Hello everybody! Summer is here! Officially, it won’t start until June 20th, but we all know that Summer begins with the Memorial Day holiday and runs through Labor Day in September. In the meantime, we have an incredibly exciting array of fun, wonderful things to do together, so let’s get started. As always, please remember that many of these events require advance registration and tickets, and a few are timed entries, so let’s be sure to be on time.
Chicago is home to House Music, and that’s worth celebrating! Please join us this Sunday, June 2nd, in Millennium Park, at the Chicago House Music Festival. It’s been 40 years since House Music got started and almost immediately revolutionized dance music across the world.
The excitement starts at 10am, so please meet us first at the Pritzker Pavilion. Have you seen this lineup? WOW! Yes, it’s crowded, and no, I’m no experienced Techno or House dancer, so let’s weave our way to the North Promenade to tune into Slo ‘Mo Kido’s family-friendly event where we can actually get dance lessons. It’s the Queer Fam Pride Jam, and everyone is invited.
Let’s grab hot dogs and beers while we alternate between the Pritzker stage, with its globally famous lineup, and Promenade, where Viva Acid presents excellent local DJs so we can practice our newly minted dance steps. Hey, you’re getting better at this! This is amazing fun, but it’s time to carve out some space on the lawn at Pritzker before Wayne Williams and Alan King of the Chosen Few DJs get on stage. These guys are two of the founders of Chicago House Music. They experimented with drum machines, disco, rock ‘n roll, and euro-techno music, and they helped change the world. Aren’t you glad they did? This has been awesome, thanks.
One of my favorite celebrations, the Chicago Blues Festival, chicagobluesfestival.us, is this weekend, hooray! The outrageous start is on Thursday, June 6th, at the Ramova Theatre, 3520 S. Halsted St., where Blues superstars Shemekia Copeland and Ronnie Baker Brooks, are taking the stage. Get your RSVP, online, early, and meet us early. We’ll be in line by 4:00pm and promise to be patient until the box office opens at 5:00pm. Oh good, you’re here. Let’s get seats and be ready for this phenomenal show. Isn’t Shemekia just captivating? Some tunes are slyly humorous, others are hard-hitting and emotional outpourings. Listen to Ronnie Baker Brooks, isn’t he a thoroughly genuine Blues singer and guitarist? What a great show!
Please check the line-up for Friday, and Saturday, then tell us all about it when we’ll make a day of it
on Sunday, June 9th, in Millennium Park for the final day of the Blues Festival. Meet us at Noon, when the Southern Komfort Brass Band is starts things off at the Mississippi Juke Joint stage. Isn’t this a great set? Now let’s grab some lunch as we head over to the Rosa’s Lounge Stage. We can sit over here, and take in the wonderful sounds of Omar Coleman’s Westside Soul and Melody Angel. These bands are great, aren’t they? Time now to find space on the lawn at the Pritzker Pavilion, and get comfortable for the Cash Box Kings, who are a Blues force in their own right. These folks are jamming, great and loud. What a fabulous way to introduce the Festival’s headline act, Chicago’s own, Buddy Guy. What we’re hearing is likely one of his last performances on his “Damn Right Farewell” tour, and God bless him. He’s 87 years old and as he’s saying and playing right now, “I let my guitar do the talking”. Fabulous. He’s telling about some guitarists who’ve come along during his lifetime, and WOW! There are 15 bars of an Eric Clapton solo. Now he’s playing some Jimi Hendrix, do you believe it? His mastery is so complete, and so nonchalant, and now here’s this segues into a punchy, hard, electric blues number. Just amazing, isn’t it? That was special.
Father’s Day, a uniquely American holiday, is this Sunday, so my kids, it seems, are in touch with yours and we’re all heading to a baseball game a day early, on Saturday, June 15th. No, we’re not going to one of the big name teams; instead they’re taking us to Impact Field, 9850 Balmoral Ave., Rosemont, where we can sit in the bleachers and cheer on the Chicago Dogs, https://thechicagodogs.com, our very own American Association baseball team. The stadium is smaller, of course, so watching the game is much easier, and the atmosphere is better, don’t you think? Look at the way fans are being appreciated, the lighthearted entertainment on the field, the recognition from the players. The game seems better, somehow. Maybe it’s because there are no long pauses for TV commercial breaks? It’s a good game; there’ve been solid hits, good base running, even a few spectacular catches. This is a pretty good surprise, don’t you think? Look, we’ve even got a fireworks display afterwards. I’m impressed, kids, nice jobs.
Today, Sunday, June 16th, is actually Father’s Day. Father’s Day was founded in Spokane, Washington, at the YMCA, on June 19th, 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd. In 1911, Jane Addams proposed a citywide Father’s Day in Chicago, but she was turned down. A bill to provide national recognition was introduced in Congress in 1913, but failed. In 1916, President Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father’s Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, and President Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation.
By the end of the 1930s American citizens were regularly honoring their fathers on the third Sunday in June, despite the recalcitrance of government. It wasn’t until 1966 that President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day, and it was 1972 when President Nixon signed the law making it a permanent national holiday.
So, let’s keep that bit of history in mind as we gather with our families today. Dads and Grandads, this is our day, so relax and enjoy it with family and friends.
Thursday, June 20, marks the Summer Solstice, the official first day of Summer. Get out in the sunshine for as long as you can, the days start getting shorter tomorrow. Sad, isn’t it?
This Sunday, June 23rd, we have a new adventure for you! Meet us please at Noon at 875 North Michigan Ave. (John Hancock Center), where we will rush headlong into an encounter with aliens. Area 51 Encounter, www.area51encounter.com, is an immersive entertainment experience that is also promising to teach us a thing or two about UFO history, and is “…designed to pique the interest and curiosities of earthlings of all ages, if they aren’t abducted first (the attraction includes a simulation of an alien abduction).”
Come on, grab your boarding passes so we can launch ourselves into these seven different galleries. Look over here; this one has alien artifacts (some are copies). Here are models and descriptions of different species for us to explore. Who came up with these names? Foo fighters, fast walkers and who knows what else? Alien sightings continue almost daily, here’s an exhibit on modern-day sightings, and another about military involvement, what life on an alien spacecraft might be like, and more information on movies’ and pop culture’s fascination with extraterrestrial life.
No, we’re not done yet! We journey forward. Hey, what’s in here? Interactive presentations of video and audio recordings of famous sightings and a 3D short film. OK it’s Alien Hunt Laser Game and I’ll bet I shoot a few more than you.
They saved the best for last; don’t you think? The new scientific discoveries: stars, galaxies, even potentially livable planets; all have been uncovered by the James Webb Space Telescope. This stuff is amazing, and the exhibit and presentation are so much more impressive than the photos on the Internet or even in a magazine. There is also a virtual reality moon explorer for the younger lifeforms in attendance.
This Saturday, June 29th, let’s visit the WNDR Museum Chicago, 1130 W. Monroe St. http://www.wndrchicago.com/. WNDR Museum claims to be “Chicago’s original immersive art and technology experience, located in the city’s West Loop neighborhood…The museum is filled with interactive artworks by cutting edge artists, collectives, technologists, designers and makers. WNDR disrupts and redefines the traditional museum.”
WNDR (pronounced “wonder”) stands out from other museums “by inviting guests to fully engage with the artworks and multi-sensory installations”, so let’s see what we can get into. I think it’s very weird, but find it strangely intriguing. What do you think about walking through tight corridors and into very open spaces, all with walls that are backlit with different color themes? “Immersive” is the appropriate description, and every space and exhibit are so different from the one we just left. It’s so unusual and really lots of fun.
We’ll have to return for one of the themed, 21+ After Dark events, so we can explore after hours, and also have a cocktail, some light bites, and hear a live DJ. Just think, the museum will be quite different upon our return; they constantly change things around, bring new technologies to current presentations and add totally new experiences.
It’s the end of the month already, so today, Sunday, June 30th, let’s eat! Specifically, let’s eat at Lem’s BBQ, http://lemsque.com/, 311 E. 75th St., (773) 994-2428 where the BBQ is absolutely the finest.
They are internationally famous for their rib tips and hot links, for good reason. Those used to be inexpensive meats, and barbecuing was the best, tastiest way of delivering full flavor. It started way back in 1954, when two brothers, Bruce and Myles Lemons, “created a dream for their future, a dream of hope, a dream of destiny. It was a dream of entrepreneurship.” With this dream, they opened their store on the south side of Chicago. Myles, was a trained chef, and created Lem’s original Bar-B-Q sauce and its magical spices. People came to Lem’s, bit into the properly cooked meats, slathered in the secret sauce, and kept coming back. Lem’s has been successful and rather famous ever since.
You don’t believe me? Come on, we’ll split a large combo. Extra sauce for both of us, please, and yes, extra bread for each of us. Thank you!
Now, take a bite, chew, savor, and enjoy some of the best BBQ anywhere. Yes, indeed, this is worth it. What a great way to finish up a hectic, joyful and very satisfying month. Thank you for being with us, and we will see you in July.
