Lynn Becker
@cmgiulini.bsky.social
drifter/writer on architecture, culture and Chicago, photographer specializing in out-of-focus images. there will be posts on opera, apologies in advance.
Composer Juan Pablo Contreras consults with conductor Giancarlo Guerrero during Grant Park Orchestra rehearsal of his mariachi-infused work, Mariachitlán. One performance only, Wed., August 5, 6:30 p.m., at the Pritzker. Also live broadcast WFMT, 98.7 www.grantparkmusicfestival.com/digital-prog...
Virtuoso pianist Garrick Ohlsson rehearsing the 2nd Chopin concerto with the Grant Park Orchestra under Giancarlo Guerrero. One performance ONLY, tonight, Wed, August 5, 6:30 at the Pritzker (hope rain holds off). Also, broadcast live on WFMT, 98.7. www.grantparkmusicfestival.com/digital-prog...
F1 Arcade getting ready for its August 14th opening in the old Rock Bottom Brewery space. f1arcade.com/us/chicago
With so many candidates from the Republican Party, competition this year was fierce... www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Revealed: the top 10 invertebrates of the year
At last! It’s time for our invertebrate of the year competition as voted for by you. Today is the leaf sheep – come back on Thursday at noon (BST) to find out who else made the top 10
theguardian.com
A palace. A mystery. A riddle. The Uptown, Chicago's largest, most magnificent movie venue, has been boarded up for almost half a century. I got inside, took a lot of pictures, and tell the story, also with a lot of pictures, at the link. arcchicago.blogspot.com/2026/08/aura...
Auras and Materialities: Chicago's Uptown Theatre, where a legendary past confronts an uncertain future.
It would have been better had I been alone, running through the great castle-like lobby like Belle through the Beast's haunted corridors in...
arcchicago.blogspot.com
The man who directed what was often called the greatest film ever made looks back wistfully at what he remembers as his greatest triumph. www.instagram.com/reel/Dblh8OW...
Hearing sirens throughout the city (the usual first Tuesday of the month 10:00 am test) reminded me that today, August 4th, 2026, is the day Ray Bradbury wrote we were all going to die, www.firstpost.com/lifestyle/au...
Rather astonishing to see such long-form journalism from a TV station, but CBS Chicago's Adam Harrington has a remarkable history of the rise and fall of Clybourn as a retail corridor, and of a 1915 factory's short life as the 1800 Clybourn mall. bit.ly/4hdfzCJ
“Purple brain, purple brain” “ I only want to see your inflatable purple brain” - lyrics Prince sadly didn’t live long enough to write
Things change. Company moved out years ago, and now the building's about to demolished for 99 units of housing, but I'll still miss -especially when the bright red was freshly painted- that geographical marker bit of Chicago that was the Torstenson signs. chicagoyimby.com/2026/08/thre...
Looks like Chicago isn't the only city where they're concerned about the mediocrity of design for new housing. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...
S.F. is rushing to build new housing, but we shouldn’t settle for mediocre design
OPINION: If City Hall wants its residents to get behind the “Family Zoning” plan, it needs to work a lot harder to build architecture that is well-designed, columnist Allison Arieff writes.
sfchronicle.com
...and speaking of Irving K. Pond, it's always a good time for a plug for his autobiography, one of the essential books on Chicago architecture. It offers a decidedly more human and bracing counterview to the standard hagiography of immortals like FLW. arcchicago.blogspot.com/2012/12/grea...
August 29th, the Theosophical Society in America celebrates the 100th anniversary of their L.W. Rogers building in Wheaton, designed by Irving Kane Pond. Day's events include tours, exhibits and a lecture by Chicago Cultural Historian Emeritus Tim Samuelson www.theosophical.org/library
Imbecile. Gangster. Pathological liar. Pedofile. Sociopathic narcissist. Not anything you'd want to put on a job application, yet here we are, with a rapidly aging would-be Napoleon and his army of sycophantic grifters dismantling the Republic for fun and profit. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Trump’s Constitutional Dictatorship | Mark Danner
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s inside account of the Trump administration portrays a president with a vast appetite for power but who repeatedly backs down when the costs of his actions become to...
nybooks.com
For the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fred Adelson writes of two Thomas Eakins masterpieces, popularly known as The Gross Clinic and The Agnew Clinic. The first took 3 years to sell, for $200. Both drew outrage for "bad taste" when exhibited at 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition. share.inquirer.com/V9steR
Thomas Eakins turned Philadelphia’s medical history into high art. Philadelphians weren’t ready for it.
The 8 feet by 6.5 feet "The Gross Clinic" and the 6 feet by 11 feet “The Agnew Clinic” are very different paintings that have had a similar history. Both are presently on view.
share.inquirer.com
What's with these guys running for two different offices at the same time, asking us to elect them to one so they can resign from it for another in five months? Giannoulias has a ton of cash (where did it come from?), to which I have one word: Raja. blockclubchicago.org/2026/08/02/i...
Illinois Secretary Of State Alexi Giannoulias Enters Chicago Mayor's Race
Long rumored to be eyeing a run for City Hall, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced Sunday that he's jumping into the mayor's race. Giannoulias has amassed a massive political war c...
blockclubchicago.org
I could have posted John J. Kim's photo, one of many in this great Lolla photoset, but I think it might be more interesting just to have you conjure up the image in your own mind from the Trib's caption. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/07/31/p...
Joseph Callleia made a career playing slick, vaguely sinister characters on both sides of the law, but in Touch of Evil, as the exhausted old cop sidekick to Orson Welle's corrupt police chief, he's the moral center of the film. A subtle, moving performance too often overlooked.
It's far from enough to save us, but right now the best thing we've got going is not resistance, but the sheer, Keystone-Cops incompetence (malevolent prosecutions, no extra charge) Donald Trump has drowned his administration in. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
Prosecutors Drop Case Against Olympic Canoeist Charged With Vandalizing Reflecting Pool
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. said new information showed the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism.
wsj.com
Today’s high life festival on the Chicago Riverwalk. The Montauk, yesterday fitted out for Senorita, today transforms into the Aperol floating bar and DJ station.
Donald Trump promised Big Oil he'd be in their pocket if they gave him $1 billion in campaign contributions. They got a bargain, giving as little as $96 million and getting in return tens of billions in windfall profits from war and favor. wapo.st/4fLKXG0
Big oil companies reap billions off the Iran War
Exxon and Chevron reported a combined $26.5 billion windfall for the second quarter, as many drivers struggle to afford the price of gas.
wapo.st
"Mayor of River North" Albert Friedman working to find a tenant for landmark Medinah Temple for when Bally's moves out to its permanent home in 2027 www.chicagotribune.com/2026/07/31/m...
Medinah Temple owner ready to roll the dice again on post-Bally’s future for historic River North building
The Moorish-style amphitheater will need to reinvent itself again after Bally’s moves out.
chicagotribune.com
Senorita THS drink boat lays down the gauntlet for City Winery, docks on the Chicago Riverwalk.
When it comes to pop music, my ignorance approaches total, but Lorde's set at Lollapalooza was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
The Yohan Experience, Thursday concert at Tiny Tapp on the Chicago Riverwalk theyohanexperience.com/about/
