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Chicago Sunrise
Posted by shana on Mar 20, 2009 in Chicago Thursday
A day late, perhaps, but not short on anything, and it almost makes having to go into work at 6:30 AM seem ok.
Wednesday bites 1/2 off sushi!
Posted by shana on Mar 18, 2009 in Wednesday Bites
Book club this week, and once again, new experiences in deliciousness were had by all… and, if you act now, you can experience it too for the low, low price of half off.
Anyway, there are a million delicious restaurants in Lakeview, at least a hundred thousand of which are sushi bars, but book club includes people from all around the city, and tonight’s sushi extravaganza had us out in Ravenswood, just off the Damen brown line stop at Grand Katachi, 4747 N. Damen. They’ve got a wide and delicious range of sushi options, and for a while longer (not sure how long), pretty much everything on the menu is half off. Yeah. Like, everything except the Pepsi. And who wants Pepsi anyway? It’s BYOB! Six of us stuffed ourselves silly with Maki Rolls, California Rolls, Dragon Rolls, Spider Rolls, Manhattan Rolls, Chicago Rolls, and more wasabi than my tummy knows how to handle for $76 TOTAL, tax/tip included. Wow!
Their website doesn’t really exist yet, but there’s a nice picture of the front of the restaurant, along with some reviews, on yelp.
So, Chicago buddies, go get yourselves some delicious sushi for a really good price. Do it do it do it do it. :)
Video Sample!!
Posted by mac on Mar 17, 2009 in Tech Tuesdays
Here’s a little video with a bunch of random clips I shot today with our new Canon Vixia HG20. There’s nothing special here, I was just trying to get an idea for how the camera performs under different conditions. Enjoy!
Chicago speaks
Posted by shana on Mar 15, 2009 in Identity Crisis
If you thought I was being over-dramatic in our last Chicago Thursday post, particularly when I evoked childhood artistic inspiration to decry the renaming of an icon of our city (and our country, and our hemisphere and, you know, architecture everywhere), then you should have seen the cover of the Red Eye on Friday:
One of the Willis guys was reportedly surprised by the uproar, saying he thought people should be happy they were brining business and money to Chicago, instead of letting this theoretically beloved icon sit with so much empty, ignored space. Another person pointed out that everyone morning the loss of the “Sears” Tower probably isn’t actually willing to throw their consumer/purchasing power into rebuilding the Sears Empire so they can move back into their namesake tower, clinching the name for good. And I know, I know, I think we all know that this is the way things go, and no one, as far as I know, is planning any kind of large scale protest to tell the Willises to go back to their side of the pond…
I was talking to a friend of mine Friday night and brought up the fact that this is going to be one of those things we tell our kids, like “I remember back when this building here was called the Sears Tower. Did you know that? I remember when they changed the name!”
To which our kids will respond, “oh my god, you are so old!”
My friend’s response, as he shook his head, summed it all up:
“Dang.”
Chicago OMG WTF?!?!?!
Posted by shana on Mar 12, 2009 in Chicago Thursday
I’m just going to hit you with it, this morning’s top headline:
sinking in yet?
no?
Built in 1973, Chicago’s iconic Sear’s Tower stood as the tallest building in the world until 1998 (damn you, Petronas Towers!) – that’s a run of twenty-five years, an admirably long time, considering that the six taller buildings in the world have each only held their titles for a couple years. The poor Shanghai World Financial Center was tallest for only a few months in 2008. Bummer. To this day, at 36 years old, the Sears Tower remains the tallest sky scraper in the entire western hemisphere.
Here’s a look, by the way, at the most recent and impressive action in skyscrapers lately:
The red buildings are the ones currently under construction – at this point, the Russia Tower is barely getting started and the Chicago Spire, as I understand it, is mostly just a twinkle in the eye of a newly bankrupt developer… the Burj Dubai actually is that tall, and was scheduled to be done in November 2008 but now they’re shooting for July. You can watch a (pretty creepy, actually) video of it here. It’s the music, really, and also, there’s no way the UAE has that much green space… Also, as you can see, the Sears Tower’s antennas remain the tallest of existing, completed skyscrapers, though the Burj kind of blows everything out of the water. Thirty-six years though…
I’ve been pretty obsessed with skyscrapers, particularly this recent rush of supertalls, like the Burj Dubai and the Chicago Twinkle – I mean, Spire. It all started back when I was just a little kid, and my dad took my sisters and I to climb to the top of the Sears Tower. Never had I seen such a structure, neither in my suburban Milwaukee hometown, nor in our frequent trips to upper Michigan. Never had I been so high up in the air. Never had I felt so close to the heavens. It captured my imagination for years to come – thereafter, any drawing I did of a city skyline (and there were many) included a building that looked roughly like this:
actually drew this one just now.
I haven’t been to the top of the Sears Tower since then, but for the rest of my growing up years and through college, any time we drove through Chicago, I’d always take a moment on the end of the Kennedy Expressway to stare out the window with reverence and awe. The Sears Tower.
Of course, as much as no one saw this coming (just last week they were talking about painting the Sears Tower silver! forget that!), there’s also nothing we can do about it. The real question is, how will these Willis folks train Chicagoans (and, indeed, the world) to start using the new name? Flashing signs? Ads on el trains? Millions of tiny implants around the city that deliver a small electric shock to anyone who uses the word “Sears” in conjunction with the word “Tower”? Cash prizes to those who do it right?
Thus far, Chicagoans (at least, Chicago Tribune readers) are adamantly against it, not at all surprisingly:
It will be interesting. This beacon of innovation in America’s heartland, source of identity and pride as the tallest building in the tallest city in the world, bought and renamed by some guys from London. We’ll see how it goes…
This would happen on a Thursday.
PS…
Shana: Can you believe they’re going to change the name of the Sears Tower?
Mac: Well, Sears hasn’t actually been there since 1992, and they gave up their naming rights in 2003, it was only a matter of time.
Shana: Yeah, but that’s not the point. I mean, you wouldn’t rename the Empire State Building, would you?
Mac: Is Empire still in the building?
Shana: But you wouldn’t rename the Burj Dubai!
Mac: Well that’s brand new.
Shana: Yeah but I’m sayin’…
Mac: (quiet, then…) I miss the Chicago Spire.
Monday Endorsement: Sharing
Posted by shana on Mar 9, 2009 in Monday Product Endorsement
Specifically, car sharing.
But first:
Remember when driving was fun? When we lived in places with wide open spaces and scenery and no stop lights or cars in your way? Corn as high as an elephant’s eye zipping past at 55mph? Before the guilt of superfluous carbon emissions took some of the joy out of a joyride? Before we moved to Chicago?
I remember. (Those of you who didn’t actually move to Chicago with us probably remember even better.) Me and Daisy, my little (“little”) Eagle Summit Wagon, zipping around Iowa, downshifting to make it up the big hills by the river, eating pie in little towns 40 miles from anywhere else, pulling over on the shoulder to take pictures of the sunset…
those were the days
I remember, but barely. Here, driving is a nightmare. It can take an hour to go the three miles needed to get to the freeway on a Saturday in December, for instance. A really, really hellish hour. There’s traffic, traffic traffic traffic, all the time! No left turn arrows, lots of people running red lights (not that I blame them, it’s sometimes a matter of survival) and parking, oh sweet Jesus, Chicago just leased its parking meters to a private company (for the next 75 years, ???) in an effort to make a little money, and this private company went bezerk on fees: instead of paying a quarter to park for an hour at most meters, starting last month parking rates doubled, tripled and quadrupled, with meters in the neighborhood downtown where I work now demanding 14 quarters for an hour. That’s $3.50 (or two full loads of laundry, depending on the specific value you place on quarters).
At any rate, there are a million reasons not to drive, not the least of which is that it’s just not necessary. Usually. The vast majority of the time, even. Of course I endorse biking, and public transit, walking, and good ol’ fashioned staying in your own neighborhood – no need to drive 40 miles for pie anymore when our neighborhood is so inundated with delicious bakeries…
But every now and then, you craigslist an end table from 2 miles away that would be just a bit too much to carry on the bus. Or you need to make a run to Hobby Lobby in the suburbs, the dead zone of public transport (alternative solution would be getting a Hobby Lobby in Lakeview, now wouldn’t THAT solve all our problems?!?!), or you’re closing at the cafe on Saturday night but your dad is speaking at church up in Milwaukee at 9 on Sunday morning, and between midnight and 8 there just aren’t any greyhounds, amtraks, or metras going your way… it’s times like this that you maybe do need a car, but not to own, just to share.
I can reserve a car months or minutes in advance – there’s almost always one available nearby – and I don’t have to worry about paying for parking, insurance, or, get this, even gas. It’s all included. And sure, I can’t store my umbrella and my lunch leftovers for the last couple weeks in the back seat, but with so many cars to choose from, it’s kind of like I own dozens of cars… I’ll say to Mac, “do you want to take the Civic today, or the Prius?” Or the Honda Fit, or the Honda Element? The silver Civic, or the blue one? So many choices!
You may have perhaps heard of Zip Car, a national car sharing program that works similarly. We also have Zip Car in Chicago, and I do support their mission as well, but we chose I Go because it’s a non-profit, and because it’s Chicago. Their goal is to make car sharing an integral part of the public transit system, and to that end, they work with neighborhoods and with the Chicago Transit Authority to ensure that people can get around to wherever they need to go, whenever they need to go, without having to own a car. They’re also interested in turning the freed-up space and resources (owning a car can cost up to $7300/year in Chicago, I Go membership starts at $50) to foster growth in Chicago communities. Says their website, “We expect that lower car ownership would free up resources that could be used to increase home ownership and business development in our region.” Talk about big picture dreaming, hey? I like big picture.
I really do strongly believe that the freedom to live without having to own a car is a birthright. Furthermore, life without a gas and money guzzling weight on your shoulders shouldn’t seem impossible, it should seem normal, and it should definitely seem liberating, particularly in a big city like Chicago. I Go Car Sharing is making that dream of not owning a car a reality for us and hundreds of others. For that reason I heartily endorse them this Monday afternoon, for that and for the little glimmer of a thrill I get on those rare occasions when Lake Shore Drive isn’t so crowded after all and we’re flying on down the lake, faster than the busses… it does feel good. I remember.
Chicago Thursday
Posted by shana on Feb 26, 2009 in Chicago Thursday
I guess the idea behind Chicago Thursdays was just to make sure this blog stayed located, as we are, in Chicago. We can talk about ourselves and we can talk about our cats, and we can post pictures of the above, and we can do that from anywhere. But we don’t live just anywhere, we live in Chicago, the Windy City, the Second City, the City by the Lake, the City on the Make (?), the Paris on the Prairie (???), the Heart of America, the City of Broad Shoulders, The Big Onion. It’s got a lot of character, and we like character. So we want Chicago to be as much a feature of our blog as anything.
That said, I’ve got to get to work. Wow, this really has been a week of intros and teasers, hasn’t it? So it is. I’m closing tonight with one of my favorite work buddies, Lou. For a couple weeks now, we’ve been saying we should go out for a quick drink after closing together sometime, since she’s a super busy student and I’m working two jobs and neither one of us would probably ever have “free time” independent from work. Our cafe is right downtown, right off of Michigan Ave, the “Magnificent Mile,” and I thought for sure there’d be lots of places for us to go at 11:30 on a week night… but interestingly enough, no dice. Everything closes by 11 on weeknights. If New York is The City That Never Sleeps, then Chicago is The City That Tries To Get To Bed At A Reasonable Hour. Catchy, isn’t it? Our one hope is the Reagle Beagle, just a couple of blocks away and open til midnight. If we have a fast close, we can totally make it.
Monday Endorsement: finding some S.P.A.C.E.
Posted by shana on Feb 23, 2009 in Monday Product Endorsement
I’m very proud to announce that our first ever Monday Product Endorsement is not a product at all (as you probably noted given the awkward omission of the word in this blog title) but a place: SPACE in Evanston, IL.
One of the biggest perks of being a fan of kind of obscure folk singers is that (if they tour) when you go see them in concert, you’re one of a couple hundred at the very most, never one of a couple thousand, or a couple hundred thousand, for that matter. Case in point: last night Cheryl Wheeler played at SPACE, a fortunately pronouncable acronym for the Society for the Preservation of Arts and Culture in Evanston (imagine if they had been, say, the Group of People in Evanston Who Like Artsy Stuff, for example). Cheryl Wheeler is one of my absolute favorite artists ever ever ever. From hilariously insightful to heart-wrenchingly true, her lyrics tell stories and paint pictures, and her skillful and beautiful guitar playing carries them with me everywhere I go. I fell in love with her during my junior year of college while dogsitting for a favorite professor of mine who owned some of her cds, and this is the third concert of hers I’ve been to.
And yeah, she always looks kind of like this: moppy hair, grey-ish t-shirt and sneakers, and she makes funny little faces while she sings. And she’s like 60. But once you’ve gotten over those aspects of this picture, I hope you notice the close proximity from which it is taken. Now get this: I’m not using a zoom. For real. One of my very favorite musical artists ever, of all time, someone I hugely admire and love, within easy spitting distance of where I sat for two hours. Easy! Not that I would ever spit on Cheryl Wheeler.
Mac and I didn’t know what to expect when we arrived at SPACE, with a small sign out front that read “Cheryl Wheeler @ 7:00″. We went to get in line, as it was 6:30 and the concert was open seating, but found there was no line, or at least there wasn’t until we started one. When they opened the doors, we had our pick of seats – about 20 small tables, only three rows deep, each surrounded by four chairs. That’s it. Capacity: 80. We went straight for the front (obviously) and took our seats. My jaw remained solidly dropped for at least five minutes, and I almost peed in my pants at least once, I was so excited.
Here are a couple more pictures of the venue:
The concert, of course, was amazing, hilarious, insightful, moving, perfect. I love Cheryl Wheeler. Mac loved Cheryl Wheeler. This I had anticipated. I endorse her every chance I get. But we also really, really loved SPACE. What an awesome place to see a show! Every spot was a good spot, and the extra super good spots (like the ones we had) weren’t hard to come by either. Check out their website, see if anyone playing there looks interesting, and just go. If you’re at a loss for what to see, I’d be more than happy to make recommendations (anyone free March 6?).
While I’m at it… if Cheryl Wheeler is ever in your neck of the woods, wherever your neck may be, just go see her too.
I’m so full of endorsements today! This is going to be fun.