Entries Tagged as 'karaoke'

Night Out in Logan Square

June 2nd, 2011 · No Comments

Friday of Memorial Day Weekend.

Groupon for Real Tenochtitlan. Jess, Jen, Chad, Quinn and I. Quinn got arroz y frijoles and said his OJ tasted funny. Minutes later he passed out. I swear he didn’t have any pours from the pitcher of margaritas.

Jess and I split to go to Cole’s. Nathan’s band, The Pear Traps was on at 10:00 p.m. midnight.

Late night, Alice’s Lounge. This is really in Avondale, but I don’t want to change the post title. Polish dive bar. Crazy laser lights. Karaoke. The bar doesn’t close until 4 a.m. We did not stay quite that long.

Okocim.

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Jess’s Karaoke Birthday Party

December 9th, 2009 · No Comments

Last Saturday night Jess had an epic 30th birthday party in the American Legion Bucktown‘s basement with Rory Lake hosting as entertainer and karaoke DJ. You might remember Margaret had a few parties like this before moving to New York. I found Jess’s party extra fun becuase I lost some of my karaoke shyness over the past year or so because of all the singing I’ve done playing Rock Band. Rock Band and the $2 cans of beer they sell at the Legion!

For my first song I sang “Hard to Handle” by the Black Crowes, which is a Rock Band staple of mine. People seemed to really like it. My second song, I thought would be really popular, but wasn’t was “Nothin’ But a Good Time” by Poison. Dallas was a big hit that night. Rory didn’t even call his name when it was his turn, he just played the theme song from the TV show Dallas and that was his cue to come up to the mic! Dallas sang 4 songs – “Bust a Move” by Young MC, “Super Freak” (Little Miss Sunshine style), “Poison” by Bel Biv DeVoe, and a “Regulate” duet with Sarah.

Jess’s older sisters came in from Boston and Iowa for the party and made sure the Legion hall was decorated with embarassing (and adorable) old photos of Jessica. Some of her old friends from college flew in too. It was a good showing of all of her friends. Dallas and I were the party photographers and tried to get at least one shot of everyone there. We took a ton of photos so I just made this slideshow below. Fun fun fun night! Will be hard to top that one!

And be sure to check out Susan’s photos and video from the party too!

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Goodbye Margaret

September 14th, 2008 · No Comments


Surprise!!!! :: American Legion, Bucktown, Chicago


Still in shock, singing Fat Bottom Girls :: American Legion, Bucktown, Chicago


Rory & Margaret :: American Legion, Bucktown, Chicago


Scott is the best at performing Faith :: American Legion, Bucktown, Chicago


Margaret & Rachelle :: American Legion, Bucktown, Chicago


Guys from Time Out Chicago singing to Margaret :: American Legion, Bucktown, Chicago


Olivia & Margaret singing Total Eclipse of the Heart :: American Legion, Bucktown, Chicago

I can vividly remember the first time I met Margaret. It was at a Starbucks on Michigan Avenue, I’d just moved from New York to Chicago and I was wearing a blue hoodie that said “New York” on it, I was disappearing from work for a bit (my office was a building away), I was tired from working a lot that week, and I’d just returned from a trip to Hawaii (where I met Dallas). I knew Gothamist’s Jen and Jake from when I lived in New York and Margaret was a friend of a friend of Jake’s and we were meeting to talk about starting “a site like Gothamist but for Chicago.” I have lived in Chicago around the same amount of time that I’ve known Dallas and around the same amount of time that Chicagoist has existed. They’re all one intertwined experience for me.. and Margaret has always been a big part of it. These days I barely, if at all, participate in Chicagoist… and now? Margaret is moving to New York. Sad face (as she would say)!

Last night a bunch of people surprised Margaret at her favorite karaoke place, The American Legion with Rory Lake as the karaoke DJ. Margaret has had her birthday party there for the past two years. Last year I went and had so much fun, but this year I couldn’t make it because it was the day after The Vodka Lemonade Incident and I was in rough shape. Alden was supposed to go with me but I had to cancel so he came with me last night. Margaret was totally surprised and before she could get over the shock of it someone stuck the microphone in her hand and made her sing “Fat Bottom Girls.” It was like on American Idol where they tell them they lost and then make them sing, except in a happy way.

I talked to the bartender Rod a bit (that’s Hot Rod, for the ladies) and he said that to rent out the American Legion space is a few hundred dollars. If you just want to drink there you have to be a veteran or a booster. To become a booster all you have to do is pay them $10 per year. The beer at the American Legion is $2. It seems to me that you usually have to pay a $10 cover for a NIGHT of drinking discounted beer, not a year! Plus you get a cool American Legion card with your name on it.

We stayed at the Legion until about 2:30 in the morning and then should have gone home but didn’t. We were deciding where to go and someone said it had to be “a 5 a.m. bar.” I was like “5 a.m.? I thought the bars were only open until 4 a.m.” Olivia then informed me that I was old. Which… compared to her… yes, I am! And of course, then I couldn’t go home. We went to The Continental. Of course, once there Olivia decided she couldn’t drink any more (probably a good thing). Alden and I each had one more and then all three of us split a cab ride home. I think I got home at 4 a.m. I have no idea how late Margaret and the others stayed. 5 a.m.?

Definitely tired today, but it was a really fun night. Good to see Margaret.. we’ve done a bad job keeping in close touch this year. Definitely have to see her again before she moves in 2 weeks and definitely she will be added to the list of friends to see when I visit New York.

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08.08.08

August 9th, 2008 · 4 Comments


Roscoe Village, Chicago

On Roscoe Street between Kitsch’n and Orange there is a small business with a sign in the window that says “Dogs Understand the Importance of Naps.” Many times when I pass there is a dog sleeping in the window. I’ve taken a few photos of this scene, but they always turn out horrible with reflections and stuff. This photo is no better, but I’m posting it anyway.

I walked to the Addison Brown line and took the train downtown for lunch. It was Giuliana’s last day at Google and, as is tradition, all the old FeedBurners were taking her out to Singha. We did the same thing on my last day and I remember at that time trying to order Phuket beer. I believe that the correct pronunciation is “poo-ket” but of course, our sixth-grader minds thought “fuck-it” and thought it was appropriate for a last day celebration. Unfortunately, the beer wasn’t available for my last day, but it was for Giuliana’s, so a bunch of us ordered it.

After lunch a few people had tickets to see The Dark Knight on IMAX as part of some Google-sponsored event. Someone couldn’t go and there was an extra ticket. No one knew what to do with it. Since I didn’t have anything planned that afternoon, I volunteered to use the ticket. Thanks Google for lunch and a movie! I’d already seen The Dark Knight, but it was amazing on IMAX.

After lunch I ran a few errands. Dallas called to say that unexpectedly his college friend Chandra was in town visiting from San Francisco and he was going to meet up with her and Kristin. I’d met Chandra once in 2004 when I lived in Chicago and she lived in
New York. It was either this trip or this one, they were only a week apart. Kristin and I were both working for Monster back then and we were both visiting New York for the same project. We took Chandra out with us for Blue Ribbon Sushi, some of the best sushi in New York. Anyway, after I got home and changed I met up with Kristin, Dallas and Chandra at Kristin’s house. We had a glass of wine in her back yard before heading out for dinner.. which was sushi. This time at Tank. The photo at the right is not a good quality, but shows how much sushi the four of us pounded through. It was almost as much sushi as Dallas, Kristin and I ate that one time at Blue Fin after the Old Town Art Fair. So good.

After dinner we went to The Long Room and sat outside in the garden, which is fabulous. The beer list at The Long Room is pretty impressive too. Not as great as when we were at Hopleaf, but really good. Danny, Killian and Alden met up with us at The Long Room. Jessica also came and brought her college friend Lizzie who was visiting from the Twin Cities. Randomly there were two of their college classmates at The Long Room. They didn’t even go to school in Illinois, so kind of weird.


Rachelle, Alden, Jess, Lizzie at Sidekick, Irving Park, Chicago

When The Long Room closed at 2 a.m. Alden, Jessica, Lizzie and I decided it was a good idea to go out for karaoke. Alden’s friend Kristen works at a karaoke place called Sidekick out in Irving Park, so we decided to go there. When we arrived we found out that they stop doing karaoke at 2 a.m. Dang! We bought a few shots (mine was buttery nipple) and asked around to see where we could go for karaoke. On a recommendation, we went to Hidden Cove.


Hidden Cove, Lincoln Square, Chicago

I was excited to go to Hidden Cove because of a dumb inside joke we had at Google about a conference room we called “The Cove.” It was everything we wanted. Nice staff, french fries, open til 4 a.m., karaoke. Jess, Lizzie and I sang 9 to 5 and Alden sang R.O.C.K. in the USA.


Lizzie, Jessica, Rachelle at Hidden Cove, Lincoln Square, Chicago


Alden at Hidden Cove, Lincoln Square, Chicago

08.08.08 was a fun day for me. Totally unplanned, aside from lunch, I just went with the flow and had a great time!

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That Went Downhill Fast

May 25th, 2008 · 3 Comments

One night last week Alden and Justin and I decided to go out for a nice nostalgic dinner at De Cero. When we worked at FeedBurner in the West Loop, we’d always go to De Cero when new people were hired or anytime we wanted to go for a nice lunch.

Justin was in town for the first time since he moved to San Francisco so we caught up a lot on what’s been happening since he left. It was a good time, but 2 pitchers of margaritas and 4 shots each of Petron Silver later and we were at the cheesiest bar ever singing karaoke!

Also, fyi, if you’ve never actually paid for anything at De Cero, like us because we were always there for work functions, it’s really expensive! Like really expensive. Like $35 for one pitcher of margaritas and more than $10 per shot. I’m surprised that I wasn’t shocked sober when we got the bill. Instead I just ordered The Pain Killer at the next bar and told them to make it strong.


Trader Todd’s, Lakeview, Chicago


Singing the Humpty Dance with Alden. I thought that waving my hands in the air like I just didn’t care would get the crowd worked up. Something tells me it did not.


I was really excited to sing What I Got by Sublime.

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