Tag Archives: Chicago

Chicago Photo Tribute #1: Up and Up and Up

April 20, 2013 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , 15 Comments

My wife and I find ourselves traveling to Chicago more and more each year as opportunities keep presenting themselves, and as we find fewer barriers and excuses to keep ourselves trapped at home. We’ve both lived in Indianapolis since birth and don’t anticipate dying anywhere else (Lord willing), but Chicago has numerous advantages over Indy. Entertainment conventions such as Wizard World Chicago and C2E2 have been our primary motivations, but those are just the first items on the brainstorming list.

Next weekend is the fourth annual Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (that “C2E2” thing I won’t shut up about) at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, which my wife and I will be attending for our third time. As a tribute to this fascinating city, and an intro to C2E2 newcomers to provide ideas of what else Chicago has to offer while they’re in town, a few of this week’s posts will be dedicated to out experiences in the Windy City when we’re not gleefully clustered indoors with thousands of other comics and sci-fi fans.

I’ve had this miniseries in mind for a long time, but had trouble deciding where to begin. In an amazing bit of timing, the WordPress.com Daily Post finally sparked a moment of clarity for me on Friday with their latest Weekly Photo Challenge. Thus we start with the most blindingly obvious attribute you can’t possibly overlook when you arrive in downtown Chicago proper: everywhere you turn, it won’t stop reaching up to the heavens.

Exhibit A: the south end of the Magnificent Mile, their world-famous stretch of big-name upscale shops and shopping plazas, seen here from the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive.

Magnificent Mile

Continue reading →

Our C2E2 Photo Archive, Part 3 of 3: the TV and Video Game Tributes

April 16, 2013 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

[T]he following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.

Part One featured movie-based costumes. Part Two was all about Marvel and DC Comics — “the Big Two”, as we comics fans know them. Here in the action-packed conclusion, it’s everyone else’s time to shine.

One such couple of lovable misfits: Pee-Wee and Globey!

Pee-Wee Herman, Globey, costume, C2E2

Continue reading →

Our C2E2 2012 Photo Archive, Part 2 of 3: the Marvel and DC Tributes

April 14, 2013 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

[T]he following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.

Part One focused on movie-based costumes. For this installment, our focus is the attending majority who support Marvel and/or DC Comics. Some were more inspired by Marvel films than by Marvel comics, but wouldn’t exist without the comics’ success in the first place.

In a rare moment of Big Two detente, WWII Captain America costars in his own special inter-company crossover with the grim-‘n’-gritty 1980s version of Green Arrow, the first version of the character to retire the trick arrows and fight crime using only traditional, pointy, frequently lethal arrows…except in this photo, because C2E2 has strict weapons policies. Armed WWII Cap will be fighting to defend the both of them, then.

Captain America, Green Arrow, costume, C2E2

Continue reading →

Our C2E2 2012 Photo Archive, Part 1 of 3: the Movie Tributes

April 12, 2013 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

We’re now two weeks away from this year’s C2E2, the fourth installment of Chicago’s up-‘n’-coming comic-book-’n’-entertainment convention that hopes someday to achieve the size and reach of the San Diego Comic Con if enough of us Midwesterners support it.

Every C2E2 has plenty of activities for the hobby enthusiast: entertainment guests signing autographs; popular comic book creators speaking at panels, holding Q&As, and likewise autographing for fans; aspiring young creators gathering in Artists Alley and hoping to sell you on their own proud efforts; comic-shop owners and SF collectors selling vintage back issues, rare toys, and bargain-box oldies by the pound; booths representing the major comics publishers, including Marvel and DC; and — most noticeable of all — fans attending in costume, resplendent in their creativity and/or audacity.

Part 1 of MCC’s C2E2 2011 retrospective has a much longer intro with more information about the con and its history. As with that two-part miniseries, the following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. (Someone should remind me sometime to tell the story of how C2E2 was indirectly responsible for MCC’s creation in the first place…) For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.

We commence with the wider-appeal characters first to stress that the ‘E’ in “C2E2” stands for “entertainment”. Comics are a major part of the proceedings, but there’re more to most comics fans’ interests than graphic storytelling alone. Exhibit A: the outlandish stylings of Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman from The Hunger Games.

Effie Trinket, Caesar Flickerman, Hunger Games, costumes, C2E2

Continue reading →

Our C2E2 2011 Photo Archive, Part 2 of 2: Villains in Chicago

April 5, 2013 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

The following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in two parts, was previously shared elsewhere online [in 2011], but never on a site I could call my own…until now. Midlife Crisis Crossover wasn’t created until a few weeks after C2E2 2012; thus it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this retrospective of our first C2E2 — chiefly, pics of some of the most interesting costumes we witnessed. For the average con attendee, the costumes are one of the most fascinating, creatively engaging aspects of the convention experience.

Last time we focused on some of the good-guy costumes we encountered. Now it’s the bad guys’ turn. Darkseid, Shredder, and Dr. Doom bid you welcome and insist that you submit or else.

Darkseid, Shredder, Dr. Doom

Continue reading →

Our C2E2 2011 Photo Archive, Part 1 of 2: Heroes in Chicago

April 4, 2013 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

This year my wife and I are gearing up to attend our third consecutive C2E2 comic-book-‘n’-entertainment convention up in Chicago, happening April 26th-28th, 2013. We missed the inaugural year in 2010 due to a schedule conflict, but I’ve made a point of prioritizing it on my calendar ever since. I rather like the idea of someone attempting a Midwest version of the San Diego Comic Con.

Most people in our hobbies are familiar with the longer-running Wizard World Chicago con, whose present incarnation emphasizes its celebrity autograph show while casually including some comics on the side. Though C2E2’s 2013 guest list implies that their entertainment-guest budget has been exponentially increased, they nonetheless attract a much wider lineup of comic-book writers, artists, and fans as well. C2E2 has one major advantage in my book: the major comic companies — Marvel, DC, Dark Horse — have sided with C2E2 over WWC, appearing each year at the former while having sadly eschewed the latter for years.

* * * * *

C2E2 is nowhere near the size of San Diego, but obviously dreams of being such someday. It presently uses only one section of Chicago’s enormous McCormick Place convention center, which has plenty more room to offer if Reed Exhibitions decided they needed some value-added sprawling space. 2012 attendance was pegged at 41,000, up from 32,000 in 2011 and well above its 2010 debut of 27,500. San Diego could still beat up C2E2 and steal its lunch money, but I’m eager to see it keep growing.

The following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in two parts, was previously shared elsewhere online at the time, but never on a site I could call my own…until now. Midlife Crisis Crossover wasn’t created until a few weeks after C2E2 2012; thus it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this retrospective of our first C2E2 — chiefly, pics of some of the most interesting costumes we witnessed. For the average con attendee, the costumes are one of the most fascinating, creatively engaging aspects of the convention experience.

(Not that it was all about costumes. Your humble author and his even humbler wife were each allowed a moment to strike our own poses courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.)

Continue reading →

My 2012 in Pictures: a Montage of Montages Past and Future

December 30, 2012 By in Conventions & Events, Meta, Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

From a purely photographic perspective, our family found 2012 far from boring, to say the least. It wasn’t without its share of trials, tears, and terrors, but it’s my fervent hope that the memories of those invigorating events caught on camera should outlast the emotional scars of the uglier incidents for years to come.

Some of the following subjects are from photo parades previously shared here on MCC. Some are from events that occurred prior to MCC’s inception on April 28, 2012. Some of these are sneak previews of photo parades that have been held in reserve until the conclusion of the 2012 Road Trip series, which is not represented in this gallery since it has its very own de facto home page.

That being said: the lighter side of 2012 from my limited vantage point appeared as follows. Continue reading →

Reflections in a Giant Magic Bean

December 3, 2012 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

This week’s edition of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is my second foray into the field. It’s not a fierce competition with a major award at stake, just a fun excuse for participants to compare experiences and imaginations. I’m strictly an amateur pic-snapper, but it’s fun throwing my hat in the ring anyway.

My entrants were drawn from two separate visits to Chicago’s Millennium Park, home to a sculpture called the Cloud Gate, nicknamed “The Bean” by the locals because of obvious reasons. If a giant uprooted an entire hall-of-mirrors fun house, wadded it up in his massive mitts, left a dent in the middle by smashing it against his forehead, and then tossed it a giant rock polisher, it might look like this.

“Cloud Gate” by Anish Kapoor. Just imagine the beanstalk.

Continue reading →

Why Our Family Avoids Group Tours

September 30, 2012 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , 4 Comments

If you’ve been following the ongoing “2012 Road Trip Photos” series and/or the original “2012 Road Trip Notes on the Go” series that the former supplements, you may recall one of my descriptions of our family’s stubborn decision to view Dinosaur Ridge independently and at our leisure, without benefit of shuttle bus or tour guide. As described in Day Three of the Notes:

…we made the mistake of taking a self-guided walk up the ridge rather than taking the optional shuttle bus with a helpful, informed tour guide.

Without the bus or the guide, our experience amounted to an uphill one-mile walk to view one set of dinosaur footprints, several examples of variegated stratification, some plant fossil imprints, and one or two very tiny, singular fossils embedded in the cliff walls, no full sets of skeletons. After missing out on whatever the tour guide told the paying customers, we found the subsequent one-mile downhill walk back to the car a little disappointing. The healthier, better equipped bicyclists zipping past us up and down the route each added just a few grains of salt to our wounds. That salt was then washed away when the rain returned for a few minutes. This was not our finest hour.

As recounted with the Photos:

No cars are allowed up the ridge except the official Dinosaur Ridge shuttles. The shuttle ride is free, as is their tour guide who elaborates on any points of interest and keeps you focused on the marvels you’d hoped to witness. If you’d prefer to chart your own destiny, pedestrians and bicyclists are permitted to traverse the ridge as they see fit. Our family policy is we prefer to set our own pace and avoid trapping ourselves in other tourists’ schedules or paces. In some situations this can be advantageous if you know what you’re doing and have all the same exhibit access that the tour groups do.

In this situation, it meant a stubborn one-mile walk uphill… Open highway plains to the left of us, rough terrain to the right.

I chose not to expand too much on that thought at length in either entry, but I was reminded of it, and of our family policy in general, by a series of incidents that occurred over the past twenty-four hours.

Continue reading →