Tuesday, August 14, 2007

A Series of Unfortunate Businesses

On the stretch of the avenue I live on, I have witnessed the rise and fall of some interesting establishments. At one point there was a great little Mexican restaurant called Picante, but it shut down to become a different not so great Mexican restaurant called Picoso which had two stupid dancing peppers on its sign. Picoso shut down after several months and is going to re-open as not another Mexican restaurant, but as a Thai restaurant. Sounds good right? Who wouldn’t want a Thai place across the street from them? Well, I am going to reserve my gushing until I actually go to the place with one of the worst names ever, Poo’s.

Why oh why didn’t someone advise the owners of this error in judgment? I don’t care if it’s the restaurant owner’s name and he/she is a world renown Thai culinary expert, pick something else! Standard Thai Restaurant would even do or Delicious Food Palace or even Bow Thai (barf, I know, but still better than Poo)! There’s a Standard India Restaurant nearby and that name doesn’t seem to hurt business. I just hope that the food is so good and that the name has enough kitschy quality for them to stay in business for longer than it takes to digest the food and you know, do the deed.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Poop and the Big City

Someone shit in the stairwell that leads to the storage room of my apartment. I was putting my bike away the other night, and I heard my roomy yell from the balcony that I should be careful not to step in the doody. Sure enough, there was a messy turd on the concrete floor of the stairwell. I know it was a person, as opposed to an animal, who "dropped it on the deuce," as Whitney Houston would say, because there was toilet paper all around it.

How do I justify this on a Chicago blog? It's simple: Homeless people will not shit in my stairwell if I lived in the burbs. Sure it stunk to high heaven for the next couple of days I had to get my bike, and the flies circled around like, well, flies on shit. But, that's a little treat you don't get in the burbs: Authentic, urban, homeless, poop.

Today, I saw three of my hot neighbors in their kitchen as I was going upstairs, and one threw me the extended smile, like the, "Maybe you should come in and talk to us, dumb-ass" look. I had nothing worth opening the glass door to tell them, except, "Hey, I hosed down the poop in the stairwell. Don't all of you thank me at once."

I opted to just smile back, and go upstairs. When I have an opening that's not poop-related, I'll give it a go.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Elbow Room


Last night I went to the Elbow Room, which is a great bar near my house, and I can't figure out why I don't go there more. They have a big space downstairs where bands play, but they so rarely book acts I've heard of. They also have a friendly staff, and Old Style cans for two bucks, which worked great with the promotional cozies. Last night it wasn't any of these elements that landed me there, as much as it was the promise of free booze from a friend of a friend doing a promotion there.

Here is the highlight of the evening: A female friend of mine was being STRONGLY pursued by a drunk guy there. He went in for a kiss like six times, and was denied each and every time. He then came over to say he was leaving like eight times, only to go back to the bar to regroup and make more attempted last ditch efforts/exits.

This gave us a great opportunity to do a play-by-play and color commentary, and we could do so within ear-shot, since both parties were drunk off their asses.

Hey, Liars, anyone else do any good people watching lately?

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Disco Sucks... 1979.

In Chicago, 28 years ago today... Disco Demolition Night happened. In case you do not know about this historic event... it was a promotional event that took place at the original Comiskey Park. It was held during a scheduled doubleheader between the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

What happened? They collected a bunch of Disco record and blew them up. Then people ran on the field (total chaos) and tore it up... so much destruction that the White Sox had to forfeit the second game.

I wish I was there.

Friday, June 22, 2007

WTF - ChicagoBloggers.com

Has anyone been to ChicagoBloggers.com lately? What the hell is going on over there?

When I first moved back to Chicago, I would check it out all the time to try and find cool blog sites, and to get a feel for the city. The site was modeled after other metro blogging sites, like NYC and DC (I used the DC site all the time when I lived there). Now the site is pretty tired and lame.

Granted, I realize the folks who run it (Matt and Nikolai) do it voluntarily. But the site's been looking the same for months now -- I'm a little tired of seeing "Jeff Woelker's Chicago Usability and Web Design Blog" (no offense Jeff, your site is lovely) and "A Deaf Mom Shares Her World" in the "most recently added" column.

And don't even get me started on the blog links on the right side of the page - so many of them are dinosaurs that don't even exist or haven't been updated in years.

I should probably donate some money to the site to get them motivated to clean it up and make it cool again.

Chicago's a great blogging town, and I think the flagship site should reflect that.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Traffic Tax In Chicago

Yesterday 14th Ward Alderman Edward Burke proposed that the city investigate a tax for all drivers into downtown Chicago, similar to London's tax (apparently NYC is also considering it).

I'll assume that the reason he's suggesting it is to: raise some money for the CTA (this would be a good thing), get people to consider other means of coming into the city, other than the single car driver coming in from the far reaches of the city and burbs (this too would be a good thing), and perhaps slow air pollution (also a good thing).

This idea is just never going to fly. If we already had a better public transport system -- a system in which it would actually be feasible for most people to come into the city by bus or train -- then maybe putting a tax on those who don't use it would be good and fair.

How about we give tax breaks to those of us who choose to walk, ride a bike, or take a bus into the city already? I'm a much bigger fan of that. But then, I believe an idea like that would never cross the mind of a city official, since about 99% of them drive a car to get anywhere.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

The Wieners Circle

In Chicago, at 2622 N. Clark Street, you will find The Wieners Circle. They are known as a spot to get some late-night/post-bar, Chicago-style dogs, but they are also known for the verbally abusive staff. Now, there are other restaurants, like Ed Debevic's, who specialize in some witty, playful surliness, but the African American gals at the Wieners Circle are downright brutal. I read one guy's blog while searching for pictures who said it's not uncommon to hear, "Can I help the next c@#K-sucker in line?" They should offer a promotion, like, "If we don't call you a c@#k-sucker, your dog is on us!"

I have a buddy who knew nothing of the shtick, so you could imagine his surprise when he was greeted at the counter with a, "What you want, little-dick man?" The insults continued to the point where he slammed his hot dog down and stormed out. His reaction was no doubt mostly due to the fact that he didn't know this is how these women act towards everyone, but perhaps he really is a "little-dick-man."

I've heard that it's customary to give it back to these ladies a little bit, like, "Bitch, shut your mouth, and go get me a damn dog before I slap the taste out your mouth!" I am not daring enough to try that, because with my luck I'd say something like that, I'd hear a record scratch, and guys who look like the starting defense for the Chicago Bears would come out from behind the counter and beat me and pour hot grease down my shirt.

If you ever have the pleasure of visiting the Wieners Circle, don't order a chocolate milk shake. That is, unless you WANT to pay an extra ten bucks to see an overweight lady lift up her shirt and shake her bare, floppy, as Frank Zappa would call them, mammalian protuberences, in your face. I've posted a video of a chocolate milk shake, so watch at your own risk, and thank your lucky stars that it was dark out and the window is dirty.

Well, their milk shakes bring all the boys to the yard, so next time you're in Chicago, be sure to get thoroughly schnockered at the bar, and swing by the Wiener Circle for a dog and some abuse of the verbal and titty varieties.

And now . . . The chocolate milk shake: