Results tagged “daleyplaza”

       

We never intend to be all gloom and doom but when we have to be, we try to provide a little tonic for the soul to bring things back into balance. Take for example, a video of a frolicking baby otter to save you from being a complete pessimist after reading yesterday's Extra Extra (see last bullet). And, here's something else: just when it seemed like a lot of things that make Chicago the unique place it is were ending up on the cutting room floor - like the Outdoor Film Festival in Grant Park, Chicago Jazz Fest, and Looptopia - we're happy to hear the CTA Holiday Train is alive and well.

Normally when you think of the phrase "trimming the tree," the image that comes to mind is decorating it with lights and ornaments. But this year, Chicago is also trimming the physical size of the Christmas tree that goes up in Daley Plaza each November.

Every year, we look forward to the Christkindlmarket. This is because, despite all appearances to the contrary, pops is part German - hence the last name. The same last name that caused my blond haired college roommate's startled look when we met for the first time, clearly not expected the Korean looking girl in front of her. But,...we digress.

So the day is almost upon us. In fact, a long day of Olympic activities will kick off not only in Copenhagen, but also Chicago not long after midnight Chicago time. That's when - at around 1:45 a.m. our time - all four cities will have a chance to present their case to the IOC one last time. Every major network in town will carry it live both on television and stream it on their website. The IOC will also stream all the fun via their website. For the three of you still awake and on this site at that hour, I'll be covering it as well right here. Once that's all wrapped up, the voting begins. So how will the voting go down? The Tribune's James Janega is all over that question and breaks it down for us.

          

As promised, we got up very very early to hit the Daley Plaza Farmer's Market as soon as it opened on Thursday morning. In future entries, we'll be visiting a varieties of farmer's markets around the city, but for the first day of the season, we returned to our old standby.

If you've noticed an abundance of men and women in uniform around town, it's because it is the first ever Marine Week here in Chicago. It kicked off Monday morning and continues through Sunday night. The Marines will be showcasing their talents around town all week. You can see the full list of events here, but here is a list of events that are free and open to the public.

It turns out that lovely Christmas tree that adorns Daley Plaza comes at quite a price. CBS2 calculated that the city spends over $300,000 to buy the tree and to pay the workers to create the frame and assemble the tree. The tree is actually made up of 113 small trees combined, unlike the single (privately-funded) tree that adorns Rockefeller Center in New York City, and it took workers six weeks to hoist the trees into position.

        

Now that the holiday season has descended, and since we had an hour to kill downtown, we thought we'd wander around the State Street corridor and document some of the insanity. Even in a shit economy, thousands were in the heart of the Loop for bargain hunting and tree-gazing. Stores like Macy's (Yes, Fields Fans, we've ventured inside) and Sears were packed with throngs of shoppers, and Daley Plaza was nearly impenetrable with curious residents, suburbanites and tourists looking to complete their stein collection or overdose on sugar-coated nuts. We didn't have the balls or the patience to venture north into the lion's den of North Michigan Avenue; any reports from survivors would be appreciated.

One of our annual traditions the day after Thanksgiving is to try and burn off some calories by walking around the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza, then hanging around for the lighting of the Christmas Tree (trivia: it's actually about 130 smaller trees lashed together). So we were a bit surprised when we heard that the lighting ceremony has been moved this year to Tuesday, December 2 at noon. Whaaa? How can you have an event featuring a bazillion lights and fireworks (and boy won't those wake up the downtown cubicle dwellers) in the middle of a weekday? Is anyone even going to be able to tell when the Mayor flips the switch?

Yesterday we were walking around Daley Plaza, looking to get a little photo-artistic during our lunch break, when we came across this guy exercising his First Amendment right the old-fashioned, analog way. His name is Paul, and his Website, advertised on his placard, attempts to expose "the lies, manipulation and counterfeiting on Wall Street." Let's hope he's got enough bandwidth! ROMS features, among other things, links to bailout coverage, YouTubes of news interviews, and other stuff related to naked short selling and other financial things we don't understand (because we don't have any investments...or own any money, come to think of it).

This is one of the more ridiculous things to come out of the mouth of a ridiculous governor (which is saying something): at the Cubs rally yesterday in Daley Plaza, Gov. Blagojevich said:

When you're the executive, you've gotta make decisions and you've got to go through the ups and the downs...Sometimes when I'm arguing with the Legislature, I feel like Lou Piniella arguing with the umpires. Some of the times I have to make decisions as governor, I ask myself, 'What would Lou do?' Then I make some decision.

             

Cubs officials, dignitaries, celebs, Blago and Daley, and, of course, Cubs Nation came out for a post-season rally in Daley Plaza over lunch today.

          

When we headed off to Daley Plaza this morning, we didn’t expect to find much that we hadn’t seen the week before. But the market always manages to surprise us and this morning was no exception! Some new items had come into season, and we found some new varietals to try out in the coming week.

Lots of festivals, tastings and food-related events this week, people.

        

It was a bountiful morning at the farmer’s market! Spring and summer produce has begun to come out in full force – and there were some surprising things to be found. Fresh flowers were one of the stars this morning, with peonies and irises everywhere. Asparagus is still available, but has been replaced in the leading role by Strawberries, which are so plentiful they are overflowing off of the tables and stands. Nichols Farm stole the show with fresh Onions (red and white), green Garlic, all the greens you could ask for, Broccoli, baby Turnips and the first of the Sugar Snap peas of the year.

Head to Daley Plaza this morning at 10:30 a.m. for a quick early voting rally for Mark Pera. Pera, the assistant Cook County State's Attorney who is running against Dan Lipinski for the 3rd Congressional District seat, is the first serious candidate to challenge Lipinski since he went to congress in 2004. Pera's campaign has attracted a lot of attention, both online and in the district. Online support has helped helped fund his campaign, but anger in the district at how the elder Lipinski handed his seat to his son has fueled the viability of his candidacy. Still, he's running against the full force and weight of Chicago's entrenched Democratic Machine.

The sidewalks are covered in ice and the temps are sneaking down to the single digits. That's perfect weather for toting a toddler around, right? Here are three (free!) reasons to spend that extra hour bundling your kid up this weekend. Christkindlmarket is a candy-cane striped Bavarian winter village deposited into Daley Plaza. Come to gawk at the expensive, often hand-made gifts, and snack on traditional German fare. The children's lantern parade is today at...

There has been a (baby) rash of Nativity crime in Chicagoland over the past few years, and this year’s organizers of the Nativity scene (known as the “God Squad”) in Daley Plaza have taken steps to help curb the thefts--the baby Jesus is chained down like a toddler on a leash. The God Squad has faith he’s not going anywhere this year. A Tribune expose has revealed the Baby Jesus has been stolen numerous times...

October in Chicago makes us feel like kids again. This month, the Mayor’s Office of Special Events and the Park District have filled the calendar with Halloween-themed activities perfect for the toddler set and their kid-at-heart parents. Here are our favorites in the lead up to the big holiday. The park district (along with Walgreens) is sponsoring events to get you in the spirit at over forty different neighborhood parks from Bessemer to Oz throughout...

Chicago won't be waiting until the Cubs win the World Series to celebrate. Given the Cubs' postseason track record over the past 99 seasons, that's probably a smart idea. A rally to celebrate the Cubs making the playoffs will be held at noon on Monday in Daley Plaza. While Cubs fans celebrate downtown, the Cubs themselves will head to Arizona. While baseball's regular season concluded on Sunday, the wild card won't be determined until a...

Let's be clear: Friday night’s Chicago Critical Mass ride will not be the last. No matter what the veteran masses staffing the ad hoc “Grand Finale Committee” decree, cyclists will keep coming to Daley Plaza the last Fridays of October (Halloween Mass!), November and, barring a citywide emergency or SWAT-style police crackdown, every month after that. Want us to prove it?...

Let's start with a tough question: Who is Chicago's greatest filmmaker? When it comes to experimental film some might advocate for James Fotopoulos, whose output is both prodigious and relentlessly probing. When it comes to documentaries, Steve James is more than formidable. And on the narrative end of things although neither Andrew Davis nor John Landis quite make the grade, they've both had their moments. We would argue that the title should go to Tom...

Here’s what you missed while you were thinking about giant ketchup packets: August is supposed to be a slow month? The dance community didn't get that memo. Aside from the Jazz Dance World Festival, next month sees Dance for Life, a gala for AIDS-related charities; Mark Morris Dance Group presented by Ravinia at the Harris Theater; Chicago Dancing Festival at Millennium Park; and the conclusion of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Summer Festival. The Berwyn...

The major stories this week are the opening of Crust, the continuing saga of David Hammond, bug eater, and how — if Hammond decides to head to Beverly in the near future — he might have a Tippi Hedren moment fighting with the seagulls who've been dining al fresco on cicadas. There are still plenty of events happening in the next seven days. Here are a few of note. - This weekend would be a...

Well, we've been hearing about Looptopia for awhile. A big overnight festival held in the Loop, blah blah. We didn't think too much about it. We pretty much dismiss the Loop after 5 p.m. and give it up for lost on the weekends. Looptopia is obviously working hard to change all that. It's going on this Friday through early Saturday morning and since we're going to be down there, we decided to check out the...

"Grinders" via pantagrapher.

Let's you and us take a stroll down memory lane for a moment. Don't worry, we're not going far; just a few months back, in fact. If memory serves correctly (and that's a crapshoot), the City of Chicago got itself into a bit of a flap during the holiday season over a Christian-heavy movie trailer. Some people were rather surprised, seeing as Daley Plaza calls itself home to the Christkindlmarket, which we take to have...

Chicagoist has a new fun game. It’s called “get people all riled up”. All we do is sit down over a beer, coffee or fifteen Jamison shots and say the two most electrified words in the English language, “The Secret”. It's way fun to watch proponents of “The Secret” battle it out with the militant disbelievers and just sit back and let ‘er rip.

It seems everybody is complaining about the delays on the El and is looking for alternative methods of getting to work. This Friday is a great opportunity to give your bike a tryout for the job. The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation is hosting its fifth annual Winter Bike to Work Day on Friday, January 19.