grylliade.org Free minds. Free markets. Free beer.

I should take this opportunity to let everyone know that Babushka and I will be performing at a place called the Cobra Room on Thursday the 10th, right before the Con. In case you're interested and able to come a little early and check it out!!

As for accomodations, we're willing to crash on someone's living room floor if there's a floor to be crashed on, but in lieu of that, yeah, we'd love somewhere cheap that's not TOO dangerous, if such a place exists in or anywhere within a day's drive of Chi-town!!!

July 12 and 13.

I've got a previous list of potential hotels from Viking Moose from a couple of years ago. I've also got a list of suggested activities from when he and his wife were in town. I was going to post those soon, and also do a poll to rank the popularity of the suggested activities.

I sent those to VM a few days ago with a couple questions:

1) Activities -- did I leave any off my list?

2) Accommodations -- Should we try to cluster into any particular area of town? Or does it matter? (I.e., if our activities will be all over the place, we can stay all over the place according to any personal preferences, and just take the train or taxi wherever you go, one day you might be closer to the day's activity and some days you'll be farther.

VM will try to get back to me soon but he's really busy at the moment.

I think people who want to share a room to keep down expenses, etc., shouldn't be shy about saying they'd like to do that, if anyone else feels the same.

(Although I personally like my privacy and being able to use the bathroom, snore, and go to sleep/get up whenever I like without worrying that I'm in anyone's way or bugging them.)

I'll also post a list of suggested activities, so you guys can start considering the possibilities ... this may not be a complete list; other options might or might not be added later. (All comments below are mine.)

In the near future I'll put up a ranking poll so we can determine which activities are most popular among our prospective attendees. Meanwhile, have a look. In addition to the links provided below, further exploring for additional info on the IntarWebz on your own is encouraged. Let the rest of us know if you find any cool reviews, photo albums, etc.
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- Going to a place VM knows of that has you know with lots of cool beers and some exotic burgers (ostrich, bison, wild boar). (There will be no need to vote on this later, we'll just go there one of the evenings of that weekend.) I don't know the name of the place; when I find out I'll post it and a Web site link if possible, so even vegetarians can scout out the menu possibilities in advance.

- Architecture tour -- I understand this needs to be set up way in advance, so may not be feasible unless we get a lot of people voicing vociferous favor ASAP. (I don't have a link yet.)

- River taxi tour -- see the city from the water. The river taxis can hold up to 30 people. (I don't know if VM is thinking of this or this or something else. I also note that some of the river taxi tours are also architecture tours. I'll need more info from VM on this.)

- Aquarium - http://www.sheddaquarium.org/ (I spent a little time here and it's awesome -- I don't think the Web site does it justice.) More photos. Also, they have a Komodo dragon exhibit.

- Field Museum - http://www.fieldmuseum.org/ (Has an awesome collection of mounted dinosaur skeletons, including "Sue" the tyrannosaur -- and many other exhibits)

- Museum of Science and Industry - http://www.msichicago.org/ (I went here when I was a little kid. All I remember is walking through the U-boat. Looks pretty cool though.)

- Adler Planetarium - http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/ (I haven't been here yet, but am very intrigued.)

- Millennium Park - http://www.millenniumpark.org/ (Outdoor displays of art and architecture -- VM says it is very cool to walk through.)

- Brookfield Zoo - http://www.czs.org/czs/Brookfield/Zoo-Home (The better of Chicago's two zoos. There is another one in Lincoln Park, but the Brookfield is more highly recommended.)

Hmm. I thought VM originally recommended the Brookfield Zoo, but when I mentioned it to him by e-mail last night, he said the Lincoln Park Zoo "is free, it's easy to get to, and it's fun! that's an easier excursion than Brookfield." As I recall, the Brookfield Zoo is out in the suburbs.

I guess we'll put them both on the poll and see who likes which.

http://www.lpzoo.org/

Warren: We'll have to see -- Number 6 has priority since he asked first. I also need to figure out how many days I want to stay up there (might spend an extra day to see a sight or two that the rest of the group doesn't vote for) and see how that fits with the plans of any car-poolers.

I was going to check out any burlesque events (yeah, predictability is my middle name) but it's looking like nothing is scheduled for that weekend anyway, so it may be a moot point.

Okay, news of the upcoming Gryllicon is become front-page news in Chicago. It's all the media there talk about now.

I know this because I got an e-mail from the amazing Linguist, who unfortunately hasn't hung out around here lately, but is very cool, and has heard of the upcoming pilgrimage. She has offered yet another possible activity:

- An evening or afternoon hanging out in the yard of linguist and her boyfriend, who is also cool. Linguist offered to provide food and beer and mojitos for the throng, which I think is very cool and generous and applealing, although we should probably supplement that with our own BYOB and "I'll bring chips" arrangements so we don't strip her household like locusts.

So, that's another possibility to think about, prior to the posting of a voting poll, which I'll do in a little while.

I should know things about Chicago, because I used to live there, but really, I don't know anything because I never left Hyde Park. The Museum of Science & Industry is located in Hyde Park, about a 7 minute walk from my old apartment, and I still managed to never make it there. I think I will decide on a place to stay by picking a name out of a hat.

Anyway, my thoughts on Chicago were something like this

Thursday night: Arrive at some unspecified time, depending on how stupid Pennsylvania is
Friday: Do something tourist-y, with or without other grylliade people, to make up for the fact that I never took advantage of anything Chicago had to offer. Fish Zoo!
Saturday afternoon/evening: see grylliade people.

I am also trying to coordinate with people I know in Chicago, but I've been slow about getting in touch with people.

I'm going to have to check my calendar. I'm afraid clinicals may take precedence.

THat's right, there are no chicagoans on grylliade anymore.

Anyway, I think one big thing we need to nail down is when people are going to actually be there. Right now we have a nebulous weekend stretching from Thursday evening through Sunday.

So, Gryllicon attendees, PLEASE post here if you have any restrictions on your attendance (e.g., "I can't come before Saturday," "I have to leave early Sunday morning," "I can only come for one evening.")

Also, Stevo, could you check with Linguist to see if her offer is good for Friday OR Saturday evening, or just one of them?

Also-ALSO, I think we should coordinate some ride-sharing so we don't all have to drive in a big caravan to every attraction, and so we can have a few DD's for any alcoholic revelry.

If I were the dictator of the trip, this is how I would structure it:
Friday night: Get together and go to something (a concert, a movie, what-have-you)
Saturday morning/early afternoon: Get together and go to [attraction]
Saturday afternoon: Split up for individual sightseeing, visiting of family members and friends, regulating of interstate commerce, etc (we did the split meetup at the DC gathering -- when grylliade.org was just a few days old! aww! -- and it worked really well, I thought).
Saturday evening: Descend on Linguist's house!
Sunday morning: Brunch & departure

No, Sandy -- just you.*

Actually, I dunno if she has issues with any particular Grylliaders, but in any event she's not making an issue of it for purposes of this get-together, looks like.

I'll check with her on which night is available to meet at her place.

Oh, Ellie, good ideas. On the intra-Chicago transportation, however, once we get there we may in fact rely heavily on the trains and -- for those free-spenders who are intimidated by trains -- taxis, which could also be shared at times. The couple of times I went there, I didn't use my car at all once I got to my hotel -- only for my arrival and departure. I don't know if linguist's house is reachable that way, however. One of the things to find out.

* :-)

One of my favorite days ever was spent a) at the Art Institute b) late lunch at the Russian Tea Room across the street and down that other street a way c) then doing the Architecture tour (hey, I'm a developer) which used to start across Michigan from the Institute and about a block down, d) bar hopping and then e) humping.

So a, b and c were all within like two blocks of each other or so, d was a taxi ride down Michigan and e I had to bring with me.

For the record, the architecture tour is/was given by a volunteer architect/architecture historian. And they take you through some of the most interesting architecture in the US of A. From the first skyscraper ever, Mies van der Rohe's work at IIT and it used to end up with a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House over by the University of Chicago, as I recall...

From the economics that form the spaces around us to the minimalism that still drives us today...

That was an awesome tour. Everybody should do it once.

I must have taken it ten years ago now. It was memorable enough that I still remember most of it.

...despite the Vodka.

Ok, I am thinking of the Bach house. http://www. cityofchicago. org/Landmarks/B/BachHouse.html

Well, I had definitely made arguments she suggested were support for pedophilia. So it might be. *shrug*

Guess I won't see any Grylliaders in Chicago then. Then again, most of my time will be with my girlfriend during the evenings.

Are you saying you can't hang with the gang because of bad blood between you and Linguist??

Oh, forgot you were talking about in two weeks.

Well let me or Stevo know if you'd like either of us to contact any of the former Grylliadians that we're in touch with. And personally I would inlcude Linguist in that, as it was my impression that Stevo was purely joking. I think most of us have the ability to separate disagreements over emotional issues from personality and are often downright curious to meet those with whom we sometimes butt heads. While I understand a particular AOC law thread was the (final?) impetus for Linguist's departure, that may or may not mean she harbors ill feelings toward anyone she debated on the matter. She may have just decided the stress of getting into heated online arguments wasn't worth the dubious benefits. I don't claim to know, just saying it's not necessarily a matter of bad blood per se. She clearly isn't worried about meeting the lot of us, and I wouldn't take Stevo's finger-pointing as anything but teasing humor (I'm wondering if that's what you're referring to when you say "sounds like" you shouldn't contact her?), though he may wish to confirm or contradict that himself....

Hi all,

I heard through the grapevine that there was some chatter concerning yours truly so I thought I'd drop in to set things straight:

1. I don't hold any grudges against anyone here for arguments we've had. I'd love to see you all in person, so no need to feel weird. You're all welcome to our home!
2. Ellie pretty much had it right about why I left...that and I've been insanely busy.

As a sidenote, if any of you work in buildings that subscribe to the Captivate network for elevator news, you might get a kick out of this (appeared today).

Cheers,
Leslie

Good on you, Linguist!

As Paul, Marty and Grace once sang, "Tear down the wall, motherfucker!"

Hey there! Good to see you around again, linguist.

Hey! Awesome. :)

Warren, you better be careful or someone is going to take you to grylliade Kangaroo Court for telling stale jokes.

Viking Moose's restaurant sounds awesome and I'm totally down with going there Saturday night, BUT house parties and BBQ's I think are actually a lot more conducive to socializing among a fairly large number of people as one is generally stuck in a seat at a restaurant. I.e., it's harder to circulate, as it were. But then, Sunday brunch at linguist's sounds cool, too, so I dunno, I dig it either way. But we should definitely meet at linguist's for one or the other!!

Linguist, could you tell us what part of town your house is in? Just so that we know which hotels are close and which are a bazillion miles away across town.

Also, please note if you are interested in sharing a hotel room with another Gryllicon attendee. David and I are (meaning if you can put up with us you'd only have to pay for 1/3 of the room!)

I know that linguist has described her place as being in the south part of town.

All the downtown hotels are pretty pricey. Has anyone had any luck finding anything decent and less expensive?

I heard he's badder than ol' King Kong.

Not if you use the dog to defend you, but as a decoy to keep Leroy busy while you escape, it might be useful. We only know that Leroy was meaner than the dog, but he could be just slightly meaner.

The Leroy Brown in question owns both a Custom Continental and an El Dorado too. These are pretty big cars, and they might be discernible in a Google Maps satellite view of the above addresses. The address that has both of those cars parked in front of it is the domicile of our man.

Hi again...
In answer to Ellie's question, I do live on the south side. However, I'm actually farther south than the scary parts (technically those go from about 40th-75th Streets), in a little neighborhood where most of the city's police and firemen live.

The nice thing about it is that it's easily accessible from downtown. LaSalle Street Station has a train that comes nearly to my doorstep - literally. So people who are staying downtown can take the El (Loop trains - Purple/Brown counterclockwise, Pink/Orange clockwise - OR Blue line OR Red line) or a cab to the station, and then it's 1/2 an hour to me. It's $2 to ride the El and $3.35 I think each way for the Metra. You can google zip code 60643 for a better idea of distance.

Those of you unfamiliar with Chicago's rapid transit should get up to speed before you arrive! It's really a wonderful system.

http://www.transitchicago.com/maps/maps/200804D.html

Hope to see you all soon!

Considering that he's badder than ol' King Kong (as already mentioned), I would venture that since ol' King Kong, at least after his initial shock at the junkyard dog's legendary meanness and brazen audacity, would likely make short order of the relatively tiny canine, that we must therefore deduce that Leroy in turn would have little difficulty with the outmatched cur.

My preference is to get together at Linguist's on Saturday evening and have more of an outdoor dinner party, plus people can drink more freely if they like (not, like, puking in the bushes or anything, but you know what I mean), plus it might be cooler in the evening than in the midmorning. Also, we can't afford a hotel room for more than two nights (notwithstanding smacky maybe rooming with us on Thursday).

My vote is still for Friday evening meetup, Saturday sightseeing during the day and Linguist's for dinner, Sunday brunch and departure, but of course if that really doesn't work for someone I'm not going to throw a fit. And of course, people who are coming earlier or staying later can add events, but that stretch of time is just when David and I were planning to be there.

I don't want anyone to feel that a meetup at my place is required! I thought it might be nice to be in a private place, save some money on food & drink, etc.

The last thing I want to do is "take over" the planning of this thing,
but reading the comments here I have a suggested itinerary.

Thursday
- Arrivals
- Fyodor at Cobra Lounge (Near West Side) 235 N Ashland Ave

Friday
- Arrivals
- Day sightseeing (see below)
- Evening meetup at restaurant suggested by VM (I don't know where)

Saturday
- Day sightseeing:
Downtown - Architecture Tour, walk through Millennium Park, take River Taxi from Navy Pier to Museum Campus for Adler Planetarium/Field Museum/Shedd Aquarium*
Farther Afield - Lincoln Park Zoo/walk along Lake Michigan (Near North Side); Brookfield Zoo (West Side); Museum of Science and Industry (Near South Side); Chicago Botanic Garden (North Suburbs)

*Note - the museums are all in one place and it is possible to do more than one in a day if you start early. Also the museum campus is close to the train you'd want to take if you decide to come to my place.

- Evening barbecue at linguist's

Sunday
- Brunch, perhaps at Ann Sather (Near North/Wrigleyville) or in Greektown (West Loop)
- More sightseeing
- Shopping on Mag Mile
- Departures

Monday
- Departures

All activities optional, of course!
Don't make me call in my friend the Meeting Planner! :-)

Also, for this sort of itinerary I'd make sure to be centrally located. There are some decently priced hotels downtown (touristy area around Ohio Street). There's a Red Roof Inn, a Holiday Inn and some others all together there.

One more thing, for those who are into this sort of thing...it's not cheap but it's really fun. There are Segway Tours through downtown - Millennium Park, Grant Park, Museum Campus. Around $60-$80 for 2-3 hours.

Yo!

linguist --

Thanks for that! That sounds great.

The attempts at planning were floundering a bit because they lacked the local knowledge of a, um, local.

Stevo,
I went a little over the top on the art institute. Sorry about that, it's just that it was featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, so I really can't see how you could have overlooked it. Indeed I suggest we visit all the points of interest featured in FBDO including lunch at Chez Luis. I think I can get us a table.

I confess to being underwhelmed by the Sears Tower on the high school band trip. Also, the superfast elevator kind of scared the crap out of me.

Well, with linguist's suggested itinerary, a poll is probably less necessary now. Although it looks like we still have more events/places to attend than we may have time to fit them all in, so we may all need to prioritize.

So for example, if beforehand someone asks, "So what should we do on Saturday?" someone else can say, "Well, the Shedd Aquarium led number one in total popularity in the poll, so let's start with that. And then we can do Millennium Park, which ranked second. And third, if we have time, is going to the Field Museum to look at the dinosaurs!" (For example.) This could save us precious bickering time that could be better spent on other topics than "what should we do now?"

PS: I'm thinking of dressing up as a dinosaur. This will make me invisible to Rachel. Then I can sneak up on her and, I dunno, steal her milkshake.

PPS: Sounds like going up in tall buildings is not too popular; so far I'm not planning on including it in the poll. I don't plan on going anywhere so snotty as to ban jeans, either. This is a vacation, dammit.

I think the bacchanalia will be at linguist's on Saturday. Isn't that how you pronounce "barbecue"?

I guess we could also have one at the pub/restaurant suggested by VM, on Friday night. Although as someone else mentioned, it's harder to circulate and get to know people in a bar/restaurant; people tend to divide up into small, semi-permanent subgroups based on who is sitting near them at the table rather than getting to know everyone, unless they make a deliberate effort to migrate around the table, which can be difficult. Still, it can be a fun thing, even if the socializing is a bit more limited.

Although what bothers me a little about Friday night is that VM might still be traveling on business and might not be able to attend, himself. I'll have to ask him for an update on this.

Plus smacky really wants to see a concert on Friday night, and others may want to join her. I'm not sure what time the show is though. Hopefully they can at least make an appearance beforehand.