The Most Loved Bean in Chicago

My first thought was, "Hey! A chrome kidney!"

David - that what most Chicagoans I knew thought when the drawings were first shown (I lived in Chicago for 5 years). I find it funny how it's gone from something to laugh at to a monument of admiration (personally I think it's tres cool).

Think of the burrito you could make with a bean like this...

Any minute now, a door will appear in the side of it and a robotic alien eyestalk will peek out, asking for its "Navigator"...

--TwoDragons

Reminds me this movie
http://imdb.com/title/tt0091059/

yayo - that was one of the best movies ever! I had forgotten the name though. For years, I used to wonder if video games had secret levels and prizes like the one in that movie (although I figured my brother would win it, I wasn't that much of a video game buff myself).

So much fun to play under! :D

My understanding is that you are not s'posed to take pictures of that. If you are standing around with a camera, some hired thug (or policeman, if there is a difference in Chicago ((joke, just a joke I swear))) will tell you to stop. A couple years ago, a bunch of people decided to meet there at the same time and start taking pictures at once.
Maybe the policy's changed.

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/07/please_add_photos_of.html

Yayo and Anita--glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought of that! *LOL*

--TwoDragons

Must be a pain when the sun shine directly on it and in your eyes.

Doesn't that belong in Boston? ;o)

Dan - I went to Chicago twice in 2006 and took photos of Cloud Gate, and the police officers never had a problem with it. Maybe you weren't allowed to take photos of it while it was under construction? Millenium park is a cool place, though - even though Cloud Gate is amazing, I think that Crown Fountain beats all! http://www.millenniumpark.org/artandarchitecture/crown_fountain.html I've never seen any kid look happier than they are playing at Crown Fountain!

Police were actually stopping anyone with "professional equipment" from snapping photos, claiming the artist has a copyright on the work. There is obviously more than a few things wrong with that, but your average tourist can freely take photos.

If you set up a tripod, you can't take pictures, unless you get a "license" from the Park District.

The artist owns the "rights" to the work and didn't give them up by contract with the City.

When I first saw the plans for this, I was all "This is SOOOO coool!". And, for a change of pace, the reality didn't diminish that feeling - it's still soooo coooool!

i played the bagpipes under it during celtic fest to see if the sound would circle around and "envelop" me. kind of like when you stand in the center of a circular wall and talk (ie: you hear yourself in stereo), but it only seemed to amuse some tourists and piss off my pipe major. oh well.

Thats strange. I commented yesterday but it didn't go through. Maybe because I added a link to my flickr account?

I was thanking Anita for pointing many of you to my Cloud Gate photos. A few have visited. Thanks!

I have a lot more photos of The bean in my Chicago folder on my flickr account. You can reach it by going to my page and in the left sidebar I have a flickr badge. If you click on it you'll be on my flickr site - just look for the chicago pics from there.

I think I've got about 15 photos of the bean (and I wasn't stopped by the police as I took photos either). Some of the photos were taken underneath and they look really cool. Some even look like ink blots. Check it out if you'd like to.