This past weekend I went to chicago with some friends for the car seat headrest concert. The show was great but that’s more of a me thing — what I will talk about is the city itself, which was also great! It’s like an oasis of brick and steel in the midwest, at least that’s how it felt seeing the skyline after a five hour car ride through the rural wasteland. The city is unique (as someone who hasn’t yet been to new york) in its tapestry of the classic and the modern. It’s the ideal ‘big city’ in my opinion. There’s always been something very magical to me about the L, although we only got to ride the underground this time, but just feeling the tracks loom above me in the street makes me imagine that there was some magnificent view of the future of urban living that we stopped building too long ago. Not that it feels ungrounded, more that it feels like a superorganism kept alive through the work and lives of countless people who love it. That soul is present in all of the early-to-mid-century architecture, and even most of the new stuff feels like it belongs. Unfortunately, I was really only there long enough to enjoy the salt shed (great venue but couldn’t bring my camera) and the touristy places around millennium park. Hopefully I’ll get to spend a lot more days there.