Chicago Day 2 (11/7)

Took the elevated train downtown to skate around and check it out.

Got some pretty good views from the train.

For real.

These things were in a huge plaza in the middle of the city with nothing else around them.

Weird.

They were pretty big.

This is a close up of one. Little LED bricks make up the whole thing.

Then we ran into this thing.

Reverse angle. Those are all speakers hanging up there. This place probably gets bumpin.

We found this sculpture inspired by Ian Mosely-Duffy. "The Bean."

Inside the The Bean.Beanscape. All of these things were in the same park in the middle of downtown.

Then we went to the Sears Tower. It was mad tall. It was also 15 bucks to go to the top. I passed.

It got to be about 5:30 so we decided to look for a bar. Apparently, happy hour doesn't exist in Chicago. This was the cheapest looking place we could find and it was 11 dollars for two beers. We gave it the finger and bounced.

We found Harry Caray's bar! R.I.P.It had a Harry Caray mural on the side. We didn't go in because we didn't want to spend another 11 dollars on a couple of beers. We ended up going back to the house to have some free beers before going out in search of a cheaper bar.

We walked about two blocks from the house and found this place: The Home Tavern. We figured since it didn't have a real sign it would probably be cheap. Yep, this place puts Dirty Franks to shame. We walked in and there were four guys, the youngest of which was probably 45, getting hammered drunk at the bar. We took two seats at the bar - because you couldn't sit anywhere else - and ordered a couple High Lifes. The guy next to me was also drinking High Life and was instantly psyched on us. He told me that his name was Oscar, immediately followed by his entire life story; from how he knocked up so many girls in Chicago when he was 17 that he had to run away to Texas, to being in jail for banging a girl in Texas, to how he thought he killed a guy in Texas, to coming back to Chicago and becoming the foreman of the elevated train construction project. He also claimed that he built the park we were in earlier. It also turns out that the street we were staying on was where he grew up as a kid. I'm going to be generous and say that what he told me was only 65% bull shit.

This place had the best dj I've ever experienced. He was a guy named Ernie who was probably pushing 70 and had an estimated total of 5 teeth. He would very reluctantly get up from the bar every now and then to put some new songs on. The entire time we were there I didn't hear a song that wasn't awesome. Ernie fucking killed it. He also got cut off before 11:00.

Everyone at the bar was interested as to why we were there and got really hyped when they found out we were driving across the country. Oscar bought us a bunch of drinks and we got offered steaks and cornbread that a catering company dropped off at the bar, which happens here regularly I guess. After a while Oscar told us that he was going to take us to another bar called Delilah's where you could "find all the bitches."

Delilah's was like the Tattooed Mom's of Chicago. It was even set up exactly the same. The only differences were that it wasn't cheap, and that everyone at Delilah's was unbelievably lame, and they were all really into being unbelievably lame. One guy had platform Doc Martins with stars engraved on them, girls jeans, an american flag bandana hanging long-ways out of his back pocket, a lip ring, an eyebrow ring, and a 2001 NJ emo haircut. And this guy was the MAN at this bar. Seriously, big man on campus. We were basically like lepers there. Plus, the cheapest beer they had was $3.50, and it was PBR.

We played some pool with Oscar, who was barely standing at this point, had a couple beers and left. I didnt have my camera so I couldn't take a picture of me giving this place the finger, but believe me, I did. Hard.

Just to give you some idea of what the place was like, here is a flier that was on the bar. Psychobilly...
P.S. Nice specials.

This is a beer I stole from the bar and took back to the house because I would rather drink it alone, in silence than in the presence of anyone at that shit hole.

We also didn't see a single person that wasn't white, other than Oscar (Mexican), the entire time we were in Chicago. Kind of weird considering its a major city. Other than the Home Tavern everything was really expensive and not that cool. Maybe we just needed a tour guide or something. Regardless, we were bummed and left the next day. Fuck you Chicago, I hope Nebraska is better.