Spent the weekend with Virginia. It was tough saying goodbye, but I am happy to have made the move.

Today I went out downtown. Walked around for a while and hit the Art Institute. I wanted to check out the Jeff Wall exhibit. I really like his display. Everything was done with transparencies on light boxes. It really popped with color.

I also checked out the photography wing. They had an exhibit on nature photography, with Ansel Adams, Porter, and someone who I had never heard of called William Clift. They had an interesting bio on him. Said that when he did nature photography that he wasn’t just looking for beautiful scenes, but rather places that had an energy to them. I think that he was able to capture a little of that in the photos, because they had some good energy of their own. I’ll have to do some more research on him to see other things that he has done.

Well yesterday was my last day of work at WILL. Started of as a volunteer back in December of ’98. I am really excited about the opportunities that I am about to realize, but they would not have been possible without the knowledge that I gained at the station.

We had our WILL monthly happy hour to coincide with my leaving, so it was a going away party for me. When I walked in the door of Jupiter’s all of my co-workers applauded. It was so nice to see so many people who have become not just co-workers but also friends. Carl, the station manager, and Hank, my boss, both gave a little speech about my service there. They gave me some gifts, some good-bye money, and a nice certificate of my time there. I am really happy that I am moving on, but I am going to miss that bunch.

It was a good opportunity to get a little drunk though. If you haven’t seen me drunk, then you missed out on a good one. Don’t really drink all that often. Didn’t do anything foolish, but had a really good time. Had a lot of good conversations with a lot of good people. It is going to be kind of sad to not be able to look across the cubicle isle and see Alison.

I’ll talk more of future plans later, but it was nice to look back at the good times that I have had there.

Here is one that I did lighting/shooting/directing:

This one I just did the lighting:

Was out at Starved Rock on Friday and Saturday shooting a story for Prairie Fire. I really love that place. It is so beautiful. I would like to go back sometime without the big video camera and just do some hiking.

Went out to the Taste of Chicago today. I am loving the Subway. I am only a block away from the blue line which will take me to either down town or out to the airport. It is a lot nicer than trying to find a place to park downtown.

The park was packed with vendors, people, and music. I saw Robert Randolph. Well I couldn’t really get close enough to see him, but I got to see him on the jumbo-tron. I am glad that I made it down there. It was my first Taste experience, and it was a good one.

Right now is not so good. The neighborhood is filled with fireworks fever. Tons of fireworks going off all around me. I have never been a big fan of fireworks, so this isn’t my favorite holiday. I guess that I don’t blame people for having fun, but I hope that it quiets down pretty soon. We shall see. Happy 4th of July anyway.

Went out to the Abbey Pub tonight. First time out to see music since moving to Chicago. Meg invited me out, and Mac and Anne drove me there. Meg had a guy named Billy with her. He was a great guy. Talked to him a lot.

Marnie Stern was headlining. I hadn’t heard of her before, but I was sold instantly. Not everyone I was with felt the same way, but I loved the experimental quality to the music. Good (different) voice, and great guitar sound.

I missed the first two bands, but did catch Bang Bang! Not bad. I’d go see them again. I did love the lead singer’s tie. It was the shape of a lightning bolt. Nice. The girl singing what wearing shiny pants. You can never go wrong with that. Keyboard player seemed to be a little bored with the set. Could have done without her.

After Abbey Pub we went out to Delilah’s for a drink. They were playing some punk music, people were playing pool, and there was a girl so drunk that she could barely keep her head up. Some guy seemed to be taking care of her, but I was a little worried.

I have been working on my plans for the upcoming year. I want to tell stories that matter. Whether they be video, audio, or written. There are a lot of issues that I care about that I think I can bring a new perspective to, or at least bring some light to the subject.

I just found the channel Current up here in Chicago. It is a series of user created content that they call Pods (short video mini docs). Al Gore started this up with some other business people. Doesn’t really seem to be political, just new voices telling their stories. It really fits well into my short video project plans that I have been wanting to make. Don’t really know the stories of this city yet, but I will have to get to know what is going on. I will need to get my Great Shorts website up and running for these projects.

Really looking forward to getting started on this new adventure that is my life.

I moved into my place in Chicago today. I am out of Champaign/Urbana after 15 years of living there. I still have a couple of weeks left at work, so I will be going back for a little while after the 4th of July holiday. I’ll stay with a friend for a week or so.

It still hasn’t fully sunk in yet. I have a lot of unpacking to do and I am not completely out of work yet. It will be nice to find a new routine here. Hopefully I can establish new routines early on so that they just become part of my life.

I’ll try to get back into the habit of writing in here. It has been over a month since I have written. Well tomorrow is my first full day. I would like to think that I will be doing something interesting, but I will probably just be unpacking.

I just put up a new website. It is BarackStar.info. It is just some videos about Barack Obama that I have found while searching the net. I was going to put them here, but there are so many good ones, that I thought that they deserved their own site.