Archive

The Big Country
I see the shapes, I remember from maps
I see the shoreline, I see the whitecaps
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there
I see the school and the houses where the kids are . ...

I wouldn’t live there if you paid me
— The Big Country, Talking Heads. from More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)

Even though it is a Saturday, the streets are largely empty, as are many bar stools lining the ground floor interiors of Clark Street. Signs in ticket broker windows state the obvious for the oblivious. Along some blocks, there is more plywood than glass in storefront windows. Restaurants offering cheap eats are the cockroaches of the small business world, but even some of their shells have been crushed under the boot that applies pressure as it grinds (or is incinerated by a can of Right Guard and a match, as once happened back in the Summer of 1980 on 23rd Street).

I thought about stopping at Sunnyside for some gummy bears, but I am not sure I want to go there. For the few who were in line, dulling the senses on another empty Saturday night might make sense, but I still like wandering around in an unmediated world. Maybe someday; I wonder what my images would look like. Stupid? Blurred? Telescoped?

Henry Gruaert, Saul Leiter, and René Burri—you are always on my mind.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It]

Thorek

“Our President”

Homemade in the Precinct

Peanuts in the Shell for a Vacant Ballpark

Greener Grass

Rapid Transit

Flowers on the Wall

Double Timing

Replacing Wrigleyville Taco Bell

Gary No. 8, Upward

“What’s Ya Picking Up?”

“Man, I Can Smell Your Feet a Mile Away”

Out of the House

Mossimo 32

Opening Day

Opening Day

Emerging Slowly from the Dark

Emerging Slowly from the Dark