With each passing day, the rings of the Olympic logo look more and more like they might be shackles. Now that Chicago has released its “bid book”, I’ve made up my mind against Chicago hosting the games, for all that my opinion is worth. It took me nearly two years [...]
Thefts puncture Paris bike scheme:
A popular bicycle rental scheme in Paris that has transformed travel in the city has run into problems just 18 months after its successful launch.
Over half the original fleet of 15,000 specially made bicycles have disappeared, presumed stolen.
How is this program supposed to work in [...]
It’s been an eventful week or so. Big chunks of it were obviously crappy, but what about the good stuff?
The Freedom to Marry Reception was a great success. It even put me in a good mood, and god knows I had every reason not to be on Thursday. Attendance was [...]
I’m sure everyone is waiting with bated breath for the latest, absolutely important news about my telephone. The stolen phone has, of course, not turned up. The short version is this: I bought a new one, for about $100 more than I paid for the first one, and I am [...]
According to Forbes’ most recent useless city rankings, I grew up in the second most miserable city in the country (Memphis violent crime represent!), and have since moved to the third (10.25% sales tax is a bitch).
Seriously, who do they pay to come up with these meaningless lists? The [...]
No, this blog was never intended to be family-friendly.
We are sending you this notice to let you know that we will be making some changes to your credit card account in response to market conditions…
(Read: Our sorry-ass company is bankrupt, but you’re not, so we’re going to ask for more [...]
That’s my message to the little fucker who snatched my iPhone right out of my hands and ran while I was riding the #47 bus yesterday. I hope you die, soon and painfully.
[...]Will Apple please get their crap together on address book synchronization with the iPhone (or other mobile devices) and GMail? I just shifted to using my iPhone with my laptop, and the first synch exploded my address book out to over 600 entries, many in triplicate, often with conflicting information, [...]
According to Crain’s, an appellate court today ruled Chicago’s Landmarks Ordinance unconstitutional.
An Illinois appellate court has struck down the city of Chicago’s landmarks ordinance, saying it is unconstitutionally vague, putting in jeopardy the city’s protection of more than 250 buildings and 50 historic districts.
The ordinance, which was enacted in [...]
A new (and as far as I know unnecessary) booth adorns the parking garage entrance of the newly-named Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.
[...]
This article about Preservation Chicago’s “Chicago 7″ endangered buildings (etc.) includes the following tidbit about Michael Reese Hospital:
Only the main hospital building, a handsome 1907 Prairie Style structure, looks safe.
Really? What do people know?
[...]
I’ve been half-assedly trying to sell this Apple Mighty Mouse for a while. I don’t like how it tracks, or how it scrolls, and I really don’t like having the weight of batteries in a mouse, so I’ll stick to USB.
I finally got around [...]
My level of energy for posting things online has been extremely low lately. Thus, memes.
First on Flickr, there was the 16 Things, and then the handwriting meme. I also just got to the halfway point on my 365-day self-portrait project. My 365 has been serving as a [...]
At the Museum of Science & Industry, of course. What were you expecting, anyway?
Admission is free throughout January, so I finally went. I’d been in the building three times previously, but had never actually seen any exhibits in detail.
The Great Train Story is the [...]
Ever wondered what Lake Michigan would look like on the coldest day since 1996?
Now you know what it looks like when it’s -6°F (-21°C) out with a -25°F (-32°C) wind chill. I went there so you don’t have to.
For the fourth year now, I’m helping plan Lambda Legal’s annual Freedom to Marry Reception! You should come if you can; it’s a terrific event!
8th Annual Freedom to Marry Reception:
A Cause for Celebration!
Music * Cake-Cutting * Bouquet Toss * Hors d’oeuvres * Open Bar * and much [...]
gimme a sign!, originally uploaded by reallyboring.
…and some awnings, too! Treasure Island in Hyde Park just got a very visible facelift, finally.
[...]I can’t not link to this “All Things Considered” spot about Simon’s Rock. Not only is it about the relatively unknown school where I started my college career, but it also manages to trash the place where I finished my college career (specifically and by name) - all in [...]
The 53rd Street TIF Advisory Council will be hosting a meeting featuring developers discussing the feasible redevelopment options that emerged from the November 15th Vision Workshop.
January 12, 2009
53rd Street TIF Advisory Council meeting
7:00 PM
Kenwood Academy (51st & Blackstone)
In related news:
(Maravilla’s [...]
I haven’t got any insights of particular value to add to the unfolding drama of Blago the Maleficent’s surprise appointment of Roland Burris to the Senate. I do, however, have a picture, which, in my humble opinion probably gives you a very good idea of why Burris, who not long [...]
Sorry for the blog overload today, but I had a backlog of good stuff to post, and really want it out of the way before the end of 2008. And apologies in advance, but this entry is going to be absurdly long and photo-heavy.
It’s been a good week in Memphis, [...]
I did another huge photo post of Oak Park, which I visited for only the third time ever a few weeks ago. As before, I was very pleasantly impressed. Hyde Park could learn a few things from Oak Park, which, despite being adjacent to some pretty crappy parts of Chicago, [...]
Yikes, this took me forever. Shortly before leaving Chicago for the holidays, I put a bunch of photos on Flickr. I mean, a lot. Like 200.
Two of the major sets I put up were of the Forgotten Chicago tour and photos from Pullman (from the house tour, and otherwise). [...]
I won’t be taking Megabus again when it’s this cold. I splurged for a cab ride downtown, which added $20 to the “bargain” price. That would be ok, except that my bus is now at least 45 minutes delayed. That’s not so hot; in fact, it’s damn [...]
So great was my dread of my taxes for this year, I decided to go ahead and figure them last night. Of course, I don’t have all my information yet, but I have very good estimates for most of it. I just wasn’t going to be able to enjoy my [...]
I’ll be in Memphis for Christmas from December 22nd until December 29th.
In semi-related news, I’ve been working hard to clear up a huge backlog of photos. Expect photoblog posts soon about Pullman, Oak Park, and the third Forgotten Chicago tour.
In also semi-related news, I [...]
I got the last of the Gary photos from my most recent trip up. If you view this on reallyboring.net, there’s a clickable map below:
Here are a few of my favorites.
We saw a few interesting church buildings:
There’s a neat [...]
I’m starting the insane process of figuring out how much money (that I largely don’t have) I’m going to owe Uncle Sam when my income taxes are due for 2008. Being a low-paid contractor, without a lot of business expenses, basically blows, from a financial standpoint.
My most recent task was [...]
*Sigh.*
Here’s where Michael Jackson grew up:
A cool sign for Dunes Bowl:
Seagulls at Miller Beach:
St. Mary cools her toes in Lake Michigan:
I’m mostly doing this as a test of a new technique for posting maps of my photos online. If this works well, expect chicago-focus.com to be reworked using this approach at some point in the future. (Thanks to apertome of Ear to the Breeze for the technique.)
Basically, this [...]
Thanks to Robert Powers (of A Chicago Sojourn, among other things), I went on a thoroughly enjoyable expedition across the south suburbs and northwest Indiana on Saturday. There are many pictures; you should check out the full photoset, because I don’t have time to do them justice on [...]
Seriously. I think I might get a better response if I conduct a public shaming campaign. I haven’t had hot water in my apartment since late last week. I’ve filed three work orders. The first two got lost. The incompetence is astounding.
The Chicago Residential Landlord & Tenant Ordinance gives [...]
My friend Jared prepared this cool map recently showing the rates of car ownership across Chicago juxtaposed with stops in the CTA rail network. He has reservations about his data, at least the outliers (Midway, O’Hare, Lake Calumet), and it seems like it would be interesting to add Metra stops [...]
Today marks the fifth anniversary of my first ever blog post, in which I asked: “will I use it? Or will I squander the opportunity to do anything worthwile?”
I think that I have. I haven’t got the time to do a substantive retrospective, which would require reading over 1500 [...]
Waiting for me in my mailbox when I returned from Thanksgiving:
Today is my final day in Memphis, before I return to the frozen north. My grandmother (who, by the way, lives across the street from my parents) took me out to lunch at a new café in the neighborhood, Café Eclectic. It occupies what, for many years, was a [...]
This article about loneliness in cities and on the internet is very good. It’s nice to see people trying to understand how, despite the fact that I live alone and work most days alone at home, I hardly ever feel that way. The photos accompanying the article are also [...]
The neighborhood I grew up in in Memphis is called Vollintine-Evergreen, a neighborhood of bungalows on the border between Midtown and North Memphis. (Don’t tell people who live there that it’s North Memphis, though!) It’s an older area, built up in the 1920s, one of the first speculative streetcar suburbs [...]
We have a longstanding tradition of visiting our family’s old farm in Middleton, Tennessee, a couple of hours east of Memphis, every Thanksgiving. It’s nominally a hunting trip, but we rent the land out to a cattle farmer, so the only shooting that happened this year was with cameras.
The drive [...]
The bus geeks behind ChicagoBus.org (which I just found out existed) have launched a Mac OS X Dashboard widget that lets you keep tabs on arrival times at your stop of preference. And you can have multiple widgets open at once to track multiple [...]
Memphis is a relatively old city, but you wouldn’t guess it. It was founded in 1819, yet almost nothing remains from the 19th century. I’ve read that this is somewhat typical of southern cities, which saw redevelopment as a way of cutting the link with a “backwards” past and producing [...]
I’m in Memphis for my long Thanksgiving “vacation”, during which I’m actually doing a lot of work.
The first order of business was to go out to a bar (with my family, which is always kind of weird), and see a good bluegrass/rockabilly band, the Whistle Pigs.
In my previous blog dump, I mentioned my lukewarm opposition to the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation’s sudden morphing into the Active Transportation Alliance. I reiterated my concerns on the phone to Tribune reporter Rob Mitchum yesterday, and now I’m a famous bicycling malcontent.
Eric Rogers, 23, of the Kenwood neighborhood [...]
There’s an abandoned coal-fired power plant in south-suburban Dixmoor.
I haven’t been able to find anything out about it. I don’t know when it was built, who owned it, or when it was closed and abandoned. It just stands there, open to the elements, and anyone [...]
This photo is attracting a lot of attention at the moment. In just a day, it’s gotten over a hundred views, which is remarkable. Most of my photos struggle to get ten. I’m not competitive at all about these things; I don’t care if I’m getting [...]
I’m going home for an extended Thanksgiving. Not a vacation, mind you; hourly employees who work remotely don’t get those. I’ll be in Memphis from November 20 to December 2. It’s the first time I’ve slept outside the Chicago city limits since last Christmas. It’s also going to be my [...]
The third in a series of 53rd Street Vision Workshops took place on Saturday morning at Kenwood Academy. The workshop activity was to “play with blocks”, to envision different development possibilities for three sites along 53rd Street: Dorchester Commons (53rd & Dorchester), the McMobil site (across from Nichols Park), [...]
Altgeld Gardens is a neighborhood at the extreme south end of Chicago, tucked into a bend in the Calumet River and surrounded by the toxic remnants of industry. Unsurprisingly, given that fact, it is largely comprised of a Chicago Housing Authority project. At the moment, it’s not quite as obscure [...]
For any of my readers who are still loitering around Hyde Park, there’s a 53rd Street Vision Workshop tomorrow morning that I plan on going to. I meant to post something about it earlier. I actually could turn it into a whole long self-centered discussion on the question of [...]
As part of my recent stint taking engagement photos, I was lucky enough to visit the Morton Arboretum, in western suburban DuPage County. (Yes, founded in 1922 by that Morton family.) We were looking for fall foliage backdrops, and we weren’t disappointed.
But first, we had to visit the [...]
No. Well, sort of. “Engagement photographer,” actually.
I guess all the self-portraits made [...]
It’s over. Unbelievable. Obama wins. I’m not done following the news, though.
[...]Blessed with incredibly lovely weather this election day, and free from the burden of voting because I did it already, I spent a little while just meandering around the neighborhood, soaking up the excitement. For the past few days, the area has been crawling with police, and there have been [...]
This photo made me really happy, and it turns out that it was the hundredth day of my yearlong self-portrait project. I can say, without equivocation, that I’m happier with my life now than [...]
Critical Mass was on Halloween, this past Friday. As usual, my costume was lame, lame, lame.
I didn’t get many photos of the awesome costumes out there, unfortunately, as the light was failing and I hate (and suck at) flash photography.
This Sunday was Forgotten Chicago’s first South Side tour, focusing on Motor Row, Michael Reese Hospital, and the Gap neighborhood between Prairie Shores and IIT. The weather took an unfortunate nosedive in the middle of the tour, with cold gusts of wind up to 50 miles per hour and [...]
As of today, I owe no more money on my sinus surgery. That’s a really great feeling (although I’m still in debt for other things up to my eyeballs, but I take these things one step at a time).
The best part is how it happened, though. After a spate [...]
Oakenwald was the name of Stephen A. Douglas’ estate, which stood on 35th Street between Cottage Grove and the lake. The name was given to a short street south of there, running discontinuously from 40th to 41st and then from 42nd Place to 46th Street. Where it exists, it is [...]
It only took me a month (ahem), but I’ve finally put up all the photos worth seeing from my bike ride to Gary. As I hinted in that blog post, there has indeed been quite a bit of Big News since then, which is part of the reason this [...]
No, this isn’t a repeat post. Chicago: 8th most important “global city”. (H/t Whet Moser’s Chicagoland)
[...]Yes, it’s a military tactic, but it’s also my reaction to the Tribune’s strong endorsement of Obama for President. They dumped a century-and-a-half long tradition of endorsing only Republicans, to back Obama. And it’s a pretty meaningful endorsement, as they point out, since they’ve been paying attention to him [...]
After a long wait, the Z&H MarketCafe on 47th Street at Woodlawn is now open!
1126 East 47th Street
Open 7a-7p Monday-Saturday, 11a-7p Sunday
It’s a fairly small space, but it has been tastefully and functionally built out to showcase what looks like a unique and [...]
I am tragicomically bad at estimating distances. I just measured my apartment (yes, dammit, I AM getting the home-office deduction this year!) and it comes out to 360 square feet. Or, about half the size I thought it was. Not that it matters, it’s big enough. But never trust a [...]
Illinois ranked as eight most bicycle-friendly state in the country by the League of American Bicyclists. Woohoo!
In other news, I got a postcard from the CBF inviting me to a November 17 event at which they “have big news to share…about the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation’s future.” Why do [...]
I voted today. It was day two of early voting in Chicago, and the line was almost half an hour. Turnout here is going to be huge. But that’s no surprise, especially not in Obama’s [...]
Thanks to Herding Bats for the reminder about anti-dooring.org, a website and awareness campaign arising from the multiple bicycle fatalities earlier this year in Chicago caused by careless opening of car doors. A little old-fashioned education for bikers and drivers can go a long way towards preventing these [...]
TPM is tracking the knuckle-dragging, barrel-scraping McCain campaign’s descent into rightwing crazy-angry-land. It’s a useful place to keep up with the kind of shit that’s making the Trib ask if McCain’s vitriol is putting Obama in physical danger.
[...]Early voting in Chicago starts this coming Monday, October 13. I’ll be voting then. I’m undecided in a couple of local races (anybody got tips on Water Reclamation District commission candidates?), but I’ll make up my mind by then. Find the early voting locations here, and get your [...]
The first Sunday Parkways event this weekend was a blast! The sky was overcast, and it was a little chilly, but it was delightful to bike up to the boulevards north of Garfield Park and enjoy a car-free cruise.
There were refreshments and bits of [...]
Forgotten Chicago announced a new tour: Michael Reese & Motor Row. It’s scheduled for October 26th, which is the same day as the next installment of Sunday Parkways. They have not, however, set the time. I’ve tentatively reserved my place, with the caveat [...]
The South Side History Bike Tour was yesterday. It was a good tour - something I wish I’d taken five years ago when I first got here - but a bit slow for my taste. Below is the GPS track:
It didn’t cover a whole lot of things I [...]
After three lockout episodes, I think I’ve finally conditioned myself not to do it again. I can’t make myself close the door unless I’m clutching the keys in my other hand. And now the sound of my door clicking shut fills me with dread in the pit of my stomach, [...]
The photos from my Saturday trip to Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie are all up in this photoset.
There were some neat things to see in Joliet, such as this amazing Victorian mansion dating to 1873. I definitely need to go back and visit Joliet more extensively.
TPM put together this great clip roundup of Sarah Palin’s greatest hits.
Sadly, her blustering and recitation of irrelevant talking points are probably going to serve her relatively well in the format of Thursday night’s debate, since no one will be in a position to call her on her bullshit.
[...]
Thanks to Herding Bats for alerting me to this Saturday’s upcoming South Side History Bike Tour. It’s part of the launch of the U of C’s new Chicago Studies Program. It sounds like Dean Boyer’s traditional bike tour (which I never went on, [...]
Jennifer already photoblogged the Midewin trip pretty extensively, beating me at my own game!
Midewin 0: Morning
Midewin 1: Journey
Midewin 2: Midday win
Midewin 3: Homeward bound
Today, I at least got around to posting goofy photos from the trip to the flickr photoset. Take, for [...]
110 miles of biking this weekend! Miraculously, it’s Monday, and I can still walk. Actually, I feel pretty good. And I had a lot of fun!
Sunday’s adventure, under overcast skies, was a bike ride to Gary to check out a collection of cast-in-place concrete houses built around 1910. It was [...]
Saturday’s installment of the “no rest for the wicked” series was a day trip out to the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, via (what else?) train and bike. (Specifically, the Metra Rock Island Line to Joliet, and then the Wauponsee Glacial Trail south from there).
You know the drill. Here’s the [...]
Tonight, being the last Friday of the month, was Critical Mass. The point of tonight’s ride was to protest the new, bike-unfriendly North Avenue bridge over the Chicago River, so we rode there and then just stopped for a good fifteen minutes. Apparently, despite spending quite a few millions of [...]
I was sending a txt message on my phone this afternoon (a rare occurrence, because I hate hate hate typing on a number pad). I was attempting to type the word “rest” with a period immediately after it. My phone has a feature that suggests a complete word based on [...]
So apparently the city is NOT buying Michael Reese after all. This could get interesting.
(Brought to you by the LOLNews Network. Well, why not?)
[...]Boy, I took a bunch of photos on the BLT!
I’m finally done organizing them all. Check them out if you’ve got nothing better to do. It’s a great way to see a little bit of a whole lot of neighborhoods.
[...]Finally got the last of the pictures from my IRM trip up, including the quaint Woodstock town square. I quite enjoyed the chance to wander around a bit.
::
Whet Moser does a [...]
All the tiredness from my Saturday trip to the Illinois Railway Museum, plus the (mis)adventures of the day before (which involved locking myself out of my apartment in the middle of the night and also getting into a new spat with my neighbor over his nasty-ass garbage), seem to [...]
I celebrated my fifth Chicagoversary on September 20th by… leaving town! I went on an epic journey to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL, in the far northwestern reaches of the exurbs. And [...]
I dismantled my desk Thursday, and had a friend cut the legs 2.5″ shorter. Now it’s actually something approximating a comfortable height for me to work at. Only took me two years to make that happen.
Thursday night I had to ride up to Lakeview. [...]
After staying up all night to (almost) clear my email backlog (as usual, behind on everything), I went to the lakeshore to catch the sun coming up. This looks like a damn motivational poster, but I [...]
This isn’t going to be a snoozefest of a policy-wonkish blog post. Just a couple of links, so that people can see the difference between the Obama and McCain tax plans. The McCain plan cuts taxes for more tax brackets, but the vast majority of the value of the cuts [...]
After getting pissed off at the world today, I decided to fortify myself with a few cocktails (of the Diet Pepsi & vodka variety, natch), ignore the world, and organize and post some more photos.
I’ve made good progress on the the Boulevard Lakefront Tour photos. You should definitely check [...]
I snuck out in between downpours for a test run, and only made it a little over three miles before my knee made me quit running. I guess I haven’t recovered from the crash; even [...]
A week of craziness, and a couple of days with my blog host down, and I’ve piled up a bunch of stuff to post. I really don’t want to burn a bunch of time doing it, either, although that probably can’t be helped. Here, then, in no particular order, is [...]
In the past two months, I’ve visited and photographed the following eight community areas for the first time: South Deering, Pullman, West Pullman, Roseland, Morgan Park, Washington Heights, Auburn Gresham, and Calumet Heights.
On the South Side, the only neighborhoods I haven’t gotten to at all are Riverdale, Chicago Lawn, West [...]
The last major group of photos from the Pullman Labor Ride are up. If you haven’t seen Marktown before, you’re in for a treat!
It’s a planned industrial housing development, built in 1917 to the designs of noted Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. It [...]
[...]
I got an iPhone and now I can post straight to my blog from it using the iBlogger application.
[...]
[...]
[...]