My kind of town, Chicago is...

I informed JB the first time me met up there, a fine Irish expression.


wandeljw, I hope everything is alright, see ya next time.

For everyone who has been with us to Bill's Blues, this recent article in the Tribune should be of interest:

The Heat is on for jazz in Evanston By Howard Reich | Tribune critic March 19, 2008 Is Evanston asserting itself as a jazz nexus? With first-rate musicians playing nightly at Pete Miller's, on Sherman Avenue, and with Northwestern University having recently signed clarinet star Victor Goines to rebuild its jazz department, something's clearly stirring in north suburbia. Further proof comes in the form of veteran saxophonist Mike Finnerty's weekly engagement at Bill's Blues, a shoebox-shaped room on Davis Street, just a short stroll from Pete Miller's. Some of Chicago's best jazz musicians, of course, long have lived in Evanston, but residencies such as Finnerty's augur well for music in the suburb's increasingly cosmopolitan downtown. And though audiences familiar with Finnerty's work may be surprised by how he's transforming it at Bill's Blues, there's no question that he's generating heat in a venue designed to stoke it. The club takes its name seriously, emphasizing blues six nights a week but turning the microphone over to jazz when Finnerty steps onto the stage. Until a recent visit, this listener would have described Finnerty's long-running Heat Merchants as a mainstream jazz quartet. But at Bill's Blues, Finnerty played a decidedly more rambunctious, rough-hewn music....

And it goes on from there.

Thanks, joe!

6 nights of blues and 1 night of jazz, eh? Into which category would you put that hip-hop/rap night we stumbled upon, joe?

You remember that night.... it involves one of my favorite stories.... hookers and pimps.... remember?

JPB -- thinking of you today. I'm going to the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth. They have a couple of excellent exhibitions, one of which is "Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago." I'll get to see some of those treasures again! (Van Gogh's "Bedroom," for one.)

very cool, Eva. Enjoy! I'll be curious to see which ones they have out on tour.

joe and I spent an afternoon at the AI recently touring the special Hopper and Homer exhibits. They were very, very nicely done.

I think that might have been "Audience Participation Night," only nobody told us.

Oops. I got the dates wrong. The AIChicago exhibition runs from June to November. (An exclusive for the Kimbell, btw.) From all the high exposure ads they're running, I had assumed it was a current show

Ah well, it was a great day anyway. They had a fabulous exhibition on the very earliest Christian art...3rd through 5th Centuries. Pieces on loan from the Louvre, Vatican Museum, MMA...wonderful stuff. How appropriate for Good Friday, huh?! They stayed open late tonight, so I had dinner there, too...chicken breast stuffed with wild mushrooms, caesar salad & mango tea, with a peppermint brownie for dessert. With real whipped cream. Not bad for museum fare!

I will either have to drive back down here this summer or return to Chicago to see the paintings, though. Oh...it's just Impressionist paintings from the AI, nothing else. Still, well worth the trip.

OK, back to the jazz & blues discussion.

Did I mention they were playing live jazz at the museum tonight during dinner?

Participating internetintly.


Certainly on Davis Street and Sherman Avenue. I still dream about Evanston occasionally, and some sort of trip I take to Chicago. Surely not to the place that sold formica kitchen sets....

I hope not that way!

Snowfall tops a foot just 30 miles north of Chicago Loop

Guess who lives 30 miles north of the Loop?

A jolly fat man and his tribe of elves?

yep -- he lives across the street.

This interactive site was created by the Chicago History Museum.

Might have been mentioned before - but they added quite a lot of interesting stuff, I think ... not only for elementary and high school students :wink:


If I had looked at that earlier ...

Dear Chicago Homez,

My sweetheart's birthday and our 1-year is fast approaching. So, uh, I suppose it's time to think of ways to not f--- everything up. What I need from you are suggestions of lovely regional retreats. Like, cool places within 2 hours driving distance where we could chilax (chill + relax; damn y'all are so old) for the weekend. You know, we like to take walks and cook and stuff like that (damn I'm getting old), so someplace peaceful and picturesque is what I'm thinking of. Lake Geneva is out of the question.

Gratefully,
Gargamel

You been to Mackinaw Island, Garg?

Scratch that. I didn't notice the "two hour" part.

If my '95 Chevy Prizm, aka "The Awesome Machine," could make it that far, I would take your suggestion to heart, sir.

I've always wanted to go back to the sand dunes just where Indiana meets Illinois - is that within driving distance for you?

Ha! must be close

http://www.nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit/directions.htm



http://www.nps.gov/indu/index.htm

This looks like it could be the start of something interesting.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/05/return_of_the_pike.html

Drive, walk, talk, go to a nice b&b, walk, talk, celebrate.