During a recent trip back east to visit my friend David Vanadia, we drove around New Jersey and visited a lot of places I had not been to in 30 years. One cold, blustery evening we walked around the streets of Hoboken and stopped in a grocery store to warm up.
We thought about going to the State Fair on Labor Day, but opted instead for Oaks Park, Portland’s small, local amusement park. Apparently, most of Portland had the same idea. Also, several unions were having their Labor Day picnics on the park grounds. This all made for a sea of people unlike I have ever seen before at this location. Who’d of thought that one could wait an hour on line to ride the little kid’s roller coaster—but we did, as well did a lot of other people. For a small ride, this coaster really throws you around. Anika, my daughter, hid her face the whole way. My camera almost flew off my neck a couple of times and my wife, Summer, waited for us at the gate.
While I was in Chicago this past spring I noticed a few things that had changed since the last time I was there. The most impressive new feature I saw was the sculpture Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor. Located in the middle of Millennium Park, the huge mirrored form reflects the city all around it like a huge fish-eye lens. It has an infinite quality to it and appears to have a completely different shape depending on from which angle it is viewed. Not only does it capture a distorted image of the city, but it also captures the images of the people looking at it.