Another image from Nawins concert

IMG_6847 rt (C) Stef Leinwohl, Chicago, IL (C) Stef Leinwohllo-res (C) Stef Leinwohl
Originally uploaded by finefoto.

This is being directly posted to my blog from my photos on my flickr site. Hope this works. The below ones were loaded one by one using the add an image icon button in the compose function of this blog.

New Orleans Jazz All Stars fund concert

I shot a fund raiser at Fitzgerald's jazz joint in Chicago back in November of 2005 for the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. This is not one of those huge ones. It is run by a husband and wife producer from NO and gets the funds to the musicains quick. The url is http://www.nomrf.org/index.html. These guys have lost everything! Many lived in the 9th parish.
It was a fabulous concert by local New Orleans musicans, not supplemented by any local Chicago guys.
Photo note: these are very lo-res posted pix. The originals were shot using a Canon XT at 1600asa with the kit lens or a Sigma f2.8 70 to 200mmm which is quite sharp. The images do not have any "noise."

Some random New Orleans memories

With recent events in New Orleans, a few short memories of my wife's and my experiences. (I should write in more detail, but perhaps that is for another post.)

We spent our 1968 honeymoon in New Orleans and returned many times. Lucky us. It has changed much over the years. Tthe last time we were there in 2001; we did not like what we were seeing it changing into: a convention and "tourist" destination. It was not the same and now certainly can not be what it was after the devastation of hurrican Katrina. I hope this does not hasten its Disneyizing, like many other tourist destinations think is a "solution." Enough of my "rant."

One time we rode down the Mississippi in a Pusher Boat of 20 barges. Now that was hearty grub! On that trip we had to tie off for 3 or 4 days because of hurricane. When we finally arrived in the Big Easy we were met by tug boats captained by Cajuns. And to get off the Pusher Boat and onto land we had to get onto one of these "working" tugs. Not too clean! And the sing song language, including cursing in Cajun. Wouldn't give up those memories for anything.

Tatooed fem jogger in the park

Tatooed fem jogger in the park
Originally uploaded by finefoto.

Wonderful what might catch in the early morning light!

S. and I returned from the Sunday "French Market" at Nettlehorst elementary school on Broadway. We purchased an apple and lemon tartlets from the order of nuns from the bakery of the Fraternite NotreDame* and these fluers from another vendor.

When we returned home I put them in a very nice heavy glass vase and decided to photograph them in my primitive umbrella lighting setup against a black velvet background I had built in the living room I am using to photograph stuff I will be listing on ebay next month.

The star gazer lillies have a strong aroma.

* 773-261-0101 (they make madalines and will make them for you if you order them ahead of time)

The Women of Lockerbie, a play

Today Don and I walked part of the distance to Fourth Presbyterian Church at Chestnut and Michigan Ave to attend the “men’s group” script reading presentation of Women of Lockerbie, a play by DeborahBrevoort about the crash of Pan Am 103 in 1988 or so. It blew up over the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland, the victim of Lebanon terrorists.

The play concerns itself with a New Jersey mother who roams the hills of Lockerbie Scotland, looking for her son’s remains lost in the crash of Pan Am 103. She meets the Women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the US Government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane’s wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim’s families. The Women of Lockerbie is loosely inspired by a true story, although the characters and situations in the play are purely fictional. Written in the structure of a Greek tragedy, it is a poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate.

The cast is small, consisting of only five women and two men:

MADELINE LIVINGSTON: A suburban housewife from New Jersey. Her 20-year old son Adam was killed 7 years ago in the Pan Am 103 crash over Lockerbie, Scotland.

BILL LIVINGSTON: Her husband, father of Adam.

OLIVE ALLISON: An older woman, from Lockerbie and leader of the laundry project.

Two middle-aged women from Lockerbie.

HATTIE: A cleaning woman from Lockerbie.

GEORGE JONES: The American government representative in charge of the warehouse storing the remains from the Pan Am 103 crash.

I know it sounds like a cliche, but all of us were rivited to the delivery of the words as each actor delivered them. Everyone who discussed it with the actors afterwards, in an open discussion, prefaced their comments with quotes of either a sentence or a paragraph.

The playwrite had Bill nailed down perfect. Only a woman could have. The quote or situation that hit me like a brick was description of having to return a Christmas gift to a 16 year old clerk. And then do it over and over again the same day for the rest of the gifts. It brought it alive. I played it like a video in my mind. I have a daughter who has worked retail since she was 14.

I could go on, but it would ramble. Her words will stay with Don and me for a long time.

joggers along LSD underpass

joggers along LSD underpass
Originally uploaded by finefoto.

Although Don is visiting his son Matt and the new baby, John,
for Johnny’sfirst birthday, I nevertheless decided to take a
walk along thepark.

 It had been warm the previous day and overnight the melted

snow that drained over the jogging paths and sidewalks and

rocks had become a very deceiving thin glaze. On top of the

glaze was a erratic thin drizzle of moisture from fog water

from the melting snow along the side of the path.  Unless the

light was in front of you and glaring off the ice or water, you

did not see it. If jogging, the forward movement would send you

off into space until you landed on your rear end and a sprained

wrist. Luckily I became aware of this and did not experience

this. I recall it happening to me over 15 years ago around this

time during one of our walks just south of Diversey along the

rocks. I landed on my back. It knocked the air out of me and I

couldn’t utter a sound for at least a minute, or longer. 

I had thought of bicycling, but for some reason thought better

of it. I was quite releaved that I did, because of the ice.

It was like bicycling on oil. Some intrepid folks were all

dressed in their colorful spanex and bicycling, but at only 

5 to 10 miles an hour! Not one was speeding like usual. 

I discovered a jogging path now is along the Diversey “rocks”

that now is a rock wall from the south entrance of Belmont 

Harbor to Diversey Harbor entrance. 

Sceary "just do it" stencil graffiti from Portugal

just_do_it
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

I've been flaneuring graffiti and documenting it for over 40 years. A long time in the past I had the cover and 3 pages in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine about the paintings on the northside lakefront rocks.

So I was delighted to discover the flickr.com site and do a search for graffiti. There are over a thousand photos there of graffite. I have only probably looked at 50 to 70 images yet.

I opened an account there but have only posted a few images. I want to only post low res images so no one can really use them for anything but display on their computer screen.

I found this searching for graffiti again on flickr.com. Photographer: "Graffitti is way cool. This is from Lisboa Portugal, somewhere near the hill leading to the castle. This one is pretty balzy and comes at you from different levels."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cudmore/

"you lie" graffiti rat

you lie
Originally uploaded by niznoz.

I found this graffiti image during search on flickr.com. I saved a 4MB high res version on my HD.

I wrote the photographer and he responded:

"I took it on New Bond Street in Mayfair, a street with a huge number of very expensive stores and I don't imagine graffiti lasts very long there.  Except that these stencils of a small animal look like they belong -- they look as if they are an organic part of the urban

scene, like pigeons -- and so may be ignored by those who scrub graffiti."

Time

http://www.clocklink.com/Clocks/0001-Blue.swf?TimeZone=PST" width="200" height="200" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash

I make L'Opera [Cake]

Well, I actually made the classic French Opera cake!

The process is one hell of a production and took all day, not including the shopping for the ingredients!

Ever since I read about L'Opera mentioned in my research on the web about Paris patiseries, I have been curious about it. It consists of three thin layers of almond cake, each soaked in a potent coffee syrup; a layer of espresso-flavored buttercream; a layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache; and a topped off with a very thin shiny chocolate glaze. I have never had the pleasure of tasting it, so the cururiousity has been even stronger.

Two weeks earlier S and I were at "Bittersweet" on Belmont in our neighborhood and I inquirered if they were familiar with it. They said yes, and they would make me one with two days notice for $25.

Never having tasted it, I was a bit leery of taking the gamble, since they don't sell it by the slice so I could do a taste test.

Since R's B-day was coming up, I decided I would do some research on the web and see what A9.com, my current fav search engine would dig up.

Well it hit pay dirt with the very first item listed: the actual recipe used at Dalloyau patiserie in Paris. It was the one that Dorie Greenspan had gotten directly from the chef there for her book, Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City's Best Pastry Shops. S and I had heard her speak last year at the Chicago Historical Society.

First I had to shop for all the ingredients. That alone took a bit of time.

Then I assembled the ingredients in groups for the 6 or 7 layers. Then I dug up all the bowls, spoons, wisks, etc. to make the cake. I had to go out and purchase special longer baking sheets for the thin cakes.

Using my digital therometer, I preheated to the exact correct temperature. I had been warned by culinary student's blog that if the temperature was too hot or I baked the cake too long that I would end up with a hard cracker! Mine were perfect!

I'm going to take a break now, will write more later.

Warm Winter Days and font & color test

Today is as dreary as a London day, gray, foggy and snowing a heavy wet snow on the verge of rain.

It has been extraordinarly warm the last two days with rain. The rain has washed away the 6 to 10 inch snow, but all that moisture has led to soil that cannot obsorb anymore and now heavy fog.

Today RCN was to arrive and plug me into the new wonders of digital cable. Of course "cable guy," who was to arrive between 2 and 5 pm never appeared. Called RCN that issued a investigation tag and was to call me. Never did. Maybe, just maybe it IS time to jump ship with the bankrumpt carrier.

Today Susan had her apointment with the pain clinic and we discussed the possibility of Cryroneo therapy to freeze her nerve endings to relieve her pain. I had done a lot web research and submitted copies of that as well as questions to the doc. He will peruse them and answer the questions and we will discuss it all next month and make a decision.

The following test of fonts and sizes: (the first name is "normal size")

Ariel larger
Courier larger
Georgia larger
Lucida Grande larger
Times larger
Trebuchet larger
Verdana larger
Webdings

Horay! The tree and all the docorations are down & packed!

The task is completed. We managed to get all the ornaments, lights, stockings and heavy picture frame sock hangers as well as all the other decorations, etc. packed away into two large plastic storage containers. By judicious culling we got rid of two corragated cardboard boxes. This is a giant step forward in saving space.

This does not take into accord the medium sized tree Susan places on the buffett that is in the dinning room. Nor does it include the two plastic shirt boxes that contain her sizable collection of minature tea cups, saucers and tea pots that she decorates the tree nor her foot and a half desk top Christmas tree.

We attended David and Gay Anderson's open house in Oak Park this afternoon.

Justin and his wife with their 6 month old child were there. I hadn't seen him in years. I don't think I had ever met her. He is still working at a map company and lives in Geneva, IL.

I custom created a slide show of lo-res images of our trip to the Cotswold villages in the south western area of Great Britain. I did this task to include with with some of my research documents and list of URL's for the area that I sent to Mary Greenough who had ask for any info I had, knowing Susan and I had visited the area in the fall of 2002.

Finally taking down the Christmas tree

Well, we are finally taking all our unique ornaments off our Christmas tree! We have quite a collection, since we've been aquiring additions for over 30 years. Every year we swear we will not purchase any new ones, but always seem to aquire a half a dozen over the year of travel, etc.

This year, as we unpacked them, we discard many. Some we threw out in the garbage. Others our daughter took, and some we hope to sell at a garage sale in the spring.

We hope to cut down on storage space by going through this process. I'll let you know how well I did when I finally start to efficently repack all the ornaments and other decorations in the special boxes we have.

Taking down Christmas decorations: January 7, 2005

Finally taking down the Christmas tree!
Well, we are finally taking all the unique ornaments off our Christmas tree! We have quite a collection since we've been at it for over 30 years. Every year we swear we will not purchase any new ones, but always seem to break down and acquire a half a dozen over a year of travel, etc.

This year, as we unpacked them, we discarded many of them. Some we threw out in the garbage. Some our daughter took, and some we hope to sell at a garage sale in the spring.

We hope to cut down on storage space by going through this process. I'll let you know how well I did when I finally get down efficiently repacking all the ornaments and other decorations away in the special boxes we have.

The Flaneur