My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)

Lotsa great signage in Chicago; I'm especially fond of this one.

Met up with Bill again, today in Wicker Park. We shopped at Quimby's, a kickass 'zine/comics bookstore that sold Heinous and Monorail back in the proverbial day. Quimby's offerings reminded me of all the current/former Chicagoans who publish stuff I love: Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, John Porcellino and Jake Austen. I bought a couple 'zines and the Cryptozoological Play Set, if only to add its Bigfoot figure to my menagerie.

After a subway ride across town, Bill gave me a tour of Millennium Park, with its amazing Gehry band shell and The Bean (that's us in its rain-streaked reflection, due to a recent downpour). Then I strolled around Soldier Field, where I bought myself a Bears T-shirt.

As feared, tonight's White Sox game was threatened by rain, but unlike yesterday, it only amounted to a 58-minute delay. (That's the grounds crew rolling back the tarp at sunset.) There's nothing wrong with U.S. Cellular Field (apart from its name), but there's nothing special about it either. I just wish I had made it to its predecessor, Comiskey Park (site of Disco Demolition Night), before it was razed. In any case, "The Cell" marks the 26th stadium in which I've attended a big-league ballgame (20 current, six defunct). For the record, a raucous, near-capacity crowd saw a great game; the Sox rocked the Royals, 8-7.

So, with all its baseball, hot dogs, pizza, and Old Style, that's about it for this trip. Milwaukee was fine, but I'm definitely coming back to Chicago, that toddlin' Windy City of Big Shoulders.