Hardest Thing of All

In the last pipeline I mentioned there'd be a one sheeter coming soon.

It's still coming.

The hardest thing for me to do is "sell" the pipeline.

Some people announce that they've built something and then want others to buy into its nascent existence.

Others struggle to continue and then struggle more at the prospect of selling themselves.

Hence the delay.

Pat is proofing the one sheeter, which is more of a letter to readers.

I mocked up the rate card.
Already sold a few listings and some of the Kudos are booked.
Now I just have to get the word out.
And work. Walk streets. Meet with people. Calls. Emails. Etc.
I think it will be a fun way to mark the past two years and get pumped about the future.

A better way to Liberty Lounge than the one I took

There's a much better way to get to Liberty Lounge in Roscoe Village than the way I got there last night, for post work brews and catch up with two coworkers who also started on the same day that I did. I guess we're in Week 9 which makes sense since it's been about two months now that I've been burning the candle at both ends.

So, my lower back is still jacked. I should be doing physical therapy, but instead I'm using every extra minute to devote to the pipeline, which requires even more time in a sedentary position than the 40 hours each week I spend doing something else.

So, at first I cancelled. The clock ticked 5 and we all sprung up from our cubes like jack-in-the-boxes. It's that kind of place.

I hobbled to the door and felt the shooting pain in my left leg. I thought it might be better to just go home and lay down rather than sit on a bar stool. I quickly and abruptly cancelled, hobbled off, and that was that until I started walking to the bus stop in the pouring rain on a Friday night and thought what am I doing, going home to rest my leg by my lonesome. That's it?

Taking shelter under the underpass, I texted my coworker to find out where the bar is.

Then I crossed the street, the wrong way, and I walked toward the bar, which is situated right under the underpass. It turned out I had to cross the street again, back to the side I'd just been on, and rather than walking to the street light I thought it might make sense if I crossed a half block before the light. There was a cement divider right after the underpass, like a cement island, and so I walked toward the island and that is when I noticed the deep puddles of standing water on either side of the island. But cars were coming toward me and I had to run onto the island as fast as I could. And that's when I felt the water on my coat, the waves of it, dirty water baptizing me before my journey to Liberty, first from one lane of traffic, and then from the other lane of traffic as I waited to cross.

And that's how I got to Liberty Lounge. Here's a few pics.
Happy hungover Saturday.

Rainy Morning Blahs

The first rainstorms of Spring are always surprising, at least to me.
Uncharacteristically difficult for me to get jazzed about Wicker Park, though.
I'm getting close to the two year mark.
Still kicking, but screaming a bit now and then.
Anger is not a worthy emotion.
Nor is regret.
I've put a lot of time into this thing.
Few hours for social life outside of a full-time job, plus the pipeline.
Few hours for just chilling out.
Few hours for being anything else to anyone else.
And yet still, the PR people send emails.
The neighborhood groups expect I'll link to them.
The contributors need direction and/or guidance as well as payment.
The advertisers require attention.
The non-profits trust I should be jazzed to feature their fundraiser.
The folks who are funded to do things want me to help spread their news, again.
The would be reporters write in with ideas.
The citizens send interesting news leads (favorite part)
The day is over aways before I am ready for it to be done.
Because there's always something to be done.
Work might not be enough
To keep me working, like this.

Location Change: Bloomingdale Trail Lecture

Regarding next Monday's lecture, per Doug Wood of the Wicker Park Garden Club, there is a change in location....

The gathering will be at Wicker Park Lutheran - Corner LeMoyne and Hoyne. Enter on Hoyne and we are in the north meeting hall.
Click on Map to enlarge it.

Yesterday, The Park District decided to close all offices and parks on Monday March 7 (to save $ in budget)

RESERVATION: 2 people - $8 each at Door

Monday, March 7 – Bloomingdale Trail – Michael Wilkensen – 7-8:30pm

Wicker Park Lutheran Church - 2112 West LeMoyne Avenue

The Week Past, the Week Ahead

Oh, what a week!

Here's the latest news we've got.

A Do-Not-Miss (unless you are on deadline) Garden Club Lecture, Mon. March 7

(All content, below, via Doug Wood of the wicker park garden club. Click on the photo, at right, to enlarge)


Monday, March 7 – 7-8:30 PM
Wicker Park Field House – 1425 N. Damen

The Bloomingdale Trail – Plans and Designs

Michael Wilkinson – Architect
Wilkinson Blender Architecture, Inc
www.wbarch.com

Utilizing the City’s Infrastructure to Create the New Urban Landscape
History of the Project – The Key Players – Designs
What is Next?

Reservations: Wpgarden@aol.com or 773-278-9075
$8 – Pay at Door – Cash or Check to Wicker Park Garden Club


Wicker Park Garden Club Educational Programming www.WPGarden.org

Book – Envisioning the Bloomingdale 5 Concepts
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/E/bo8922176.html

City officials are in the process of choosing designers and engineers to turn 2.7 miles of rail line into the Bloomingdale Trail, the longest elevated trail in the country and one of a very few elevated rail-trail conversion projects being considered nationally. Planners envision a linear urban park that runs from North Ashland Avenue west to three blocks past Central Park Avenue, connecting the Bucktown and Wicker Park neighborhoods with the residential areas of Logan Square and Humboldt Park. It rises about 15 feet above street level and is only 30 feet wide for most of its length. It is among several "Green Legacy" projects listed by The Burnham Plan Centennial, a public-private partnership celebrating the legacy of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago.

In 2007, the Chicago Architectural Club (Michael Wilkinson-President) directed an exhibition to explore strategies for the re-appropriation of an underutilized freight train line on the north side of Chicago known as the Bloomingdale Line. The goal of the exhibition was to generate awareness of the future value of the freight line as a public amenity and to draw attention to the design process that would enable this to happen. A book entitled Envisioning the Bloomingdale 5 Concepts (Foreword by Mohsen Mostafavi and an Introduction by Michael Wilkinson) includes a catalog and review of twenty-six design proposals for the Bloomingdale Line as well as essays from invited contributors that discuss the role of architecture in the design and execution of infrastructural work and explore the interface between architecture, landscape, engineering, and ecological practice in the design of postindustrial landscapes.

Michael Wilkinson and Richard Blender are principle architects at their firm Wilkinson Blender Architecture///Construction located in Chicago. Michael (Master of Architecture – U. of Pennsylvania) is a member of the American Institute of Architects, an associate adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology (2003-06), co-president Chicago Architecture Club (2006-08), associate adjunct professor at University of Illinois at Chicago (1996-09), and Past-Chairman of Roscoe Village Neighbors Zoning Committee.

From his firm’s website: ‘One extremely important aspect of our role as architects includes the ability to Imagine. Our job requires us to envision a world (or part of it) that does not yet exist. We constantly think about, talk about, design, detail, model, shape and render spaces and objects that will not be occupied until some point in the future.’

WE THANK OUR SPONSORS AND PARTNERS
FinalLogoSTripDecember2010.JPG

Images from Mayors Against Illegal Guns Tour and a few Pre-Coffee Words About It

There's miles to go before 8AM and I have to sneak in a pre-cube shower, plus I'm behind on other sections of the pipeline, because people keep sending me their news and I'm the idiot who'll link to it, so I'll make this quick.

Phlash popped by a press conference yesterday morning for this issue.

There was no time to write a story, so he just gave me the press release, or rather left it on my desk, which is how we do things now, and it seems to work. I like Phlash's post-it notes. Click on any of the release images to enlarge them!

There is no time for me to write a story, but if there were, I'd write something like it's cool to see the almost former longtime mayor in the news again, that he looked more relaxed and introspective than ever, that according to Phlash there were a lot of funny off-the-cuff remarks and jokes made by Daley (maybe Rahm needs to take some lessons from Daley in this regard?), and that guns are an issue which affect everyone. Oh yeah, and stay tuned next week for a possible photo of Phlash and Daley which was shot by the mayor's photographer...

But, back to the non story I'm not writing. Phlash scribbled on the press release that Congressman Quigley "had the red scarf on" (which is good, cause I wouldn't have known that) and "Guns Affect all of us!!" [sic]

The coalition, comprised of mayors of 500 big cities and town, per the press release, states that "Each mayor in the coalition has signed a statement of principles committing to a common goal: protecting the rights of Americans to own guns, while fighting to keep criminals from possessing the guns illegally."

I guess what I'm wondering is what if those two groups of people are the same sometimes?

On page two, Phalsh wrote that Daley said, "I can't understand why Americans/Chicagoans are not outraged. If it was your brother or sister or family member gunned down, you would care. Everyone should care."

And, as a sidenote, Phlash also wrote that "Alisa Hauser should care."

I do care.

That's why I'm up at 5AM. And I was up until midnight. And why I'm doing my Day Job half assed, and the Pipeline half assed. When you do too many things half assed, it's inevitable that stuff will fall through the cracks. But not these images. So I'm posting the best of them.

Thanks to Phlash for going above and beyond the Pipeline call of duty.