The Second City, City of Big Shoulders, the Windy City, a City of Neighborhoods, Mayor Daley, The Chicago Fire, The Chicago Stockyards, Gangsters, Pizza, Wrigley Field, World Class Museums and Store Front Theatres.

Chicago means many things to many people. For me, it is all of the above, plus, most importantly, it is home. My passion for my city has led me to collect quite a bookmark file of Chicago links, and this article and my next will be dedicated to a virtual tour of Chicago. This first article will explore some of the WWW sites that highlight some of Chicago's major offerings and next week we will explore the cultural side of the city.

The first stop on our virtual tour is The Chicago Mosaic Homepage. The impressive goals of this effort are outlined in the mission statement:

The mission of the Chicago Mosaic project is to create an accessible, interactive, and intelligent information infrastructure to improve both the quality and quantity of communication among individual citizens, community groups, and units of government throughout the City of Chicago.

Another site that provides a well-rounded tour of Chicago is The Gordon Lake Chicago Web. This page has loads of interesting original content including the Chicago Web Yellow Pages, a local internet soap opera, and a Shopping Cart with information on weekly food deals around town. In addition, it serves as a index with pointers to sites covering everything Chicago from sports to entertainment to the weather. It is currently the definitive Chicago collection of homepages. Other excellent index style pages for Chicago include the Citynet Chicago Page, Sunnysite Surf and The WXRT Radio Chicago Resources page.

One of the nicer aspects of living in a city like Chicago where many cultures are combined is the food. You can dine on everything from authentic Indian cuisine to plain old country cooking. Choosing a restaurant is easier now thanks to the searchable index at Chicago Restaurants and the Chicago Fine Dining Guide.

Two of Chicago's major newspapers have an on-line presence, The Chicago Suntimes and The Chicago Tribune. The local Internet Newsstand provides links to other local publications. All the publications seem to be focusing on putting useful information on the net, so these are excellent resources for those that are looking for a job, housing or companionship in the windy city.

Finding your way around is also made a bit easier thanks to the web. The Subway System of Chicago allows you to type in your starting point and destination and it will plan out a route for you. You can print out a map or text version of your route. As a local, I pride myself on my ability to navigate the subway, but this program has come up with a better travel plan than I would have thought of more than once. Metra offers schedules and information for the extensive commuter rail service, and if you travel around town by car, you'll want to bookmark this Expressway Congestion Map.

Before I close, there is one more site I want to share with you. Many of the people who live in the suburbs feel as strongly about their community as those of us who live smack in the middle of things. One of my personal favorite tribute pages is Heavenston, a page which includes "Things pertaining to Evanston and its suburb to the south."

I hope you enjoyed this electronic tour. There is still a lot of armchair exploring left to be done. Chicago house some world class museums, architectural gems, and other treasures great and small. The next article will highlight Chicago's culture and counterculture.

Downtown you'll find Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Theatre and uptown you'll find the Green Mill Jazz Club. Spend an evening at the Lyric Opera or hear definitive Chicago blues on Halsted Street. Chicago museums house some of the most respected collections in the world and avant-garde art, music and fashion are so commonplace in Wicker Park that they are almost mainstream.

By Day

Living in Chicago is like living in a 3-D picture book for great architecture. If you live here or come to visit virtually or physically, please be sure to stop at the Chicago Architectural Foundation site, which will help you appreciate the scope of the city's architectural heritage. Please also stop at the Chicago Historical Society where "you can see the city's history unfold in all its glorious dimensions. Chicago's high culture and its everyday life. Our groundbreaking architecture and our brawny politics. The industries that made the city what it is -- from railroads, meat packing, and steel . . . to tootsie rolls, bicycles, and lava lamps." I mean how can I help but love living in a city responsible for both skyscrapers and some of the world's grooviest sixties memorabilia.

For me, one of life's great pleasures is taking a trip to the library or a museum. The Chicago Public Library is featured on the web and other local collections are featured on the Chicago Area Libraries searchable page. A personal favorite as a museum and as a website is the Field Museum of Natural History. Be sure to take the Virtual Tour of some of their fine exhibits while you are there. If you're a lover of the stars, then you'll enjoy the Adler Planetarium The Chelsey Bonestell pages feature a virtual tour of his paintings from the 1940s and 50s- "a time during which far reaching astronomers dreamed of voyaging through space to distant moons and planets."

The Museum of Science and Industry Web offers information about a number of exhibits, including Coleen Moore's Fairy Castle (a childhood favorite of mine) and the Artifacts from Our Curator's Closets page is worth a peek. While we're touring the science and natural history museums, a quick stop at the Chicago Academy of Sciences homepage is in order.

One of our more unique offerings is the Museum of Broadcast Communications. The Television Exhibit Gallery has some incredible quick time movies that you can download and other sections of the web are beginning to archive some of the incredible audio-visual resources that are in the museums collections. This site is growing into a rare treat for audiophiles and early television fanatics.

I've lost myself for hours in the collections at the famous Art Institute of Chicago which houses some very well known works including A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. The Oriental Institute Museum is a true Chicago treasure and the Smart Museum of Art has a very detailed web site. Try the Randolph Street Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art if your tastes run toward modern art.

And By Night

If you're not to worn out from all that museum hopping, you may want to explore some of the the great performance venues Chicago has to offer. The city is blessed with a wealth of local talent so one is never at a loss for somewhere to go for a night on the town.

This is a great place for theatre and you'll find the most information compiled at the Chicago Theatre Homepage which includes a page of links to Chicago theatre companies that have found homes on the web. Following the links on that page will give you a wonderful sampling of the diverse offerings of Chicago area theatres. If you like stand-up or improvisation, then a stop at the Chicago Comedy Web is also in order.

Chicago is a city that holds many musical delights for both those that love to sit in Grant Park and listen to the orchestra and those whose cultural taste runs more for towards catching a good band while enjoying a brew. Speaking of which, let's visit two wonderful websites that truly performs a useful service, The Chicago Shows List. Here you will find a pretty comprehensive listing of local bands --mostly rock-- playing at local venues (sorted by date and location.) If you prefer classical music, then the Chicago Concert Search is the spot you'll want to visit.

There is no argument that Chicago is one of the best places in the world to hear top artists. The Blues in Chicago pages will help you find the best blues around and Big John's Jazz Happenings covers all the clubs and artists playing jazz around town.

I haven't covered everything Chicago has to offer, but I hope that this tour has given you a taste of the wonderful diversity of this city. We'll have to leave the gangster era and the grand political structure of Chicago for another article sometime. For now, it is Friday Night here in Chicago, and for some strange reason I feel very inspired to go out and experience some of the things I've been exploring in a less virtual manner.

Reprinted with full permission from The Weekly Bookmark. Webletter announcing new sites on the Internet.

Copyright 1996 Orlok productions. All rights reserved.
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