Storm approaching

Don't give Orange Jesus ideas! Belarus autocrat Alexander (congratulations on 30 years a Russian asset!) Lukashenko raids firm, detains 52 architects, and demands they hire an "ideologist" to spy and make sure they follow the dictator's line. apnews.com/article/bela...

Spring day in the city

Coromants on the Chicago River, in candid (i.e., out of focus) photographs

You people who think you're HOT STUFF with your ICEMAKERS in the DOORS of your REFRIGERATORS have no idea of the luxe of having genuine vintage classic GENERAL ELECTRIC ICE SERVICE.

On what planet would this be acceptable? Outside of the insatiably corrupt Trumpverse? Then Delta snaps up Southwest, fares and profits soar and - consumers be damned -the oligarchy marches relentlessly forward. www.chicagobusiness.com/transportati...

... and for comparison purposes, the current condition...

Going red at the Loop L tracks....

Holabird & Roche's 1891 Pontiac Building is going residential. www.chicagobusiness.com/real-estate/...

Seen today at the Wendella Wrigley Building docks: TrashTrap! stormtrap.com/chicago-rive...

Everybody thinks we live in paradise, because everything, unlike paper or stone, becomes eternal when digitized, but it's also making it easier to wipe out an entire culture. Big media is doing their part by working to destroy the Wayback Machine, which has 7 TRILLION articles. bit.ly/42479oo

Expo Chicago 2026 was great, but the highlight of Saturday was a visit to Chicago Cultural Historian Emeritus Tim Samuelson's archives at Mana Contemporary. Treasures include these hobbyhorses, part of a lending library of toys created by WPA artists during the Great Depression...

It’s a beautiful world. Or can be.

Yes, there's the Picasso statue, the Kapoor, the Plensa, the Calder, the Chagall, but what's finally put Chicago on the map is that we have our own adorable baby warty frogfish... www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/m...

... and speaking of artists with unique visions, here's a lovely Robert Loerzel piece in the Trib on the Marx Brothers' Chicago origins. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/12/m...

The whole "Most Influential Modern Artist" thing is a game that interests me not at all (although judging by the comments, I'm in the minority), but Marcel Duchamp is definitely high on my list of most favorite things. Truly unique visions are rare, but Duchamp... www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/a...

Just a helicopter flying down the river past Marina City…

And this is what we wrote just days ago: "We can't even fix the ...historic Clarence Darrow bridge, which has been allowed to sit closed and rotting since 2012, while empty promises of something soon being done go unfulfilled year after year." Rinse and repeat arcchicago.blogspot.com/2026/04/shou...

Too cowardous to show up, CDOT bureaucrats, 90 minutes before the meeting, send an email that they weren't going to appear, and announcing a push to 2028, like Lucy pulling the football, for the next broken promise to fix the Clarence Darrow Bridge. Arrogant, incompetent, outrageous. bit.ly/4dGfxlg

Friday afternoon travels Street find bonus: Ancona embankment

Friday afternoon murals: three that I encountered on my travels yesterday. #3: Green Street viaduct. Sorry, didn't get the artist.

Friday afternoon murals: three that I encountered on my travels yesterday. #2: next to the octopus, under the Grand Avenue viaduct, jasladiosa, Jasmine Amalya, 2023 www.instagram.com/jasladiosa/

Friday afternoon murals: three that I encountered on my travels yesterday. #1: Jason Brammer's octopus, Grand Avenue viaduct, 2024 www.instagram.com/jasonbrammer/

The Trib's Nina Metz profiles Northwestern's Transportation Library curator Rachel Cole, whose Instagram account posting quirky report covers is one of the delights of the internet. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/08/t...

via New City, right across the street from the Candy Hall of Fame, Chicago is also getting a Leica Store and Gallery in the landmarked (facade only remaining) Dwight Perkins space. Opening April 30. leicacamerausa.com/leica-store-...

The spectacular, shockingly little-known Chicago monument, the Statue of Gaming, the Ohio Street Bridgehouse its base, a construction crane its torch.

Casino!

The vagaries of social media: I’m grateful for all my followers. They’re an elite group- the most is 5400 on X, so when I get a lot of hits, it’s from reposts. For some unknown reason, a video of my hallway on Tik-Tok got 200k+; a guy flycasting to create a painting nearly 500k on Instagram.

Is there anything to be read into the fact that the long vacant former Borders/Bonwit Teller/I Magnin building will now find its revival in a split between a Chase lounge for the wealthy and 60,000 square feet obsessed with candy? www.chicagobusiness.com/real-estate/...

Yellow bird, red bird

A great portrait - with a host of photos - by WTTW's Kathleen Hinkel and Daniel Hautzinger of The 24-hour White Palace Grill, a true Chicago landmark, now in its 87th year, enduring even through all the massive changes in its Canal/Roosevelt neighborhood. www.wttw.com/playlist/202...

Artist Ben Miller of the flycasting school of painting creating “Chicago River, Il (4/8/2026)” on the Riverwalk. www.chicagoriver.org/events/watch...

Should The Republic Stand - Somewhere Else? My take on Daniel Chester French's monumental sculpture, its 1893 World's Columbian Exposition origins, and why it should be sprung from its traffic circle to find a more fitting home in reconfigured Jackson Park. arcchicago.blogspot.com/2026/04/shou...

Marco Rubio said Netanyahu's presentation was "bullish*t". Vance argued against the war. The military laid out major concerns. But our insane President hears only the demented voices in his head. Apocalypse at 8pm? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/u...

Nimbyism logic, in excelsis: The plaintiffs live in a condo building that's 42 stories tall, one of two such high-rises within two blocks. “We are in fact a high-rise, but it was a high-rise built over 50 years ago, and the rules have changed,” Murphy said. www.chicagobusiness.com/real-estate/...

Picture Window

Starting in minutes, tonight, Monday April 6 at 5:55 p.m. CDT, free live stream of the Met premiere of one of the most stunning and affecting new operas I've ever experienced: Kaija Saariaho's "Innocence" ondemand.metopera.org/radio/a7baf1...

Cherry blossom time . . .

Entry portal chiaroscuro

Product of the day: Combination Bitcoin miner/heater/air purifier/personal vibrator. (Parenthetical note: may not work out exactly as advertised.) www.wired.com/review/heatb...

The Easter Bunny (a/k/a nieces and grandnieces) left me the traditional splendid selection of marshmallow chickens.

NYT eulogizes "the Elvis Presley of Agricultural Radio." When I was very young Orion Samuelson was often the first voice I heard in the morning, still lying in bed in the dark as my dad rose very early for work.That world of hogs and futures sounded both foreign... www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/b...

So it’s that time of the year again to take the Easter basket my late mom made me about 15 years ago from the back of the refrigerator to see if anything’s hatched yet. Nope, not yet - but there’s always next year! Happy Easter!

I really need to limit my channel surfing…

A little skyline lightning

The endless corridor

Gallery

It's one of the brightest jewels of Chicago architecture, and it's just opened up training dates for you to become a docent sharing the marvels of its Tiffany windows, striking murals, and stunning Howard van Doren Shaw sanctuary. www.historicsecondchurch.org/docents