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What is/was good about Chicago:
-Rosanna & Mike
-Ben & Neema
-Nico
-Ben & Neema's rickshaws
-Ukrainian Village
-Chicago Diner
-Soul Vegetarian Restaurant
-Rat Patrol
-Asian stores w/ exciting groceries (=red parasols, agar agar in its natural dried state, dried lychee nuts)
-One day's worth of weather
-Vegan cake
What sucked about Chicago:
-The weather (either terribly hot and muggy or cold and grey (temp. relative to summer) for the rest of the time we were there.
-Le Tigre (what a disappointment)
-Wicker Park
-Lincoln Park
-The Loop
-Sears Tower
-The #10 Museum bus
-The Museum of Science and Industry (=a charming look at factory farming, petroleum, the military and plumbing for children to assimilate them into modern American culture!!)
-Roller derby (also a total disappointment)
-Chinatown (although they had good woks)
-The L. (eL? el? who knows :P)
-The people (aside from the above mentioned)
-The restaurants
-The Chicago Diner's failure at being anything but fake meat.
-The Soul Restaurant's failure at being anything but fake meat and potatoes.
-Vegan cake was totally over-processed and laden with tofu-substitutes.
-Yuppies
-Hipster/indie kids who are just really rebellious yuppies
-Too much wealth (it was like we couldn't avoid the yuppies without slitting our wrists or staying inside all day).
-The bars (21+? wtf?)
-All late night activities were 21+, stupid or eating.
-ULTIMATE BEEF, BEEF WORLD, CARNECERIA, etc.
-This could go on, but I'll stop.
What the experience taught me:
I came into my love of the urban in a city that is magical, mythical, ridiculous and inebriated. Chicago in comparison looks like a stoic Midwestern attempt at New York. I like the fact that my lifestyle in New Orleans is in the top 10% of the wealth. Not because I like being rich by comparison but that being middle-class is essentially the cap on lifestyle there (yes, there are the people on Audubon Place, but the number of rich people in Chicago in comparison to New Orleans is just so fucking different). I think I don't want to drive anymore and will probably be asking my parents tomorrow to cut me off from the car insurance at least until I graduate college. There is no reason, seeing as I will be living in NOLA almost exclusively for the next two-three years (if not more), and because 26 hours of driving is just awful for a human being and made me realize I'd much rather take a 48 hour round trip train ride than drive.
As much as I insult the New Orleans indie/hipster scene, I have come to appreciate them. The scene at Le Tigre, the roller derby and various other locations was very... lame. The pretension of the New Orleans scene is justified--they're incredibly good at being indie rock hipsters. If you're going to be a scenester, do it right. It also made me appreciate my indie friends more--while obviously I can't all-of-a-sudden be friends with anyone in the Chicago scene, I feel like at the end of the day of this love-hate relationship, I would proudly wear a stupid one inch button declaring that 'I am an official associate member of the New Orleans Indie Scene' into a crowd of Chicago hipsters.
On the ride back (and once on the ride to Chicago, but the truck was empty) home I passed three trucks carrying calves to what I assumed would be the slaughterhouse. The smell of death and the little muzzles sticking out of the tiny little fucking air holes was so awful that for a good half-hour I sped as fast as I could to get away from these trucks. These calves were easily standing up for 3-4 hours and it just made me so so so miserable.
It was just a crappy adventure, excluding the fact that I was just flaked out on by so many people and drove the 13.75 hour drive each way by myself straight.
Anonymous
August 16 2005, 09:37:45 UTC 6 years ago
American Cities That Best Fit You:
65% ChicagoAugust 16 2005, 16:15:07 UTC 6 years ago
August 26 2005, 04:36:40 UTC 6 years ago
second, i think i hate most new orleans hipsters because of the fake ass hipsters of chicago. that still doesn't excuse the fact that most hipster/indie kids suck ass to begin with.
and yes, a lot of the north side is filled with tons of crappy yuppies. i hate wicker park, (except for it's magical dumpsters). no duh you're not gonna like wicker park, for it is just an "extreme" version of lincoln park, which is a honk of bulshit.
msi has some cool stuff inside, like the whole AIDS game, and they had some movie exhibition last year which was fun as fuck.
those pigs were probably going to go to the fabulous stockyards on the south side of chicago. they're still incredibly massive, and yes, they make me wanna throw up. but it's a contradiction to be for the workers struggle, yet be against meat products when so much of the working population work in such disgusting, revolting places.
anywho, i told you when i saw you, those places suck very badly, and the only people that are there are yuppies. chicago's south and west side are amazin. the people that you see in the french quarter for a weekend are the same people that will rent a place in wicker park for a year. the north side by the lake is basically where suburban & rich folk alike come to settle drunk, and be in a surreal environment where no one gives a shit about how drunk they get every night.
in any case, i told you, the more time you spend here gettin to see chicago's underground, the more you'll truly appreciate it. the political parties, the reforestin groups, the firedancers at the end of every month, the crazy homeless folk, even to the mischievous graffitti artists, there's a lot of things you haven't seen in chicago. you have to live here long enough to find it.
other than that, remember that chicago is the 3rd largest city in chicago, and it used to be a very industrial one at that, so of course it's going to have a very rich population. and since daley's been elected, hes been tryin to make it that yuppies find chicago as a fake resthaven for people that want to try the "urban experience."
anywho, we'll talk more when i get back in town.
August 27 2005, 00:38:52 UTC 6 years ago
August 27 2005, 07:52:05 UTC 6 years ago