Shedd Aquarium Home to sea otters and penguins you can meet up close, sharks you can feed, stingrays you can pet, seahorses, penguins, beluga whales and Pacific dolphins, Shedd Aquarium cares for more than 1,500 species and provides sanctuary for many on the verge of extinction. With incredible exhibitions such as “Jellies,” which feature the colorful and at times fluorescent animals, their biology and history, as well as educational programming, conservation research and rescue and rehabilitation efforts that help raise awareness for aquatic wildlife and their habitats, the aquarium’s influential work since it was founded in 1930 extends beyond far Chicago. (Vasia Rigou) 1200 S. DuSable Lake Shore, sheddaquarium.org
Renaissance Society Every city needs a place like the Ren. Nestled within but independent of the University of Chicago, it features cutting-edge contemporary art within a Gothic expressionist space. In keeping with these environs, the exhibitions frequently yoke tactile immediacy to cerebral conceptualism. WIth a series of curator’s curators at the helm for decades, the Ren is the place to see exciting artists early on—the brilliant Jennifer Packer, to name just one, had her first solo institutional exhibition here. (Alison Cuddy) 5811 S. Ellis, renaissancesociety.org
The Blues Brothers It starred a Chicago-area native and two Second City alums, was based on blues, and was the first major studio movie filmed entirely in the Chicago area since the late 1940s. That got it close, but it’s the locations that make “The Blues Brothers” the greatest representation of Chicago on the big screen. There’s Jake and Elwood’s SRO under the El, Aretha Franklin’s Maxwell Street diner, flying oysters at Chez Paul, jumping the 95th Street Bridge, Wrigley Field, The Jackson Park Lagoon, the Schoenhofen Brewery, Marquette Park, Ray’s Music Exchange at 300 East 47th Street, and the final smash-up crashing from the Picasso sculpture to Lake Shore Drive. Some may argue “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” but not that many Chicagoans live in glass houses or drive Ferraris. (David Witter)
Jonathan Eig Just when you think Jonathan Eig can’t possibly top his last biography, he does it again. The man who brought us definitive, highly acclaimed books about Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Al Capone, the birth control pill and Muhammad Ali, is coming out this spring with the first major new biography in forty years of Martin Luther King, Jr. Eig approaches his subjects with empathy, a child’s nonjudgmental curiosity, and the son-of-an-accountant’s meticulous attention to detail. He can also write—his histories read like novels. And he’s such a nice guy, you can’t even get jealous. (Mary Wisniewski)
Grant Park Music Festival There is nothing more magical in summer than the Grant Park Symphony and Chorus, with a bottle of wine, a few friends (or a few thousand), in acoustically perfect Millennium Park, backdropped by the stunning Chicago skyline against a darkening night. The superb orchestra has a polished and energetic sound (oh, that brass!)—and the chorus is made up of the finest singer-musicians in the city. The musical ensemble is among the best in the country and they light up with a snappiness and vitality that punctuate the beauty of the setting. The festival is one of the nation’s largest free classical concert series and a gathering place for all. The concerts are a transporting mix of classical favorites and contemporary composition and commissions—always free and open, always wonderful. (Sara Stern) grantparkmusicfestival.com
Frontera Grill Frontera Grill opened on what was then a sketchy stretch of Clark Street in 1987. Now, this vanguard Mexican restaurant is the center of busy River North, and some of that growth must be attributed to Rick and Deann Bayless. Before Frontera, hard-shell tacos were all that many gringos thought Mexican food to be. Bayless showed us that Mexican cuisine is fabulously various, with regional specialties that leverage the country’s immense biodiversity. After many restaurants, books and television shows, Chef Rick Bayless can regularly be spotted at his first restaurant, which has done so much to refine our appreciation of Mexican cuisines. (David Hammond) 445 N. Clark, rickbayless.com/restaurants/frontera-grill
2000 Cover Photo: snapcult
Siskel and Ebert A resurgence of awareness of Chicago’s twentieth-century pioneer broadcast critics has circulated online in recent months, with a critical mass of clips from the television programs that made the battling duo famous and made them wealthy. The small number of outtakes available of them growling, sneering and swearing at each other are particularly popular, and it’s just a more raw version of their daily double act. Their bittersweet, not-so-secret prescription? They didn’t get along in real life, in screening rooms or on the set: the apparitions that now amuse generations of online viewers who aren’t old enough to have seen the shows in, say, the 1990s are eternally wed, in comic disharmony. “In the early days of doing shows with Gene Siskel, part of our so-called chemistry resulted because, having successfully made my argument and feeling some relief, I felt personally under assault if Siskel disagreed,” Ebert wrote in his memoir, “Life Itself.” “This led to tension that, oddly, helped the show… I had no conception of such a show and no desire to work with Siskel.” The balcony is closed, but the characters at the end of the bar banter to infinity… and beyond. (Ray Pride) youtube.com/watch
WFMT It’s the only place on the radio dial to go and not get blasted by pre-recorded advertising, and the only source outside of college stations for folk and classical sounds. Listener-supported, WFMT is a haven of peace and beauty in a vulgar world. The mellow-toned hosts are well-informed, offer education and variety, and feel like friends. Music lovers still mourn WNIB and its charming eccentricity, and miss the lost days when WBEZ wasn’t so relentlessly talky and had regular music shows. WFMT is what’s left, and you don’t truly appreciate it until you leave Chicago on a long car ride, and face the howling wilderness of life without it. (Mary Wisniewski) 98.7 FM
Chess Records It was the birthplace of “The Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Red Rooster,” “Evil,” and maybe even rock ‘n’ roll. Seminal songs and sounds including Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybelline,” the classic “Bo Diddley Beat” as well as jazz and soul emerged from this small space. This genre-changing art was the result of the merging of Jewish immigrants escaping persecution, Leonard and Phil Chess, and the African Americans feeling the injustice of the Jim Crow South. It was a place where “motherfucker” was heard more than “hello,” and fistfights replaced hugs, but man, some music was made there. Today it is the home of Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation, a museum and performing space dedicated to preserving the blues. (David Witter) 2120 S. Michigan, bluesheaven.com
1995 Best of Chicago item
The Bean The thing that became the new “it” thing in 2004 is still a thing in Chicago. Not just for tourists but for those of us who drive or walk by it several times a week. Just when we think it’s going to get old or a new “thing” will pop up somewhere to become our new object of fascination, we see a reflection of ourselves and our city in the “Cloud Gate” that we hadn’t seen before. (Scoop Jackson) 201 E. Randolph
The Point Because hanging out either in a car or on the Lake at the eastest point of 55th Street will never get old. (Scoop Jackson)
The Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company The company performs just one G & S operetta a year, but over the last sixty years it’s done them all. Some get frequent play. This March the company rolls out its ninth “H.M.S. Pinafore.” The staging tends to the traditional side, a choice which preserves their Victorian madcappery. The lyrics by Gilbert, arguably the funniest writer for the English-language stage, are all sung and every maid—even those of a certain age—knows how to titter in ways that put the dimwitted men in their places. Operetta, and G & S in particular, used to be a mainstay on Chicago stages but is now rare. Perhaps as a result, the production values, and the quality of the lead performers, as singers and actors, at the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company have gone up and up. Performers crave to join the shows. Victorian institutions may not be cool these days, but Gilbert and Sullivan, the creators, knew there was nonsense in all that class, boast and cultural arrogance long ago. (Ted C. Fishman) Performs in Mandel Hall (usually in March) at the University of Chicago, 1131 E. 57th, gilbertandsullivanoperacompany.org
