Complex Mag Misses Mark on 'Unusual' Chicago
By Prescott Carlson in News on Aug 24, 2011 7:40PM
We're all for newly discovering the odd and strangely wonderful things that abound in Chicago, so when we saw a link to Complex magazine's "insider guide" article "Windy City Confidential: 50 Unusual Chicago Destinations" we excitedly clicked over.
Needless to say, we were a bit disappointed when we saw the #1 most "unusual" Chicago spot was... Oz Park.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt that the list was arranged in no particular order, we kept browsing. Other "unusual" destinations? The Morton Arboretum. Ravinia. The Chicago pedway (which, before the article was updated, originally included a photo of the mislabeled -- and actually kind of unusual -- walkway under O'Hare's Terminal 1). The Indiana Dunes? Really? And as much as we love Kuma's Corner, at the end of the day it's just a burger joint with loud music. The only thing they seemed to get right on the list was Puppet Bike. Someone who has never been to Chicago reading this list would think this is the most boring and vanilla big city on the planet.
So we thought we would right that wrong and put together some of our own favorite -- and truly unusual -- destinations and things in and around the city:
- Forget the Bahá'í Temple -- the title of the area's most unusual building goes to the Onan's Gold Pyramid House in Wadsworth, Illinois
- Intuit - The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art: this 20-year-old center full of art made by self-taught and outsider artists is often overlooked by the masses more interested in gawking at Monets over at the Art Institute.
- Being able to buy tube socks, VHS tapes of Disney movies, prayer candles and montalayo (lamb stomach sausage) tacos all in one place qualifies the Maxwell Street Market as unusual.
- The Native American statue that sits perched on top of a cigar store turned optometrist at 63rd and Pulaski had a small cameo in the movie Wayne's World. Speaking of Wayne's World, a posthumous Unusual Chicago Award goes to Berwyn's car spindle.
- The Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles will forever be known by some of us of a certain age as the way to find Ray Hara's King Datsun.
- Come for the nostalgia, stay for the creepy mannequins at the McDonald's USA First Store Museum in Des Plaines.
- While the sculpture is (thankfully) only here temporarily, Marilyn Monroe and her plethora of gigantic upskirt photos in Pioneer Court has to be the oddest thing to blow through town in decades so it makes the cut.
Some of the other spots bandied about around the Chicagoist water cooler were the Manteno State Hospital, the International Museum of Surgical Science, Mount Bridgeport, Canal Origins Park, Wicker Park's "Bum Island", La Pasadita, and late night at the Weiner Circle.
What are some of your own favorite unusual places in Chicago?