Sweet Home Chicago

i had a good night tonight.  went and grabbed sushi and drinks with my friend nicki who is basically my only girlfriend out here.  at one point in our conversation, we talked about chicago.  i was telling her that shane & i have been trying to find a good jazz bar out here in SF and havn't been able to find one at all which is crazy.  shane told me that what he is picturing is a small place with a few tables, really dark, really intimate, smokey, and i can seriously name about 8 places in chicago matching that description off the top of my head.  when i think of chicago, i think of jazz and blues clubs just like that.  to me, that is quintessential chicago.  chicago is very prohibition.  smokey old dark hole in the wall jazz & blues clubs and piano bars.  old timers.  old time badasses like my dad.  i do really miss that.  chicago and san francisco are SUCH different cities.  i feel like they may as well be in different countries.  living in california has always been my dream, and i am so glad that i did it.  but there is a lot that i miss about my home town.  it's just a different vibe, a different feel - more gritty, more bad ass, more old.  san francisco is so new and fresh to me, so forward thinking, so on the edge, so pushing the boundaries.  it's bright and sunny with blue skies and colorful houses.  it's fluttery and up in the sky while chicago is steel and grounded.  chicago is cold and grey.  and black and white.  like an old scratchy film.  film noir.  chicago is old fashioned.  al capone.  mobsters.  old badasses with grey hair and leather jackets smoking cigarettes whose filters are damp from their lips, who sit bent over bars and their glasses of liquor.  it has that classic feel to it.  and that is why i love it.  you can just feel it walking around.  i guess i'm feeling a little nastalgic right now.  there's so many great things about both places.  i guess it's most definitely possible to have roots and wings, and i'm glad that i have had the honor to live in two of the greatest cities in this country.


oh, and since i am big on the pictures, here is a photo of nic and i representing chicago :-)