After our trip from the Midwest Sea to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the south, we returned to Chicago and our COVID-19 apocalyptic life with its restrictions on social events. Some things were beginning to be more open though...we even had the opportunity to eat inside a restaurant for the first time! This project covers just April and May. I figured the trip south at the beginning of April and the trip to the upper midwest at the end of May worked well as bookends to the season.
https://youtu.be/fQC0XxnSo9sI continued with the apocalypse intro since we continued to live under restrictions due to COVID-19.
On Thursday April 15th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #396, Chicago prepared for potential civil unrest. A young boy, Adam Toledo, was shot and killed by police and the bodycam footage was being released. In Uptown, a plow truck sat near Wilson and Broadway as a precaution, apparently. On Sunday April 17th, 2021 - Apocalypse Day #398, Elphie got some clips of Stein bathing himself. On Wednesday April 20th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #401, I captured some clips of birds in the back yard including a robin and a mourning dove. I also captured what would be the last snowfall of the season. As I left work, I noticed a bunch of garbage trucks lined up along Broadway near Wilson and police activity. It seemed the city was once again preparing for potential civil unrest. Besides it having only been days since the release of the bodycam footage of Adam Toledo being shot and killed by police, the verdict came in for Derek Chauvin of guilty. On Thursday April 21st, 2021 - Apocalypse day #402, Elphie captured a clip of me rolling a toy wooden duck that my grandpa had carved. On Friday April 22nd, 2021 - Apocalypse day #403, I captured some footage of a memorial set up along the northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive. coming home, I captured a wreck and at home, I captured some police activity next door...this became a bit of a regular occurrence. I tried to capture some good footage of the full moon on Monday April 26th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #407. The first clip was with my iPhone 8 and the other clips were with my Canon Rebel T6. The moon was so bright and there were tree branches in the way. I was trying to focus on the features of the moon but I was not successful on this attempt. On Tuesday April 27th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #408, there was a production being filmed in Uptown. This made it a difficult task to find parking. As I drove home, it appeared a production was being filmed on Lake Shore Drive going north just north of the ramp from I-55. This was blocking traffic. In McKinley Park, there was a protest going on at the Alderman's office regarding the police shooting and killing Adam Toledo. On Wednesday April 28th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #409, I captured low cloud cover over Chicago. On Thursday April 29th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #410, I turned 41. A second year of having a birthday in the apocalypse. At work, we went to Bad Apple to celebrate and I got some poutine. Back at home, I watched the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals! I found out it is Tristan Jarry's birthday too...and he got the win! On Friday April 30th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #411, I grilled venison steaks for another birthday meal.
On Saturday May 1st, 2021 - Apocalypse day #412, we decided to visit a few local Atlas Obscura sites we hadn't been to yet...at least not officially. First, we walked around near the Damen Silos. The gates are locked so we didn't get into it, though if we wanted to, I'm sure we could have found a way. We walked out to the river and back. After this we went to the Ghost Church. It is the remains of an Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church that had closed, been storm damaged, and caught fire. The facade remains but the rest is pretty much gone. Inside there is now a garden. The crucifix remains with a protective shield. It appears it had burnt in the fire leaving a charred Jesus. It looks pretty cool...kinda creepy too. We drove out to where the Lawndale Theater once stood but it is only an empty lot now. On our way back home, we passed several murals and other street art. When we got back home, we tuned into the Dropkick Murphys live stream playing their new album Turn Up The Dial and some other songs. On Sunday May 2nd, 2021 - Apocalypse day #413, I got a Chicago pizza from Falco's as another birthday meal. It was great! On Tuesday May 4th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #415, I found a stop sign that had been apparently hit by a car. Wednesday May 5th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #416, it was Cinco de Mayo and so folks drove around with Mexican flags on their vehicles. Thursday May 6th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #417, I encountered a wreck on my way into work on Lake Shore Drive. On Friday May 7th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #418, I moved myself into a new office at work. There were occasional conflicts with a co-worker (often over the air conditioner which happened to be right at my desk) in our small, shared office so two of us expanded into the next room. I spent the afternoon setting up the desks and getting everything moved in. On Wednesday May 12th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #423, we had helicopters circling near the neighborhood. On Saturday May 15th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #426, we celebrated Elphie's birthday by getting Pho at Dong Ky in Uptown Chicago. Kathleen joined us. It was our first time eating in a restaurant since the apocalypse began! On Sunday May 16th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #427, we joined Skot and Rachel and a couple other JPUSA folk on a trip to the Indiana Dunes. While there, I captured some footage to use in the music video I was working on for "Far A Bheil Do Gath (Where Is Thy Sting)" by Leper. I captured more than I would need. Some of the footage I may consider for some other projects. I kept one particular outtake clip from what I shot for the video. We drove through Gary, IN for a bit but didn't explore, though I would like to do so again. We passed the City Church among other ruins of the city. We went to Furnessville Cemetery and an old Schoolhouse shop before having a picnic at the Indiana Dunes. I was able to capture the faint skyline of Chicago with my camera. After this, we found an old Swedish school and church called Augsburg Svenska Skola with a cemetery. This is where I captured most of what I used for the music video. Some of the graves were beyond the maintained part of the grounds. We went into another cemetery called Chesterton. There were some old gravestones there and one family had rats placed at their grave. Later, we tried to hike to another cemetery but couldn't find the road. We got ice cream at Bubbles then went out to a lighthouse in Michigan City, Indiana near what looks like a nuclear reactor. On our way home I captured some shots passing that nuclear reactor and other steel mills and the city from the Skyway. On Monday May 17th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #428 I captured a shot of the CTA morning transit. I ended up riding the train to work due to the car having some trouble. In the afternoon, I met with Colleen to get some more shots for the Leper's "Far A Bheil Do Gath (Where Is Thy Sting)." We shot in Graceland Cemetery and I got to see a couple of the unique sites from Atlas Obscura. While there, we encountered a coyote! We got some good shots to use, including a couple shots by Eternal Silence which Skot made a painting of for one of the Leper album covers. I believe I saw the Inez Clarke Memorial as well but didn't get footage of it. Later, I got some shots of Justin playing synths in front of the boiler in the basement of Cornerstone Community Outreach. This same boiler was used in another Leper music video, 'Still I Crawl," that I shot and Skot edited. I did some close up shots later of myself playing bass in the backyard, which I used in the "Spezza Spezza Spezza (Chop Chop Chop)" video so this new video ended up having several throwbacks to previous Leper videos or releases. On Tuesday May 18th, 2021- Apocalypse day #429, I had the car back and as I left to go home from work, I encountered a guy who had rigged up his wheelchair with handles to pump instead of using his hands on the wheels! On Friday May 21st, 2021 - Apocalypse day #432 I captured a shot of the Demand Justice art installation along Lake Shore Drive across from the Buckingham Fountain. I hadn't noticed it before so unless I just missed it over the last year, it might be a recent installation. On Saturday May 22nd, 2021 - Apocalypse day #433, it was World Goth Day. We drove to Indianapolis, Indiana for some goth DJ sets including Naggaroth Wych and Gomez, our friends Natalie and Mark, as part of Dead Souls Gothic Lounge at Black Circle Brewing. The event was called Deadly Nightshade. It was nice to get out and be among other people again. It was an outdoor event. Since we were in Indianapolis, I decided I'd get Primanti Brothers...but found out that all the Indiana locations had closed. LAME! On our way back home we got dinner at Taco Bell then stopped at Meijer and found that they close at midnight. We thought they were open 24 hours. We had about 5 minutes! We sped shopped like Supermarket Sweep then headed home. As we came into the neighborhood we found that the Cermak Fresh Market parking lot was taken over by folks doing donuts and other silliness! On Sunday May 23rd, 2021 - Apocalypse day #434 we went out to Glendale Heights, IL to visit with Gale and see how we could help his moving situation. We thought we were going to help him by moving some of his belongings into our spare bedroom but he wasn't ready yet. We got to see a bunch of geese outside his apartment. This was our second visit...we had gone out earlier in the month as well to see what we could do to help him. As we returned home I got a shot of the cloud cover over Chicago. On Monday May 24th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #435, I got a clip of the Buckingham Fountain which had been turned on. Chicago did not turn it on during 2020 due to the pandemic and the attempt to keep crowds from gathering. On Tuesday May 25th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #436, we went to Tesfa Ethiopian Cuisine with Mikey and Christi for lunch. We met with them at JPUSA and that's when a decision was made to eat there. It caused me to have an extended lunch break! It was pretty good. The food was set up in such a way that you'd ordered and the entire table could share it. I tried everything. Some parts I liked more than others. On Wednesday May 26th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #437, the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey season came to an end in the first round of the playoffs. Bummer. Had they won on this night, it would have left me in a place of conflict as we had a visitor coming on Friday when Game 7 would have been played. Oh well.
I put out a teaser for the Leper music video project for "Far A Bheil Do Gath (Where Is Thy Sting)" in the morning of Thursday May 27th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #438. The actual video premiered later that evening. There is a separate blog about the video available here.
https://youtu.be/5hnnhtTQtwwI put out a teaser for the Leper music video project for "Far A Bheil Do Gath (Where Is Thy Sting)" in the morning of Thursday May 27th, 2021 - Apocalypse day #438. The actual video premiered later that evening. There is a separate blog about the video available here.
We had a trip planned to North Dakota with Elphie's friend Debbie over Memorial Day weekend. She flew into town on Friday and the drive began on Saturday. This trip made for a natural season break between Spring and Summer.
Additional soundtrack includes "My Dear" by The Castros, "Maple Leaves" by The Uh Ohs, "Slow" by Starflyer 59, "Stutter" by Flatfoot 56, "Church Bell" by Low and Behold, "Church Song" by Seth Martin, Romanticistic" by Leper, "Parasites" by NYVES, "It's Beautiful (Once You're Out Here) by Stavesacre, "Heavy" by White Lighter, and "Cold Wind" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
This project was filmed using a Canon Rebel T6, CrossTour CR900, and iPhone6 and 8 by Elphie and Joel A. Swanson. Titles and animations created using Motion 4 on a Macbook by Joel A. Swanson. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson
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