Soren Spicknall
LightNews LightNews
banner
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Soren Spicknall
@sorenspicknall.bsky.social
6.6K followers 1.4K following 20K posts
Chicago. Interested in how places are shaped. Friend to alley cats. I don't speak on behalf of my affiliations. he/him

"We know this world is good enough because it has to be."
Posts Replies Media Videos
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Picked up this button recently
A photo of an old green button affixed to a T-shirt. It reads "demand private financing or no world's fair"
December 6, 2025 at 11:54 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
I hesitated to share this video before because the context is a downer, but it's very special to me.

The night before Bula died, she rallied a little bit and took new interest in some of her favorite toys, which she had been too weak to regularly play with for weeks. She loved to show off this one.
December 6, 2025 at 5:57 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
load-bearing "just"
A Facebook comment reads "They just should done another 606 and problem solve instead of deleting a car lane !"
December 6, 2025 at 5:18 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
This is an opportunity to bring up something I've been meaning to put out into the universe: I think the Popular Forces insignia is based on an AI slop image
A screenshot of the emblem for Popular Forces, which consists of a cartoon illustration of an arm raised high holding a torch with a background featuring an olive branch, a fishnet pattern similar to that displayed on many Palestinian keffiyehs, and a green and red circle.
December 5, 2025 at 2:09 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
You thought the list was done? Ha, you fool.

- Locally crafted jewelry
- Nature photography
- Hoodies and tees designed by south side artists
- Limited edition LPs from Chicago musicians
…and plenty more

Drop by our space next Saturday to find some gifts for your favorite people (and yourself)!
A differently colored version of the same flyer from the previous post in the thread. Like the previous one, it features a green background with images of evergreen trees. On it, text reads "PullmanArts Holiday Market, Saturday, December 13th, 11am-3pm, 11137 S. Langley Ave, Chicago, IL", followed by logos for the Block House Gallery and PullmanArts
December 5, 2025 at 12:34 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Some of the cool stuff you can expect during the PullmanArts Holiday Market on Saturday, December 13th:

- Neighborhood-themed candles
- Handmade hats, gloves, and scarves
- Watercolor greeting cards
- Pen and ink illustrations
- Chicago architecture art prints
- Stickers and pins
A flyer features a green background with images of evergreen trees. On it, text reads "PullmanArts Holiday Market, Saturday, December 13th, 11am-3pm, 11137 S. Langley Ave, Chicago, IL", followed by logos for the Block House Gallery and PullmanArts
December 5, 2025 at 12:34 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
The remains of ReBuilding Exchange are apparently emptying their warehouses in a free-for-all this weekend.
A social media graphic says: This weekend: everything in our warehouses is free! December 6: Chicago December 7: Evanston 10am-4pm Be prepared to load and leave with your items on the day of the sale
December 3, 2025 at 7:21 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Introducing this year's holiday card photo
A photo of Soren, a 30ish year old white guy with medium length brown hair swept to one side and a scruffy short beard, wearing a black jean jacket and sitting in a yellow armchair next next to Megan, a 30ish year old white nonbinary person with short brown hair and colorful arm tattoos wearing an Over the Garden Wall-themed short-sleeve collared shirt. They're in a living room with green-painted walls, and the wall behind them is hung with an array of differently shaped and sized mirrors and a large abstract painting. Below the painting is a bookshelf with books of various sizes, and small display items. Between Megan and Soren's chairs is a small wooden side table upon which sit two small Polaroid photos of a cat.
December 3, 2025 at 3:08 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Learned today that around 1990, Mercedes-Benz briefly offered a "mobile office" package for the W126 S-Class that included a fully functioning printer, scanner, and fax machine built into an armrest.
A photo of the leather rear seats of a 1990s executive sedan with a built-in laptop that folds down into a writing desk, a corded phone, and a very bulky center armrest with a black plastic fax machine built into it. A closer look at an example of the armrest fax machine, whose exterior identifies it as an AEG Olympia Roadfax
December 3, 2025 at 2:56 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
A close shot of the face of Rotten the Snowman from Smiling Friends, which looks vaguely like the topology shown in the quoted post's aerial photograph
December 1, 2025 at 3:52 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Earlier
A photo of city buildings of mixed density, ranging from a single story commercial building up to skyscrapers, building up in the background of a scene whose foreground consists of a parking lot filled with melting snow and a box truck around which plowed snow has been piled
November 30, 2025 at 11:56 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Grabbed this locally branded bag of ice melt today, which piqued my curiosity about sourcing and distribution. There wasn't a company listed on the bag, but I found a home & garden equipment store whose website listed the underlying vendor as Crystal Visions, a longtime regional salt producer.
A 50-pound bag of ice melter salt alternative features a silhouetted image of the Chicago skyline with branding that reads "Windy City Ice Melter" on top, followed by a description of the product.
November 30, 2025 at 8:56 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Limited confidence in the HD bird surveillance device whose creators not only didn't have a photo of a bird on hand to use in their marketing materials, but also don't appear to know what a bird looks like
A screenshot of a social media ad for the company Birdfy by Netvue. The ad image is a clearly AI-generated fake photo of a bird that looks sort of like a grayed-out bluejay with extremely short, stubby, physically impossible wings. The ad copy reads: Ready for it? Birdfy's Black Friday Sale is LIVE! Get up to 50% OFF out best-selling smart bird feeder with 1080P FHD video. Discount applied at checkout. Capture every bird in crystal-clear detail. Get instant alerts right on your phone. AI automatically identifies 6000+ species. Thousands of bird lovers already enjoy Birdfy every day - now it's your turn. Limited time only - don't let this deal fly away! The camera system apparently usually costs $159.99, but is on sale for $89.99.
November 30, 2025 at 4:09 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
A big contemporary house in an odd setting for a commission like this in Chicagoland: the middle of an unincorporated rural part of Will County south of town, near Beecher.

Consequently, it's cheaper than it would be in a suburb with established cachet. www.redfin.com/IL/Beecher/2...
A drone photo of a rectangular property in farmland, much deeper than it is wide, covered over in different shades of green grass and surrounded by a white wooden fence. At the right-to-left center of the property, set back about a third of the parcel's depth and approached by a curving driveway, is a silver home that can be seen only distantly here, contemporary in form with multiple geometries poking out from it. A closer view of one side of the home shows a central rectangular shape extended outward across three stories with silver-clad triangular volumes, as well as a vaulted garage and several decks. Inside, two levels of the home interact via a wide balcony opening, with sightlines through to tall windows and skylights. Some of the interior rooms on the upper floor have their own set of interior windows looking into this space. A big porcelain bathtub is set inside of a peninsula jutting out from the upper level of the house, with three sides of windows looking out on the flat rural landscape around it.
November 30, 2025 at 2:52 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Photo on the junkyard's website vs. the situation by the time I got there
A close-cropped photo of a blue 1980s Mercedes-Benz sedan in tired but serviceable visual shape. It could be mistaken for a pretty normal used car, rather than a junk car. A photo of the same car set up in the air resting on a set of steel wheels that are being used as blocks, with its entire front grille and headlight assembly removed and remaining sections of its headlights danging from wires. The hood is up, and remaining bits of engine bay equipment poke up randomly from below. Piles of random discarded parts sit under and around the car, and its driver's door is open with no handle and all its trim removed. A hole has been punched in its driver's side front fender where there wasn't one before.
November 28, 2025 at 9:33 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Some images of R. Harold Zook's home and studio (mostly the studio, which I find more compelling than the home).

When the property it stood on was purchased for a new homebuilding project in 2004, preservationists in Hinsdale raised funds to move both buildings to Katherine Legge Memorial Park.
A photo of a rusticated stone wall with arts & crafts elements interspersed among gray stones, like a set of nine stone tubes arranged in a three by three grid with light coming through them. A photo of a brick driveway leading up to a small brick and stone building with dark green stable-style doors on the bottom floor and a room with a balcony above it, under a roof of undulating wood shingles that give an appearance similar to a thatched roof. The other side of the small two story studio building shows the opposite side of the room coming down almost to ground level, with a wide dormer window poking out across the central portion of the upper floor room. A staircase along the side of the building leads to a rounded green wooden door to that room. Shadows fall on one corner of the studio building, with a curved stone half-wall framing the stable/garage doors
November 28, 2025 at 9:05 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Imagine being yourself one week ago and having a premonition that you'd write this hed and subhed, but not yet knowing why
A blog headline reads "Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town", followed by a subhed that reads "Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?"
November 28, 2025 at 5:53 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Some of the other bumper stickers they offer may be more relatable to you, though:
A bumper sticker with a green background filled with random shapes and black text that reads "my other car is a bumper sticker" A bumper sticker with a pink background and some smiley faces has text that reads "no baby on board please hit me with your car" A bumper sticker with an image of Dom from Animal crossing next to text that reads "please be nice to me or I'll cry"
November 28, 2025 at 5:48 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Websites cost money, so please find some gifts for yourself or your favorite people from Megan's new online storefront to help them end this big shopping weekend net positive!

Stickers start at just $3.50, including these iconic images that will instantly make you cool, sexy, and popular:
A sticker with a sparkling holographic background features an amorphous black cloud with legs saying "I'm just a little guy" A sticker with a sparkling holographic outline features an image of a plastic turtle-shaped sandbox with caption text that reads "Mentally I am here" A square black sticker features white line drawings of flowers and vines with text that reads "protect trans kids" A sticker with a sparkling holographic outline features a cartoon figure of a ghost with fishnets and high heels
November 28, 2025 at 5:47 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Adding this to my growing library of images of the pope holding various baseball bats that he's been coerced into receiving
A photo of the pope on a stage smiling sort of uncomfortably while holding a black baseball bat
November 27, 2025 at 10:50 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
mature camry no. 265
A photo of the front of a dark turquoise late 1990s Toyota Camry with yellowed headlights, paint fade, and some bumper scuffs. A little plush pink heart is affixed over top of the Toyota logo in the center of its grille.
November 27, 2025 at 10:07 PM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Very good image if you don't know that Geese is a band
A video preview showing a middle aged white man in a hoodie with a pair of Beats headphones around his neck. A text overlay says "Billy Corgan hears geese for the first time", alongside a text caption of Billy saying "Oh, it's happening"
November 27, 2025 at 6:13 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
Very few people in the US still care about the first-generation Subaru Legacy, so when troubleshooting my car I often turn to a group of extremely cute still-living static webpages that hobbyists made 25 years ago
A screenshot of an old static website called "Subary Legacy - Gary's little fix it page", featuring a small centered image of a 1990s sedan on top and five links to other static pages on the side, covering topics like "Brake Fluid Service, Replacement MADE EASY!" and "Beefing up the rear view mirror so it doesn't move every time you hit the dimmer"
November 27, 2025 at 4:51 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
A photo of a red payphone mounted to a pole outside next to a sidewalk. It's partially covered in deteriorated flyers and stickers, including one that covers two letters of the word "phone", making it into "pho". Some people have tagged it, as well. The coin slot and dialpad are still uncovered, but the yellow handset is smashed into two pieces dangling from each other by a wire.
November 26, 2025 at 5:08 AM
sorenspicknall.bsky.social
A rectangular two story wood frame house has boarded up windows and door and a porta potty in front, and a chain link fence is installed around the property with gates next to the home's front steps. A very deteriorated two story wood frame house has siding falling off all over its front yard, in addition to the plywood boards covering its windows and door. The side of a brick commercial building shows a painted ghost sign for an old auto body shop A two and a half story wood frame building exhibits significant deterioration of its porch, porch roof, and siding. It is boarded up with a chain link fence surrounding it, and a Red Line Extension banner is affixed to one window.
November 26, 2025 at 4:30 AM