Second Fridays in Pilsen: Elysia and Harriett Dip into Hipster-land

On Friday, Elysia and I went to Pilsen for an event called Second Fridays. On the second Friday of every month, a number of art galleries and showrooms in east Pilsen are open to the public for free. The idea grew out of a failed outing to a food truck rally downtown. The story there is (not that) good, so of course I'll tell it.

I've never been to a food truck, largely because the food truck craze was just picking up when I left for Italy last summer. Just the idea of food being cooked on a truck would probably send a lot of Italians to their graves in shock. Anyways, I've never been to a food truck, so I wanted to go. We waited for the bus to go downtown for at least a half-hour (probably more) as impatient passengers started piling up at the bus stop. When the bus finally arrived, we were informed that the delays were caused by the upcoming Chicago Marathon (which of course makes perfect sense, given that the race is a huge event and security has increased after Boston.) Elysia and I stuck out the wait and the packed bus ride, dreaming of the great food we were going to eat once we arrived at the rally.

The rally, of course, was scheduled to end at 8 PM. We arrived at 7:52 because of our delay, and the food truck rally was closed. So, bummer, we didn't get to eat any truck food. CTA mishaps are old news but I thought I'd tell that part of the story anyways.

Now, on to the good part of the evening:

I didn't recognize the part of Pilsen we were in when we first arrived. Granted, I haven't been to Pilsen in over a year and when I have gone there, it's been there for the Mexican History museum and the burritos. It wasn't just the lack of Mexican restaurants, but the crowd was noticeably different as well. I said to Elysia at one point during the evening that the people-watching was almost as good as the art. I really wish I'd have taken pictures of all the mustaches and that guy with the chihuahua in his purse. As Elysia put it, "I feel like I'm at a really artsy frat party"

Strangely, these 5 or 6 blocks we walked in Pilsen reminded me a lot of the South Wedge, a neighborhood in Rochester near where I grew up. The South Wedge is also going through a phase of gentrification, installing more up-scale boutiques, restaurants, and shops in recent years. There was  even a fancy chocolate shop, Chocolat, just like Hedonist back home in the South Wedge.

And even though I didn't get any photos of the great crowd, I did capture some of the weird art. Excuse the poor quality, these were taken with my cell phone. (which is not one of those iPhone gadgets all you kids have these days)

Ok as you've probably realized by now all of my photos are of these futuristic manikin things that were in the gallery windows. Sorry, but I really liked them.

Here's a picture of some performance art:

Performers walked around a bar for 3 hours at a pace of 50 beats/minute

There was another performance inside which involved transferring water one spoonful at a time to 6 different bowls on a table. I felt weird taking a picture of that one though. I felt less weird with the performers above, probably because they were blindfolded and behind a window. I still felt pretty weird though.