photography

On the fiftieth anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien’s death

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Grave with flowers growing and placed on it with some other items. Inscription reads, below a simple cross, crux quadrata: “Edith Mary Tolkien Luthien 1889 - 1971 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Beren 1892 - 1973”

☩ Edith Mary Tolkien Luthien 1889 – 1971 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Beren 1892 – 1973 On my last visit to Oxford, England, in March of last year, I finally took the long walk out Banbury Road to Wolvercote Cemetery to see the final resting place of J.R.R. Tolkien, who died at age 81 on … Read more

Open Cup Evangelist Peter Wilt Goes Home Again with Chicago House

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Open Cup Evangelist Peter Wilt Goes Home Again with Chicago House Wilt led the then-brand new Chicago Fire to four Open Cup titles between 1998 and 2006. And he’ll now face off with that very club he helped birth in the tournament he loves best. His new project, the all-amateur Chicago House AC, are making … Read more

Colosseum, Meta Sudans, and the Arch of Constantine in Rome

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Colosseum, Meta Sudans, and the Arch of Constantine in Rome, around the last decade of the 19th Century or turn of the 20th Century (“[The Colisuem (sic) and Meta Sudans, Rome, Italy]” Photograph. Detroit, Mich: Detroit Publishing Co., c1890-c1900. From Library of Congress: Photochrome Prints. https://loc.gov/​pictures/​resource/​ppmsc.06599/)

The Meta Sudans … was a large monumental conical fountain in ancient Rome.

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The ruins of Meta Sudans survived until the 20th century. In 1936 Benito Mussolini had its remains wantonly demolished and paved over to make room for the new traffic circle around the Colosseum. A commemorative plaque was set in the road.

“Meta Sudans,” Wikipedia

901 West Kinzie Street, Chicago in 2016 and 2017

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With the summer 2023 opening of the Guinness Open Gate Brewery Chicago announced just head of this St. Patrick’s Day week, I’m taking the opportunity to look back at the 901 W. Kinzie Street location. These are the “before” pictures, if you will, of the site before its redevelopment. This building used to be along my bike commute route to and from River North. 2017 photos show intensive mural art decoration—and the 2016 photo below shows that the murals hadn’t been there all that long. (And from the current photo accompanying the Sun-Times story, it looks like the murals are already largely gone—and there’s already an adjacent residential highrise.)