Such a lovely day to roam around and snap pictures in Chicago, I thought I'd just make it a trilogy and be done with it (well, until the next visit).
It's quite impossible to look for the picturesque in the cityscape and avoid the river. It furnishes so many great views.
And I was especially captivated by this place, a short row of sore thumb condos in semi-disrepair. Must be awfully expensive real estate all the same.
Even the less-than-astute reader will make note that I can't seem to leave this frickin' railroad bridge alone. But I have this fetish about infrastructure and transportation, and especially when it's old and decrepit and abandoned.
Lastly, Bella the Hun (my lovely avatar) asked us to show off her fabulous Halloween costume. How could we say no to that face?
6 comments:
I love the duck-crossing sign. I can't tell from the photos, but was there any apparent place for them to actually cross either the road or the river?
Did Bella have to go solo to Trick or Treat, or did everybody get suited up for the holiday?
I couldn't see any viable duck habitat anywhere not literally on the water (and even then it's a short-life, your-kids-are-gonna-have-three-heads kinda habitat). That bridge and ducks go together like fish and bicycles.
I just can't quite get beyond the oddity of it: it sits in its uncounted rusting tons, pivoted up on a couple unimaginable bearings, the crumbling concrete counterweight enabling the unnatural position (and doubling the weight on those bearings). I wonder when it was raised last? And how? The operator's shack looks like it was boarded up by Civil War vets. When did they stop maintaining it? At what point can it no longer be raised or lowered safely? And what then? I notice the bridge itself has two railroad tracks on it, but there is no evidence on either side of the North track, so it must be WAY back in the past somewhere.
I'll be washing my hands to a bleeding pulp soon.
Bella went trick or treating with Snickers, but just far enough out in the yard to make a good haul of rabbit turds. Mmmm-mmmm. Loves me some snacks! I accompanied them, disguised as a badly-dressed fat guy, but nobody gave me any candy (and I refused the rabbit delicacy!).
A cartoon in the Sunday paper used a great term for those little nuggets found in the yard by the dogs - U.G.O.'s - Unidentified Ground Objects.
You wouldn't have fared much better in our neighborhood - we didn't give any candy any of the poorly-dressed bald fat men that darkened our door that evening.
I especially liked the photo with the promenade (sp?) and the empty cafe chairs. Very Hopper-like.
My photography skills consist of simply shooting way more pictures than I think I want and culling out the acceptable ones later. I think even I'm surprised when one turns out good!
And I love certain things by Hopper, but I once checked out a library book of his stuff and was surprised at some of them. His use of color, and the atmospheric ones (like the Nightowls or Nighthawks or whatever it's called) are very cool; but he seemed maybe a little weird sexually (judging by some of the odder paintings.
Not that there's anything wrong with that ;-)
Ooh, pretty! Particularly the railroad bridge - I hear you about the disused-infrastructure stuff. Maybe have a look at curiouslyincongruous.com?
Sadly, no Chicago for me at the present, as I've taken the safe job in Iowa. But I can do safe for a while. :)
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