hallo thomas... hallo alles klar
I've been meaning to write this for a while now and it just keeps not happening! But now it is, so don't worry.
Last Wednesday, as I mentioned in my last post, which was forever ago, I was reading Kaylan's journal and it mentioned that her band Joiya was playing in Chicago this weekend. Cara and I had been wanting to go to Chicago for a weekend, and the chance was presenting itself. We, of course, took the Universe up on its offer.
We hopped on the bus here in Iowa City after our classes on Friday and rode to Davenport, then hopped on another bus!
and rode forever to Chicago. We arrived about 7:40, and Kaylan and Carly met us in the Joiya van outside the Greyhound station. We went over to DePaul University, where Joiya was playing in an hour or so. There were some other bands playing too, mostly experimental indie bands.
The band that played before Joiya consisted of three people playing guitar, bass (frustrated guitarist bass, no less, icky chords and all), and drums as hard as they could and as flashily as they could for twenty-minute "songs" that never seemed to go anywhere or consist of anything but little melodic fragments interspersed over seemingly random rhythms. We left because it was deafening and overwhelmingly not good. Then Joiya!
came on and they pretty much blew me away. They sounded so great, and all their songs had that quality I absolutely love in a good band where everything anybody does is for a reason. Then a band happened where there were three guys doodling on electric guitars, a guy wiggling around with a picked-up violin, and a guy swaying around with a trumpet and a bass, and they all just made noise in some semblance of pattern for about twenty minutes. They were not really playing together so much as playing at the same time. The worst part was how sure most people there seemed to be that the other two bands we saw were really good and worth listening to. They weren't.
After that, Cara and Carly and Kaylan and the rest of Joiya and two Joiya friends who also showed up and I wandered around and eventually went to a Mexcan restaurant called Qdoba, which was similar to Panchero's but slightly different. Then Carly and Cara and I went back to Carly's dorm (she's an RA at the University of Illinois in Chicago) and hung out until we fell asleep.
Carly had a test in the morning but Cara and I slept in. When we woke up, Carly was still gone but we decided to do wash some clothes that had been dirtied when Cara's free Kum and Go pop that we got before we left Friday fell over in the bus and went on my clothes in my backpack. I went to the washer and dryer room I had seen before with some quarters and the soda-soaked clothes and Carly's detergent and put the clothes and soap into a machine and then when I tried to put the quarters in there was no place for them to go. It turns out you had to have a little card to do it. So we waited around and looked for somebody with a card, and after what seemed like forever, our clothes were finally washed.
Then Carly came back and managed to snag us each a U-Pass for the public transportation, and Cara and I left, each toting a bag and me also with my guitar. We went first to a restaurant Carly had recommended called Lou Mitchell's!
We got a tuna fish sandwich and French toast!
and it was pretty amazing. Then we headed across the river!
towards the Sears Tower thinking it would be cool to go up top. They tried to search all our stuff and charge us $12 to ride their elevator and that was basically a no, so instead we hung out with a homeless man who called himself Wisconsin!
who was sitting at the bottom of the Tower.
Cara and I eventually left him and then Cara saw a bus and said, "Let's get on that bus!" and we did. It drove us around for a while, then we saw an L station and decided to get off near that so we pulled the cord. I pushed my way out of the door with some difficulty but finally made it out. As I was stepping down I heard Cara saying, "The doors!" and then when I looked back behind me she wasn't there and the bus was starting to drive away. I frantically scanned the people inside the bus but couldn't see Cara, then I started yelling her name. She was right behind me. We wanted to find Indiatown, so I called Carly and asked her how to get there and she suggested we get on the Blue line and ride it to Western and then take the Western bus north until it started looking like India. We went to the train station!
and hopped on.
As we were on the bus riding north in hopes of finding Indiatown, a guy got on and started talking to us about music because he saw my guitar. He mentioned that he was headed to the Old Town School!
a place where they have lessons and performances of folk and blues music and dance and other things. We decided to follow him there and he showed us around. There was a sweet music store, where I played a tenor banjo!
for a while (a rarity indeed: I've only seen about five in my life and only ever met two people who really play it out of all the instruments and players I've seen) and then bought an E minor harmonica. Cara and I wandered around that neighborhood for a wihle and found some weird stores, then rode the Brown line downtown in hopes of dinner.
We left the train station and while looking around for a place to eat saw that Swan Lake was playing at the Cadillac Palace Theater. It seemed like an exciting time so we asked how much the cheapest tickets were, and at $22 we just couldn't say no. We found a Corner Bakery!
and had dinner before the show, then saw a sweet ballet. Afterwards as we were walking to the train station we found an open square and took some pictures!
Then we went back to Carly's in the cold!
and we all tried on our Joiya t-shirts!
Sunday morning we woke up and packed ourselves, then Carly made us some corn-bread toast (it's like bread only it's made out of corn!) and showed us to the Greyhound station. We bid her adieu, and settled in for a long ride back to Iowa City.
What an adventure!
Last Wednesday, as I mentioned in my last post, which was forever ago, I was reading Kaylan's journal and it mentioned that her band Joiya was playing in Chicago this weekend. Cara and I had been wanting to go to Chicago for a weekend, and the chance was presenting itself. We, of course, took the Universe up on its offer.
We hopped on the bus here in Iowa City after our classes on Friday and rode to Davenport, then hopped on another bus!
and rode forever to Chicago. We arrived about 7:40, and Kaylan and Carly met us in the Joiya van outside the Greyhound station. We went over to DePaul University, where Joiya was playing in an hour or so. There were some other bands playing too, mostly experimental indie bands.
The band that played before Joiya consisted of three people playing guitar, bass (frustrated guitarist bass, no less, icky chords and all), and drums as hard as they could and as flashily as they could for twenty-minute "songs" that never seemed to go anywhere or consist of anything but little melodic fragments interspersed over seemingly random rhythms. We left because it was deafening and overwhelmingly not good. Then Joiya!
came on and they pretty much blew me away. They sounded so great, and all their songs had that quality I absolutely love in a good band where everything anybody does is for a reason. Then a band happened where there were three guys doodling on electric guitars, a guy wiggling around with a picked-up violin, and a guy swaying around with a trumpet and a bass, and they all just made noise in some semblance of pattern for about twenty minutes. They were not really playing together so much as playing at the same time. The worst part was how sure most people there seemed to be that the other two bands we saw were really good and worth listening to. They weren't.
After that, Cara and Carly and Kaylan and the rest of Joiya and two Joiya friends who also showed up and I wandered around and eventually went to a Mexcan restaurant called Qdoba, which was similar to Panchero's but slightly different. Then Carly and Cara and I went back to Carly's dorm (she's an RA at the University of Illinois in Chicago) and hung out until we fell asleep.
Carly had a test in the morning but Cara and I slept in. When we woke up, Carly was still gone but we decided to do wash some clothes that had been dirtied when Cara's free Kum and Go pop that we got before we left Friday fell over in the bus and went on my clothes in my backpack. I went to the washer and dryer room I had seen before with some quarters and the soda-soaked clothes and Carly's detergent and put the clothes and soap into a machine and then when I tried to put the quarters in there was no place for them to go. It turns out you had to have a little card to do it. So we waited around and looked for somebody with a card, and after what seemed like forever, our clothes were finally washed.
Then Carly came back and managed to snag us each a U-Pass for the public transportation, and Cara and I left, each toting a bag and me also with my guitar. We went first to a restaurant Carly had recommended called Lou Mitchell's!
We got a tuna fish sandwich and French toast!
and it was pretty amazing. Then we headed across the river!
towards the Sears Tower thinking it would be cool to go up top. They tried to search all our stuff and charge us $12 to ride their elevator and that was basically a no, so instead we hung out with a homeless man who called himself Wisconsin!
who was sitting at the bottom of the Tower.
Cara and I eventually left him and then Cara saw a bus and said, "Let's get on that bus!" and we did. It drove us around for a while, then we saw an L station and decided to get off near that so we pulled the cord. I pushed my way out of the door with some difficulty but finally made it out. As I was stepping down I heard Cara saying, "The doors!" and then when I looked back behind me she wasn't there and the bus was starting to drive away. I frantically scanned the people inside the bus but couldn't see Cara, then I started yelling her name. She was right behind me. We wanted to find Indiatown, so I called Carly and asked her how to get there and she suggested we get on the Blue line and ride it to Western and then take the Western bus north until it started looking like India. We went to the train station!
and hopped on.
As we were on the bus riding north in hopes of finding Indiatown, a guy got on and started talking to us about music because he saw my guitar. He mentioned that he was headed to the Old Town School!
a place where they have lessons and performances of folk and blues music and dance and other things. We decided to follow him there and he showed us around. There was a sweet music store, where I played a tenor banjo!
for a while (a rarity indeed: I've only seen about five in my life and only ever met two people who really play it out of all the instruments and players I've seen) and then bought an E minor harmonica. Cara and I wandered around that neighborhood for a wihle and found some weird stores, then rode the Brown line downtown in hopes of dinner.
We left the train station and while looking around for a place to eat saw that Swan Lake was playing at the Cadillac Palace Theater. It seemed like an exciting time so we asked how much the cheapest tickets were, and at $22 we just couldn't say no. We found a Corner Bakery!
and had dinner before the show, then saw a sweet ballet. Afterwards as we were walking to the train station we found an open square and took some pictures!
Then we went back to Carly's in the cold!
and we all tried on our Joiya t-shirts!
Sunday morning we woke up and packed ourselves, then Carly made us some corn-bread toast (it's like bread only it's made out of corn!) and showed us to the Greyhound station. We bid her adieu, and settled in for a long ride back to Iowa City.
What an adventure!