Chicago, Much More Than Toddlin'

Chicago, as the man sang, is a town in which you'll lose your blues

There is a lot of truth to that lyric. It's seems to be impossible to have the blues in Chicago. That was evident this past week - it was hot on Sunday and Monday, 90 degrees or better, and yet people still were out and about enjoying themselves. 

Maybe it's the architecture. Chicago is not simply clusters of large steel & concrete boxes encased in glass walls, it is a broad band of soaring sculptures that seem to be dancing with each other in a ballroom that has a spectacular view of Lake Michigan.

Or maybe it's the art. Chicago has the best public art of any large city I've ever visited. There is the famous Picasso in Daley plaza (which I still think looks more like a brooding vulture than the Afghan dog that supposedly inspired it), and the iconic Alexander Calder Flamingo on the Kluczynski Federal Building plaza (the best view of which, by the way, is from the Willis tower skydeck) and at least a couple of dozen more great works by some of the greatest artists of the past 100 years, making Chicago a very large outdoor art gallery. 

An art gallery that grew organically and was funded primarily by subscription or private dollars, not foisted on the residents of Chicago by some government committee spending tax dollars on cliched, institutionalized, production line things produced by art school hacks. 

But I digress. 

It could be also be the food. The food in Chicago is awesome. Not a bad bite to be found. The pizza is not as good as New York's, I'll give you that, but it's still damn good. 

I could write page after page of praises for the food in Chicago...but that'll have to be done some other day, as it's now lunch time and I'm going to go get something to eat.