be used in future skyscraper construction.

Home town

I ran into M. and her sister at a movie theater. It has been nearly 8 years since we worked together, so all news was big news. She led with,"We're moving to Chicago soon; I've only been there once, but liked it a lot." Wow. It's almost December, and everybody knows Chicago boasts a fierce winter. If you're planning a move to Chicago, December to April are the least welcoming months. Still, if you can look beyond the wind chill factor, there is so much to love. I chose 3 images of the Chicago river to sum it up:

It's true! In observance of Saint Patrick's Day, the Chicago River is dyed green. What's that you say? The river is already green? Well yes, but not Kelly green! Tradition is sacred after all. It's pointless and absurd and all in the name of

F-U-N!

The surreal image of the river looking like a giant slushy reminds you to appreciate those sticky days of summer. The winter passes and like anything that doesn't kill you, knowing you survived it will make you stronger.

Yes, the bridges are raised to let sailboats pass. Even one puny sailboat can bring traffic to a halt. It's completely normal to get out of your car and watch the magnificent fanfare. Everyone can have their moment. Little things matter.

Good luck in Chicago M.! I am jealous!

Chicago is

İzleyin:

A tail wagging song for Chicagoans, just like New York, New York is for those Big Applefolk.

Masterpiece

Masterpiece, the Parker Brothers board game is currently out-of-print. Growing up in Chicago, the Windy City was my universe, so it made perfect sense that the 24 paintings players bid for at 'auction' were famous works from the Art Institute. Just recently, I discovered there was a second version that featured paintings from the National Gallery in London.

Maybe I'd score the Bitsy (shown seated at the far left) player card. She was young and stylish and probably had an ultra-cool lair that was littered with great art. Oh, but the threat of drawing the Millicent Friendly (seated next to Bitsy) player card loomed large. You just sensed any art would never see the light of day in her creaky old mansion.

I longed to own this painting...

At the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

...and never bid on this one! (no one did!)

The Rock, Peter Blume

Lake Michigan

In their collection, the Getty Center has a Flemish manuscript with an illustration of an elephant by an artist who had never seen an actual elephant.

It looks like a large dog blowing a horn:

Occasionally, I'll meet people who have never been to the Chicago, who picture Lake Michigan as a swampy body of water surrounded by summer cabins that one could see and swim across. Um...no, not exactly.

That white blob nestled between Wisconsin (WI) and Michigan (MI)

is Lake Michigan. It is larger than many states, and nearly the size of Florida.

A satellite view of Lake Michigan.

Whole lotta lake = whole lotta ice!

The thrill of victory

Berlin, 1936

Sarajevo, 1984

Beijing, 2008

Athens, 2004

Chicago made a respectable bid for the 2016 Olympic games. For many reasons, both monetary and political, Chicago's campaign (even with the boost of President Obama) was unsuccessful; the games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It's easy to imagine the excitement of the new structures and facilities nestled within exotic locales with throngs of international crowds. But what happens to those buildings afterwards? Some have become decrepit ghost towns in just a few years.

Creature feature

If you're unfamiliar with Godzilla, the 1961 B-film knock off, Gorgo, will be like NOTHING you've ever seen before! An enormous sea monster, outraged that her precious baby is missing, stomps around a city (in this case, London), crushing buildings and terrorizing humans until she is reunited with her little one. Before the endless buffet of cable, this sort of movie was standard television fare for Saturday afternoons in most cities. As cheesy and ridiculous as the movies were, an equally ridiculous host greatly improved the ratings. A host could provide a proper introduction, an intermission re-cap with some bits of history and close the show with good natured humor in the hope you'd tune back in next week.

A horror host. Now that's a job that requires a very particular skill set; a ghoulish or mad-scientist look, a catchy label, the ability to work with unusual props including (most likely) a coffin, and the patience to sit through hundreds of verrrry low budget productions. Surprisingly, a lot of people fit the bill and attained B-fame.

Top row, left to right: Son of Svengoolie, Svengoolie, Vampira, Elvira, Morgus
Bottom row, left to right: Dr. Paul Bearer,Zacherley, Ghoulardi and Tom Leahy as 'The Host'

In Chicago, we had the cool ghoul host, Svengoolie.

10 List: Instant happiness

While in Chicago recently, I had long slow periods of doing very little,

which can be a good thing. Simple pleasures included:

gorgeous peonies in bloom

the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute

rain on Lake Michigan...

...adding sweetness to the heavy foliage of June.

the University of Chicago at night

driving on Lake Shore Drive all the way to Evanston

discovering the store Brimfield (in Andersonville) with S.

spending time with nieces and nephews who are nearly all grown up

reading The Book Thief and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

indescribably delicious

custard filled cupcakes made by my niece

Anatomy 101

My first introduction to the study of human anatomy was at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The museum is located in my old neighborhood, and growing up at a time when there was no admission fee, the place was my home away from home. Who can forget the tiny fetuses suspended in glass jars labeled with their stage of development? Or walking through the gigantic human heart?


Perhaps the most disturbing specimens were the slices of human bodies, showing the layers of skin, fat, muscle and organs much like a tree slab revealing its age in delicate undulating rings.



I've heard these exhibits have been removed, replaced with new interactive stations. No matter, I'm marked for life.

Vivian Maier

Stories of newly discovered paintings by masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn or Vincent van Gogh make interesting news. Mostly because the world as we know it has been shaken just a bit, and seems momentarily full of possibility. I like that. Sometimes, a discovery is made that isn't newsworthy; there's no big name, no auction results, no glamour, but it still has every bit of the magic of finding treasure. I like that even more.

Chicagoan John Maloof purchased a large group of negatives at a furniture and antique auction. Sorting through them (there are thousands), he realized the images were remarkable. After considerable research, he learned that the photographer was named Vivian Maier (1926-2009), who had immigrated to the USA from France and worked as a nanny. Her informal street photographs were taken with a Rolleiflex camera. Described as 'intensely private' by the now-grown children she once cared for, she never showed her photographs to anyone.

The immediacy of her images; her fascination with light, the gracefulness of street vendors, the mix of old and new that describes a city, all of it is just beautiful. John Maloof joined a FlickR group and created a blog dedicated to Maier's photographs (well worth a visit!). Hopefully, Maloof will soon share his treasure in a comprehensive book.

Square America

Cake Love from Square America

Chicago, Illinois. View from Hancock Tower from Square America

Square America is a site with the transformative power of time travel. Displaying thousands of vintage snapshots dating back as far as the early part of the 20th Century, one can spend hours perusing the captured moments of exuberant, somber, silly, serious, black and white and saturated color lives we might have known. Who hasn't made faces in a photo booth or posed with a perfectly groomed date, or kid brother or a completed Thanksgiving dinner, or that rascal dog that was as smart as any human?

I especially enjoy the candid shots; what may be lacking in composition and lighting, is more than made up for in energy and sincerity. I could smell the cigar of that plump relative, hear the fifties music emanating from that walnut RCA cabinet, and taste that faded summer picnic. Clearly, an enormous amount of passion and an exhaustive effort fueled the completion of the site.

James Agee wrote, "How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. You can never go home again." Perhaps, but we can at least visit, and remember.