Oh, I Think So

WARNING:  MANY ADJECTIVES ARE USED IN THIS ENTRY A view of the Chicago skyline north of Millennium Park Chicago's skyline is one of the world's most beautiful, on an enormous lake with architectually memorable buildings near the shore, and almost all parkland between the lake and the buildings.  Off shore, yeah, while out on the lake in a boat, it's incredible to see.  It's equally incredible to be in one of the downtown parks experiencing it. Chicago has various music festivals during the summer months like Blues Fest and Gospel Fest, to name just two.  This week the giants of jazz came to perform in Pritzker Pavilion for the 36th annual Chicago Jazz Festival. Millennium Park, in spite of its massive production cost overruns, is a great park and home to the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavilion.  No matter how you put it -- a great sound system or fantastic acoustics -- it's a terrific place to attend a musical performance.  There is a large exp...

It is the preseason but my prediction about the maximum suckage of Jay Cutler seems be coming true.  It seems I have to add that Marc Tressman isn't making me fall in love with him either.  And what the hell, my man, Robbie Gould, did NOT get the one-point conversion because the score was 34-6 (6 means a touchdown and another 1 to that means a field goal) (but Robbie's kicking leg might have atrophied from waiting for his team to do something other than bite) (I cut maximum amounts of slack for R. Gould).  The Seahawks do not suck.  Good for Seattle!  They have something of which they can be super proud and I am envious. Those in Seattle can be envious of me because I can go to the home of Americana music empresarios Van Delisle and Karin McCool and see a Black Dog Concert.  This month Bejae Fleming and Jackie Blount came from their home in Columbus, Ohio, to our city, Chicago, and put on a very happy, enjoyable show.  The artists were having a great...

It's somewhat well known that I do enjoy the Chicago Bears.  I have been mostly embarrassed by my affection for them.  I started writing a blog so I could talk about football games which mostly got down to how much I dislike Jay Cutler. I still dislike Jay Cutler.  I find him a minor quarterback doing the job of a major one.  Last year the Bears renewed his contract for seven more years and many millions of dollars and released Josh McCown.  Yes, the Josh McCown who ended the 2013-14 season as the third-ranked QB in the NFL, behind Peyton Manning and Nick Foles, and the best of any QB in Bears history.  When he was released, Josh McCown was snapped up by Lovie Smith and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Jay did not have a record anywhere near that good and they kept him. I often wonder what exactly goes through the minds of the Bears coaching and mangement staffs.  Hamster on wheels?  Bats on their way to a belfry?  Little kids on rollersk...

Even in a big old city like Chicago, we get the opportunity to see lovely examples of nature.  The katydid was resting on the post outside a regular building and I was amazed!  This is the kind of stuff I used to see when I was a camp counselor in the woods in southeastern Michigan.  Katydids, walking sticks, praying mantis -- all right there to freak the hell out of a bunch of young women and girls. Here are two pictures I took yesterday morning.  At one point it got sick of all the snaps we were taking -- I was not alone -- and it turned and flew at me.  I screamed like a girl because I am an old girl and while a lot of stuff no longer phases me, that made me scream and jump back.  It was not a good look, I assure you. Looking like a leaf on legs "Stop taking my picture, bitch!"

I went to Beijing for the first time in 2003, just me, no tour.  I had a splendid time by myself but I am very comfortable all on my own.  That's not the point of this post.  On that trip I realized that I was fascinated by people posing for pictures and found myself photographing people as they posed for others.  A couple of years after that I went through a period of taking pictures of people taking pictures of me (my friend, Michael, was also interested in this).  For the last few years I've liked taking pictures of people taking pictures (although pictures of people as they pose still sneak in taken from a different angle, usually one of retreat -- mine).  I find it fascinating. The pictures are about love, art, vacation, art on vacation, art of the one you love on vacation.  They're "Oh, yeah, I forget what this is.  It's in Chicago.  People just walk past it like they don't care it's there."  They care, they just have to get a ...