IN MY HOOD!

My son was mugged yesterday in my neighborhood. I live in East Rogers Park near the Morse L stop. He was jumped by a group of black guys in the alley who took his cash and phone. At first I was angry that they hurt my son and took all of his ID and brand new (cheap) phone, but the anger subsided when I realized my son was not seriously hurt and they returned his wallet with his ID.

I am still angry they punched my son in the face and corrupted his love of this city. He had moved here from Texas to escape the verbal and mental abuse from his dad's new wife. We both looked forward to his fresh start and the chance to explore all of his new options now that he graduated from HS and was in a city with countless choices and opportunities.

I came to realize that I feel sorry for the kids who mugged my son because they obviously lack a positive male role model in their lives. Also, I realized that their mothers must not love them enough to teach them that they need to graduate HS and then get a real job to support themselves. No one taught them that ganging up on one individual to steal their stuff was not a real job, but was mere thuggery and NOTHING to be proud of. As a mother, I went out of my way to insure my boys were not hanging around with a "bad crowd" who would encourage this type of behaviour. I always knew pretty much who my kids were hanging out with and where they were at all times. I knew the parents of my kids friends and kept in touch with them to help the kids stay on track. I feel sorry for the thugs because they obviously did not have someone at home this invested in their futures.

The money they took from my son was his first paycheck after having worked an entire weekend at a neighborhood fest busting his butt to clean and help out. I can replace his hard earned cash, but it will take a while to restore his faith in our beloved city.

Westboro Baptist Church Protest at the Center on Halstead Fails Miserably

Thanks to my friend Michael Lehet and the Chicago Gay Examiner for the use of this video.

Last Night's Protest at the Century Theatre in Evanston

Thanks to Catie and Snark for their attendance as well! We done good!

Chicago Protest Videos

This is a video by my friend Michael Lehet; he was kind enough to let me use his pictures for the blog.

Meet Jerel, a sometimes neighbor of ours

Perhaps you already have, if you've been up to Goth/Angel land lately, especially on weekends.

He's a very vivid person, loves going on camera. I have quite a few videos of him on Youtube and posted at multiply.

This is Jerel at his best... as intense and raw and real as can be.

Consequentially, I'm obligated to note that...

This video is rated "R" due to VERY coarse language and references to sexuality and drug use. It is NOT suitable for minors or the easily offended.

Right Mike... this means you!

If those topics offend you, you're best off not watching either.



Jerel is most often to be found sleeping in the portapotty outside my building, or hoarding his finds outside Snark's.


He likes my dogs, he's nice to me, he's willing to go on camera, that's all I can ask of anyone. I've been known to bring him a hot cup of home made espresso, socks and alcohol wipes for his feet, etc. Anyone who treats my dogs well and treats me like a human gets the same back from me. I let Killian and Hilde decide who I befriend.


I am always honored when people like Jerel or Diane (who's usually down on Glenlake and also in my of my videos) chose to share their lives with me.

People is people... period... what ever their life circumstances

And now... the featured presentation. It runs a bit long, 15 minutes. I had planned to chop it up but... Tess has been even sicker than normal lately, so, I just clipped out the scenes where he showed me his prison ID card (on principle, I don't put images or video of IDs, credit cards, etc. on the web).

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Bizarre, Beautiful, & Beloved- Pictures and videos of all three

First the Bizarre.  I'll let you add your own punch line to it.

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Next the beautiful (both pictures and video)

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Little Flowers- Big City: Violets growing at the base of the Red Line Viaduct in an alley

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>Miracles and beauty are always to be found, you just have to be willing to look past the tip of your nose or the screen of your IPhone.  This healthy stand of violets is growing right up against the Red Line viaduct below the Granville Red Line station.  I took two different videos two different days in hopes of capturing both the beauty of the flowers and the context in which they are growing.

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Now the videos

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And now my beloved... a picture of her with the pups taking care of her, and a video of her describing her latest Migraine art therapy (and thus, describing the experience of her migraines.)


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On the videos, remember if you don't have the bandwidth to watch them on Veoh, your best recourse is to download them from my Multiply video section and watch offline.

They are also on Youtube... my username there is tourtruco, you can find them there.

Nitty gritty Chicago video & Hilde taking good care of me.

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The trash truck driver got a kick out of me videoing the scene. I think this really captures the Chicago experience in winter well.

This is how she was almost all night.  Dogs always seem to know when their people need them, don't they?

You can see from this picture, my artistically deformed one of yesterday wasn't so much an exaggeration as an amplification.

I forget what I've said and to whom I've said it, but basically imagine having the stomach flu not for a week... not for a month... but for three months.  That's basically my situation.

So there's immense fluid and nutrient loss, interruption in sleep, general and cumulative loss of energy...

When I'm not working on rugs, this is my art therapy- and I've needed it- I've been a lot sicker a lot longer than I've realized

These first are what's left of the bizarre flowers and cold cuts tableau shown in an earlier video.
On top is the original, below is my bit of fun with filters

Ultimately I'll put these together into a slide show of scenes of and views from Chicago alleys.


This is a little girl's shoe I saw in the same alley- I shot a video panning from it up and down the alley.



This is the "Dr. Seuss" tree from Snark's alley. (You ever seen this Snark? Its down on the Glenlake end.) Top is the original, below one I ran through a filter. I think I may have to reshoot this picture, maybe with a different camera. The dark tree blends in too much with the dark background. Of course, I shot video of this as well.

So... this is the art therapy I've done today... not too much. I'm a lot sicker than I'd realized... having had a day without massive dehydration has helped me realize how sick I've been for how very long. Its like I've had stomach flu for... 2 or 3 months!



No wonder I've not gothed up much until last night (Good to see you Snark and Dean)... and last night was really just half way. When all your energy goes into your crappy body, fashion and funk go by the wayside.

Bizarre Chicago - Beware the man eating dumpster! ~~~ Disturbing plaster street art

These are today's "Bizarre Chicago" videos. I also took some great alley videos, and I'm continuing to compile stills of the dogs and the alleys for slide shows I'll be working up sometime in the "sometime between now and when Terre Haute Indiana freezes over" future.

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Plaster whathellisit

Wait for it, its at the end of the video.


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Beware the man eating dumpster!

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Chicago videos: The Gritty, the Beautiful and the Bizarre

Some of these I've posted to Multiply's video section, but I thought it'd be nice to post them together on the blogs.

Besides humor therapy, art therapy is a very important means of maintaining emotional/mental health, and this is the main art therapy I do besides the rugs.

These are all in the top quality Veoh version.  If you have problems with them, they're all at my Youtube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/Tourtruco

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The gritty

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Chicago- Red & Blue lines viewed from an alley in the rain
 I had my camera in a baggie and set to two stops over exposed, so this accounts for some of the fuzziness and distortion in the video... I think it adds to the grittiness.

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The Bizarre

Bizarre Chicago tableau- flowers and lunch meat in an alley

When I first saw this last night, it was in a shopping basket. I tried to take video of it this morning, but even at two stops over exposed, the alley was too dark for it to be really visible well. I may upload it at a later date if I think the dark dinginess is poignant enough to overcome the lack of visual clarity.

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Bizarre Chicago tableau- battered blender

Apparently this didn't make the margarita properly... I've heard of someone smashing cheap dishes to work out frustration, but a BLENDER?!

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And now some beauty

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Chicago- Berger Park ice flow art 80304

After shooting the sunrise over Lake Michigan at Berger Park, I noticed how lovely the ice formations caused by the recent snow melt and rain were. My dogs make cameos, but as much as they love snow they hate ice.

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Chicago the Windy City- Sunrise over Lake Michigan at Berger Park

The wind was howling such that I don't even know that my stentorian voice is loud enough to be heard on the video. As I was walking the dogs, I was struck by the ferocious beauty of the view, and decided to roll the camera.

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