Transportation is Here

A Hindustan Ambassador in Hyderabad, India. The "TN" license plate indicates this Ambassador is from Tamil Nadu.

Photo by Melody.

Hoodies

Custom hoodies being made by House of Billiam. Tweed by John G. Hardy.

Thanks to Will S. for pointing this place out!

Audible Feast

Ira Glass and his control panel at WBEZ Chicago Public Radio's Audible Feast. Ira would turn on snippets of the signature This American Life background music to lend support to his anecdotes.

I'm convinced that if I am ever required to give lectures to a large class I need a similar audio-visual rig.

"...we have University of Chicago here..."

When the owner of Chant describes the kind of people who come to Chant, she says, "We get professors, we have students here, we have university of Chicago here", (40 seconds in) and when she says "we have University of Chicago here" it cuts to a shot of Melody, me and Christa sitting and talking. Jay is off-screen to the left.

Here's the link to the video.

The owner also says that she created Chant because "there is no nice place to hang out in Hyde Park".

Thanks to Chris K. for telling me about the video.

Georgetown

Georgetown, Feb 3, 2009, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

It snowed yesterday morning in Georgetown, then it cleared up and got sunny.

The Adventures of Tintin and Wyeth: ARTISTS ONLY

The Adventures of Tintin and Wyeth: ARTISTS ONLY, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

Another custom Tintin cover by my Dad, Doug Hansen. This one is for my brother: he is on stage with David Byrne, Tina Weymouth and Tintin (wearing a RISD shirt) at CBGB's, while Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison have been arrested by the Thompson Twins (foreground).

The cover is reminiscent of The Castafiore Emerald.

Young Guns

Wyeth & Ryan (Labour) won an ADC Young Guns award.

The Coldest Winter Yet

Jan 14, 2009, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

This is the coldest winter I've experienced in the seven years I've lived in Chicago.

There has been record snowfall, and now this:

The Adventures of Tintin and Nat: OPERATION CERBERUS

The Adventures of Tintin and Nat: OPERATION CERBERUS, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

A Tintin cover, featuring me (firing the Oerlikon cannon), as imagined and executed by my dad.

The description on the back of the painting reads:

Operation Cerberus, 2009
Gouache + ink on canvas

"Operation Cerberus" was the codename for the German squadron of ships which broke out of Brest to Germany via the English Channel. Also called the "Channel Dash".

Tintin pilots the Vosper MTB while Nat fires the 20mm Oerlikon at one of Gallano's famed "Yellow Noses". Captain Haddock brings another 60-round drum magazine to Nat.

Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and a destroyer evade the onslaught of the MTB.

Homage to Hergé and Nat.

(Compare the water in Operation Cerberus to the water on The Red Sea Sharks.)

A couple of years ago, he asked me for a list of potential custom Tintin scenarios to illustrate. Here is the list I generated:

1. Climbing up side of a Mosquito in flight suit, or running across an airfield towards some 1950s British jet fighter, or a souped-up Hawker Tempest or Sea Fury

2. Pushing through a secret door in a big library (like in the Black Island), revealing a storeroom full of crates of ammo and Schmeissers (or equivalent)

3. Firing a Bofors on the deck of a sub or destroyer, with the spider-web like gun sight, with big shell casings all over the deck

4. Being chased by a tank while driving an MG or an Austin-Healy

5. Driving a LRDG Land Rover with a bunch of Vickers machineguns,
maybe firing one with one hand at a runway full of parked Ju-88s

BB 64: USS Wisconsin

The Iowa-class battleship USS Wisconsin is moored in Norfolk harbor. There are short tours of the foredeck, on which you can inspect the battleship's teak deck, a couple of 16" shells, and the massive turrets.

The Wisconsin's guns are trained on downtown Norfolk.

This is a 16" high explosive shell. These shells are invariably described as weighing more than a VW beetle. A VW is obviously not very dense.

Our docent was a gregarious Navy veteran who served on the USS Salem, CA-135, a heavy cruiser. The most interesting story he told involved the only battle damage every sustained by the Wisconsin, in Korea. A Chinese 125mm (?) field artillery piece managed to store a hit on the battleship, wounding two sailors and "ruining part of the beautiful teak deck". The captain then flattened the artillery position with a volley from the battleship's 16" guns. An escorting destroyer commented on this disproportionate retaliation by sending the captain of the Wisconsin the message, "temper, temper" in Morse code.

Famous Fourth Street Deli

Bella Vista, Dec 30, 2008, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

Post-interview lunch in Philadelphia with Chauncey, James, and Ben. Ben ate his entire sandwich, while the rest of us made it almost halfway through each of ours.