All posts tagged Chicago

A night at Lee’s Unleaded Blues

April 12, 2008

So when I was in Chicago last week I made the de rigueur blues club visit, at Lee’s Unleaded Blues.

Ironically it was a soul night, but a good time was had nonetheless.

I was mostly trying to listen, and talk to an interesting musicology student doing her thesis on Lee’s and another club called Rosa’s Lounge, but I did manage to take a few blurry photos, and a lousy “video” clip of the excellent house band, which nonetheless has a certain charm –

(Clearly I need to get some better recording equipment. For audio I’m leaning towards the Zoom H2 or a Roland, don’t know about video.)

Since it was an open mic, the aforementioned student later played some viola with the band(!), and in good time I got up to sing 2/3 of the lyrics to some Marvin Gaye. I wanted to sing Sam Cooke’s “Lost and Looking”, since I actually, you know, know the lyrics to that one, but the band didn’t know it :(

At the end I ask the MC how he tied his crazy tie, which had more knots than one would reasonably expect. He goes, “Oh, it’s a clip-on,” and reaching behind his head, “Do you want it?”

This is why I’m hostelling

April 3, 2008

(I.e., because it’s fly.)

The Loop area near the hostelSo I’m in Chicago for two days (a half day left), en route to New Mexico, staying in the downtown hostel. One of my roommates is Chinese, a poli sci student, and last night I asked him about Tibet.

He sighs, and says it’s hard to know what to think. The Communist Party tells the Chinese that the Dalai Lama is a “conspirator,” but Western media outlets say there is a big crackdown by China. The important thing is for everyone to live in peace. Both parties need to understand each other’s intentions better, and perhaps the atheistic Community Party should learn that religion is important for most people in the world.

He mentioned a YouTube video (perhaps this one) that claims Tibet was, is, and will always be a part of China. He and his friends find it funny, because the video lacks evidence. We are civilized people, he said, and when we say things there should be some evidence for them — otherwise it’s just propaganda.

Another person asked him why he’s come here to study politics. He said he feels the biggest challenge in China is political reform, and that the Chinese need to know more about other systems of government, e.g. democratic ones, so that they can, perhaps, join the free world sometime — which he said with a smile.