Lunchtime foot traffic under the El station at Adams and Wabash. The Chicago Architecture and Symphony Centers are nearby.

- mike lee -

Hey May, thanks for the tip you gave me on this series of little architecture guidebooks. This is Chicago: A Guide to Recent Architecture. As you can see, it's an incredibly beautiful day today.

- mike lee - chicago

Good night Viv: thanks for the hello

Good night PBJ: thanks for showing me my future

Good night Bustagroove: congratulations!!!

Good night MikePop: What Does This Say? sounds like a great idea. I wonder if you could do some mods to the Slashdot engine to prototype this?

Good night hiptop Nation ...

- mike lee -

I was our wandering around the hotel here in Chicago looking for a drug store to buy a phone cord when I walked up to a motion picture filming in progress.

This is the corner of Van Buren and Dearborn (under the "El") where a big crew is filming Richard Gere in a remake of the Japanese love story Shall We Dance? Richard is a grey blob in the middle photo. They've been hosing down the street with water in between filming takes of Richard dancing across the street with a blonde actress. The blond is NOT co-star Jennifer Lopez or Susan Sarandon.

It's great to be able to pull up Google to search for info on Richard Gere filming in town. I walked up knowing nothing about the production, and now I'm telling spectators all about it.

- mike lee - chicago

... to Chicago from Baltimore. And most incredible: we have partly cloudy weather and temps in the 70s for the next several days. Too good to be true.

- mike lee - chicago

While back in my old office today for a meeting, someone pointed out a praying mantis perched on the outer glass of one of our harborside windows. It started to rain just before I started taking pictures, so Ms. Mantis is cowering from raindrops, not the camera.

Then after tonight's dinner at the local 50s diner, my wife spotted a big juicy spider on a web under a stop sign. For dramatic effect, I composed a street light behind the critter.

In both shots I had the camera about 2" away from the subject. My wife reminded me to be careful as spiders are known to jump, but the risk was worth it for hiptop Nation.

It's a treat to spot some nature in the city.

- mike lee - baltimore

My cousin Al's 13-year-old daughter was talking about how much she wanted a Palm Zire 71 and I had to show her the CSK. She was appropriately impressed. I sent her over the top when I e-mailed photos from the dining room table to her while she was sitting at a computer upstairs. Goodbye Palm Zire; hello Danger Hiptop.

- mike lee - columbia, md

P.S. Had a nice cookout today and celebrated four birthdays. Mine, my brother's, and our spouses all fall within a four weeks. The question of the day was where did summer go??

Now 7000 looks doable. I hope everyone keeps posting when they can. hN continues to be a fascinating look into many different and special lives.

- mike lee

Not to be outdone by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, The Oxford English Dictionary recently added the word bootylicious.

Bada bing!

- mike lee -

OK, Abby, Huey, Chris, Drew (1), and Drew (2): you've given me a serious hankering to see BMG for the first time.

Wife and I are going to Blue Man Chicago Friday next week at the Briar Street Theater where there's a wild new lobby installation.

Countless friends have told us for years that we have to go see this, so we're finally going before the baby arrives.

- mike lee - baltimore