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The Elks National Memorial located just to the west of the north end of Lincoln Park is a reminder of the sacrifice of the many Americans who fought and died in World War I. Planning for the memorial began two years after the war ended in 1918. The organization selected New York architect Egerton Swarthout's design.
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After spending the better part of five hours last night watching non-stop cable coverage of the Trump-Comey story, I expected hundreds if not thousands of people to attend a demonstration today at the intersection of Wabash and Wacker immediately across the Chicago River from the Trump Tower--that being the unofficial site for anti-Trump demonstrations.
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I went out this afternoon looking for a pair of shoes. I decided to travel light, so I took my Leica M with the 12mm Voightlander wide angle lenses mounted, with a 28mm and a 90mm lenses in a small bag. 12mm equals insanity. You either have to be extremely close or the object needs to be very large--although I did find an exception to that rule. By day's end, I had some nice photographs, but no shoes.
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It was an unusually cold day today, with the driving winds whipping the willow tree branches about and chilling the air and my hands. Not a good day for outdoor macro photography. Nor did I find it a particularly good day for photographs providing overviews of the Japanese or English gardens. The light was just too cold and harsh.
Today some 40,000 Chicagoans participated in the March for Science, a nonpartisan demonstration that had heavy partisan overtones. There certainly weren't Trumpians in evidence. It is hard not to be anti-Trump if you are scientist: Trump wants to cut funding for science; Trump wants to politicize scientific research in an effort to support his anti-science policies (anti-vax, anti-climate, anti-research); and Trump wants to rely on alternative facts.
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Having said all that, it is hard for me to imagine any of today's rock and pop musicians staging an exhibit like this in 40 or 50 years. Given the web, social media, video games, and all the entertainment and expressive options available to people today, music just doesn't play quite the central role it once did in the culture.
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Kevin Mahogany opened his four-night engagement at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase last night to an unjustly small audience that included four people from Iceland. I last saw Mahogany 23 years ago at the Denver Botanic Gardens on a rainy summer night. As I told Kevin after the second set, I should probably pay him for the blue rain slicker that I found on the ground that night. I have traveled the world with it.
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I decided to take a little walk today. Down Roscoe, down Broadway, down Clark, down Wells, down Franklin, and arrive three hours later in back of the Merchandise Mart.
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Woke up at 12:30PM today, worked on photographs, and then headed back to Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase for seconds. Dr. Lonnie Smith and Company were still in the house.
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26 U.S.C. § 6103 Returns and return information shall be confidential, and except as authorized by this title, no officer or employee of the United States, . . . shall disclose any return or return information obtained by him in any manner . . . .
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I have always been a huge fan of Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, and Jimmy McGriff, who I saw in a bar when I sixteen--the owner bought me a drink. Dr. Lonnie Smith pushes the boundaries established by those luminaries, getting a lot of varied and interesting sounds out of his Hammond B3 organ. Gotta love the spinning horn.
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Richard Misrach is one of my favorite photographers. He undertook a three-year project in which he photographed the Golden Gate Bridge from the same vantage point from his front porch, located somewhere in the vicinity of Berkley. Misrach was demonstrating that photography is often more about the light and the weather conditions than the specific subject matter.
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I love seeing our jazz treasures. The years of performing and experimenting are often on display, as they were during Cole's set. Accompanied by a bass player, drummer, and guitarist, Cole lead a very subtle, but powerful quartet, playing a number of selections from the American Songbook, as well as a tune by Sonny Boy Williamson, which reflects the influence of the blues that pervades the entire effort.
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Fermi Labs is located in Batavia, Illinois, about 40 miles west of Chicago. Sited on prairie land, the lab explores the "mysteries of matter, energy, space, and time," putting it in the same business as the late Leon Russell, who was the Master of Space and Time. And you know, there isn't really much difference between physics and music, its all about gaps in space, timing, acceleration, and deceleration.
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These tanks are located about 2 to 3 blocks off the main square in Woodstock, Illinois. That square served as the location for Bill Murray's 1993 classic film Groundhog Day. There are plenty of plaques commemorating the film.
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The sun continued to burn with intensity as the afternoon turned into twilight, spaying the the Chicago River with intense light. It was so intense that it lit the underside of the bridges, which is what caught my attention. You gotta love the clouds and that deep blue sky.
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The afternoon light was magnificent. The shadows finally came out after almost 10 days of unrelenting gray and white skies, with lots of fog and rain. What can you say? It's a geometric progression on the Chicago River. Simple, but powerful.
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Here is one more from Thursday afternoon's excursions. The colors are gorgeous, if I don't say so myself. That the Fuji GFX 50s at work, handheld medium format.
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Jazz guitarist Kurt Rosewinkel brought his six-piece band to the Jazz Showcase this weekend for the premiere of his new album, Caipi. In a review of the Thursday night opening, Tribune reviewer Howard Reich was highly complimentary of Rosenwinkel, but he seemed skeptical about what he heard,
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It's a love hate thing. Joe Segal, the 90 year-old proprietor of Chicago's Jazz Showcase, loves Charlie Parker, which is why the photograph of Parker adorns the wall behind the stage. Joe has been in the jazz impresario business for 70+ years. Everybody who is anybody has been through that club. Joe is an institution in the world of jazz, receiving all sorts of accolades, including the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master honor.
