new connections new places

October.14th 2005 update for myself
Yesterday I went on my 2nd excursion which was a boring but still different for me and led me to a bar I would never go back to except maybe for the free chicken wings during happy hour and the bartender was very nice. I visited Natalie's favorite Chicago place which is a bar/pub on Lincoln Ave called Lions Head Pub.I biked there from my apartment in the ukranian village and on my way asked about 5 or 6 people which way to go thereby leading me in all different directions. Naturally it is through people that I arrive at the location. This project is all about exchanges with people and interactions. So I got my partner Jesse to meet me there for a beer. I even had the bass for the first time which is the beer Natalie suggested. She said that the Lions Head Pub was haunted and that students from DePaul university were generally not there. When I arrived I sat at a the bar and started video taping the dark environment. Everyone in the bar was kind of a mix of corporate and jock type people. Mostly men. Licoln Park seems to be an upperclass neighbourhood. It was definitly an after work or class meeting place where groups of men and occassionally a woman in the group sat, watched the baseball game on flat screen t.vs behind the bar and ate free happy hour chicken wings. So I sat there at the bar drinking and starting talking to the bartender who was very nice and seemed interested in my project so kept coming back to talk to me in between orders. She told me the opposite of what Natalie had said; Lions Head Pub is not haunted at all except for the funny cobweb decorations that hung on old chandeliers and troll statues. She notified me that the haunted bar is down the street called. ( i have no memory) called... i will return with the name and told me that things move in this bar and ghostly images appear in photographs taken there. She was born and raised in Chicago and said "Im not the kind of person that has favorite things." I dont reallly either. Although I a m asking people to tell me one place, usually it is hard to narrow it down to one. So maybe it is more like a place that you go to the most or maybe favorite means the most comforting place or a place that becomes a ritual in the city. So she didnt want me to video tape her but i did have the camera focusing on something else as she told me about chicago. Jesse arrived a half hour later and we had another pint there and decided to leave to check out the real haunted bar that the bartender suggested. I realize after I leave someones favorite place I always feel like I have participated in something like I have a reason to be there and it gives me confidence and makes me feel like I have attained something or become more comfortable with Chicago. We decided not to walk to the next bar but go home. I was on my bike and when I was trying to find which direction to go in. It is confusing when you have three different streets intersecting I talked to several people but one girl named Christine came up and was so funny and great. I got a picture of her. She was like "hell ya I love Chicago but Im broke and I have to find a job" She was so lovely and open and said her favorite place to go is the Navy Pier. So each time I go some where I meet at least 2 people i connect to. I dont force it either because I do talk to several people on my way there and back. It is usually women and people I have a connection with or feel are open to ask. STarting to document a family tree of connections and places.