Bike Winter Art Show

The Bike Winter Art Show is brightening the gloomy late winter skies once again! The closing takes place this Friday at C. Haus in Humboldt Park. The event space has room enough for dancing, the annual fashion show, and large-scale installations. For more details follow this link.

2013 will mark the second year that I have participated in the show. This year I created a graphic design of a girl posing in the Chicago Bike Salute stance, seen below at the opening at Gallerie F in Logan Square.

Also on display at the show is a photo of my ’63 blue Schwinn Suburban amidst a sprinkling of woodland wildflowers.

We made it through another winter! I biked nearly every single day and was the happier for it. Thanks to all the bike winter volunteers for putting on fun events like these to keep the community warm and close on these dark winter days!

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Best Chicago Pictures of 2012

The Huffington Post featured one of my photos in their 2012 Best Chicago Pictures. Thanks, HuffPost!

Send Mail Windows Nuance & Workaround

Hey all, just posted my first blog post over at the Soliant Consulting blog, where I hang my database consultant’s hat. Read it here.

Enjoy!

It’s a beauteous evening, calm and free

Photo Caption

Mass Up

I write this with a heavy heart, for as many of you know, Friday morning brought with it a terrible accident on Wells Street. Neill Townsend, an attorney riding his bike to work, was doored and killed.  A terrible, tragic accident.

What makes this tragedy even more heartbreaking is that it could have been prevented by safer infrastructure. In many European cities where many, many more people bike, like Berlin, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, this would never have happened. They build their cities centered around pedestrians and cyclists not cars.  According to this New York Times article, “…pedestrian deaths in the United States are three times as high per capita as in Germany and five times as high as in the Netherlands. Safer road designs in these countries slow motor vehicles and separate them from pedestrians and cyclists.” CDOT Commissioner Gabe Klein and Mayor Emmanuel have made significant progress but we obviously need more.

In the meantime, some contributors to TheChainlink.org (an online bicycling community) discussion group suggest that bikers take matters into their own hands and try to mass up and take the lane whenever possible. I think it’s a good idea. Doing so will undoubtedly anger motorists but at least they’ll know we’re there.

Whatever we do, we can’t let this tragedy keep us from the streets. We have to fight harder. Think of new ways to raise awareness. Demand safer streets. And keep up the critical mass rides. It is from participating in the mass that I gained the confidence to take the lane when I don’t feel safe. And where I found a sense of community and strength.

September’s 15th Anniversary Ride drew a large crowd. Thank you to everyone who helped to print the shirts, the 2013 winter stickers, and the Derailleur! Here are some pics:

My favs first…

And here are a few photos from the July ride that my good friend and fellow photographer contributed. Once again, favs first!

A group of chainlinkers are planning a memorial next Friday for Neill at the scene of the accident. Read more about it here. I hope to see you there.

It’s official! (I heart LSQ!)

I am honored to announce that  you can now find my artwork at Wolfbait & b-Girls in Logan Square. I just dropped off my first pieces this evening.

Happy as can be.

Wolfbait & b-Girls rocks the Logan Square ‘hood, proffering only local gems ~ unique clothing designs, handbags, jewelry, you name it.  In fact, the Chicago Reader crowd voted them Chicago’s best local shop. If you are in the area it is worth a lookaround. Logan Square abounds in fantastic little shops, cutting edge restaurants, and just a general creative, independent vibe.

Indeed, before I stopped in at Wolfbait, I had my hair cut at Mops Beauty Shop by Bria. It is without a doubt the best experience I have had at a salon in the ten years that I have lived in Chicago. No joke. Not only did she work wonders with my hair but she asked me in-depth questions about my usual methods and my likes and dislikes and then she truly tailored my cut to what she thought would work best given the information provided. The ultimate in artistic professionalism. Love her. I think I may have finally found the one! As Cat Marnell would say, I die.  I found Bria through my fav personal style media source – Refinery 29. Thank you once again, Shani Silver!

After I talked with one of the lovely proprietors of Wolfbait, I made my way over to New Wave Coffee on Milwaukee and grabbed a tasty sandwich and a glass of water. It’s so nice to patronize an establishment that leaves a jug of tap water out for guests. At Navy Pier the restaurants are not even allowed to give out water – you have to buy plastic bottles. Anywho, the New Wave coffeehouse/sandwich shop is great ~ comfy vintage furniture, lots of hipsters on their computers and a plethora of reading materials and posters/info of local goings on. OH! And an old-school Nintendo with a bunch of  big ‘ol game cartridges! I’m going to rifle through them next time to see if I can find the original Super Mario Brothers. Oh yeah!

Hope ya’ll have a great night.

Bike Winter 2013 Logo Sticker Contest

Hey everyone! The winter season is not too far away and BikeWinter.org, a group of volunteers dedicated to supporting biking through the winter, is holding their annual logo sticker competition. The stickers will be used to spread the word and good cheer of biking through the cold months ~ “Every day is a good day to ride a bike”, they say. And so do I! I’ve biked through two Chicago winters now. It ain’t so bad. It actually makes the winter much more enjoyable.

BikeWinter.org holds events such as art shows and decal making parties; they provide information on safe winter biking and what to wear; and just generally raise awareness about the joys of winter biking!

Check out the sticker candidates this year and vote here.

Below is my submission this year!

While I think there are a much better submissions than mine, it was fun to make! I used Gimp, the free image-editing software to cut out the bike silhouette from a picture that I took a few years ago:

And then modified the color scheme down to the gray shadow… and you can see the rest! By next year I hope to learn how to use inkscape (the free alternative to Illustrator) to draw a smoother, more polished submission..

Anywho… Hope you vote and hope you get to experience the fun of winter biking this year!

 

Open House Chicago

This looks really cool: Open House Chicago ~ A behind the scenes look at over 150 of Chicago’s greatest architectural gems. Free. Oct 13-14.

Anyone else going? Any sites you simply must see?

I will def hit up the Newberry Library, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, for sure the Driehaus Museum ~ which is usuall $$$ to get in, oooh and the Green Mill – if those walls could talk they would probably howl… (at the moon ~ someone stop me now.) And hopefully some others. Let me know what buildings interest you most!

Chicago with a storm rolling in:

 

 

FNO Chicago Street Shots … Continued…

It is truly beginning to turn into fall. A crispness in the air will alert you. And the crackling of the first leaves on the sidewalks. This summer’s heat was so intense though that I find it slightly difficult to find just the right layers for the cooler weather. Not so for the fashionistas spotted at this year’s Fashion’s Night Out Chicago. The temp was a bit warmer than this morning’s chilly 55 and these ladies and gents did it just right:

First up ~ my beautiful blue-eyed cousin Lauren of the Big Blond Hair Blog | Real Housewives, Real Style ~ always glam ~

The fabulous and clever Darling Shear of Heel My Sole and pal Joshua:

Elegant hipsters…

A trois

Brendan all in denim and his lady friend:

Rad up-do and tribal prints

The ultimate statement necklace:

A new twist on the skull print:

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More FNO Chicago 2012 photos here.

FNO Chicago Teaser

Just returned from a fun few hours on Mag Mile for Fashion’s Night Out Chicago. Fabulous as always. Here are a few quick shots, more to come!