Category Archives: Chicago Specific Fun

Jun 30 2013
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Chicago Specific Fun, Friends and Family, Fun for Couples, Nightlife, Outdoor Fun

Day 279: Mike and Joe

The hubs and Chad talk about Mike and Joe like everyone who went to the University of Illinois knows who they are. Like most people in Chicago of a certain age (read early to mid 30’s) worship these cover band gods. This may be true but only because Mike and Joe allow these Illinoisans to cling to their music the way they cling to their college years and lost youth. So you can imagine my disappointment when the legends themselves played at the Southport Festival to a crowd of only 100 or less. Though there were some definite rockers of the early 90’s reliving senior year of high school through this duo’s soothing covers of DMB and Third Eye Blind (the hubs and Chad included). Ok, fine. I was totally jamming out as if my high school boyfriend was introducing me to Weezer all over again. Playing The Sweater Song is what did it for me Mike and Joe.

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Jun 29 2013
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Chicago Specific Fun, Food/Drink Fun, Fun for Couples, Outdoor Fun

Day 278: Art Day

The hubs and I spent the day together looking for Art. First, we hit up the Gold Coast Arts Fair, which is not in the Gold Coast at all but in Grant Park. Last year, we bought some lovely cloud pictures taken by an artist with a kids camera. Unfortunately, we did not really find anything we wanted to spend our money on.

Next, we headed up to the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, a short street fair full over home made jewelry, clothing and other crafts. Again, we came home empty handed, but had a great time looking at everything and discussing our opinions of many of the pieces.

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Jun 27 2013
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Chicago Specific Fun, Fun for Couples, Nightlife, Theatre Fun

Day 276: Q Bros

After the first 24 hours back on methotrexate, my energy was a little low but I was up enough to go to a play. The hubs and I went to Othello the Remix created, written and performed by the Q Brothers. And I am glad we did.

The Q Brothers take Shakespeare and urbanize it by setting much of it to rap music. Sometime they keep his language and sometimes they use the story and write their own. With Othello, they set the story within hip hip culture using a combination of Shakespeare’s language and their own. Othello is an insanely popular rapper who worked his way up the ranks, Iago a member of his crew and Cassio the new “pretty boy” with a huge jump start to his career displacing Iago for the second slot. And the story goes the way we know it to from there.

Going to see Q Brothers shows, I am always excited by how diverse the audience is both in age and race. They attract an audience all their own to Shakespeare. And the people are always jazzed, sometimes clapping or bobbing along with the beat. I love this kind of energy in the theater, regardless of the criticisms I may have of the show (like the fact that no actor played Desdemona-she was an imagined/off stage character and recorded voice on a sound cue which is pretty problematic in Othello, especially the death scene). They also really engage and play well to a youth audience in a way that “straight” Shakespeare often does not.

Despite my Desdemona issue, it was a fun and satisfying new take on Othello that I’m excited has extended so many times!

Jun 22 2013
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Chicago Specific Fun, Food/Drink Fun, Friends and Family, Fun at Work, Outdoor Fun

Day 271: Marty’s

Marty’s Martini Bar in Andersonville hosted an amazing fundraiser on Day 271 for the Youth Ensemble, an intense, pre-college prep program at the theater. From 2-5pm (times the bar is normally closed) all profits from drinks went right to the theater. The bartenders both donated their tips on top of it, which was amazing, and a small raffle with prizes and cash for purchasers increased total donations.

The Youth Ensemble is actually the pride and joy of the theater. Thirteen Chicago Public School juniors and seniors with intense interest and incredible talent take master classes, participate in scene studies, attend theater, advocate for our company and perform in a show on our stage every summer. For the first graduating class of seniors, we’ve had 100% college acceptance and enrollment. These students are really a part of the family and we do what we can to support them.

The event was really fun. I don’t usually drink martinis but I had two French 75s and was done-zo (oops! oh well, it’s for the kids). Some friends came out to support me and the theater–amazing. The weather cooperated so we could sit on the patio–also amazing. All in all a great Saturday!

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Jun 11 2013
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Chicago Specific Fun, Friends and Family, Fun for Couples

Day 260: Lower, Lower Wacker

Ok I may be writing about this day long after it happened, but let me tell you, I remember it well. I had been rushing around all day–work, appointments, things here and there. In my rushing around, I noticed the car about to turn from mile 99,999 to mile 100,000. How exciting right?

Cool. Great. More rushing around. Then, for the end of my day, I have an appointment downtown. And by downtown, I actually mean the Loop, a place I rarely go. So I’m running late. I find a parking spot and rush to my appointment. I get out of my appointment at 4pm. I head towards the car–now you know where this is going–and it is gone! I am stunned. Other cars are idling where my car was. I know I am on the right street. I think, it must be stolen. And I start panicking because my practically new MacBook Air is in the trunk (not because of the car–that hunk of junk is 100,000 miles old).

I cross to where the car was parked and notice a very common sign in downtown Chicago “No Parking 4pm-6pm.” I check my phone. 4:10pm. Really? REALLY?! Obviously not stolen. Obviously towed at 4:01pm. Obviously now hidden under Lower Wacker. Now I feel bad for thinking of the car as a hunk of junk, yet continue to worry for my MacBook Air (on which I currently type this post). I take a bus to the hubs at work. Our friend John picks us up and we spend about an hour trying to find the impossibly located pound. (Under Wacker is Lower Wacker. Under Lower Wacker, you might think you would find the river or maybe concrete, but no. There is a secret Lower, Lower Wacker where the city hides cars they tow one minute after no parking goes into effect. And it takes an hour because you have to drive through a mini suburb that you did not know existed in downtown Chicago but that you think you might want to live in some day because there’s a park with lots of trees and a bank and town homes with views of Lake Michigan, yet you don’t have to leave the city. In fact, you are in THE center of the city). And that drive, making both the discovery of Lower, Lower Wacker and Suburban Oasis was the fun part. Oh and the car turning 100,000 miles old.

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