A Curly Wig and Blush

Many years ago, when I was just a kid and my grandma was much younger, she shared Jenny Joseph's poem, "Warning," with me. It's the one that starts: "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple/ With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me./ And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves..." I think my grandma was beginning to experience the sense of social freedom that can come with getting older and didn't want me to think that she had gone crazy when she started wearing strange clothes and picking flowers from other people's gardens. She has continued to age gracefully and is enjoying many of the benefits of her age. Having said that, this woman steals the cake for living up to Joseph's poem:

I was looking for a book in Border's when I found her sporting this curly costume wig and a dizzying amount of blush, enjoying the latest issue of Vogue. I'm still smiling.

The Water Tower

One of the only buildings to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871:

ballet bathtub mess

I don't think I'll ever understand why ballet shoes have to be the same color as their wearer's skin. I'll also never understand why coloring such a small shoe makes such a large mess. At least it's in the bath tub.

The Tribune Tower

I checked out the Tribune Tower the other day. It's a neo-Gothic skyscraper that is the home of the Chicago Tribune and marks the beginning of the "Magnificent Mile." Also, the basement was the set for the batcave in The Dark Knight. The lower levels of the building feature rocks, bricks, and other artifacts that Tribune reporters have collected from around the world. Here are some pics of the tower and a few of the artifacts:

"On the Death Sentence"

I just read "On the Death Sentence"- a review by John Paul Stevens of David Garland's book, A Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition. Justice Steven's provides a good overview of the book and a compelling analysis of the death penalty in America. I have always been uncomfortable with the death penalty- as I think most people are- because of the sheer finality of it and the possibility of human error; but I became firmly opposed to it after reading Gibbs Smith's book, Joe Hill, for a criminal justice class that I took in college. Joe Hill was a migrant worker originally from Sweden who came to Utah to work as a miner and was executed by firing squad in 1915 for the murder of a local butcher and his son. His conviction was based on inconclusive circumstantial evidence and questionable eyewitness testimony. For example, the prosecution emphasized the fact that Joe Hill received a gunshot wound on the same night as the murder. There were a total of five people treated for bullet wounds in the Salt Lake area that night, and the prosecution did not demonstrate why Hill's wound was more suspicious than any of the others.

Most people who study the case today believe that the state of Utah failed to prove that Joe Hill was guilty, and that he was convicted because he was a migrant worker and a member of the International Workers of the World (a very unpopular organization in Utah at the time). He was likely the victim of the public's hunger for vengeance and the state's need for a scapegoat, consistent with Garland's thesis that "the primary public benefits of the death penalty are 'political exchange and cultural consumption."

Justice Stevens says about those who are condemned on death row: "Many of them have repented and made positive contributions to society. The finality of an execution always ends that possibility." When I was working at the Salt Lake Metro Jail, I worked one-on-one with several people who had committed capital crimes, and there were times that I was shocked by how badly they wanted to redeem themselves. It may never be possible to right a wrong as great as murder, but why not let someone try? I recently read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune about a man named Robert Jones who was convicted of murder in 1983 and has been in the Utah State Prison since then. He has devoted his time to doing service projects in the name of Kim Chapman, the man he shot and killed. This year, he crocheted 540 stocking hats for needy children in the Salt Lake area, often staying up late into the night to make sure the hats could all be delivered by Christmas. If he had been sentenced to death, Kim Chapman would still be dead- nothing can change that. 540 children, though, would not have hats to keep them warm this winter.

Justice Stevens concludes his review by quoting Justice Byron White: "the death penalty represents the 'pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes."

Read Justice Stevens' review here.
Read the article about Robert Jones here.

And then the sun came out...

Wintry Night in the Loop

Lake Street

Monument With Standing Beast

Modeling Christmas Cookies

Napoleon and I made Christmas cookies and we were inspired by this woman to document the occasion:

Millennuim Park

The sun finally came out, so I thought I'd get out and see the city with a fresh blanket of snow. These photos are from Millennium Park, along the lake shore, and from Grant Park along Michigan Ave.

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion- designed by Frank Gehry.

Cloud Gate- also known as "the bean"- designed by Anish Kapoor.

The bean's navel.

Reflection.

Magdalene.

Ho Ho Ho!

Chicago was teeming with drunk Santas on Saturday for the annual Santa pub crawl. Too bad I don't have a Santa costume.

Traces

The other night we saw "Traces" from the Seven Fingers- a circus company based out of Montreal. The show was stunning to say the least. It featured seven artists performing some of the craziest acrobatics I've ever seen. I was sitting next to Jackie Burns, who plays Elphaba in the national tour of Wicked, and amazes audiences nightly by how powerfully she sings "Defying Gravity." She was so blown away by "Traces" that after the show she said, "I don't even feel talented anymore." If you get a chance to see "Traces" or any other show by the Seven Fingers, do! Oh, and just for fun, I posted a video clip of Jackie singing "Defying Gravity" at the bottom of the post- decide for yourself who's more talented. The audio is terrible and you can barely see Jackie, but I think its good enough to gauge her talent.

Is that a duck?

This is the building that is directly across the street from our apartment:


A couple of days ago, Napoleon and I were noticing how the awnings look like tire tread when Napoleon said, "Is that a duck?" It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about, but then I saw it too:

I said, "Yes, that is a duck. A dead duck." I pulled out my camera to take a picture and as I was zooming in I noticed another dead duck just above that one:


In the first picture above you can see both of these ducks on the left awning and just above it. I don't know why these ducks were flying through downtown Chicago, what killed them, or how long their bodies have been lying there, but I can't help but feel a little sad for them.

Chicago!

We made it to Chicago on Monday and I'm loving it! Last night I explored the river-walk and took pictures of some of Chicago's iconic architecture.

The Wrigley Building.

The Wrigley Building with the Tribune Tower in the foreground and the Trump International in the background.

NBC Tower.

Me in a reflective ball thing.

The lower level of the Michigan Avenue bridge.

Bell on the Michigan Avenue bridge.

Vietnam War memorial.

Trump Tower. I took this picture from the rooftop of our building.

El tracks going down Wabash Avenue. This picture was also taken from our rooftop.