Transform-ing Chicago

As you may or may not have heard, Transformers 3 is currently filming in Chicago and will be for seven weeks. Shia LeBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey and that Victoria's Secret model chick who is replacing Megan Fox are all here and taking over the city streets.

Each week, the film shuts down a strip or area of downtown in order to film. While Chicago is expected to make $20 million off playing host, many people I know are already tired of the film's inconvenience of extra traffic, tourists, street closures and bus reroutes. To give you an idea: Michael Bay and company had a chunk of Michigan Ave closed from last Thursday at 8 p.m. through 5 a.m. this morning (Monday). This included the Michigan Ave Bridge, which was reportedly used in this weekend's dramatic explosion and helicopter scenes (my boss said she saw the bridge up with cars hanging from the edges).

While I didn't catch any of the action this weekend, I was able to see it on Friday, as they set up shop right where I work. I had a great view from the 43rd floor, and some coworkers and I spent most of the day peering out the window scoping the scene and taking turns passing a pair of binoculars (which weren't necessarily needed but they gave us a close up view of LeBeouf when we finally spotted him). At one point, they even filmed something in the Chicago River... as the crew members jumped into the water and swam around with equipment, I wondered if anyone told them that the water isn't exactly safe for swimming.

At the beginning of the month, the building manager sent an email warning people of the closures and the schedule of action. My favorite part of this email (and my dad's least as he now realizes that Optimus Prime and Voltron aren't real) was this:

Since the Transformers robots are all digital creations, you
won't be able to see them during filming

Duh.

During lunch on Friday, I took a walk over to the set in order to get a view of the wreckage, the man-made craters in the streets and perhaps even Optimus Prime (oops, forgot about the part that he wasn't real). I got some good pictures of the set and the smell of burning cars still lingers in my nose, but I didn't get close enough to see any of the actaul filming. So I returned to my 43rd floor perch where I could see them set the cars on fire and people running around.

Before my retreat, I did learn one fun tidbit from a security guard: the cars in the wreckage and in the scene aren't from a junkyard. Paramount buys them and then blows them up themselves. They then use the spare scrap metal for pile-ups like the ones you will see in the slide show below.

Enjoy! (I made it on a free website, so you have to click the X to get rid of the advertisement in order to see the captions).

Festival Season is Here

So, I haven't written in a while. Mostly because I've been busy adjusting to my full time internship and being lazy in this intense heat. Either this is a bad summer or it's just a lot more humid and hot in the Midwest than it is on the East Coast. Mother Nature is kicking my little box fan's ass.

Although I haven't posted anything, it does not mean I haven't been up to exploring and taking advantage of all that Chicago has to offer in the summer.

Sky High Visit

Fourth of July weekend came and went but ended with a blast... my brother came to visit! He was in Milwaukee with his college roommates over the holiday and took a bus down to Chicago to hang out with me for a few days after. We did touristy things like went to the top of the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) and had pizza, and took a boat tour. Even though I took the architecture tour in May when Christina came to visit me, it was so fun and different the second time around... guess there are just so many buildings and history in this city!

At the Willis, Sean and I stood on the glass ledge that juts out 4.5 feet from the 107th floor--when you look down, you are standing nearly a mile up over the city. And another fun fact... Sean timed the elevator ride and it takes 60 seconds to travel the 107 floors.

It was great to hang out with Sean and show him around. We even ducked into the original Billy Goat Tavern (inspiration for the SNL "Cheezeborger Cheezeborger" skit). And of course, I had to take him to get some s'mores pizza! I'm already planning out his next visit filled with all the things we didn't get to do this time.

Man Food and Music

One of the charming parts about Chicago summers is the fact that there are multiple street festivals every weekend. It is my goal to attend at least one a weekend, and I have been pretty good with it. In June, a couple friends and I hit up Ribfest. It was as deliciously awesome as it sounds.

Last Sunday, my friend Bernie and I went to Burgerfest in the Ravenswood neighborhood. There were seven different burger vendors from the neighborhood so we picked a few different ones and split them in order to get the full festival experience (the photo is of our favorite one from John's Place, it was delicious and voted the winning burger of the festival). Not only did we get to indulge in delicious burgers (and I may or may not have drank a pina colada out of a pineapple), but I got to see one of my favorite bands.. the Gin Blossoms!

The concert was going great until it started to pour rain. After a 15 minute rain delay, the rain stopped and the band came back on and played a few more songs. Until it started pouring again. This time, however, one of the guitarists got a little shock so they cancelled the rest of the show because it was unsafe and there was no end in sight to the rain. I heard all my favorites.. except "Hey Jealousy," which the crowd kept chanting at every song break. During the rain delay, people started singing the words in hopes the band would come back out and play it. Bernie and I splashed our way home, laughing all the way at the ridiculousness of the whole experience.

Chinatown Festival

Today, my roommates and I went to the Chinatown Summer Festival. Although it wasn't as cool as I thought it would be, it was still a nice way to spend the afternoon. And I'm pretty sure I sweat out all the calories of that Crab Rangoon and bubble tea I had (the fried delicacy brought back flashes of my Freshman 15 as they were the main culprit). I was expecting there to be tons of food and authentic Chinese items for sale. However, there were only a few stands with food and many of the little store set-ups looked like a Dollar Store threw up on them. Too bad I had already bought my sponges and plastic wrap at Target the day before.

(That's me channeling my inner Ninja Turtle and playing around with some nunchucks)

Despite the many strange stands, there were a few shining moments. The sole purchase I made was from one of the places with bamboo plants and bonsai trees. I was very excited to walk away with my new lucky bamboo tree. Here's to hoping it brings me some good luck! And perhaps many more adventures this summer!

The Time I Kissed the Stanley Cup

My fun-filled weekend continued on Sunday when I woke up early to attend the 41st Annual Chicago Pride Parade in Boystown. I went for a few reasons:

1) To experience one of Chicago’s biggest events (1.2 million turned out for the parade)

2) To experience a parade other than a sports championship rally (a la Celtics and Blackhawks)

3) To do some reporting for RedEye Wrigleyville, seeing it was one of the biggest weekends for our neighborhood blogs.

Going into the parade I planned to find out how the community--the gay community in particular--felt about having participation from both the Blackhawks and the Cubs this year. Blackhawks player (well, former player--he was traded last week) Brent Sopel was carrying the Stanley Cup at the parade (it's actually a really great story) and for the first time ever, the Cubs had a float in the parade.

The parade was fun to watch and the overall experience and atmosphere was overwhelmingly positive and beautiful. There is so much hate and violence in this world that it was very nice to see a million people coming together to show love and support for each other whether they were black, white, gay, straight, etc.

Although fun, the parade was very long. I left before it finished in order to shower and relax after a busy weekend. Upon returning home, I accomplished the shower part, which felt good on my slightly sunburned skin. However, I was right back out the door 30 minutes later when I found out that Brent Sopel and the Stanley Cup would be at a bar in Wrigleyville and like any good reporter covering her beat, I decided I needed to find out what was going on. And I've always wanted to see the Cup, my favorite sports trophy of all time.

When my roommate Laura and I got to the bar, we were asked to donate $10 which guaranteed us a chance to take a picture with the Cup (the money went to Sopel's charity). The Cup left at 5 p.m., we got our picture taken with it at 4:58. Just in time! After I snapped a photo with the Cup, I laid a big fat one on it. It was cold. And if I caught cooties from it, I wouldn't have even cared. I kissed the Stanley Cup. The only thing that would have made this better would be if it was in Boston and belonged to the Bruins.

After I stepped away from Stanley, the day got even better. After following around and asking--and in turn probably annoying--the event organizer, I was able to ask Sopel a few questions for a post on the RedEye Wrigleyville blog. They were both really nice and I was proud that my curiosity turned into a stellar scoop for the blog! And I got to kiss the Cup. Did I already mention that??

Here is the post I wrote about the event, including my interview with Sopel. I tweeted the story out the next day (aka sent it out on Twitter) and Sopel tweeted me back thanking me for it!

I'm not sure how July is ever going to compare with my extremely eventful and exciting June (meeting Evan Lysacek and kissing the Stanley Cup), but it's surely set the bar pretty high!

Cheesy Post of the Day

This is me outside Wrigley Field.. next to a giant noodle. Clever advertisement for Kraft Macaroni 'n Cheese or just hideous? You decide.

I'm a Crosstown Cool Kid

I can cross another thing off my Chicago Bucket List: Attend White Sox-Cubs Crosstown Classic game.

After my radio debut and the crushing USA World Cup loss, I headed to the game with Greg who recruited me to join him because he had an extra ticket. The game started at six. We got there around four.

Four is also the number of important things I learned on this day:

1. People tailgate at baseball games in the Midwest. And do they! Guess that's what happens when your baseball team actually has a parking lot. The tailgating party we attended was stocked with all kinds of food from taco dip and chips to brats and burgers to cookies and Twizzler bites. I was thoroughly impressed. I probably should have eaten more of the food there seeing I had only eaten a PBJ sandwich all day and started drinking to keep up with the crowd. Let's just say I remember that the White Sox won thanks to Paul Konerko's homer in the eighth inning, but not much else from in between.

2. There is a game called "Bags" that is very popular here. Pretty much everyone had a set at their tailgating party. It's kind of like the washer game, but in this one you try to throw beanbags into a single hole cut out of a big wooden stand. Most people had theirs painted White Sox, Cubs and Bears themed. Some even had one side Bears, one side Cubs with matching bean bags. This game is everywhere. They even have tournaments in the bars during the summer.

3. When one team is mediocre and the other is awful (guess which one is which), the trash talking boils down to "Hey nice shirt... it sucks."

4. Fans at U.S. Cellular Field are much nicer to you when you're not wearing the opposing team's gear, or any gear at all. Not hot dog throwing incidents from what I can remember. But that's not saying too much.

I also discovered that there really are Red Sox fans everywhere. I made friends with the group of guys sitting next to me in the stands. I became good friends with the Cubs fan in the group because he also loved the Red Sox (he looked a lot like suspended Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano so I kept calling him Carlos). This guy named his son Boston because he was born around the same time the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. I honestly thought he was lying but his friends assured me he wasn't. And I thought all the people who named their kids Trot and Brady were die-hard!

I was there to witness the White Sox winning the first annual BP Crosstown Cup. People care so little about this new trophy that the stadium was nearly empty by the time the Sox were given the award on the field. And it's not just because BP is the unfortunate sponsor. It's because it's a dumb idea.

It's also a dumb idea to drink lots of beer and not eat all day. Let's just say Sunday was a little painful. Evidently, I learned five important things that day.

Radioing in a New Experience

On Saturday, I made my radio debut! Fellow neighborhood blogger Zach Morrison and I (he writes for the Boystown blog and I, as you know, write for the Wrigleyville one) were invited to be on the ChicagoNow Radio show on WGN720.

Before Saturday morning, I was more excited than nervous. However, once I got to the WGN green room waiting to be taken in to the studio I started to get really nervous. I was so afraid I would say something stupid or stutter or sound really annoying. The words of my high school journalism teacher kept running through my head: "If you want to be on TV or radio you better change your voice."

However, I decided to pay more attention to my roommate's reassuring words that my voice wasn't so bad and was determined to go in and just have a good time. If I was self-conscious, I wasn't going to do well.

Once we got in the studio, the hosts were so nice and made us feel very comfortable. It was a lot of fun and the time went by so quickly. During the show, I felt more important than I actually was because tourists were looking into the studio from Michigan Ave and taking photos of us on air. I tried not to laugh at them.

After the show was over, both the producer and the hosts told us what a great job Zach and I did. We're hoping they liked us enough to invite us back! :)

Being on the radio was such a great, exciting, new experience to have. Working with the RedEye Wrigleyville blog has already given me so many fun opportunities... and to think I almost dropped the class that introduced me to it all!

You can listen to the commercial-free version of Saturday morning's Boystown and Wrigleyville segment of the show here. Enjoy!

A Wildly Good Time

On Friday night, my friend Christiana and I ventured to the Lincoln Park Zoo to see one of my favorite bands, Lifehouse, in concert.

Although neither of us were sure how the concert would be set up, we quickly found out once we entered the zoo. There was a large grassy area in the middle of the zoo just past the monkey house where hundreds of people gathered with blankets and chairs. We found a spot on the side of the stage, laid out on our blankets and waited for the concert to begin.

Lifehouse was amazing in concert and it was a really good time. When the concert started we left our blankets behind and stood pretty close to the stage. While I loved standing up close, I was a little worried someone might try to steal my trusty Patriots blanket. Luckily, no one did.

During the concert, the lead singer Jason Wade told the crowd how he grew up a giant Chicago Bulls fan and rocked his Michael Jordan jersey amidst rabid Seattle Sonic fans. And how a concert in a zoo was also a first for the band.

"I've played in a lot of different places over the last 11 years but I ain't never played in a zoo before!" Wade told the crowd. "But I'm kind of diggin' it!"

Because it was such a small area, the concert was very intimate. The only negative: the smell. At one point early on in the evening Christiana looked at me and asked, "why does it smell like wet, dirty animal? Oh wait, it's because we're in a zoo!" Boy those wafts of smelly, wet animal were strong when they hit.

Overall, I love Lifehouse and the Zoo and attending a concert in such a unique place was a fun Chicago experience. And one I would totally do again!