Chicago

Don't move here. The sales tax is over 10%, people drive like inbred Crips, it's winter for eight months of the year and it takes an hour to buy some bread.

  encey said:

it takes an hour to buy some bread.

dude where the hell do you shop that it takes an hour to buy a loaf of bread?

but yes, 10% sales tax does suck, but thats the price of living in the greatest city in America

I just mean the traffic and shit makes everyday errands take a long-ass time.

I do love this city though -- it's like a completely different place when the weather gets warm.

  encey said:

Don't move here. The sales tax is over 10%, people drive like inbred Crips, it's winter for eight months of the year and it takes an hour to buy some bread.

yeah, the sales tax definitely sucks. it depends on who you are, where you work, etc, as far as driving. it would be much more difficult/frustrating to have a family here which would necessitate having a car much moreso than being single... right now my only means of regular transport is the CTA and my bike, and that works out really well. i'm planning on dropping the CTA in the summer in sole favor of biking to get them back for their fare increase RIGHT as i moved here.

this past winter was awful, but it was awful everywhere in the midwest, not just here.

  encey said:

I do love this city though -- it's like a completely different place when the weather gets warm.

can't wait!

  Braintree said:

  takeshi said:

I almost moved here with an ex once and ever since have still been thinking of moving there.

 

You and me, bud. Bangin bachelor pad.

As long as I get to call you "Co-sin Lau-ry".

millennium park and portillos?!@ get the fuck out of here.

in terms of the city proper, i can vouch for the record stores that have been mentioned. there's two reckless records somewhat near each other, as there's one on milwaukee avenue in wicker park (right by milwaukee/north/damen, which is where the damen blue line stop lets you out)

gramaphone is a place where, indeed, there's a pretty nice stack of techno and house and that shit, usually someone's up there djing and whatnot. they've got a decent spattering of hiphop records and tend to have the new ones, and it usually works out that i'm able to do a pretty solid job of cherrypicking their new shit for the odd and fast tastes that they have, same with the aphextwin/squarepusher stuff, altho last time i was there they had just a souvenir in with the drum and bass records which was pretty properly amusing. they're also a place where a lot of local rappers and producers/types cosign their little no-label/small-label cd/cd-rs so you can find a bunch of that type of stuff there, not as much at the reckless.

the reckless on milwaukee ave is pretty solid, i believe they've got a bunch more records than the one that's on broadway (which is a decent little walk from gramaphone, incidentally, they're not too far apart mapquest the bitch if you wanna do that). they sporadically have little idm-type-nuggets like an old copy of port rhombus buried deep in their drum and bass section, and from there a few rap records a whole bunch of rock records and funk adn soul and rah rah rah. they also have a bunch of used cds there which are decent for a listen in the ride on teh way back to wherever you're going.

dusty grooves is a place i just discovered last week and i spent $80 over the span of 2 days cherrypicking some things in their hiphop collection (arsonists session 12", del's catch a bad one, organized konfusion LP, freestyle fellowship bullies of the block 12") and they have a nice cataloging system and seem to have their shit together nicely. they dont seem to have much in the way of techno/idm/the-like.

another fun little record store is kstarke records on western ave right by division (next to the subway). it's a homelier record ship with a shit-ton of hiphopstuff tehre, a bunch of old rock and soul and funk and techno and acid and disco adn house, tho i dont really browse those records much... it's a bit more of a digging type place i spose but it's definitely worth a trip as it's not that far from dusty grooves, and it would be a decent leg if you were to do a power outing and hit the two recklesses and gramaphone adn dusty grooves.

if you don't mind ghettos, over on roosevelt road right by independence there's harold's music room, which has a bunch of local rappers tho a bit more southside/blacker/mainstreamier rap and whatnot, and i'm pretty sure they've got solid stuff for funk and soul and r&b but i havent been there in a minute. it's a nice little oasis in that neighborhood, adn any place that has a gold record for redman's "dare iz a darkside" on the wall is a place for me.

as for bars and places... shit. i've always enjoyed the rainbo club on the damen side of division and damen... a bit more hipsterish than i'd ideally like, but you could get a shot of johnnie walker black label and a pabst blue ribbon for $6 which i defy to you to beat in that wickerpark/bucktown neighborhood. up the road there on division is another hipster-type-place called gold-star, where i love to fuck with people by making up grand stories about my non-life. it's alright i spose, not quite as campy as the other one...

i'm pretty sure this place called exit has a punk rock night on monday nights, which is fun to check out occasionally and see punk people doing their thing.

on tuesday nights at sub-terranean (i think it's on north right at the milwaukee north and damen intersection) there's the very-long-running 606 hiphop night, where they spin rap, some local shit, and around midnight they have the open mic where you see the confluence of thuggy-type-locals show up lookin all smooth-n-hard all teh way to the odd guy in glasses literally with a backpack who was quiet all ngiht vibin out go up and do his thing. occasionally i'll serenade the place myself, but you know, it's like flaking in fish food into a tank with barracudas, a fun phenomenon. people will certainly be tryin'ta sell you their beats cd for like $2 or something and try to network and promote.

ummmm shit i remember monday nights at the evil olive (ashland blue line stop, ashland/milwaukee/division technically on division i think) was a fun night last summer... it was put together by some flaming homo dude, but he gets some housey/technoy type stuff and they've got a nice space with drinks that ain't too high priced and there's pretty good eye candy at that place, i mean maybe the venue carries it as opposed to the nights but i was there a few monday nights and i was thoroughly entertained for the $5 or $7 or whatever it was.

i think there's a drum and bass weekly right in that area, i wanna say wednesday night at lava lounge.. i havent been there for a minute but it was solid when i went, altho you can tell when the british dude got on later thats when the place picked up cuz he had a much fucking better concept of how to throw down a set as opposed to the earlier dudes, but i dunno who's who and whatnot. i hear konkrete NYC moved out here or something and has a weekly somewhere, and i had a flyer from the pendulum show about friday nights somewhere but i forget what. there's a spattering of drum and bass out here.

i don't think i've ever been to that sonotheque place but i'm sure it is what is. i tried going onec and couldnt find it and was like "fuck this" and went drinking.

ooh a nice place i like to drink at is sheffield's backyard bbq at the intersection of sheffield/school sts (belmont red line stop, pop off head back to sheffield pop a right and it'll be on the left side) they're a beersnobbish place (akin to the map room which is umm... fullerton/ashland i wanna say?!) where they have a shit-ton of smaller microbrews, but usually there's a nice one as the beer of the month for $4 pints. their food is excellent there, and the bartenders do nice drinky things like toss you a water without even having to ask. they've got their shit down tight over there, as it's typical wrigleyville/lakeview yuppie fare, but i rather like the place for what it is. it hink there's a whole differetn bar and seating area in the back too but i never made it there.

another fun bar that i havent been to in a minute but always enjoyed was paddy mac's which is on pulaski and... shit it's a smaller street, but it's accessible from the irving park blue line stop if you pop off and head up to pulaski and go left and walk down a block or two. it's less yuppie than wrigleyville and there's nice birdwatching there and it's a place where people fraternize and have fun and it gets nice and busy and hectic and they'll get bands in there sometimes... fun shit.

the skylark at halsted/cermak is another solid little place, as i've seen vinec vaughn walk into it in one of his movies, but i had gone there a bunch as a friend lived in a loft down cermak.... it's a little bit out there, but a rather solid little place, tho i havent been there during bar-prime-times so i cant tell you alls that much about it.

oh if you want stuffy self-important new-wicker-park yuppie-hipsters don't forget rodan, on milwaukee avenue in fact it's right next to reckless records i believe. it amuses me greatly to go in there, as i feel like a caveman savage primate as opposed to a somewhat gentrified human being.

oh yeah and one more place that's really nice in the late nights (1am and beyond) is the continental at california and chicago, as it's one of those bars that many people go to when other places close down, and sometimes it's a proper zoo in there in the summer and i ran into people i knew from years back and it's fun. not too expensive, and it's accessible via the chicago ave bus from the redline or something, but odds are you could do the western ave / empty bottle / wickerparkbucktown thing and hit that up later.

i remember quenchers at fullerton adn western being a good place too, nice beer selection, tho my memory was foggy as i was all awestruck being there with louis logic after one of his shows. i think i've been back a couple'a other times in a drunken stupor adn iw as like yeah.

oh yeah venues for music:

the metro 3730 clark addison red line stop >> the standard for chicago venues, attached to the smartbar, where it's more like DJing techno/house/dancemusic and a club-feel starting at 9 or 10. they get tours like i saw ed rush adn optical there last year, and sometimes if you see a show at metro they'll let you in there for free. all kinds of shit goes through the metro so take a look.

double door: milwaukee/north/damen damen blue line rah rah rah >>> solid little venue with generally smaller type stuff, but they vary as i've seen mouse on mars there along with aceyalone dilated peoples and etc

abbey pub: on elston st right by addison avenue (not horribly far from addison blue line, tho i'd take that bus up to elston avenue) i saw autechre there and got kicked out for some odd reason, prolly the scotch and teh weed and my protest that tehy wouldnt let me out to smoke. but they've got shows and shit and yeah.

reggie's rock room: state street right by cermak (aka 22nd): get off at cermak/chinatown red line and walk up to state... tehy've been catching up with shows, as snares played there twice last year and there have been industrial shows and shit del's gonna play tehre on may 9th or something. i'd recommend taking bathroom trips apart from your friends as last time security arbitrarily tripped on me like iw as buying ecstasy from my friend in the bathroom as we came in from a cigarette, but otherwise it's a nice gritty place whose railing can be a bit painful, but generally the fare is rock-n-punk as it's in their name and yeah, it's an up and coming place i reckon there.

the empty bottle: western ave (go look it up)... you could pop off at the western blue line and take a decent walk or the western bus and go there, they've got a lot of indie rock shows and the occasional hip hop / electronic oddity, and it's a nice gritty little venue where you can just pop in and see something since it's not really a big-name place.

beyond all of this... shit if this doesnt work you need help. this should be a decent shove-off in the right direction anyways

oh for food places open up your eyes and look around you, i can't say there's any oh my god places altho greektown at jackson adn halsted (uic-halsted blue line stop) is open 24-7 and nothing quite calms down a cantankerous stomach of concocted liquor debauchery like a gyro at 3:30am before a $30 cabride ends your night cuz fuckall i'm tired of trains.

^ needs more detail, i mean he's clearly not going to any of those places without you at least giving a little more info

fanboyism gone horribly watmm

If you can't get enough record stores, I'd also recommend Laurie's Planet of Sound. It has lots of stuff plus magazines and posters and shit, and it's in a really fun neighborhood to walk around, with tons of German bars.

Also, another venue that might have music you'd like to listen or dance to is Neo.

  Alcofribas said:

don't go to chicago unless you've been to renaissance france/england, else you won't know wtf is going on/what people are talking about.

mrx did you visit yet? what did you do? what did you eat? how many times did you make a poopie?

shit dude, i went to laurie's planet of sound and i tell you what they're shit for anything but rock music in terms of buying records, but i did some mighty fine digging there... i was sitting on the floor going through all of the 25 cent records and annoying the shit out of all of the self important yuppie/hipster types who wanted to look for sea and the cake records, but i must've bought like $12-15 worth of 25 cent records and have been fucking around with them downstairs for quite a bit.

thanks for the heads up on that.

too bad mrx didn't wanna beet a real whattemmical legend cuz i coulda showed him the real chitown, as is evidenced by my fucking novel up there

tupac's looking up at your novel thinking 'WTFzor'

when the armageddon comes to destroy us all, jay-z and tupac are gonna share a condo in the caribbean

  encey said:

mrx did you visit yet? what did you do? what did you eat? how many times did you make a poopie?

I won't be there 'till may 9th.

*jots it down*