Movie Hawk » Travel

Orangemen, Gray Skies

Jeff Martin — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:22:26 +0000

Though its recent success in college basketball might lead one to believe that Syracuse, N.Y. – where I watch the Saint Joseph’s Hawks begin their season with a twenty-point win over Fairleigh Dickinson Monday night – is a nice college town. And while the campus proper there is nice, and the support for the basketball team extends through the community, the town itself leaves a lot to be desired. There seem to be plenty of restaurants to go around (go to Cosmo’s pizza shop for breakfast and get a toasted honey bun), but the architecture outside of campus is bland and the weather, from what I understand, is rarely anything to write home about. Not to mention the fact that the Carrier Dome – for all intents and purposes one of basketball’s new Meccas after the Orangemen won the title – is a bland, aging, basketball-focused version of Veteran’s Stadium. Give me Philadelphia and the Palestra any day.

My Kind of Town

Jeff Martin — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:56:05 +0000

A little while ago, I realized that I never take vacation. Now, this isn’t that major a revelation, especially considering the fact that I have only be working “officially” full-time at my job for a year (internships and assistantships bump that up to nearly three), but people would continually tell me to take vacation and I just wouldn’t. I like my job enough that I don’t see any reason not to show up every day. I’m kind of like Cal Ripken that way (and that’s the only way, believe me). But with the end of the fiscal year approaching and the end of “Beauty and the Beast” in sight, I decided that I needed to take some “me” time. Therein was the genesis of my trip last week to Chicago. Now, I could bore you with a slideshow of my vacation pictures (which I already have, sort of) or devote a post to each day (which I considered doing from the road but was too tired at the end of each day to pull the trigger), but I’ve found that the best way to have some fun while informing you about my vacation is to tell you what I learned while in Chicago.

I learned that…

Chicago is a weird weather town. You can be walking along Lake Michigan and it’s 74 degrees out, then wander two block into the downtown area and have it be 20 degrees cooler. Whatever the origin of the “Windy City” moniker, they’re right.
Walking along Lake Michigan and listening to Sufjan Stevens’ “Illinois” is sublime, especially when your iPod starts playing “Chicago” just as you approach the water and turn around to look at the city.
You must – MUST – stay in The Loop area if you are visiting Chicago. My hotel was on Michigan Avenue near Balbo Drive, and it was like the epicenter of the Chicago Transit Authority. Need to get to Hyde Park? The 6 bus picks you up a block away. Taking in a ballgame? There’s a Red Line stop within a stone’s throw. Which reminds me…

The CTA is far superior to SEPTA. But we already knew this.

There are far too many great neighborhoods in Chicago to visit. I went to Hyde Park, Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park, and stayed downtown, and I still feel like I missed out on something.
Chicago-style pizza is good, but overrated.
Goose Island IPA is delicious.
Wrigley Field is the ultimate place to see a ballgame. Even if it’s 40 degrees both days you go to the park. Which leads me to…

$2 hot chocolate at a freezing Wrigley is the absolute best deal in any stadium ever.

It doesn’t really look like it, but Chicago is an extraordinarily walkable city. You need the El to get places, but walking around town is really an enjoyable experience.

Home Sweet Home

Jeff Martin — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 03:11:21 +0000

So, remember that promise that I made that I’d be back up and blogging once the curtain finally fell on “Beauty and the Beast,” and that I’d be blogging from an exotic locale to boot? Well, add a week of almost nonstop action in the Windy City together with a forgotten cable to link my digital camera to my computer and you get a week without posts. I know you all missed me.

As I gather my thoughts on my vacation, I’ll be more than happy to post them here in some sort of recap. But that’s a few days off. Luckily for you, I have two distractions for you. The first is a review of Hot Fuzz, which I saw tonight and should be properly reviewed by midday Monday. Secondly, click on the linked phrase or the picture to your right to visit my set of Chicago pictures, posted to Flickr. I’m certainly not as great a photographer as some people on my blogroll, or even in my own family, but I think they’re decent.