Happy Year of the Mouse!
2020-Feb-03, Monday 11:52![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
Happy Setsubun! 鬼は~~外！福は~~内！
My weekend was taken up with other cultural celebrations, though.
On both Saturday and Sunday, I went to Lunar New Year celebrations--Saturday's was closer to me, up on Argyle Street, and Sunday's was in Chinatown. I invited a few people to Argyle's celebration, but no one could come, and I also didn't realize that the parade started at 1 p.m. instead of at noon, so I got there early and then I was freezing. Saturday was something like the tenth day in Chicago with no sun at all, and while the weather report said that it was just barely below freezing it certainly felt a lot colder. I ended up ducking into Kung Fu Tea only to realize that even in Uptown they old take cash, so I walked across the street to a place called Tao Tea. When I saw that they had brown sugar boba tea I knew I had to try it, and I went inside into a magical kawaii wonderland:
The tea was good too!
The Argyle parade was pretty short, and was mostly floats from local businesses and the neighborhood school band. The announcer mentioned a cultural program taking place afterwards, but I was too cold by that point to think of sticking around alone to participate, so I went home to rest up a bit before that evening's events (about which more later).
Sunday, after eating lunch I texted around to see if anyone was available to join me.![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
britshlez was already in on coming, and ![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
worldbshiny, lisekatevans, meowtima, and graybear721 were all busy either with Super Bowl parties or with other events, so I left early--the L stations up near me were all closed for work as part of the CTA's Red Line upgrade project--and after a trip down south, I found a place in front of a Thai ice cream restaurant, told britshlez where I was, and waited in the bright sunshine--the clouds had finally broken and it was like 10°C warmer than Sunday, to the point where I didn't even need my winter coat. As I enjoyed the unseasonable weather, one group of dragon dancers went up and down the street entertaining the crowd, they set off a huge string of fireworks, and then at 1 p.m. the parade stepped off further down the street and came at me.
I was happy to see a float both from the Chinese Consulate and from local Taiwanese groups--I wouldn't put it past the CCP to try to get the parade to kick out all Taiwanese organizations as a condition of its participation--and there were quite a few dragon and lion dancers:
🐉
...but I was more surprised to see how many local community groups were participating even if they had no connection to the Lunar New Year. Every local high school sent its band to march and play--most of which had far more stylish uniforms than my high school had; I really appreciated all the uniforms that had capes--and there were even a group of bagpipers, playing that most-traditional bagpipe music of the Middle Kingdom. Right after the bagpipers went by,britshlez and her boyfriend arrived, so they missed out on the Chinese cultural associations handing out red envelopes and candy and caught more of the local neighborhood groups, but there were still some dragon dancers. Right after the last group went by and what we thought was another group but was actually just people filling the street approached, ![[facebook.com profile]](https://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico)
karolina.gabriele finally arrived, having missed the entire parade. They asked me what was around and I told them about Tous les Jours, so after wandering down the length of car-free Wentworth Street, we checked it out. I bought some more manjū, britshlez bought a couple milk creme breads, and karolina.gabriele bought a bunch of pastries, and then we went to Lao Sze Chuan for an early dinner and caught a lion dance inside the restaurant! Well, I was in the entryway and everyone else was outside, so I caught it, but as soon as it was over I went in and asked for a table and we were seated immediately.
britshlez and her boyfriend ordered shrimp noodles--she once again couldn't look me in the eye after ordering it even though I didn't say anything 
--and I got what I would call 麻婆豆腐 mābō d ōfu but which was originally called mápó dòufu, tofu in a very spicy sauce, after I confirmed it was vegetarian.
It was, uh, significantly hotter than the Japanese version.
Delicious, though!
We went shopping a bit for a present forbritshlez's friend's baby shower, but she gave up pretty quickly, so we walked through the shopping arcade to the square where we checked out our animal zodiac years. The description of the dog was:
And then we went home. Everyone else went shopping, and I went grocery shopping and did my chores for the week filled with happiness. I'm so glad I made the time to go down to Chinatown and that everything worked out so I got a great view of the parade and delicious food!
Now to go back to Saturday night, wherethosesocks, a friend from the shanty group, and I went to see the Wailin' Jennys at thosesocks's invitation. I had heard a few of their songs before, so I knew they were mostly a close harmony vocal group with a few stringed instruments, but I wasn't any more familiar with them. It turned out not to matter, though, because even if I had been a superfan, this was their first tour in a year after one of their members took maternity time off, and they explicitly said a lot of their songs were new. It was very different from the Heilung concert, since we had assigned seats and there was an intermission, but I loved it.
During intermission, we were talking andthosesocks mentioned my eclectic musical taste, so I talked about Heilung and A New World, and about going to Illenium before that:thosesocks told me about the concert and provided a ride! It was lovely and now I want to get a Wailin' Jennys album, to go with Gryffin's debut album "Gravity,", Sabaton's "The Last Stand," Murgrind's "The Fallen Kingdom," she's "Orion," and Two Steps from Hell's "Battlecry," which are the last five albums I bought.
Figure out my musical taste from that.
Date tonight with a tabletop RPG / theatre nerd, so we'll see how that goes. At least we'll theoretically have a lot to talk about?
My weekend was taken up with other cultural celebrations, though.
On both Saturday and Sunday, I went to Lunar New Year celebrations--Saturday's was closer to me, up on Argyle Street, and Sunday's was in Chinatown. I invited a few people to Argyle's celebration, but no one could come, and I also didn't realize that the parade started at 1 p.m. instead of at noon, so I got there early and then I was freezing. Saturday was something like the tenth day in Chicago with no sun at all, and while the weather report said that it was just barely below freezing it certainly felt a lot colder. I ended up ducking into Kung Fu Tea only to realize that even in Uptown they old take cash, so I walked across the street to a place called Tao Tea. When I saw that they had brown sugar boba tea I knew I had to try it, and I went inside into a magical kawaii wonderland:
The tea was good too!
The Argyle parade was pretty short, and was mostly floats from local businesses and the neighborhood school band. The announcer mentioned a cultural program taking place afterwards, but I was too cold by that point to think of sticking around alone to participate, so I went home to rest up a bit before that evening's events (about which more later).
Sunday, after eating lunch I texted around to see if anyone was available to join me.
britshlez was already in on coming, and graybear721 were all busy either with Super Bowl parties or with other events, so I left early--the L stations up near me were all closed for work as part of the CTA's Red Line upgrade project--and after a trip down south, I found a place in front of a Thai ice cream restaurant, told britshlez where I was, and waited in the bright sunshine--the clouds had finally broken and it was like 10°C warmer than Sunday, to the point where I didn't even need my winter coat. As I enjoyed the unseasonable weather, one group of dragon dancers went up and down the street entertaining the crowd, they set off a huge string of fireworks, and then at 1 p.m. the parade stepped off further down the street and came at me.I was happy to see a float both from the Chinese Consulate and from local Taiwanese groups--I wouldn't put it past the CCP to try to get the parade to kick out all Taiwanese organizations as a condition of its participation--and there were quite a few dragon and lion dancers:
🐉
...but I was more surprised to see how many local community groups were participating even if they had no connection to the Lunar New Year. Every local high school sent its band to march and play--most of which had far more stylish uniforms than my high school had; I really appreciated all the uniforms that had capes--and there were even a group of bagpipers, playing that most-traditional bagpipe music of the Middle Kingdom. Right after the bagpipers went by,
britshlez and her boyfriend arrived, so they missed out on the Chinese cultural associations handing out red envelopes and candy and caught more of the local neighborhood groups, but there were still some dragon dancers. Right after the last group went by and what we thought was another group but was actually just people filling the street approached, britshlez bought a couple milk creme breads, and britshlez and her boyfriend ordered shrimp noodles--she once again couldn't look me in the eye after ordering it even though I didn't say anything --and I got what I would call 麻婆豆腐 mābō d ōfu but which was originally called mápó dòufu, tofu in a very spicy sauce, after I confirmed it was vegetarian. It was, uh, significantly hotter than the Japanese version.
Delicious, though!We went shopping a bit for a present for
britshlez's friend's baby shower, but she gave up pretty quickly, so we walked through the shopping arcade to the square where we checked out our animal zodiac years. The description of the dog was:Dogs are loyal, honest, and extremely faithful to those they love. They can always be trusted to guard the secrets of others and therefore make great confidants. However, dogs have a tendency to be fault finders, have sharp tongues when filled with righteous indignation, and can be most stubborn and unyielding. They make great leaders but would also be happy working as an activist or a secret agent. Dogs are most happy with a tiger or a horse.Not sure about the leader part, but the rest is pretty true!
And then we went home. Everyone else went shopping, and I went grocery shopping and did my chores for the week filled with happiness. I'm so glad I made the time to go down to Chinatown and that everything worked out so I got a great view of the parade and delicious food!
Now to go back to Saturday night, where
thosesocks, a friend from the shanty group, and I went to see the Wailin' Jennys at thosesocks's invitation. I had heard a few of their songs before, so I knew they were mostly a close harmony vocal group with a few stringed instruments, but I wasn't any more familiar with them. It turned out not to matter, though, because even if I had been a superfan, this was their first tour in a year after one of their members took maternity time off, and they explicitly said a lot of their songs were new. It was very different from the Heilung concert, since we had assigned seats and there was an intermission, but I loved it. During intermission, we were talking and
thosesocks mentioned my eclectic musical taste, so I talked about Heilung and A New World, and about going to Illenium before that:Me: "At least I can say that my musical taste didn't ossify in my late teens like so many people's did."She also mentioned the times she'd come over and I'd be listening to Clamavi De Profundis as a further data point, though then I mentioned that I had a long-standing appreciation for sea shanties as well and told the friend about Shantyphone (about five years or so ago, all my ringtones on my phone were sea shanties). I'm really glad
thosesocks told me about the concert and provided a ride! It was lovely and now I want to get a Wailin' Jennys album, to go with Gryffin's debut album "Gravity,", Sabaton's "The Last Stand," Murgrind's "The Fallen Kingdom," she's "Orion," and Two Steps from Hell's "Battlecry," which are the last five albums I bought.Figure out my musical taste from that.
Date tonight with a tabletop RPG / theatre nerd, so we'll see how that goes. At least we'll theoretically have a lot to talk about?
