Magnificent Mile Lights Festival in Brief: The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival officially kicks off the Christmas season in Chicago, with numerous fun family activities and the highlight, the Mickey Mouse parade illuminating over one million lights along Michigan Avenue.
Imagine if it is your job to count the lights every year... do you cheat? Medium tree = 756 lights - check, whoa, large tree = 1786 lights - check... Best of all it happened half a block from my hotel... hehe, NO parking problems here!
So, there I stood waiting for the parade, watching the Chicago police baricade the street which ended right infront of me with about a foot shortage of baricade. Over walks two of Chicago's best. The biggest cop takes some yellow police line tape and strings it about 17 times between the two baricades. The smaller cop asked the bigger one if he was scared the smaller ones will break free, when the bigger cop looked me in the eye and said it was not the smaller ones he was afraid of! Jerk. Looking him in the eye and before I could stop myself, I said in my best Brick Heck (from The Middle) wisper 'Dude, Mickey Mouse...' I thought the smaller cop was going to pop a kidney laughing.
and boy, did I feel like feeding these sharks with a few screaming kids... Oh Lawdy, the temptation was STRONG...
Chicago in shock!
Another lucky day for me. One day too you will ask where were you when Oprah announced her retirement. Yes folks, I was there, in Chicago, on the streets, as a city wept.
So somewhere in Illinois, enroute to Chicago, two of the older ladies a few rows back in my train car got in a scuffle after one of them got really annoyed by the other one’s incessant ringing cell phone and loud phone conversations. She then told the cell lady to “take her ass to the lounge car” as she was annoying. Did I mention they were old? The cell lady – still on a call – told her caller “the heifer next to me is giving me lip, how about if I just keep my ass here!” Oh boy. After a “You called me what" and a “You heard me, heifer” the 'heifer' stormed off to find herself a conductor. She has been gone a while now. As she stormed passed I noticed that she was wearing a ‘Steve Wilkos Show’ shirt. HA! If you don’t know, Steve Wilkos used to be a bouncer of the Jerry Springer Show and now has his own show. Now again to put it in perspective,,,, these are old ladies! HAHA, I don’t think we are in Texas anymore! So, now I am waiting for the chairs to start flying. Ah, I love America.
Finally! Chicago! Okay, here I am ensconsed in my hotel, the venerable old Tremont Hotel. I am in love with this old hotel and it is like a sweet homecoming as I have stayed here before. The best is that they offer Judith Jackson amenities. The 5 star creme de la creme (and hard to come by) of spa products. Thank you Jesus for Hotwire! Another bonus is that there is a Starbucks right across the street! To keep with the theme of my trip, it turns out that there is a Christmas Parade Saturday night as they switch the Magnificent Mile's lights on. Whohoooooo!
Like a true train geek, I now too have a youtube video of an Amtrak train, in this case the arrival of my own train.
Waking up in St Louis! Good morning from St Louis! Gateway to the west. Well, uhm, I forgot what public transport could be like on a bad day. Both in front and behind me are middle aged ladies who are snoring worse than a couple of sailors! Non-stop. All the way. Did I mention non-stop? In fact they are still at it, no matter how many times I accidentally kick the seat in front of me. Gosh. Endless... AAAAArgh, apart from that, all is well, oh and my shoe stopped squeeking! Is it a sign.... :-)
The train arrived here more than an hour early, so now we wait... it is quite beautiful watching a city wake up. You observe yet... you are not part of it.
Okay, after that deep moment I need a cup of very bad coffee!
My cultural training continued this past weekend with a visit to the local Bluegrass Festival. Oh wow, I had no idea... IT WAS AWESOME!
Hahaha, I enjoyed the hooting and hollering way too much. The video is from one of the bands that played even though the video is from another festival, but it will give you an idea...
About the concert from starwars.com Worldwide concert tour begins October 1 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California - Massive multi-media event features stunning visuals, a live orchestra, choir and narration, plus an exclusive exhibit of Star Wars costumes, props and production artwork. Star Wars: In Concert, a unique multi-media event featuring music from all six of John Williams' epic Star Wars scores, begins its worldwide arena tour on October 1, 2009 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Narrated live by Anthony Daniels (the actor who portrayed C-3PO in all six films), the production features a full symphony orchestra and choir, accompanied by specially edited footage from the films displayed on a three-story-tall, high-definition LED super-screen -- one of the largest ever put on tour. The live music and film elements are synchronized in order to create a full multi-media, one-of-kind Star Wars experience. "We've taken the key themes from the music and cut together all the images that fit with each theme, so you can really get a sense of how the music played into the images," said George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars Saga. "The whole soundtrack is a testament to John Williams' creativity and his extraordinary ability to enhance the emotional aspects of the films." "Creating the music for the Star Wars films has been an exciting and wonderful experience for me, and I therefore have derived particular pleasure in assembling a compendium of themes from all of the films to be presented in Star Wars: In Concert," said Williams. "The editors at Lucasfilm have created original film montages to accompany each of the musical selections, and in the process, I believe that a singular and unique Star Wars experience has been born." "This event has been crafted to present Star Wars from many points of view; for the first time, the full dramatic sweep of Williams' iconic scores can be heard performed live in one evening," said Another Planet Touring Producer Spencer Churchill. "The show is a new way of experiencing the epic scope of the saga." Accompanying the concert is an exclusive exhibit of Star Wars costumes, props, artifacts, production artwork and specially created behind-the-scenes videos from the Lucasfilm Archives. Many of these pieces are leaving Skywalker Ranch for the first time. The exhibit features many classic fan favorite artifacts, as well as several new and never-before-seen items
About the stadium from Wikipedia... Cowboys Stadium is a domed stadium with a retractable roof in Arlington, Texas, for the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys. It was completed on May 27, 2009 and seats 80,000, but is expandable to hold up to 111,000 through the use of standing areas. The stadium is the largest domed stadium in the world, has the world's largest column-free interior, and the largest video screen hung from 20 yard line to 20 yard line.
This weekend my Texas cultural education continued with a visit to a local Bullfest! Oh my… Bull riding is a rodeo sport that involves a rider getting on a very large bull and attempting to stay mounted for at least 8 seconds while the animal attempts to buck off the rider. The rider tightly fastens one hand to the bull with a long braided rope. It is a risky sport and has been called "the most dangerous eight seconds in sports. Only 4 lasted past the required 8 seconds, the rest went flying and cartwheeling off into the distance. Every single one of them had to hop when hitting the dirt as a half ton of livid bull was inches away trying to pulverize their butt into dust. So needless to say, that moment got more reaction from the few hundred strong crowd.
One humorous moment was provided when half a ton of bull refused to go back into the pen and stormed everything that moved sending rodeo clown jumping fences like crazy! I am sitting on the third row from the bottom halfway down the arena and watch the bull with interest, remembering when last in Spain I visited a bullfight and one very cheesed of bull broke through the outer fence and send picadors, photographers and other Spaniards climbing walls to get out of his way when suddenly I realized that the current bull was heading straight for me! There is only one gaggle of older ladies between me and the bull when it smacked into the fence two meters in front of me. The lady in front of me got covered in lovely mixture of bull snot and mucus. I am talking drenched. That bull’s sinuses were cleared which I am sure he would enjoy after his headache dissipated.
So, there I stood waiting for the parade, watching the Chicago police baricade the street which ended right infront of me with about a foot shortage of baricade. Over walks two of Chicago's best. The biggest cop takes some yellow police line tape and strings it about 17 times between the two baricades. The smaller cop asked the bigger one if he was scared the smaller ones will break free, when the bigger cop looked me in the eye and said it was not the smaller ones he was afraid of! Jerk. Looking him in the eye and before I could stop myself, I said in my best Brick Heck (from The Middle) wisper 'Dude, Mickey Mouse...' I thought the smaller cop was going to pop a kidney laughing.
