Late autumn, early morning and a southbound Chicago Transit Authority train to 95th Street rounds the curve before the Loyola Station. You wouldn’t think so, it being Chicago after all, but the snow covered cityscape gives what is otherwise a pretty mundane sight a mildly exotic beauty.
Though in the colder months of the year “the golden hour” often seems as short as ten minutes. But here we are, not long before sunset when, between the trees and the buildings of brick, Rogers Park became a study in browns and bronze. But the glow of the gloaming is a magical light and its character is governed by season and weather.
Wait for a moment and the color drains away…
If there’s anything 2024 taught me, it’s to take a deep breath come December. And that’s what I’ve been doing in November and December of 2025: deep breathing, voluminous and slow, ’cause 2026 is going to be some humdinger. Here is Yip’s meager offering to engage and entertain you while you respire. Aspire. Transpire. Vampire.
“Pecos Hank” continues to be my favorite weather videographer. This is his annual review of the storm chasing in 2025, short (23:11) and worth a view:
…with all the aggressive affection of a rodent’s waking nightmare. Can you know it now, looming over your head: a ravening, toothfull, stinking end to life and to Minnie?
“Meow.” What a comic understatement.
Not to worry… It’s gone by now, I’m sure. It looks like the property management people are aggressively on the job and it was lucky indeed that I happened by when I did with my camera.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, it was hardly a freezing day when I photographed part of a graffitied wall. These two excerpts were part of a series of artworks / graffiti that travel up the alley on the western retaining wall of the CTA Red Line embankment just north of the Loyola station. I didn’t have time to examine the rest of it but most of the artwork seemed to be obscure tags done in delirious typography.
This is another stop motion animation from Piktura and very well done at that. I suspect that if you are reasonably familiar with Algeria’s revolt against French rule and the documentaries and fiction that have grown up around it, there may be a conversation embedded in the video, there for the parsing. For myself, lacking that context, this short (8:44) video is just very, very strange and weird. That’s a recommendation, of sorts…
Credits: 5th year students 3D short movie directed by Yanis BELAID, Eliott BENARD, Nicolas MAYEUR, Etienne MOULIN, Lisa VICENTE, Hadrien PINOT, Philippine SINGER and Alice LETAILLEUR.
“17 october 1961, “Algerian workers” get down the streets to manifest against the mandatory curfew imposed by the Police prefecture. “
Yip Abides 