Tasty Chicago

I went to the Taste of Chicago on July 4 and 5...the first in the rain, primarily to listen to Guster (who are pretty damn awesome live! Concerts are the best when the band members have personalities and aren't afraid to demonstrate them...especially when said personalities are kind of nerdy! Also they played "Amsterdam" which is such a greeeeat song! I like to go to concerts, is it obvious at all...even if I had my umbrella up most of the time and also three people who are having fun but can't dance trying to grind all together (uh, seriously, at least one person needs to lead) and an insane/mentally compromised person for like 5 minutes ruining on the music, except not "Amsterdam") and maybe it's time to end this sentence.

So. The Taste of Chicago.

Considering how many vendors backed out of it, no surprise that it wasn't as fabulous as the Chicago Tribune makes it sound (or maybe they're just full of lies), but still...the amount of people buying pizza was just...seriously?! I mean, this is supposed to be a festival about trying, y'know, new things....

I had some tasty things (some of them just samples of friends' things)...sweet potato pie, banana chocolate egg roll, mango/cumin french fries with date chutney, key lime pie (why do they only make it in the summer...), dream cup (which is like a dreamsicle but made with actual ice cream), a dessert with a pretentious name that was basically a coconut-covered brownie, a really good cheese-covered (and none of that bullshit frozen sprinkly cheese, we're talking pizza cheese here) garlic bread thing and...this is all I can remember...Sierra Mist new stuff (we got to be sunwashed! It was kind of the most ridiculous experience EVER). The things were surprisingly non-ripofftastic, provided you get lots of taste portions and stay the hell away from full options, unless of course they're desserts.

Also, the Sensodyne booth gave us free toothpaste and bags with the Sensodyne logo, proving my point that people will give you all sorts of free stuff if it means they get to advertise their name.

I don't actually approve of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid, but I pressed the support button 3 times because I wanted to hear all the sound effects, and then I signed the thing so I could get a free rubber bracelet. Free stuff is awesome.

Oh, yeah, SUNWAAAASHIIIIIIING. Free sample booth! Which was perfect in the insane heat following the ridiculous crowd level of July 5 (last day, muuuuch better weather than the day before, that sort of thing). We got to walk through swishy fuzzy feather boa things that were yellow while listening to people with the right timbre cooing(?) "SUUUUUUNWWAAAAAASHIIIIIING" and then walk through, well, some pretty trippy but weirdly entertaining stuff.


WHY won't Guster release album versions of their music that sound like the live stuff..."Satellite"'s many crazy electric guitar solos are so much more emphasized there.... And also they have this one song where the lead does this totally crazy voice, but I have no idea which one it is.... P.S. he really can play the harmonica, too. Sweet!


AND. Fireworks in Chicago are best on July 3, even though they're still around July 4 (this part is directed at crazy, not-super-intelligent P.M.S.ing lady who called Chicago "fucking unpatriotic").