View of the city from the South Side.
View of the city from the South Side.
Thanks sidewalk! You’re awesome too. Seen in Lakeview.
With the warm weather finally hitting Chicago, it seems fitting to post photos of the gorgeous flowers at The Lincoln Park Conservatory. Apparently as a child I used to call it the “flower zoo,” which is pretty darn adorable. The greenhouse is free and open daily and well worth a visit!
Starting at 2am tonight, Chicago begins massive overhauls of the southern portion of the Red Line. Red Line stations south of Roosevelt will be closed for 5 months. It’ll be a major inconvenience for those living on the south side (although the city has created alternative bus routes), but since I mostly stay north of the city the biggest change I’ll have to deal with is the new signs at all of the CTA stops. Very odd not to see trains headed toward “95th/Dan Ryan.”
Liquid gold.
Hotel Lincoln.
I got a chance to check out the Picasso exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute on its final weekend. When I go to big exhibits like this, I always find myself people-watching almost as much as art-watching.
Cupcake instagram.
A happy cat (statue).
RESTAURANT RECOMMENDATION
I’ve recommended a lot of restaurants on this blog, but Taco Diablo has to be one of my all time favorites. Taco D (as the kids call it) is located in Evanston, an easy walk from the Davis Street Purple Line stop. The servers were incredibly friendly, the bartender was fantastic, and the margaritas were delicious.
I ordered the taco plate which came with 3 tacos and a huge serving of rice and beans for about $12. I tried the potato, vegetable, and catfish tacos and I ended up loving them all. The real star of the evening was the orange chili salsa that was actually more of a creamy sauce and that I would happily drink with a straw. It was sweet and tangy and not really like anything I’d had before. It’s a bit of a trek up North to Evanston, but Taco Diablo is well worth the trip.
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THIS WEEK’S SMASH
Episode 2.15 “The Transfer”
Happy Mother’s Day! My mom is in town visiting so I’m lucky enough to get to spend the day with her today. For those of you who can’t be with your mothers, here are so flowers to “send” to them.
Thanks for the follow Lincoln Park Zoo! If you want to be as cool as the zoo, you can follow me on Twitter here.
Check out my new Play-By-Play feature on my movie review blog Rom Coms and the Real World. This week I take a look at the Hilary Duff vehicle Beauty and the Briefcase.
Grade: D
“I just got hired by Cosmo, the world’s greatest magazine, to go undercover and date hot men in suits. Does it get any better than this?”
I’m not saying Beauty and the Briefcase is the worst thing to ever happen to feminism, but I do think it probably cracks the top ten. To be fair, I’m talking about an ABC Family movie produced by/starring Hilary Duff so it’s my own fault for going in with any sort of expectations. Beauty and the Briefcase is shallow, stupid, and entirely devoid of emotional resonance. It’s the elevator music of movies, a bland film with so little soul it hardly even merits critical thought. So let’s just make fun of it, shall we?
The script for Beauty and the Briefcase was most likely written in one night as the screenwriter downed a box of wine and marathoned Never Been Kissed, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and a handful of Sex and the City episodes. Presumably thanks to the producer cred, most of the movie is just Hilary parading around in sexy outfits. The script is about 95% narration and the characters are so thinly drawn they are practically invisible.
Caprese salad. One of my all time favorites.