Toynbee or copycat?

Last month, I watched the Toynbee Tile documentary--Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. It sounded interesting, and unbeknownst to me, the little robot guys I photographed both on Michigan Ave. in Chicago and in a rest area on the Turnpike in Ohio are part of the Toynbee Tile mystery.

I'm not going to go into what the Toynbee tiles are. . . there's a feature length documentary after all:



But today, taking a break from work and headed to 33 E. Congress to see a few student gallery shows, I walked across either a Toynbee tile or the tile of a copycat that's paying pretty great homage. . .


For you Toynbee fans--Wabash Ave. in the lefthand turn lane just north of Harrison.

Go, Devil Brushhogs, indeed!

Willis Tower

So, the Sears Tower is going to be renamed "Willis Tower." No one in Chicago is taking that very seriously (except maybe Sears and Willis). And a few generations of people are probably going to have die out before anyone starts calling it that. . . though, terrible news for the souvenir vendors on Michigan who are going to have replace all of their stock.

The name change is prompting a bunch of jokes in the city, though, which is fun. A number of the hipster set are hoping that the name change is in honor of deceased Chicago musician/personality Wesley Willis--A mainstay of Chicago who used to like greet people with a headbutt.

But mostly, it's prompted "Different Strokes" jokes. . . like in this great wheat paste graffiti. Willis may be rethinking this change? Certainly, most everyone I know is still referring to the new Macy's on State Street as "Marshall Fields."  So, the switch to Willis Tower will undoubtedly take a while.


Names and history are important to us here. . .

Graffitti

One of the many upsides of working at a giant arts college is that the graffiti that's ubiquitous in a big city, is usually kicked up a few notches around campus--not just tagging, but wheat paste ffiti and usually a little witty or mounted in unusual ways. Plenty of knit graffiti.

I am not condoning this. . . but I have been taking pictures. Love the simplicity of the big green wheat paste head. and the screaming/laughing triangle? I just think it's a funny use of an empty bolt hole on a city sign post.