Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Medio-Core Guide to Chicago

The "Year of Big Ideas" was a common topic this past Thanksgiving. I again went out to the Canyonlands National Park in Utah with my outdoor enthusiast Denverites. These couple of days out in the desert are really a time for me to hit the reset button. Since the West is where I started thinking like an adult its nice to go back and take stock of the cascade of decisions that bring my life to date. As with looking back one should not forget to look forward.

Cycling
In this spirit of looking forward, a few ideas that were mentioned are finally taking a long bicycle tour. I purchased the proper bicycle for such a trip at the end of last summer. I have Lake Michigan coursing through my veins and would like to pedal along its perimeter completely. Although If I am going to ride RAGBRAI this year too I might have to shorten that trip. Yes. RAGBRAI the week-long bike ride across pie filled Iowa.

Ride an organized criterium. I've been on a training ride so a few more of those and then the real thing. I'd really like to see if I really like it.

Climbing
I think I book-ended my summer with climbing and that was all the climbing I did. I feel I was climbing really well while having a blast too, and to not do something you have fun with is tragic. Expand beyond Wisconsin and So. Ill. to the Red River Gorge in Ky. There is also no good reason to not part of the Chicago Mountaineering Club either. I'm out with them at least once a year its time to reintroduce myself and be a regular.

Mountain Biking
The Midwest Mountain Bike Fest as always shall be attended. I believe it will be in Peoria, Ill this year. Farmdale Reservoir has some of the best trails I've ever ridden and really need to go back there. My single track crew has dispersed this past year and I no longer live near my old trail network. I need to find what the northside trails have to offer.

Watersports
I used to canoe at least once a year when I was in college. I would like to get back to that even if it is just a quick trip up the Kankakee River and back down.

Writing
On this parting note a goal of mine I have had for years is to create the Medio-Core guide to Chicagoland. A simple guide to stepping out of your second story walk-up and into nature. Just the little things that I enjoy most about the forest preserves in Cook and the Collar Counties. Hopefully I update this site a tad more frequently.

Friday, May 21, 2010

My video resume.

I realized that since high school everywhere I've worked has been in the movies.


Most recent The Art Institute of Chicago


They say its Aspen but its main st in Breckenridge.

I could only find the trailer but look for the United Airplane and thats the Museum of Science and industry. Plus great Chicago scenery.

And good ol Adventure Land with Pirates of the Caribbean.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Why we live in the city.

I live in the city of Chicago within 5 miles of the Loop (city center). My younger brother and sister live in the city as did my older sister until recently. We all have friends also living in the city within the same radius. However none of us were raised with the bustle of "L" trains. This is how I define "The City", any neighborhood with elevated trains with 2 and 3 flat houses. We all did a lot of growing up on the South Side and you would be correct in pointing out that is Chicago and is serviced by the Red Line "L", but honestly we were all told it was not a safe place for kids so it was avoided. We hailed from areas defined by tree lined streets and single family houses, suburbia or not. You would be hard pressed to find a single family home within 5 miles of the Loop or a tree lined street for that matter. The home my parents raised us in is relatively close to the south suburban towns they themselves grew up in. Never did they feel the need to call the city home. Go as far back as my maternal grandfather and you see even he grew up in a Chicago neighborhood that did not possess the traditional city hustle. A recent audit of all my friends' locale yielded a city setting weather it be in Washington D.C., Denver, Minneapolis, and they had an upbringing much like my own. So why this generational shift to metropolis? It is said "move to the city to meet other young people" "the city is where the action is so you should be close to it " and so on. Well the action has always been in the city, that never stopped suburbanites before. The grandparents of my generation came from all over to see the big bands play at the Aragon Ballroom. As a teen living in south suburban Hazel Crest I frequently made the trip to the Fireside Bowl on the north side for all ages punk rock shows. So just as the Greatest Generation, my Generation Xers found the city just as accessible. Eventually the allure of city life encompasses us. I think Sesame Street has a lot to do with it. Sesame Street is wildly popular as my generation is getting an early education. On the show we are taken to a city street that is eerily accurate to city life right down to the homeless guy living in the garbage can. My brother has a man living in his alley in real life. The alley dweller tells my brother not to work to hard as he heads off to work. It makes sense that as a child if you see grown-ups out on city stoops that when you are of age one moves to the nearest metropolis to stake claim on a life as an adult. After all isn't that what childhood development is all about, giving you a solid foundation for making future decisions. It works out well though even if it is an unintended consequence. City life guides me to make environmentally sound decisions, such as riding my bike using the farmers market and public transportation. Of course this is strictly me thinking aloud and some economist could probably debunk all of this with a few great pie charts. I digress it would just be nice to know that a few cookie loving, compulsively counting, wishy washy, gigantic monsters helped us all get to a place called 18th, Damen, Western, Fullerton, Fulton, Pearl, or whatever your Sesame St. is these days.