Sunday, October 28, 2007

These Things Won't Be Around Much Longer, Folks

If you live in the Chicago area and you haven't been to the following attractions, their last days are both on October 31st.

You will kick yourself if you miss either of them. If you miss them and you don't kick yourself, don't worry, I'll make sure someone kicks you.

Niki In The Garden
A celebration of the work of sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, at the marvelous Garfield Park Conservatory.

The Garfield Park Conservatory is steps from a stop on the Green Line. If you want to drive, there's free parking. To walk through the lovely greenhouses and an amazing new grassy space out behind the greenhouses, all of them having wonderful sculptures, a $5.00 donation is requested.





One of the highlights of the exhibit was "La Cabeza", which you could actually walk inside.






Freaky Frights On Forest
A two-block stretch in the western suburb of North Riverside -- motion-activated, eerily-lit fog-enshrouded, spooky music enchanted, gross and fantastical Halloween wonderment.



I took these pictures with my digital camera. I didn't want to despook the surroundings with a flash, so I just tried my best at holding the camera still. Some pictures came out a little too blurry, but some also came out kind of cool as a result.



This is the second year I've gone to Freaky Frights. There was a lot of new stuff this year, but this spooky glowing puppet inside a little house was once again my favorite.






Woo, I got the moon in there! It was almost full.



Dracula was actually under a strobe light, which probably contributed to this strange effect.


8 comments:

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Freaky Frights looks fantastic! And it's in a residential area? How cool are those people, really? Answer: very

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

awesome artsy photos

Joe said...

excellent photos. Were there any clowns? We were at a Halloween party last night and she had a big scary clown in the garage.

Catherine said...

The Dracula photo is awesome!

Joe said...

You know, looking at your photos again, your lack of flash and the slight blurring it caused really worked out well. They remind me a little of some paintings by Francis Bacon. Creepy.

Splotchy said...

barb, yeah it's just a regular old two block stretch of single-family homes.

dr mvm, thanks kindly!

bubs, yeah, there were some clowns, and I did take a few pictures of them, but they came out crappy blurry, not cool blurry.

cat, thanks! It was completely unexpected and unintended, taken by a true rank amateur!

bubs, thanks! Of course now that you say that, that immediately reminds me that was totally my intent!

Dale said...

The sculpture is very cool, we have so much dreck polluting our downtown core here, okay, some of it's alright but nothing on a par with Darling Niki's stuff.

Jess Wundrun said...

Was that Jambi that I spied?

Mecca lecca high mecca hiney ho.

And Happy Halloween.