Sears Tower Noir (Chicago, IL)

Growing up with the Sears Tower as part of my Chicago cityscape, I have long loved this skyscraper, and no other building in Chicago says "home" like it.  Here is another "noirish" scene I captured last week, with the Sears Tower looming large over the streetscape and its antennae glowing in the evening dark.  Just beautiful.  By the way, I used part of my visit to continue my search for Willis Tower and still encountered no luck.  I'll continue the search next time and keep you posted on the results.

Two Views of Hanukkah in the Midwest

Menorah, Daley Plaza, Chicago, IL

At this time of year, when Christmas decorations, as beautiful as they are, dominate the landscape, I take great pride in seeing large menorahs displayed in public, for everyone to witness the miracle of Hanukkah.  Here are two such menorahs on public display, thanks to the efforts of Chabad. Above, at Chicago's Daley Plaza, you can even see the famous Picasso statue in the background, along with all the activity of Chicago's annual Christkindlmarket.  Good times.

Menorah, Milwaukee Union Station, Milwaukee, WI

Noirish Chicago Night

Having just flown back from a visit to my hometown of Chicago, I am tired and feeling a little depleted.  I did make use of my trip, however, by capturing some great photographs, which I will post here in installments.  This evening scene is one of the first photos that I took, and one close to my heart.  In this Chicago scene, the top of the Sears Tower is obscured by mist.  Below, an "L" train makes its way along the elevated tracks, a classic Chicago landscape scene.  Enjoy.

Chicago through the Looking Glass

Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate, lovingly regarded by Chicagoans as "The Bean," is a popular draw at Millennium Park.  People love to walk underneath it, or stand beside it to enjoy a distorted view of the surrounding cityscape.  Here are a few of my photographs celebrating "The Bean."

It's like alternate realities, with the mirror-view of the city, at center stage, countered by the actual city on the periphery.

Here, more of Chicago's world-class architecture, with the head of your friendly neighborhood blogger conveniently blotted out by snow.

Soup-O-Rama

SoupBox, Gold Coast Area, Chicago, IL

On a cold winter day, what more could you want but a heartwarming bowl of soup?  This is one of my favorite local Chicago places for a quick bite to eat.  Like many, I am a comfort food fan, and whether it's cold or hot outside, anytime of the year is a good time for soup.  My favorites here have been the beef stew and the cream of chicken and wild rice soup.  There's a location in Lakeview, but my favorite is the one on Chicago Avenue, just west of the Michigan Avenue shopping district.

In Passing

Just a classic view of the John Hancock Center while the taxi makes a dash down LSD to Lincoln Park for my meeting with friends.

Christmas Greetings

Christmas Tree Detail, Daley Plaza, Chicago, IL

Wishing you all the magic of the season:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Carolers at Christkindlmarket, Chicago, IL

Christmas with a Roar

Guardian Lion, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

In Chicago, even the guardian lions that grace the entrance of the Art Institute get into the spirit of the season.

Seasonal Dress, Chicago, IL

The Chicago Flag: Winter Edition, Chicago, IL

The Chicago flag adopts a wintry motif to celebrate the holiday season.  I know many will think I'm weird, but I'm missing the cold and the snow.  To me, those wintry elements say Christmas.

Seasonal Miscellany

Block Thirty-Seven Mall, Chicago, IL

I like Christmas for all of its colorful decorations.  As I spent time in my hometown last week, I couldn't resist snapping some shots of the Christmas decor featured at a few of the downtown malls.  Like I said, I thought the Christmas decor this year was a little muted, but there were some things that stood out. Above and below, at Block Thirty-Seven, these illuminated stars provided an entire light show featuring a spectrum of colors.  Their festive cycle is included here.

Block Thirty-Seven actually has an aesthetically pleasing interior.  It's just a shame that so much of the retail space remains unoccupied.   The mall is the result of a long, multi-year debate over how to make use of the empty lot where Block Thirty-Seven Mall now stands.  Other ideas that were floated about included a park and just keeping Skate-on-State and the artists' show at this location.  Don't get me wrong, this is a nice mall that already offers some good retail to shoppers, but it's kind of a let-down to see this mall still largely empty after it's been open for a couple of years.

Water Tower Place, Chicago, IL

What would Christmas in Chicago be if I hadn't made at least one trip to Water Tower Place?  I really liked these christmas trees, but, in general, I think I just missed seeing the typical enormous Christmas trees that traditionally served as centerpieces at the different downtown malls.  I didn't see one at the State Street location of Marshall Field, and I remember that as being an annual tradition. Bloomingdale's had a magnificent large Christmas tree, a photo of which I have already posted on here.

For all of you Disney lovers out there.

Nordstrom Mall, Chicago, IL

A cascade of baubles.

A glitz and glamour wreath.

Goodbye to an Old Friend

Dominick's Finer Foods of Chicago is going out of business.  A local Chicago grocery chain, it was later acquired by Safeway.  I don't have the fondest memories of going to my Dominick's in Edgewater towards the end of my time living in Chicago, but it's the grocery chain my family frequented the most when I was a kid.  Dominick's used to sell one of my mother's favorite cakes, a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a cherry plopped centrally on top, and the sides covered with chopped green pistachio nuts.  It took me a long time to get over the green pistachio nuts in order to try the cake and find out that I liked it.  Oh well, things change and things come to pass.  Farewell, old friend.  

Two Portraits of the Water Tower, Chicago, IL

Most of the time I spent in my hometown was characterized by cold and gray weather.  Not necessarily the weather of sun and blue skies that most people consider to be perfect for picture-taking.  Nonetheless, I carried on, camera in hand, and bravely documented what I could.  (Okay, that last bit about bravery is slightly hyperbolic.)  At any rate, one of my Chicago love affairs is with the old, historic Water Tower that graces Michigan Avenue.  Granted, it looks a little anachronistic, with its Medieval castle design, but one thing that I love about Chicago is its ability to house multiple layers of architecture representing varying time periods and sensibilities.  In a world where architecture seems to be growing more generic, and looking the part, as well, it is nice to see historic buildings and their unique character break apart the monotony of modernity.  The Water Tower is one of the few historic buildings downtown that survived the Great Chicago Fire.  Situated right in the middle of upscale Michigan Avenue, it serves as a bridge to an earlier Chicago, one less established, more restless, and eager to prove itself to the world. It symbolizes the greatness of vision that manifests itself today as a world-class American city.  Here are two glimpses of the Water Tower: above is a portrait similar in angle to a Water Tower photo I took several years ago, and below is the Water Tower better contextualized by its surroundings.

Moon Over Chicago

Nothing more than a beautiful evening photo of the moon over Grant Park in Chicago. Enjoy.

The Christmas Tree Post

As I have already mentioned, the Christmas season is one of the times of year, along with autumn, when I miss my hometown of Chicago the most.  I love the lights and decorations that come with Christmas, providing color, warmth, and illumination to an otherwise dark period of the year.  I also love the snow.  I wish I had been more deliberate in pursuing this theme when I was visiting Chicago, as there were many specimens to choose from, but I hope these suffice to give you, dear blog follower, an idea of the beauty found in Chicago during the Christmas season.  Above is a Christmas tree found in the lobby atrium of the Sears Tower.  Outside, the snow swirls and whips about in the wind.  By the way, I used this visit to resume my search for Willis Tower, but with no luck.

Above, a Christmas tree found on the second floor of the Milwaukee Public Market (the only non-Chicago specimen included here), sporting a patriotic theme.

Above, a wholesome, country-inspired Christmas tree, situated in a bank parking lot, of all places, across the street from The Lucky Horseshoe Lounge.

Above, gracing the park of the historic Water Tower.

A profusion of color and light in Daley Plaza, on display during the annual Christkindlmarket festival.

Above, a grand, multi-storied finale on the second floor of the Bloomingdale's mall on Michigan Avenue.  I must confess that I found the Christmas decorations in Chicago this year to be somewhat muted, but this particular Christmas tree would stand out on any given year.

Substitute, Chicago, IL

In previous posts, when I still lived in my hometown, I focused much on the extraordinary architecture that Chicago possesses.  This time, however, due partly to a crowded schedule and partly to uncooperative weather, the best I have to offer is this replica in miniature of the Chicago skyline, thanks to the Lego Store in Water Tower Place.  It's amazing what a few hundred Lego pieces can build!

Chicago Noir

This photo I took one evening on the walk back from Union Station, after spending the day in Milwaukee.  I have always loved the art deco look of the Chicago Board of Trade building: simple but distinguished. Chicago is definitely a city with a dark edge to it, which is something that I love.  It's a city with many dimensions to its character.  This scene is just classic.

Sweet Home Chicago

The past is never really the past with me.  It lingers and informs my present, colors my view of my future.  It very much plays an instrumental role in shaping my identity, even when I am removed from the environment that gave it birth.  That was the reminder that descended upon me during my recent trip back home.  Christmas in Chicago, there's nothing like it, and it is the time of year when I miss my hometown the most.  What will follow will be a series of photographs from my recent return visit, posted randomly and without concern for chronology or overarching theme, but there will be a logic to the organization of things.  First, here is the beautiful and historic Chicago Theater welcoming me home.

Chicago Contemplation

Sears Tower replica

Three years ago, after I had just moved back to Chicago, I bought this metal replica of the Sears Tower at a boutique in Lakeview.  When other people buy an ornament similar to this, they usually purchase a replica of the Eiffel Tower.  But, since I am a true Chicagoan, born and bred, I had to buy one of the skyscraper that had been my urban companion since childhood.  Autumn is approaching, or it would be if I were not living in Phoenix, an area completely devoid of the season.  This is the time of year, along with the Christmas shopping rush, when I miss Chicago the most, the cool autumn winds, the change of leaf color to shades of scarlet, gold, and cinnamon, the vibrancy of the crisp, blue sky.  Soon, the first batch of McIntosh apples will ripen, to be sold at local grocery stores for use in making sweetbreads, pies, and applesauce.  It brings back childhood memories of family outings to Wauconda Orchards to pick apples and purchase apple cider.  Out in the beautiful and comforting Midwestern countryside.  What can I say, I love autumn and miss it terribly.  But would I move back to Chicago?  No.  Chicago is my hometown and I love it like no other, but my place is out West, not in my past.  And when I look up at that spacious, vividly blue Arizona sky, and at the puffy white thunderhead clouds hovering above in impossible stillness, I cannot say that I regret my return to living out West.  Change is inevitable, and throughout our lives we take the best of our histories with us, their residue serving to soothe us in times that are lean in inspiration. To paraphrase Wordsworth, they provide us with sustenance for future years, empowering us to move on.

A Little Bit of Chicago in Phoenix

This is a welcome sight for any Chicagoan: Vienna Beef products. Hot dog or Polish with sport peppers, Italian beef with hot giardiniera...a little bit of Chicago in the desert.

I am a big fan of Vivian Maier's street photography and love how she captured not just random features of life, but very much the soul of the moment. I have a long way to go before I can equal her work, but her photography serves as a great mentor.

Everywhere there is life happening in the city; capture it in its authenticity.

Moving On

Nature boardwalk, Lincoln Park, Chicago, IL

How do you encapsulate a city? How do you encapsulate a life spent in a city? How can you fully capture all of the unique and nuanced ways you have experienced living in your hometown? You can't. You simply take what photos you can, communicate what you can, and move on, trusting in your own good memory. You move on, trusting that what you lived for so long will continue to live in your heart, even after you have moved on. And it's all about moving on, it's all about movement.

Above is the southern stretch of Lincoln Park, near the Farm in the Zoo. Back in the day, during my years completing my undergraduate studies, when I rented my first apartment, I used to take long walks from the area of Clark Street and Belden through Lincoln Park and down this path along the pond, heading towards the Gold Coast area and downtown Chicago. Many times, Michigan Avenue would serve as the main artery for my walks, and so I would take it south into the Loop and then back north to Lincoln Park, where I would eventually head home. Back then, these walks served to reacquaint me with downtown Chicago, as I didn't go there often during my teenage years, and appreciate the beauty of my hometown and its wealth of retail, cultural, and nightlife options. As you can imagine, completing a college degree gets stressful, and so I took many such walks to explore my city. I think it was the first time that I truly fell in love with my hometown. Back then, this path along the pond was simple concrete pavement; today, it is a nature boardwalk, made to showcase the reintroduction of prairie plants to the park. Things change and life moves on.

How do you encapsulate a life spent in a city? You can't. You continue to move on, keeping what you can, such as photographs, and trusting in your good memory. I am excited about moving back to the Southwest, and I look forward to enjoying desert beauty again, and I also look forward to the addition of new content to this blog, but part of me will always love Chicago. Part of me will always be taking this walk through Lincoln Park, with the John Hancock Center looming high in the sky in the distance, down Michigan Avenue and around the Loop. Part of me will always be walking back north on Michigan Avenue, greeted by the white-clad Wrigley Building, heading back to Lincoln Park. Part of me will always be on a meandering path, and heading home.

Looking north on Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL