{"id":1870,"date":"2013-06-08T10:38:59","date_gmt":"2013-06-08T15:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=1870"},"modified":"2013-06-08T10:38:59","modified_gmt":"2013-06-08T15:38:59","slug":"sweet-home-chicago-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=1870","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Home Chicago: Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday is Day 2 of our adventures in the city.\u00a0 We were not in any hurry this morning.\u00a0 Rich wanted to do breakfast burritos at a place we saw last night.\u00a0 So we trekked back up to Adams.\u00a0 It turns out that the Taco Al Fresco was run by an Eastern European couple.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t seem to know much about what a burrito was.\u00a0 After some negotiating the language differences, we got our chorizo burritos and fresh fruit.\u00a0 They were surprisingly tasty.<\/p>\n

After breakfast, we went down the street to Books a Million.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see many bookstores these days.\u00a0 I wanted to browse through the shelves.\u00a0 I saw lots of stuff, but nothing I had to have.\u00a0 Rich found a Bill Bryson book he hadn\u2019t read and decided to buy it.\u00a0 We needed to find the restrooms and were directed out into the hallway of the main building.\u00a0 There were these beautiful high-ceilinged marble walls in Art Deco.\u00a0 We went downstairs to find that the locked bathrooms were for the people who worked in the building.\u00a0 The free bathrooms were in the cafeteria.\u00a0 Now the cafeteria was all chrome, glass and Art Deco.\u00a0 It was too pretty to eat in there.<\/p>\n

Heading back to the hotel, we took Wabash.\u00a0 This lead us right past Buddy Guy\u2019s Legends club.\u00a0 There was also a Harold\u2019s Chicken Shack.\u00a0 We had wanted to try Harold\u2019s, but most of the locations aren\u2019t in places I felt comfortable driving.\u00a0 This was an excellent find.\u00a0 We finished the walk to the hotel and got our stuff for the day.\u00a0 With three-legged chairs over our shoulders, we headed down to the fest.<\/p>\n

We stopped at the Mississippi Juke Joint Stage first to listen to Terry Harmonica Bean play.\u00a0 Terry comes highly recommended by Roger Stolli at Cat Head Records.\u00a0 At the last Juke Joint Festival, Terry was one of the headliners.\u00a0 He was all alone on stage since his band didn\u2019t travel up from the Delta with him.\u00a0 His music was awesome though.\u00a0 This is what blues would sound like back in the day. We really enjoyed the show.\u00a0 Roger was right about Terry.<\/p>\n

I pulled Rich over to the Crossroads stage to hear Toronzo Cannon.\u00a0 I had been enjoying the music he played on Bluesville.\u00a0 I thought it might be good to see him in person.\u00a0 And it was.\u00a0 He was more than entertaining and gave the crowd quite a show.\u00a0 He even walked off stage and down in the crowd as he played one of the numbers.\u00a0 I tried to buy a CD, but they sold out very quickly.<\/p>\n

Now the Juke Joint Stage was out in the bright sunshine.\u00a0 The Crossroads Stage was deep in the trees and very shady.\u00a0 I was quite warm sitting at one and a little chilly sitting at the other.\u00a0 The only other problem was that I might have gotten a little sun burnt for my time listening to Terry. It is vacation after all.<\/p>\n

We decided to get a late lunch and headed back to the hotel to drop our stuff.\u00a0 Then it was back to Harold\u2019s for some chicken.\u00a0 This was blues music after all.\u00a0 What\u2019s blues without some chicken.\u00a0 The menu had chicken livers, which are my favorite.\u00a0 Rich got chicken and okra.\u00a0 There were hushpuppies also and I can\u2019t resist those.\u00a0 We ate our fill and watched the bicycle cops pull over people for using the bike lane as an extra traffic lane.\u00a0 Never saw a cop on a bicycle pull over a pickup truck before.<\/p>\n

After lunch, we headed back to the fest.\u00a0 At the Juke Joint Stage, John Primer and his band were just coming on.\u00a0 The place was packed and people kept on coming in.\u00a0 This is in the afternoon and people had been drinking for a while.\u00a0 A small group of people came in and stood in front of the group where we were sitting.\u00a0 Pretty soon, there were word exchange about blocked views and it almost came to blows.\u00a0 I was seeing a lot of inconsiderate behavior on the part of a lot of people.<\/p>\n

Then there was drunk chick was giving her husband (or boyfriend) a lap dance with practically every song.\u00a0 She kept standing up dancing and making some very erotic moves.\u00a0 I know she was getting into the music, but I didn\u2019t pay extra to see any of that.\u00a0 They finally left and it got back to being a PG rated show.<\/p>\n

The main show at the Pavilion was starting up.\u00a0 We picked up our chairs and joined about a billion other people over there.\u00a0 Now this is where we had our first date.\u00a0 Or I should correct that to say where I made it my first date with Rich.\u00a0 He just wanted someone to go down to the festival with him and I was the only one who raised my hand.\u00a0 I was pretty sure he wasn\u2019t going to really ask me out, so I let him pay for everything.\u00a0 Luckily, we talked the entire day without running out of too much to say.\u00a0 I had a good time.\u00a0 Rich must have also, because he called 3 months later.\u00a0 I was on the road and he is a little bit cautious to jump into things.<\/p>\n

As I said, a billion people showed up in the field right outside the Pavilion.\u00a0 We had our spots so we could see the big screen.\u00a0 Ernest \u201cGuitar\u201d Roy was first up.\u00a0 He had played the very first Blues Fest back in 1983.\u00a0 I had come to see Irma Thomas though.\u00a0 She has such a wonderful voice.\u00a0 She was joking about the cool weather.\u00a0 She had to go out and buy a coat since it was 90 when she left home in Louisiana earlier in the day.\u00a0 Chicago has that way about.<\/p>\n

The only bad thing about the show was all the cigar smoke.\u00a0 I swear, it smelled like a bunch of skunks.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what they were smoking, but it was worst cigar smoke I\u2019ve ever smelled.<\/p>\n

Motorola has a set of offices on Michigan Ave.\u00a0 I never knew where the building was until today.\u00a0 Sitting at the Pavilion, you can clearly see the Motorola sign above the stage and the trees.\u00a0 So the sun is setting between the buildings, I see the Motorola sign, I\u2019m listening to Irma Thomas belting out soul songs, and the air stinks.\u00a0 Maybe it was time to go.<\/p>\n

We came back to the hotel once again to drop off our stuff.\u00a0 We thought we\u2019d go over to Buddy Guy\u2019s, grab some food, and hopefully listen to some blues.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it was packed at the tables.\u00a0 The guy at the door said standing room only.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t been there so I convinced Rich to go in.\u00a0 He got a beer and we listened to the music.\u00a0 It was OK, but now I can say I\u2019ve been there.\u00a0 We soon headed out and went back up by the hotel to Kitty O\u2019Shea\u2019s.\u00a0 We got some fish and chips and a couple of beers.<\/p>\n

We were waiting on food and talking.\u00a0 I asked Rich if he was going into the Intel house there at the Blues Fest.\u00a0 He said he knew enough about technology.\u00a0 The lady sitting besides us chimed in that she wished she knew more.\u00a0 We talked a bit and then her dinner mate returned to the table.\u00a0 I could help but listen to them a bit.\u00a0 She appeared to be an editor trying to improve her networking.\u00a0 The older gentleman appeared to be an editor for one of the local publishing houses.\u00a0 Printers Row is about two blocks west of where we are staying.\u00a0 I thought that was cool that I understand what they were saying.<\/p>\n

From there, we called it a night.\u00a0 My feet hurt from walking.\u00a0 My ears are full of music still. \u00a0I think it was a pretty full day.\u00a0 We get up and do it again tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This sculpture is called Agora. It’s all metal fabricated by a Polish sculptress in Poland. Pretty cool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I<\/a>
I love the legs!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Out<\/a>
Out standing among the legs. Makes you feel like a kid among the adults again.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sign<\/a>
Sign for the Agora sculpture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"In<\/a>
In one of the parks on the southend, we found all these metal sculptures. I liked the tailpipes, but Rich said I couldn’t do this as home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking down Michigan Ave and there is the Motorola building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Motorola<\/a>
Motorola on Michigan Ave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Terry<\/a>
Terry Harmonica Bean on stage at the Mississippi Juke Joint stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Toronzo<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Kicking<\/a>
Kicking back and listening to John Primer on stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I'm<\/a>
I’m standing outside of Buddy Guy’s Legends. Little bigger than a juke joint, but not quite the same.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Harold's<\/a>
Harold’s Chicken Shack just across the street from Buy Guy’s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"We<\/a>
We were on the Surrealist floor at the hotel. This Dali print was in our room. See I have a dog here too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday is Day 2 of our adventures in the city.\u00a0 We were not in any hurry this morning.\u00a0 Rich wanted to do breakfast burritos at a place we saw last night.\u00a0 So we trekked back up to Adams.\u00a0 It turns out that the Taco Al Fresco was run by an Eastern European couple.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,13,15,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1870"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1890,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1870\/revisions\/1890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}