CHICAGO - MAY 25th WEEKEND - 2007: JUotA

[harvey k-tel]

yikes, don't have much time. suffice to say that both kid p and i had a great time with everyone. obviously, we both feel like death right now but are heading out for a breakfast and a gallon of coffee before heading into the loop to do some sightseeing.

Don't bother. It's fucking BORING.

well, it sort of was except that brits can do that "jesus, that's a fucking big building!" thing. and we grabbed a nice omlette while we were there before heading off to millennium park and grant park. it was worth it.

We never made it to Millennium Park. Next time.

It's very cool. The Cloud Gate and the water sculpture thingy are pretty great. Gehry's bandstand is alright, and there's quite a nice flower garden hidden away behind a tall wall of shrubberies. The lounge on the 95th floor of the John Hancock tower is pretty impressive, too, and not just because of the astronomical drink prices.

[nathan]

I think Chicago is pretty neat.

[Butch Manly]

I think Chicago is pretty neat.

me too. i'm coming back!

[Corporate whore]

I think Chicago is pretty neat.

me too. i'm coming back!

So am I!

But not at the same time as you, you big fairy.

[Cosmic American Girl]

Me three! But only with you guys

[Velvis]

I'm hoping New Orleans will be the destination next year. We've bandied it about for three years, and I know it's Sambient's heart's desire to go there (I can't refuse her). Further, we now have a local, Kath, who can show us around.

I'm resolved to go next year, come hell or high water. (Ouch!)

[Megh]

I'm hoping New Orleans will be the destination next year. We've bandied it about for three years, and I know it's Sambient's heart's desire to go there (I can't refuse her). Further, we now have a local, Kath, who can show us around.

I'm resolved to go next year, come hell or high water. (Ouch!)

Yes, seems it's all but been settled on. I've never been and can't think of any better people to experience it with my first time. (OMG -- do I sound sappy or what?)

[Velvis]

I'm hoping New Orleans will be the destination next year. We've bandied it about for three years, and I know it's Sambient's heart's desire to go there (I can't refuse her). Further, we now have a local, Kath, who can show us around.

I'm resolved to go next year, come hell or high water. (Ouch!)

Yes, seems it's all but been settled on. I've never been and can't think of any better people to experience it with my first time. (OMG -- do I sound sappy or what?)

Wait'll ya meet the Eelpies, Shagger Dave, Yomp...and me!

And I hope Dunc and Hots can make it.

[Megh]

I'm hoping New Orleans will be the destination next year. We've bandied it about for three years, and I know it's Sambient's heart's desire to go there (I can't refuse her). Further, we now have a local, Kath, who can show us around.

I'm resolved to go next year, come hell or high water. (Ouch!)

Yes, seems it's all but been settled on. I've never been and can't think of any better people to experience it with my first time. (OMG -- do I sound sappy or what?)

Wait'll ya meet the Eelpies, Shagger Dave, Yomp...and me!

And I hope Dunc and Hots can make it.

Will be a pleasure, I'm sure.

[kath]

I'm hoping New Orleans will be the destination next year. We've bandied it about for three years, and I know it's Sambient's heart's desire to go there (I can't refuse her). Further, we now have a local, Kath, who can show us around.

I'm resolved to go next year, come hell or high water. (Ouch!)

you are a naughty boy, and you are cruisin for a bruisin, in the form of more high water than you can drink. winkwink.

of course, i am hoping new orleans will be the spot, too. i really can't do justice to how wunnerful the city is, not in a post, probably not in twelve.

i think it is the most unique city in all of america... and one of the most unique cities in the world. (i say this without one whit of bias. ahem.)

even if you went *just* for the food, it would be worth it. good food is nigh high to a religion there, but it's just the tip of the crawfish claw.

whatever you are into, you'll find it there. it should go without saying, but music galore. architecture to die for... galleries... the audubon zoo and aquarium... the garden district, with those ole oaks framing a canopy over st. charles avenue and my fave strip of the streetcar line... bars out the wazoo... restaurants for all tastes, from street to limo... theaters... shopping places... the flea market... one of a kind tours (the graveyard tours rank high with my gothic patiney)... bizarre, lil out-of-the-way weirdnesses (the hoodoo museum, for example)... the oldest cathedral in the united states, cluttered with artists by day and tarot readers by night... street musicians, entertainers, acrobats, horn players, and rip-off artists (ya gimme five bucks if i tell ya where ya got yer shoes, man)... breakfast grills... sunday jazz brunches... café du monde and lapfuls of beignets swimming in powdered sugar... horse carriage tours and tennessee williams walking tours... pat o's in the quarter, with the only REAL hurricanes and flyin purple people eaters worth drinking in the entire town, whilst sitting outside in wrought iron chairs on ole-style patios lush with greenery...

that's just a fraction of the cool crap in that city. naturally, the main attraction will be that y'all will finally get to see just how ample my ass is, an occasion not to be underestimated in this lifetime. (pack the wide angle lenses.)

however, i promise i won't take it personally if you all decide to go to altoona instead.

kath
c/o new orleans chamber of fucquin commerce

[Velvis]

... the flea market...

Sam? Stop salivating.

[kath]

... the flea market...

Sam? Stop salivating.

well, technically, i should call it the french market. translation: a long strip of outdoor area running parallel with the river, full of tons of tables covered with tons of crap.

a fave day-time activity of mine in the quarter is to hit café du monde first, and then to walk on down to the french market.

on second thought, i'll worry about geo-talk if we get to that point.

[LeBaron]

Further, we now have a local, Kath, who can show us around.

Nolamike is a local. And loveless has some claim.

[kath]

i think it is the most unique city in all of america... and one of the most unique cities in the world.

why the rolling eyes? you beg to differ, i see.

but that's ok. maybe i will get the chance to prove you wrong, and maybe i won't. either way, you will still be wrong.

[toomanyhatz]

i think it is the most unique city in all of america... and one of the most unique cities in the world.

why the rolling eyes? you beg to differ, i see.

but that's ok. maybe i will get the chance to prove you wrong, and maybe i won't. either way, you will still be wrong.

Pedantic, I know, but I think his point was that the definition of "unique" is that there's only one- therefore something can't be "most" unique- it's either unique or it isn't.

As to whether New Orleans is unique or not, having been there once a long time ago I'd have to agree that it is. (Very. )

[LeBaron]

i think it is the most unique city in all of america... and one of the most unique cities in the world.

why the rolling eyes? you beg to differ, i see.

but that's ok. maybe i will get the chance to prove you wrong, and maybe i won't. either way, you will still be wrong.

I don't think he likes the term "most unique."

[kath]

Further, we now have a local, Kath, who can show us around.

Nolamike is a local. And loveless has some claim.

i was asking someone about nolamike in PM... is he still around here? he's a cool guy. is loveless from new orleans?

just for the record, i and my ass don't *hafta* be the designated tour guide if others prefer others or if others wanna take the job. there are some drawbacks to having kath as guide~~no one else will get a word in edge-wise, most notably. and i am notoriously prone to distraction, side-trips leading to side trips, and whatnot. i tend to make mincemeat of the best laid schematic itineraries, as in my head, point A leads not-so-directly to points F, Z, and pi.

i just want BCBers to have a blast in a city built for that merry beast known as the jolly up.

[LeBaron]

Further, we now have a local, Kath, who can show us around.

Nolamike is a local. And loveless has some claim.

i was asking someone about nolamike in PM... is he still around here?

He comes and goes.

is loveless from new orleans?

So I've been told.

[Sambient]

... the flea market...

Sam? Stop salivating.

well, technically, i should call it the french market. translation: a long strip of outdoor area running parallel with the river, full of tons of tables covered with tons of crap.

whimper!

[kath]

i think it is the most unique city in all of america... and one of the most unique cities in the world.

why the rolling eyes? you beg to differ, i see.

but that's ok. maybe i will get the chance to prove you wrong, and maybe i won't. either way, you will still be wrong.

I don't think he likes the term "most unique."

ah. well, lemme qualify myself, then. new orleans is the most unique city i have ever been to in america, and i have been to many and lived in many all over the country, with the exception of the west coast.

it has a partial feel of a very old port city, with all of the ethnic and historical mix you get with that, but add to the blend a very strange combination of french spanish and african, of warped catholicism with old world magic and superstition, of people surprisingly open and warm like much of the south, but with a clear penchant for hedonism and music and all things anti-fundamental or markedly un-biblebeltish... then add a gallon of cayenne-laced absinthe and bake at 120 degrees for a few hundred years.

of course, the above is just my personal view, and is therefore not representative of this station or its management.