Fuji's Top 25 or so Parties of 2002
 2002 Highlights - A Very Good Year

For the second year in a row, I'm publishing my list of selected highlights from 2002 - another barn-burner of a year! Listed in chronological order. Not quite as in-depth as Tommy Fitz's "Dear Diary" columns, this is more the "Rand McNally Atlas" of our 2002 party scene. Most of you will recognize events you were either at with me or even hosted (thanks!).


1) New Year's Eve 2002 - Second Annual New Year's Eve Tripleheader. First stop was my friend and PPC Stalwart Nora's place at China Club lofts where a bunch of the PPC's traditional group gathered to start of the evening with a wonderful dinner and even a few cocktails. Stop #2 was Adam, Brett & Larry's massive crib (now of Halloween Party 2001 fame) to ring in the new year among friends. Closer for the evening was Jim's place up on Sheridan & Irving where a zillion "dead soldiers" strewn about were testimony to that night's carnage. Of course, we had to follow that up where a select group of the PPC's troopers met up at Wrightwood tap for $2 pints all day to watch the bowl games, and then party #5 in 24 hours, Sean's perpetual renovation project to watch the Illini get overrun by LSU. But a good time was still had by all!

2) Bears vs. Bucs at Party Central  (Saturday, January 5th) - With the better part of a 1/4 barrel left over from Nora's place from NYE, she graciously donated the remainder to Party Central where about a half dozen guys got together at my place to catch the game and kill the keg. The Bears proved convincingly triumphant and we also relearned why it is tough for a very small group of people to kill a keg. Even the outbreak of an impromptu Century Club was not enough to finish the job completely although by any standard we acquitted ourselves well on the field of battle. Key safety tip: Do Not Ever Start Doing A Century Club (100 1oz shots of beer in 100 minutes) after drinking like six pints first.
 

 

3) Bears Playoff Game vs. Eagles at Barnum's (Saturday, January 19) - The first Bear's playoff game since 1991 was celebrated at our friend Barnum's place (huge couch, large living room, and the widescreen TV) at the Pencil Factory Lofts, who was gracious enough to host approx 30 hardy souls not only through the Bears heartbreaking defeat, but also the Patriots miracle last-minute victory over the Raiders, followed by the obligatory post-game bar outing. Barnum swears he'll never do that again. Probably because of the Tuaca shots!

 

4) First Annual Groundhog Day Party (Saturday, February 2) - My buddies from Michigan, Paul and Dave hosted their first event at their new pad on Waveland just East of Wrigley Field. The theme was "Ground Hog Day" (why not - Halloween is now a Party Holiday too!). Copious quantities of beverages were provided including the legendary Michigan Track Team favorite - Yucca (if you don't already know what's in it, don't ask) along with a pot of Dave's legendary chili. 

5) Heidi's Surprise Birthday Party Wine Tasting (Saturday, February 9) - A bunch of us got together at Alyssa's more-or-less new place on George St. for a surprise birthday/wine tasting party for our friend Heidi. Everyone brought a bottle of wine to share and we can proudly say there was not a drop left in the place. Of course, this was followed up with an impromptu trip to Irish Eyes to close out the evening with some classic Irish drinking tunes and some very questionable (wine-inspired) dancing. What a blast!
 


6) First Annual St. Valentine's Day Massacre Party (Saturday, February 16) - Our buddy Steve has a condo right next door to the garage (where it used to be before it was demolished in favor of a parking lot) where the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened in 1929. The evening started out with a specially chartered bus tour of Chicagoland gangster era historical sites, with the gang dressed up in period attire. Then the flappers and gangsters returned to 2120 N. Clark where Steve declared the official end of Prohibition the the booze started flowing. You'd think we hadn't had a drink since 1929.
 


7) Shanghai Blowout 2002 (Saturday, February 23) - I was attending a business meeting that week at my company's Shanghai operations, and a bunch of us stayed over Saturday night to take in the town. After a grueling week of meetings, we headed out to a club called Luna. All I can say is HOLY COW. I haven't partied that hard since the 17 Bars of Christmas. The combination of a still yet unquantified number of cocktails, an awesome live band (the lead guitar could row the strings like Eddie Van Halen), co-workers from such non-party places as Australia and Costa Rica in an exotic foreign locale led to the entire cleanout of my Yuan reserves which is probably what saved me in the end. Let's just say that the following Saturday was an "out of service" day.
 

8) Karaoke and Illini Pub Crawl Weekend (Friday, March 8 & Saturday March 9) The weekend started out on a high note with Sabby's Karaoke outing at the Alumni Club downtown in the basement of the Smurfit Stone Building. As the drink counter notched up, so did the number of folks up on stage for some classic Karaoke tunes. This one we gotta do again. And no weekend is complete without crashing a good pub crawl. Special thanks to organizer, Jean, who welcomed my roommate & I to their crawl even though neither of us were UI alums.
 

9) St. Patrick's Day 2002 (Saturday, March 17) The day started off at 10:30am at Parkway Tavern where we grabbed a pint and hopped on their rented school bus for the downtown parade. Roundtrip was $3 which included beer on the bus - the same price as taking the L, sans beer... you can't lose!). After watching President Bush's motorcade blast by us at high speed (we were at the end of the route) we returned to Parkway for some more pints. Afterwards, we cruised over to Jack Sullivan's to meet the Mahu and the rest of Doug's trolley crowd for, you guessed it, a few more pints. From there we headed out to Lilly's to meet up with some more folks and have some more pints, where we lost Pauli and Dave, but ran into Sara and Jim. The evening finished down the street at Irish Eyes where we ran into Heidi et. al. And the troopers got up early Sunday to catch the Southside Irish Parade, which has to be the largest outdoor public drinking event I've ever seen, which was followed up by our final stop Reilly's Daughter on Cicero.
 


10) LaSalle Bank Shamrock Shuffle 8K & Subsequent Events (Sunday, March 24) With a little bit under a year of running as a sport under my belt, I finally got talked into running a timed race. In an act showing great intelligence and common sense, I decided to run with an experienced runner who nearly killed me. But afterwards, the post-party at the Hilton with Underwater People was awesome. We camped out right next to the stage and threw back a lot of Goose Islands. And then afterwards off to yet another run and then another post-run bar outing at The Shamrock Club by the Merchandise Mart. Yet another "school night" indiscretion but a ton of fun. Check out the 11 Things I learned from running the 2002 Shamrock Shuffle HERE.
 


11) Heather, Lori and Carmel's Birthday Party & Masters Pub Crawl (Friday, April 12 & Saturday, April 13) In a badly-needed  follow-up to their 2001 "Whine & Cheese" Party, the same comedy team combines with Carmel to celebrate their upcoming birthdays in a bash which lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Nothing like leaving a party and it's starting to get light out again. And this was back-to-back with the 8th Annual Masters Pub Crawl (where the Mahu and I met another really cool pub crawler, Anne). This was a mega-event the size of a PPC pub crawl. We gotta do this again. And we finished off with Fifield's Birthday at the Underground Lounge. What a weekend!!!
 

 

12) Waukesha HHH Red Dress Run (Saturday, May 11) What else in the world can beat running through the streets, woods, swamps, train tracks, and bogs of the Southwest Milwaukee Suburb of New Berlin through drizzle, winds, and 40 degree weather with around seventy other similarly insane folks dressed in red dresses? Who else could stage such madness other than the Hash House Harriers, "A Drinking Club With a Running Problem"? The nearly five mile death march run was topped of with an ending party at Boyce's Irish Spring House where numerous kegs were killed and there was no driving back to Chicago after this debacle.


13) Big Ten Alumni Pub Crawl (Saturday, May 18) Started off at Justin's on Southport. It was a new event organized by Anne of the Northwestern Young Alumni Association of Chicago and thus the event was composed primarily of Northwestern alumns. But, joined by fellow pub-crawl pro Chris Festa in his triumphant return to the "Chicago Neighborhood Tour" scene, we showed these guys how to do a proper "neighborhood tour". Special thanks to Anne for keeping our glasses full (what a hostess!) which ensured I arrived to the "Millett-Krumenacker Track Shack" party late and ready for bedtime.
 


14) Memorial Day Weekend 2002 (Friday, May 24-Monday May 27) Special thanks to Susan for that free happy hour which kicked things off at Jack Sullivan's and Christy for that great party that followed. Many of us are still recovering from that event. And Dave and Kara's golf pub crawl on Sunday introduced me to fun of whacking wiffle balls (baseball, not golf ball sized ones) around Chicago's streets. It didn't take too many beers before I decided to chuck the "no full swing rule" but a great time was had by all which even included a celebrity sighting of Festa, the undisputed grand master of Chicago "neighborhood tours". And lastly kudos to Craig for instigating the "unofficial" start of beach volleyball on Monday and his gracious post-game bbq.
 

 

15) Christy's Party and Marietta's Flag Day Party (Saturday May 25 and Friday June 14). Either of these individually would have warranted their own separate mentions on the list, however due to their sheer proximity, common crowds, and shared beverages, these two (for all practical intents & purposes) back-to-back events at Armitage & Larrabee will be inexorably linked in our minds. Not to mention they were so epic that most of the brain cells to remember this event have been lost to history due to the (literally) thousands of dollars spent on beverages for these events. If this is foreshadowing what the summer of '02 would be like, I should probably retire to Naperville now.

 


16) St. Michael's Fest & Old Town Art Fair (Saturday June 8) - The summer's first party triple-header, starting off with partying on the steps outside Chantal's old place on Menominee during the Old Town Art fair on a perfect June day. This place is about to be sold so this grand party tradition ends here. Wrapped around this was two consecutive days of St. Michael's fest nearby where we first met the Pam & Sophia tag team of partiers. What a blast!
 


17) 11th Annual Chicago Fourth of July Party (Friday June 28 - Saturday July 6). The PPC's Flagship Event. 11 Years! Can you believe it??!! This years theme was "Made in USA". The fun started with our traditional boat cruise on the Free Spirit Friday night which sold out for the first time in recent memory, marked by the return of the sailor hats followed up by our traditional post-cruise trek to the Hangge Uppe on Elm St. (Click here for more info or pictures). The next day, the troopers showed up for the traditional BBQ and Scavenger Hunt starting at Fuji's Party Central in Lincoln Park, and then ending with an eight-bar Scavenger Hunt/Pub Crawl (Click here for event info or pictures). This was followed by our traditional Survivor's Brunch back at Party Central (Sunday, July 7), fireworks outing in Grant Park (Wednesday, July 3). What a weekend!

 

18) Fifth Annual SCJ Intern Cubs Outing to Wrigley Field (Friday, July 19) - Yet again this year we had some absolutely spectacular weather for the traditional introduction of my company's college student summer intern contingent to Lincoln Park and the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. This time we had a record half barrel and quarter barrel on hand as leftovers were destined for the Sheffield Garden Walk "Halftime Show" the following Saturday. This year's event was followed up by the Old St. Pat's World's Largest Block Party on Saturday night and the obligatory Lincoln Park postgame outing with the "survivors" crashing at Party Central. Man those Madison kids can drink! I would have never graduated from that place. Always a blast!


19) Second Annual Taste of Lincoln Avenue Quadruple-Header (Saturday, July 27) - This is fast becoming an annual death march when one of Chicago's biggest street festivals comes to the heart of Lincoln Park! Started off the day with some Mai Tai prepartyage at Eric & Chantal's Wrightwood castle, then off to the Taste itself, the to Ric B's party on Montana a block away, then closed off the destruction at my friend Jen P.'s rooftop party at Fullerton & Cleveland. No kegs on the roof this year to haul although Jen's younger (like high school age) brother got extremely over-served. And to think he's got his best drinking days still ahead of him, but would have hated to be him the next day. All in all, an awesome day of summer partyage.
 

20) Retro on Roscoe 2002 (Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4) - Started off in scenic Racine Wisconsin for four hours of food and open bar at my company's picnic. After that warm-up, then headed off to my friend Mike's annual RoR preparty on Addison and Leavitt, after which met up with the crew at the fest and then headed over to my friend Linda's place on Roscoe overlooking the West stage where she had a keg out on the porch. Ended up spending much more than a pit stop there before finally heading back down to the Fest. Sunday got off to a very late start hitting my friend Lori's going away party (moving to Dayton) at Jack Sullivan's and then rejoining the crew and returning to Linda's for a second day of Retro on Roscoe carnage to help kill the keg. It doesn't get any better than that when a friend throws a house party within the fest!



21) 4th Annual PPC Post Air & Water Show Party (Saturday, August 17) - The day started out with a trip to the beach with the usual suspects to watch the Air & Water Show on North Ave Beach where the Mahu and crew staked out the ideal spot. Then back to Party Central afterwards to prepare for what had to have been one of the largest parties I've ever had in the Party Central Big Backyard. Two kegs (which my roommate thought I would have to dump because it was too much beer - boy that did not happen), four cases, and $350 of liquor vanished before midnight as the Big Backyard was standing room only and the restroom line sprawled to 40+ minutes! We estimate we had to have had over 200 people there. Just don't get me started about how long it took to clean up PC after that wipeout! But a great time was had by all. And nobody called the cops this year! Bonus!

22) Taste of Hoevel XIV & Robin's Sunday Deck Party (Saturday, August 24 & Sunday August 25) - My friend Dina, one of the unindicted co-conspirators introduced me to this apparently 14 year tradition they call the Taste of Hoevel which is a thinly-disguised excuse to have two parties on the same day. It started out with an outdoor party at the Labagh Forest Preserve on the edge of the city. Five kegs, lots of food and hang out all afternoon. Then it cuts over to the evening postparty at Lori's on the 2100 block of W. Barry. More kegs, more food, and a pool in the backyard. Needless to say I didn't get home very early from that one. And to top it off, a moveable feast which started off at Festa's "right next to the L tracks crib on Newport and migrated into the street festival on Clark & Addison. But there's more! What was going to be a 30-minute pit stop at Linda's friend Robin's had a Sunday evening party at her new place on Clark out on the deck ended up being an evening killer. A keg, great food, and a whole lot of friends and mixed drinks made for a "Saturday Night Party on Sunday". Didn't get into to work too early after that one but a great time!
 

 

23) Guinness Oysterfest and John's Birthday Outing at Cori's (Saturday, September 7 & Friday the 13th) - Started the day pouring 90 half barrels (I counted the stack afterwards) with a crew of four at the vastly undermanned South beer tent at the Guiness Oysterfest. Personal best was pouring ten Guinesses (2-stage pour and all) in one minute 32 seconds. The following Friday we headed off to Cori's for John's 31st birthday party. Highlight was the turnout as we got a large bunch of friends. Lowlight was John becoming vastly overserved (he did several of the lethal "four horsemen" shots) and then napped at the post-bar, Nookie's Too, before ralphing on the side of the cab when we got him home.

 

24) Laura's 3 Condo Housewarming Blowout (Friday, September 27) - This bash was a housewarming party held by our friend LK and a couple of her neighbors. Three condo's plus the downstairs & backyard area made for quite a large party. It was really three parties in one where our group mostly hung in LK's pad or in the hallway outside, as did the friends of the other two venues' residents, but everyone had to trek to the backyard to hit the keg. Met all kinds of new people that night although Saturday morning was not a welcome sight.

 

25) Meet Linda's Dad Party and Marietta's Move Out Party (Saturday, October 19) - This October 2-for-1 classic started off at Trouble Inc. HQ (Linda's crib on Roscoe) where her dad was in town and out partying with the crew like a pro (I can see where she gets this from). After a very fast start, we cut over to Marietta's move out party which was a complete blowout complete with dancing on the countertops to the disco lights and the fact the cops were called not once, but twice! M was moving to a new place so she didn't have a stick of furniture left there (to spill on or break) and all that open floor space which made it perfect for a party. Great bash though and I didn't get home until almost 5am as I stayed late to help M clean up.

 

 


26) Halloween 2002: Jenn's Belmont Party, Thursday Night Tripleheader, and Wirgleyville Pub Crawl (Saturday, October 6 - Saturday, November 2) - The Eight Days of Halloween 2002 was more like the 12 Days of Christmas as the weekends before and after, as well as Halloween itself (on a Thursday this year) were all utilized as designated party days. Started off on Saturday #1 with JJ's party on Belmont marking her triumphant return from a two year exile in Green Bay working on Lambeau Field renovations. Another 5:00am return home night. Then the big three party weeknight tear on Thursday which started out at Christy's place on Armitage, then meeting the crew at Halligan, and then moving en masse to Oxygen for the Boogeyman Retro Bash with Tone Loc, who can still belt them out. Let's just say that thank heavens I had the presence of mind to take off from work on Friday. Ended Halloween 2002 with a trip on Saturday #2 to a Wrigleyville pub crawl. What an awesome way to capstone a great week of partyage!

 


27) Sixth Annual PPC 12 Bars of Christmas (Saturday, December 7) - The PPC's Winter Flagship event turned out to be our largest ever. We estimate 327 people turned out for this Lincoln Park classic which started at the Union and wended its way down Halsted to Coyle's, Durkin's, Hidden Shamrock, Peg Leg Sullivan's AliveOne, Corner Pocket, Parkway Tavern, the Gin Mill (we won't talk about BW3 except that they're banned for life)  Irish Eyes (where we lost a lot of folks) and finally the troopers made it to Deja Vu where we danced the night (and early morning away). Click here for event details, post-game commentary or pictures. Thanks to all the bars who took great care of us.  We had a great planning team to help out with this even which included our rookies of the year, Kurt, Jen, Pam, Sophia, and even his Festa-ness himself lent a hand. By the way, who again were these people in the picture, on the left?

 

28) Festa's TBOX7, Treva's Holiday Party & Mahu's Holiday Movies Party. (Saturday, December 14/Sunday, December 15). This has to be the largest pub crawl I have ever seen in my life and preliminary indications are we had over 900 people at this behemoth. Started off at Sheffield's and ended at Slugger's in Wrigleyville. Went "wire-to-wire" for the first time as we deliberately scheduled the PPC's 12 Bars and Festa's TBOX separate dates so we could attend each others' pub crawls. This would not be a disappointment as the start at Sheffield's was a zoo, foreshadowing the sheer carnage that was to follow. Highlights included being part of the VIP contingent for the first time this year and meeting the whole crew of fellow serious pub crawlers that comprise Festa's A-List as well as the fact the Fiesta Cantina renamed our host, "Chris Fiesta" in honor of their own name I guess. The evening ended with a late night appearance at my good friend Treva's annual holiday party at Waveland and Broadway. This has been one of my perennial favorites. The weekend ended the following Sunday at the Meier Wrightwood Castle to revive  a Fuji holiday tradition - the Holiday Movies Party where we partied and viewed such classics as The Year Without a Santa Claus, The Grinch, and A Christmas Story in the company of good friends.
 

Special Achievement Award: Chicago Summer 2002 Street Festivals - Thanks to all those, especially the PPC regulars as well as McKewin's street festival crew of regulars who joined us during the Summer of 2002 for stuff like the Taste of Lincoln Ave. (mentioned earlier), Weed St. Fest (which I think was called something else this year), Old Town Art Fair Fest, St. Michael's Fest (where we first ran into Pam and Sophia) Retro on Roscoe (where we got that awesome balcony Linda's crib), Sheffield Garden Walk (which sometime during the late 90's mutated from a sedate garden tour into a full blow beer-swillin' rock band street festival) and the Party Central SGW halftime show, that Southport Belmont Festival (I still don't know what that one's really called), that thing on Sheffield & Belmont (another lost name) as well as the Addison/Clark fest, and working the beer tent at Guinness Oysterfest and the Old St. Pat's Block Party downtown. Bonus points to those who hit it hard on Sunday (a school night) knowing full well the consequences of their own actions (let's just say the Monday morning after the Sheffield garden walk was no walk in the park). Individually, not all of these would have made the list, but in the aggregate, this would be Top Five material. And again this year, many of us boycotted the Taste of Chicago downtown as "the same thing as last year", "too crowded", "lame music", and the coup de grace - "too 847-y" (the area code, meaning too many Naperville escapees mucking up our City with their strollers and minvans). Don't see many suburbanites at North Halsted Market Days...

There are probably a quite a few other 2002 party events that merit inclusion on this list, however, due to lack of a true numeric scoring system (a BCS-style ranking is in the works for next year - yes we said this last year), some may have slipped through the cracks. Never thought we could ever outdo 2001, but folks, looks like we did! My best to everyone for a wonderful Holiday Season and all here's to an even better 2003!

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