(Recorded on a Canon PowerShot SD950 IS Digital Elph while standing under the eaves of that building at left in the above photo of Jefferson Park.)

Nope, we're not headed to the Taste of Chicago. The Taste can be kind of fun, but it's also a real headache to get to and you have to battle thousands of other people.

I'd say you need to embrace the hustle and bustle to fully appreciate the Taste. Sort of like how to tolerate alfresco dining, you need a high tolerance of carbon monoxide and pedestrian stares. That's a topic worthy of an entire podcast. I can understand how diners might enjoy having a meal in a secluded garden or a quiet courtyard -- but too often here in Chicago, alfresco dining means some eatery merely has jammed a dozen tables out on the sidewalk.

Bugs, carbon monoxide, allowing total strangers to waltz by and look at what you're stuffing in your pie hole. And this is a good thing? Mm-mm-good, huh?

Speaking of things that sound like a good thing but often aren't, let's talk about one of my favorite culinary topics: macaroni and cheese. I've always maintained that although Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is the gold standard against which all other such dishes are judged, the amount of powdered cheese provided just isn't enough. In fact, ever since I was a kid, I've always added extra cheese when I cook up this favorite comfort food.

The other day while shopping in the Walgreens across my office, I noticed a new product: Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Crackers. I bought a box and gave it a try.

Verdict: Not cheesy enough. And a few others at work reached the same conclusion. Please note this was the regular version -- imagine how noncheesy the "mild" version is. One colleague even compared the crackers to Cheese Nips, another Kraft brand.

I'm a loyal consumer of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, but I can't get too excited about these cracker knockoffs.

In this podcast, I also talk about finding a really cool site while Googling for reviews of Carrara, an affordable CGI application. One link led me to a site promoting a proposed TV series called "Atomic City" featuring the adventures of Phil Velvet, an Elvis lookalike private eye in a kitschy, retro-future re-imagined Las Vegas.

I'm not sure just why I like the site, but I must have watched the video clip several dozen times now. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Finally, what with the ascendency of digital imaging, chemical analog photography seems destined for retro status. Yet, even as I embrace digital, I find myself clinging to film photography. In fact, some of the best work I've done of lately has been with the Holga -- which is just about as analog as you can get.

Whenever I want to reinvigorate my excitement for analog photography -- or for photography in general -- I like to check in at Filmwasters, which serves up galleries by its five founders, as well as links to other photo-related sites. But the highlight for me is the Filmwasters podcast.

Well, that's it for now. Look for some episodes next month from Colorado, plus a special podcast with Dick about geocaching.

ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

Despite my sad devotion to that ancient religion of silver-based analog photography, I've found a nifty little digital camera that I've been carrying with me everywhere of late.

My new friend is the Canon PowerShot SD950 IS. It takes still images up to 12.1 megapixels in resolution and also records high-quality video that isn't too shabby.

I hadn't even intended to record a podcast that day. My goal was only to test the SD950 in macro mode on some flowers in Jefferson Park. (See the example at right.)

While playing with the menu, however, I discovered a feature that will come in handy for real run-and-gun podcasting: The SD950 can record reasonably good audio. So, I decided to use the camera's digital voice recorder to create this podcast.

I recorded the sound as I stood next to the flowering tree whose pink flowers I'd just photographed. (The background noise is from traffic on Lawrence Avenue.) We're not talking high-quality sound, but it's acceptable enough to get the job done.

That job involved a totally on-the-fly reminiscence about my grandfather's observation that "the vegetable kingdom does not waste time."

And, indeed, it does not.

ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.

On a recent work-related trip to New Orleans to attend the National Cartoonists Society convention, I joined with more than 100 other attendees to help with Habitat for Humanity efforts to rebuild affordable housing.

Before taking us back to the hotel, Habitat's driver took us through the still-devastated 9th Ward and we saw just how much still needs to be done to get this area back to something even remotely resembling a state of normalcy. Many communities are still without supermarkets or grocery stores.

The continuing impact of Hurricane Katrina was especially obvious as we crossed the Judge Seeber Bridge. Not only did the vantage point show exactly how high the water had been, but just a day or so earlier, malfunctioning gates allowed a New Orleans police officer to drive his car off the bridge and into the Industrial Canal below. His death sparked a wave of outrage over dilapidated infrastructure that had been in desperate need of repair even before Katrina hit the city.

Read a story about the death of Detective Tommie Felix in The Times-Pacayune.

View video "New Orleans Rebuilds."

ChicagoScope feedback line: 312-683-5272. Send e-mail to ChicagoScope@gmail.com.