This afternoon I watched base jumpers glide down from the Trump Towers from the vantage point of my nearby 18th floor office. I looked down onto Michigan Avenue, and it was bumper to bumper for blocks. I watched taxis flip illegal u-turns on Wacker after being stuck in the same spot for five minutes. The scene was accompanied by a soundtrack of what sounded like fake machine guns blasting. It was a city under a siege. Even it was only make-believe chaos, the drama in Chicago this weekend was most certainly real.
Since Friday, one of the busiest Chicago city strips has been, er, transformed into car-crashing, parachute jumping, bomb-exploding mayhem fit only for an action hero. Last night the cast and crew of Transformers 3 were scheduled to wrap up filming on location in Chicago, but this morning on my way to work, the production was still going full force. As I waited endlessly on the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive to cross the street on my way to work, I watched one man thrust his briefcase in the face of a crossing guard. “I have to get to work,” he bellowed. So did I, but I was afraid of getting run over by a tank.
Yes, it was surreal to see styrofoam debris lining the poshest street in the city, but perhaps the strangest thing about it all was how quickly normalcy set in. In an era when reality t.v. film crews are welcomed into our most private spaces, why should it seem strange for a massive production to invade public streets? The line between reality and fantasy is becoming increasingly blurred on micro levels that a large scale movie set that alters an entire city doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. Video games that simulate war, avatars in virtual worlds taken more seriously than real life, virtual identities vs. real self and of course – when will everyday life feel like a movie set?
So why shouldn’t we suspend our lives for the sake of high drama? Edited reality – the snippets we see on reality t.v. based on a preconceived narrative – give the false impression that life
“Boy, I sure hope Chicago is getting a lot of money for this,” said a man behind me.
20 million, to be exact. But is it worth it? At this point, I’m not quite sure. I’m taking to the streets tomorrow to see what Chicagoans think.