1521 N. State Parkway, Chicago: $9,950,000 | Listed April 6, 2020
This 9,700-square-foot Gold Coast mansion has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, and was designed by George Maher. Built in 1894 and set on an oversized lot, the limestone home has been renovated and includes plaster moldings, paneling and herringbone floors. A cove ceiling, one of six fireplaces, a custom dressing room and a marble bathroom complete the master suite. A second kitchen can be found in the penthouse-level entertainment room, along with a roof deck. Exterior features include a terrace, garage top deck, landscaping, a built-in grill and an outdoor fireplace. This home includes a one-car garage and a parking pad for a second car.
Agent: Jennifer Ames of Engel & Voelkers, 773-797-9500
Marilla is a gentle, shy and sweet, one-year-old, female white patch tabby cat looking for a loving guardian.
This eight-pound girl was found living in a warehouse where she was being kept for rodent control. She lived with her momma cat, who has so far evaded our grasp. She is fine with all the other cats in my home when introduced. She does a little nervous growl but really nothing more. No biting or scratching. She lets me hold her in my arms and she has a very soft but consistent purr.
She’s timid and likes to hide high and low, but she doesn’t seem to mind when I drag her out for a snuggle session. She also uses her litter box perfectly.
She is very healthy, spayed, vaccinated for rabies and distemper, dewormed and treated with Revolution for fleas and worms. She has also tested negative for FIV/Felv and is microchipped.
Marilla’s adoption fee of $150 benefits the rescued pets of Friends of Petraits Rescue.
If you’re interested in meeting and possibly adopting Marilla, please contact [email protected] for an adoption application.
She is currently being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.
These are just a few of the places where we’ve seen protests to reopen America. Most of the scenes have ranged from scary to surreal to ridiculous. One word sent people to the streets….Liberate
We’ve seen men carrying assault rifles into the Michigan statehouse. We’ve been treated to people carrying confederate flags, Nazi paraphernalia and MAGA hats. There have been surfers and sun worshipers storming the Orange County, California beaches. These are the people who dominate the news coverage. These are the faces of the protests.
But what about the people out there that we don’t see? What about people who own a small business or restaurant and the loss of a month or two of sales puts their livelihood in jeopardy? What about people who have lost jobs and are worried that their way of life will be destroyed by the Covid-19 pandemic? These are the people that are now struggling to pay their mortgage, put food on the table for their families and basically just trying to keep afloat.
How do you balance your family’s safety with it’s financial concerns? What would you do if you had to make this choice?
For me, it’s easy now to make that choice. I don’t have the concerns of the people I just mentioned. But recently, I wondered what I would have done if the Covid-19 pandemic had occurred twenty years earlier?
In 2000, I was fifty-seven years old. I had a wife and two young daughters, ages nine and seven. I was working for an advertising company. It was a family owned business with about one hundred employees. I had a sales position that had a good income. My wife was also working, but even with two incomes money was tight. For every step you took forward financially, something would come up that would make you take one or more steps back. I’m not complaining. That’s just the way it was twenty years ago. We weren’t the only ones. Plenty of other families had the same issues.
My job was straight commission. No sales equals no income. If you became ill and missed a day of work, it would put you in a hole. If you caught the flu and missed a week, that hole becomes fairly deep.
So what happens if a pandemic hits and the small company is forced to temporarily shut down? How does someone already living check to check survive? How can someone already living close to the edge overcome that?
The answer is sadly, they probably can’t.
That’s why no matter what you think of the clowns that show up on your television each night, you have to have empathy for the ones behind those gruesome scenes. Health vs work is a difficult choice for many Americans. It’s more difficult than many of us think. It’s easy to say staying home and safe is the only choice. It’s not nearly as easy if you’re faced with losing that home which keeps you safe.
The protests to open up America are going to continue. The news outlets will continue to focus on those that act the most outrageous. But when you talk about and hopefully condemn them, don’t forget the folks standing behind them…the ones you can’t see. They’re the ones whose stores you walk into every day. They’re the ones you should be talking about. They’re the ones who really need our support…not our shame. Those protesters are us.
My so called friends think it’s time to edit this section. After four years, they may be right, but don’t tell them that. I’ll deny it until they die!
I can’t believe I’ve been writing this blog for four years.
It started as a health/wellness thing and over the years has morphed to include so many things that I don’t know how to describe it anymore.
I really thought this was going to be the final year of the blog but then Donald Trump came along. It looks like we’re good for four more years..God help us all!
Oh yeah…the biographical stuff. I’m not 60 anymore. The rest you can read about in the blog.
In 2016, a video of Ashley “Slim” Stevenson performing a goosebump-inducing cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” on the Washington Blue Line platform went viral. Since then it’s racked up more than 25 million YouTube views, and until the pandemic stopped her, Stevenson continued to sing and strum her acoustic guitar for appreciative commuters. On April 16, she released a full-length of her own knockout songs, Freedom, recorded with local producer Prov Krivoshey. The album deftly captures her sublime guitar work and soulful vocals–with no interruptions from passing trains! “I do eventually hope to perform at the Washington Blue Line again, because it’s where I felt the most free as a musician,” Stevenson says. “But the next goal is to start traveling and creating new content.” For now, you can download Freedom from Bandcamp!
Since debuting in 2018, Hitter have become one of Chicago’s most ferocious bands, and the hi-watt dirt rock on their debut LP, Hard Enough, could power the city’s electrical grid! Singer Hanna “Hazard” Johnson (formerly of Lil Tits), Meat Wave drummer Ryan Wizniak, and guitarist Adam Luksetich (former Foul Tip bassist and Johnson’s bandmate in Lifestyles) recorded the album in October. Bassist Patrick Woodall joined after the sessions, and Hitter dropped the album last week via Bandcamp. “With a lockdown in full swing and no end in sight, it seems that this is actually the best time to self-release our record,” says Johnson. “Why sit on this piece of rock ‘n’ roll gold until things hopefully someday return to normal?” This wolf couldn’t agree more!
Last week local indie-pop six-piece Spun Out (which includes former Ne-Hi members Michael Wells and James Weir) dropped a sparkling new single, “Such Are the Lonely,” that embraces the bouncy melancholy of golden-age New Order. It’d sound really great on a packed dance floor–here’s hoping we can all get together on one soon! v
My family’s beloved 16-year-old Siamese cat, Webley, died in my arms last year. He’d been a sleek fat kitty before he got ill, but he’d lost weight and lost weight till he was little more than a bedraggled shadow. At the end he could barely lift his head, and then the vet gave him the shot and he couldn’t lift his head at all. I was scratching his ears as I’d so often done before, and suddenly they dropped, and whatever I was petting wasn’t Webley anymore. It’s one of the worst memories of my life.
I’ve been thinking about Webley a lot while listening to the new Fire-Toolz album, Rainbow Bridge, which comes out May 8 on local label Hausu Mountain. Angel Marcloid, a Chicago musician who records as Fire-Toolz (as well as under several other names), made Rainbow Bridge about her 16-year-old cat, Breakfast, also a Siamese, who died in December 2018. The album is an idiosyncratic collage of guttural death-metal roars, electronic bleeps, and vaporwave ambience. Bleak, sweet, and quietly unflinching, it slides back and forth between two emotional poles: one boils with rage and grief, while the other is steeped in a comforting lyricism as gentle as a cat rubbing its chin against your hand. “It’s been a while, but I think about her every day,” Marcloid says. “I still have moments where I feel her close and I just cry a whole bunch. I’ve got her ashes two feet from me right now. I have a tattoo of her on my chest. So yeah, I’m happy to honor her in my music.”
From as early as she can remember, Marcloid says, music made her feel things “that are just so abstract and visceral and hard to put your finger on.” She was born near Annapolis in 1984 to a music-loving family; her parents constantly played CDs of hair metal, the Beatles, and her all-time favorite band, Rush. Marcloid started making little drum sets out of pots and pans almost as soon as she could walk.
Her first public performance was when she was seven. Her parents knew a local bar band, and she sat in with them to play drums on a cover of the Black Crowes’ “Hard to Handle.”
“This is a smoky bar, women showing their boobs and stuff–it was not an environment for kids!” Marcloid says. “But I sat down with the drum kit and we played the songs, and they were just amazed. They were looking back at me while we were playing, like, ‘Holy shit! This kid’s actually keeping time!’ I’ll never forget walking off that stage, and all these drunk, smelly adults cheering me on, and a couple of people just gave me money. ‘You’re awesome, kid! Here’s 20 dollars!'”
Marcloid soon taught herself to play guitar and bass too, and her musical interests expanded. As a child she had a formative late-night exposure to Morbid Angel’s 1993 video for “Rapture” via MTV’s Headbangers Ball, and soon she was also listening to jazz and electronica. She performed in several short-lived bands, and in the late 2000s she launched her own label, also called Rainbow Bridge. Through it Marcloid released cassettes and CDs by other musicians, as well as a blizzard of her own music under various names–including ambient acoustic music as the Human Excuse, punky dream pop with the trio Shadow Government, and electroacoustic noise as Water Bullet.
Marcloid came to Chicago in 2012 to move in with a girlfriend, who owned several cats and had just adopted Breakfast. Like most Siamese, Marcloid says, Breakfast “has always been a little strange.” She was neurotic and disliked the other cats, and she never really warmed up to Marcloid’s partner. In fact she only had one clear favorite. “She took to me immediately,” Marcloid says, “and always wanted to be on me and just wanted to spend all her time with me.” When Marcloid and her partner split up, there was no question who Breakfast would go with. The kitty ended up spending most of her life in Marcloid’s bedroom to avoid other cats. “The rest of the house was just scary for her. There were too many other cat smells,” Marcloid says.
“On the one hand, it may seem weird or maybe even borderline cruel to keep a cat in a single bedroom for their entire lives. But that’s what she wanted; she was happy.”
Marcloid has featured Breakfast in tracks throughout her oeuvre. “Spirit Spit” from the 2017 album Drip Mental (Hausu Mountain), for example, is a short wordless suite in which Marcloid imagines the usually shy Breakfast grown adventurous enough to go exploring in the house during a storm. The track opens with Breakfast engaging in some Siamese vocalizing and squawking, with thunder in the background. The rest of the narrative unfolds through auditory cues. “She comes down to the basement and turns on her ancient computer, which ties into AOL,” Marcloid explains. “Then she puts on a Telepath CD, which is a vaporwave artist that I absolutely love. You can hear the CD drive opening, you can hear the Telepath song start. And then she types some stuff and is meowing. And then she turns off the computer and goes back upstairs.”
In 2018 Breakfast began to go into kidney failure. She was constantly peeing in Marcloid’s room, and she wasn’t eating. Eventually she was so uncomfortable and miserable Marcloid had to euthanize her. “And that was just so fucking traumatic for me, and so emotional,” Marcloid says. “It really energized the search for truth and meaning that I had already begun years ago.”
Marcloid began making Rainbow Bridge during Breakfast’s illness. The title isn’t just a callback to her record label (which she folded around five years ago) but also a reference to contemporary folk mythology about a rainbow bridge that, in Marcloid’s words, “our pets either cross when they die to go to the other side, or they go there and they wait for us.” The cover art, by Marcloid and Jeremy Coubrough, shows a Siamese cat sitting in a green field with her back to the viewer, looking at the prismatic steps of a bridge that leads upward into a kind of bloated growth of exploding colors.
The chaos of different hues fits the Fire-Toolz aesthetic. As Hausu Mountain cofounder Doug Kaplan puts it, “There’s just nobody else that sounds like this, and there will never be another. Each track goes a billion different places but has a strong sense of oneness.” Marcloid’s other projects often follow particular rules or fit into particular genres; Mindspring Memories, for example, is mostly slowed-down and otherwise manipulated smooth-jazz samples. A recent album under the name Path to Lobster Believers is processed feedback improvisation. But with Fire-Toolz, Marcloid says, “Anything goes. It’s a no-rules catchall; everything reports to it. It’s the top of the pyramid.”
The violent shifts in tone and genre on a Fire-Toolz track often feel exuberant and playful. On Rainbow Bridge, though, they create splatters of emotion: nostalgia, confusion, loss, hope. The opening track, “Gnosis .oo?Ozing,” starts out as ranting death metal, with Marcloid screaming distorted, virtually indecipherable lyrics: “Arms wrapped in neon like a warning / A rainbow bridge unfurling / And now I lay listening to nothing / I feel my organs locking up.”
By the second verse, she’s superimposed smooth-jazz keyboard flourishes atop the noise, so that it sounds like the metal is battling easy listening, anger struggling with happier memories. “Layers in grief not unlike stages of passing / There are many / Not too many / Not so much.”
The video for the song “Rainbow ? Bridge,” created by Marcloid with Armpitrubber (aka Christine Janokowicz), provides an intense visual analogue for the music’s smeared palette. This song too starts with a death-metal feel, pairing double kick drum with Marcloid’s throat-tearing vocals. “Please don’t be mad that I cut your cord / Fear lodged in my gums / Pressing into my face with fingerlike force / Breakfast!” she yells, as images of the kitty strobe and dissolve into colors, lights, emojis, a door opening, SpongeBob screaming. Tinkly new-age keyboard ambience plays over purple clouds and the on-screen words “Heaven! They say I can sit and soak you up.” A guitar solo fit for a classic-rock ballad cuts through the shifting landscape, and then the song briefly fades into ambience as Breakfast romps across the screen and dissolves. It’s a vision of a loved one disintegrating, perhaps into nothing, perhaps into memory or heaven, while pain and happiness alternate in spasms of glitches.
“Heaven has no location,” Marcloid howls near the end of the track. That’s a statement of spiritual hope; heaven is everywhere, Marcloid believes. “It’s not any particular place. It’s something that is all-encompassing,” she says. “I think that it’s everywhere and everything. It’s the flow of life.” You can hear that hope on tracks such as “[Mego] ^ Maitri,” which is all gentle surging keyboards and pattering electronica, encouraging you to gently drift into an ether of soft fur and purring.
A heaven without location can also simply be a heaven that doesn’t exist, though, and that fear and doubt is also part of Rainbow Bridge. On the jittery “Microtubules,” a throbbing beat loops around and around as Marcloid asks, “Were you afraid of crossing?” It’s an unsettling question: of course she’d worry about a cat who never wanted to leave the bedroom going off on a long journey alone.
“When Breakfast was sick, anxiety was a huge, huge part of it,” Marcloid says. “And even after she passed, and I knew that there was nothing to be done, there was still so much anxiety. I became frustrated because I wanted to know where she was, if she was anywhere. I just want the truth. I don’t even care what it is, even if the truth is we’re all just dead, and that when my body stops working, it’s completely over.”
Marcloid finished Rainbow Bridge months ago, and of course she didn’t know it would be released at a time when anxiety, uncertainty, fear, and isolation would be so pervasive. In the context of a pandemic, the album seems even more relevant, not just because of its grief but also because of its prescient reminder of the importance of pets: during the stay-at-home order, animal adoptions have broken records as humans turn to cats and dogs to keep them company, and keep them sane, in isolation.
Marcloid adopted another cat herself after Breakfast died, and she now has three. “It’s incredibly comforting to have them during a time like this,” she says. “They’re a solid rock for me to lean on. Especially lately, because they just don’t fight with themselves. They’re just such simpler creatures, and they’re so much more connected to reality than any human could possibly be because of how complex our lives are. When they’re in pain, they’ll react–they won’t like it, but they don’t conceptualize and theorize about it. They don’t get into this existential dread. They’re just in pain, and they just want the pain to go away. That’s all it is. It’s that simple. We are just hopeless cases in comparison.”
Marcloid’s music, for all its genre shifts and chaotic oddness, can also reach for that kind of simplicity of thought and emotion. The six-minute instrumental “Angel (of Deth)” is elegiac, oceanic Muzak–a soundtrack to play while the waves roll in, or while watching a kitty sleep. At its conclusion the track breaks up into electronic blips and warbles, as though the world were coming apart and something else were wavering into existence behind the static.
“It’s a mystery because we don’t know,” Marcloid says. “So I have to love and honor that mystery. I don’t even know what God is, or if God exists, but whatever it is, that’s what I love.” Marcloid’s tribute suggests that cats may know more about love than we do. They trust you even at the end, to help them die. Rainbow Bridge is not just a eulogy but an expression of hope that they’ll lend you a paw in turn when your time comes. It’s a comfort to think that when you start up those stairs, there will be a small someone to show you the way. v
Last month, the NFL held this year’s draft for the upcoming season in a virtual format due to the Coronavirus pandemic. League coaches and GMs showed off their homes via video conference calls, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the picks from his home. The draft took place over the course of three days, and despite the lack of ChicagoBears draft picks in the first round, it was still plenty of fun to watch.
In the first round, the Cincinnati Bengals selected LSU quarterback, Joe Burrow, with the first overall pick. Three more quarterbacks followed him in the first round, the final one going to the Green Bay Packers. Tick tock, Rodgers…
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Ohio State Buckeye’s Chase Young and Jeff Okudah fell second and third to the Redskins and Lions. And the Miami Dolphins ended up with Tua Tagovailoa from Alabama with the fifth pick in the draft. By day two of the draft, the Bears were on the clock with the 43rd pick.
A post shared by Chicago Bears (@chicagobears) on May 2, 2020 at 9:31am PDT
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Introducing This Year’s Bear’s Draft Picks
Over the course of the three days, Pace, Nagy, and Co. acquired 7 new players. Even though we missed out on seeing the Bears pick in the first round for the second year in a row, things still went well.
The Bears’ first draft choice, Notre Dame tight end Cole Kmet, can be seen as good or bad depending on who you ask. For one, Kmet is poised to have an immediate impact as the top-ranked at his position in the draft. On the flip side, the Bears currently have a league-high nine tight ends on their roster.
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With two picks in the second round, the Bears selected cornerback Jaylon Johnson 50th overall with their second draft pick. With Johnson set up to start on defense right away, he becomes one of the more valuable picks the team made. The remainder of the Bears draft picks came on day three in the fifth and seventh rounds as the team added depth to the pass rush, receiver corps, O-line, and CB room. Only time will tell, but we definitely hope these picks pan out for the Bears next season!
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Tell us what you think matters and what we should write about next in the comments below!
It won’t be another “season under the stars” in Chicago as Ravinia has been forced to cancel its 2020 summer season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the second time since Ravinia opened in 1904, the Highland Park festival will be closed. The last time this happened was in 1932 – 1935 when the “music died” during the Great Depression.
Photo Credit: Ravinia
Ravinia, the oldest music festival in the country, planned a full schedule of 120 events from June 12 through September 16, including the annual summer residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Anyone who purchased tickets can receive refunds or vouchers for future performances or can convert those funds into much-needed, tax-deductible donations.
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Late last year, Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman announced that 2020 would be his final season at the helm. Kauffman explained the factors driving this decision prioritized the health and safety of Ravinia’s artists, audiences, staff, and neighbors, and follows similar cancellations of other summer festivals.
Since February, Ravinia has been working with its guest artists—some of whom have already canceled their entire 2020 summer tours—to determine how best to proceed, including opportunities to rebook these performers into future seasons. Ravinia’s leadership has also been closely monitoring the evolving warnings of local, state, and national authorities to avoid large gatherings.
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Photo Credit: Ravinia Festival
“Ravinia benefits from an informed and responsible Board of Trustees and engaged family of volunteers and our lengthy and thorough discourse on this topic has brought us to the conclusion that it is impossible to move ahead with the season,” Kauffman said.
Ravinia will continue to provide “virtual” opportunities such as the May 15 PBS broadcast of Bernstein’s Mass filmed last summer. Kauffman emphasized that he and the Ravinia staff are developing ideas to give the festival a “from home” presence across social platforms.
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“The crisis created by the Covid pandemic has impacted so much of our lives in dramatic ways. Ravinia will do its part in helping the nation recover,” said Ravinia Board Chairman Don Civgin, “and we will celebrate that recovery with music under the stars next summer.”
Award-winning Chicago pastry chef Mindy Segal has created THC-infused desserts that are inspired by her own favorite candies and chocolates. She has partnered with local cannabis company, Cresco Labs, to create her line of Chef Led Artisanal Edibles that consist of gummies, hard sweets, chocolates, and fruit chews.
Mindy Segal, owner of Mindy’s HotChocolate, a Chicago staple, joined with Cresco to concoct and test over 20 flavors of candy. They dwindled down these flavors to their favorite six and transformed them into their final gummy and candy forms, delicious little things you can buy right here in Chicago. Below we dive into the six flavors of Mindy’s new THC-infused edibles and where she got her inspiration for each.
A post shared by Mindy’s Edibles (@mindysedibles) on Apr 29, 2020 at 4:41pm PDT
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Honey Sweet Melon
Sorbet was the inspiration behind the Honey Sweet Melon candy. Mindy takes cantaloupe, pours honey over and lets it sit for about a week before then making it into a sorbet. The gummy captures the honey-drenched melon essence and has hints of floral lychee in it as well.
A post shared by Mindy’s Edibles (@mindysedibles) on Apr 22, 2020 at 3:17pm PDT
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Cool Keylime Kiwi
Whenever Mindy eats key lime cheesecake, she automatically thinks of kiwis. So she wanted to merge the two flavors together; she starts by juicing fresh kiwi then folds it into batter, which she puts on top of a graham cracker crust. The result is a tropical, bright, and sweet treat with a citrus bite.
A post shared by Mindy’s Edibles (@mindysedibles) on Mar 23, 2020 at 6:10pm PDT
Fresh Picked Berries
Although it seems simple, the fresh-picked berries flavor is actually the most complex of Mindy’s flavors. She takes several preserves and compotes and sandwiches them between shortbread cookies. Then she mixes all the preserves and layers them into a Linzer torte flavored with pistachio and orange blossom. We definitely are impressed with the flavor combination.
A post shared by Mindy’s Edibles (@mindysedibles) on Dec 31, 2019 at 12:48pm PST
Glazed Clementine Orange
You won’t find just orange in this candy, Mindy uses kumquat, tangerine, and clementine to get the orange flavor to pop. To get that powerful flavor into gummy form she distills candied peels from these different fruits to transform them into the candy we love.
A post shared by Mindy’s Edibles (@mindysedibles) on May 1, 2020 at 5:20pm PDT
Botanical White Grapefruit
Mindy was inspired to create this flavor by the Greyhound cocktail, a combination of grapefruit and gin. She juices white grapefruit, which adds a sweetness to the traditionally tart grapefruit flavor, and adds gin to it. She then blends it into a sorbet and you just can’t help being reminded of a fresh, cool summer cocktail on a hot day.
A post shared by Mindy’s Edibles (@mindysedibles) on Apr 10, 2020 at 4:03pm PDT
Lush Black Cherry
Cherry-flavored candies can often end up tasting like cough syrup, which Mindy desperately wanted to avoid. Instead, she simmers cherries until they become thick and glossy. The resulting gummy has an almondy sweetness with hints of vanilla, citrus, and cocoa — a far cry from traditional cherry flavors.
Cinco de Mayo will be a little different this year. Bars and restaurants are closed but that doesn’t mean you can’t fiesta at home! But before you go loco, make sure you brush up on your history — it’s a common misconception that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day. However, the day is intended to commemorate the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla. Although we’d love to celebrate with authentic Mexican food and cocktails, quarantine is still a thing. So instead, break out the tequila and channel your inner bartender with these amazing margarita recipes.
Photo Credit: Simply Whisked
Spicy Jalapeño Margarita
If you’re looking to spice things up, toss hot peppers into your drink! The heat from the jalapeño helps balance the sweetness from the elderflower liqueur (or triple sec if you have that on hand). Pro Tip: wear latex gloves when handling peppers. The seeds can be especially hot and if juice gets on your skin, it will sting. Badly. Sincerely, someone who’s been injured by jalapeño peppers. Get the full recipe here.
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Photo Credit: Delctatus
San Antonio Margarita
Here’s an authentic margarita that’s decades old. This special recipe was featured in the New York Times from San Antonio resident, Josie Davidson. But this isn’t your average concoction, it was handed down from Josie’s father who got it from Mario Cantu, owner of Mario’s, an old-line Mexican restaurant in San Antonio. Get the full recipe here.
Photo Credit: CHELSEA LUPKIN
Dole Whip Margarita
If you’ve ever had Disneyland’s famous Dole Whip dessert, you’ll fall in love with this adult version in drink form. Perfect for warmer weather or if you’re craving a sweet treat, this margarita combines creamy coconut milk, lime juice, and frozen pineapple that hits the spot. Pro tip: if you don’t have a pastry bag (who does?!), you can easily use a gallon-sized Ziplock bag instead. Just fill it up and snip the bottom edge of the bag when you’re ready to serve! Get the full recipe here.
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Photo Credit: PARK FEIERBACH
Color Changing Margaritas
Want to wow your friends? Mix up these impressive margaritas that use purple cabbage to get that vibrant, fluorescent purple color. And don’t worry, your margarita won’t taste like a salad. The cabbage is flavorless and just for aesthetics. Get the full recipe here.
Photo Credit: Don Julio
Blanco Margarita
The key ingredient in this margarita is Don Julio Blanco Tequila which is produced at La Primavera Distillery in the Highlands of Jalisco, Mexico. So basically, you’re getting a taste of Mexico with every sip. Get the full recipe here. Salud!
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been doing her best to make sure her citizens have been staying at home. After her no-nonsense stare inspired dozens of memes to start trending on social media, Mayor Lightfoot has been using social media to spread her message of Stay Home, Save Lives. Now, Mayor Lightfoot has started a YouTube channel to encourage her constituents to stay home and spread information about the current situation in Chicago.
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Every day, Mayor Lightfoot hosts a session entitled “The Doctor Is In: Ask Dr. Arwady,” where Dr. Allison Arwady, the CDPH commissioner, provides the latest updates on the pandemic. This live Q&A includes a guest who helps provide tips to Chicagoans on a variety of topics, including connecting with others during the quarantine, reducing your risk, and explaining the latest data about coronavirus. If you have any COVID-19-related questions, you can ask them on twitter with the hashtag #AskDrArwady.
In addition to this segment, Mayor Lightfoot is hosting a “Stay Home. Hit Play.” series. Each week, she will visit a museum like the Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Science and Industry, Field Museum, National Museum of Mexican Art, Lincoln Park Zoo, and the DuSable Museum Art Institute.
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Every Wednesday, she’ll provide a behind-the-scenes look at these institutions. In her first episode—posted on April 29—she visited the Shedd Aquarium and learned about some of the 32,000 animals that lived in the aquarium, including penguins and sharks. After watching the “Stay Home. Hit Play.” videos, you can check out the city’s website to find worksheets that include craft ideas, fact sheets, coloring pages, and more activities you can do with your children while self-isolating.
Photo credit: Brenna Hernandez Shedd Aquarium
Check out the YouTube channel to stay up to date in all coronavirus news in Chicago. Also posted are videos from the city council, press corps, and task force meetings so you can see what is going on behind the scenes.
