Anybody from or living in Chicago?
I got fugeed from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, moved back home to Fort Worthless, in Sux-ass (Ft Worth, Texas for those of you who didn’t instantly recognize the language of Suck) and have quickly realized that I grew up to leave this shithole redneck town. So, I’m really considering moving to Chicago. I’m bilingual Spanish-English. I have about 18 months experience bartending, I’ve run an inn and marina for two years. I can wait tables like a beast, and I’m considering teaching in Chicago. My long term goal Is to get All 45 hours of pre med credits and go to med school. Anybody have any advice about CHicago? Good bars, good restaurants, good places to pick up chicks? Good places to live such and such and such. Thanks
Go to Harry Caray’s. Grab a handful of their homemade chips. Deep dish pizza at Uno’s. Music at House of Blues. Beers (and cheeseburgers) at the Billy Goat Tavern. Good Irish pub named O’Callaghan’s.
Love all Wrigleyville restaurants, Topo Gigio in Lincoln Park, Rosebud in Little Italy, Schmidt and Lewininsky’s bar (and restaurant), Lucianos on Rush St., walking Michigan Ave,… God, do I love Chicago. Fall, Spring and Summer. Yum.
Chicago is just a word. It’s as good as the company you keep once you’re here. It’s a huge city. It will not greet you when you arrive. There are pirates, poets, puppets, paupers, pawns and kings. Plan on being all except the last. That position is already filled. By me.
I recommend Evanston or Oak Park to the likes of you. Me personally, I like Loop penthouses.
hermes-- i used to live in chicago and i looooved it. im going there for winter hopefully. i however do not know about living conditions, restaurants, etc. since i moved here at age 12 and only came back to visit.
ben- shut up you drunkass idiot!!! the mods should take care of these posts by now…oh, he is THE mod…oh the tyranny…
You have obviously been drinking. Good for you, sweetheart. And Chicago is not just a word. It is art; it is music; it is sailing on the lake, rollerblading with the wind ripping through your hair; it is the best food anywhere, and they have Wrigley Field and Ravinia (ok, I’ll give you Evanston) —>which is purely magical. It has the sound of trains, horses and carriages on the street and wonderful musicians on the crosswalks. It has bars on the river and fireworks when it isn’t the 4th of July. My son lives there - and that alone is good enough for me. Chicago is more than a word - it is a moment. (of course, I, folks, am a city girl who has lived in the country far too long.)
If I have to tell you what I miss the most tho’, it is the trains. Going to bed to the sound of trains. That’s what I love.
I love Chicago, although I have only visited for a short time,… say 14 hours… intermittently! 7 hours one year - 7 hours the next year. (I was on a lay-over from trains, travelling from Boston back ‘home’ for christmas.)
Anyway, from the short time I spent in Chicago I loved it.
I like Boston better - but Chicago rocks!! In fact I met some people on the train who were from Chicago and they said the same thing.
I can’t be of much help as far as resturants, neighborhoods, ect.
But I have to agree with the previous post. I too LOVE the big city!
If you know what you’re looking for you can find it there.
Good place to live? Depends on what you can pay in rent, or the type of atmosphere you prefer. Roger’s park, Lincoln Park, Lake view, roscoe village, Wicker park, Wrigleyville, north south or far west side, the heart of downtown. Take your pick, and there are countless other neighborhoods to choose from. If you visit first, try the corner of Foster and Clark. There are some good bars there as well.
Movies: the Gene Siskel film center, the Music Box.
Music: The Empty Bottle, The Hideout, both staples of the independent underground scene. Jazz, The Green Mill, and countless others. If you ever get a chance go see The Vandermark 5 play. Schubas gets some talent from time to time as well.
Bars: There’s too many, but if you feel like unloading some cash, and being surrounded by attractive well dressed woman, go to Rush street. For some reason I have the feeling you would do pretty well there.
If Hermes wanted that kind of info he’d read some cheesy tourist book. Here’s the truth: Chicago is an ugly, dismal town. People here are fat and crippled by mid-western shortcomings. There are a tremendous amount of dumb sportsfans and junior-college types. The art scene is dismal. Note that I didn’t say the art itself is dismal. The art SCENE is dismal. And when I say art scene I mean music, theater, art, writing, etc. It is a pale shadow of New York. Because the people are dumber, fatter and have decided to stay home in their big affordable apartments to drink beer, order pizza AND subs and watch The Apprentice or some college sporting event. However, chances are you won’t notice and you’ll fit right in, just like most Chicagoans. There are some okay schools here. Northwestern. University of Chicago. But so what. There are good schools everywhere. We have a lake and a river. Wee. The pizza is good, but with three inches of whole milk cheese, sugar in the sauce, and beer/egg batter crust why the fuck wouldn’t it be? Chicago is a defeat. Even the pizza symbolizes a surrendering to the obvious and easy pleasures. If you’re truly thrice great you’ll go to New York – that’s where the brave go to fail. Or some out-of-the-way small town where you can actually make a difference. Like Bend, Oregon.
You’re on the inside looking in. We all feel that way (or some equivalent way) about the towns and cities we reside in. Then you go away for awhile and you see it differently.
Glass half full or half empty… I choose to see the positive. All big cities have the grime and traffic, greasy pizza and fat people. Face it, America is fat. Can’t get away from that one, and to blame one city is stupid. You may be right about the “scene” but I make my own scene and don’t wait to see how cool someone else’s art scene is. Bottom line is - it’s the people in your life who make you fulfilled, or not… it is not about the city or the country life… and so much of our discussion is moot considering we could bash our varied views of city and/or country living until we puke.
Change the thread to… [size=75](everybody sing please)[/size]
“people, people who need people… are the luckiest people in the wooooooorld.”
Jerry and Bessy are right. It’s a good city, as far as cities go, it has everything, and it’s just what you make of it. My point is that geography means nothing if you don’t have a concrete reason to be here. If you do come to Chicago please let me know.
You may regret that statement. I am there every three weeks, and I am usually hungry.
Ahhhhhh
Ah, ahhhhhh
Ah, ahhhhhh
As a child on the farm
I was warned of the wiles of the city
Of that demon disguise
There’s the dirt in the skies of the city
Well they say the proximity warps their minds
'Til they’re shooting one another just pass the time
And we live it appears
Both in spite and in fear of the city
Oooohhh, ooohhhh yeah
Oooohhh
I was constantly told
How our lives were controlled by the city
How they keep us in debt
With the trends that they set it’s a pity
Now the beautiful people in the magazines
Got the normal ones living beyond their means
And the things that they said
Made me go in my head to the city
Oooohhh
Ahhhhhhh
Ah, ahhhhhh
Ah, ahhhhhh
When I finally came
There’s some things still the same in the city
You still lie under the thumb
Of the rich and the young and the pretty
Well they weren’t much different than we might act
If there was that many others stacked and closely packed
It’s an ancient idea
But it struck me so clear in the city
