^{Hip Hop Connexion are in red, Nonstop Dance Productions in the hospital outfits.}

Check out more videos at the following links or just by searching “hype 2009″ in YouTube:

- Nonstop Dance Productions (3rd place)

- ReDefinition (1st place)

- Chicago Tribe

- Fusion Dance Company

- CODA

After all that shopping and eating you might want to take a stroll through the Lincoln Park Zoo. And the best part is, IT’S FREE!

Still don’t have anything to do next weekend for Memorial Day? Consider Summer Camp, a 3 day long music festival at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Il. Summer Camp features over 60 bands on 5 stages and offers a wide variety of music genres so anyone can enjoy. Bands from Moe., Willie Nelson, and Umphrey’s McGee to Method Man and Redman will all be playing at the festival.

The festival also features many less well known and local bands. I’m looking forward to Daphne Willis & Co, a band that I have heard many times at bars in Chicago. I am glad to see this band play at such a big event.

Also at this years festival is the 2009 MLB road show and hot air balloon rides. The road show includes an MLB authentic collection merchandise room, a gaming lounge featuring MLB titles on XBox 360 and Playstation3 on plasma screen TVs, live broadcast of MLB games, batting cage, and a speed pitch cage.

Tickets are on sale now for $155. However, this does not include late night shows (of course they make you pay for the good shows). Late night shows are an extra $15 each.

Cold beer, 80′s cover bands, and a pet parade… What a way to start the 2009 Festival Season in Chicago. The season kicks off this evening, May 15th, at Mayfest located at the corner of Ashland and Barry. The festivities begin at 5 p.m. and continue until Sunday at 10 p.m.

One of the many attractions at Chicago summer festivals are the awesome cover bands. Feature at this year’s Mayfest will be many Chicago favorites. Playing tonight at 7 p.m. is 80′s cover band Hairbangers Ball. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. will be hip-hop cover band Too White Crew followed by 16 Candles, another 80′s cover band, at 8 p.m. The festival will end Sunday night with a performance by Mike and Joe at 8 p.m. Mike and Joe cover popular bands from the 90′s to the present.

While Mayfest has all of the expected festival goodies (local culinary treats, beer, shopping, and art), the festival also features a Pet Parade with awards for “Best Looking”, “Largest” and my personal favorite “Owner Look-A-Like”. If you want to enter your own pet in the Pet Parade, registration is at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning and the parade begins at noon.

Here are some pictures from the Pet Parage 2004 courtsey of Fuzzyco.com.

Start the summer off right and help kick off Festival Season 2009!

MAYFEST!!!!

…and June Fest and July Fest and August Fest and September Fest.

It took awhile, but spring is FINALLY here in Chicago! But don’t you think we’ve waited long enough for spring and we’ve endured enough winter that summer should come right away??

Well. I kinda think so!

For a list of what’s going on this WHOLE SUMMER in Chicago, you should definitely check out Metromix’s Chicago Festival Guide! It lists a ton of things going on in Chicago this summer. Just this weekend we have Chicago Mayfest which even has a pet parade on Sunday!!

Coming up on the 24th is the 8th annual awesome Bike the Drive (which I have yet to participate in!) along Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard. One site says that a public bike rental system like the ones they have in Paris was in the works (and those are cool! Check out this picture my boyfriend took of the bikes while he was in Paris), but is put on hold because of the economy.

But back to our happy topic at hand — check out Metromix’s Chicago Festival Guide. Now you have no excuse to say you did nothing over the summer!

Her answer?

“Of course it’s real. Why wouldn’t it be?”

After that she said the saddest thing: “No photography allowed inside the exhibition.”

So this is all I could get for you guys:

^{The Weasleys’ Flying Car!}

^{Fudge Flies and Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts, oh my!}

Whether or not you’ve read the books, all that matters is that you’ve seen the movies. You’ll see costumes and props and interactive things to play with, which even for 21- and 24-year-olds (my older sister) is super fun and you get all into it. My two sisters and I played Quidditch against each other and – yes – your one & only won. Bring your friends and play against them!

The exhibition is so very well done, interactive, and very thorough, and many fansites agree. You can read one of the best reviews here AND see some pictures here (HEY! Why could they take pictures and I couldn’t?!?).

For someone who only watched the movies, I think this exhibition is VERY worth it. I’m a bit angry with my sisters and myself because we didn’t look at the food in the Great Hall part of the exhibit!

However, A WORD OF CAUTION! … ok, not really caution. But if you go after 4pm, the ticket price for adults goes from $26 to $18, so go after 4pm! (Exhibit closes at 9pm Sunday through Saturday). There also seemed to be less people there, so you get to take as long as you want.

Another word of caution . . .  a real word of caution! At the end of the exhibit, they might try to offer you one of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. Whatever you do, don’t try the light blue one! If you value your tongue and your sense of taste, do not choose the light blue one.

And yes. ALL of their accents are real.

In one of his first U.S. shows in a decade and a half, Leonard Cohen took the stage Wednesday night and delivered a knockout performance.  Cohen filled a two and a half hour set with classic songs from his 4 decades and counting career like “So Long, Marianne,” “I’m Your Man,” and the oft-covered “Hallelujah.” At 74 years old, Cohen’s voice has lost none of its baritone power, and it’s picked up a Tom Waits-like raspiness that only adds to his vocal prowess.  He brought with him a nine-piece band consisting of guitarists, back-up singers, pianists and more, and the band itself was excellent, lovingly performing Cohen’s classic tunes.  The set leaned heavily on his beloved sixties, seventies and eighties material, with a particular emphasis on his first two albums, and 1988′s legendary I’m Your Man album.  The massive crowd at the Chicago Theater, which predictably consisted of middle aged and older concertgoers, showered Cohen with ovation after ovation. He returned for three encores, each time dragging out yet another of his classic recordings. “Bird on the Wire,” “The Partisan,” and “Famous Blue Raincoat” stood out, among others as highlights during a night filled with them. Indeed, even if some of the members of the audience had been waiting a decade and half to see him, I can’t imagine anyone left disappointed.

KFC and Oprah have teamed up to give away coupons for a free meal from KFC that includes 2 pieces of KFC’s new Kentucky Grilled Chicken, 2 sides, and a biscuit. Tickets can be printed out at unthinkfc.com until 11:59 p.m tonight, Wednesday May 16th. The coupons can be used until May 19th (The coupons can’t be used on Mother’s Day. Sorry to those of you planning on “treating” Mom to a KFC dinner.)

Who better to promote your product than one of America’s most influential people of 2009, Oprah. I don’t know a single stay-at-home mom that doesn’t religiously follow Oprah’s every command.

The promotion appears to be working. Twitterers have been tweeting about the long lines and other troubles at the fast food restaurant. It seems that people are even rioting and staging sit-ins because some stores were refusing to let people use coupons. I guess KFC underestimated the power of Oprah and they were unprepared for such large crowds of hungry Americans.

I printed out two coupons from my computer yesterday. Apparently you can only print up to 4 coupons per computer. I haven’t made it to a KFC yet to witness the madness, but I definitely plan on making a trip.

With the weekend approaching us, it’s time to have fun.  Let loose.

Don’t say there isn’t anything to do, and don’t wait until the last minute to make a decision based off everyone else’s plans.  Take my advice: venture out into Chicago’s nightlife scene looking your best.  Get ready to mingle.

Now that I’ve just given you something do this weekend (Thursday – Saturday, Sunday Funday excluded), I have to give a disclaimer.  The following places I’m about to list are not places where one can have “a chill night.”

These places define party.  They are designated for those who are hip, trendy, young, and young at heart.  There will be lines (sorry, guys).  There will be cover fees (sorry, guys again), and there will be pushing.  Lots of it.

Sounds like a weak suggestion so far, I know, but once you’re in, it’s time to have fun.  Order a drink and let DJ whoever take it from there…

Stone Lotus - my number one pick for a good time

Open late-night, this place doesn’t get wall-to-wall crowded until 1:30 am. The DJ meshes in with the crowd and remixes most pop and hip-hop hits with various house music.  His booth is attached to the back end of the bar, but he is not forgotten.  Especially when he pulls out throwbacks every now, like Jackson 5′s “ABC.”

The Underground – the most lively

Welcome to a club with a bomb shelter atmosphere and the Triforce logo EVERYWHERE.  In The Underground, the DJ booth is sheltered and perched in the back of the club.  From his huge window, the DJ spins hot remixes and even pumps himself up doing the job.  He will likely be seen rocking out for the crowd displaying intense fist-pumps.  It’s infectious.  Plays great hits and remixes house with some rock, such as The Bravery.  A taste can be heard on their website.

Enclave - most spacious

Because this place is large, Enclave is most likely to hold special events with performances and celebrity appearances.  Its dark inside with bright neon lights tastefully decorating the club.  The DJ booth watches over the main dance area and it’s lined with awesome neon blue.  Expect to hear tons of great house hits mixed with techno.  Definitely check out their website samples.

I saw the usual: tourists walking around, ducks in the Crown Fountain, annoying high schoolers thinking they’re allthat&abaggachips making dumb poses in front of…

Some very interesting sculptures.

^{Windy City Dinosaur
by Sui Jianguo & Shen Shaomin}

^{Jia Shan Shi No. 46
by Zhan Wang}

^{Valiant Struggle
by Chen Wenling}

I’ve never seen these sculptures before and — when you see the pictures, you’ll see — they’re very eye-catching. The one with a crane and a pig (as I described it to myself) definitely caught my attention (as it’s supposed to do). I had no idea what it meant, but it looked interesting. When I looked it up online, I saw that it’s called Ying Yong Feng Dou and that there’s so much more to it than looking cartoonistic (is that even a word? It is now…).

Millennium Park unveiled these four sculptures by Chinese sculptors (I only saw three; the fourth wasn’t done yet) on April 9, 2009, courtesy of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Boeing Galleries and will have them until October 2010. According to one blogger’s review,

“In addition to being an acclaimed venue for public art, Millennium Park has a populist mandate, and the balance between popular appeal and artistic excellence is a difficult one. Chen Wenling’s “Valiant Struggle,” one of four new large-scale sculptures from China introduced into the park, is a critique of an increasingly capitalistic and consumerist Chinese society, but the funhouse aesthetic, especially in the park, reduces the sentiment.”
- The Chicago Art Blog.

See more pictures and read reviews of the sculptures at art.newcity.com and Chicago Outdoor Sculptures.

Or, go check it out for yourself! Chicago’s weather look like it’s seeing brighter days so there’s no excuse!