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

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

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

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

Desire Under the Elms, Goodman Theatre

Goodman artistic director Robert Falls made his case for the primacy of Eugene O’Neill as America’s most important playwright by “curating” and producing a three-month festival of work entitled “A Global Exploration: Eugene O’Neill in the 21st Century” and at the epicenter he placed his own supercharged take on “Desire Under the Elms.” Falls stripped away the script’s maternalized majestic elm tree and replaced it with pure masculine commotion, all rocks and carcasses and visceral energy. Against that backdrop, further personified by the gritty performances of Brian Dennehy and Pablo Schreiber, Carla Gugino should not have had a chance, but instead stole the show in a portrayal both tragic and sensual all at once. Folks either loved or hated Falls’ rendering, with Broadway falling into the latter camp, but it demanded to be reckoned with and, even better, set off a long conversation that carried us through equally powerful and extraordinarily risky renditions, from other creative minds, of “The Emperor Jones,” “Mourning Becomes Electra,” “The Sea Plays,” “The Hairy Ape” and “Strange Interlude,” each of which had camps of fans and detractors, and each of which fueled enough argument to warm an especially cold Chicago winter.

Audience choice:
The History Boys, Timeline

Best of Chicago 2009

Big Black

Quick. Raise your hand if you think it’ll still be Willis Tower in thirty years. Didn’t think so. In this age of naming rights being sold with little regard to public consciousness, the public needs to retake the vernacular by nicknaming such buildings. We like “Big Black” for its powerful directness, a nickname that seems to match the building’s gritty posture in our sky. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s also the name of a seminal eighties rock band from Chicago, but we’ll keep that our little secret.

Audience choice:
Big Willy

Best of Chicago 2009

Takashi

Chef Takashi Yagihashi wrote the book (literally—“Takashi’s Noodles”) on silky soba and ridiculously rich ramen. But, why make it at home when you can score sweet somen and the ultimate udon at Yagihashi’s Sunday brunch.

1952 North Damen
(773)772-6170
takashichicago.com

Audience choice:
Urban Belly
3053 North California
(773)583-0500
urbanbellychicago.com

Best of Chicago 2009

Mado

Like the butcher version of “The Candy Man,” chef Rob Levitt is one of a few dudes who can take a pig’s head or organ meat bits, cover them in cinnamon and clove and a miracle or two, and make the final product sing in your tummy.

1647 North Milwaukee
(773)342-2340
madorestaurantchicago.com

Audience choice:
Mado

Best of Chicago 2009

The Breakfast Club

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” may have made the most of Chicago’s illustrious, filmable locations, but “The Breakfast Club,” set in the fictional suburb of Shermer, Illinois, is the better film. Laughs, tears, stolen kisses, lessons learned. High school was awful and great. We’re all athletes, brains, princesses, basket cases and criminals. Hughes knew that better than anyone.

Audience choice:
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

Best of Chicago 2009