Chi-town baby!
On the Purple Line for the first time on our “new” commute to the city. The snow is coming down pretty hard at the moment, already 2 inches with quite a bit more on the way. It seems to be coushioning the shock of the sudden changes that ocurred in the past week. Hopefully the next week or two help us settle a bit. In the mean time, maybe this is the escape I need. Also a goo excuse to test the new WordPress app for Android.
It is the first of the month – I’ve always felt that it brings with it an air of change. In this case the physical change was fairly obvious as Chicago had its first real snowfall of the season. As the snow swirls around, it gets me thinking – what other changes are stirring?
So much for live-blogging the election! I ended up crunching numbers most of the evening for ICIRR, by the time I dropped off the laptops at my office and headed back to the Cultural Center – I could hear the crowd EXPLODE into cheers and applause!! My heart immediately started pounding and I ran as fast as I could back to the Cultural Center. They had called the election!!! My family had all come to meet with us and as McCain delivered his acceptance speech (where was that McCain during the election?!) tears started to well up in my eyes. It was actually happening!! At 11pm the event ended, so we rushed back to my building to watch his speech and see Grant Park bursting at it’s seams with people and energy! The noise was incredible – the energy palpable! We stayed on Michigan Ave until 1:30 in the morning, watching, absorbing and participating in the revelry!!
It has been too many years in the making – but this unprecedented change is exactly what this country needs! I was glued to NPR the following days and the national and international reactions gave me goosebumps! January can’t come soon enough!
Below is the result of the data that I was crunching during the election for ICIRR.
 |
| From Election Day 2008 |
You can see the people lining up on Columbus and Michigan Ave! Apparently, they have been lining up since Monday! I’m going to the Chicago Cultural Center to continue volunteering and then to party with Katty and her fellow ICIIR workers! I didn’t sign up for the Obama rally on time – but I’ll be going outside to take pictures. I also hope to do and “after” picture when the rally REALLY gets going!
 |
| From Election Day 2008 |
I volunteered this morning with ICIRR to take pictures of other volunteers that were getting out the vote in Bridgeview, IL. Precinct 47 is a predominately Arab area – and the amount of young and enthusiastic volunteers was overwhelming! Most of them were going out to knock on doors, leave door hangars and in general to try to get as many people to their polling places as possible! They were also doing exit polls – and the data I saw was extraordinarily exciting! More of the pictures I took can be seen by clicking here.
Just a quick reminder to check your voter registration status before the October 7th voter registration deadline!!
Just do a quick Google search for your city and “voter registration”.
Here is a link to Chicago’s Election’s Webpage
Flipping channels last night I ended up on Chicago Access Network Television (CANTV) channel 19. What caught my attention was the bowling scene from the Big Lebowski. It was pretty grainy and the cutting of the swear words was a bit… amateur. As I watching, it suddenly cut to some other movie. This continued for almost 30 minutes, and I couldn’t stop watching. It was a bizarre selection of movies, news bits, cartoons and TV shows. Some of them hilarious, many bizzare, and some outright spooky. At about the time they showed Angela Landsbury’s incredible scene in the Manchurian Candidate (a movie I have yet to see, but somehow recognized it immediately) I wondered about the legality of showing so many movie/tv/media clips. The juxtaposition of the Simpson’s Planet of the Apes musical bit with the actual movie was quite entertaining! Katty had no idea why I kept on watching it – but was just as fascinated as myself! Has anybody seen The Loved One?! (this was the scene we saw last night – gotta love google)
Shortly thereafter, color bars filled the screen and only the audio could be heard. This was just the icing on the cake! Was it a broadcast signal intrusion? I had first heard about this while talking to somebody about Max Headroom and finding out about an incident in 1987 on Chicago’s WGN and WTTW stations. The hijackers were never found – could this be a new incident?? I immediately checked CANTV’s Thursday listings to find out that Flabby Hoffman was scheduled to air. Googling got me to Flabby Hoffman’s home page
Flabby Hoffman uses his unique powers of hyper-sensitivity, super cognizance and fanatical devotion to an objective truth to help those in need of an empowering spiritual enema.
…not quite what I expected, but almost equally bizarre. The two don’t really match up. There was also a link to a local bar Uncommon Ground – where, apparently, Flabby Hoffman used to perform. This whole thing seemed so surreal to me. So, I just e-mailed CANTV to see what they have to say about the color bars last night. Most likely its all just a coincidence… but I had to ask!
I just noticed that Flabby has MP3s on his website! I’m afraid to listen!
(This got me thinking about Wesley Willis all over again)
Took this last Friday and didn’t get a chance to post it. It snowed all night last night and into the morning, everything is covered in fluffy white snow – its beautiful. Can’t wait to enjoy more of it tomorrow! Tonight its off to the Museum of Contemporary Art’s First Friday. Should be fun!
We landed in quite the snow storm here in Seoul. I took a picture but am unable to get the damned card reader to work on this computer – and it costs me 10 min in credit to log onto a different computer (of course, it doesn’t say that anywhere). I’m about to get on the last leg of my journey and within 14 hours I’ll be home! I’m both excited and sad… its a strange feeling when a trip like this ends. I’m sure I’ve forgotten how to work! I think I’m going to start with a Mustard’s burger… and for dinner Eduardos. Then, sleeping in my own bed! Too bad its going to be subzero temps in Chicago tomorrow! That will be quite a shock to my system!
ㅑ’ㅡ 해ㅑㅜㅎ 새 쇼ㅔㄷ 랙 ㅁ ㅠㅑㅅ ㅑㅜ ㅏㅐㄱㄷ무, ㅠㅕㅅ ㅠㄷㅊ면ㄷ ㅑ ㅊ무.
Thats what happens when I hit the wrong button on the keyboard. Heh.
Ok – off to gate 17!