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Reasons to love Chicago
click to enlarge
Jason Ross
Reasons to love Chicago
Winner:
Continue
The Grid helps Chicago navigate the city’s streets—and its history
Winner:
Edward Brennan’s system of street naming and numbering makes the city’s present and past comprehensible.
Continue
Long live the 1990s Bulls
Winner:
Deathless memories of Jordan’s team help us cope with Chicago basketball’s dysfunctional present.
Continue
Central Time is right on
Winner:
The time zone is steady, reasonable, and forgiving—not unlike Chicagoans.
Continue
In praise of the cheap seats at White Sox park
Winner:
The Cubs are the team to watch this year, but the upper deck at U.S. Cellular Field remains the best place to see a game.
Continue
The disappearing Chicago accent is layered with local history
Winner:
Da dialect of da Daleys is becoming increasingly rare.
Continue
Comfort Station is a calming cure for Logan Square whiplash
Winner:
A visit to this longstanding cultural hub is the perfect antidote to overstimulation.
Continue
In praise of Chicago’s Grid-defying diagonals
Winner:
The city’s crosstown streets follow their own rules.
Continue
The Des Plaines River Trail is a real slice of nature in the big city
Winner:
This 58.6-mile forest-preserve trail gives urban cyclists a much-needed taste of the wilderness.
Continue
Drunken tattoos are indelible reminders to delight in life’s absurdity
Winner:
Drinking before inking isn’t always a party foul.
Continue
Life lessons learned in the middle of the Kennedy Expressway
Winner:
All the entertainment and insight you need is on an el platform, surrounded by automobile traffic.
Continue
Explaining Chicago to New Yorkers is supremely gratifying
Winner:
It’s a delight to watch the slow-dawning revelation that another American city might give NYC a run for its money.
Continue
Chicago’s diversity is legible on its signs
Winner:
Public written language speaks to the character and composition of neighborhoods and communities.
Continue
Reading the subtext in bathroom graffiti
Winner:
Sometimes what people write on walls is nastier than it is funny, but it can tell you a lot about the culture and history of a neighborhood.
Continue
Chicago alleys are full of utilitarian wonder
Winner:
The city’s 1,900 miles of backstreets make Chicago the “Alley Capital of America.”
Continue
The hotel lobby isn’t a way station, it’s a destination
Winner:
Come for the comfortable chairs, stay for the people-watching.
Continue
The Lucky Horseshoe is Chicago’s most distinctive gay nightlife spot
Winner:
The male strip club in Boystown is an acquired taste—but there’s no reason to feel ashamed about it.
Continue
Bringing back the close-up magic that Chicago gave the world in the 1920s
Winner:
The Chicago Magic Lounge in Uptown aims to be a clubhouse for the sleight-of-hand artists keeping the craft alive.
Continue
Fifty years after Dr. King’s march in Marquette Park, racial integration remains elusive in Chicago
Winner:
The park no longer is a symbol of bigotry, but it isn’t a success story either.
Continue
Mold-A-Rama memories harden like molded plastic
Winner:
The 1960s-era souvenir machines are about dwelling in the perpetual rather than the past.
Continue
Chicago’s North Shore fuels architecture fantasies
Winner:
The curving streets of the affluent north suburbs are lined with midcentury-modern marvels and the locations of John Hughes movies.
Continue
Open House Chicago, where real estate dreams come true
Winner:
Or at least they do for one weekend.
Continue
The Harold Washington Library rehearsal rooms offer DIY music therapy
Winner:
An amateur pianist finds peace and quiet inside the practice spaces of Chicago’s central library.
Continue
Reveling in Chicago’s predawn tranquility
Winner:
In the magic threshold between night and day, the city is a diorama subject to study.
Continue
A grudging appreciation of Chicago’s rats
Winner:
There are some reasons to love—or at least respect—the universally reviled pest.
Continue
In praise of being a regular
Winner:
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name (or at least your face).
Continue
Tastee-Freez makes friendships better than its food
Winner:
Logan Square is gentrifying fast, but everybody’s still welcome at the Freeze.
Continue
The Thompson Center is Chicago’s endangered, postmodern Pantheon
Winner:
If Governor Rauner has his way, Helmut Jahn’s remarkable creation will be a thing of the past.
Continue
Chicago’s most uncomfortable theaters can offer exceptional theatrical experiences
Winner:
Close quarters, minuscule budgets, and structural limitations can work wonders when it comes to creating intimacy and forcing invention.
Continue
V103 is too good for FM radio
Winner:
If it didn’t have commercials it would also be better than most satellite stations.
Continue
The bridges that work for the city that works
Winner:
They may look like relics, but vertical lift bridges are still surprisingly active.
Continue
The World Music Festival teaches us how to fall in love with music all over again
Winner:
This annual event can provide almost all of Chicago’s diverse populations with the unmediated joy of a concert that says “home.”
Continue
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Reasons to love Chicago
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Agenda Teaser
01.04.17
Performing Arts
Pygmalion
Greenhouse Theater Center
November 23
Galleries & Museums
Inspired by Social Issues
Bridgeport Art Center
November 18
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story -- An IMAX 3D Experience
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Why Him?
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-All Dates-
Today
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This Week
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Thursday, January 5
Friday, January 6
Saturday, January 7
Sunday, January 8
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Thursday, January 26
Friday, January 27
Saturday, January 28
Sunday, January 29
Monday, January 30
Tuesday, January 31
Wednesday, February 1
Thursday, February 2
Friday, February 3
-All Neighborhoods-
CENTRAL
Gold Coast/Mag Mile/Streeterville
Loop
Museum Campus
Near North
Near South Side
Printers Row
River North
South Loop
Other Central
*REGION UNDEFINED
NORTH
Albany Park
Andersonville
DePaul
Edgewater
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Lincoln Square
North Center
Old Town
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Rogers Park/West Rogers Park
Roscoe Village
Uptown
West Ridge
Wrigleyville
Other North
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Avondale
Belmont Cragin
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Jefferson Park
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Other Northwest
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Austin
Garfield Park
Greektown
Humboldt Park
Lawndale
University Village/Little Italy
Near West Side
River West
Ukrainian Village/East Village
United Center
West Loop/Fulton Market
Wicker Park/Bucktown
West Town/Noble Square
Other West
SOUTH SIDE
Pilsen/Little Village
Beverly
Bridgeport
Bronzeville
Bronzeville/ Kenwood/ Washington Park
Chatham
Chinatown
Englewood
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Oakland/ Kenwood
Pullman
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Ford City
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Evanston
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OTHER ILLINOIS
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Reasons to love Chicago
Critics' Picks
The disappearing Chicago accent is layered with local history
Da dialect of da Daleys is becoming increasingly rare.
By Edward McClelland
|
06.23.16
Reasons to love Chicago
Critics' Picks
Reading the subtext in bathroom graffiti
Sometimes what people write on walls is nastier than it is funny, but it can tell you a lot about the culture and history of a neighborhood.
By Leor Galil
|
06.23.16
Reasons to love Chicago
Critics' Picks
Mold-A-Rama memories harden like molded plastic
The 1960s-era souvenir machines are about dwelling in the perpetual rather than the past.
By Wendy McClure
|
06.23.16
Reasons to love Chicago
Critics' Picks
The Grid helps Chicago navigate the city’s streets—and its history
Edward Brennan’s system of street naming and numbering makes the city’s present and past comprehensible.
By Bill Savage
|
06.23.16
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