but not forever
The sun does not rise but
The morning light descends,
Infusing night’s shadows,
Growing color and form.
First clouds ignite then trees
As darkness sinks to ground.
Gramercy!
— Yip
Jet stream bounded polar vortex:
Warmed, the wind wall weakens.
Cold air bleeds out southward:
Ice and snow remembered
‘Twixt wind and rain as if
In chaotic delirium.
Listen, fools!
Summer is coming.
— Yip
In the night the dead arise: lost loves, broken friendships.
You among them. Well met, old friend.
We sit and speak; of what, I do not remember.
It doesn’t matter. It never did.
It is a futile love though love remains
But in dreams alone reunion.
— Yip
by accident
Fruit flies share my house.
Their manna is my waste.
I kill them one by one.
They adore me, circle round me;
I clap my hands
To kill them one by one.
Seeking light for wisdom, they land.
It’s easy then
To kill them one by one.
Still they adore me and fly in my face
As if to seek the eye of God
And they die, one by one.
— Yip
Fly illustration credit: By Sanjay Acharya – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org
Sum not your road-kill before it’s struck!
Crow warned me of the truck.
Truly Crow did.
“Street pizza!” it cawed.
Crow had summoned the flock too soon:
I stopped.
A snack they were denied.
— Yip
Graphic: element from 2007 Rogers Park annual “Artists of the Wall” exhibition.
The first year in review
October 31 was the first anniversary of Yip Abides: 417 posts, though there were a few missed days. Blogs are basically stacks; the newest entries are on top. Older posts are buried like geological strata. So here are the best of those 417, in my humble opinion: 116 posts of Yip Abides’ first year, by category, in reverse chronological order – as if the blog were a queue instead of a stack. Let the posts buried by time stand forth!
There’s a lot of good stuff that did not get included below, so exploring will be rewarding if you care to do so. The categories are a good way of focusing your browsing, depending upon your interests. While tags have something of a social function in WordPress, vaguely similar to Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms, I’ve used them here as a subject index. Unfortunately, with the theme I’m currently using, you can’t browse by both category and tag.
And what is in store for the coming year? Fewer posts, most certainly, perhaps not even one each day as I expect to have other irons in the fire than just this blog. There’s been a distinct tendency toward photos over other content lately; that would be easy to continue. In any case, I’m making this up as I go along so you’ll find out as soon as I do.
The first post: Hello World.
Rock Island in Bureau Junction – old GP7 1275 on the Peoria line.
Birdman Lives! – the man and the mural.
Terror in the Subway! – Tyrannosaurus CTA.
Winter Has Come – photos from 1358 W. Greenleaf.
Mash Note – everyone should get at least one.
28 Thoughts on Trees – trunks, light and leaves.
Wallartee 2 – murals from the hippie underground.
Artists of the Wall 2017 – the annual mural arts in Loyola Park.
Wallartee 5 – two murals under the CTA Red Line @ Pratt.
Wallartee 6 – mural under the CTA Red Line @ Farwell.
Pounce! – Gargoyle gonna getchu.
Artists of the Wall 2018 – the annual mural arts in Loyola Park.
Teddy Bear’s Picnic – Lunt Avenue at the CTA Red Line.
The Face in the Door – stare at the door and the door stares back.
Carpets of the Sun – grasses and sedges and sun and shadow.
Beeves in Summer – cool cattle in shades…
Whirl – we spend our lives circling the edge of an event horizon.
Reflexions – water and light.
Paranoia Agent in Rogers Park – actually, Little Slugger has come.
Without the Shadow, Would We Know the Light? – a meditation.
Bird on Cable – the bird professed to know me but I found our acquaintance hard to swallow…
Cat & Floor – This is your floor on catnip.
Lurking – Troll @ work.
Spun Glass – you really need to see this! IMHO, it’s way cool.
Groot Home Chicago – return to roots. But wait! There’s more.
The Gizzard of Odd – oh my…
Rapid Transit – the CTA Red Line @ Jackson. It’s a long way down…
The Last Evening of Summer – Leone Park Beach.
No Idea – will the last person leaving…
On Fullerton Avenue – what is it?
A Botanic Afternoon – my annual Fall pilgrimage to the Chicago Botanic Garden.
The Light! The Dark! The Day! – and Captain Beefheart
The Gunfighter – almost certainly the best comedic western since “Blazing Saddles”.
Wild West Fan Co. – maybe the best comedic western since “Blazing Saddles”.
Frankie Sinatra — Geezer demons in a music video. I hate music videos.
This Won’t Hurt a Bit – except for the wallet biopsy. Health care in America.
Bindle Bros – there’s a hipster born every second.
Waltzing into Anarchy – bugger the bankers and politicians…
I Trust You – in the face of orchestrated hate.
World Builder – a very sweet virtual reality love story.
Descendants – keep this in mind on Valentines Day should you think of flowers. (Whoopi Goldberg!)
Alien Love – a truly alien love story… or maybe it’s a music video.
You Gotta Believe in Something – Nina Paley sez to Moses.
Over Time – a most amazing muppet wake: a must see.
I Hate Music Videos – but I keep watching this one: Cats!
Catnip: Egress to Oblivion? – classroom drug education.
Monsieur COK – which came first: the capitalist or the egg?
Fugu & Tako – the charismatic sex appeal of being a puffer fish.
Human Fountains – mind blowing… with an incredibly sweet soundtrack.
Happiness! – and the commodification thereof. A great Steve Cutts animation.
Hyper-Reality – the singularity doth come & gone but alienation remains.
AMA – you geezers think that Esther Williams was great? Hah! Watch this underwater dance!
Mom Commercial – happy Mothers Day? Amazing!
Long Term Delivery – a bizarre comedy about a secret division of the USPS.
Flamingo Pride – a hoot, especially if you watch it all the way to the very end.
Time Travel: UGH! – warning: immature content. But you’ll love it anyway.
Dissonance – for Fathers Day. Love and madness.
Curmudgeons – a geezer love story. (Danny DeVito!)
La Vague – spells gone wrong: tres cute!
The Head Vanishes! – A trip to the sea side singing a different tuna…
Final Offer – if John Grisham wrote science fiction…
Love & Theft – full screen and headphones recommended.
Fish Heads – I regret the existence of this video. And the song. So will you.
Who Will Pay? – If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. Really.
Apollo 8 – Earthrise, 50 years later.
The Kings of Siam – Halloween is coming.
Worthless – a powerful commentary written and performed by Agnes Torok.
A – it’s entropy, after all.
You Look Good in Red – yes, you do.
On Having an Infected Finger – after having helped loot a cigarette machine.
If You Were a Whale – imagine that.
The Cat Got His Tongue – and more as well.
Subway Love – by Max Stossel.
Apocalypse Rhyme – the anthropocene in rhyme by Oliver Harrison
Caffeine Zombie – can’t wait to get up in the morning and have some nice…
Waiting – for love and trains.
Eye – cats, all the way down.
It’s a Hard Rain That’s Gonna Fall – about a small 1991 strike that stopped an anti-union jihad from beginning in Wisconsin. That was then.
Employment and Survival in Urban America – an interesting public event that later became a major part of the “Obama is a socialist” narrative pushed by conservatives.
A Living Wage: It’s the Law! – on the passage of living wage ordinances for Chicago and for Cook County.
No More Business As Usual – remember Enron?
What I Saw of the 2018 Women’s March
The USA PATRIOT Game – part of Chicago DSA’s campaign against the USA PATRIOT Act.
Debt and Taxes – a subtle mix of malice and incompetence back in 2005, and it only got worse from there.
It Was May Day and I Couldn’t Stop Smiling – with a half million people in the streets: sure!
What Do Hotel Workers Want? – old Sam Gompers knew…
Wal-Mart Rampant – Chicago surrenders while proclaiming victory.
But Is It Organizing? – unions and workers’ centers.
A Small Battle in a Larger War – Jorge Mujica’s 2015 campaign for the 25th Ward.
Our Revolution: It’s a Start – Bernie Sander’s post-convention organization.
Everyone Is Joining the Resistance – anger to action.
Dubya and his band of thieves – don’t imagine they’ve given up on mugging the elderly.
Fake News – If it’s fake, it’s not news. If it’s news, it can’t be fake. Really?
Wrapped in Steel – Chicago’s southeast side at a time of transition.
The OTHER 9/11 – Time to rub your nose in it.
Brett Kavanaugh – All his sins remembered…
Tom Broderick – rest in power, as they say.
Julie Was a Free Spirit – that was then…
But We Were Always Like That – this could be about several different things…
The War of the Roaches – soon to be a BBC 4 documentary featuring Tony Robinson?
Bureau Junction – a postcard and some family history.
The Answer – a sad mix of father and son and cultural change.
Mysterious Neighbor – some things are best not known.
The Tail – a shaggy shark story.
Why Socialism Failed in the U.S. – discussing “It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States” by Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks.
The Really OTHER America – a review of “The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America” by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge.
Don’t Sleep with Stevens! – Timothy J. Minchin’s account of labor’s mid-20th Century campaign to organize the South.
The Wounds That Never Heal – a review of “Flashback: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War” by Penny Coleman.
When the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul – a review of “Kennedy vs. Carter” by Timothy Stanley.
Anarchy! – a review essay of “More Powerful Than Dynamite” by Thai Jones and “In Search of Sacco and Vanzetti” by Susan Tejada
Bad Moon Rising – Arthur Eckstein’s account of the FBI and the SDS. Do si do!
In This Corner of the World – Sunao Katabuchi’s incredibly beautiful but troubling animated video of WWII Japan.
Dr. Potter’s Medicine Show – a review of Eric Scott Fischl’s horror fantasy novel, because I like barkers.
Design with Nature – a retrospective on landscape architect Ian McHarg’s influential book and the documentary movie based on it.
Which Side Are You On? – a review of J.D. Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy”.
Djinn City – a review of the new fantasy novel by Saad Hossain.
