Chi Town - Hangover part 3?

Our Chicago trip. Wow. Where to begin!? The goal was to see a Cubs/Cards baseball game. Possibly sneak in an afternoon game on Friday also. Then the storms rolled in on Thursday afternoon. We all had the afternoon off early, but one of my meteorologist friends had to stay at National Weather Service until the storm passed through. Guess we were spending the night in Omaha! We hit up happy hour and finished the night off at a new place called House of Loom down by the 10th street bridge. Local DJ Brent Crampton use to host this event at Espana called Loom, basically weaving the art, music, and cultures of selected countries together. Its a really good time! Well now he has his own place and the place is bangin!

Outside of Wrigley Field 

Our first night in Chicago. At Rock Bottom Brewery 

 

Let the hotel preparty begin!

The rest of the Chicago trip you ask? In a nutshell...can you say it was a getting kicked out of the Cubs game, passing out on the Red Line and missing your stop, seeing the back of a police car, girls puking all over your bathroom floor with no panties on, pretending to jerk off the guy in the elevator only to find out we have no clue who he was, LaSalle Power Company, not remembering that the night before you showed the guys all of your tattoos, throwing playing cards out the window during a storm, drinking at 10:30am, going to bed at 4am on a corner chair with a towel as a blanket, not paying attention to the Cubs/Cards game because of the air show and all of the spilled beer, trying to get into a club only to find out the VIP host's card you got on the freakin Metro quit last week (seriously, you're an idiot), Bugles (the chip) in the passed out guy's nose, having people walk in on you while you are on the pot, waking up and hearing the dirty going on, not only waking up but actually sleeping in the same bed while the dirty was going on, trying to crawl out of the subway on hands and knees only to see the doors close in slow motion on you, getting to party with your cousin for the first time in 33 years, having some feminine guy get kicked out of the club by a bouncer because he touched your mohawk not once but twice, one king sized bed for four guys because Hilton Inn gave up your room, dancing at Cubby Bear only to get a text saying I've been arrested again type of trip???

Scott and the windy hat 

My cousin Eric and I at LaSalle Power Company 

This girl has a brostache! 

Yes...it was one of those types of trips where anything and everything probably happened. Felt like I was a writer trying to figure out the storyline for the next Hangover part 3.

Who needs bandaids when you got toilet paper! 

It was one of those kinds of mornings.  

Thanks Barb for the beer! 10:30am and we were drinking! 

We were having shoe problems that day 

Mmm...food and beer 

Airshow during the game. See the heart? 

Yeah we threw that. You got a problem passed out guy? 

 The Cubs Win 3-0 against the Cardinals

Security was watching us like a hawk! 

Korver in the middle! 

Bring in the cheap aviators that I bent back into shape 

At Cubby Bear 

Check out the guy behind the guy in orange. Yeah, the one with sunglasses and the salmon colored blazer 

Don't even ask 

 At the dance club Detention. Dancing bunny!

You should never be the first person to pass out! from Misterlime on Vimeo.

A cool and legal way to get your graffiti artwork done!

Through the wonderful networking of Facebook, I came across this event on the Bancroft Street Market page. It was the Abstract Concrete Graffiti Throwdown. Sounds pretty cool, right? And it was. It took place at the Bancroft Street Market parking lot this past Saturday.

I pulled up to the parking lot and found a DJ spinning some house music and dance beats. Good music? Check! Many of the graffiti artists were wearing their own headphones, probably jamming to their own music, but having a DJ on turntables definitely helped to set the mood.

This was the winning team that took home $300 in cash

I looked around. There were concrete barriers, lots of cans of spraypaint, many artists already painting away, spectators, and probably a little over half a dozen photographers. Each photographer was shifting from barrier to barrier trying to capture the artwork that was about to be applied to these drab pieces of concrete. Awesome, I wasn't going to be the only person in the parking lot firing off tons of pictures with their camera. This almost got me into trouble while I was at the Iowa State Fair, but more on that in another post. And as always, click on any picture to get the bigger version.

How this graffiti throwdown worked: There were eight teams of two and each got a concrete barrier to use as their canvas. There was a timer counting down and each team had to design and spray paint any type of scene that they wished. As the poster says, each team was judged on originality, style, and skill. What was cool was that this event promoted planning and teamwork between the members of the team. As I walked around, I noticed that many teams had blueprints for one if not multiple possible plans for their graffiti. Once they had the design in their heads or on paper, each member was going back and forth working on both sides of the concrete. It was a really cool event to see unfold before everyone's eyes.



Below are pictures of the final barriers once the timer was stopped. Next came the judging. Great work artists!

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

  

 

 

 

  

 

  

And the winners were announced

 And a few misc pictures