I was born and raised in Chicago until I was about 11/12, then my family moved across the border into Indiana. At this point I was going to school during the week and still living in Chicago while my parents worked. My Grandma and Aunt lived down the street in Wicker Park and I had to stay there every weekend until I was 16 basically. After that I had a car and just stayed and did teenage crap with my friends from school. My parents have always worked in the city and my dad owned a hardware store in Boystown/Lakeview if you've heard of either it's names. The city recognizes it both ways and it is has welcome to Boystown signs wrapped in rainbow ribbon.
I was living in a town just 2 cities over the border from Chicago. We were like the same distance as in the movie Ferris Beuller, just in a different direction. We used to ditch school all the time and go to the city too. That is how I first saw and met No Doubt. Right now I am about 15 miles further away. Until about January of this year I used to go to the city about 3 times a week because that is where my best friend lives and just to hang out. In 2002/2003 when I left the area my entire family left the city and moved to the east coast. Every single aunt, uncle, cousins left within a 6 month period, so now I that I'm back to the area, I have a lot less to go there for. I thought I'd show a few pictures I could find on the internet from where I grew up Wicker Park. I've tried to embed them where they relate. This is also where've they've filmed several movies like the movie titled Wicker Park with Josh Harnett. When I was little they were filming Goodfellas and they used our street. It was really special when I was little because it was total magic to see all the cars off our street, the streets cleaned and fixed up, trucked in snow and all the old-timey cars parked on our street. My grandma would drink coffee with Robert Stack because she had met him on set and I was so scared of him. I didn't really understand fame/celebrity or anything at this point (I was 7 or 8) I only knew him as the voice to "Unsolved Mysteries." I would say that 1/3 of all movies shot in Chicago use 'the old neighborhood.'
I think you understand where I'm coming from and how my life has sort of been a satellite that has revolved around the city forever. Until I've kind of went into this depression spell. Everyone from my family is from and grew up in Chicago and honestly I did too. I just slept in Indiana until I started moving around after graduation. I've travelled a lot and lived in a bunch of different cities and there is something different about this city. It is the most ideal city in the country and by far the best place to live, despite some of the downsides. Chicago is the best city in the country and all these posts are going to show what has helped shape it to be that way.
If I had to describe some of the other cities that might be contenders I would call New York rude and dirty, Miami flamboyant and it is just fake in a neon way, LA is a fake in a plastic way and doesn't count as a major city. LA is the equivalent to "Chicagoland". This is a term used to describe the outter laying areas where people live and work in the city and the suburbs. Outside the official border of Chicago there are millions and millions of people who live in an area that is built like LA. They are mostly low rises, strip malls, and residential areas. There is no metro area in LA and no sense of community like we have here. Chicago has a social pulse that moves and provides life from the heart, which would be basically the events going on downtown. I guess the traffic would be the lub-dub.
I approached this as the idea of explaining the art we have in Chicago and talent that rises thru the ranks because of it. There are extremely unique things that go on here that shape a different kind of celebrity on the national stage. When ever you see a Chicago actor/musician they are always genuine, extremely talented, honest, and not into celebrity culture. They are all in it for the art. When I started to try to get examples together it required me to look up stuff about where they come from, their work, and the things they credit to their success. This lead to me looking more and more stuff up about why our talent is so different: our atmosphere fosters true talent and rejects convention. I've found out that Chicago has always been incredibly liberal with social issues, doing the right thing, and celebrating everything with friends. Chicagoans hate bullshit of any sort. They are relatively more anti-corporate, anti-hate, and anti-celebrity. I think it is because we are removed from the New York and LA entertainment factories and all come from blue collar backgrounds. We care about each other and work to make bad things better.
This ended up leading into the Art subject, so I am going to do that post first. I'm going to brag about the people and scenes that are in Chicago and show them talking about it in interviews and stuff. I have only limited knowledge on jazz in the city, but I've been to a lot of rooms in the city that used to be Jazz Rooms - so the history has to be rich. I'm more aware of the blues side because it is in your face here. I'll probably most talk about the past 20 years since that has been my experience.
