Blog Entries Tagged Chicago

Here's a list of all 30 blog entries tagged Chicago here at derek.broox.com. I've also got 1,698 other things related to Chicago.

  • Riot Fest 2015 posted

    Kari pretty much ordered us a set of Riot Fest tickets as soon as she saw this year's line-up. There wasn't many current acts, but it was chock full of bands we would've gone to 10+ years ago if we had money... or knew that we liked going to shows. I'd barely seen any of these people play before, but was definitely into a ton of them at least one point in my life. After watching Lollapalooza get a bigger and bigger, molly fueled, EDM crowd over the last 10 years, the crowd at Riot Fest was a much welcomed change... read more

  • Lollapalooza 2014 posted

    So when Kari was diagnosed with MS last fall, no joke, one of the first things she asked me (nearly in tears) from her hospital bed was, "what are we going to do about lollapalooza?" Not even lying, she wanted to know that if she wasn't able to walk anymore, I'd be able to get her to the front like the guy we saw at Kendrick Lamar last year. It sounds totally cheesy, but live music is just something we do and it's been a huge part of our relationship. Well, fast forward 10 crazy months and aside from needing an arm through some rough terrain, Lollapalooza was absolutely no thang for Kari. No handicapped pass was needed, we had a blast, saw some amazing shows, walked ~60,000 steps, and hung out with some good friends. As far as music goes, 2014 was loaded with hip hop and great, danceable music... read more

  • Lollapalooza 2013 posted

    Didn't have the best lineup ever, but it was definitely better than 2012… Add in not having a crazy job to pull me back to the office, a free place to stay, the beautiful weather, and the amount of butts hanging out of daisy duke mom jorts, this turned out to be one of the best lollapalooza experiences so far. Here's how it went... Friday Crystal Castles - This was my 3rd time seeing them. Their producer, Ethan is amazing and Alice is batshit crazy on stage… smoking, drinking jameson out of the bottle, and just putting on a great show. They sounded awesome... read more

  • What I was actually doing for those 15 months in Chicago... posted - 7 comments

    I moved to Chicago for 466 days, where I lived in 3 different neighborhoods and visited 375 different places — 239 of which were restaurants or bars. I walked around 10,087 steps (or 7.67 miles) per day, slept roughly 7.19 hours per night, and gained 1 pound before returning to Iowa. I was actually in the city on 400 of those days and ventured out of Chicago on 117 of them. 68 of those (spread across 17 different trips) were spent in my actual home, with my wife in Iowa. I was also fortunate enough to get out to Washington DC, San Francisco, Arizona, and Napa Valley... read more

  • Lollapalooza 2012 posted - 1 comment

    I'll start off by saying that the weirdest part about lollapalooza this year was the line-up. I wasn't really stoked about ANY of the headliners and kinda "meh" about most of the other shows. This has never really happened to me on any other year. However, I'm living in Chicago right now and couldn't pass up the ease of going to the festival. Here's how things went... read more

  • Lollapalooza 2011 posted - 3 comments

    The 20 year anniversary of Lollapalooza, my 5th year at the festival, the 30th anniversary of my life, and the turning point of a pretty major change in my (and Kari's) life. We had some huge milestones going on this year... all of which sort of overshadowed each other, and moved too fast for me to fully appreciate them like I should have. Either way, Lollapalooza was a giant, super expensive blast again this year. There's the standard eating of great foods, dealing with crowds, late night dinners and even later night partying, so I won't get into all that… but here's a breakdown of the shows we saw this year... read more

  • Lollapalooza 2010 posted

    Soooo, Lollapalooza is starting to make some really nice changes. First of all, the space. They expanded the fest grounds across Columbus (adding 4 city blocks of space) and moved some of the small stages over there. It definitely, definitely opened things up and made the entire weekend much more comfortable. Everyone was gushing over the new grounds... read more

  • Conked My Head! posted - 9 comments

    So, everyone is asking about it, I've told the story 1,000 times.. might as well get it down in a blog. It all started Saturday when we somehow forgot to eat more than 2 slices of pizza, walked all over Chicago, then partied. All of that combined... turned out to be a really solid recipe for low-blood sugar, which is no stranger to me and my family... read more

  • Lollapalooza 2009 posted - 3 comments

    Let me start off on a negative note by saying that Lollapalooza 2009 was the worst Lollapalooza I've been to. I mean, it wasn't awful or anything, I just think we got spoiled in 2006 and 2007. The artists this year weren't as good, we missed a lot of acts due to traveling, we didn't go to any afterparties, we didn't get to see many friends, and the weather was rough. ...Aside from all that though - It was still pretty awesome and I'm really glad we went. We got to hang out with Jon and Liz quite a bit, had Sushi Wabi, heard a ton of good music, and of course, got to visit our favorite city - Chicago... read more

  • Joyce Turns 60 in Chicago posted - 4 comments

    So Kari's aunt Joyce is a traveling nurse. As such, she gets her choice of where (and when) to work in various cities around the country - 6 weeks here, 6 weeks there, 12 weeks at home, etc, etc. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous; I'm incredibly jealous. Anyway, lately Joyce has been in Chicago to be near Kari's cousins; helping Stephanie with the baby, ya know. And Kari just happened to be flying back (through Chicago) from math camp on Joyce's birthday... read more

  • Slapping Harper With The Froehlichs posted

    Kari and I's buddy, Steph, recently bought a place in Chicago - a really nice place right downtown. Last Friday was her condo-warming party and we of course couldn't miss it. So we planned the trip and everything fell into place. Family was in town for Elias' baptism, and our Chicago friends were ready to party. There was much visiting to be done... read more

  • T Minus Eight Days posted - 5 comments

    Until I am done working at Pioneer. That's right. On Monday this week I put in my 2 week notice at my cushy corporate job. Why? Back up to a month ago when my promotion (supported by 3 levels of management) was brought forward and then shot down by the director of Information Management... read more

  • Lollapalooza 2007 posted - 1 comment

    My last 2 birthdays have been the most insanely awesome/draining weekends ever. My birthday, in Chicago, on Lollapalooza weekend. The best thing about this year was that I saw every band that I had written down to see, except for silverchair. I even saw some shows on conflicting schedules, yessss. However, my feet always kill me during the entire weekend... read more

  • Chicago Auto Show Randomness posted

    So, Nehru planned on driving to Chicago with some of his STI and EVO buddies last weekend. However, at the last minute someone canceled, which opened up a seat for me. Of course, I accepted. The drive was definitely interesting. 4 pretty different people with really the only thing in common being our love for cars - and maybe beer... read more

  • Chicago - Family Style posted - 4 comments

    Ahhh, another weekend well spent in my home away from home. I love how comfortable I'm getting with Chicago. It's quite nice. This time we visited the city for 2 milestone events - Vic's college graduation and Kari's 25th birthday. Thursday was Vic's ceremony, which ruled... read more

  • Chicago or Des Moines? posted - 11 comments

    The question is not about where I want to live, because the answer would obviously be Chicago. However, that can't happen right now, so... I want to make this piece of art that is basically a skyline sitting on a chunk of earth. The actual skyline would be black painted metal sitting on a piece of "earth" to give a sort of glacial effect. The earth would be made of plywood... read more

  • Drive, Party, Demo, Drive posted

    So, this weekend I went to Chicago for a few minutes, which will put an end to a month straight of weekends I was out of town - without Kari, haha. Rochester, Minneapolis, Orlando, and Chicago. Traveling without Kari was a little weird, a little lame, but also nice. We both enjoy time with each other as much as we enjoy time without each other. However, 4 weeks in a row may be a little excessive... read more

  • Old and Boring @ Twenty Five posted - 4 comments

    What an insane birthday. Seriously. And now that my life is 1/3 over, my insurance should go down now, ha. W00t. Ok... read more

  • New Years 2006 posted - 3 comments

    Kari and I drove out to Chicago again for New Years Eve. The plan was usual: hanging out with harper, good food, going out, along with going to the party/Gaylords concert at Kill Hannah's Practice Space. Friday we pulled into town and met Harper at Sushi wabi for a great great meal, then we went to Kill Hannah's practice space and hung out for a bit while the band practiced, heh. It was pretty nice, they were totally rocking out. Then we got to listen to the new Kill Hannah album... read more

  • Chicago Heely Demos posted

    Sorry Cedric, but I think Chicago was much better than your party, haha. No, the visit was nice as always. I'm becoming quite comfortable with my visits to Harper and the city. It's almost routine - I love it. So yeah, Friday I drove to Chicago, got there around 10, we hung out a bit then went to dinner @ Ziggy's... read more

  • Vox Website posted - 1 comment

    Haha, I'm on the Vox Vodka Website for the podcast at Buzz with Harper. It is so funny, and rules so much, haha. This is from their site: "A Weekend Out in Chi-Town@ Buzz and Soundbar (Podcast Coming Soon) 8/17/2005 This past Saturday, Vox Vodka made a second appearance at Buzz nightclub in Rivernorth. The last time Vox dropped into Buzz, we celebrated the best of Chicago bartenders and entertainers at "Industry Night". Saturdays bring a different crowd full of both Chicago residents & weekend warriors who come to experience the Chicago nightlife scene... read more

  • Rebel's Advocate Video Shoot posted - 7 comments

    Man, things have been crazy as usual. Last week Harper stopped by on his road trip to Colorado. We hung out a bit, Ninja got loose, and we rode the pocket bike, then he kept driving. The plan for the weekend was to shoot a music video for a hip hop group called Rebels Advocate. So, Friday after work, we caravaned 3 car loads of people to Maywood, which is a ghetto westside suburb of Chicago... read more

  • Memorial Day Insanity posted - 7 comments

    This weekend was seriously insane. Kari and I got to go to our 2 favorite places in 1 weekend, Cornell and Chicago - Rule. So, friday night we showed up at Cornell and hung out with lots of friends before they graduate. Wingert even showed up, so needless to say we had to break Mt Vernon. Besides that it was nice to see everyone... read more

  • Steppin into 2005: Chicago Style posted - 4 comments

    It's 2005, so I guess I shuold write about New Years in Chicago to party with Harper. Friday night, Kari and I went to this pretty cool little bar/kitchen called Viand to hang out and have a martini. Then we met Harper, Saresh, Megan, John, and Mike (who is a deron miller look alike) at Rezas. The food was soooo good - persian food or something. We got lots of pitas, hummus, soup, dill rice, etc... read more

  • Chicago again - Steph's sister's wedding posted - 11 comments

    This weekend, Kari and I went to a pretty out of control wedding - it was freaking incredible. They reserved a couple rooms for us all to stay in at the Palmer Hilton of Chicago. The wedding was for Steph's sister (Maryanne) and her man, Chris. I knew it was going to be quite a good wedding since their parents (Dr Bob and Sheryl) are awesome. Plus we got word that Oprah's make-up artist was doing the bride's maids' make-up, wtf... read more

  • Chicago - Heelys and Metallica posted - 5 comments

    So this weekend I was scheduled to do a Heelys demo in Chicago. Kari was already going to Barrington (a suburb) to visit friends and see a Jimmy Buffet concert (dork, haha). So I rode along with her and cassie and got dropped off at a train station and played with my camera while I waited. Harper and I then went to Crobar at 2am with Jordan and Monica. It was nice to see Claudia and Red Hair Matt again too... read more

  • Chicago again posted - 2 comments

    Nordstrom department stores started selling heely's which is a big deal because that's a huge account for us to get. So HSL asked if I would be willing to go to Chicago to do a couple Demos at the stores up there. I was orginally supposed to meet Zach and Aaron there to do demos, but they couldn't make it. So instead, Kari went with me, and I did the demos by myself. Anyway, Chicago was really fun again... read more

  • Chicago and Harper posted - 1 comment

    10:09|<xy_goat> all you gotta do is start linking to some blogs 10:09|<xy_goat> like in a post be like "harper sucks" and link to me I'm going to see this suck-face this weekend. plus i'm doing demos for heely's. it'll be fun. read more

  • Chicago posted - 2 comments

    Friday: Insane We met Harper at Crobar, a new club in chicago charging like a $30 cover. The DJ there is a guy named 'Felix' who does work with Puffy and is definitely the best club DJ I've seen live. Anyway, Chris (of the virgin tears) was hanging out with us also. He's friends with Felix, so we all walked in together on "the cool side of the rope" for free while some dude was taking pictures of us, ha. Inside, this place was so dope... read more

  • My sister rules posted - 3 comments

    A few months ago my sister entered the Miss Teen Illinois contest with 2000 other girls. Well, that 2000 was narrowed down to 175 which went to the actual pageant in Chicago. We went and watched, and probably had the loudest cheering section in the whole place (between about 6 of her friends, and my family). Everyone was really nervous but my sister made it to the top 15... and then the top 5... read more