A night at Green Mill

Green Mill is a very old Jazz bar, we didn't actually know what to expect when we arrived,
we barely knew where it was, but luckily we found it.
Green Mill is one of those clubs that haven't changed for years, to be more precise it hasn't changed since the prohibition.
We were told that Al Capone used to go there quite often, which made the place even more symbolical!

The band, Deep Blue, was made of 3 musicians, they were playing jazz during the first part and then more jazzy music.
I brought my DSLR, and as usual it caught people's attention.
First, we were sitting on the left hand side of the room, with a nice angle but a bit far to take great shots.
For some reasons, the guy who was working for the band told us that we could have the best sit, right in front of the scene!
This guy, Lobster, started to talk to us, and he invited us to a blues show on Thursday, and if we give him a ring we will get in as VIP. I'm not entirely sure of what that means, but STILL!!! first night chicago and people can see that i'm a VIP!!!!!
He told us the history of the bar, with al capone, the fact that they are very selective about who plays in that place etc.
Anyway, he introduced us to the band, who then carried on playing after the break.
The music was very nice, and you could feel that they weren't only playing it, they
were living it, they savoring every single notes they were playing and loving it!

The pianist (he wasn't a pianist cause the instrument he was playing kinda looked like the piano but wasn't...) was blind, according to Lobster only a very few very talented people could play this instrument. He had less expression on his face than the others, but it was easy to guess that he was totally into it.
The guitarist, (well i think that was a guitar) talked to us during both break, he saw us taking pics and would like us to send them to him.
I had a very good night, it was amazing how easy it is to talk to people you don't know, you get invited to events by people you've never seen before.
Rachel and I are both up to go to that event on Thursday! I believe it's gonna be a big thing, and even if it's not, at least we would have been VIP for one night in Chicago!

First day in Chicago

This is my first post of my blog that i might not keep up-to-date, depends on how much spare time i have got.
July 2010 inaugurates the beginning of a my year that I'll spend traveling.
I know i'm not good at sending emails to keep in touch especially when abroad, where there is always some many things to do and see! So whoever wants to follow me, here you are, you now can become my stalker!

First Destination: Chicago,
Aim: Internship at In These Times (magazine)

To be honest, when a few months before i left and even now, i was excited but pretty sure that i wasn't gonna fall in love with the city and i was kinda skeptical about it
I don't usually like huge cities such as Paris, London and maybe Chicago.
So I was looking forward to it, but was trying to have great expectations about it, as i didn't want to be disappointed.
I'll make the most of it and I'm sure like everyone i know who went there I'm gonna love it!

The journey to get there went well, I even fell asleep before the aircraft took off (had a very rough week end) from London. Rachel (the girl i'm staying with and who is interning at In These Times as well) came and picked me up from the Jackson CTA station.

A few things i'm really proud of: I did wake up on time to catch my train to go to london,
I didn't lose my passport nor my suitcases or my boarding pass or my train tickets, and i didn't miss any planes!
I didn't get lost in the tube (well, CTA here)
Yeah I'm all grown up now!

Rachel took me to a gay bar in her area, to have a 1$ burger and a pint of beer.
I got really shocked when I lit my fag on the terrace and the doorman asked me to go outside, well, he meant behind the barriers that distinguished the bar from the street...
Then Rachel told me that in Chicago you couldn't smoke in public areas, such as a bar, but it was fine on the street... I don't get it, well I guess that's an American thing!
Let's hope that nobody gonna think it's a great idea in Europe!
I went to bed at like 11pm local time, which means about 6 am in france (5am in Enland) whereas i got up at 4.30 on the same day, i hadn't slept for 26 hours!

this morning i woke up by 9.00 am, and i looked for flat during most of the morning, viewed one around the corner from where i stay, which was really nice, hopefully i ll get it.
Then i went for a walk by the lake, everything was beautiful and completely different from what i had seen so far, sand, beautiful blue lake, grass everywhere, there was even a beach for dogs... once again I didn't even try to get it!

After a couple of hours I went back to Rachels to carry on looking for flats... not that exciting.
I'm in contact with a few french people, i shall meet them this week or during the week end, we should go out for lunch and probably a few drinks!

Tonight I'm going to a gig with Rachel of organ-jazz gospel but before we gonna get some Thai food.