Awesome Chicago

Much of America has been gripped by a deep freeze this week. One interesting effect of the deep freeze is something known as Arctic sea smoke – a vapor that forms when frigid air blows across warmer water. EarthCam captured this amazing time-lapse footage of the phenomenon as it occurred over Lake Michigan across from downtown Chicago.

Chicago’s best Italian Beef chefs are back for a second season of The Bear. Expect the frenetic and intense pace of a professional kitchen to continue as Carmy and his crew work to reinvent Original Beef of Chicagoland as an upscale new restaurant worthy of a James Beard Award winner. The new season premieres 6.22.23 on FX.

The Chicago Cubs enlisted the drone experts at Sky Candy Studios to take us on a unique aerial tour of Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The flight starts out over the Red Line elevated train, zooming through Murphy’s Bleachers, around the park, into the stands, through the scoreboard, along the ivy, and into the Cubs’ modern clubhouse.

After seeing how well The Muppet Show theme synced up with Dirty Dancing, TikToker drkritz was inspired to do the same with another famous movie dance routine. It turns out that Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Nowadays dance from Chicago works perfectly with the theme from Fraggle Rock.

Like the idea of camping except for all the getting back to nature stuff? Chicago’s luxe landmark The Gwen offers the city’s first urban glamping experience. With bird’s-eye views of Michigan Avenue, the 16th-floor private terrace of the Gwen Lux Suite has a boho Lotus Belle tent with a comfy queen-sized bed.

Chicago artist Nicholas Berchtold created this incredible piece of furniture for renowned tattoo artist Pony Lawson. Under its glass tabletop is an intricate model of the Windy City, precision machined from wood, laser-cut acrylic, and 3D-printed ABS, finished in a marble pattern. More info available on the artist’s website.

(PG-13: Language) Chicago fast food staple The Wiener’s Circle offers peace of mind that despite all of the change going on in the world, we can rely on them for their trademark abusive approach to customer service, no matter what, and even if you order via Facetime or do curbside pickup.

The area along Wacker Drive near State Street is one of Chicago’s most architecturally significant and iconic locales. Perhaps that’s why Hollywood loves to destroy it over and over again. The A.V. Club looks at some of the many movies which made a mess of the place.

Have a garage or workshop area that’s disorganized? The guys at White Rabbit can revamp your space with versatile, smartly-designed storage from Monkey Bars, and durable polyurea flooring from Citadel. See what they did for our garage on 95octane.

During their recent trip to the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Chicago, we had a chance to visit with the Land Rover BAR team, and got see what goes into hydrofoil racing, from the engineering of the boats to the sheer fortitude of each crew member.

It’s an annual St. Paddy’s Day tradition here in Chicago – turning the normally brownish-green Chicago River into a bright green spectacle. This short time-lapse video by Peter Tsai does a great job capturing how it’s done.

Conan O’Brien is in Chicago this week, and kicked things off with a bang by launching a 10-foot bratwurst over the Chicago River. Why? Why the heck not? Jump to 2:25 to cut to the chase.

If speed and films (but not necessarily Keanu) are your cup of tea, come on down to New York Jr.  for the Windie City Shooutout. Chicago’s premier 72-hr film race with $25k in prizes takes place 8/12-15.