chicago

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i had mixed feelings about hamilton at first. and for all the rave. and the price. and the lottery. and not knowing what it was really about....the first half was "just ok"...but as the show picked up in the second half...and after realizing we've seen quite a bunch of not so good shows over the past year...and even though none of the songs were amazingly catchy like the phantoms or the les mis' as it was hyped....the show picked up in the second half and the story line and it's contemporary adaptation as a whole got good, got exciting. its a nice take on american history through the eyes of an important immigrant that's basically been a sidekick to the washingtons and the jeffersons in textbooks....finally got to put some of the years of excessive american history social studies to good use...."OH YEA WE STUDIED THAT"

"no ones bobbin' to that hamilton soundtrack" - m rapaport

instead of a deep dish after the show, ann recommended us to hit up au cheval. best burger in chicago. we got there at 11pm to put our names down and still ended up drinking at the betty for an hour before au cheval freed up a couple of bar seats. bumpin music, hot, dark, smokey and simple burger food. i liked it. a combustion of sauce, burger, egg, cheese and patty. it was an american burger. amanda however...didn't like it. she couldn't taste the beef. it was too much everything else. a fair assessment. the au cheval burger is the full umami of the sum of its parts. not a beefy sandwich with bread and cheese holding it together.

SPG is pretty awesome OUTSIDE OF THE US. in europe it was amazing. in asia it was amazing. in philadelphia it sucked. in santa monica...it was "ok". in NYC...."blows goats"...and in chicago....did u know if your account says you have allergies they take away the blanket and leave you with just the sheets? GAH!

haven't seen ann in forever. she just quit the alinea group....but put in a good word to her ex colleagues to serve us some HIGH LIFE. and we caught up at nico osteria. chatted about old friends. chatted about still not settled down. chatted about the keys to life. chatted about perngs baby. nothings changed for us at least....