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Posted

Awesome shot. It's got a strange depth of field to it, almost like it was photoshopped, or something.

I'm thinking about 1424 S. Peoria....(?)...

If I'm right, I've got a story to go with your pic about what that area was about 20 years ago.....I lived in that building when it was all Maxwell St., and the townhome development was literally bulldozed trash heaps with bums standing around burn barrels, living in abandoned semi-trailers.

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Posted

Very close. About 2 blocks off. If you could look to the left, there's a good view of UIC's baseball field and you could maybe see the next Curtis Granderson.

Posted

That's so cool. It kind of reminds me of a beautiful shot that I wasn't able to capture.

It was around 4 or 5 years ago, the year ASHI rolled out the asinine branding program at leadership day. Looking from the top floor of the hotel, miles away, you could see the city of Chicago rising above a carpet of green (trees). It reminded me of the Emerald City in the Wizard of OZ. And I hadn't brought a camera.

Posted

I used to play 12" on UIC's softball fields, which are about 3 blocks south (14th pl./Halsted) of there in the mid 90's. They were the most pristine fields I have ever played on and our backdrop was the city skyline. None of those red buildings were there yet, just some run down buildings and gravel lots. Things have really changed...including my softball skills.[:-weepn]

Posted

That's so cool. It kind of reminds me of a beautiful shot that I wasn't able to capture.

It was around 4 or 5 years ago, the year ASHI rolled out the asinine branding program at leadership day. Looking from the top floor of the hotel, miles away, you could see the city of Chicago rising above a carpet of green (trees). It reminded me of the Emerald City in the Wizard of OZ. And I hadn't brought a camera.

You mean like this.......?

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Or this.....?

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20 years ago, all that foreground townhome concentration was all barren fields of garbage, inhabited by the dregs of the dregs. Folks lived in holes in the ground, and old abandoned trailers. Here and there, there was a tumbledown 2 flat covered with iron grating to keep out the thieves. If you ever watch "Blues Brothers", the scene with John Lee Hooker took place somewhere in the upper right hand of Mike's photo.

You could get anything you wanted on Saturday morning (if you didn't mind having the serial #'s filed off) in the bizarre bizarre called Maxwell Street. It'd been that way since the 1800's when the City's Italian and Jewish immigrants sold stuff from pushcarts. It's where wiseguy's sold stuff that had fallen off the back of a truck out at O'Hare.

Anyone remember Hill Street Blues? This was the area that the show was based on; the Vice Squad still has their office in there, although now it's all UIC Circle campus, $500,000 townhomes, and professional downtown cubicle dwellers.

Posted

You mean like this.......?

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Sort of. My vantage point was higher, much higher than the tops of the trees, making the perspective very different. I may have also been further away from the city. As I recall, the hotel was the Doubletree in Rosemont, and it was a good 10-12 miles from the city.

I spent a lot of time looking for that scene, or a similar one on Google Images. I figured somebody must have captured it and put the pic online, but if they did, I didn't find it.

I also spent a lot of time reading about Maxwell Street. It was fascinating.

Posted

Y'all remind me of the people who live near mountains always taking shots with them in the background.

Cept y'all have those ugly buildings instead of mountains.

Stll makes a pretty picture though, especially that one from the lake, Kurt.

Posted

Y'all remind me of the people who live near mountains always taking shots with them in the background.

Cept y'all have those ugly buildings instead of mountains.

Stll makes a pretty picture though, especially that one from the lake, Kurt.

Yeah, it's kinda weird, but after several decades of City life (I went to a school with 52 kids in my class, and literally lived a mile from the nearest neighbor), I find it beautiful.

There's a texture in all those buildings.

Posted

What's 12"?

12" softball. It's a Chicago thing. Giant ball, no gloves, everyone has fun.

It's a big deal here.

You mean 16". 12" softball gets played with a glove. There are some men's leagues but girls fastpitch is 12" and you had better have a glove.

Posted

I took this yesterday. I felt it was voo-ish.

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OK...

Since no one else has volunteered to do so, I will step in and demonstrate my ignorance. What the hell is "voo-ish"?

Posted
You mean 16". 12" softball gets played with a glove. There are some men's leagues but girls fastpitch is 12" and you had better have a glove.

In the mid eightys, there were 180 mens and womens fast and slow pitch softball teams in this little city. I never heard of that. I pitched mens fastpitch for over twenty five years. (Knuckle baller) Never paid any attention to that. I just measured a ball. 12" on the nose.

The shit ya learn here.

Posted

I took this yesterday. I felt it was voo-ish.

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OK...

Since no one else has volunteered to do so, I will step in and demonstrate my ignorance. What the hell is "voo-ish"?

"Voo-ish," means "vey cool." As far as i know, it's a word my cousin, who often speaks a foreign language, coined.

Okay, this will be my last skyline shot (for a while). I took this from a Bucktown roof a couple of years ago.

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Posted

The crop is crimson clover. We use is as a combination cover and seed crop. The plant fixes nitrogen in the soil and the farmers harvest the seeds to sell to other farmers.

When the clover is in full bloom, I sometimes feel like I'm driving through a red sea.

The mountain range is the Cascades. The mountain on the right is Mt. St. Helens -- note the flat top -- and the one on the left is Mt. Rainier, which is clear up in Mike's neighborhood. The only time of year that's clear enough for a picture like this is late May.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

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