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defrogAfter getting the hell out of Tennessee, and since we connected through Chicago anyway, and seeing as how we know people there, we decided to spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day there. Here’s how that went.
CHICAGO HIGHLIGHTS
1. Meals with friends (different ones!)
2. Hotel discounts (we know people!)
3. New Year’s Eve (for suckers!)
4. Arctic weather conditions (brrrrrrrr!)
5. Millennium Park (mirror beans!)
6. Chinatown (lunch!)
7. Korean supermarkets (Korean!)
8. The death of television (Hulu!)
9. Billy Mays (WTF!)
10. Chicago hot dogs (fuck ketchup!)
CHICAGO HIGHLIGHTS (EXTENDED PLAY)
1. Meals with friends
Specifically:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stacyjill , lorilori and garbagecanmusic , who helped me close the Starbucks on East Ontario and Wabash on New Year’s Day, as well as Def Agents Y and T, who were instrumental in making this leg of the trip a success, starting with:
2. Hotel discounts
Originally we intended to get a hotel in the suburbs (think Schaumburg) and drive around, but Agent Y managed to get us a discount room downtown at the Courtyard Marriott on Magnificent Mile for $69 a night – a bargain any day, let alone New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and $10 less than the Hyatt Place in Schaumburg. Nice hotel, too.
3. New Year’s Eve
We stayed in and watched Adult Swim. Because we’re boring. And because we never really got over the jet lag the entire trip. And also:
4. Arctic weather conditions
Around 32ºF, but 8ºF with the wind chill figured in. We tried walking from the hotel to Millennium Park (only a half-mile walk past WGN, the Wrigley Building, the river, etc), but the wind was screaming up Michigan Ave and we were half-frozen by the time we got there. We took refuge in a McDonald’s on Wabash until Y and T could come get us.
5. Millennium Park
Mainly to see The Bean, which I’d not seen before. It was sculpted by Anish Kapoor and is supposed to be a serious work of art. Like most people, I see it more as a “fun with mirrors” distraction. Still kinda cool, though.
6. Chinatown
Chicago has the third largest Chinatown population in the US, apparently. We had lunch there twice, partly because Agent Y (who is also Hong Kong Chinese) thought KT’s mom would find it reassuring, and also to take us to The Chi Cafe, reputedly one of the few Chinese restaurants in the area that still serves food in a more traditional HK style than the watered-down Americanized style you usually get. Very good food. They even had a satellite feed of TVB (one of our local stations) playing on the television.
7. Korean supermarkets
Specifically, the Super H Mart in Niles, which we went to because Y and T needed to do some grocery shopping. It’s a huge Korean supermarket chain that specialized in Asian foods. Not too much of it was new to me, but we got some fresh fruit for breakfast and some nice snacks for the trip back. Also noteworthy: the guy at the exit handing out Jack Chick comics. I haven’t seen those in ages.
8. The death of television
We went to Y and T’s home in Park Castle in West Rogers Park (which we’ve been to before and is one of the coolest apartment buildings in Chicago). Agent T – who is also an engineer for a major phone company in Chicago – showed me his home-built entertainment system, which comprises six PCs (all of which he built himself) networked together and hooked up to an analog TV set in the living room, as well as HD monitor in his home office.
He then proceeded to show me how he watched both downloaded movies and streaming video from a server in China at 800 x 600 resolution on his 29” TV set, with DVD-quality, all remote-controlled from a coffee-table laptop with a Wi-Fi link. He’s also got a digital TV tuner connected to a server running Windows Media Center, so he can time-shift the evening news onto his PC. It also manages his Hulu programs. And he watched most of the Olympics straight off the NBC web site. In HD.
“I don’t watch real television anymore,” he said, by which he meant straight live over-the-air TV. “I can put it all on my PC network and watch it on my monitor or in the living room. And I’m only doing it on a 1.5-meg broadband connection. When they upgrade the neighborhood to 6 megs, then you’ll really see some action. Real TV is dead.”
Agent T is yr future. I thought you should know this.
9. Billy Mays
I meant to mention this in the previous installment under “Television”, but during this trip I saw an awful lot of Billy Mays.
Please: who is he, why is he in so many commercials, and why does he SHOUT AT THE TOP OF HIS GODDAMN LUNGS THE ENTIRE TIME?
10. Chicago hot dogs
I only managed to get one at O’Hare whilst waiting for the flight back to HK. I’d hoped to somehow make a stop at Superdawg, The Wieners Circle or – better yet – Chubby Wieners. But it was not to be. Still, at least I had the one. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating – Chicago-style hot dogs are the best hot dogs on Planet Earth. Because they are made Properly. Get a Ouija board and Google Mike Royko if you don’t believe me.
And so much for Chicago. For my money, I'd rather have spent most of the vacation there instead of Tennessee. I might feel differently if I had to live there, but it's still one of my favorite cities to visit.
Up next: the photos!
Hold the ketchup,
This is dF
CHICAGO HIGHLIGHTS
1. Meals with friends (different ones!)
2. Hotel discounts (we know people!)
3. New Year’s Eve (for suckers!)
4. Arctic weather conditions (brrrrrrrr!)
5. Millennium Park (mirror beans!)
6. Chinatown (lunch!)
7. Korean supermarkets (Korean!)
8. The death of television (Hulu!)
9. Billy Mays (WTF!)
10. Chicago hot dogs (fuck ketchup!)
CHICAGO HIGHLIGHTS (EXTENDED PLAY)
1. Meals with friends
Specifically:
stacyjill , lorilori and garbagecanmusic , who helped me close the Starbucks on East Ontario and Wabash on New Year’s Day, as well as Def Agents Y and T, who were instrumental in making this leg of the trip a success, starting with:2. Hotel discounts
Originally we intended to get a hotel in the suburbs (think Schaumburg) and drive around, but Agent Y managed to get us a discount room downtown at the Courtyard Marriott on Magnificent Mile for $69 a night – a bargain any day, let alone New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and $10 less than the Hyatt Place in Schaumburg. Nice hotel, too.
3. New Year’s Eve
We stayed in and watched Adult Swim. Because we’re boring. And because we never really got over the jet lag the entire trip. And also:
4. Arctic weather conditions
Around 32ºF, but 8ºF with the wind chill figured in. We tried walking from the hotel to Millennium Park (only a half-mile walk past WGN, the Wrigley Building, the river, etc), but the wind was screaming up Michigan Ave and we were half-frozen by the time we got there. We took refuge in a McDonald’s on Wabash until Y and T could come get us.
5. Millennium Park
Mainly to see The Bean, which I’d not seen before. It was sculpted by Anish Kapoor and is supposed to be a serious work of art. Like most people, I see it more as a “fun with mirrors” distraction. Still kinda cool, though.
6. Chinatown
Chicago has the third largest Chinatown population in the US, apparently. We had lunch there twice, partly because Agent Y (who is also Hong Kong Chinese) thought KT’s mom would find it reassuring, and also to take us to The Chi Cafe, reputedly one of the few Chinese restaurants in the area that still serves food in a more traditional HK style than the watered-down Americanized style you usually get. Very good food. They even had a satellite feed of TVB (one of our local stations) playing on the television.
7. Korean supermarkets
Specifically, the Super H Mart in Niles, which we went to because Y and T needed to do some grocery shopping. It’s a huge Korean supermarket chain that specialized in Asian foods. Not too much of it was new to me, but we got some fresh fruit for breakfast and some nice snacks for the trip back. Also noteworthy: the guy at the exit handing out Jack Chick comics. I haven’t seen those in ages.
8. The death of television
We went to Y and T’s home in Park Castle in West Rogers Park (which we’ve been to before and is one of the coolest apartment buildings in Chicago). Agent T – who is also an engineer for a major phone company in Chicago – showed me his home-built entertainment system, which comprises six PCs (all of which he built himself) networked together and hooked up to an analog TV set in the living room, as well as HD monitor in his home office.
He then proceeded to show me how he watched both downloaded movies and streaming video from a server in China at 800 x 600 resolution on his 29” TV set, with DVD-quality, all remote-controlled from a coffee-table laptop with a Wi-Fi link. He’s also got a digital TV tuner connected to a server running Windows Media Center, so he can time-shift the evening news onto his PC. It also manages his Hulu programs. And he watched most of the Olympics straight off the NBC web site. In HD.
“I don’t watch real television anymore,” he said, by which he meant straight live over-the-air TV. “I can put it all on my PC network and watch it on my monitor or in the living room. And I’m only doing it on a 1.5-meg broadband connection. When they upgrade the neighborhood to 6 megs, then you’ll really see some action. Real TV is dead.”
Agent T is yr future. I thought you should know this.
9. Billy Mays
I meant to mention this in the previous installment under “Television”, but during this trip I saw an awful lot of Billy Mays.
Please: who is he, why is he in so many commercials, and why does he SHOUT AT THE TOP OF HIS GODDAMN LUNGS THE ENTIRE TIME?
10. Chicago hot dogs
I only managed to get one at O’Hare whilst waiting for the flight back to HK. I’d hoped to somehow make a stop at Superdawg, The Wieners Circle or – better yet – Chubby Wieners. But it was not to be. Still, at least I had the one. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating – Chicago-style hot dogs are the best hot dogs on Planet Earth. Because they are made Properly. Get a Ouija board and Google Mike Royko if you don’t believe me.
And so much for Chicago. For my money, I'd rather have spent most of the vacation there instead of Tennessee. I might feel differently if I had to live there, but it's still one of my favorite cities to visit.
Up next: the photos!
Hold the ketchup,
This is dF
