What is there to do in Chicago?

Chicago lovers...what is culturally most distinct about Chicago?

• Okay - Chicago has a great orchestra - but so does NY and Philadelphia: interesting cultural diversity - so does New York and San Francisco. Chicago has great theater, and art museums..... but a lot of the art and theater in Chicago seems to originate in Europe and the Eastern part of the United States - I love Chicago because of my memories there, but I would like to know what others find most distinct about it.

• Answer:

  Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper and you can see the best and earliest examples of that style of construction here. Also, most of the theater in Chicago does NOT originate in Europe or the Eastern part of the US. Chicago has a very distinct style of literature best typified by people like playwrights David Mamet and Stuart Gordon and authors Nelsen Algren, Saul Bellow and Studs Terkel, Richard Wright. In fact, I'd venture to say that Mamet and Algren have had more of an influence on East Coast playwriting and novel writing than the other way around. The Man With the Golden Arm (Algren)? Studs Lonigan (James Ferrell)? Heck, I'd even throw Mike Royko into that mix. He redefined what a big city newspaper columnist is and guys around the nation have been imitating him ever since, including the Jimmy Breslins of the world. Chicago's writing is a gritty, down-to-earth style that took the world by storm. It even extends to poetry with people like Gwendolyn Brooks. In visual art, there was an entire movement that was created here by the Chicago Imagists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Imagists) led by Ed Pashke. Even our politicans, as crooked as they may have been, have a distinct Chicago brand of corruption, just as New York City has theirs. And I don't think I need to get into music and the influence Chicago blues and jazz has had on the world. Chicago has its own distinct style of architecture, writing and art. People need to do more to discover it instead of just moving here after grad school, making a few bucks and hanging out at the latest hipster bar. Everywhere you step, there is Chicago history and a distinct culture.