Storm!

Today there was a thunderstorm in Chicago--it sounded a bit rough from bar class, wind and thunder and lots of rain, but by rush hour it was done. Although apparently it was worse than I thought, because by the time SM and I went to find dinner (though the sunset was doing pretty things to the clouds, the Cubs were playing, and there was no rain in sight), the first place we tried was "closed due to storm." Weird and a little disappointing, but OK. Then we tried to go to my neighborhood favorite Orange and it was ALSO closed. And THEN, we tried to go to a clearly open Thai place I've never tried. The hostess said "two for dinner?" and when we said yes, she said "sorry, we don't have room!" even though we saw an open table. It might be because SM had just kidney punched me in a brotherly fashion and they thought it was a more sinister form of relationship violence.

We walked like a mile and ended up back in SM's neighborhood (he was really glad he came all the way up to my place just to walk a mile in 86 degree Chicago air-soup). BUT the dinner we finally found was delicious (Japanese food at Y2K).

The moral of the story is, sometimes there are mediocre days in Chicago when the buses don't run right, the el catches on fire and starts to stink during your morning commute, it's in the eighties and muggy all night, and you can't find any place to eat, and you get kidney punched by a good friend. BUT YOU CAN STILL FIND A GOOD MEAL IN CHICAGO when you are weary and hungry and it's 9:00 pm and wandering the street, because there is always a fantastic restaurant open somewhere and you will find it eventually.

ETA: to further re-pump Chicago's image even though it was a mediocre day, I should mention that disc0 enjoyed yet another great New Bar Tuesday, including a new place with a dog for a bouncer, and an establishment called Save More which, as the name suggests, used to be a package store and was converted into a bar by the use of some cups, card tables, and folding chairs. I plan to visit soon.

Twirl Girls

Our household has been busy preparing for a practice multistate exam and getting wonderful news from friends...but enough personal stuff, you're here to read about Chicago!

Today was the annual Chicago Pride Parade, the second annual one disc0 and I have attended. Last year our neighborhood was smack dab at the end of the route, and we sat in the patio of a lovely restaurant and had brunch while watching the festivities, surrounded mostly by families and older folks. Our neighborhood this year is a little more wild, and great in a different way. Lots of people, revelers out in the streets, and good times. In fact they are still out there reminding us that we chose to live in a high traffic, boisterous hood.

I was, again, blown away by the Pride Parade in Chicago. I'm used to Pride in the deep south. And not to say that LGBT folks have it easy up here--I mean there are state legislators proposing equal marriage rights but it hasn't exactly happened yet and there was a requisite hate corner (guy with bullhorn, surrounded by jackasses, talking about the lake of fire for like two hours) near the parade site. BUT...there are commissions on LGBT rights and relations, every politician under the sun rides in this parade, there is an LGBT JUDGES ASSOCIATION, a HUGE LGBT Veterans group, an LGBT Police Officer's association, all of whom are out and proud in the parade.
And for pure fun there are not one but TWO GAY HONOR GAURDS and a GAY MARCHING BAND and a GAY SPIRIT TEAM. Those were my favorite parts, that and the three year old who's shirt read "My Parents Met in a Gay Bar."

I really need to do more research about the politics around here. Right now I'm really basking in the blueness of it all, but I don't want to get too complacent--even though it's hard because it is just so much better than anywhere I've ever lived/been politically active before, and the temptation to be satisfied is high. There are still plenty of good old American problems in this city but today it was nice to celebrate the fact that LGBT folks are a constituency that the city cares about.

Tuesday Bar Night....

...is the greatest idea ever. Disc0f has been inducted into a "boys' night out" that serves to introduce its attendees to un- or lesser-known establishments all over the city. It's a rotating host event, and whosoever shall host in a given week has everyone over for dinner and then takes them to three or four bars in his neighborhood where at least 2/3 of the attendees have never had a drink. The only other rule of Tuesday Bar Night is that no women, girls, or ladies are allowed to join in until after 11:00. So it's a boys' night out in name only--more like "boys' early evening and then they've had enough single-gender fellowship" out.

Last night I joined in after 11:00 at a great place a short walk from our house (TBN was hosted by a neighbor of ours, as luck would have it). It's called the Nisei Lounge* and has quite an interesting history. It was opened after WWII by Japanese-American veterans, and it served as a meeting place for Japanese-American WWII vets for decades. The ownership has changed hands a few times but the owners have always tried to live up to the history (at least by maintaining the name and telling the history to anyone who asks). It was almost empty but the bartender and bouncer were super friendly, and it has a GREAT JUKEBOX. Almost to L&L Lounge* standards.

*no links because I don't want yuppies invadin' ;)**

**because millions of anonymous bar-invading yuppies read this blog

Speaking of Eating for Entertainment

OMG, ya'll; Chicago so gets me.

Tonight we went with friends K & R to Halsted Tastes Better, the classiest street fest in all the land. This is considered the "kick-off to summer" in Lakeview, and part of Pride Month (the parade is this weekend!). Two blocks from our front door, the best restaurants in the North Halsted section of Lakeview set up tables in front of a jazz band and let loose.

Chicago is like a giant Russian nesting doll of adorable neighborhoods. Lakeview is a very large neighborhood which encompasses Boystown which in turn encompasses North Halsted. Lakeview also, for example, encompasses Wrigleyville. So much for the geography lesson; I'm terrible at geography. But I love the neighborhoods and their merchant associations that put on things like Halsted Tastes Better.

So we paid $25 a piece for 12 tickets a piece, each of which was good for one food or drink item. It was like a lovely outdoor tapas bar of many cuisines. We had duck eggrolls, pork dumplings, seafood salad, 'mini' pulled pork BBQ sandwiches (on a night of normal eating one of these and some coleslaw would have been enough dinner for me--these were GENEROUS tasting portions), cheese chimichangas, a caramel apple salad (!!), curried chicken salad croissandwiches, Italian meatballs...but there's more! Amazing bread pudding, home-made chipwiches, divine little brownies and chocolate covered strawberries. It was...very good. We were in pain on the walk home, but it was sooo, soo good.

It probably goes without saying that everyone working the booths was cheery, friendly, and wonderful. It was a much less rowdy affair than the street festivals I'm used to around here, which was perfect. It rained sporadically, but there was enough tent space for everyone and the tempature was as good as it can be for getting caught outside in a rainstorm--not nasty, hot, and muggy, but not chilly either. There was a double rainbow. There was a dog sitting at the table with his people but not eating any of their food. Very good times.

More Sunday Fun

I just saw an amazing show with J & A (the friends from yesterday's dinner and many other fun outings). It was a stand-up comedy show: the headliner was Eugene Mirman and there were also awesome sets by A.D. Miles who is probably my biggest crush from Wet Hot American Summer or is at least tied with Showalter and Chris Meloni (and Paul Rudd is not even in that equation because he is everyone's biggest crush in everything at all times including right now), and Leo Allen, who were traveling together, and a local comedian called Hannibal who was really funny as well. In my past experiences (read: in a major southern city that rhymes with Bratlanta) the local opening comedian was usually a total disaster, but this is the second Chicago show I've been to where the opening act was great. He was selling t-shirts that say "I kick pigeons" based on a very funny bit in his routine, even though he admitted that he doesn't kick pigeons. I didn't buy one because I also don't. But I told him I really enjoyed his act.

The first three guys are touring together. I experienced this show at the Lakeshore Theater, Chicago's "Venue for Edgy Comedy." The owner/manager/cool guy who introduced the show lives above the theater, told us they only books acts that they fucking love because it's basically their living room, and handed out "you know Dane Cook sucks" t-shirts to warm up the crowd. Ha ha, it's true, even though it's uncharacteristically uncharitable as a Chicagoan to point it out. Natch, it's an easy walk from my apartment. Is that refrain getting old? This city is ridiculous!

To the Window...to the Wall

This is been a pretty productive weekend. On Friday, disc0 and I tried out a new restaurant that we found in a pullout from this week's Reader which named tons of cool places to eat on patios or otherwise outdoors. Outdoor eating is huge in Chicago in the summer. The place was called Coopers, A Neighborhood Eatery* and it is, of course, walking distance from our condo, in a bit of a theater district. Across the street is the theater where I first saw Gayco.

The food was AWESOME as expected. I got an amazing vegetable panini that didn't contain anything I don't like! That never happens with veggie sandwiches. It was arugala, caramelized onions, goat cheese, and roasted red peppers. And disc0 got a half rack of baby back ribs which were amazing. This place makes all of their food fresh, except for the bread--which means the ice cream we had for dessert was made there, as were the marshmallows mixed into it. Just another amazing neighborhood restaurant with a giant beer list and pathologically friendly servers. Hooray.

Last night we had dinner with our friends J and A. I can't say the restaurant was the greatest (I think our server was having a rough night) but that's OK because it was in the neighborhood where we almost did but then decided NOT to buy a condo. And the company was fab. They can't ALL be the best restaurant ever.

Then J & A got tired, but disc0 and I wanted to view the insanity that is Saturday night in Wrigleyville after a Cubs game. We called another friend, AM, and headed to the heart of it. We got a window seat at a fairly authentic Irish pub (our server was even Irish) and did some great people watching for a couple of hours. Then we wanted to really see the disasters happening, and suggested a trip to Hi Tops**, the skeeziest hook up den in Wrigleyville. AM refused, and suggested Redmans, which in her opinion was more of a neighborhood pub. Ha!

Hi Tops could not have beat the Redmans people watching scene. On a cool note, it was an awesomely diverse crowd and there were folks having a great time dancing with their friends. But the piece de resistance was the Make Out Couple. They were going AT IT on the dance floor for a long time; then they moved to a booth that was already inhabited to get a little more comfortable. Chicago bar-goers were too polite to elbow them or say anything harsh, and so they began to get a wide berth and a dedicated audience. The DJ tried to talk them down over the sound system, to no avail. The waitress dutifully bussed the table where they were violating the booths (although their "neighbor" gave up and left after a few moments). Finally, a group of stranger women seemed to decide that the woman in the Make Out Couple was sorely lacking, and therefore needed, some girlfriends (this is Chicago after all), especially to tell her that her pants were hitting half-mast much of the time thereby exposing faded white granny panties. At first I was also concerned, and took this to mean that she wore said grannies b/c she was planning not to hook up, and then got drunker than expected and was embarrassing herself with some skeezy bar guy. As we continued to observe, it became evident that she was WITH the guy. So maybe they were just "we've been together a long time and he doesn't care about my underpants" underpants. Lord knows I have some of those. In any case, the stranger women had to give up and leave as well, because these two were not in the mood to quit. It also turned out that Make Out Couple WAS with a rather large group of friends, one of whom somehow found an industrial strength flashlight and shined it in their faces in an attempt to stop the carnage. It worked for only half a second. Part of me thinks these people just do this whenever they go out, and though I tired of it eventually, I hope we cross paths again. It was enormously entertaining while it lasted.

*I also love this place because the name and cat eye sign remind me of my Boodles' kitty

**For example, MTV recently did their Chicago casting of something called "Dismissed Again" at Hi Tops

Comedy is Funny

This one is long!

I was talking to disc0f the other day about the almost pathological friendliness of people in this city. It kind of makes me feel like less of a freak; let me explain. When I meet people in social situations (defined broadly), I tend to assume we're going to be friends until proven wrong. I don't think most other people feel the same way, so I am always the overly peppy dorkwad who tries to make connections that may not exist. But in Chicago EVERYONE IS LIKE THAT.

I don't think I've entered a public women's bathroom in this city without making (at least temporary) friends with someone. Standing in line at the computer lab at BarBri, someone will tell me about waiting for her law school grades. On the El, the dude across the way talks about his service in the first Iraq war. The aforementioned women's bathrooms? Can't get out of there without being told that my shoes are cute or getting a really long and excited response from the woman whose dress I just complimented. Servers in restaurants really care. We stopped by the store where we ordered our couches to check on their arrival time, and were talking to the kick ass woman who sold them to us when her lunch date arrived--she said, "hey (lunch date)--these are my new friends!"

And the real test, the meeting of friend groups in bars. Both disc0f and I have experienced the disoriented feeling of being immediately accepted (of being assumed friends until proven wrong) by people we've just met. E.g., when disc0 recently went to a boys night that involved his introduction into an already established group of friends, he was astonished when the other guys were as interested in the shooting the bs with him, and getting to know him, as they were trolling for the ladies.

Many people in this city live in the same redonkulously friendly, Richard Scarry town square, I love you you love me existence that I've been trying to inhabit for years! I truly think this is just a charming Midwestern thing. So along with (1) the lesbianism and Swedishness in Andersonville (2) the unironic prevalence of karaoke (3) the love of Journey and (4) the eating for entertainment (thanks B!), this unassuming, open friendliness make me feel that I was always a Midwesterner at heart.

Last night a small bunch of us went to see some sketch comedy: Competing Elderly British Detectives to be exact. It was great. This is the second good sketch we've seen in a week (the kids who opened for Baby Wants Candy last weekend were pretty darn cute). But this is some of the best I've seen in a long time. It's funny being a fan of comedy in Chicago, because your favorite performers are often, a couple weeks later, sitting next to you at other people's shows. Even at their own shows, the actors usually come out and have a beer at the theater bar when they're done. So there's not alot of celebrity brouhaha, even though these are the people that will (or should) be going on to be the next SNL players, or movie stars, or whatever. I mean one of those friendly "I love your shoes!!" women's bathroom encounters I mentioned above was with one of my favorite comediennes in Chicago! I try to act super cool and not fan-girly, because otherwise, eventually due to small theater size and knowing some of the performers through friends and general mingling, I fear I will start to look like some kind of comedy stalker. But maybe that's my old, pre-Midwester fear talking--perhaps part of the charm is that the theater folk are more open and less judgmental here, too.

WINDY CITY SWEETS

Hold on: have I not talked about Windy City Sweets yet on this blog?! Inconceivable.

This is possibly my favorite place in Chicago and walkable from my doorstep. It is a giant, old-fashioned style candy store and ice cream parlor in the heart of Boystown. They have a wall of bin candy up to the ceiling. They have delicious freshly made fudge. They have every old candy you could hope to imagine (the Squirrel Nut Zippers aren't even slightly difficult to find--they are right there in front of you).

The ice cream is delicious. The ice cream scooper guys are friendly and adorable. There are always people walking their dogs past the big windows. You can go there after you get a little tipsy on BYOB wine next door at Ping Pong, and get a huge bag of candy and an ice cream cup or cone or a milkshake, because they are open every night until 11:00.

Speaking of which: every other restaurant here is BYOB, with no (or minimal) corkage fees. It's pretty awesome.

Lay Lee La Lor Luuu, Luke, I Am Your Father

So today is day whatever in Chicago without air conditioning. Somewhere in the 4 week range. It's a little rough, but you know what, it could be Florida and that would be much worse. Also, they promise to fix it before August (OK they promise to fix it by tomorrow but I am setting attainable goals right now) so when the hottest weather comes, we should be "cool."

To be honest, the weather has been downright balmy most of the time so far--it was still cool in mid/late May on arrival, and has warmed up to being in the 70's a lot of the time and the 80's sometimes. I like the weather here in the summer. I can't promise that I won't be crying in my giant hot chocolate when it's -20 (or, according to some rather histrionic reports from what I consider to be otherwise reliable sources, -80). We'll just see about that, but for now it's very nice, and I know the fall will be great too. Some cute retro patio furniture arrived today and I plan to be enjoying the outdoors from a sitting position very soon.

Last night we enjoyed some great Mexican food in the old neighborhood (from last summer) with a friend who is summering here--let's just call him Superman. Then Superman and I had some ice cream at Bobtail, a Chicago new-stitution. Legend had it that some Darden Business School students started it**; naturally this made me suspicious and I never went last summer. But it was pretty darn good. Windy City Sweets is still my favorite place ever, but I no longer snub Bobtail and if I am in need of ice cream and in the neighborhood, I will definitely go back. They have Merlot flavored ice cream if you are into that sort of thing (I don't think that I am).

**This legend was untrue. Apparently they went to the University of Chicago.

All These Things That I've Done

I was traumatized when I realized yesterday that Mika is playing the Metro tonight--and the show is very sold out, with tickets scalping at 3-5 times face value. But it still makes me kind of happy, just because great musical artists are playing here ALL the time, in my neighborhood, and not in some fugly space age looking bore-itorium that ruined the view from the downtown mall in Charlottesville. No, they are playing at legitimate rock clubs and other interesting venues. I mean, last year we literally saw Radiohead playing at a college auditorium. What?! I love it. I just have to get in on the ground floor from now on, which is why I got on some music venue email lists yesterday.

Speaking of music scene, I have discovered nearby live band karaoke, and we've got a group together for this week. I'm super excited because I've never done that before. I hope I don't chicken out when the time comes to sing with a real band.

I've also discovered that Carol's Pub, a country music joint in Uptown, has country karaoke. And as some of you may now I have been known to get down with Tammy Wynette at Queereokes past. It looks promising--and I've always wanted to check the place out. I'm no music snob (I love the Lipgloss song too much and I have tickets to see Kelly Clarkson and I just don't pay enough attention) but I am all about a place that eschews New Country for Johnny Cash, George Jones, and Loretta Lynn.

We (everyone in my household and countless other post-3Ls across the country) are trying to squeeze all the fun out of June without getting too terribly behind, because July is when the no-fun really begins. So hopefully I will have more to report in coming days about this kick ass city!

PS, the chocolate smell was in full effect on the commute home today. YUM.

BACK TO EVIDENCE

Beep Beep: Whose Got the Keys To My Jeep

We've got a nice Chicago weekend going on, albeit with early nights because we keep scheduling appointments with various condo technicians in the mornings. Friday we saw Baby Wants Candy, an improv comedy team that improvises musical comedy. I've seen this show more times than I can count, and I am constantly impressed. These are some talented folks--they can all sing, their reference levels and character definition are fantastic and really fun to watch, and the band improvises along with them. Cool. They've moved from Improv Olympic to a rather small theater and I hope they don't think disc0f and I are creepy stalker-fans, because they'll probably be seeing alot of us now that we live here.

This evening, after a real nice Saturday buying window coverings, we headed up to Andersonville for the very crowded, very cute Midsommarfest. We discovered this particular fest (one of literally hundreds of billions of such street festivals that are held throughout Chicago during the summer) last year. At that time we fell in love with the delightfully cheesy all-girl cover band "Catfight" and the general cuteness of the very Swede-heavy Andersonville, so we decided to visit again this year. Andersonville is also populated by many a lesbian, so with the Swedishness and the lesbianism I really felt that I was among my people. After Catfight, we visited some of the artist's booths and had a really great dinner at a crazy Mediterranean restaurant where we sat by an open window and watched drunk revelers point at our food and bump into the flower box affixed to the ledge by our table.

The focal point of the evening was a performance by Elevation, our favorite U2 cover band. They'd done a show earlier in the day so FauxBono ("Fono")'s voice wasn't as dulcet as normal, but the show still rocked. One of my favorite things about these street festivals is that debaucherous drunks and tiny children coexist peacefully. There were tons of little U2 fans holding the hands or on the shoulders of their parents, rocking out to Fono, and at the same time a drunk guy kept poking disc0f in the head and giggling (we politely moved away after the second or so such poking). The debauchers tend to give the kids wide berth so there is lots of little-kid-style dancing. Presh.

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Reasons our Neighborhood is Great #2

(Reason #1 is Trader Todds, and we had a great time there last night. The DJ may have been a little irritated that I celebrated Bonnie Tyler's entire catalog, but that's just too bad. Disc0f is friends with one of the bartenders who was working the door, so we got waived in without having our ID's checked. That's right, we're VIPs at the Key West-themed karaoke bar, don't be jealous. Everyone who works there is really nice. That's because everyone in Chicago is apparently really nice. Except whoever tattled on the chocolate factory.)

What I'm writing about TODAY is Orange, an amazing restaurant just a hop skip and a jump from our condo. Disc0f and I cleverly (OK, lazily) decided to take classes in the afternoon, so we have mornings free to study and go out to lunch. This morning we took our fourth or fifth trip to Orange--it's insanely busy for brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, so we do it weekday style. The place is filled with orange-y artwork, and they have a fresh juice bar, the best grilled cheese sandwich of all time, and the piece de resistance, a different pancake flight every week, meaning four short stacks of silver dollar pancakes of themed flavors. This week's theme was Around the World and had different sweet flavors from India, Brazil, France, and the USA. Past favorites have included Kid's Cereal (with frosted flake, fruity pebble and lucky charms pancakes) and Cookies (with oatmeal raisin, ginger snap, and chocolate chip pancakes). They also put cucumber slices in the water, giving the whole experience a spa-like feel.

This of course means you have to come visit and eat with us at Orange. Because in other news, the guest room has been completely cleared of boxes. And some very nice junk removers came this morning and took away the 100 or so collapsed cardboard boxes and loads of packing materials left over from our move, promising to recycle it all.

Great things about Chicago #1

Since this blog is named after Chicago, I should mention one of my favorite things about this city. It smells like chocolate in random places all the time. because of the Blommer Chocolate Company. I hear rumors that the smell may be going away because of environmental regulation gone awry (I am a super "liberal blogger" and you probably won't hear that phrase from me ever again, but seriously CHOCOLATE SMELL): the EPA is enforcing emission opacity regulations against the chocolate factory that they don't enforce against freaking coal plants.

If it really does cause respiratory problems, then I guess something has got to be done...but I agree with the environmentalist quoted here http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/11/25/backpage/112405194356.txt
who says this is like the EPA "crushing an ant when there's a pack of wolves around, and then claiming you've saved people from harm." I blame the Bush Administration! (liberal blogger credentials--intact?)

The moral of the story? Come visit Chicago before the chocolate smell is gone, because it is heavenly while commuting or on a stroll around the loop.

A Whole Trapper Keeper Full of Appointments

This is the first post in the old, old wooden ship that will be Chiblog-o. I can't promise constant updates; I can't even promise an interesting or enjoyable read. But having a blog seemed the thing to do. Right now I'm in a break at my BarBri class; we are studying Evidence!

Tonight, karaoke with some law school friends at the 7-night-a-week karaoke joint in our neighborhood (the pic is from their website, and shows the party tiki bus that transports karaoke stars from Wrigley Field to the bar), and before that some real Chicago pizza.

I love you, friends to whom I've sent this blog link!