LOOPTASTIC LOOPTOPIA

Seeing as Looptopia is totally old news at this point, I feel it is a perfect time to post about it. For those of you who are not in Chicago, Looptopia was supposed to be an all-night celebration of fun with events throughout Chicago’s Loop District (the main business center) that typically closes down about 8pm at the latest. Sometimes people come from out of town to Chicago and are very confused that “Downtown” is totally shut down after dark. That’s just how we roll. The fun is in the neighborhoods. So Looptopia, inspired by events in Rome, Paris, and Montreal, was supposed to be a cultural and artistic spectacle and keep the Loop open late so people could enjoy the wondrous fun that the area has to offer.

This event promised to suck royally from the get go. It did suck. While it sounded like a good idea in theory, I didn’t believe the hype. I particularly didn’t believe it when I saw the list of events. However, I was intrigued and already downtown so I decided that I should go. I don’t take enough advantage of the free things that go on in our fine city and didn’t want to miss yet another free event. Even though I knew I might have more fun in my house. As things ended up, despite the suckage, had enough fun that it was worth not going home. However, I easily could have had as much fun at my house.

I started the night with Monica’s sister Chanda and Lakeiya. Dave was supposed to meet up with us but his arrival was postponed because he was bringing us sandwiches and had to make the bread. Dave is adorable. The three of us ladies started the night at “Miss Looptopia” a reported drag show where at least half of the competitors were not in drag. A group of hugely tall people planted themselves directly in front of the stage and refused to move an inch. Apparently there were tons of people trying to get in but weren’t allowed because there was no room. The show started about 15 minutes late, showed three performers, and took a 20 minute break. Huh?? The then had three more performers, took a fifteen minute break, had three more, and closed the show. Mind you, the acts were between 1 and 3 minutes long. The waiting was insane. They were also pretty crappy drag performers. One was of awesome quality, one of the ladies sang a fabulous song about how she wasted to be “Misses Alyssa Milano,” and the trashiest mess of them all was crowned Miss Looptopia. Huh??

We then went to Harold Washington College to create tiles for a mondo mosaic that will go up “somewhere at some point,” and my tile will be in position K-10 when that happens. The idea was that you had to use four lines that continued up from the time before yours and other than that you could do whatever you wanted. You weren’t supposed to write anything but the person giving me my tile said nothing about that. I made a cracked out looking person out of squiggles with the caption “it was a hard day,” beside her face. I want to see it in action. I wonder if I ever will.

By this point Dave and Krista Lee had arrived so we met up with them to see a guy play and we saw the last 30 seconds of his act. We then sat down to have sandwiches. I am quite glad Dave made them MMMMM. As we weren’t going to use the port-o-potties we popped over to the office for a regular bathroom and, as Dave brought some wine and there were cops all over outside, we sat down and had a drink. There were some snacks left over because the Alternative School Prom was that night and they had provided the students with some snacks so that was also nice.

We then headed over to the Art Institute to meet Monica, Morgan, Cheryl, and Fernando. We lost Krista Lee on the way because she met someone and they wanted to play chess. There was a wicked hardcore pillow fight in front of the steps. Loved it. The place was so incredibly crowded that we were simply overwhelmed. The group split up again after wandering the museum for a while looking for “Dreams and Nightmares” which was on the program for 10:30. It sounded cool but some people wanted to see fire and puppets. Dave, Lakeiya, Chanda, and I finally figured out where to stand and when the man waved his hand for Dreams and Nightmares the insanity began. He began speeding through the throngs and Chanda grabbed my hand and pulled me after him. I kept getting wedged between the pushing stream of people and the other people standing in line to get drinks. It’s lucky that I am not averse to bumping into people. We lost Dave and Lakeiya but hoped to find them eventually. We finally get to a gallery, when the group was united, and were given a very informative lecture on surrealist painting. I enjoyed it very much. Our tour guide felt like a superstar.

We then went to meet up with the rest of the group and check out the “knitting” at the Cultural Center. On the way Chanda and I played a game where we would walk in a straight line and not move and see if we could get people to move out of our way. It was fun. I was pretty good at it. Chanda almost got hit by a car and let out the most blood curdling scream I have ever heard directly in my ear, Ouch. The cultural center was incredibly busy, we couldn’t find knitting. We met up with the rest of our friends and said good-night.
You are probably thinking that it sounds like a wonderful time, and it was. However, the Looptopia events had relatively little to do with the fun time. It just goes to show that good people can have a blast with anything despite poor event planning, low staff, utter chaos, and too many people. The bottle of wine probably didn’t hurt either. Looptopia planners, better luck next time.

Lola, The Kinks- I have been listening to this song all morning. I wanted to listen to it on repeat because it just fit my mood perfectly (don’t ask what that means because I can’t explain it and it isn’t what it sounds like) but the biggest drawback to an iPod is the lack of a repeat function. I had to keep pressing buttons, I was annoyed.

Even Though I am in the Closet, David Cross- This is a bit about the importance of going to the Moon. David Cross is really funny. Every time I see his face I just want to laugh because he is the greatest. I don’t think this has anything to do with being in closets.

The Acid Queen, The Who- These titles, along with the Lola and Miss Looptopia, is a pretty perfect fit. Nice work random.