Day 21 (Sunday, July 2)

I was walking around the Taste of Chicago and saw a cool man wearing a copper suit. I thought it was cool. I raised my camera to snap a few photos and he ran away while saying "not another one of these guys."

I was confused. So, I asked him what he meant by that. Meanwhile, the lady w/ him pointed to the tip basket. "Ohhhhh," I thought to myself. "They are doing this for a profit. Obviously!"

I talked to the guy and he insisted that I had to give him cash for taking his photo. That I had no right to shoot his photo. Chapter One of my Journalism 101 book all of a sudden was brought back into mind. The guy spoke nonsense about how newspapers take public products and sell them for their gain. After listening to the guy I had to school him on something.

"The whole news world got started by this nation's forefathers. Madison, Jefferson, Washington, etc., they all believed that newspapers had the right to cover anything in the public view in order to inform," I told the guy, who did not understand what I meant when I told him that the Associated Press is not all profit-driven. "We are all just trying to do our job of informing and reporting. This (the Taste of Chicago) is culture and we would cover cultural events in order to teach people outside of Chicago what the culture is like around here."

"I am proud of being part of the Associated Press," I told the guy. "The AP got started in the mid 1846 as a result of reporters sending information back to New York from the Mexican-American War. People in New York wanted to know what was going on in other parts of the world. Today, the AP does the same. We report. We don't take products for profit. We just report. Report for profit, yeah. But report nonetheless."

I continued to tell the guy that I usually do not tip anyone if I am about to shoot their photo. Not while on assignment at least. "It's not ethical," I told the guy.

After talking w/ Mitchell for a while he put me up on his podium and asked his assistant to take a photo of him and I. I was glad to be able to school someone while being proud of the company I work for.

I proceeded my way around the Taste. I stopped and enjoyed some bbq ribs that were to die for. Yum!

The sky gave a great look to the skyline. It wasn't as scary as it looks, however. Within 30 minutes, the clouds cleared and the hot weather came back.

I was walking by a group of people when I saw street performers. I had to make a photo, of course.

It was really cool being among so many people. However, homesickness is beginning to hit me. The only connection I had w/ anyone at the Taste was with Mitchell while we talked newspaper logics, the man who sold me the Taste tickets and the lady who sold me the ribs. That's it. I was on my own little world thinking.

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