9/24/07.

My favorite concert ever started like most concerts I've been to. You show up a little late, to avoid the terrible opening bands. You find the optimal standing room taken already, so you do your best to maneuver to somewhere in 'the middle,' and wait as the last opening band finishes up their lackluster set. As they do, the handful of friends they have at the show cheer maniacally, but every else just sort of settles in, to await the main act.

You stand, and you wait in relative darkness, as more and more people file in. You notice the space around you get smaller and smaller, until someone is dangerously close to your ass, while you're dangerously close to someone else's ass. You shift your weight from foot to foot, wishing you had arrived early enough to snag a seat, or a good wall or railing to lean against. You start to sweat, but only on the inside of your shirt, and it drips slowly down your body, but there is no way to cool off, except to fight your way through the now full venue and lose your valuable standing space.

So you wait. And you get thirsty, wishing beers weren't 9 bucks, and waters weren't 4. And someone around you smells. Not just of alcohol, but of having not showered since last night, and you can't figure out who it is. You see an occasional person walk across the stage, checking sound levels, making sure all the wires are plugged in. Every time someone new walks across the stage, you crane your neck to try to see around the tall guy in the hat who decided to plant himself in front of you. A group of Asians chats excitedly and quickly somewhere behind you.

That was all typical at the best concert I've been to. But that moment when things suddenly get a little darker, and everyone cuts the conversation...that was just buildup. It started out slow. A few flashes of light, a low meandering bassline.

Then, it started.

I can't describe it very well. Honestly, I was rather overwhelmed. The first song had video with old 50's style Russian Industrialist/Communist propaganda video.

Link.

I admit, the Chemical Brothers are not my favorite band, and the Riv is not my favorite venue. But man. That night, was something else.

CTA.

This is a pretty interesting artcile. I had no idea the CTA needed so much of its revenue to be from ridership.

No wonder they're always broke. Given the amount of buses that are packed ass to crotch on a daily basis during rush hours, I don't really see any possible way they could meet that funding requirement.

Not that outraged.

As per this development:

I really have no problem with the entire idea behind this.

As it stands, if you're driving downtown, you're fucked. Chances are, you're either going to spend half an hour driving around looking for a meter that's somewhat close to your destination, only to settle for something 5 blocks away. And if you're doing anything that takes a long time, you're going to have to venture back to feed your meter.

However, if you don't have the patience to circle repeatedly in search of an elusive meter spot, you're going to hit a garage or pay lot. In which care you're going to be spending far more than any of these increased meter fees will be. Raising the meter fees is punishing, in a way. Yes, if you're willing to drive down, and spend time looking for parking, and eventually find it, then you're going to be paying more to park per hour. However, if you have no problem paying for things like a parking lot, this is going to help. It will keep away people unwilling to pay that price, and allow for less competition for those coveted meter spots.

Furthermore, it encourages the use of public transit. To get downtown, people will have to use public transit more. Thus, there is reduced street congestion for both drivers and pedestrians. Less cars on the road makes mass transit more convenient, as fewer cars on the road means buses can travel faster, and taking the bus feels like less of a burden when it actually moves.

Now, if the city was smart, which it's not, it would use this money to fund more an better mass transit. Thereby increasing the ease of use, and allowing for more people to use it more often. Additionally, increased mass transit is infinitely more usable to tourists. The increased mass transit could help boost tourism, even if slightly, and thereby increase revenue.

Really, it's a pretty good idea, in the grand scheme of things. But implementation is pretty poor. Leasing out to a private company, for a long fucking time, and allocating the funds to dead-end sources (i.e. that have no capability of returning revenue, as mass transit, increased tourism, etc. can), is poor execution of a very smart policy. Overall, I think it will be a net positive for the city, but not nearly as effective as it could be.

On the way home.

On the way home today, I started thinking about how long I've been in Chicago. Even the years I was at college, I was always coming back to Chicago. My breaks revolved around times I came back, or the shock of spending the summer in Normal.

Every so often, I still have to step back for a second from the shock of thinking "Whoa, I'm 25." The more I think about it, part of it is "Whoa, I'm 25, and I'm still here..." I have not traveled as much as I'd have liked, and I did not move as far away as I should have when I went to college.


I love Chicago. Not everything about it, but even some of the things I don't like about it do give me a sense of pride in an odd way (example: machine politics, it's daunting size). But, I'm starting to think that it might be time to spend more time away from the city. And during those times away from the city will not just be vacations, but mini-auditions in what it feels to be somewhere else.

Not that I plan on moving away soon, but the lure of 'elsewhere,' and 'somewhere new' is drawing on me more and more.