sin-clear-air

7700 S. Stony Island (front & rear), 2-1-2005.

chasing the fried chicken kin...

1376 E. 53rd Street, 1-28-2005.

1208 E. 53rd Street, 1-28-2005.

drink free and unleaded

views of north and south side of South Chicago Avenue at 74th Street, 1-25-2005.

House of Pain

31st Street at Halsted, 1-24-2005.

pedestrian bridge to Paradise

East end of 43rd Street at Illinois Central/ Metra train tracks, with pedestrian bridge behind Paradise M. B. Church. 1-18-2005.

No Loitering by Police Order

Cottage Grove at 47th Street (where Kenwood meets Bronzeville), 1-14-2005.

road salt never sleeps

NE corner of Broadway at Ainslie, 1-6-2005.

Tobacco Road

47th Street at Wabash, with the Rosenwald Apartments in the background. 1-12-2005.

I was born in a bunk
Mother died and my daddy got drunk
Left me here to die or grow
In the middle of Tobacco Road

Grew up in a dusty shack
And all I had was a'hangin' on my back?Only you know how I loathe
This place called Tobacco Road But it's home
The only life I've ever known?Only you know how I loathe
Tobacco Road

I'm gonna leave and get a job
With the help and the grace from above
Save some money, get rich I know
Bring it back to Tobacco Road

Bring Dynamite and a crane
Blow you up, start all over again
Build a town be proud to show
Give the name Tobacco Road

Cause it's home
The only life I've ever known
Oh I despise and disapprove you
But I love ya, 'cause it's home

by John D. Loudermilk

scene for elevator music

Halsted at 44th Place (McInerney Park), 1-11-2005.

Carl Sandburg
"Halsted Street Car"
COME you, cartoonists,
Hang on a strap with me here
At seven o'clock in the morning
On a Halsted street car.

Take your pencils
And draw these faces.

Try with your pencils for these crooked faces,
That pig-sticker in one corner -- his mouth --
That overall factory girl -- her loose cheeks.

Find for your pencils
A way to mark your memory
Of tired empty faces.

After their night's sleep,
In the moist dawn
And cool daybreak,

Faces
Tired of wishes,
Empty of dreams.

the King and I

Inner Town Pub, 1-4-2005.

Curtis Locke