CHICAGO!, CHICAGO! : My Trip to the Windy City

Chicago Skyline

Last May I made my first ever trip across the pond to the good ole' United States of America and specifically CHICAGO, Illinois with my two best friends. Prior to the trip I torn a lot between should I go or not, as my friends said it would help me with my confidence and depression and was a way to make me try something new and get me out of my shell more. So eventually I bit the bullet and I flew over to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and arrived for my first taste of America with my two best friends.

Soldier Field

Once we touched down and dealt with the intense passport control there, we then got picked up by my friends American friend Erin and she drove us to her flat to dump our bags till we could check in and became our Guide for the trip.  

From there we drove into down town Chicago passing the beautiful Lake Michigan, as we started to see some well known buildings in the distance. Once we came off the Chicago loop, we then headed through the busy centre of Chicago to where upon the NFL DRAFT (American Football for non sports ppl) was currently ongoing in Grant Park.
No matter where you went in the city, all you could see was American Football Jerseys as fans from the Arizona Cardinals to the Washington Redskins all made the trip to be there. 
Of course there was a heck of a lot of Chicago Bears Jerseys and other items on show there, as we were in 'Bear Country'.

'The Bean'

Experiencing American food for the first time is also a bit of a culture shock too, especially when back in the UK when you get large portions and you think they are massive. But when you arrive in the States you realise ours and their large portions are two different things altogether.

 We ended up in a Pizzeria called 'Giordanos' and had one of the best Pizza’s I've ever had in my life, to which the four of us we had. We shared a BBQ and a Chicken pizza, as well as another but that has all but left my memory.  While in the restaurant, I was basically drawn to all the big screens they had up, as they had coverage of the ongoing NFL Draft and also had the highlights of the NHL Play-off's going on too, which saw the NY Rangers beating Washington while I was up in the air.

WILLIS TOWER
(Formerly Sears Towers)

We then had a walk round the City and started with a visit to Millennium Park and moved onto the 'Bean', a massive chrome sculpture in the shape of well.. a Bean. One thing I noticed while there was the amount of people using those annoying 'selfie sticks'. Everywhere we went people seemed to have one with them and me personally, i just hate them.

Later on in the evening we, all went headed towards Chicago’s West Montrose Harbour as the night had descended upon the City and this made for an amazing view from the edge of Lake Michigan.
The sight of the Chicago skyline was one epic viewing from my perspective and even though I took photos, none of them did it justice for me.  On the way back to end the first day we hit a bump and I use the term 'Bump' literally.

Our resident tour guide Erin for our trip hit one of the many bumps they have there and this caused the car to feel tinny and like something wasn't right properly with the car. After discussions and it getting late on with it past midnight now, the girls decided to head back to Erin’s flat to sort out the vehicle, while me and Nathan got a taxi back to the hostel and brought an interesting first day to a close.

Me at SkyDeck in the WILLIS TOWER

Day two started with the 'Worst Breakfast' I may have ever had in my life. For food I had the most driest Corn Flakes and 2 of the most rubber like eggs along some dirty cutlery. We were in a hostel, so i shouldn't have expected it be like a 5 Star hotel.

After that we then all met up again after the ‘fun’ of the previous night and explored the transport system in Chicago. We got on at the nearest tram stop called 'UIC- HALSTED' to which the bloke there was extremely helpful to told us where we had to go and what tickets we needed to get to our planned destination. 

We boarded the Chicago Metra Tram services there and headed on the Blue line to be met by a friend of our fellow Illinois fellow and would take us on our final leg of the journey.

This was basically a number of first's for me in, as it was the first time on US transport and was also the first part of my sporting double header too. We eventually arrived at a slightly overcast Wrigley Field to which is home to the CHICAGO CUBS Baseball team and from the outside looked amazing.
I saw the infamous big red sign outside that shows : "WRIGLEY FIELD Home of CHICAGO CUBS" and underneath the scoreboard was letting us know it was currently the bottom of the 4th Innings and the Cubbies were losing to their rivals the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1.  

Infamous Scoreboard atWrigley Field

Once we got into the place we then wandered round for a bit and headed towards our seats for the game.  
If I'm honest I am such a big sporting nerd, that where we were heading I was getting really excited too.

It wasn't near the dugouts where the players were, it was towards the corner of the stadium in which a very Infamous piece of US Sporting history took place.

I refer to ‘The Steve Bartman’ incident back in 2003. This is a very sore subject for long time Cubs fans and I'll explain why. It involved a ball being struck towards that corner of the stadium and with the Cubs player about to make a catch and would have help the Chicago side closer to victory, a fan stuck his hand out to catch the ball and in doing so stopped the home player from making an important catch and the Cubs would go on to lose the game and the series.

Wrigley Field 

However what followed after was one of the most intense and over the top scenes ever witnessed over a single incident. People began to throw beer, pretzels and even spat at this guy over his attempt to catch this one baseball and put the home fielder off.  

The guy in a green turtle neck jumper and Blue Cubs called Steve Bartman, just sat there in silence and looked like a kid who had been told off and didn't want to draw attention to himself. This was despite national tv focussing in on him a lot and was eventually escorted out of the stadium for his own good and well being… anyway I digress.

We watched the game and saw the Cubs losing to the Milwaukee Brewers 6-1, but despite the scoreline it was a very enjoyable game and I have since become a bigger fan of the game and adopted the Cubs from then on. After that little adventure we then headed back to the hostel and got changed for our respective evening's fun. The Girls went to watch Paramore in concert and to which I really wanted to go to, as it at the Allstate Arena in what was formerly the Rosemont Horizon. ( I only know that due to the old WWF days of always being there)

United Center, Blackhawks v Wild

Meanwhile, me and Nathan made the walk to the United Center on West Madison St for our first ever NHL game in the flesh. Plus not only was it just an NHL game.. but it was also a Stanley Cup Play-off game too and this softened the blow of missing the concert. 

The match in question pitted the Minnesota Wild against the hometown team and who would go on to lift the Stanley Cup come June time, in the Chicago Blackhawks. 

Michael Jordan Statue

This was Game 2 of-a-best 7 series and in truth, I was blown away by the Arena first and also seeing these Superstar players on the Ice in front of me, as opposed to watching them back in Blighty on the TV or playing them on the computer with the games starting at 2.

The 'Hawks won 4-1 and after the game me and Nath walked back through the Chicago rain, but not before we left we took a couple of photos of the 3 sporting statues that were standing outside the Arena. 

Two of them were former Blackhawks legends, in Bobby Hull and Stan Mikta. While just round the corner there was another statue and was some unknown basketball player.. i think he was called Michael Jordan of something ;)

VIDEO: Kane scores 4th goal in Chicago's 4-1 win over Minnesota 

https://youtu.be/fQZRxawxr1k 

On the third day we went to a place called Andersonville and had a spot of lunch in a nice little cafe there, before finishing off in another place a bit further up where I got my taste for root beer while over there.  

On the Tuesday (I think) we just explored the rest of what Chicago had to offer and started it off spending breakfast going to our favourite place and where we went every morning for Breakkie, at Lou Mitchell's Diner. We had the best Eggs Benedict in the world there and nothing as come close to beat that for food in my book.

Another activity we did was to go up SkyDeck in the Willis Tower and what was formerly named 'Sears Tower', to which it was the highest building in America prior to the new World Trade Center opening in New York months earlier. A lift takes you up to 'Floor 103' and where upon you can see for miles and miles overlooking the Windy City. I for one wasn't brave enough to stay out on the ledge for longer than 5 seconds and I made the fatal error of looking down through the glass bottom and was staring 103 stories straight down.  

'SUE' Dinosaur in Field Museum

Other points of interest we visited while there was Shedd Aquarium and watched a Dolphin show and a sea lion waving to the crowd, while it did a couple of tricks for those walking the show. Another place of interest was the Field Museum as it had a massive T-Rex assemble in the centre of the floor and was the largest and also best-preserved skeleton of a complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found. The 42 foot long beast from head to tail and also a 13 foot tall fossil was better known as ‘SUE’, named after the expert that found the bones during the discovery.

Soldier Field Memorial

After that the museum trip we then headed to one place that I badly had and wanted to go to while in Chicago, and that of course of was Soldier Field. The Stadium is named in honour of the Servicemen and Women who serve in US armed forces and there was a lot depicting this and if you're American, it will fill you with national pride.

It is also host to the American Football side the Chicago Bears. Sadly we couldn't do the stadium tour as it was the previous day and it was too misty to really see much. However on this day we were able to walk round the boundary of the stadium and try to sneak a peak in what I see as the Mecca of American Football.

While walking around the stadium, we made the trip to the 'BEARS STORE' and where i brought a woolly hat for my dad and one for me of course, as well as purchasing a 'Throwback' Chicago Bears Jersey and eventually had Walter Payton's name and number on the back. Initially the cashier told me that I was unable to have to due to some copyright infringements. But after a befriending him a bit and having a good chat, he did a deal with me so to have it done and now i am the rare owner of a 'PAYTON 34' shirt on a throwback Jersey.

Later that evening we all went to a place called "DICK’S" in the middle of the city and made for an entertaining night.

DICK'S Last Resort 

Basically it is a themed restaurant where the guys and girls take orders and are meant to be surly towards you and just call you and treat poorly, but all done to make it a unique experience and if you are easily offended don’t go there but is seriously fun.  

They then write messages on huge sheets of papers that are turned into kinda like chef hats and that they put on you with a message written on it, and the looks and expressions of people on your table are interesting, especially when you have no clue what they have written on it!!

One evening we went to a tattoo shop where my two friends went to get inked and after they had, Erin took us to meet her parents and her amazing dog to which we all loved! The rest of the week was just basically enjoying the rest of the city and making the best of the time that we had there in truth. 

One place I found on my travels was an Ice rink called ’Johnny’s Ice House’ and I went there to cool down in the baking heat and also to watch some Recreational Hockey when it was on.

Stan Mitka, Bobby Hull Statues outside the United Center 

Upon my walks away from the main part of the city, I came across a Hockey shop called Gunzo’s (Sports Nerd Alert). The shop was named after the former Chicago Blackhawks netminder Wally ‘Gunzo’ Humeniuk, who played for the Detroit Red Wings and was then traded to the 'Hawks and saw him winning a Stanley Cup back in 1961. I loved the shop so much that I brought a Rockford Ice Hogs jersey while there and then the penultimate day for me, saw me investing in an 'NHL Original 6' jacket, as well as getting 'KANE 88' on the back of my Blackhawks Jersey i purchased while over there.

OVERALL.. Despite getting drenched twice and being delayed four hours at the airport for a faulty plane, nothing really ruined the trip for me and is definitely one City and place I want to re-visit in the future. As I'd love to see another Cubs, Hawks and possibly Bears or Bulls game.

British Union Flag / Chicago Flag 

TONIGHT ALIVE: Review

If you haven`t heard of the five-piece band Tonight Alive then you really should, the Australian band consisting of Guitarist Jake Hardy, Bassist Cam Adler, Whakaio Taahi on Keyboards and Matt Best on drums with the vocals being performed by Jenna McDougall saw the Aussie band moving onto their biggest gig to date on their LIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE UK tour, with their next stage coming in the form of the Manchester Academy this past Saturday Night and saw them rocking the building.

The band have only have been going since 2008 and if you saw the Amazing Spider-Man 2 then you may have heard their song ‘The Edge’ included in the soundtrack to the film this past summer and saw also them also come to the U.K for their first tour as the headline act.

For the supporting acts on the bill, it came in the shape of French group ‘Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!’ as they played their set first, which included 'Haters Gonna Hate' and a cover of Smash Mouth song from late 90`s in 'All Star'.  Arizona based band ‘The Summer Set’ played their set list which included 'Chelsea'. 'F*** U Over' and a cover of Ed Sheeran song 'Sing'. The crowd was ready for the main event of the evening and saw the sold out audience in the Manchester Academy come unglued when the band jumped on stage to play their opening song ’The Edge’.

They followed it up with ‘The Fire’ and ‘Don`t Wish’ in their set opening part of their set, with Jenna and the band certainly looking to give the big crowd packed inside the Academy everything they had, as on many occasions the lead singer of the band Jenna McDougall spoke to the fans, explaining how much of a big deal the gig was to them as this was their biggest gig to date and the Mancunian fans let her and the band know what they thought of them as they gave them a huge ovation.

In today`s music scene not many bands will be straight with their fans or in some cases aren't fully recognising of their fans that adore their music, but Tonight Alive are one of those exceptions, with Jenna telling the sell out audience that she was glad of the support of the fans inside the gig and that seen the fans give as love back to the band as the band gave to them and was one of mutual appreciation.

The songs came thick and fast with two songs from their recent album the Other Side, with ‘Hell and Back and ‘The Ocean’ performed, with the fans loving the passion and the performances by the Sydney based band and had them finish off their opening quarter of the gig with ‘Wasting Away’ and then ‘Bathwater’.

Jenna McDougall then performed two songs on her own towards the crowd as she performed a couple of acoustic numbers with her playing ‘Let it Land’ which saw the singer separating the room in half with half doing the harmony and the other half singing the lyrics of the songs, she even told the crowd "if you don`t know the lyrics just mumble as it would be ok to do so" that comment drew a humorous response from the fans inside the gig. The singer then ask a  rare request, with her wanting the fans in attendance to put their phones or mobile devices away as she wanted a more special feel for the following song.

For the second acoustic song to be performed, it was a very special song for the singer to perform, as ‘Amelia’ was next up and was a song written as a tribute to a friend that Jenna knew in her teenage years and who tragically took her own life. The lyrics are moving and you could tell the song held a deep meaning to McDougall, who wrote the song especially about her and the sight of all the lights from the mobile phones raised in the air, was one of an amazing spectacle to see as even the singer was in awe of the way the lights lit up a dark room and brought some light to the song and made for a perfect setting to accompany the song too.

As we moved into the second half of the show, it saw ‘Complexes’ played along with ‘Listening’ to which is one of my favourite songs from their last album “WHAT ARE YOU SO SCARED OF?” The Punk pop band then finished off their little trio of songs with ‘No Different’ and the crowd was more than ever into the gig now and the songs were being sung word for word back by the fans towards the band.

They then took a little break from singing their own songs to perform a cover of the Rage Against the Machine version of ‘Killing In The Name Of'. That was then followed by a little speech by Jenna McDougall on certain things and talking about having to work hard and not letting people stopping you from things and not giving up on things to which the next song was all about that in ‘What Are You So Scared Of?’.

To complete the set we had ‘Lonely Girl’ and saw the band head off to a blacked out Manchester Academy crowd and had the crowd chants of “We want more!” getting more and more louder and gathering pace, to which in the band returned to play their encore set. The final songs of the band repertoire saw they perform ‘Eject, Eject, Eject’ and ‘Breaking & Entering’ mixing in and then finished it off with ‘The Other Side’ to see an amazing and brilliant concert come to a close and leave the Manchester crowd getting more than their money`s worth out of the show.

The show was high tempo from the off and the acoustic bits fitted in perfectly as the fans that went saw a brilliant performance by the Australian singer and the band rocked for sure, to leave the fans wanting more and hopefully won`t be too far away for when they next return to Manchester in the future.

Kid Shows They Don`t Make Nowadays!

As i seemed to have almost disowned this blog in months i guess it`s time i should add some stuff to the blog and give it some exposure, So I’ve decided to talk about a few shows i used to watch growing up as child and even as a immature adult too.

First off we`ll look back at an old favourite in KNIGHTMARE! This was one show i used to watch avidly after school, when it was four kids that entered in what could be deemed as Cosplay nowadays, but the show was made up as i say of a group of kids with one donning a Helmet or the "HELMET OF JUSTICE" as it was called.

His friends would be the guides on his journey, with his three mates magically appearing sat by a monitor watching the one who was really a bit lazy, as all he/she had to do was walk now and then and ask for directions or speak to the other characters in the show.

This was in a way the early strains of what we would call a SAT-NAV, with the guides telling their blind dungeoneer who worn a helmet with no holes in it getting directions for where to go and something find him or herself nowhere where they should be going.

Almost all the guides on the show were helpful, but sometimes you do feel a couple were annoyed with not being the one to do the walking about part and would basically direct them on purpose into the walls.

They did have some minor help from 'Treguard' who was the Saxon Knight or ‘Tregaurd of Dunshelm’ to give him his full title to which was played by (Hugo Myatt) in the show.

Once the team was introduced Treguard would then put the 'H.O.J' on them and send them off to the dark room where they were magically transported to another world of mysteriousness (or a room with a green screen in it).

As they walked on the special effects would kick in and so the helmet would be generated into a "Life Force" so that the Dungeoneer for the game had an aura to put it another way.

Once the dungeoneer appeared on screen he would then put his faith and trust into the hands of his friends on the quest he was about to embark on.

His friends as i mentioned or to give them their Saxon names ‘Sat-Navians’, they would instruct him on what to do and also give him phrases like: Walk forwards, take a step to your left or right, STOP! These would be shouted by the ones watching during the entire quest, until they lost.

They also had the ability to cast spells in the show as well, in which they could open doors, lead attacks, bring people to life or wake up them up. They had many other things they could do too and in my view made Knightmare a far better wizard type genre than anything Harry Potter and characters like that could do.

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OX TALES

Another entertaining show back in the day that no-one seems to remember is OX TALES. The show was based around the adventures of Ollie the OX and adventures on his farm, along with his pal Jack the Turtle.

Ollie the Ox was a hands on type of person that ran a farm called ‘The Funny Farm', to which included farm work, maintenance working and minor other jobs that would involve getting him to help out others on the farm and make a total mess, with the animals on the farm causing chaos, or inflicting things on others that they didn`t want.

During points of the show when something went wrong, it would traditionally cut to a witty remark from Towilla the Toucan (didn`t know it had a name) as he would be narrating the episodes as we went along and gave little sarcastic comments to what was going on too.

If it wasn`t him, then if a funny incident took place they would cut instead to Moe the Mole (below) popping out from his mound to laugh hysterically in a kind of Woody Woodpecker-type of way to the incident.

There was many characters in the show, some more familiar than others it`s got to be said. They included Gaylord the Gorilla, who was too strong for his own good, Audrey the Ostrich who would constantly bury her head in the sand over many things. Rodney the Rhino had a very short fuse on him and always seemed to always break his horn in every episode through his anger or what he was doing.

Lenny the Lion was someone who thought he was a great hunter, but in actual fact he wasn`t! Horace was a grumpy and stubborn Horse who used to prefer fighting and not doing what he wanted to do and normally resulted with Ollie get annoyed by him and then Horace not happy with the antics of him and Jack.

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Duckula

This is one of the most memorable Cosgrove & Hall cartoons that was created by the pair, with was actually a spin-off from the legendary Danger Mouse cartoon.

Count Duckula was a take on the old Vampire films that was made years ago that starred Christopher Lee as Dracula, so this was a kind of spoof/ parody on that genre.

Duckula just like Dracula was, seen it set in a region of Romania called Transylvania where surprising enough despite it being in a difference country, they spoke perfect English there too, strange that.  

Duckula was brought back to life when the butler in 'Castle Duckula' Igor and Nanny tried to perform a ritual that is only able to be performed once a century.. "When the moon is in the eight house of Aquarius". 

They had hoped to reincarnate a new Blood thirsty Vampire duck bat for the castle, but instead of using Blood as the main ingredient to summon up the vampire bat they wanted, it saw Nanny who was a Seven foot tall clumsy hen that used to wear a sling, she gave Igor the wrong item in the recipe and so instead of blood being the Main item used, she instead gave him a bottle of Tomato Ketchup and saw the new duck come out wrong.

Duckula who was voiced by Sir David Jason seen the actor give him an American accent in the cartoon, Jason also voiced Dangermouse from which the character was first featured in.

The cartoon saw a few adventures which saw Castle Duckula able to teleport to anywhere in the world they wanted to go to, but they only had till dawn to be there, before the castle would teleport back to Transylvania. 

Duckula being a Vampire of course, would obviously see him have his fair share of enemies and his main one was Dr.Von Goosewing, who was apparently a German vampire hunter that was a take-off on Van Helsing.

Von Goosewing`s attire was that of Sherlock Holmes as he wore a tweed jacket, glasses and spats for foot ware.

DANGERMOUSE:

 Everyone over the age of 25 years old  in the UK will have seen or heard of this cartoon in their lifetime as Dangermouse was one of, if not the biggest cartoon that Cosgrove & Hall created in their entire animation history. 

Dangermouse was a white mouse who wore a eye patch over his Left eye and was the rodent version of James Bond, to which the cunning mouse was not just a secret agent...He was the WORLD`S Greatest secret agent! 

He was wasn`t on his own in his quest to stop villains hoping to take over the world, as Dangermouse had an assistant in the shape of Ernest Penfold, who was a Hamster with glasses and wore a blue suit that seen him wear a Yellow and Black striped tie to make him look professional and smart.

Penfold used to panic at times and had a few catchphrases in the show which included him saying: 'Crumbs, ohh-eck, ohh-fiddle' and 'Coming Chief'. 

Dangermouse himself had his own catchphrases in the show, which was normally 'Good grief', 'Penfold, shush' to name a couple. Dangermouse was voiced by Sir David Jason and did this cartoon prior to the Count Duckula spin off which came later on. 

Other characters in the cartoon was 'Colonel K' to which was the boss for Dangermouse and would give him assignments in which normally included him to trying to foil the plots of one Baron Silas Greenback. 

Greenback as you could guess was a Frog who had a very wheezy and deep voice.  

Dangermouse used to get around in a yellow bubble car, in which saw a pavement slab open up like a hidden entrance for the dynamic cartoon duo to drive onto their new assignments.

DOGTANIAN & THE MUSKERHOUNDS:

 

The show is pretty much the same as the original story, but in dog form where a young pup travels across France to reach his destination of Paris, where upon he meets and strikes up a friendship with three Musketeers or Muskerhounds as we should say, in Porthos, Athos and Aramis as they all journey towards to the French capital. 

Dogtanian is also seen as the best swordsman's in all of France and seems to think too much with his sword than his brain, as he demonstrates a lot his sword`s man-ship in the show.

Dogtanian also finds a sidekick in the show, a little mouse called Pip to who in a sense is a guide for the young swordsman, with Pip giving him advice on using his head more than the weapon he holds dear.

However things don`t run smoothly for our young hero, as he falls in love with Juliette a Maid- in-waiting for Queen Anne of Austria.

So Dogtanian finds himself torn between the girl he loves and heading to Paris to become one of King Louis XIII Musketeers

Milady aka the Countess de Winter, is one of Cardinal Richelieu spies and is a cat that is driven by Money and some revenge to. She uses her beauty to get what she wants and even tempts our hero too into bad things. 

Cardinal Richelieu is the biggest villain in the cartoon, in which he wants power of France and is desperate to take over from King Louis XIII as he spends the entire time trying to force his way into power.