Yip Abides

Two Upcoming Events

Explicitly political content has been declining here at Yip Abides for several reasons and lack of interest on my part is not one of them. But a lack of energy most certainly is one of them. By my biological clock, I am an old man. With age comes disability and while mine own is a modest handicap, it keeps me on a leash of uncertain length. This is a roundabout way of say that here are two upcoming events, commemorations of the struggle for an 8 hour workday, that I would attend if I could and maybe I will but maybe you’ll find them of interest regardless.

Commemorating Haymarket

May 1st — May Day — is Labor’s holiday around most of the world, a notable exception being the United States, even though the holiday commemorates the Haymarket Affair (aka Haymarket massacre, aka Haymarket Square riot) here in Chicago that happened on May 4, 1886, as part of a nationwide strike demanding an 8 hour work day. As a result of the police riot, 8 activists were tried in a show trial. 7 were sentenced to death. Of the 7, 2 had their sentence commuted, 1 committed suicide (probably), and 4 were hung.

I. May Day Exhibit / Dr. Corbin Plaque Dedication

Wednesday, May 1, 9 AM to 4 PM
@ Haymarket Martyrs Monument
863 Desplaines Avenue, Forest Park (see map below)
Historical Society of Forest Park

“In celebration and remembrance of May Day, the Historical Society of Forest Park will feature biographies about residents of Radical Row at various graves, as well as provide information about the Haymarket Affair and its monument. Weather permitting, we will display signs at individual graves from Saturday through Wednesday.

“At 1:00 in the chapel, we will honor Larry Spivack, President of Illinois Labor History Society, this year’s recipient of the Mark Rogovin Working Class Hero Award. Please join us in celebrating his contribution to labor history. Immediately following, we will unveil the plaque and dedicate the Dr. Joseph Carter Corbin Gravesite as a National Historic Place. The event will be hosted by John Rice, with speakers including Rory Hoskins, Mayor of Forest Park; Amy Hathaway, Survey and National Register Specialist at the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office; and Dr. David Ware, Arkansas Historian & Director of Arkansas State Archives.”

google map — Forest Home (Waldheim) Cemetery

II. Haymarket Memorial Plaque Dedication

Wednesday, May 1, 4 PM to 5 PM
@ Haymarket / Free Speech Monument
175 N. Desplaines Street, Chicago
Illinois Labor History Society & Chicago Federation of Labor

May 1st is an international holiday so once Chicago erected a monument to the Haymarket Affair at the spot where the confrontation occurred, labor organizations from around the world have been invited to commemorate the fight for workers’ rights by adding a plaque to the monument.*

“Join the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Illinois Labor History Society, the Sindicato de Camioneros de la Provincia de Santa Fe from Argentina, and ASÍ — Icelandic Confederation of Labour at this year’s May Day celebration.”

* This is, incidentally, nowhere near the Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument in Forest Park but is instead a block east of I-90, near Chicago’s Loop.

Garbage XIII: the Mylar That Ate Your Birthday

Photo by Roman.

Photo by Roman.

Photo by Roman.

Photo by Roman.

Photo by Roman.

Click any gallery image above to enlarge it.

Daffydowndilly

What would Spring be like without that perennial pioneer, the daffodil or narcissus? This is the first that I saw this year. It was the end of March and the blossom amplified the morning sun into a blaze amid the wreckage of yesteryear.

As pretty as it may be, Wikipedia warns:

“While all narcissi are poisonous when eaten, poet’s daffodil is more dangerous than others, acting as a strong emetic and irritant. The scent can be powerful enough to cause headache and vomiting if a large quantity is kept in a closed room.”

This should probably not be taken as a metaphor for poetry unless maybe in grade school. But it may be why it “is considered sacred to both Hades and Persephone, and grows along the banks of the river Styx in the underworld.”

The Wikipedia entry for Narcissus has a fascinating section on its uses in medicine, traditional and modern, and in perfumes.

Morning Cafe

The Door Into Summer?

“The Door Into Summer” was the title of Robert Heinlein’s 1957 sci-fi novel but I thought the title was also appropriate for this very surfy door. That it opens onto an alley rather than a beach is in spirit with the book as, in its opening anecdote, the cat never did figure out that doors open to summer only when it is… summer.

Eclipse in Chicago

It is not often that one can have a ringside seat at event with cosmic proportions yet come away from its witness alive and even unscathed. Okay, by the law of big numbers there were some who stared and so certainly came away scathed. But it wasn’t you. It probably wasn’t me.

Loyola Park, 2024 solar eclipse. Photo by Roman.

But it was a holiday crowd at Loyola Park and some of them must have peeked. While it wasn’t as common as rock concert joints, filtered glasses were being passed around. But I admit the shadow of the tree was my main focus in this photo. And in fact, shadows were my main focus that afternoon.

First of all, there is the dark and smokey quality to the light itself. Much to my surprise, this photo comes close to catching that quality in a kodachrome sort of way. In these partial eclipses, the sky never quite reaches the sunset quality of a total eclipse but it does have a spookiness to it…

…and ordinary shadows change as well. Despite being less illuminated, ordinary shadows often seem unnaturally sharp… like an echo of an alternate universe.

2024 Eclipse liminal crescents. Photo by Roman.

2024 solar eclipse, liminal crescents. Photo by Roman.

And sometimes the crescent sun is suggested along the edges of the shadow.

And of course there are the trees and bushes that act as natural pinhole cameras.

It was a pleasant way of spending a warm spring afternoon. It wasn’t quite the spectacle or the adventure of a total eclipse in winter’s Winnipeg, Manitoba, back in the 1970s. I’d tell you about that too but I remember only fragments.

Inevitable

Electric Train

…ghost train…

Photo by Roman.

Wayfaring Stranger

… and speaking of Red Dead Redemption (as we did in yesterday’s post), here is a music video done within that game, a spooky hymn covered by the Longest Johns (4:09):

The video’s YouTube page says:

“Red Dead Redemption 2 is a superb and beautiful game, and we wanted to get closer to the action… so we put ourselves in it!! All footage (other than us) is captured in-game in our first foray into virtual production.

“We had an idea of how we wanted to film a video for ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ a while back, and this seemed like a perfect way to capture it.”

Programmed to Work

This was a recent New York Times Op-Doc, from the Total Refusal collective. “The collective explores the field of contemporary video and computer games through artistic interventions.” (20:20)

From the video’s YouTube page:

“In this short documentary, a laundress, a stablehand, a street sweeper and a carpenter are observed with ethnographic precision. They are nonplayer characters, or NPCs, in the blockbuster Wild West-themed video game Red Dead Redemption 2, and many of them are trapped in work.

“NPCs populate the gaming world as background extras. They simulate being alive, but their rhythm of life is controlled by looped activities — which they exercise tirelessly and repetitively into infinity.

“These NPCs are Sisyphean machines, programmed to get stuck in the routines of everyday life without results. Occasionally, the NPCs glitch, breaking their cycles and revealing their own flawedness. In these moments, they seem touchingly human.

“We’re an artist collective whose work explores contemporary computer and video games. Here, we reflect on the question of work and what’s supposed to be normal. Despite the game’s turn-of-the-century setting, the labor routines, activity patterns — as well as bugs and malfunctions — paint a vivid analogy for how workers today toil under capitalism.

“Can we, the nonplayer characters of a political economy that controls, exploits and alienates us, find a way to rebel against the absurdity of our own activities?”