9/30/08

New clothes.



Got some new clothes today. The hoodie ($8) cost less than the hat ($10). Go figure.

I only bought that hat 'cause Andrew Nelles has the same color of hat, and I figure it'll bring me good luck when I'm shooting as well.

I also need to shave.

9/16/08

Flooding in Riverside.







Rain left over from Hurricane Gustav flooded the Des Plaines River in the Illinois town of Riverside. The town went from being "Riveside" to "In the River". Workers from the City Water Dept. and Com Ed both worked hard to try to pump the water out of the streets and restore power to the people who have been stranded in their homes under 2 to 3 foot deep water.



Huge bar of Chocolate in the shop window of a local Riverside candy store.

The Congress Hotel Strike.





The housekeepers of the Congress Hotel in Chicago have been on strike now for 5 years. It's the longest running strike in the world and they're still going.

Go here for more info:
http://www.congresshotelstrike.info/

9/11/08

Cool Tattoos and a Flat Building.

So, there is this really cool guy I sit next to in Sociology. He has a couple of tattoos that I took photos of.

He has three stars on him. The smallest one stands for the one year anniversary of his best friends death in a car crash. The bigger one on his neck stands for when he turned 18. The biggest one on his wrist stands for when he graduated High School.

Batman. This one does not stand for anything. It's just Batman.

This is the date of his best friends car crash.

And now for something completely different.

When you walk down Congress in Chicago towards LaSalle, you notice a totally flat building. It's actually shaped like a really acute triangle, but from the street vantage point, it just looks flat.

Strange, huh?

9/7/08

OTG - November, 1976.

So, my dad was in "Minicycle/BMX Action" magazine in 1976. He sent in some photos of himself going over stack of 11 tires. Once successfully and once, well not as much. They published both the photos on the back page of their magazine with a small caption. I scanned the page. Here it is.

The thing is, he "photoshoped" the photos. They're fakes. They were shot on film, but they were staged. He climbed up a ladder, tied his bike to a tree, and then sat on his bike while his friend snapped the shutter on a camera he had mounted on a tripod. The rope is tied around the seat post and is hidden in both photos, behind his body.

Clever. He tricked them pretty good. So good, it got published.