It's amazing, the amount of female attention one ginger-haired Englishman can get just by turning up in the USA. Sadly I'm not Prince Harry and so the only attention I'm getting is from the beggars on the sidewalk.
In my last blog I said that Chicago was my 2nd favourite city in the US after San Francisco. After a few days in Chicago, I think that's still true, but San Fran really needs to not get too complacent. Chicago is just marvellous in every way and I recommend it to everyone.
Having enjoyed my trip to the theatre (see previous blog), I've continued in the cultural vein. On Friday night there was a hostel outing to a jazz club called the Green Mill, which opened in 1907 and has a colourful history to say the least. Indeed I ended up sitting in what used to be Al Capone's favourite booth, facing away from the stage so that you can see if anyone comes in the front door and tries to shoot you. The music was really marvellous: song-based jazz, rather than pointless instrumental showing-off, from a masterful four-piece of singer/piano, guitar, upright bass and drums. The singer/pianist was called Karrin Allyson and she has four Grammy nominations to her name.
On Sunday night I went to a blues club, Buddy Guy's Legends, and indeed the man himself was holding court at the bar. He didn't play, though. I wish he had, because the chap on stage was only about as good a guitarist as I am, and that really isn't saying much. He had the right voice for the blues - he sounded like the Honey Monster doing a Louis Armstrong impression. But musically I got more out of watching the drummer.
Earlier on Sunday, at the Chicago Cultural Centre, I saw a display of Japanese culture: taiko drumming and kabuki theatre. The kabuki was interesting, if strangely sinister, but I can't say that the taiko drumming did much for me. It was monotonous, in the literal sense of the word, and on the whole it struck me as rather like the Japanese equivalent of morris dancing: interesting to historians and anthropologists, and perhaps an absorbing pastime for those taking part, but fairly dull as a spectacle and more or less empty as a work of art. That, of course, is only my personal opinion.
Apart from all this cultural stuff, I've done plenty of eating and drinking and general wandering around as well. Honourable food mentions, not quite photogenic enough to make it into Edd vs Food, go to Hot Doug's (guess what they sell?) and Flaco's Tacos and the Polo Café.
The crowd at the hostel is different to last time, chiefly in that there aren't any English gap year kids - there's a better range of ages and nationalities. In fact I don't think I've met any English gap year kids at all on this trip. Presumably that's a result of tuition fees going up? From my own narrow personal perspective, as someone who pays lots of tax and didn't go to university and has been annoyed by posh English gap year kids all over the globe, I'm inclined to say, Hallelujah.
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| Downtown Chicago from about 3 miles to the south |
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| Edd vs Food #7 The Chivito: steak, ham, bacon, fried egg, mozzarella, lettuce, tomato, onion, citrus mayo. Not your average toasted sandwich. From Cafecito, in the same building as the hostel :-) |
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| Big shiny sculpture thing, symbolising...something. Compelling us to challenge our preconceptions about...something else. |
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| Inside the hostel: the 'Peace Pole'. I'm not sure if it does anything for global solidarity, but it certainly gives me some good ideas for chat-up lines. |
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| Edd vs Food #8 Random pile of Greek muck at the Greek Islands restaurant, on Halsted St. This was the third course of four. |
