Day 2 - Chicago

Day 2 - (Saturday, 29th July 06')
Saturday started off with my scheduled 9 mile run, along the Lake Shore Trail. I woke up at 7 am and set off armed with my GU gel, towards the pedestrian bridge that would take me across the Lake Shore Drive to the trail. Needless to say, the run wasn’t half as good as I had expected it to be. I didn’t know if it was the heat wave lingering on the city, or the absence of shady trees or simply the unfamiliarity of the route, that made the run more difficult than usual. There were a lot of bikers and a few runners in the park, which was great, to boost my dehydrated morale, considering the lack of water fountains along the trail. Mile markers helped though, as I somehow made my target mileage for the day.
Headed back to the hotel, by 9 am or so, where Saurabh was wide awake watching ‘Alexander’. Done with the regular morning routine, we left to get breakfast at the hotel’s local restaurant and then took a cab into downtown, where the first stop was to be the Sears’ Tower.
The cabbie was an African gentleman; who’s accent was very difficult to comprehend. When I was talking to Saurabh in English, he thought I was speaking in ‘Pakistani’ and I thought to myself, how incomprehensible I may have sounded. Casual conversation with him revealed, that he was a big Mehmood fan and had watched a lot of his movies, until when I had no idea, that Mehmood was internationally famous.
An observation made in reference to Chicago cabbies is that they are rougher drivers than their Manhattan counterparts. I always thought that the latter were some of the most ruthless people behind the wheel, but last night and this morning’s cab rides have made me think otherwise.
At the foot of the Sears’ Tower, we found ourselves at the end of a rather short line for the sky deck. Constant comparisons to the Empire State were natural, as we noticed how security wasn’t such a big deal here, in spite of this being the US’s tallest building. ‘Just another NYC hype’ we told ourselves and moved on to the various levels, after which we were finally let into an auditorium, to be shown a short NatGeo film on the tower. The film was a good briefing on the building and the history of its construction, an interesting pre-viewing feature that the Empire State could do with, as well.
The Sears’ tower was conceived as 9 rectilinear tubes, bundled together like a pack of cigarettes that can be stacked higher or lower, in relation to each others heights. This to me, was symbolic of the whole skyline of Chicago, as I perceived it yesterday; staggering bars of a graphic equalizer, frozen notes of music. At the sky-deck, we were a little disappointed to find, that the footprint of the building was much smaller and more squarish, than the Empire States’, which obviously eliminated the 8 directional views that the latter offers, to just 4 basic views, from this rooftop. That was already four lesser ways of seeing this city, I said to myself. Also, the sky deck was enclosed, so that between the cityscape and me, stood glass, which completely left out the sensual experiences of sounds, weather and smell. The Sears’ Tower more, wanted to frame for you, the ways you should see the city, rather than you seeing what you want to, in it.
Still, we patiently walked ourselves and my little camera, through each window, marveling at times, at the dynamism each had to offer and groaning at others, at the boredom of monotony. I also missed a ‘Tony-the cab driver’ element, (For those of you who’ve been atop the Empire State Building, you may be familiar with this audio tour protagonist. In true NYC cabbie style, he walks you though the various neighbourhoods of Manhattan and unlike what some of my friends might want to add, is a pleasure to listen to, with all his little trivia and tidbits on the borough.)
The last time I was at a bird’s vantage like this, was at the Coit Tower, in San Francisco, marveling at the fascinating slopes of the 49 sq. mile city and then on top of the Getty Center in LA. Today’s experience, was a very different one, as my subconscious analytical mind, tried to analogize the Chicago-bird’s eye views, with those of SF, LA and NYC. The splendid vistas we saw, were a good mix of the suburban sprawl in the distance along the Southwest side of the city and the green river flowing on it’s prescribed path, right below us. Seemed like a marriage of American modernism and European magnificence. In the distance, curvaceous loops of highways, clover-leafed all over, as if trying to defy the man-made river’s unpredictability. The eternal lake, in a serene cool blue, lined the east side the city, and small specks of boats were buoyed at the various harbours, in a linear order of sorts. Green River, Blue Lake; Chicago couldn’t have gotten any luckier, I said to myself. A little before the lake, on the east side, was the green patch of the Millennium Park, with Gehry’s bandshell and Kapoor’s steel cloud, shining through. On the upper north side, the Navy Pier stretched out orthogonally, cutting into the lake.
A must-do for any city lover, I believe, is to go on top of it and look down, on it, as in a real time map, watch it breathe, move and adapt itself to its various neighbourhoods, observe its multi-faceted personality unfold itself, street by street, block by block, until the eye meets the horizon where nature takes over.
Done with our Sears’ Tower tour, I shopped for my usual 'I’ve-been-to-this-city magnet’ to add to my refrigerator collection at home. While at it, we came across a penny machine and got a souvenir penny with ‘The Windy City’ embossed on it.
We walked around a little bit, and decided to take a ride on the ‘El’ to get as close as possible, to the Magnificent Mile (Michigan Ave); Chicago’s equivalent to Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. This is also where, my friend Suchi was going to meet us, later in the afternoon.
We transferred train lines, Orange to the Red and ended up at the ‘Chicago’ stop on the Red line, from where we walked across to the John Hancock Building; a similar sort of black skyscraper like the Sears Tower, albeit with a tapering top. It’s interesting to note, how the typologies of various buildings in different cities, speak so much for the history and the making of that city. Chicago boasts of a good mix of modern skyscrapers, sleek, black and in tempered dark glass, with a sprinkle of a few art-deco structures within; Manhattan on the other hand upholds more architecture from the pre-war and art-deco periods, with some modern and post-modern glass towers, mostly in downtown.
A Water-tower located in the heart of the Magnificent Mile, seemed worth a look, so we walked in, to find a B/W photography exhibit, showcasing athletes in their various fields of expertise. I day-dreamed of myself in a picture, where a sepia-toned, sweaty but grinning, woman seemed to have just crossed the finish line of a marathon race.
Outside the Water-tower, the Mile seemed to be busy with shoppers and tourists. We walked the entire Mile, from the John Hancock Building to the Wacker Bridge, where Suchi would meet us. A newly married couple with their troupe, posed for pictures against the Mile, and I posed for one, with a steel cow sculpture, across them. In a while, Suchi was walking towards us, in her brand new short haircut.
She decided to walk us West of the Mile, pointing out to the ‘Pizzeria Uno’; the city’s first ever Pizza place (est. 1943), to sell the famous Chicago ‘deep-dish’ pizza, where a never-ending line of people stood patiently to be seated. A block across from it was ‘Pizzeria Duet’; the second branch of the same pizzeria, with an equally long line of customers waiting outside. A flamboyant Mc’Donalds stood a few blocks away, looking too good to be a Mc’Donalds. (We had earlier observed another Mc’Donalds, in downtown, which could easily pass off to be a fine-dining restaurant if not for the arched ‘M’ outside, that gave it away.) The area west of the Mile, had a few quaint bars and jazz clubs, that Suchi mentioned, were good places to catch an evening with the blues. We finally decided to beat the heat and catch-up, over a few starters and beers on an outdoor table of a beautiful Irish bar that was painstakingly decorated with flowers and ferns. After a few hours of chatting away endlessly, it was time to leave. Suchi’s husband Rishi arrived, to pick her up and they left after giving us an excellent tip for a live-jazz place to go to, for the night. We headed out to walk the Mile again and strolled into a random jazz record store, a mecca for jazz lovers, where Saurabh and I browsed around for a while.
A cab ride later, we were standing outside the ‘Buddy Guy’s Legends’ Jazz Café, that played R+B. The café interior was dark, painted in an electric blue, where people shot pool, bought jazz memorablia and CD’s and dined at rickety inexpensive tables, enjoying the southern fare. We particularly indulged in Fried Okra - southern style, which was outstanding. A contrasting mix of audiences, ranged from well-dressed ‘stiletto-ed’ young women on dates, to casually dressed first-time tourists.
Willie Davis and Fruteland Jackson were the two performers for the night. The first session performed by Willie Davis, conformed more to jazz of the Harlem genre, where six very talented musicians played in synchrony to Davis’s rendition of the blues. The second session on the other hand, was a complete contrast, with a troupe of five formally dressed musicians-in-black, led by a female vocalist/ performer, Fruteland Jackson, who stole my breath with her unrestrained energy and talent. Each time she sang, her voice shamelessly liberated her feet, to dance away incessantly in a world of her own. Her performance clearly, stole the show, that evening.
Mesmerized with what can easily pass off to be the best R+B concert I’ve ever seen, we walked out of the café, to hail a cab back to the hotel. On our way back, through the cab window, the Chicago notes of music, escalated and plummeted like the notes of the saxophonist in the café, painting the night sky, in a beautiful, subtle ‘blue’.