Archive for June, 2008
Three buys from Powell’s Chicago
This 344-page beauty has 80 interviews with Chicagoans and more than 150 B&W photos. The list price is $35; Amazon has it for $26.60. We were thrilled to get it at Powell’s for $15.
Here’s a photo of Marina City under construction:
I also scored Minghella on Minghella, in like-new condition, for $6, marked down from $15. Stanley Pollack wrote the preface, and there’s a chapter on editing in conversation with Walter Murch. Nice!
And an updated copy of Diners, by John Baeder, with photorealist paintings of more than 100 diners. “The artist’s own captions introduce each diner — many of which no longer exist — and describe their food specialties, their sometimes quirky histories, and their owners, managers, or patrons.”
Add comment June 30, 2008
Danger: Red-Winged Blackbird
I recorded this video of a male red-winged blackbird in Grant Park. He was either protecting his territory or calling for a blackbird uprising against humans. After the breeding season ends, their flocks can number in the millions.
Add comment June 28, 2008
Photophores: June 28, 2008 – Museum Edition
Read about obscure museums — e.g., PA’s Mercer Museum, NY’s MTA Transit Museum, Romania’s Zoological Museum – in detail at the wonderful Curious Exhibitions blog.
The Museum of Jurassic Technology has some good recommended items for reading, viewing and listening. You may also want to buy the Mütter Museum 2009 calendar.
The International Cryptozoology Museum needs an intern.
The Chicago History Museum is pairing with Metropolis Coffee Company for a ($45) coffee-themed boat tour on July 20.
Upcoming exhibits at Chicago’s International Museum of Surgical Science include Plastic Surgery: Form and Function (Fall 2008), and two of their new or current exhibits are The Cutting Edge: Advances in Genetics and Surgery (now), as well as Beyond Broken Bones.
Add comment June 28, 2008
He stamped his mind
“The undying scenes we can all see if we shut our eyes are not the scenes that we have stared at under the direction of guide-books; the scenes we see are the scenes at which we did not look at all–the scenes in which we walked when we were thinking about something else–about a sin, or a love affair, or some childish sorrow. We can see the background now because we did not see it then. So Dickens did not stamp these places on his mind; he stamped his mind on these places.” G.K. Chesterson
Add comment June 26, 2008
Woodstock and bowling
My husband and I spent the previous weekend in Woodstock, IL, and I’d like to point out a few discrepancies between the marketing text and the actual place.
They say, “Woodstock, IL has a unique and beguiling character.” I say (with apologies to Fear), Woodstock’s all right if you like disaffected teenagers and cars with loud bass. They say, “breathtaking 1890’s town square.” I say, poorly-maintained town square, surrounded by bass cars that pass every few minutes. And what is the correct noun of assembly for disaffected teens? For girls it’s a bevy; for boys, a horde is appropriate. Both nouns would get frequent use in Woodstock — especially in their town square.
Perhaps the best thing about Woodstock was the bowling alley that dates back to 1941, making it McHenry County’s oldest operating bowling center (or possibly the second oldest). The alley has been using automatic pins since the 1950s, and is one of the few in the country with an above-ground ball return.
Add comment June 24, 2008
Off to Woodstock
I’m going to the Ray Bradbury-esque Woodstock (IL) for the weekend. I’ll leave you with a coffee heist and Gary Shteyngart on Bangkok: “Woe to a hairy man in the world’s hottest city. Bangkok: where the three so-called seasons—Hot, Wet, and Why are you doing this to me?—are a furball’s primordial nightmare.”
Add comment June 20, 2008
Photophores: June 18, 2008
In “creatures at airports” news…
A shipment of sundry creatures — including scorpions, turtles, tarantulas and frogs — were abandoned at the Mexico City airport.
Also, jackals, raptors and large monitor lizards crowded a New Delhi airport runway.
Moving on….
Conceptual designer Martí Guixé is making food more user-friendly.
PingMag goes to Vendex Japan, the vending machine manufacturer’s exhibition.
All-female roller derby is gaining legitimacy as a sport. I found it interesting that leagues are structured as skater-owned, skater-operated LLCs, with bylaws and boards of directors. Condy Rice should add that to her post-White House roster of board seats.
Whence the name Jennifer?
The Fisher-Price Zen Collection: Over-designed and disturbingly un-Zen, especially the Gliding Bassinette, which looks like Liberace’s teapot.
Lastly, this outdoor ad for Taste of Chicago (see pic below) is just embarrassing. “Taste’s Better Every Year”? No one caught that?
3 comments June 18, 2008
