All things come to End

Water crashing on Oak Street Beach, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

Well this week of vacation is over but I'm not really down. It was a good week with great weather. I got to chase a big red ball all over town. That has to count for something :)

Yesterday I went downtown to Millennium Park to see Wiredfest. Wiredfest is a technology expo sponsered by Wired Magazine. I got to see some cool stuff. Today I decided to walk along the lakefront northward. I walked from the Grand Avenue Red line stop to the Lakefront, then the lake front to Fullerton and Fullerton back to Halsted. A great walk. The strong east winds were creating some awesome waves on the lake. Here is a small one crashing into the breakwater

Ball Endings

From Below, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

All good things come to an end they say and Thursday was the completion of the Red Ball Project in Chicago.

The final installation was at the south entrance to the Chicago Cultural Center. The ball was squeezed between the railing and the window at the second floor level. I got a chance to shake Kurt's hand and thanked him for bringing this project to Chicago. It's been a fun few weeks.

Red Ball meets Calder

Wednesday the Red Ball Project came to Federal Plaza to hang out with Calder's Flamingo - I think Kurt was a genius to choose this location. The two pieces of art work very well together. They were a little behind schedule this morning. When I arrived at around 11:30 they were still inflating the ball. It was cool to see this procedure.

I came back in the late afternoon around 5:00 to witness the after work crowd. I was back downtown to meet up with Tina for an early evening photo shoot. The afterwork crowd appeared to be more "playfull" than the lunchtime crowd. Kurt was there as well as seen in the photo below, describing his project. It was cool to finally see him.

People walking by the Ball

People walking by the Ball, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

The Red Ball Project has made it to Chicago's Financial District. Pushed into the courtyard entrance at 19 S La Salle people are walking past the ball like it's always been there. A group of young women in green T-shirts were interacting with the ball and the guy by the "19" with the bag is one of the ball "handlers" His bag contains little red booklets with the words "Go BIG" on the cover.

Chess, the Ball and the City

People Interact with the Ball, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

What a wonderful place to feature the Red Ball. This venue was supposed to have the ball last Sunday but because of the bad weather it was rescheduled for today. This weekend is a 180 from last weekend that's for sure.

I sat for awhile watching people interact with the ball or just roll or run right on by. Mostly the walkers stopped and sometimes a cyclist, but the runners and roller bladers were to much into their routine to stop.

From the Chess Pavilion, just south of North Avenue and the Lakefront I continued to walk the lakefront path all the way south to Roosevelt - approx 3.5 miles of walking. It was a nice little exercise :)

Green Line out of the Sound Barrier

Green Line out of the Sound Barrier, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

Wow - The Red Ball Project finally comes somewhere thats walking distance for me. The Red Ball is at IIT's McCormick Tribune Campus Center. I only had to walk the three-quarters of a mile east and their it was.

Putting it under the 'L' makes it look like its holding the structure up. cool idea. The southbound Green line train is headed to 63rd and Ashland with the first two cars out of the Sound Barrier. This barrier was built so that the students wouldn't be bothered by the noise of the train. Somehow I don't think this would work for me since I can hear the red line trains in the wee hours of the morning and I'm more than a half mile away :(

Squeeze Ball

Squeeze Ball, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

With the wash-out that the weekend - The Red Ball Project had to scramble to reschedule Saturday's and Sunday's Venues.

Saturday was supposed to be Wicker Park but they rescheduled that for today. I like what they did here. They squeezed the ball between two buildings, sort of making the buildings part of the artwork instead of being the canvas that the artwork is in front of. Although I didn't see it live on Friday, the ball was on top of the LaSalle - Wacker street Bridge. I think this is a continuation of that same Theme.

Ball Meets Church

The Red Ball Project visited the Christian Science Church at the corner of Wacker and Wabash. From my observation, being it was 4:30 in the afternoon on a weekday, people were more "cautious" with the display. I guess the seriousness of the workday may have had something to do with it

The Red Ball Project

So this September we have a moving public art project called the Red Ball Project. It's the brainchild of Kurt Persche and surprise surprise funded by Target. I Missed the first three days of the Project 9/1; 9/3 and 9/5. I'm going to try to make the rest :) This was yesterday's location the South stairs of the Field Museum. People were having fun touching the ball and doing goofy things infront of it. Today's location was at the Museum Campus underpass and below is a picture.

Fountain Closings

I went out to Grant Park today to see Buckingham Fountain. Today was the last day the fountain was going to be on. They are shutting it down to make some repairs and to have it ready by April 1st. They want the Olympic Comittee to see it "Live".