Prison Break Terror

I don't know how you are, but when I watch series there is always a piece of me thinking things are a bit unrealistic. The villain always seems too easily caught and the hero too savvy, or, in possible contradiction, the criminal is unbelievably successful in his ambitions while the  law enforcers make every blunder in the book depending on the angle of the story. But after reading the news tonight, I'll put a little more stock in the probabilities of some television. The news is probably the inspiration behind many scripts.

It appears that a murder convict escaped a prison in Illinois by choking the security guard on duty to death, dressing up in his clothes and escaping with his SUV. Sounds a bit too close to Prison Break starring Wentworth Miller. There was a possible breech of security from the inmate's aunt who used to work as a corrections officer as well as an error during lock down that allowed the prison break to take place. Some are also blaming the escape and concurring murder on staff cuts made state wide due to budget cuts. Whatever the case, there were a lot of things that took place at just the right time that allowed twenty-three year old Kamron Taylor to bust out. Thankfully, the police were intuitive enough to follow a lead in Chicago's South Side and picked him up after only three days. He did not escape to Panama, but is instead awaiting gun charges as they caught him with a loaded weapon.

The Chicagoans and Modernity

Are Chicagoans reluctant to modernity? That would truly be paradoxical given the story of the city as it was the first modern urban industrialized city in the country's history. Nowadays, the city is even widely identified with one masterpiece of modern art and architecture: The Cloud Gate. 

Located on top of Park Grill, between the Lake Michigan and the Loop, it is a 42 feet high sculpture made up of 168 stainless steel plates reflecting and distorting the city's skyline. Anish Kapoor, the British artist who designed it, is one of the most prominent contemporary artist of the last decade. His goal with the Cloud Gate was to remove the trace of the signature of the artist as well as any trace of its fabrication in order to make the sculpture seem as though it was "perfect" and ready-made. 

This artistic process contrasts with another major piece of contemporary art which has left its mark on Chicago's landscape and which stands not far from the Cloud Gate. Before the erection of the Cloud Gate in 2006, Chicago was indeed well-known for the Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by the famous Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The Chicago Tribune had dubbed Gehry "the hottest architect of the universe" for his acclaimed Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao. The pavilion is a monumental bandshell erected in Millenium Park. It is constituted of the former banshell structure amounted by a monumental roof. Then a trellis consisting of a cross-stitched sweep of curving steel pipes stretches across the entire width of the seating and lawn areas. It's an architectural design which volontarily displays its structure in order to create proximity with the spectators. Even though it was designed as a piece of architecture it is considered as a major piece of art. It transcribes Gehry's vision of architecture: buildings should be humanized so that the individual can recognize itself in the hostile world of the massive industrialized city.  
 

It seems like Chicago is truly the city of artistic openmindedness and audacity. However, that statement wouldn't take into acount the way the Chicagoans reacted to those pieces of art. When the Cloud Gate was revealed in 2006, many Chicagoans were highly critical and dismissed the unfinished 'Bean' as a piece of metal. But the public quickly changed its meaning from pejorative to loving to such an extent that they stopped praizing the Jay pritzker pavilion, which was considered until then as the architectural achievement that would move Chicago into the new millenium. 

I wonder what were the reactions when the first skyscraper was erected. 

But after all, it seems like a normal reaction! Didn't the parisians reacted this way after the construction of the eiffel tower?

The Windy City

The Windy City is perhaps Chicago's most famous nickname, and we immediately suppose it refers to the tremendous gusts that are channeled through the city's skyscrapers off of Lake Michigan . The city has become increasingly windy due to the enormous amounts of high-rise buildings built along the shore of the Great Lake. However, the name was coined long before the building projects began.

In the 1870's the editor of the New York Sun, Dana, coined the word in reference to Chicago politicians who would talk up their city much to chagrin of rival cities such as New York. Their bragging was considered just a bunch of empty wind, nothing but hot air. The nickname stuck, though the reasoning disappeared. Probably, visitors saw that the city did indeed live up to the hype and it wasn't just some politician's grandiose windbag.

The Chicago Loop

To me the Chicago Loop was always the portion of Interstate-94 encircling the innermost hub of central Chicago. A place where all major freeways in the Midwest intersect. A dreaded place to sit for up to three hours in traffic jams.  When I looked it up though, there was a more technical definition for the tag. A quick check online showed me that in reality it was more than just the semi-circular boundary around a portion of the city.

There are seventy-seven districts in Chicago; the Loop being the financial and commercial district in the center of the downtown. It also includes the center of government with the Civic Center. The name the Loop originated from the looping route of the cable between the streets Wabash and Adams and again between Wells and Lake. The cable car has now been replaced with an elevated railway which greets shoppers with a deafening roar when they step out of Chicago's original and famed Marshall Fields Department store between Wabash and State St.

Got U-Boat?

There are numerous amazing museum's the world over, but who can boast a museum containing an entire U-boat and a life-size re-enactment of the history behind its capture and technology? Well, Chicago, of course!

The U-505, captured during WWII by a Navy crew on the USS Chatelain headed by Daniel V. Gallery, is today located in the Museum of Science and Industry along Chicago's lake front thanks to a donation in 1954. Getting it into the museum is a whole story of its own.

The German submarine was captured just off the coast of West Africa where it was lurking in hopes of catching some unaware allied ships. Incidentally, it was the U-505 that was surprised on June 4, 1944. The capture of the submarine remained top secret for the remainder of the war as the Allies wanted to retain the upper-hand gained from the technology that was captured on the boat. Along with codes, there was an Enigma and other secrets that aided the Allies in their victory.

A movie is said to be in production recounting the story of the U-505's capture -- Playing with the Enemy.

Melting Pot

With significant populations originating from all continents, Chicago is one of the world's outstanding "melting pot" cities.

Chicago's population tripled between 1870 and 1900 due to its rapid economic and industrial growth. This population boom was largely fueled by immigrants from Eastern Europe, namely Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Germany and Ireland were also major sources of immigration around this time.

Today, Chicago is home to large communities from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Mexico, India, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Ukraine, Greece, Vietnam, Slovakia, Russia, Korea, Pakistan, Israel, Assyria, and Romania.

Many of these ethnic groups have gathered in large numbers within certain sections of the city and its suburbs creating enclaves of the cultural influence of their home countries. The color coded map based on 2010 census results gives an example of various racial concentrations in and around Chicago.

Pizza!

We mentioned Chicago hot dogs in an earlier post, and feel its only fair to give equal attention to Chicago pizza. Different from all other pizzas and developed in Chicago, Chicago deep-dish pizza could easily be the signature dish of the city. Of course, Chicago's thin-crust pizza has its own following which would argue the point vehemently. Either way, the two pizzas are true Chicago food. We'll introduce both -- can't say unbiasedly -- and let the chips fall where they may.

Deep-dish.
Deep-dish pizza is just that -- deeply satisfying. We don't know exactly how it got here, but we love it. More of a tart than a pizza per se, the deep-dish has a dough shaped like a tart shell and is filled with cheeses, meats and veggies to the customers liking and then baked with the sauce on top. Be warned this is not finger food!

Thin-crust.
The thin-crust, as the name implies is a pizza with a really thin crust. The pizza sauce is a bit spicy normally and the pizza is cut into squares rather than wedges. Where  the deep-dish leaves you feeling like you've had a three course meal, the thin-crust has more of a tapa feel to it, something you'd munch on between beers.

"Won't You Please Come to Chicago" -- Graham Nash

The year 1968 was a turbulent one for the United States with the Civil Rights movement in full swing and the youth of America openly questioning the authority of their parents' generation to dictate the rules of the world they lived in and its long-term effects on their own lives. Chicago experienced a huge protest turned riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention which later resulted in the Chicago Eight, a trial for the more outspoken "leaders" of the riot. It was in reference to this and further protests of the trial that Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young wrote his song "Chicago".

Maps: Chicago's meat packing industry

From the mid-1800s onwards, the region represented the largest livestock market in the world created by Chicago's point of convergence and hub of access thanks to the westward rail-road expansion, which made the city a profitable mid-port for both ships and trains transporting goods and soon countless millions of livestock between the East and West coasts. At that time, this center produced about 82 percent of the meat consumed in the United States.

Armour is known to be the first to dominate the industry, along with Swift, Morris and Wilson. In 1882, the industry advanced and accordingly Gustavus Swift created the Refrigerated Transit Company to transfer processed meat to the East coast markets. By-products such as leather, soap, fertilizers, glue, gelatin, cosmetics also emerged during that period.

Chicago Historian Dominic Pacyga, who lived near the stock yards, accounts for how this industry shaped the city when he recalls: "Some people used to say you could tell the time of day by how the smell changed". Hygienic and sanitary conditions were disastrous for no actual measures were taken to keep rats and bugs out of the meat, nor for the workers to wash their hands and wear clean working clothes.

Additionally, working conditions were very bad. Immigrants from Eastern Europe came to Chicago to find jobs and were largely employed in this industry. They worked 12 hours a day, were paid low wages and were not provided any benefit. Upton Sinclair contributed to depict these working conditions under capitalism in his 1906 The Jungle, as was mentioned in a previous article on this blog: http://chicagothethirdcoast.blogspot.fr/2015/02/chicago-hog-butcher-for-world-midland.html
Due to this growing awareness, pressure entailed several legislative measure such as the Pure Food Act and Drug Act as well as the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.

Later in the 20th century, pioneers of the Chicago meat industry relocated in more rural areas as it was cheaper. In 1971 the Chicago Union Stockyards closed its doors as technology moved forward.

Chicago's first permanent resident

Drawing of the home of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable in Chicago as it appeared in the early 1800s

Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable lived near the mouth of the Chicago river in the 1770s which makes him the first recorded inhabitant of the settlement. Illinois was acquired as part of the United States through the Treaty of Paris of 1783 which also ended the American Revolutionary War. He owned the first trading post of the area in the 1770s. The African-Caribean founder was born in St Marc, Haiti.
He married a woman from Potawatomi descent named Kitihawa in 1788, although some sources report that they were married prior to this date in the Native American tradition. They had two children.
At some point he was arrested by the British military during the American Revolutionary War as they suspected he was an American sympathizer, but ended up being released.
The definition of his status varies as there are few records prior to the 1770s. Various historians debated on his origins. He was said to be a "free negro" by Indians, some historians state that he was a former slave from Kentucky and other research found that he was probably a fur trader from Canada.
Nonetheless a number of Chicago institutions have been named after him such as Schools, or the DuSable Museum of African American History which is the first and oldest museum founded in 1961 and dedicated to the study and conservation of African American history, culture, and art.

Lollapalooza 3-Day Passes -- SOLD OUT!

A heads up to all those wanting to attend the Lollapalooza Music Festival this July in Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois. As of today, all Lollapalooza 3-Day Passes have been sold out. There still a chance to get into the awesome three day music festival, though, by buying single day passes. They go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. central time. Better hurry though, they disappear ridiculously quickly.

By way of explanation, Lollapalooza is quickly becoming one of the largest music festival in the world. In 2012 more than 300,000 music lovers attended and the crowd is growing every year. It is prized at $50 million in media value. he ambiance is something between a concert and a whopping party!T

While we don"t know yet what the lineup is. The rumors are Kanye West, Florence and the Machine, Sam Smith, Drake, A$AP Rocky, and Jack White are possible artists to look for.

Ask your father about blues music, he'll tell you about Chicago

“Dad, I’d like to write an article about blues music and Chicago. What should I write about?”

“Muddy Waters, of course!! Best blues song ever: Hoochie Coochie Man”

 

My father is the kind of man who would have loved to live in Chicago during the 1950’s to be able to go to jazz and blues clubs and listen to the greatest performers of all times.  First, he would have gone to the open air market on Maxwell Street. It was a market, where most of the Black community used to go to buy and sell just about anything (see the video below). It had become the ideal place for bluesmen to perform. Maybe, he would have run by John Lee Hooker playing his song Boom Boom with Big Walter Horton (from the Blues Brothers movie). Then, he would have gone down to the South Side of the city, to reach the blues clubs in the Black neighborhoods and he would have enjoyed listening to street musicians on the way.

 

Chicago is definitely one of the most prominent cities in terms of music in the United States. It even gave a name to a specific type of blues music (the Chicago blues) and it is where urban blues was born. And this is not surprising giving that it was one of the first major cities in the country. Blues performers, who had often left their local communities to come and work in the city, had to deal with the new urban reality and adapt to a larger, more varied audience's aesthetic.

I could choose to talk about many Chicago blues musician: Buddy Guy, Freddie King or Jimmy Reed. I could also develop more about The Blues Brothers rhythm and blues band founded in 1978 and the Hollywood movie created around its members in 1980.  But the paternal figure has decided: I will talk about Muddy Waters.

Muddy Water may have been born in Mississippi, that didn’t prevent him from defining Chicago blues with songs like "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man." In 1943, he headed to Chicago where music was shaping a generation. With his electric guitar which he used to be heard over the din of patrons at the clubs he played on Chicago’s South Side, he was able to develop the legendary style that transformed the rustic blues of the Mississippi with the urban vibe of the big city. In addition to his musical legacy, Waters helped cultivate a great respect for the blues.

I could add a lot more information about Muddy Waters, but what fascinates me most is the way he contributed to subvert the codes of the genre. As a Black musician performing a rural southern musical genre, he succeeded in imposing a new type of music in the big industrial city among a diverse audience. The inferior classes, which were formed of people who had emigrated from various places in America or around the world, had nothing to do with the troubles experienced within African American society. And yet, this music managed to move them to such a point that it influenced a variety of the most successful music genres and musicians of the second half of the 20^th century. The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and more owe this great Chicagoan musician a lot.

"Live fast, die young, and have a good looking corpse." -- Nick Romano, Knock on Any Door.

When the Great Depression hit the southern states in the 1930's, millions of people migrated across the country to find better opportunities for themselves. Close to 1.6 million African-Americans turned to the northern states to find work in the factories. Chicago was the destination for many of them. They settled along city's south side and developed an art movement similar but less publicized than the Harlem one -- the Chicago Black Renaissance. Among these writers, musicians, and other artists was Willard Motley.

Motley began his career writing for the Chicago Defender under a pseudonym. Like many artists his luck was earned with time and patience. He traveled to various states doing menial editing and writing jobs before returning home in 1947 to write his first and best loved novel, Knock on Any Door, which interestingly enough features a different migrant group, Italians, rather than African-Americans. His audience received the novel's theme of poverty and hardship turned to crime well, and the book was a hit. In the first three weeks 47,000 copies were sold. The novel was also adapted to the screen starring Humphrey Bogart. There were critics to Motley's choice of character ethnicity to which he replied, "My race is the human race."

 After the first novel Motley tried to continue his success, but the reactions to his other three works, one of which was published posthumously, were not equal in proportion to the first. 

Et Voila!

If you've ever been to a fair, chances are you are familiar with and have probably taken a ride on a Ferris wheel. Today a pleasant ride and great view; its invention was first designed as an attraction for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago and as a competition to Gustave Eiffel's Tower for the Paris Exposition in 1878.

Chicago's George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. was a engineer and businessman who was struck with the enormity of the Eiffel tower project and wished to create something on that scale for the American world fair. The original Ferris wheel measured 80 meters. The structure rotated on an axle foot of about 2 meters and 50,800 kilos. It is the largest piece of steel to ever be forged. The structure completed weighed 3,719,457 kilos. Taking that into consideration, it's easy to see why many engineers thought the machine was an impossibility.

His idea proved successful both then and now. It is said that in the six months of the exposition close to 27 million visitors took a ride on his attraction. Today Ferris wheels are included in most amusement parks and fairs and continued to be loved. The Ferris wheel on Navy Pier in Chicago stands close to where the original, since demolished Ferris wheel once stood, and offers residents and tourists a breath-taking view of the city.