Author: Joey Lombardi

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Chicago 2.0: Hotel Review (Hotel Palomar)

I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t finish up my Chicago summary with a review of our hotel.

The Hotel Palomar: Chicago
Website: HotelPalomar-Chicago.com
Location: 505 North State Street

This recently completed hotel is planted in a perfect location. Right next to the red line giving you easy access to everything (and not having to carry luggage for several blocks after a flight), the hotel is perfectly positioned for people who want to experience the what the city has to offer and want to be tucked a few blocks away from the “Mag Mile” tourism.

Unlike other Palomar/Kimpton Hotels we have stayed out, this room was not the typical shoe-box space (big enough for a bed and a tv and nothing else). We had enough room for a real desk and an extra lounge chair. It was the perfect size. The hotel’s amenities included an indoor pool, a decent gym, outdoor lounge, and a nightly wine tasting.

This hotel enhanced our stay in Chicago, the staff was friendly, and the location was perfect. I highly recommend it.

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Chicago 2.0: Day 3

After an even later start than the previous day (thanks to a very late night enjoying Second City), we didn’t get moving until Noon. We did register for our flights and get a work out in, but the morning defiantly moved slow. Since it was already lunch time, we decided to skip breakfast and an insane idea popped into our heads…

[Food Hattrick]

Allison and I could not decide if we should go to Big Al’s Italian Beef or Portillo’s Hog Dogs. I came up with a solution, get both…

Portillos
Location: 100 West Ontario Street
Website:

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Chicago 2.0: Day 2

Our second day in Chicago started slowly. We took our time getting up, then I hit the hotel gym. By the time we were ready to get breakfast, it was 10:30 AM. We planned on eating at the hotel, but they stopped serving at 10 AM. The hostess suggested a place a few blocks away and off we went…

[Eggsperience Cafe]

Location: 35 W. Ontario
Website: EggsperienceCafe.com

About 5 blocks from our hotel, Eggspereince Cafe was a great way to start our morning. Even though it was light and open, Eggsperience was packed with people. Since I knew I was going to be eating terrible the rest of the day, I decided oatmeal and egg whites were in order. Even with the less-than-exciting ingredients, my meal was delicious. Allison’s vegetable crapes were too much for her to handle. Our service was extremely quick and we were in and out in 30 minutes.

[Tickets Again]

After our breakfast, we walked over to the tourism office to see if they had tickets for Second City again. They didn’t. They girl gave us a phone number to call and Allison managed to snag tickets to the 11 PM show (I was going to have so much fun trying to stay up). We headed back to the hotel area and I run into a used book store to get something to read on the flight home.

After buy a few books, we freshened up at the hotel and headed back to the “Red Line” to take us to Wrigley Field.

[Cubs vs. Pirates]

Like our last trip, Wrigley Field is always an interesting experience. IT WAS PACKED. PACKED doesn’t do it justice. After navigating our way through the sea of people, we managed to get to our seats, and I was pleased with our location: right behind home plate. The people around us were great, the weather was awesome. We decided to leave a little early to enjoy the weather/city and the Cubs were in the lead.

I checked the score later and they lost 10-7. Busted.

[Weber Grill]

Location: 539 N. State St.
Website: Weber’s Grill

After walking around the city and enjoying a wine reception at our hotel, we headed over to the Weber Grill for dinner. Since the weather was mild (and they had outdoor heaters) my wife requested outdoor seating. While the weather was nice, the seats were TERRIBLE. They really impacted my enjoyment of the meal.

Seating aside, the food was very good. It wasn’t mind blowing. I don’t know if red meat at a restaurant will ever blow my mind since my old man is the king of steak. My brisket was cooked well, but I think it should have been taken off the grill a little sooner (and that would make sense since it took a long time for the main course to come out).

Overall, it was a good experience, not great.

[Second City]

Location: 1616 N Wells St.
Website: SecondCity.com
Show: The Taming of the Flu

After a “itis”-induced rest thanks to Webers, we headed over to Wells Street. Second City is one of the few places there isn’t easy public transportation to, but a $7 dollar cab right isn’t going to break the bank. Earlier in the day, the teller recommended getting there early since our general admission tickets could put us anywhere. We arrived at 10:20 PM and ended up getting great seats a few rows back from the stage.

The show was very much in the same template as the Stud Turkel show we saw last May. I was pleased to recognize some of the same cast as well. The show was funny, took shots at the city of Chicago, the nation, the state of the economy, education and whatever else they came up with.

The cast seemed to be having a lot of fun as they “broke character” a few times and actually laughed during the skits. I always like when that happens on SNL. My wife hoped there were more interactive parts like the Turkel Show, but I can see how that’s a gamble if you pick a lame duck in the audience. I had a great time and managed to stay awake during the show.

We got back to the hotel around 1:30 AM and I was exhausted. I am curious what tomorrow (actually today) brings since we don’t have tickets, plans, or an agenda. Free form vacation day in Chicago, tune in tomorrow to find out what happens.

Click on the link to read: Day 3

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Chicago 2.0: Day 1

“It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago-she outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.”
~ Mark Twain “Life On The Mississippi,” 1883

People asked me “why go back to Chicago? You were there last September!” I think Mark Twain’s quote sums my thoughts up about that matter quite well. It also helps that my wife and I scored awesome flight and hotel deals, we couldn’t say no. I went into this trip less planned and organized than the last. We saw all of the typical things you might want to see in the city last time, to me this trip was more about relaxing and seeing what the city offers.

We arrived in Chicago around 10 AM local time. No real issues on the flight, but Southwest was BUSY in Philadelphia. This was the first time we had a line going outside to check in luggage (make note of that if you are traveling out Philadelphia using Southwest). We easily found our way to the city’s public transportation in the airport and off we went. Our hotel is basically located right at the subway exit which was great, since I didn’t have to carry our luggage several blocks like last time.

We were able to immediately check into the hotel (we didn’t ask, they offered). So far, our hotel has been great (I will do a full review at the end of the vacation). After freshening up and answering some work emails (I know I am a sucker), we went to lunch. I spotted a Thai restaurant that we both wanted to try.

[Star of Siam]

Name: Star of Siam
Location: 11 E. Illinois St.
Website: StarofSiamChiago.com

We didn’t read about this place before, we just saw it and walked in – and I was glad we did. The food was very good. I will always rate Thai cuisine based on Somsak (Voorhees, NJ) and I thought Star of Siam was very close in quality, but the food was different, more Chinese in sauces, but the combination of ingredients was very Thai.

The service was excellent, the decor was open and inviting. Great experience.

[River Tour: Chicago’s First Lady Architecture Tour]
Location: 112 E. Wacker Street
Website: CruiseChicago.com

After lunch we walked over to the tourist center to see if there were any tickets for shows during our stay. Slim pickings for the weekend as we were told weekend tickets get released on Friday morning. I saw a adaption of a

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How to set up a RSS Reader

For those technically inclined, this may seem a little rudimentary, but I cannot tell you how many times I tell people “I found this article in my RSS reader and I thought you would like it” and I get a blank stare back. My motivation for this article comes from Facebook’s ever increasing privacy violations – I am prepping to get away from the service and I plan on taking everyone with me.

Personally – I don’t need Facebook. I have a website where I can publish whatever I want and control how it is viewed. I know most people don’t want to run their own websites and are perfectly content with Twitter or Facebook, but I want to make sure you can keep in touch with… me!

My own ego aside, RSS feeds are a fantastic way to read news, keep tabs on your favorite musicians, and much more. Another great feature is you can mark them as saved and go back later or even share them with friends in a variety of ways.

For this tutorial, we are going to use Google Reader. Yes, I know Google does some semi-creepy stuff with your data, but at least they don’t force you into sharing things you don’t want to (first week of Buzz aside).

INSTRUCTIONS
Update: Google retired their Reader function several years ago, I currently use Feedly as my RSS reader of choice, most of the other instructions apply.

1. You need a Google account. If you don’t have one, go to Gmail.com and sign up for a new account. If you have a Gmail account, skip to step two.

2. (Updated) Once you have signed up, go to Feedly. You will be see a welcome screen…
Note: You can use your Google account to sign in with Feedly (or you can create a separate login)

3. In the top left side of the screen, you will see a button that says “Add a subscription”. Click on that button…

4. Type your favorite blog or website and then click the add button (SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!)

5. You will see that once you hit add, the blog or website will be added to your “Subscriptions” section

As you read through the posts, the RSS reader will mark that selection as read and the number of unread items highlighted in bold will decline.

6. By default, Google Reader shows all items in your RSS feed all the time. You can change that setting in the upper area of the article window. By clicking on “Show: New Items” the reader will only display new posts. This can be changed back and forth at any time.

7. At the bottom of each article, there is a control panel that will allow you to star, share, email, and do other things with the post. You can look at your starred items in the left side control panel, there is a “Starred Items” Folder (the same goes for shared items)

8. If you look at the left side control panel, you will see “People that you follow”. Click on “Search for some people”. This will take you to a screen where you can put in your friends Gmail addresses and be able to easily see what they are sharing and visa-versa.

That takes us through the basics of setting up RSS feeds. Have fun finding sites to add to your reader.

Before I go – one last hint. Several websites like LifeHacker and even the New York Times have different RSS feeds formatted in different ways. Some sites only give you the headline of the article, other sites give you the full article. Most sites offer both, but you will have to find the link to the full feed. Don’t get frustrated, you should see an RSS feed icon that looks like this:

That should give you the link to the properly formatted RSS feed. But give it a try, you will get the hang of it very quickly.

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Concert Review: Wilco @ The Electric Factory (Philadelphia)

Website: WilcoWorld.net
Opening Act: N/A
Venue: The Electric Factory
Date: Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Last Wilco Review: Wilco: 7.10.2009 @ Delware

Let’s start this review by stating the obvious, I really like Wilco. The last (and first) time I saw them was in a minor league baseball stadium in Wilmington, DE. It was an excellent show, but it felt a little disconnected since it was such a big outdoor venue. When I received word about a show at the Electric Factory I jumped at the tickets. Normally I start a concert review with my thoughts on the opening act, but Wilco did not having an opener. Did I mention how much I love this band?

We attempted to get seats in the upper section of the Electric Factory but it was packed. On my way down I saw the security officer from my Cranberries review. We exchanged pleasantries and I went off to find a suitable place to stand. We found a nice spot off to the side next to another staircase.

Tweedy and company went on stage at 8:30 PM. No chatty introductions, just a quick hello and down to to the rock. They opened with “Wilco (the song)” and it became clear in those opening moments that while Wilco is Jeff Tweedy’s band, Nels Cline has become the whole show. Tweedy is certainly no slouch, churning out tune after tune (we left at the three hour mark), but Nels Cline was a sound monster the entire night.

After the third or fourth song, an older gentlemen in a red sweater and tan hat start to smoke up (weed) right on the staircase that we were all standing next to. I was kinda shocked he wasn’t trying to hide in the crowd a bit more; he was out in the open with his cheap skunk weed (and security was most definitely in force last night). The pot head was not the issue but I decided to call him “original sin” because as soon as that smoke hit the air, every degenerate loser in the place converged on the staircase next to us. A small group of middle aged women (that I am convinced didn’t even know the band) talked the entire night. Tweedy (politely) told the crowd to be quiet a few times, these women didn’t take the hint.

The band played just about every song I could think of including material from “Mermaid Ave” I love the current line up’s reinterpretation of older material (with Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche) as it sounds infinitely better: tighter, better fills, and of course more practiced.

At the 90 minute mark, the stage crew came out (with Wilco not taking a break) and added some lamps and mood lighting. The show shifted to softer, acoustically driven material. This is when the situation with the talking ladies came to a boiling point. One of the members of my group politely asked them to listen to the music and they balked. After some words exchanged, the loud mouths finally stifled themselves and we really set into a nice undisturbed grove. Going into the evening, I was secretly hoping they would play “Airline to Heaven” which I have heard only live tracks and I really like the work that Cline does on slide guitar. As we entered 150 minute mark, I didn’t think it was going to happen (because the music start to pick up the pace), but then “There’s an airline plane…” – I was now satisfied.

As I mentioned, at the three hour mark, we decided to go. I heard every song I wanted to hear and then some. The band sounded unbelievably great. I also want to mention Pat Sansone who is Wilco’s other guitarist and while he may be overshadowed by Cline, he is a tremendous guitar and keyboard player, I was watching this guy all night and he was working his ass off. If you haven’t seen the band play live via concert or the multitude of DVD’s that are available, you don’t know this band. I would tell you to go out and get tickets, but they are probably sold out. Go buy this