17 June 2013, Toodle-oo

Dear Reader, 

This is the 377th consecutive day on which i've taken and posted at least one photograph, and now it's time for a break. This and my other blogs (Tattered Film Palace and How to Build a Substation) will be on hiatus while i go on cyber-sabbatical. I will be focusing on some real-world projects, looking at the world through a larger frame than either a camera viewfinder or computer screen, and reacquainting myself with the fine arts of reading and writing on paper. I hope to return to this and my other online projects, restored and refreshed, in about a month's time. In the meantime, i will only sporadically check the comments and read my emails, so don't be upset if your comments are not posted or your emails answered as promptly as usual. 

Now follow my lead and step away from the computer and go bask in the summer sunshine. 

New fish in town, northeast corner of Glenwood and Farwell

16 June 2013, Artists of the Wall

This weekend marks the 20th annual Artists of the Wall Festival along the lakefront in Rogers Park, and today was a perfect day for it. This press release gives some of the history behind the festival.

Two of the young artists from Kilmer School

Even the ubiquitous Grumpy Cat made an appearance 

Artists at work

Applying some finishing touches

Commentary on the dismantling of our public school system

There's nothing like some good live music on a sunny afternoon.

The Meisha Herron Band

And a bit off the beaten path, a young man strums a banjo on his porch, filling Pratt Blvd. with some fine music. 

15 June 2013, Closing Time

The end of the day at Ciao Bella Café

14 June 2013, Prairie Style

I love this old prairie-style station house, with its wide overhanging eaves.
It has been repurposed as a Starbucks.

I hopped on the Skokie Swift today and ventured out to the 'burbs in search of the perfect bagel, which i may have found at Kaufman's (although i've been advised that i should also try New York Bagels on Touhy). 

Kaufman's, where diets go to die a happy death.

13 June 2013, Old Beauty

Admittedly, i'm a little obsessed with the building at 6900 N. Sheridan Rd. and just posted pictures of it here less than two weeks ago. But it's such a grand old ruin, and i'm so curious about the renovations, that i keep returning to take more pictures of it. I just looked up a realtor's listing and discovered that it was sold at a foreclosure auction in January for $270,000; then flipped for $590,000 in March. Since it contains four apartments -- three three-bedroom units and one one-bedroom -- that's quite a deal. Well, except for the big sacks of money that will be needed to make it liveable again. I sincerely hope that the new owners will go to the extra expense of doing high-quality renovation and restoration work on this old beauty. I especially hope that the original leaded-glass windows will be preserved.

I was passing by the building a few days ago and stopped to chat with another woman who was standing outside looking at it. She told me that she knew the owners back in the 1980s and had actually been in the building. She said that the apartments were so big that you could get lost in them. Ah, if only i'd won the lottery a few months ago....

12 June 2013, Fearful Symmetry

Fourth floor of Daley Library at UIC, either undergoing a summer makeover or succumbing to the post-literacy apocalypse.

11 June 2013, Nature Study

Two kids and an earthworm.

10 June 2013, In the Fog

Glen Hansard gave a free concert at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park this evening, playing for nearly three hours even as a thick wall of fog rolled in; at one point the fog even began to swirl across the stage, but Glen and the band sang it back into submission. It was one of the best, most fun concerts that i've been to in years, as warm and convivial as sitting around the kitchen with several thousand of your closest Irish friends, drinking whiskey or tea as you choose, singing together, and telling a few tales. 

9 June 2013, Gloomy Sunday

It has been a gloomy Sunday, though not quite as gloomy as the song popularized by Billie Holiday (aka "The Hungarian Suicide Song") or the German-Hungarian movie of the same name, but an odd and enervating Sunday nonetheless. I had plans, big plans, to go to the Printers Row Lit Fest and/or the Blues Fest, but i ended up succumbing to the heavy air and overcast skies, and losing my motivation. But lest you feel deprived, dear reader, i took pictures at both last year should you care to revisit them. 

8 June 2013, Green City Market

I feel like i've been unfaithful to the Glenwood Sunday Market, but it was such a beautiful Saturday morning and i was feeling such an absolute and immediate need for fresh strawberries that i snuck off to Lincoln Park to visit the Green City Market today. It really is a great market in a lovely location, and the strawberries were well worth the trek! But rest assured, i intentionally didn't get everything i needed there, so i will still be patronizing GSM tomorrow morning.

7 June 2013, Day 367

The Assyrian American Association at 1618 W. Devon Ave. 

This mysterious muse looks out over Devon Avenue just west of Clark St. According to the Cinema Treasures website, the building was originally the New Devon Theater, built in 1912. 

6 June 2013, Day 366

No, i'm not getting religion; but i love how peaceful this convent on Morse Ave. east of Clark always seems. The contrast was especially strong when i walked past this afternoon just as classes were ending at Kilmer School directly across the street, with hundreds of kids bursting onto the playground with all the energy pent-up over the course of a long school day.

5 June 2013, Day 365

Feeling a bit lazy this evening, i was regretting not taking any pictures while i was out and about today and pondering how to expend the least possible effort in finding a subject this evening. Then i suddenly realized that this was it -- Day 365 -- a milestone that deserved a little more than a photograph of the sole cherry tomato hanging from the plant on my back porch. So off i went, in search of some iconic Rogers Park image with which to end the year. I found two. The first is taken on the northwest corner of Sheridan and Farwell, looking across at Giordano's pizza; i love the little garden plots like this one planted on the small wedge of parkway at intersections throughout the neighborhood. The second picture is of The Armadillo's Pillow, a cozy little used bookstore on Sheridan just south of Pratt. 

4 June 2013, Day 364

Vedgewater Garden at Broadway and Rosemont is part of the Peterson Garden Project. The produce grown in this garden will be donated to Care for Real, Edgewater's food pantry. 

3 June 2013, Day 363

Northbound Metra train (UP/N line) pulling into Rogers Park station.

2 June 2013, Pt. 3, Day 362 -- Save this Beautiful Building!

This lovely building at 7331 N. Sheridan Rd. in Rogers Park, presently home to the Shambala Meditation Center, is slated for demolition to make way for a multi-level parking garage. All i can say is, "Noooo!!!" The best chance for saving it is to have it awarded landmark status; to that end, the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce is gathering signatures to take to the next meeting of the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks on Wednesday, 5 June. HERE is a link to further information and a pdf of the petition if you would like to help by gathering signatures. Petitions need to be received by 7PM on Tuesday. HERE is a direct link to the petition.

2 June 2013, Pt. 2, Day 362 -- Big Changes!

A gut rehab is underway on the residential building on the northwest corner of Sheridan and Farwell [corrected address]. This building has ranked very high on my if-i-won-the-lottery wishlist for years. It has beautiful bones but has been the victim of neglect for a very long time. A construction canopy over the sidewalk on the Farwell side has been up for months, and i'd really begun to think it had been abandoned, like the building itself. 

It is always gratifying to see these beautiful old Rogers Park residences restored rather than torn down and replaced with something cheap and generic. On that note, please watch for my next post later today regarding the attempt to stop the demolition of the Shambala Center at Sheridan and Sherwin Rds.

Hole in the floor of the second floor porch

I took the picture below on 4 May. It shows the remains of the thick vines that covered the building as well as a deep layer of dead leaves caught between the window panes. 

And finally, this last picture was posted here on 17 November. 

I look forward to seeing the restoration of this lovely old house.

2 June 2013, Day 362

Opening day of the Glenwood Sunday Market. 

It's chilly and damp, and we're still pretty much in the rhubarb-and-asparagus stage of the growing season, but it's great to have the weekly market back for another year. 
PS. Try the empanadas from Tomate Fresh Kitchen--they're delicious!

1 June 2013, Day 361

A classic example of the old adage that "one man's trash is another's treasure."

With a little bit of paint and a whimsical sense of composition, these found objects are transformed in a magical courtyard garden.