Invitation to Chicago & my Darkroom

[Tin Can]

Chicago is starting the tourist season. Yes, lot's of people come here from around the world. May to October is the best weather.

Yesterday I had a short and pleasant visit from an active forum member, since we already corresponded it was great to see an old friend. (you know what I mean)

My safe inner city location is Chicago's version of Bohemia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism)

I prefer active posting members as we all seem to know each other that way. Zero posters and new members will need vetting.

I can be a guide to Chicago, I have lived here since 1967. I comprehend Castilian.

I can provide full darkroom if needed, for short projects of almost anything film based. Soon B+W movie film processing, in small batches.

I am listed here on Ilford's site (http://www.localdarkroom.com/) Private darkroom 'TIN CAN COLLEGE'.

Let Summer begin!

[Peter De Smidt]

Randy is a terrific host, and he has an amazing place. He has top-of-the-line commercial stainless sinks, more photo enlargers than I've ever seen in one place, and some amazing cameras and lenses. Most importantly, he's fun to talk with.

[William Whitaker]

Does Moe's B&B have off-street parking?

[Roger Thoms]

Does Moe's B&B have off-street parking?

Pretty sure it does if you're on a motorcycle. ;)

Roger

[Tin Can]

Parking for one car, yes. But this is not a B&B.

Nor am I selling something.

Let me be clear, I do not charge people or rent this space.

This is for friends, however new, to share a darkroom or photography tour of Chicago.

Definitely not a commercial effort or small business.

I prefer to share and exchange ideas, skills and experience.

[William Whitaker]

The comment about "B&B" was merely an attempt at levity. Sorry if it came across differently.

[Tin Can]

The comment about "B&B" was merely an attempt at levity. Sorry if it came across differently.

Will, no problem, I guess I'm touchy, I get a lot of snarky comments and PM's.

They are wearing me down, some here people don't like frequent posters.

But, I should have made it more clear initially that I was not selling anything.

Thanks for your levity, really!

[David Karp]

Don't let them get you down Randy.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I'm checking Amtrak and Chicago's bus map now.

If we visit, what should we bring for you, Randy?
Flashbulbs is my thing. :)
.

[Tracy Storer]

Kudos for your sense of. community ! If I find myself approaching Chicago, I'd love to have a visit !

[Tin Can]

I'm checking Amtrak and Chicago's bus map now.

If we visit, what should we bring for you, Randy?
Flashbulbs is my thing. :)
.

Just bring a camera, flashbulbs, film and we can have a POP of a time!

I really don't need anything Jac, except for your experience in POPPing the dern things!

I'm finding shutters where M doesn't work, and all kinds of little things. I may just settle for open B shutter, manual fire flashbulbing. That is working. LOL

Now I need to convince Ilko to open his empty loft for a AirB&B (https://www.airbnb.com). I gotta call him in a while. He's in NOLA editing a movie for 9 months.

And I only discovered that because of Will's comment about B&B, that link above looks like a plan for Ilko. He's broke, but a great editor of Indie Documentaries. After NOLA it's Berlin for him, the Devil!

So thank you Will, even little comments can turn into something!

[William Whitaker]

:) :)

[IanG]

Maybe I'll drop by when I visit the US & Canada next year.

Ian

[Tim Meisburger]

I have to take my daughter to visit Northwestern this summer (she will be a senior in high school next year and is looking at colleges in the US and Canada this summer). Perhaps we will spend a day as tourist in Chicago and I'll drop round and buy you a beer, or even develop some film. Its great sometimes to put a face to a name. Eddie Gunks used to stop by in Bangkok now and then, but otherwise I haven't had any visitors in this part of the world.

[Richard Wasserman]

I have to take my daughter to visit Northwestern this summer (

Small world Tim. Our son is in a post-bac premed program at Nothwestern as we speak. He finishes in June.

[Joseph Kayne]

I am from the Chicago area also. It is well worth the visit!

[bob carnie]

Hope you are considering Toronto Ian... You are most welcome here.

Maybe I'll drop by when I visit the US & Canada next year.

Ian

[bob carnie]

Randy

I do have some business coming up in Chicago, not sure when exactly but I would like to visit your digs while I am there...


Bob

[adelorenzo]

I (and I am sure many others) appreciate your frequent postings and contributions here. Don't let the bastards grind you down! If I ever find myself in your area I'll look you up for sure.

[Roger Thoms]

Randy, hope you realize my comment was an attempt at humor. I recall some mention of a motorcycle in you darkroom space. Maybe I imagined it, that's happening more lately. :eek:

Anyway, hopefully I'll make it to Chicago on of these days. It would be great to meet in person and see your studio. As far as the B&B goes I in can sleep in my truck and I'll buy you breakfast.

Roger

[Tin Can]

So many nice comments. How wonderful!

I hope all who posted and others, visit when it's warm. It snowed 5" this morning...

I have a spare bicycle or 3.

Roger, before I switched hobbies to something more sedate, I had 8 motorcycles inside, some ready to go, some under restoration. Now all that's left inside is a VeloSolex, a French Moped that's slower than a bicycle and very popular in Post War France.

131342

[Andrew O'Neill]

Wow! Now a reason to come to Chicago! I'll bring you some west coast Haida smoked salmon.

[Roger Thoms]

I here you on more sedate hobbies. Use to skydive and BASE jump, had some minor injuries skydiving, then broken pelvis and hip dislocation on on BASE object strike. Now my big hobbies are photography and working on my Flag house.

The moped looks fun, had a Puch many years ago. I was always a blast to cruise around on.

Roger

[Jac@stafford.net]

I[...]Now my big hobbies are photography and working on my Flag house.

Flag house? Something like this (http://melikedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/flag-house_1421054497.jpg)?

[mdarnton]

Randy's place is like a wonderful museum of heavy metal (the enlarger column kind). I have never even imagined a space with so many enlargers. I would love to have just any one of them, and a place for it, but he's got a whole herd.

People who make it downtown are welcome to visit my shop, too--it's just a block from the front of the Art Institute. That's where I have my little portrait studio.

[Tin Can]

Wow! Now a reason to come to Chicago! I'll bring you some west coast Haida smoked salmon.

Good idea, because you may not like our speciality. Smelt, which is a tiny fish eaten whole. Season just opened. http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2012/04/16/ask-geoffrey-416

Beer batter and hot sauce required. (http://fishcooking.about.com/od/meetyourfish/p/smelt.htm)

Lake Michigan is fairly fished out and Asian Carp (http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/threats-to-wildlife/invasive-species/asian-carp.aspx) are fighting to get in.

The odd thing is Asian Carp are hated here, but desired elsewhere. I think we need to harvest it and make fertilizer, but what do I know.

I remember the Alewives (http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Home/Topics/FishSpecies/Details.aspx?PostID=362) die off that made our beaches unbearable. 1967 or '68.

Those fish aside, I have fond memories of catching Sunnies (http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/know_your_sunfish.html) in Wisconsin and pan frying them immediatly in butter. Those were the best fish I ever ate as a child.

Up north Walleye Pike. (http://www.inlandseafood.com/Walleye-Pike)

[Tin Can]

Randy's place is like a wonderful museum of heavy metal (the enlarger column kind). I have never even imagined a space with so many enlargers. I would love to have just any one of them, and a place for it, but he's got a whole herd.

People who make it downtown are welcome to visit my shop, too--it's just a block from the front of the Art Institute. That's where I have my little portrait studio.

I highly suggest Michael's as it's very nice and way cool. We are friends but very opposite in style. I have none...

[mdarnton]

I can tell this is going to be a contest to the bottom! By "style" he means I have two colors of t-shirts, black, and grey.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Good idea, because you may not like our speciality. Smelt, which is a tiny fish eaten whole. Season just opened.

I like a good smelt. Beer batter sounds good, as long as it's a light battering…


I can tell this is going to be a contest to the bottom! By "style" he means I have two colors of t-shirts, black, and grey.


Mine are the same, but with retro Batman pics on it.

[diversey]

Randy's darkroom is an amazing place. We have visited it and everyone of us loves it. I also did printing in Randy's darkroom, which was a very pleasant experience. Please don't miss your opportunity to visit Randy's darkroom, he is a fun and friendly person to chat with.

[William Whitaker]

...By "style" he means I have two colors of t-shirts, black, and grey.

You must mean Zone I and Zone IV. C'mon! Keep it on topic!:)

[Tin Can]

Sometimes I'm friendly and I always wear black, so Michael does have more style!

And I haven't ridden that moped in years, now I gots me a Sporty with actual factory quiet mufflers. The only Harley like it outside of Beer City.

[jb7]

Kind offer, would be great to meet up if I ever get to return to Chicago, rather, when I return to Chicago...

[Roger Thoms]

Flag house? Something like this (http://melikedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/flag-house_1421054497.jpg)?

Wow that really got a kick out of that. But no nothing that wild, just a small home east of Flagstaff AZ.

Roger

[Leszek Vogt]

Randy, just realized I haven't been to Chicago in 42yrs. I'll take you up on it in 2016, when I'm returning from NS (so that will be 43yrs). Can't believe it, that I'm making such long range plans at my age ? :>). Can't top Andrew's salmon....hmm, maybe some wilted lobster (from E. Canada), eh ? Ok Ok, I'll stop.

Les

[Tin Can]

Randy, just realized I haven't been to Chicago in 42yrs. I'll take you up on it in 2016, when I'm returning from NS (so that will be 43yrs). Can't believe it, that I'm making such long range plans at my age ? :>). Can't top Andrew's salmon....hmm, maybe some wilted lobster (from E. Canada), eh ? Ok Ok, I'll stop.

Les

Hey, we all need something to live for. I have a story about that i may tell.

[Vaughn]

I have no plans for Chicago, but with three kids heading off to college, who knows where they'll end up! Well, one is going to school in Bolivia of a year, so I might have to go for a visit... So if Alex ends up back east, I could possibly head that way. This is the time when we start hearing from colleges. Two of the boys applied to too many colleges...both have been accepted to UCSanDiego, UCSantaCruz, Alex to UCLA and I think Bryce to UCSantaBarbara, and both wait impatiently for word from Berkeley. Alex also applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, UnivPenn, and some more in there. We're talking some serious college application fees!

When I retire, the boys are all off, and I can start doing photography full time, I hope to be able to offer the same invitation to visit my neck of the woods. Perhaps in time for the coming Fall color (yellow) in the redwoods in October/November...I am crunching the retirement numbers. Why work for someone else after 60?! (Because of boys in college, perhaps? We'll see!)

[Tin Can]

I must add, as some know, I am retired early and have a 43 year old daughter and 2 grandchildren 13 and 16.

So I found something to do, which is fully engage in a hobby I couldn't really pursue since I was 7.

Life is short, we may as well do and share what we can.

[Nigel Smith]

The odd thing is Asian Carp are hated here, but desired elsewhere. I think we need to harvest it and make fertilizer, but what do I know.


http://charliecarp.com/

[William Whitaker]

http://charliecarp.com/

Sounds sort of like piscine genocide and it must smell marvelous. Recalls to mind memories of the Bass-O-Matic.

[Old_Dick]

Randy,

You are a wonderful person.


Principal Unix System Engineer, Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems(retired)

[Jac@stafford.net]

I must add, as some know, I am retired early and have a 43 year old daughter [...]

Hey! Is she available? I have a 50 year-old son! :) He's gotta settle down sometime.

[Fred L]

SMELT !!! mmmmmmm

[Richard Wasserman]

Sounds sort of like piscine genocide and it must smell marvelous. Recalls to mind memories of the Bass-O-Matic.

I was just in rural Wisconsin where it seems to be the start of manure spreading season. Charlie Carp might be a welcome olfactory diversion...

[William Whitaker]

I was just in rural Wisconsin where it seems to be the start of manure spreading season. Charlie Carp might be a welcome olfactory diversion...

Better Charlie Carp than Charlie Crap?

[Tin Can]

Hey! Is she available? I have a 50 year-old son! :) He's gotta settle down sometime.

No Jac, she is happily married for many years to a real nice, smart guy whose personality is suspiciously like mine...

[evan clarke]

I was just in rural Wisconsin where it seems to be the start of manure spreading season. Charlie Carp might be a welcome olfactory diversion...
Still smells better than the Chicago river..:)))

[evan clarke]

Welcome to my darkroom too, it is candyland

[Jac@stafford.net]

No Jac, she is happily married for many years to a real nice, smart guy whose personality is suspiciously like mine...

Cor bless them.
Pax
--
Jac

[SergeiR]

Thats very nice of you, Randy. If we end up doing Chicago stuff (still discussed with medical insurance) this year - I am totally going to visit ;)

[Tin Can]

Thats very nice of you, Randy. If we end up doing Chicago stuff (still discussed with medical insurance) this year - I am totally going to visit ;)

Welcome!

Great, but if you need a hospital, i highly recommend Northwestern. It's excellent, feels like a hotel, has a concierge for scheduled procedures and has saved my life twice in ER.

I took a taxi to their ER for my last heart attack, as it was faster and I got onto my prefered hospital, vs the local mystery ship.

Anybody with chest pain goes to front of the line.

But if you are shot in Chicago, Cook County has the best in the world for those emergencies, a sad but true reality in our City on the Make (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo11463726.html).

[HMG]

...
But if you are shot in Chicago, Cook County has the best in the world for those emergencies, a sad but true reality in our City on the Make (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo11463726.html).

Inner city hospitals almost always best if you get shot. That's where the Army sends their docs for training.

For cheap to Chicago, there's always Megabus.

My "must" stop, whether in Chicago or layover at airport, is Gold Coast Dogs. Though I suspect there are non-chains that are better.

[Tin Can]

Inner city hospitals almost always best if you get shot. That's where the Army sends their docs for training.

For cheap to Chicago, there's always Megabus.

My "must" stop, whether in Chicago or layover at airport, is Gold Coast Dogs. Though I suspect there are non-chains that are better.

Yes, there are. Today I stopped at http://www.timeout.com/chicago/restaurants/man-jo-vins Very clean, which some joints are not, a classic Chicago hot dog. with yellow mustard, sport peppers, big pickle, the right dog, tomato, neon relish, celery salt on poppy seed bun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago-style_hot_dog which I always get with the weird cornmeal, not Mexican, but traditional Tamale, a free cup of tap water, $4.10 which is on the high end, but I prefer a clean shop with pleasant folks.

Chicago also has more expensive fast food, know as Italian Beefs, no apostrophe needed. This is the best for miles, most Beefs are crap, but not this joint. I love this place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ZXXKRG1qk

[puntti]

Chicago is starting the tourist season. Yes, lot's of people come here from around the world. May to October is the best weather.

Yesterday I had a short and pleasant visit from an active forum member, since we already corresponded it was great to see an old friend. (you know what I mean)

My safe inner city location is Chicago's version of Bohemia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism)

I prefer active posting members as we all seem to know each other that way. Zero posters and new members will need vetting.

I can be a guide to Chicago, I have lived here since 1967. I comprehend Castilian.

I can provide full darkroom if needed, for short projects of almost anything film based. Soon B+W movie film processing, in small batches.

I am listed here on Ilford's site (http://www.localdarkroom.com/) Private darkroom 'TIN CAN COLLEGE'.

Let Summer begin!

he has an amazing place. He has top-of-the-line commercial stainless sinks
http://rockbullet.tk/86/o.png

[Tin Can]

he has an amazing place. He has top-of-the-line commercial stainless sinks
http://rockbullet.tk/86/o.png

The 3 old LeeDal sinks, all made in Chicago, were bought for $500 total and span 23 ft. They are in my ex-living room. The fellow who made them, still makes them in Michigan. Everything I buy is used and usually unwanted.

Not sure why you made the your comment puntti, but welcome to the forum.

[Gary Tarbert]

Hi Randy , On our trip to the states in late May early June we miss you by 1 state We terminate at Michigan , How far as the crow flies is Detroit from Chicago . Cheers Gary

[Joe Smigiel]

If the crow is flying above I-94, it is 283 miles (455km) from Detroit to Chicago and roughly 4.25 hours if it is a fast crow.

[Tin Can]

If the crow is flying above I-94, it is 283 miles (455km) from Detroit to Chicago and roughly 4.25 hours if it is a fast crow.

Ya, lot's of people tell me they drive it in 4 hours, I find it more like 6 hours with a pit stop to my northside location.

[Tin Can]

Bumpity