“Celebrating the awesome nature of Chicago every day.”

That’s the answer that one of you offered up to our audience-survey question: “Best idea to salvage from Chicago 2016.” We couldn’t agree more—that could actually be our tagline.

When we sat down as a group of editors and writers to plan this, our seventeenth edition of the Best of Chicago, the city’s lost Olympics bid was still a fresh wound. Whether you found that day’s news devastating or perhaps a relief, chances are you felt at least a little bit worse. Like deciding to break up with someone and having them beat you to the punch: you’re left wondering what was wrong with you. Read the rest of this entry »

Stir the Soul

In this year after we sent the first Chicagoan to the White House, the spirit of possibility was never stronger. And no matter where you stood on the desirability of the Olympics bid, there was no denying the dynamic of seeing the city’s business, government and cultural communities banding together to try to make something great happen. Sure, it would have quickly dissolved into a fair bit of the old “where’s mine” had we won the bid, but the events of these last two years have driven home the power of a communal effort to achieve a larger goal. Let’s not lose that spirit, but instead redirect it into immediate efforts to make no little plans in other ways. Imagine, for example, a harnessing of civic energy across all spectra of cultural, civic and commercial realms to, once and for all, turn the CTA into the world-class public transit that our city deserves. Or to turn the last four miles of lakefront into the public park that embodies our city’s heritage. Or… Why not still make 2016 a landmark year in Chicago?

Audience choice:
Fix the CTA

Best audience comments:
“The South Side needs love too”; “If you liked it then you should have put some rings on it’ -a la T-Shirt Deli, Bucktown”; “Adding a fifth star to the Chicago flag”; “arresting hippies”; “The Olympic bid really created some deep thought about improving our infrastructure and repairing and revitalizing our areas of urban blight. It is important that this dialogue not go to waste. Chicago has a lot to be fixed”; “Think locally, act locally.”

Best of Chicago 2009

Second Cityitis

There was a pathetic undertone to much of the discourse surrounding the Chicago bid for the Olympics, which went along the lines that we need this to be a world-class city, that too much of the planet still thinks “Al Capone” when they hear “Chicago,” to which we say: bunk! In all of our world travels, we’ve never had Al Capone come up in conversation. Architecture? Yes. Michael Jordan? Yes. House music? Yes. The weather? Sadly, yes. But Scarface Al? No. Kind of makes you wonder what crowd those other guys are running in. If we want to be world-class, the first step is to realize we are world-class and not to worry about it. World-class cities never fret about their status; they simply do what makes them great and make sure the world knows about it. So let’s get over this inferiority complex and start marketing our assets. Like our architecture. Our beautiful lakefront. Our extraordinary cultural life. And while we’re at it, make sure we tell everyone how nice our weather is. In summer.

Audience choice:
Hosting the Olympics

Best audience comments:
“Obama + Oprah = Unbeatable”; “‘Let Friendship Shine.’ Friendship isn’t chrome!”; “Britney Spears and whatever she does or doesn’t do”; “Forget tearing down the Michael Reese Hospital campus! We’ve already lost one of the Gropius-designed buildings there and Chicago is ready to destroy more at any moment.” “That I could have made a boatload salvaging my condo.”

Best of Chicago 2009

Rachel Niffenegger

People should not get married nor should painters receive awards until reaching the age of 30 for the same reason: lack of maturity, but in the case of recently turned 24-year-old Rachel Niffenegger, possessing the uncanny ability to turn a palate of pinks, purples and pearlescents into grisly figurative masses, one can make an exception (not to mention an entirely new award). With her solo exhibition at the Post Family’s Family Room last December, she continued a move into sculpture with little stylistic discontinuity between that and her painting. Next, she travels to Miami with Imperfect Articles at the NADA Art Fair.

rachelniffenegger.com

Best of Chicago 2009

The reliefs at Von Steuben Math and Science Academy

The WPA-era murals featured at Lane Tech and other Chicago Public Schools through The Chicago Mural Preservation Project are widely known. While these works of art vividly depict scenes from American and world history, the artwork at Von Steuben Math and Science Academy seems to be aimed at one particular group—teenaged boys. Nestled along the North Branch of the Chicago River and surrounded by a walkway filled with wildflowers and willow trees, the artwork is a series of reliefs running underneath the cornice of the school building. The first one depicts a football player in an old Knute Rockne-era helmet. The second, a petite young woman covering her breasts with her forearms. The third shows the woman with her forearms opened, exposing her breasts for all to see. Football? Breasts? Is there anything else that a 15-year-old boy could possibly be thinking about?

5039 North Kimball

Best of Chicago 2009

Chicago Fly Fishing Outfitters

The late University of Chicago professor Norman Maclean’s masterful semi-autobiographical novella depicted a spiritual euphoria in fly fishing the waters of the West, almost enough to make you want to pick up and head out there. Except you’d have to live in Montana. But you don’t need to, thanks to Chicago Fly Fishing Outfitters, a large store selling apparel, tackle, flies and all the other gear needed to hit the waters. Plus they arrange destination travel, either nearby or far off, and even offer lessons in how to tie a fly. “In my family, there was no clear division between religion and fly fishing,” Maclean wrote. And now there’s no excuse not to go to “church.”

1279 North Clybourn
(312)944-3474
www.chifly.com

Best of Chicago 2009

Roger Ebert’s Journal

Some of us write for a living, but we suspect Roger Ebert writes to live. How else to explain why, after a career that nearly every writer would sell a soul for—Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for a major daily, star of an extremely successful television show, several best-selling books—his output seems to increase, not decrease with time, even after his well-publicized battles with cancer. A more recent endeavor, his blog leads him out of the screening room and into the very heart of the body politic, where he tackles a mix of social issues and personal insights, ranging from memoir to revelation, like his recent discussion of his battle with alcoholism years ago. (And sometimes, yes, he discusses movies.) Ebert is a thoughtful, gracious writer, and his blog epitomizes the best of the medium: not only is he a joy to read, but he gets comments that are the envy of anyone in the business, hundreds and hundreds of comments (his recent take on healthcare reform elicited nearly a thousand responses). And unlike the sites that seem to traffic in knuckleheads, most of his commenters—even those who disagree with his politics—do so in reasonably articulate and informed manners. Best of all, perhaps, is that Ebert is not just content to drop in his post and move on, but reads and responds personally to many of his correspondents.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/

Audience choice:
Chicagoist

Best of Chicago 2009

Best Friends Diamonds & Gems

When she’s not helping clients select diamonds for custom engagement-ring settings, Karla Lewis, a gemologist who has gone so far as to collaborate with Vatican officials to fulfill an unlikely request for a remake of a ring worn by Pope John Paul II, raises the gold bar on philanthropy. “Some people think of holding chili dinners to raise money, but when I think fundraising, I think diamonds,” Lewis says. One benevolent bauble, a black diamond pendant she designed, recently fetched enough money to help Wunder’s cemetery get a new tractor. The Jewelers Row design house also specializes in those unusually shaped gems from the Indian and Pacific Oceans, South Sea pearls.

29 East Madison, Suite #1404
(312)269-9999
bestfriendsdiamonds.com

Audience choice:
The Renegade Craft Fair

renegadecraftfair.com

Best of Chicago 2009

Knew When to Quit

Audience choice:
Cast deciding vote on Universal Health Care

Best audience comments:
“First African-American Senator Appointed by Impeached Governor”; “First man on Mars”; “Never Indicted”; “Winnie the Pooh impersonator extraordinaire”

Best of Chicago 2009

Michael Shannon

It’s humbling when big-shot Hollywood actors like William Peterson return to their Chicago theater roots, but for stage actor turned Oscar nominee Michael Shannon, he never really left home. Raised in Lexington, Kentucky and Chicago, Shannon rose to prominence as a founding member of the tiny A Red Orchid Theatre. After acting in a run of lesser Hollywood movies, he made waves in films “Shotgun Stories” and “Revolutionary Road.” Shannon’s portrayal of the hopelessly empty John Givings landed him a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor nomination for “Road” this winter (he lost to the late Heath Ledger). After wrapping up another tremendous performance in Red Orchid’s latest production, “Mistakes Were Made,” Shannon demonstrated why he’s still our golden boy. 

Best of Chicago 2009