We had an exceptional full moon last night here in Chicago and got a great view the moon moving across the night sky.
Cross posted at LITGM
Full Moon Over River North
Chicagoania
Why Bureaucracies Suck
It is important to keep in mind the ossifying effect of bureaucracies and their ability to grow and consume resources without impacting the situation that they were established to originally “fix”. This occurs in the public sector (government) and in the private sector among foundations.
A donor gave a gigantic donation to the Poetry foundation, a foundation dedicated to publishing “Poetry” magazine and also to helping the mission of poetry. In the popular consciousness and in reality, being a poet would be the quintessential “starving artist”, since there is very little remuneration for this sort of work.
So what would be the logical thing to do with this vast and unexpected donation, in excess of $100 million? Perhaps the foundation could actually pay poets and sponsor their work and bring them out of penury?
Nah… the thing to do is BUILD A BIG BUILDING FOR THE STAFF (and visitors). In an expensive part of Chicago, in fact, where the cost of the building is a significant multiple of what it might cost elsewhere, say the suburbs of Chicago, or pretty much anywhere else in the US outside of New York or California.
Per this article, the total cost of the building is expected to be $21.5 million. Since nothing ever comes in on time or on budget, plan on it costing a bit more.
…offices space are located on the second level, organized into three areas each for the administration, Poetry magazine and website staff, and programs staff. The building’s internal arrangement is configured so all spaces have views of the garden.
Glad all of the staff now reside in a very high rent district, in a state of the art building, with a view of the garden. I’m sure all of the starving poets out there will appreciate this fact.
A classic example of a bureaucracy putting the needs of its staff ahead of its mission.
Cross posted at LITGM
2010 Chicago Air & Water Show
The Chicago Air & Water Show gives me a great chance to watch jets in our skies over the city. I have a good view from my balcony and friends of ours have an awesome view from atop their building near the lake. On Saturday (day one) I took a few photos from my balcony and on Sunday I got some from my friends’ deck.
Lollapalooza 2010 – Soundgarden
Lollapalooza day three was HOT. In Chicago it doesn’t get hot like Florida but with humidity and direct sunlight it was enough to wipe out most of the crowd. The guy in the upper left had a lot of gas left in his tank, though. On the upper right, a view looking north with the Lolla icon. Lower left, a view of Wolfmother, which played to an emptied-out south half, and Cypress Hill, who had the whole crowd engulfed in a cloud of smoke of the non-traditional variety.
But for me the whole show was about SOUNDGARDEN. I never saw them while they were in their prime during the grunge days but they re-united for Lollapalooza and frankly the pre-concert vibes from critics weren’t that great. But Soundgarden silenced the critics – Chris Cornell’s voice was absolutely awesome – and they bludgeoned the crowd with a hammering set of their classics.
Upper left – I got up front and to the right of the stage (conveniently near liquor, to boot) and this is from later in the night before it got pitch black. Upper right – the view looking north with spotlights in the background. Lower left – a view of the show early on. Middle right – as the night ended, the inevitable ambulance rides off. Lower right – the crowd cheering early on for Soundgarden.
Cross posted at LITGM
Lollapalooza 2010
Lollapalooza 2010 is being held in Grant Park in Chicago. The music festival goes for three days on a Friday – Sunday and I bought a 3 day wrist band which lets me come and go during the weekend.
On the first day the crowd seemed large, as you can see in these photos. The upper left is the mid-day crowd on Friday watching the Black Keys, on the north end. The lower right shows the crowd facing south just past Buckingham Fountain, which is the center. Lady Gaga played a strange show, dropping more f-bombs than Snoop did last year, but she was certainly trying hard and wearing virtually nothing for half the show and brought fireworks for the finale. On the lower right is Perry’s, where the crowd dances into the night.
There weren’t a lot of bands that I was into the second day. I wasn’t going to attend at all but the weather was nice so I decided to go over and watch the crowd and have a few beers. In the upper right you can see Kuma’s Corner, where they had HUGE hamburgers that you have to see to believe. If you go to the restaurant in Chicago you have to stand in line for hours to get them – it is a heavy metal shop as you can see they have the Iron Maiden and Judas Priest burgers. On the upper right there was a see-saw that generated enough power to make sno-cones. On the lower left you can see some of the very strangely dressed people as they went to Lolla to make a statement. And on the lower right some very pro-dope fans from Canada during Metric.
Cross posted at LITGM