Good Luck and Good Morning 02/29/2012
 I started the Journeys in Sight & Sound blog in July 2009 to post about my interests in music, photography and travel. It's evolved over the years along with the light-speed changes in the "blogosphere" and "information superhighway" (both quaint, archaic terms now) and the rise of the social media platform du jour. With a nod to our friends the Maya, I figured Leap Day 2012 would be as good a time as any to close the book on one chapter of my online journeys and begin another. In retiring this blog, I create more time to work on other projects, including videos for the Journeys in Sight & Sound YouTube channel, a new collection of instrumental music called Last Train to Aztalan (that's my likely cover art photo montage above), and a brand new three-man music-art collaboration called Mojo Vata. And I'll keep tweeting for my ongoing Loop Life social media/art experiment @looplifechi. The point being: Whatever the ancient Mayan/Silicone Valley gods and goddesses have in store for us, I plan to stick around and try to ride the wave. To paraphrase one classic "old media" guy, good luck and good morning... Loop Life 11/20/2011
The Loop. I guess my first exposure to these magical words came around age 7 or 8, WLS leakin' the big city top 40 through the tiny transistor radio under my pillow long after the lights were supposed to be out. The Loop. To a little kid in small-town Wisconsin, it was a magical Oz land accessed only through the mysterious yellow brick roads of the "Kennedy" and the "Dan Ryan," somewhere off in a faraway land filled with legendary beings like John Records Landecker, Yvonne Daniels and Big Daddy John Garlitz "where the big ones ride... ride... ride... ride..." Read the rest of the story Follow the Loop Life project on Twitter Winter's for the Birds 11/06/2011
 Photo ©2011 Mike Starling • Click for prints/licensing CHICAGO, Illinois – The heck with groundhogs. It's a sure sign of a long winter when pigeons are already gathering around the fire in early November. Ran across this strange scene yesterday at Daley Plaza in the Loop. You can't make this stuff up, man. RELATED LINKS: The Loop Life project PhotoArtsChicago.com Shots from the Road: Flagstaff 09/18/2011
 Photo copyright ©2011 Mike Starling • Cick pic to buy print FLAGSTAFF, Arizona – On assignment here last week for Professional Painting Contractor magazine. Thought this cool city of 65,000 had a similar same vibe to my old college town of La Crosse, Wisconsin, except instead of being on the Mississippi River between towering 500-foot limestone bluffs you're 7,000 feet up surrounded by the San Francisco Mountains of northern Arizona. Funky downtown, laid-back university-town demeanor and a gateway to lots of outdoor adventure (it's just 80 miles from the Grand Canyon). The painter I was interviewing, Joe Cornelius (aka Mural Joe) took me for lunch to Granny's Closet, a classic local eatery founded in 1974 by the Zanzucchi family. With burgers big enough to satisfy Louie the Lumberjack, standing tall in the parking lot next to a refurbished 1945 Model H International Farmall tractor. (Just don't ask me why.) RELATED LINKS: More stories from the road Samples of Mike's magazine photo work A Nice Shot in the Foot Dept. 08/08/2011
 Annoying wrongheaded scratch-yer-noggin just-plain-wrong AND ineffective entertainment business move of the current decade: Certain movie studios blocking/not including the bonus features on rental versions of DVDs. I can see the dudes in the boardroom now, incorrectly forecasting how that is going to drive sales of DVDs. Wrong! The only time I've ever bought one for my collection was BECAUSE of the bonus features. Which I watched while RENTING the DVD. The only effect this move has on me is to piss me off. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. RELATED LINKS DVDs going the way of the 8-track? (Do you even remember 8-tracks?) Streets exhibit opens at Ginger 04/15/2011
 Click pic to see a slide show of some images from the show I was in Milwaukee yesterday hanging my new photo exhibit at Ginger, a popular tapas bar in Milwaukee's Fifth Ward (located just south of the city's Historic Third Ward; the Fourth is mysteriously missing). Above are three of the 16 pieces in the show, which opens tonight in conjunction with the spring Gallery Night & Day weekend. This show will feature a cross-section of images from my Streets book series, including Live Without Dead Time: The Streets of Amsterdam and Blue & White: The Streets of Santorini, along with images from upcoming books about Colorado and Milwaukee.  Rose Billingsley at the bar at Ginger (photos by Mike Starling) I lived in Milwaukee from 2000 to 2010, and immediately loved the noveau warehouse vibe of Ginger the first time I stopped there for dinner. To me it represents the best of both new and old Milwaukee, and the cream city brick walls looked like a perfect backdrop for my work. Thanks to owners Rose Billingsley and Julia LaLoggia for inviting me to show my work in their place. It's a cool space that makes my images really come alive. Stop by on your Gallery Night wanderings or anytime you're in the mood for great tapas and drinks in a fun atmosphere. The show is up through Oct. 20. Contact me here to buy prints. MORE OF MIKE'S PHOTO EXHIBITS: Coalition of Photographic Arts Juried Exhibition Milwaukee Artist Resource Network Portrait Show SLIDE SHOW: Photos from the book Live Without Dead Time: The Streets of Amsterdam. Music: "Sophie & Boscho" from Mike's Guitar Moods CD. Watch more of our MUFOs (music-photo mashups) on the Journeys in Sight & Sound YouTube channel. Or visit the MUFO Blog at PhotoArtsChicago.com.  Assignments for my gig as editor of Professional Painting Contractor magazine have taken me all over North and Central America, from a power plant shoot in the Dominican Republic to a fire-restored restaurant in Nova Scotia (below). From a brand new golf club at Pebble Beach, California to a historic hotel in French Lick, Indiana (above). From Maine to Catalina Island, off the coast of L.A. From Puerto Rico to Yellowknife, 250 miles south of the Arctic Circle in Canada's Northwest Territories. It's been a blast – and a great lesson in geography.   Hospital Episcopal San Lucas, Ponce, Puerto Rico  Harding's Painting management team, Calgary, Alberta   Historic Mills House Hotel, Charleston, South Carolina  Big Kmart, Corvallis, Oregon To Flash or Not To Flash 04/09/2011
That is no longer the question. Road Food Journal: OK Cafe 03/30/2011
 ATLANTA, Georgia – When in Rome, goes the old adage, and that applies tenfold when you're on the road looking for a good place to eat. I was in Atlanta this week on a photo assignment with Charlie Dallaville Jr., owner of the company Painting Plus. Jersey-born but raised in Georgia from age six, he's an immediately likeable guy – a straight shooter who seems to have been born with a built-in entrepreneurial sixth sense. Like me, he likes an unpretentious, non-chain place with good home cooking, and he turned me on to two places that'll make your taste buds happy and do a little dance on your cholesterol count if you let 'em. First we hit the OK Cafe in Buckhead for lunch. It's a bustling, high-spirited place (Charlie told me more business deals get done here over breakfast than maybe any other spot in the city) and we managed to score a couple stools at a counter where we could watch the cooks at their short-order stations while diving into some top-notch country fried steak with a cool Waldorf salad on the side (guilt reducer). One of the cooks even gave us a free sample of fried pickles, which are a must-try for any northerners like me not in the know. It filled me up so much all I could manage for supper was a couple gator tacos (real alligator), hush puppes and a tiny side of jambalaya at AJ's Famous Seafood and Po' Boys in Marietta. Business travel ain't glamorous, but one of the best parts for me is getting to know people like Charlie who can give you a real non-tourist bureau insight into a place... and be your guide to the local eats. RELATED LINKS: Mike's magazine photo work More Road Food Journal posts Shots from the Road: Under The L Again 03/23/2011
 Photo ©2011 Mike Starling • Click for Loop Life project CHICAGO, Illinois – It was finally (sorta) warm enough last weekend to get out for a nighttime photo stroll in my River North neighborhood. I particularly liked this shot I caught under the L on Wells near Kinzie. (Didn't hurt that it's one of my favorite Chicago steakhouses.) RELATED LINKS: Under The L, Take 1 The Loop Life project More Shots from the Road | ©2009-2012 MIKE STARLING
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