The Most Loved Bean in Chicago

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!