"L" Hell

I made the mistake of riding the L (or El, if you prefer), Chicago's elevated train system today to see a play downtown (August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone at the Goodman Theatre). Now I haven't ridden the L downtown in quite some time. I used to be a daily rider during the pre-Covid days when I traveled to and from my day job, but not so much after the work from home thing came to be the norm. But I caught the L today and it wasn't great! I barely made it to the play on time despite leaving home 1.5 hours before the play started. I had to wait for a purple line train, then the red line crawled towards the loop. Let me just say that I hate the red line with a passion. It's slow, it stinks of cigarillos or whatever someone chose to smoke in the car before departing, and it's often filled with the homeless and/or other deranged folks. Someone on Datalounge called Chicago's red line a "rolling insane aslymn." That person spoke the truth! 

As someone who is normally a huge advocate of public transit, lately I've found myself preferring not to take it. If I have to go downtown to the office, I prefer the Metra transit train. It's cleaner, it's faster, and the clientelle is better. It's worth the extra money to ride with no bums sleeping across multiple seats, no beggars going from car to car, and no eau du cigarillo wafting through the air. If the time comes that I have to reacquaint myself with the L to get to and from work, I'm going to have to work through that transition. Maybe my next job will be one in the suburbs that I can drive to!

What the World Needs Now

To follow up from my last post, Monday's eclipse was great! The skies in and around Chicago were great and we had about 95% coverage here, which was great for viewing. My cereal box viewer wasn't the greatest, but I did have viewing glasses as a backup. I walked to the beach at Lake Michigan and viewed the eclipse from there with other folks from the area. A good time was had by all. I didn't get any pictures of the actual eclipse because I couldn't filter my phone lens and focus my picture at the same time without blinding myself, but I did get a shot of the beach before more folks showed up (see below). 

In other news, I was watching the trailer for the new Joker movie and noticed Tom Jones singing "What the World Needs Now Is Love" in the ad. As a Tom Jones fan, I was surprised I hadn't heard this song before, but it's from an album he put out in 1970 called I Who Have Nothing. I never really cared for "What the World Needs Now..." and, as a 1970s baby, I'm a huge fan of 70s music, but the Tom Jones version is excellent. It's everything I want or need from a 1970s song. The arrangment is over the top, I love the horns, the creshendos, and Tom is just giving it his all. I was more excited about hearing Tom Jones in the Joker trailer than the movie itself (although I'm sure I'll see the movie since I saw the first one and didn't think it was bad). Years ago, when I lived in Philadelphia, I went to see Tom Jones in concert in Atlantic City and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. Tom is an entertainer and he puts on a great show. His band was tight, his background singers were on point, and he was excellent. 

I think the world needs more than love right now, but a little love couldn't hurt either.

Countdown to the Eclipse!

Count me in as someone wrapped up in eclipse mania! I'm taking a day off from my day job tomorrow to watch the eclipse (and do some other things). I've got eclipse viewing glasses and my homemade eclipse viewer (see photo below) and I plan to walk down to the shores of Lake Michigan and see what I can see from there tomorrow afternoon. Since the next eclipse won't come for, what, 45 years and I'm sure I'll be dead and gone by then, I'm planning to catch this one live and in action. 🌒