Chicago, take two...

I had another dentist appointment on Saturday, and took my camera with me again for the walk home. After the fun of my last venture, I was looking forward to this day, despite the prospect of dental work.

This trip wasn't nearly as successful as the last one, given that after my appointment I couldn't feel the entire right side of my face, and it was snowing, with nineteen degree temperatures and a wind chill of negative who-knows-what. Once you get below zero with the wind here, it all feels the same: it just hurts.



After a brief visit to a snow-covered Bean, I ducked back into the Cultural Center for a little warmth. I think this is my new favorite building.

Had to get another shot of the Escher-like main staircase. I read that they purposely inlaid the Tiffany glass on an angle so they'd reflect light. And they definitely seem to sparkle, even with a dreary overcast sky.

At the head of the main staircase is the Preston Bradley Hall. The great domed room is flanked by two smaller rooms with these gorgeous coffered ceilings.

The dome recently underwent an extensive renovation, wherein each of the 30,000+ pieces were removed, cleaned and repaired by hand. You can read about the project here. It's pretty spectacular; I wish I'd been there on a sunny day.

In 1897, this was the biggest project The Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company had ever undertaken. The dome is 38 feet in diameter, and makes one feel mighty small.

Heading back outside, I decided to take a different route home this time to catch some different parts of downtown on "film."

What are we supposed to say now? "On disk"? It doesn't have the same ring to it, sorry.

Just around the corner on Michigan Avenue is the Chicago Athletic Association, a formerly private club that closed a couple years ago and is now awaiting redevelopment as a hotel. It was originally designed to resemble the Doges Palace in Venice. I've been to a few weddings there, and it's sad to hear that much of the beautiful interior spaces are not going to be preserved (a very cool marble-clad pool among them). Seems a high price to pay for a room with a view.

This happy guy adorns the facade of the Walgreen's on Michigan & Madison. Much more character than the monstrosities they've been constructing all over the city and suburbs (who needs a drug store with a two-story mock turret?). But that's just my opinion.

And then we have The Pittsfield Building on East Washington with its fantastic brass ornament. I swear this was, at some point, the office of every single dentist in Chicago, but now it's been converted into dorms for Columbia College down the street. Hope the kids appreciate the architecture.

I popped back into Sugar Bliss for a treat that I wouldn't be able to eat for another six hours when my taste buds recovered from the novicain. My hygenist had been raving about the banana cupcakes, so I got a mini to try. It was pretty tasty, though I'm not a big banana-in-food person. My favorite's still the Black & White; the Pure Chocolate comes in a very close second.

And sorry, Macy's. To Chicagoans everywhere, this will always be Field's. You'll never win that one.

The Reliance Building at State and Randolph is an architectural wonder...or was in its time. One of the first steel frame skyscrapers in the city, it was the first to have more windows than stone, which made it very "modern." It was rehabbed in the late 90's and is now the Hotel Burnham.

I've always loved this guy. He adorns the entrance of an otherwise unassuming electrical substation in Block 37, across from Daley Plaza. He's very WPA. Love the lightning bolts.

Tucked in between a high-rise office building and the Chicago Temple, this Joan Miro sculpture is a great contrast to the arches engraved in its neighbor's walls.

The Picasso looked particularly chilly today...

Another place that makes you feel small: City Hall. The Corinthian pillars are HUGE. I don't think you can capture their massiveness in a picture -- you just have to stand beside them to feel just how enormous they really are.

And the next time you fly the friendly skies, think about how you're contributing to a piece of Chicago's skyline. This homage to all things Greek on the Chicago river at Clark Street is United's headquarters.

And yeah, Obama's picture is pretty much everywhere.

Down the street from Daley Plaza, this tiny architectural anomaly is sandwiched in between the Oriental Theater and the State Street Border's. It was a German restaurant when I first moved here -- there were little Glockenspiel people that came out and revolved around that opening every hour when the clock struck. Now it's an Argo Tea, and there's no sign of the little people. Hopefully they found work elsewhere.

And last but not least, we have the Chicago Theater. What I really wanted a shot of was the new construction behind it, the building with the narrow yellow-green (one might say puce) glass zig-zag up the side. Getting the marquee in the shot was a bonus.

'Round about here, the wind picked up, and I vaguely recalled a warning in my camera's instruction manual about not operating it in below-freezing temperatures. Probably too late for that. But my nose was really, really cold, and I knew I wasn't going to make it the mile and a half home without help (and heat) from the CTA.

More pictures would just have to wait for a warmer day.

Inching along...

I finally (finally!) started quilting my Gems top. The annual Christmas Panic is over, and it's time to focus on something for me.

But holy cow, this is going sooooooo slowly!

Click to enlarge...and please ignore the cat hair!

This top is mostly oceany batiks (or as close as I could get to an "ocean" theme) -- turtles, fish, shells, seaweed, bubbles -- so I wanted the quilting to reflect (pun intended) that. It's all wavy, little ripples. And it's rather dense: six-inch blocks, and none of the lines is more than a half-inch apart; most come closer to a quarter or eighth of an inch. And I'm quilting the length of it so I can hang it horizontally. Which is why it's going at a snail's pace.

Snails also being water creatures. So even the speed at which I am progressing is appropriate.

It's also going slowly because I can't keep from admiring the way it's turning out! I've never done anything like this before, and I'm so pleased with the results I keep finding myself finishing a few rows, then laying it out and running my hand over it. I admit: I probably spend more time looking at it than actually quilting it, but I LOVE the way it feels!

By the time it's done, it will probably be able to stand by itself, but it's exactly the look I was going for, and it's going to look great on my living room wall.

It's just going to be a while before it gets there.

Photo tagged...

I've been bad about posting lately, so apologies are in order. I've been busy a) losing my job and b) getting sucked into Facebook.

And no, a) is not a function of b).

I'm being "restructured" onto the street at the end of this month, and as abysmal as that sounds, I'm actually looking at it as an opportunity to strike out on my own and do some freelancing. And get my life back -- probably for a little longer than I need to in this economy, but we'll see. So if anybody needs any questionnaires, tech writing, editing, or desktop publishing done, I'm your girl. So to speak.

And Facebook? Biggest time sink since, well, blogging. Someone from high school recently started a group from our class, and it's been a hoot reconnecting with all these folks, seeing who/what we've all become. But keeping up with thirty or so new friends ain't easy, folks! And obviously takes away from my blogging (and sewing!) time. I'd say I'll do better with the balance, but I think I'll have a lot of time on my hands in the near future, so I'll figure it out then. In the meantime...a non-quilty post to tide you all over:

I got tagged a while back, and I'm just getting around to responding. I'm not big on tagging, but I thought I'd give this one a go and see what popped up. Pick your lucky number, go to your photo file, pick that number folder, and pick that numbered picture from the folder contents. Turns out it's a much-loved picture of my late buddy Gershwin, who usually liked the camera's intrusion -- unless it was rousing him from a nap. Then he'd get this expression on his face that made me think that if he were human, he'd have the voice and delivery of Tommy Lee Jones, saying something like "Whaddya think you're doing, dumbass?"

Anyway, this picture always makes me think of this Weldon Kees poem. Enjoy.



Colloquy

In the broken light, in owl weather,
Webs on the lawn where the leaves end,
I took the thin moon and the sky for cover
To pick the cat's brains and descend
A weedy hill. I found him groveling
Inside the summerhouse, a shadowed bulge,
Furred and somnolent.—"I bring,"
I said, "besides this dish of liver, and an edge
Of cheese, the customary torments,
And the usual wonder why we live
At all, and why the world thins out and perishes
As it has done for me, sieved
As I am toward silences. Where
Are we now? Do we know anything?"
—Now, on another night, his look endures.
"Give me the dish," he said.
I had his answer, wise as yours.

--Weldon Kees

Turns out Friday the thirteenth is lucky for me...

Totally, totally psyched!

I scored a brand new copy of this out-of-print Ruth McDowell book on eBay for a better price than any of the Amazon reseller listings. I've been trying to find an affordable copy in new(ish) condition for a while, but thought $70-$100 was a little steep. I mean, I like her work and all, but I also like to eat.



And guess what? It's signed! Bonus!

Searching for inspiration in The Second City...

With temperature in the 40's for the first time since early December, Chicago was reborn yesterday.

The Wrigley Building

Under this staggeringly blue sky, Chicagoans cast off their many layers of clothing; some even wore shorts. And smiled. And talked to each other.

This reawakening is a great phenomenon. We know it's only temporary, these few warm mid-winter days -- it's a little gift of sorts to cushion the blow that the groundhog at the Lincoln Park Zoo did, indeed, see his shadow earlier this week...and we're in for at least six more weeks of bone-chilling madness. Days like this at least give us hope.

Michigan Avenue reflected in The Bean

I've been in a rut ever since I sorted through and cleaned up my stash. Part of me likes it all organized and contained and feels triumphant for having conquered the mess; the other part likes it all haphazard and unruly.

I think I was more creative when it was flung all over the place.

Anyway, in an effort to get the creative juices flowing again, I turned to my camera -- it always gets me looking at things differently. I had an early dentist appointment downtown, and afterward headed to Millennium Park to play tourist in my own city on my way home. And found a lot of very neat things in the process.

The "Frozen Fun Fest" was in full swing on the plaza. Kind of bad timing for them, there was two inches of water everywhere from all the exhibits melting.

Ice Maze

At 83 stories tall, the Aon Center used to be the largest marble-faced building in the world. Until the marble started buckling. Now it's the largest granite-but-used-to-be-marble-faced building in the world. It's at its best during the day, before the lights go on and start delineating the floors.

Aon Center, the third tallest building in Chicago

Walls of Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion

East Randolph, overlooking the park

Harris Theater Entrance

If you ever visit Chicago, go to the Cultural Center at Washington and Michigan Avenue. Take 30 seconds and just step into the lobby. It's all Carrara marble and inlaid Tiffany glass. Incredible.

When I first moved here, this was the main library. Some of the mosaics in the arches have the names of great writers in them (Homer, Keats, Plato, to name a few). There's a dome at the head of the grand staircase that'll knock your socks off. There was a children's concert going on, so I didn't go up to take pictures.

Next stop: Sugar Bliss. And they're not kidding. I had one of these cupcakes for breakfast this morning with an ice cold glass of milk. Is that bad?

There are quilt motifs everywhere, like this stained glass at the Elephant & Castle Pub. I'm thinking jewel-toned Moda Marbles...

And detail. Which becomes apparent when you enlarge this shot of the Jewelers' Building at 35 East Wacker, which, in 1925, was the tallest building in the country outsite of New York City. When it was originally built, it had a parking garage on the first 20 floors so the jewelers, who comprised the majority of tenants, could drive in and bring their inventory in securely. Today, the dome at the top houses the offices of Helmut Jahn. They also used it for some shots in "Batman Begins."

I love knowing stuff like that.

This reminds me of some quilts by Robbi Joy Elkow. It's on Wacker Tower, a Holibaird & Root building that's probably one of the most amazing examples of Art Deco ornament in architecture in the city. It originally housed the Chicago Motor Club, then AAA. The two-story lobby has a mural/map of the US that I used to drag my friends in to see.

There were plans to convert this building to condos, so the building was cleared of tenants a few years ago. It's been empty ever since. And, unfortunately, the great decoration on its facade is falling into disrepair.

Across the street, at the corner of South Water and Michigan, stands the Carbide and Carbon Building, another great Art Deco masterpiece, which was recently renovated into The Hard Rock Hotel.

I was working in the building across the street when the hotel opened. Note to visitors: don't pull the shade up in the bathroom when you're showering so you can see out. Unless you want us to see you. ALL of you.

The base of a Michigan Avenue lamp post

Then I started noticing more details. Subtle decorations along the base of a building or on the Michigan Avenue Bridge tower. Very cool. See any quilts in there yet?

And then there's the Chicago River itself, which was looking like a crazy quilt...or, as my friend Matthew says, the end of a box of peanut brittle.

This "American Gothic" sculpture is on a plaza overlooking the river. It's a full-body piece, and the artist has placed a suitcase covered in travel stickers at their feet. From far away, she looks like she's looking at him with contempt because he'd fogotten to pack their winter coats; today, in warmer weather, she just looks worried about the economy.

Because of the way it's been painted (flat paint? definitely no gloss), it looks two-dimensional from every angle. These two had been on exhibit down in Key West -- and traded places with the piece by the same artist that used to be here, King Lear (bottom video).

I think King Lear got the better end of the deal this winter.

Windows on the Tribune Tower

I stopped at Starbuck's at my half-way home mark, and ended up sitting in the window just people-watching. When the weather's warm, the people come out.

The building across the street from Starbucks didn't have an address (it's attached to Nordstrom's), but man, does it have detail. More Art Deco-ness:

There are also carvings of Diana, Atlas, and Helios up along the second floor. I walk by this building almost every day, and never really studied it. I have been shamed.

Further north, the Hotel Sofitel is said to lean out and "kiss" the buildings down the street. It kind of does. I only had one free hand, because by now I was carrying my coat, so my camera angles got a little "creative."

It's down the street from my favorite deli, L'Appetito, another must-visit. And don't go to the one at the foot of the Hancock Center; walk the six blocks to the corner of Huron and Wabash.

It's an Italian meat and cheese fest! They make my greatest guilty pleasure, il Parma: proscuitto, fresh mozarella, tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil on a wonderful soft sesame roll. You've never tasted anything like it. With two pignoli for dessert, it's heaven.

I got into a fun conversation while waiting for my sandwich with one of the priests from the cathedral across the street about the camera opening my eyes and seeing things in a new light. I wonder if I'll end up being part of a sermon someday?

Yes, I talk willingly to strangers. And if you're standing on a corner with a map looking lost, I will also stop and give you directions. That are about 90% right. I'm usually good for getting you within two blocks of your destination.

St. James Cathedral

This neighborhood also contains my all-time favorite residence in the City of Chicago, the Ransom R. Cable House. It was built for a railway bigwig in 1886, and the ornament on this building is amazing.

Though there's really only one other mansion left in the neighborhood, you really get a feel for how gracious the area must have been around the turn of the century.

Mansion wall, Erie & Wabash

Synagogue stairs, Delaware & State Street

And for those of you who read "The Time Traveler's Wife," here's the entrance to the Newberry Library, where Henry worked.

'Round about here, I got hungry and was running out of room on my memory card, so I sat on the library steps and ate half my sandwich in the sun, watching dogs romp unleashed and illegally around Washington Square Park.

I don't know yet if I found any successful inspiration for my quilts, but I do know I found that noticing the details makes you look at the Big Picture from a whole new angle.

It was a great day.