From my Window: FROSTY!

I am sooooo sorry that these shots are all I can offer you today. It is 0 degrees Fahrenheit. As much as I would like to go out and shoot on this sunny day in Chicago, I'm thinking it may not be the healthiest thing for me to try to accomplish.

I am, however, once again fascinated by the ice crystals on my window.

That's the Evanston, IL high-rise in the background.

There has been very little traffic along Sheridan Road. I understand Lake Shore Drive has opened again, amid controversy about its closing.

Those who 'took the Drive' after being warned of the perils were 'soooo totally stupid'. And then, they abandoned their cars--and are now being told there will be no tow charge.

Unfortunately, we live in a society which honors 'mediocrity' AND 'stupidity'. Unless we all stand up for ourselves and our families--and yes, I mean GET SOME BALLS--the nation we have known as 'the United States of America' shall cease to be--especially under the governance (?) of this current (and awfully treasonous!) Obama administration.

From my Window: Not going out today

Those taller buildings in the background belong to Evanston--about 4 miles away.

The parking lot below my window

Levy House, which is just across the way

Actually, if I weren't so 'old and decrepit'--and looked better than Betty White (thanks, doped-up troll!), I'd like to go out and build a snowwoman.

There's plenty of snow, so I could give her a really large BUTT...kind of like, well, you know who!

Chicago Blizzard Update: The wind has been roaring...

...around my building here, just a half block off the lake (Michigan). My windows are frozen up and I am unable to see out.

The solution?

Watch Johnny Depp and Al Pacino in "Donnie Brasco"!

Grabbed this frame because of the twin Towers in the background. PLEASE, any and every Moslem...never, ever try to explain to me that Islam is the religion of peace...EVAH!

Depp and Pacino, at their finest!

I truly admire Joe Pistone for all he sacrificed...to do his job...to do it right.

I have seen many disgusting things in my life...

...but Amy Woodruff takes the whole damned CAKE!

Yes, it's long...watch it anyway--and LEARN?



Taxpayer-funded...erm...that would be "We, the People"..

From my Window: Chicago's Blizzard

It was my intent today, when I arrived back home around 3 PM, to set up the camera and tripod at my window and do a shot every hour or so to show the progress of the Great Blizzard of 2011.

The window began to fog (actually, the storm window) around noon. So, all I can show you from the lower, unscreened half is my friend the mannequin, desperately trying to stay afoot during horrendous winds (which are rattling the windows and impacting the building heavily).

I crept the camera up to a place where, through the screen, you can see at least something of Sheridan Road, the Farcroft building, and how little snow there seems to be at about 5:45 CST.

BTW...that "egg-stremely bright light" just right of center is courtesy of the Shambhalah Center, at the corner of Sheridan Road and Sherwin Avenue here in Rogers Park. It is "ON" 24/7, shining right into my window, making my apartment very bright at night.

It is an irritant.

Jeesh...you'd think these psuedo-Buddhists would have more manners, huh?

But, then again...it's Rogers Park, the most northerly neighborhood of Chicago, where some of the most liberal "hippies" and "wanna-be hippies" live--sorry for the redundancy.

I hope to get out tomorrow, if the wind dies down a bit, in order to show you some more of out Great Chicago Blizzard (?)

A Walk along the Lake Michigan shore

It was a whole 32 degrees today!

Leone Park playground, and one of many people who come to sit by the lake and contemplate.

Looking northeast to Leone Beach. When the icy snow melts, the lake is about 30 feet closer.

Looking to the east. The snow/ice mounds are due to wave spray. The area can be quite treacherous when the North and East winds cause non-stop waves.

Looking to the southeast at Farwell Beach pier, about a half-mile downshore.

A local restaurant, closed until we get warmer days (maybe in June?).

The Loyola Park playground, at the lake end of Greenleaf Avenue.

Spring is scheduled to arrive in about 7 and a half weeks, isn't it?

From My Window:

Today is very gray

Through the wet window I see only the abstract

Evanston is not there today

So perhaps I will contemplate the wonders of glass

Back in the Day...

...when I was just a 10 or 11 year old kid, West Side Story BURST into my life...and I knew racism. At its finest.

(BTW, 50 years, a half century, have past, in case you didn't notice?)

Among people who were the same...of related families.

Stephen Sondheim made us notice it, in his lyrics. And Maestro Leonard Bernstein made the message even more important, through the music.

A sample:



All people, of whatever color, are called 'racist' these days. It's an EASY word to say...and then feel good about, isn't it? Until the time comes that YOU are called 'racist', for what you think is no apparent reason...by those of your own particular color.

That is when people tend to become non-citizens, especially when someone who thinks they have 'power' is the name-caller.

To that person (you know precisely who you are) I say:

You are nothing to me, and perhaps not much in the mind of the Creator...as you have chosen darkness over light.

May you someday soon fall on your knees, and ask forgiveness for the awful things you have done.

Remember when, way back when...

...gang members and thugs were 'choreographed' to the music of Leonard Bernstein?



I had a five-or-so-minute conversation with the Maestro, when he was accompanied by my local Maestro, Lukas Foss, who was then conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Bernstein was resplendent: European blazer, white silk scarf, glass of Scotch and cigarette--in the main studio of the Milwaukee Ballet Company, at S. 5th and National Avenue, where they still reside.

I was not speechless.

I told him I had known his works from a point when I was quite young...and here I was, almost forty. Thankfully, he took my conversation as a compliment.

He went on to finance and produce an 'unproducable work', as it was then known, by calling a few friends (and perhaps Oliver Smith?) in New York.

In my estimation, Leonard Bernstein, for all his shortfalls, was the 20th century equivalent to the 15th's Leonardo.

I thank you, Maestro Bernstein, for all you contributed to the United States of America--of which the Obamas have not a scintilla of an idea!

Oh, don't you wish the Obamas would just break into some sort of 'song and dance'--for REAL?