Sheffield Garden Walk

We had a lot of fun exploring our neighborhood during the Sheffield Garden Walk this weekend. (Even though it's thanks to the Garden Walk that my car was towed. Womp, womp.) One of our neighbors is even growing grapes in his backyard! Who knew?

We love you, Lincoln Park!

Our Apartment

...has stained glass windows. A beautiful way to wake up every morning.

Coolest Balloons

Just discovered inflated/deflated on Pinterest, and I am mesmerized by these simple yet mysterious little balloons. One of my biggest "artistic" interests is the aesthetics of handwriting. I love the look of sprawling cursive or quick slanted lines. Handwriting is manmade yet natural, utilitarian yet intimate. It's especially intimate on inflated/deflated, where each balloon's message feels like a private thought or secret. From the inflated/deflated website:

The words written on our balloons range from humorous quotes to heartfelt feelings and memories. These words are marked on the surface of inflated balloons, and like that of one’s thoughts being released, so too is the air of the balloon. Deflated the once largely marked letters become small, expressive, and intricate forms.


Inflated/deflated is a collaboration of Chicago artists Jillian, Lauren and Kady, whose individual websites are available on the inflated/deflated website.

The Butcher and The Burger

After my car got towed on Friday (ask me about it if you want a depressing yet hilarious story), we lifted our spirits with burgers and beers at The Butcher & The Burger on Armitage. This is a great place because it's BYOB. Yes! You can also build your own burger, by selecting your own unique combo of seasoning, cheese and toppings. It's fun to pick, but if you are indecisive like me it can also be overwhelming (#firstworldproblem). Does goat cheese pair well with curry & coconut seasoning?? Should I add on a fried egg?? As it is with creating good art, it's hard to know when to pull back.  So far, we haven't created a bad burger.

Bonus: It's been nominated one of the "Manliest Restaurants" by Men's Health. Score!

I Love Chicago

That's all.

Friday Film Favorites: Moonrise Kingdom

So, I know that everyone going to the movies this weekend is seeing that Batman movie, but if you are looking for something different and haven't seen Moonrise Kingdom yet, I highly recommend it. If you are a fan of Wes Anderson (like I obviously am), you will love it for all its iconic Wes Anderson traits: highly deliberate & stylized cinematography, quirky costumes that capture each character's personality, extremely dry humor, and witty observations of daily life. However, even if you aren't a cult follower of Anderson, I think you will enjoy this movie. While the humor in many of Anderson films lampoons educated, upperclass culture, Moonrise Kingdom is a coming of age tale that appeals to a broader audience. Its themes of young love and acceptance are universally felt and understood--even though this is anything but your average teenage love story. It's also hilarious, and Bill Murray wears madras pants, so yeah, enough said.

***

On another note, if you were thinking of seeing Woody Allen's To Rome With Love this weekend, definitely don't. I am also a huge Woody Allen fan, and I was largely disappointed with this movie, despite its all-star cast and promising trailer. It uses the recent movie format trend of following multiple characters and interweaving different plot lines a la Love Actually, but it doesn't connect the independent stories in a coherent or meaningful way. In fact, at the risk of sounding extremely harsh, it sort of seemed like Woody Allen thought this might be the last movie he got to make before kicking the bucket, so he just merged all his final ideas for plot lines together into one poorly-conceived piece. I definitely lost interest halfway through, and while there were some funny moments, I didn't leave the theater feeling like I had taken away anything lasting from seeing it. Sorry, Woody.

(Photos taken from IMDb)

Converted

So I've always thought Whole Foods was a little overpriced and ridiculous, but I am now officially a Whole Foods convert. Not only does the Whole Foods in our neighborhood have a bar where you can order wine or beer and actually take it with you while you shop (genius), but on Tuesday night they hosted an on-the-roof screening of Wes Anderson's Rushmore complete with free samples of beer and Cliff Bars.

 Bar in grocery store awesomeness.

Giant inflatable screen

View of the city from the Whole Foods roof.

Rushmore is one of the only Wes Anderson movies I hadn't seen, and of course, I loved it. I definitely know a few "Max Fisher" types. If you haven't seen it, here's the hilarious opening scene and montage via You Tube, to get you hooked.

Also, on a slightly embarrassing note, Whole Foods called the event a "bike-in" movie, so even though we were set to drive over, at the last second we changed our minds and decided to bike lest we be ostracized for burning fuel to get there. Of course, once we got there, it became very clear that no one could tell who drove or who biked. Oh well.

Thank you, Whole Foods. Before you know it, I'll be eating kale chips and quinoa.