Signs of Spring at Marina City: seasonal plantings now in, Smith & Wollensky tent is up.

Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears Alarm caused by posts of Alex Karp, tech firm’s CEO, championing US military dominance and of AI weapons

... and speaking of crazy, when do we stop normalizing Alex Karp and recognize he's like a Bond villain doing everything he can to leverage Palantir to create a surveillance state and the abolition of democracy?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

‘The Right Amount of Crazy’ | Fintan O’Toole In Trump’s strategy of feigning madness to get what he wants, there is no longer any border between pretense and actual irrationality.

For our gangster President, acting crazy to generate fear has always been a part of his schtick. Now - with aids refusing to push the nuclear button for him - it's overtaken his very being.
"The madness, after all, is not just personal. It is structural."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Chicago under construction: 750 West North, on a long-time former parking lot next to Yondorf Hall. 5 stories, 48 residential units. 2,300 square-feet of retail, 15 car garage, 50 bike spaces. Red Architects.
chicagoyimby.com/2026/03/cons...

Beef over Beef

Reminder: free live stream tonight, Monday, 4/20, 6:25 pm CDT,of opening night of Met Opera's Eugene Onegin. with Asmik Grigorian.
ondemand.metopera.org/radio/a7baf1...

Chicago Love: A chance encounter wandering down the streets of Old Town with this singer and her song. Exquisite.

Bar

Bringing the Flatiron Building’s Showpiece Door Back to Life

Via New City. Yes, there's an International Revolving Door Company. It's in Evansville. The revolving door was patented in 1888. And here's the story of recreating the century-old wooden revolving door at the corner of Daniel Burnham's Flatiron Building in New York.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/r...

CTA update: still totally unreliable. Sunday afternoon, platform packed. No O’Hare train for another 12 minutes - goodness knows how long they’ve already been waiting.

In pointed exchange, Congress member calls on ICE head to address record detainee deaths A U.S. Congress member from Illinois cited a Chronicle investigation while questioning ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons over medical delays in detention, record deaths.

Strangely enough, I can't find any coverage of this in the two Chicago dailies, but the San Francisco Chronicle goes deep on local Congressperson. Lauren Underwood's grilling of ICE officials trying to get the bottom of the deaths of people in their custody.
www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/art...

The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has traditionally prioritized protecting monied elites, but the Roberts Court is doing it on steroids, tearing up legal precedent and reasoned discussion, concerned less with the well-being of American citizens than shielding corporate interests.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

That the Met Opera production of one of the most stunning and accomplished works of the current century isn't on the Live in HD schedule is a scandal, but you can hear a free live stream today, Saturday, 4/18, 12pm CDT on WFMT, and at the link.
ondemand.metopera.org/radio/a7baf1...

Actually, I’m reading it’s for the 100th birthday bash for the Ambassador East of NxNW fame. Residents at The Churchill across the street are apparently not thrilled by the searchlights.

No, not alien spacecraft circling for a landing, but searchlights in the sky for the opening of -I think - The Hand and The Eye, being upstaged by lightning.

... and across the street at Pioneer Court, a "really big shew"*

*antiquated cultural reference to someone named Ed Sullivan, a once-famous television host who was the subject of countless bad impressionists latching on to his mispronouciation of the word "show".

... part of this tulipfest on Michigan Avenue at the Wrigley Building.

Tie-dye tulips

Fog overtakes the Chicago skyline, as Studio Gang's St. Regis Tower dissolves into a weird greenish aura.

Also at the Art Institute, what was once weekly free admission Thursdays 5-8 p.m., is now just once a month. Thank goodness for UNIQLO, but the Park District which subsidizes museums, is letting them get away with murder on scheduling mandated free days.

When a Museum Devours its Own: The Mortal Threat to Adler & Sullivan's Stock Exchange Trading Room Eric Allix Rogers photo, courtesy Preservation Chicago Here's the thing.  Great art museums are both amazing treasures and amoral empires.  ...

... and in case you missed it, the story of how Art Institute Director James Rondeau has the stunning Adler & Sullivan Trading Room in his sights to sacrifice at the alter of his vision for a big new wing to be his legacy.
arcchicago.blogspot.com/2026/03/when...

The essential and often inexplicable Art Institute. ARTnews's Alex Greenberger has a stunning overview of 100 of the museum's masterworks, including the "fate in question" Trading Room AIC is hot to destroy, and a Kerry James Marshall that's not on view.
www.artnews.com/list/art-new...

1980s artifact discovered at the back of a high shelf.

Building in building

...and elevator lobby Spring blossoms at Marina City...

Tulip Time in Chicago. State Street, Michigan Avenue - they're everywhere! They're getting caught in my hair!

Storm approaching

Belarus detains more than 50 at architectural firm in escalating crackdown Belarusian authorities detained 52 employees of the architectural firm ZROBIM Architects in Minsk on Thursday, including its founder, in the country’s largest single raid this year, the Viasna human r...

Don't give Orange Jesus ideas! Belarus autocrat Alexander (congratulations on 30 years a Russian asset!) Lukashenko raids firm, detains 52 architects, and demands they hire an "ideologist" to spy and make sure they follow the dictator's line.
apnews.com/article/bela...

Spring day in the city