Millennium Park ::: Val Bromann ::: Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Millennium Park’

from a punk marching band to opera in the park…

Posted by Val on September 12th, 2010 at 9:59 am | Permalink | No Comments » |

Yesterday was cold and rainy. I got coffee. I came home. I drank my coffee. My internet and TV went out and I was bored. So I decided to leave ridiculously early. Which meant I decided to walk where I was going. Which was Wicker Park. Which was about three miles away.

I left and then went right back to get a sweatshirt. Because it was chilly.

I got to Wicker Park and walked around the Renegade Craft Fair.

I quickly figured out that there were way too many things I wanted to buy, so I just started grabbing business cards so I could visit their websites later. Too. many. cute. things.

I was meeting Tabitha there to watch Mucca Pazza. They were supposed to start around one but nothing gave any indication as to where they were starting. There was a stage but I didn’t see them about and it was a really tiny stage. Finally after wandering I heard some drum beats and ran towards it. And they began their very kick-ass performance…

more photos here.

Tabitha joined me and we followed them around the fair for the rest of their performance and then wandered the rest of the craft fair. And it got pretty hot. So I was kind of over dressed.

I didn’t end up buying anything but I have a lot of cards and plan to do a little online shopping later.

Ryan bought a t-shirt…

Afterwards Tabitha left and I headed downtown since I had to work our Millennium Park concert. I spent the night taking photos, twittering, and stealing grapes.

It was a beautiful concert. And bittersweet. Because.

from a punk marching band to opera in the park… | No Comments » |

She and who?

Posted by Val on June 9th, 2010 at 3:13 pm | Permalink | No Comments » |

On Monday Jen was in town (yay!) and so was Kurt (yay!) so I hiked it over to the bean to meet them at lunch time. Jen and Kurt had just been to the new(ish) modern wing at the Art Institute so Kurt was inspired to create some post-modern art of his own…

We stopped off for some obligatory Bean photos…

And then crossed the street to Caffe Baci for lunch…

Alas, I then had to scurry back to work. I was tempted to not go back though…

After work I met back up with Jen and we walked to Millennium Park for the She & Him concert. We listened to the opening band for a bit. Jen had to head off and Chelsa got there so we braved the crowd to find the rest of our group.

Apparently I seem to be the only person in this world who had no idea who She & Him are. I was invited by someone else via Facebook about 3 months ago or so and I Facebook replied Maybe because what else am I going to do with a random Monday? I just figured they were some indy group that people who bother to know about music know about. And then I forgot about it until it started showing up in my Facebook upcoming events but wasn’t really thinking of going…then came Monday. And everyone in the world seemed to be status messaging about going to this concert. Still didn’t think much of it. Then I saw Brian’s twitter message that said something about how everyone was going to see Zooey Deschanel and I kind of put it together that hey, oh, that is her group.

And then Chelsa said she was going with some coworkers so I said cool I’d see her there.

The first half of the show was pretty decent. It was kind of Patsy Cliney and folksy and I kind of like that. I was more of a fan of that than the second half that was a little ore rocky. Just my opinion.

The concert was fun and I enjoyed it, but what I want to know is if people like She & Him because they think it is good music or because it has Zooey Deschanel? I mean, I’d seen her sing before in movies and while she’s not terrible she’s about what you’d expect from an actor who’s trying to be a recording artist. And the concert was enjoyable. But not something I would have paid money for. Just a question.

More photos here.

She and who? | No Comments » |

Opera in the Park

Posted by Val on September 13th, 2009 at 9:36 am | Permalink | No Comments » |

Every year Lyric Opera presents a big free concert in Millennium Park. I always have to work it, usually helping at the info booths and whatnot. This year we decided to try something different. My sneaky plan of posting vacation photos all around my desk to show what a great photographer I am paid off and they let me run around the park with my camera to take photos of the crowds to post directly to Facebook as the show went on! That way the people listening on WFMT at home had something to follow along with!

The plan went off semi-well. The internet connection we had out there was spotty but we managed to get some of them up as the night went on.

It was definitely a different experience than what I normally shoot. I usually shoot in RAW files and go over each one to tweak slightly before posting them anywhere. And I usually keep every photo I take just in case and compare them on the computer screen to pick the best. In this case due to the rapidness of what we wanted to do, I had to shoot in jpg and self-edit down the photos as I went along so that the card I had had everything I wanted to post and only what I wanted to post. And I couldn’t edit them on the computer. Which was scary because I had to get them as right as possible.

But it went pretty well I think.

Here are a few of my (slightly edited later…) photos from the night. For tons more check out our Facebook fan page!

Opera in the Park | No Comments » |

let’s get andrew drunk!

Posted by Val on May 13th, 2009 at 12:04 am | Permalink | No Comments » |

After the photo shoot Saturday I met with Jen and Andrew downtown to walk through Millennium Park and Grant Park. Who knew it would be so COLD?

There was a wedding party taking photos and the bridesmaids were in big pink dresses. We determined that JoeJoe definitely needs to wear that for her wedding. And Buckingham Fountain was open! Rejoice!

Joe and Alina met up with us too so we headed to Elephant and Castle for dinner. They didn’t have beer on tap and were out of most beers. Not that I cared. My fish and chips were yummy though.

Afterwards we tried to find a bar downtown that was open but failed. Eventually we made our way over to a Bar Louie and had some drinks. For some reason at the end of the night the waiter brought us a free round. Umm, OK? We didn’t mind but were thoroughly confused as to why we were given about $30 worth of drinks on a $60 bill.

More photos here!

let’s get andrew drunk! | No Comments » |

i wanna drive the…olympia ice resurfacer???

Posted by Val on March 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm | Permalink | No Comments » |

I am not allowed to watch Throwdown ever again. Whatever Bobby Flay makes I crave the next day. So Monday I had to go get pad thai for lunch. YUM! It wasn’t too bad out so I walked to Millennium Park to eat.

pad thai:

bean:

WTF? Millennium Park uses an OLYMPIA ICE RESURFACER!?!?! That’s not a Zamboni!

broken fountain:

green fountain:

Eric “working”:

p.s. Val thinks her camera looks awesome…everyone else probably thinks she is a tourist.

Monday night was 24 night. The episode featured the most ridiculously choreographed fight scene in the history of the show. Meredith made chicken mole and JoeJoe made an angel food cake that didn’t deflate. And on HIMYM Doogie Hauser wore a pyjama suit…I told MK he needs to get one.

Saturday morning I took a lighting and portrait class at Calumet. I’ve been taking a ridiculous amount of classes there. This class was their first in their new annex, which is a huge room with lots of space. Hopefully this will mean that there will be more hands on classes soon!

When Ron eats an apple he eats the whole thing, core and all. It’s weird. Just sayin.

so…if I were to backpack Europe and/or roadtrip the USA for a bit in maybe a year from now…would anyone be interested in joining me for a portion of it?

i wanna drive the…olympia ice resurfacer??? | No Comments » |