Window Pane

Lawry's Steakhouse has these interesting metal frames on the windows.

Bronzeville Sign

While you are on the Stevenson Expressway, near Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Drive, there is a large sign identifying the area as Bronzeville, a subsection of the Douglas Neighborhood. The area has a lot of history and, based on a little research, quite a bit of public art and historical plaques (thus, moving it up on on my list of future photo excursions).

I've never quite been able to get a photo of the whole sign because stopping your car on the expressway is very dangerous and generally frowned upon. This is the center portion of the sign. I'm pretty sure the image depicted in this logo is the Stephen Douglas statue, which is in the area.

I have a correction: The image is the Doughboy statue from a memorial, in the Bronzeville area, to 187 national guard members who died in WWI. Thanks Jim (who's informative Chicago photo blog is here)!

Election Day

It's election day in Chicago. We're voting for a new mayor. There are six candidates, down from twenty that initially filed for candidacy.

If a candidate gets an absolute majority (50% of the vote + 1) then that person gets to move into City Hall on May 16 and the whole city gets spared 42 more days of speeches, debates, TV commercials, and photo-ops (including snow shoveling, restaurant visits, el stop handshakes, and way more information about all the different areas of the city each candidate ever called 'home' than most people care to know). In short, we get to move on from politics to the pressing topic of whether the Cubs can break their 103 year pennant drought (and don't think we haven't noticed that while the candidates like to discuss their solutions to budgets, taxes, and education, none of them seem to have a plan to solve the Cubs' curse).

If no candidate gets an absolute majority then the top two vote getters get back to the trenches until April 5.

Wish us luck!

Archway

I liked how the bare trees formed a lacy archway over the Sears Tower*.

*Yeah, yeah, yeah, it has some new name. It will always be Sears Tower to me ;)

Pieces of the River

We get some very interesting designs in the Chicago River when the ice layer starts to crack, separate, and eventually melt. (Best part was when I was taking these photos, two different people stopped to mention that they like when the ice cracks like this and makes those great shapes.)

(Click to enlarge the photo collage)

All Heart

(Click to enlarge the photo)

Another really fun and informational public art display appeared on Michigan Avenue recently. Last Summer it was old refrigerators with energy saving messages. Now it is Hearts with heart healthy tips that decorate both sides of Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Chicago Avenue.

Officially titled Hearts-A-Bluhm, the hearts, sponsored by various civic and corporate groups,were created by Columbia College students and staff. Northwestern Hospital's Bluhm Cardiovascular Center came up with the idea to promote public awareness of heart issues.

The one little problem is that most of the heart healthy tips are on the base of the statues and currently covered with snow leftover from the Blizzard of 2011. That problem should be resolved by the end of this week, when temperatures are forecast to hit 50 degrees. Then the Blizzard of 2011 will melt into the Flood of 2011. (Forget the shovel, where is my rowboat?)

Lakefront Tourists

Chicago gets a lot of tourists. This fine family, resting on one of the benches along the Lakefront Path, probably decided to visit our fair city to escape the snow and cold temperatures from their native Arctic home.

Icy Sunset

A Winter sunset complete with some interesting lace-like ice patterns.

That Banner

I've always wondered about this big banner that hangs on a building in the Near North Side neighborhood. It is a list of names (I now know there are 69 names and a blank line).

There were some patterns:

• American Presidents (Lincoln, Washington, Kennedy, Jefferson)
• Religious Figures (Jesus Christ, Dalai Llama, Buddha, Mother Theresa)
• World Politics (Chavez, Mandela, Gorbachev, Biko)
• Historical Women (Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman)
• Creative Types (John Lennon, Ayn Rand, Maya Angelou, Mozart)
• Smart People (Einstein, Socrates, Galileo)

But I could never come up with any real theme. And to make things more confusing, there were some names that I wouldn't necessarily expect to see on the same banner. Jack Kervorkian and Geronimo? Frank Zappa and Henry Thoreau? Rush Limbaugh and Robert Mapplethorpe? And did that blank line mean someone got kicked off the list?

It took a bit of creative Googling but I now know it is The Freedom Wall. It was created by a Chicago artist named Adam Brooks. His goal in creating the banner was to "represent the idea of freedom in all its potential interpretations". He developed the list by getting votes from responses to e-mails, polling surveys, and letters. People with the most "mentions" in the responses got on the banner, which is shown in order of votes/mentions. The blank line isn't someone who was deleted but represents the idea that no one person represents "freedom".

Framed

Reflection of The Boston Store Building (aka Sears on State) in the glass of the ornamental entrance of the Sullivan Center (aka Carson Pirie Scott Building).

Done for the Day

The shovelers probably just decided to call it a day and get somewhere warm. Since the sidewalk was cleared, I'd say it was a well-earned rest.

Flattened

Be careful out there. These poor guys got flattened while they were trying to warn others about the falling ice and snow.

Blizzard of 2011, Part III

A few more photos from the Blizzard of 2011 ... Snowlapalooza ... Snowmaggedon ... Snowpocalypse ... The Monster Storm ...

This one's not going anywhere anytime soon

This is Golf.

Really?!?

Well, maybe if you have those fluorescent golfballs.

Where the extra snow belongs: In the Dumpster

STOP Already ...

with these darn Blizzard Photos

(although I do wonder where the sign pole went

... Did it blow away to Michigan?)

OK. New Day! New Subject!

(Well, a few more Snowmaggedon photos may show up.

It IS going to take awhile for this stuff to melt)

National Wear Red Day

Today is National Wear Red Day. Organized by The American Heart Association, National Wear Red Day aims to raise awareness of women's heart disease.

This cardinal wears red everyday and seems to be enjoying a good diet of fruit and grains.

Snowlapalooza, Part 2

More Scenes from Snowmaggedon ... Snowlapalooza ... Snowpocalypse ... Blizzard of 2011

Snow News is All The News

Ski Mt. Chicago

Where should I send

those Snow fighters next?

Offering a sacrifice to the snow gods

I think they're trucking the snow to Indiana

Snowpocalypse, Part 1

Early on in the Blizzard of 2011, we had a Snow-nado ...

... and the traffic started getting heavy on Lake Snow Drive.

Later, a series of accidents on Lake Shore Drive between Belmont and North Avenue caused some looooonnnnng back-ups and ...

... Lake Shore Drive was eventually closed.

But I hear Puxatawney Phil the Groundhog did not see his shadow so Spring is just around the corner!

Theme Day: Fountains

It's the first of the month and that means it is Theme Day at City Daily Photo. February's theme, chosen by the CDP voters, is Fountains.

I'm sure this fountain provides thirst-quenching water ... during the summer ... when it isn't full of snow.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants