why i love chicago

So i have been in chicago barely 12 hours. I slept 5 hours. And went to clubs for 7 hours. It was awesome. But the real reason i love chicago is the strict diversity that is celebrated at every turn. At every stop you see different people doing different things. All rocking it.

Tonight:

We started at sushi wabi. I had a steak - cuz i had just had excellent sashimi and sushi in tokyo and didn’t want to taint my memory with paltry really good sushi. So anyway. we hung out and had excellent food and chilled to good food. Scott shellhammer deejayed and created a great feel for sushi. haha. go see his band play on the 17th. it will be great.

Then after wabi we headed to cactus to catch Arman’s night of craziness. He turned 40 and had an unofficial birthday at cactus with his dayra party. It was awesome. We hung out - listened to amazing deejays. Had a nice time. If someone bombed that venue - all of the chicago deejays would have died. I talked to diz. We shared tshirt and streetwear battle wounds. Its a hard life. House music!

Then after that we headed to smart bar to check out mark verbos’ set. He plays a live PA and does amazing techno. really great stuff. Amazing music and amazing skills that man. It was good. The sound system was amazing - as it always is at smart bar. Mark really brought out the stops and brought the noise hard. as he always does. good job.

So then we headed to soundbar to check out the arab underground. There is apparently a islam/arab conference in chicago this weekend. and the official party was at soundbar. They apparently bought the house and hired their own promoters and what not. It was crazy. super busy. and totally aggro. I have never been faced with so many potential fights. My friend may mentioned that thier were more fights than ever on this night. totally nuts. My bartender ladies were all bummed - cuz it wasn’t as good of night and everyone was angry and rude. weird. and.. i shit you not.. amjad even seconded it… it smelled like curry on the dance floor. wtf. why do certain situations only help solidify stereotypes. that shit is fucked up.

Then after that we went to crobar for horrible music. It was hilarious. We saw claudia (always a great time), and hung out. Then red hair matt accosted me and my buddy mike bought us bottle service to celebrate my marriage. awesome. really fun.

Then we went to lalos for burritos. It was good and totally what i was looking for. totally different from tokyo food. almost anti-japanese. funny. i love japanese food - but tonight i needed the differential.

SO yea. that is why i love chicago. It forces diveristy on you. It gives you no choice but to accept difference and embrace it. Unlike so many cities i have visited which ignore diversity of its people and makes everyone dance to the same drum; chicago makes you dance to someone else drum. i love it.

anyway.. i am sleepy. and the crocodile hunter was killed. wtf. i guess it makes sense. He was asking for it. but still. that shit aint real.

Oh and i will write a tokyo blog soon. I need to sleep now. Oh btw, hiromi updated her blog with an entry about our visit. Check it out here.