Chicago Summers: Our Brief Season Abbreviated

By JoshMogerman in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 10, 2011 8:00PM

What are you doing on the web? Don’t you know its summer out there? Not that you haven't made a wise choice reading our work while you're stuck indoors. But do you need a reminder of what you are missing? Josh Kalven has what you need: A breathtaking time-lapse of what Chicago’s glorious summers are all about. Think of it as our pathetically compressed 8-week season further compressed into four minutes with a great soundtrack:

Summer Sped Up (A Chicago Timelapse) from Josh Kalven on Vimeo.

If this doesn’t motivate you to get off your duff and into the stuff, nothing will. We spy some of our favorite spots and summer stuff in town: the L on Wabash, the LaSalle Street Bridge, the Pritzker Pavilion and Crown Fountain in Millennium Park, the Point in Hyde Park, Lincoln Park Zoo, Pilsen street vendors, Big Star Tacos, North Avenue Beach, 16” softball, Critical Mass, the relocated Maxwell Street polish sausage stands near UIC, the coolest basketball courts on the planet at the south end of the South Loop under the Green Line L tracks and Jeanne Gang’s awesome Aqua Tower all make cameos. What did we miss? More importantly, what did Kalven miss? We think it’s a shame there aren’t any shots of massive crowds in line for Italian Ice stopping traffic on Taylor Street -- maybe round two?

Tip of the hat to The Urbanophile where the vid was a late addition to an eye-popping post on great city videos, which is also worth your time should you feel the need to stay indoors.