My tomato plant is PMSing...

I got a tomato plant from the farmers' market a few weeks ago. It shot up like a weed, got a bunch of blooms, and now it's got little green bulbs on three of the blooms. They're not actually tomatoes yet, they're swollen ovaries. Yeesh. Sounds like something out of 7th grade health class.

But this is so much better:

Chicago/Art Institute pics

More pics of Chicago, added to the Chicago collection:

Ironically, we were coming from the Museum of Modern Ice when we came upon this installment of frozen cubism:



They apparently have a gallery inside that's open for free when there's anything to show. I had no idea. The story they had posted of the haunted water tower was a lot more interesting than the exhibit they had on display:



We were just strolling down the street when this caught my eye. I like how the lamp lines up with the overhead light. I think it was a design gallery or something:



This looks like if Tom Waits and Charles Bukowski had a party and invited all of their friends, this would be ground zero for the ruckus that would ensue:



I coulnd't get a shot without the flag. It's Chicago, can't do anything about the wind. *shrug*



And pics from the Art Institute:

Museum of Modern Ice

There's a sculpture at the Millennium Park called Museum of Modern Ice I heard about it and expected it to be sculptures of people, animals, castles, etc. My neighbor and I showed up and it looked like this:



And basically it looked dumb. But we figured, what the hell, take a few shots of some colored ice and go get some lunch. As we were taking our shots, we started to get kind of excited because the longer you stood and looked at it, the more there was to see. Other peoples' comments ("Look, Mama, it looks like the blue and red from the police," and "Is that supposed to be the skyline? That's a very interesting take on it.") made me see it in a different way. There were guides leading people around the exhibit, explaining little bits of it andthat helped, too.

The slabs of ice are expected and, indeed, intended to melt. As they melt, more colors and textures are shown. When one piece melts completely, it's replaced by a new block of ice. The fact that it changes color as it melts and sometimes reveals swriled textures is what really appealed to me.

I guess it didn't appeal so much to this kid who walked up and just shoved one of the blocks over. I didn't get a shot of it, but we were laughing about it all the way to Potbelly's.

More (non-ice-sculpture) pics to follow.

Still life with green pepper

My blog, my camera, my rules. And so:

We wouldn't have it any other way

It started snowing sometime on New Year's Eve, probably in the afternoon. It kept snowing all night and on into dawn. I was going to walk home from my friend's house and get some nice shots, but I was offered a ride. These are what I got before I got in the car:












More here, and more to come. It's 12 degrees outside right now. Fuck photography on a day like this.

It's Christmastime! There's no need to be afraid?

Random things I found the day after Christmas while trolling a mall in Maryland. Before you judge me, you should know that there's nothing really to do in Maryland but troll malls and drink. Fact.



Singing pigs. Much creepier in person, but here's the gist of it:



I don't know what the manufacturer was thinking with this monkey:



But I know that the folks in charge of making this turtle dance to "Mister Roboto" were thinking "awesome":



Fat babies! Come get your fat babies! They're gonna grow up just like you, fat and angry and stupid!



Why, you might ask? Well, here's a thought:



My sister took me to some huge grocery store to, apparently, agree with her that it was a huge grocery store. They had truffles there at the bargain price of $999.99 per pound. No, I'm not kidding:



And last but not least, some miscellany:

Misc

I cleaned out the memory card on my camera yesterday. Here are some random shots:

Darjeeling Limited

I saw this yesterday with a friend, and I didn't like it as much as I liked "Life Aquatic" and "Royal Tenenbaums." Two of the metaphors they used were handed so heavily that I nearly dislocated my eyes from rolling them so hard, and I think they took out pieces of the movie after Owen Wilson's fiasco a few months ago. Things that I read that were going to be parts of the movie before that mess weren't there in the version I saw yesterday. Maybe they'll have them in the bonus features on the DVD.

The friend I saw it with hadn't seen "Royal Tenenbaums," but I'd watched "Life Aquatic" with her and she liked "Darjeeling Limited" better. I've heard other people say that Bill Murray was in there basically because he's always in Anderson's movies, and that certainly seemed the case here. The few minutes he's in the film it's like he's trying to be extra funny because that's his job, but he's obviously not trying very hard. I still love Bill Murray, though, and those four fleeting moments of film won't tarnish that. He only had one line, two if you count screaming, so it's not like he had a lot to work with.

I hope this is the last time Anderson makes this movie (let's face it, it's so far along the same lines as the other two that it borders on insulting the audience's intelligence), but I know I'll go see it again if he gives it another go.

All in all, I'd recommend it if you liked "Life Aquatic" and "Royal Tenenbaums." If you hated those, though, don't bother.

Oh, and I took some pictures and video while I was downtown:

3 hours a day makes me a professional's professional

Strolling down Jackson in the bowels of Oak Park, I can hear the roar of the airplane overhead and the roar of the blue line behind me. To the untrained ear it's the same noise, the same roar, the same swift, onward motion.

There are subtle differences. The airplane soars over, going somewhere - running away and leaving it all behind. Just like your daydreams, or the latest love of your life. Full of escape and possibility and perky attendants, the plane has had enough and is leaving for better climes.

The el clatters along, rattling, jarring you to the bone like roller skates on old sidewalks or the fathomless pit of your soul when you realize you've made the biggest mistake of your life. The el, cranky and ornery and mean, rumbles through the night. Staying its ground. Getting the last word in.

Woodstock!

Some friends and I went to Woodstock yesterday. No, the one in Illinois, where they filmed "Groundhog Day." We made some other stops. More pics here.









Here's the flash show: