18 Years Ago...

Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty 

It was 18 years ago that I went on my first date with Megan.  We met working at the Chicago Architecture Center (https://www.architecture.org/) where she planned events and I was in the tour department.  We had a love of weird bad movies from the start.  Blockbuster didn't have Robocop (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/), so we rented Innerspace (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093260/) instead.  And for dinner, we had takeout Chicken Katsu from Aloha Eats (https://www.alohaeats.com/).  Little did we know that it was a start of a wonderful adventure.  I'm very lucky.

And after 18 years with me, Megan has earned a homemade crab cake dinner...

Mike Kraus

MikeKrausArt.etsy.com

🌞😎🌳 BRING SPRING ART FESTIVAL 🌳😎🌞

Who's ready for Spring?  We can open our windows and redecorate our homes.  And enjoy the happiness of the warm sun

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ARTS o’ MAGAZINE:

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Mike Kraus was born on the industrial shoreline of Muskegon, Michigan. After earning his Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he attended Grand Valley State University for his graduate degree. From there, he gained varied experiences from the Chicago Architecture Center, Art Institute of Chicago, Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Lollypop Farm Humane Society, and the Lurie Children's Foundation. And every place he worked, he had his sketchbook with him and found ways to be actively creative. In 2014, Kraus became a full-time artist by establishing Mike Kraus Art. Since then, he has sold thousands of paintings that are displayed in nearly every state and dozens of countries. Currently, Kraus lives in Rochester, New York with his beautiful wife and goofy dog.

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I'd Believe That Milkshake Could Do That...

Oh, St. Patty's Day

I believe this falls under the category of "ironic."

Half good advertising; half too-true to be funny...

Megan and I's 4th anniversary DMV shot

We went Sabatino's for dinner, which was really, really, good! REALLY!

It's been really beautiful in Chicago the last few days. Pretty much since Monday. And, it won't be good again this weekend apparently. Oh well...

I use to think the other side of this building was hideous. Was there a discount on all building supplies as Home Depot and the architect just had to use everything?

When did public art turn into "meaningless crap." Let's see... Not the Egyptians...

Not the Greeks... Not the Romans... It wasn't the Renaissance... Not the

Enlightenment... It wasn't during Colonialism... Not around the Civil War... Still

decent during WWI. Great stuff by the WPA during the Great Depression... Ah,

here we go, since WWII. Post war America, what were you thinking? The the war

shock the aesthetics out of you? When will you recover?

My grandpa had this cookie jar. I can tell you, he didn't pay $375 for it.

AMAZING

That's all...

When September Ends

This is "Fur-Pig." Not really, but I forget his real name. It's Katherine's cat and that's the name I remembered of the many she gave me. I watched this guy for a few days. He's still alive, which is the key to cat watching!


A painting on sale at the White Elephant, which is a part of my work. There was a matching football one. Just in case you didn't know, my birthday is coming up...


Date night with the Megan. Here we are at Uncle Julio's Hacienda to be followed up by Hamlet 2. Hamlet 2 was pretty good (if you like bad movies, which I do). I mean, it's like Tray Parker and Matt Stone (South Park guys) movies. So, if you liked Cannibal: The Musical or Basketball, you'll probably like Hamlet 2. It was worth it to see "Rock Me Sexy Jesus."


So, the food at the Hacienda is decent. But SWEET JESUS it got expensive. I swear the prices have doubled since the last time I was here a year or so ago. They are lucky it was date night or I would have gone to Chipotle instead.


Megan and I went to Glenn's Diner for the first time and it happened to be their third anniversary. Here's the owner giving the big speech. Basically he said, "50% of restaurants close within the first year. 80% (or something like that) of those that survive close the 2nd year. But, if you can make it to three years, you have a great chance at a long life in the restaurant business. And we got there despite the economic downturn, the "L" station closing, and Montrose caving in (They are directly in the middle of the block of Montrose Avenue that collapsed last winter). Congrats guys!


Here's Megan celebrating with her complimentary solo styrofoam cup of wine


This isn't your standard "diner" food. I would say they are mostly diner inspired. I mean, Golden Nugget doesn't serve a wide variety of fresh seafood and all. This is a Bleu Cheese Burger that is served on toasted bread. It was really good.


Megan, always trying to be healthy, got the "Homage To Vegetables Salad" or something like that.

Well, since I have recently turned into a local food critic, I might as well tell you about a couple other movies I've seen this past week:

The Last Temptation of Christ by Martin Scorsese was alright. It's the most human I've ever seen Willem Dafoe look. The story was pretty interesting. Instead of being based on the gospels, it was pulled from a book by Nikos Kazantzakis and did a good job at portraying Jesus as a human. By that I mean that he makes mistakes too and has to make tough decisions. You really feel for this radical hippie fighting the man (or Romans more like it). It's a Scorsese movie, so he does have to be a bit heavy-handed at time, but it's worth it.

Young At Heart is a British documentary about old people in the US singing rock and roll songs. Got it? Basically it's a guy who interviews grandparents who sing songs by the Clash and such, which is the funny and sweet part. Then there's the sad part about its members dying. That leads to coping and performing at places as varied as concert halls to a prison. Ever seen a prisoner cry? It's here. Also, I'm not a Coldplay fan at all. Not a bit. But the guys rendition "Fix You" was incredible in the way that Johnny Cash could make any terrible song powerful. Highly suggested.

xoxo,

Mike