Chicago.com
Second City’s “Taming of the Flu” is a gracefully structured show. The layered scenes and characters were as memorable as the people that performed them. One of my favorite scenes of the show was a hysterical Andy St. Clair and very funny Tim Robinson as Chicago cops on bicycle patrol. The duo wore unbelievably short shorts and ridiculous helmets, poking fun at current events, crime and segway cops (It is a delectable scene).
To further appease the Chi-townish pallet, Napier (producer) throws us a curve ball with a spin on cabbie life. Being from the city and having ridden in many a cab, I understand the plight of the cabbie. Tim Robbins cabbie is set solo. He reaches his arm around the passenger seat, turning to address the audience with his justification for fare hikes like boogers on the seat and cleaning puke. He carried the scene away with his over sumptuous Middle Eastern accent, screaming about drunks in his cab and farts. “Classic.”
Aside from cabbies and bike cops this troupe touched up on everything from the 1950s to political satire and even treacherous Chicago winters. The Chicago winter song was great, but the star in my eyes is the “wonderfully talented” Lauren Ash. Her angelic voice and verbally challenging tongue twisters of comedy made my side hurt. This show is great for the locals and the outta-towners. Ruby Streak (musical director) is a talented musician. I wish I could have heard a little more but she delivered a charming interlude to the 1950s prom era.
My favorite part of the whole show hands down was “Frank Lagouse” performed by Andy St. Clair. His impersonation of an Italian seminar speaker complete with gold chains, hairy chest and utterly ridiculous sun glasses was so spot on I thought it was my cousin Joey “up der”. Keep your eye out for St. Clair, I am sure we will be seeing a lot of this “rising star” on the big screen very soon. “Second City” my butt, this bright minded group of highly motivated funny people is another reason why I know Chicago is number 1.
Chicago.com is now going green! If you are a “green aficionado” we need you. Cousin Vinnie and Chicago.com are giving away a $25 gift certificate to the world famous Ginger’s Ale House to the person who posts the best “Chicago green living tip.”
It’s simple, all you have to do is leave a comment on the bottom of this blog.
You have to be 21 or older to be eligible to win. That’s it! I will start you on the right path with the very first example Chicago.com
“green living tip.”
Title: Leave your Mother-in-law at home and save the environment.
Tip: Keep your vehicle free of unnecessary baggage (i.e. your boss, mother in law, Vujadin or just some trash off the floor that may be weighing down your car). 100 pounds in your vehicle will reduce your MPG by 2%. Do you like money? I know I do. Then get that crap outta your back seat and save some cash. Not only will you be helping your pocketbook, but you will also be helping reduce your carbon footprint. We can all do our little bit to help! So remember, in the legendary words of our great green frog friend, “It ain’t easy being green.”
If you are interested in finding out when our Green Page goes live, please subscribe to our RSS feed and stay posted to Chicago.com for current events.
Even if you aren’t Irish, St. Patrick’s Day is one of the best celebrations in Chicago. We dye the river emerald. We wear green. We host parades. We eat corned beef and cabbage for breakfast, and we eat fish and chips for lunch. We drink enough Irish stout to actually see a leprechaun (or at least act like one). We sing about sweet Molly Malone. We catch a game of hurling on TV or try to play it ourselves. Basically, unless you head to Dublin, Chicago is the number spot to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Click here for Chicago.com’s complete guide to St. Patrick’s Day 2010 in Chicago!
Every year, the Illinois Governor’s Conference on Tourism gives industry experts and professionals a chance to meet and learn about new innovative advances in the tourism industry. This year’s conference, “The New Reality” gave conference attendees the chance to gain new insights from speakers at the top of their fields such as Google, Vimeo and the Illinois Bureau of Tourism panel; to learn about advances in products and services, technology and networking with industry peers.
Obviously to sustain a stable economy within the state, everyone needs to discuss how to get people to Illinois. Following this further, this is where travel sites like Illinois.com and Chicago.com are able to utilize current industry standards and find out the skinny on tourism as a whole. I learned that a lot more people are having stay-cations, This is where a family travels within their own state or even city. Knowing this allows us to leverage the situation by marketing to families with local group travel packages (i.e. rental or limo car (Carey Limos), hotel, and possibly entertainment like Museum of science and industry or tours by (Chicago Trolley) and dinner packages). Also discussed was the demand for social networking such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and so on.
They said that 7 out of 10 kindergartners today will work at jobs that have not been created yet. Speaking of such, the position as my personal assistant is forthcoming. “Internet location specialists” was a term that was thrown around through this whole conference. We are entering a new age of information “adapt or perish”, and I completely agree that the face of the Internet is changing, and Chicago.com will be at the forefront of this change.
Did you miss Valentines day? Don’t worry, all you need to do is to show your girl some Chicago history. A tree is all that is left at the site where the St.Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred on Feb 14th, 1929.
The tree is at 2122 N. Clark Street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Almost eighty years ago, four of Al Capone’s henchmen, posing as police officers, drew machine guns from their overcoats and murdered six members of Bugs Moran’s gang. Apparently, Capone didn’t like Moran cutting into his market. Moran was also muscling in on a Capone-run dog track in the Chicago suburbs. Jack McGurn is one of the people most frequently cited by researchers as a suspected planner.
No one was ever charged with the crime, and the warehouse where the slayings occurred was torn down in 1967. Now this unassuming tree sits on an open lot at the south end of an apartment building. Rumor has it during the month of February you can hear the shots from their Thompson sub machine guns. If you guys cant keep your girl at arms length at this scary peice of Chicago history….Even “Cousin Vinnie” thinks you might be outta luck.
If you are wondering where other Big Al hangouts are, don’t stress. The City of Chicago made it easy for us. The Chicago Department of Transportation has placed a sign there pointing out the architectural significance of those buildings. They are located at Michigan and Cermak, which doesn’t look anything like it did in the 1920s and 30s. Back then, two luxury hotels — The Metropole and The Lexington — were the center of those roaring times. That sign also indicates that this is where Al Capone and his gang were headquartered. City officials almost never like to connect Big Al with Big Shoulders. History is not always pretty, or something that we are proud of, but sometimes it’s best just to “deal with it”. You learn from mistakes that have been made and you move. People want to see sights like this. This is history, and I apprieciate living in a city that realizes it. This one is for you Chicago.