Chicago Is The "It" Town

This week my normal route home has been disturbed by something completely outside of my control. Normally, I would consider this even pretty cool, but because it's causing me a delay in getting home (a trip that already takes 1.5 hours as it is), I'm going to be a bit of a hater. This is my route home and some rich bastards are slowing me up. What's going on, you ask? They're shooting Little Fockers, the next in the Ben Stiller comedy series based solely on a guy's last name being Focker. Hilarious.

Thing is they are filming at the Sheridan Red Line stop. No, I haven't seen any of the stars myself, but I've seen all their junk: 786 trailers (on a narrow street, mind you), a bazillion lights and cranes, and a score of people who apparently have no jobs because they stand outside the damn "set" all day long gawking around hoping to get a glimpse of a real live person! You know, completely unlike their friends, or someone standing next to them. Because they are shooting at the Sheridan stop, which is where I get on and off the train, I have to fight through these hordes and hope that they haven't decided to delay the trains just so they can get one more shot.

Then last night, I went to go see a special showing of Mystery Science Theater 3000 at the AMC downtown only to find that place also swarmed with weirdoes. News vans, freaky fan-type peoples, and snooty pricks running around in paper thin red scarves (I swear I spotted 17 red scarves) and skinny suits. Oh, and Uma Thurman. She was there promoting her new movie Motherhood, which debuted last night during Chicago's Film Festival.

I just don't know if Chicago is ready for all this. OK, well, I should rephrase that. I don't know if I'm ready for all this. Sure, it's cool that my city is in the movies and in the headlines, yadda yadda yadda, but I also just want to be able to get home in peace after a nasty day of work, or go watch some stupid geek-gasm flick at the theater downtown to unwind without having to deal with the world's worst snobs. And honestly, do people really go ape shit like this over actors still? I was excited when I got to meet Dan Savage, but I talked to him like a normal person. I didn't stalk him around and hope for just a glimpse of his greatness in hopes it would fulfill my life. If I saw Ben Stiller at the Red Line, I'd wave or say "Hi, I really liked Zoolander, it's one of my favorite movies," and leave it at that.

I just don't get it. I suppose it's not for me to get. I guess I do want it both ways though, because I like the notoriety we get for things like this, but I just don't want them to get in my way. Oh well, looks like for now I just get my cake but no way to eat it.