The fact that I missed the two-year anniversary of Chicago Carless is a lot more important than the fall of my two-year relationship. So in celebration of the belated anniversary of my life being an open blog, I give you a look at the past 12 months of Chicago Carless.
Today, Monday, March 26,2007, at 12:09 p.m. marks the two-year anniversary of the day I accidentally met the man of my dreams…on a street corner, wholly by accident, and entirely in spite of myself. It happened at Fullerton and Clark. It happened just like in the movies.
Today, my boyfriend, Devyn Caldwell, was quoted in the New York Times regarding the Homeland Security cameras that he and I helped get removed from their former home–smack on top of Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain in Millennium Park.
Ah, the power of the blogosphere. As of 11:00 a.m. this morning, the City of Chicago has removed the security cameras from the top of Millennium Park’s Crown Fountain. Good riddance. Devyn and I blogged about the offending cameras and got the Chicago Tribune to write an article on the issue–and article that appeared today. You’re welcome, Chicago 🙂
Today, the Chicago Tribune quoted Devyn and me regarding the horrendously misplaced Homeland Security cameras that now sit atop Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain in Millennium Park. We found the cameras over the weekend and immediately contacted the newspaper to complain. Why? Surveillance cameras don’t belong welded to public art.
There are many good places to put security cameras in Chicago’s architecturally brilliant Millennium Park. Smack on top of Jaume Plensa’s hyper-popular Crown Fountain is not one of those places.
I wrote an essay about the lessons I learned pitching bloggers for the national ‘7 Days @ Minimum Wage’ employment-rights video blog project. Now, Chicago’s Community Media Workshop has published that essay on their website as part of their grassroots training library. Here’s what I learned in a nutshell.
I had never picked up a video camera in my life before I interviewed Jessica, a low-paid mother of four, for the 7 Days @ Minimum Wage project. Her searing story and her quiet eloquence, both of which emerged absolutely spontaneously, blew me and the ACORN/AFL-CIO project team in D.C. away–so much so that her interview is being shown in its 13-minute entirety, with one small edit to protect her privacy. View that story here.
Last week I submitted a review of the Art Institute’s Gene Siskel Film Center to the sage scribes of CenterStage Chicago. Today, the CenterStage Eds told me I was chosen Review of the Week, for being last week’s most ‘insider-tip-filled’ review.