Quintessential Chicago Part 1

Yesterday, I drove out to Oak Park, IL. Oak Park should ring a bell, that of Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1889, he purchased a plot of land on the corner of Chicago and Forest Avenues, at that time right on the edge of the prairie. He built his home in the "prairie style", which emphasized the horizontal and open spaces within the home in contrast the the many Victorians in the area which stressed verticality and "boxes within a bigger box".

The Prairie Style

I took a tour of Wright's home and also his studio, which he added on in 1898. After the tour, I picked up one of those electronic handheld tour guides and took a walking tour through the Oak Park neighboorhood in which Wright designed many homes.

Today, I went for a bike ride along Lake Michigan. Chicago has done a wonderful job of preserving its lakefront as parkland. The highrise apartment towers stand across the street from the beach and are not on the beach itself. There are numerous beaches along the lake and most importantly, a bike path that stretches nearly the entire length of Chicago's city lakeshore.

Alas, the two photos didn't line up, but I biked from 63rd in the South to Devon up north and then back again

The total roundtrip mileage was 32 miles. Thank god it was all flat. I now have more respect for Lance Armstrong, considering I was wiped after a LEISURELY 32 mile ride on flat pavement. There was great scenery along the way: The University of Chicago, the newly renovated Soldier Field, the McCormick Convention Center, Grant Park, Navy Pier, Oak Street Beach and Lincoln Park just to name some of the highlights.

I think I'll bike this again next week.

The power of the blog.......

I have mentioned to more than one of you how this blog has fundamentally changed my relationship with my Mother. BIG SHOUT OUT TO MOM, who is reading this. Everyone who is not my Mom reading this, give a round of applause to my Mom!! Anyway, because I post what is happening on this trip (as well as pictures) my Mom reads this and then I don't have to get all frustrated trying to explain things on the phone to her. You see, as must happen when you get older because it's happening to me, when I tell her things she gets names and events all mixed up and I just want to go NUTS when I try tell her stuff. Now she has it all in front of her and when I talk to her on the phone she is already briefed on the events and so our conversations are much less hostile (me being hostile) and more civilized. We can get past all the descriptive stuff and talk about what she thinks and what is going on at home. The blog has taken my conversations and relationship with Mom to a new level.

So....in these new conversations, my Mom tells me something that indicates the apocolypse is upon us. My Mother is a pretty fair dyed-in-the wool Republican. She told me this morning that she went to go see Fahrenheit 9/11, of her own accord by herself. I almost fell out of my chair.

Oh my god, after all these conversations with you all, I guess I HAVE to see Fahrenheit 9/11.

You know when you are getting old....

When a student you taught is now a senior at Northwestern, 21 years old and taking you out to show you the bars on Halsted Street. Umm, yeah, that's what happened last night. Evan B. (I made him show me his California Drivers Liscense before going anywhere) is spending his summer here in Chicago taking summer school classes. He's also in a production of Fiddler on the Roof in a western suburb. I will be seeing the show next week. We had a good time it's nice to know that I can hang with 21 year olds and they still want to hang with me. Granted, Evan is one of kind, but I met a bunch of his friends and connected. Some SCANDALOUS things happened, but again as the saying goes, "what happens in the Vegas, stays in the Vegas."

My troubled relationship with art

Tuesdays at the Art Institute of Chicago are free thanks to the Ford Foundation. So I trekked downtown to take it in, because, well, it is one of the must see's in the great city of Chicago.

The Art Institute of Chicago

Now, as the title of the post states, I have a tenuous relationship with art. First, I have just realized that art and museums aren't the same thing. Right, right (I'm having an epiphany as I write this) museums are locations dedicated to displaying whatever. Art is, well, art. Sometimes, museums don't necessarily display art. I got it. This makes it all better for me. I've always wondered why there are things in museums I'm totally uninterested in. Now I realize that those things I am uninterested in, isn't necessarily my dislike of art, it's just that stuff I'm not into. Oh, it makes so much sense now.

By the way, I only worked my way through the bottom two floors of the Art Institute on this day. I am saving the special exhibit on Seurat and the third floor for next Tuesday's visit. So the following are comments I wrote down as I walked through the museum. These are my impressions, thoughts, feelings, insecurities, contradictions......take them in whatever vein you want. You may NOT however, think of me as a freak.

"I like nature paintings especially ones that have exaggerated and perhaps unrealistic portrayals of sunlight"

"I like to see furniture as art, probably because I like the function of furniture" but I'll contradict myself right away by saying "I find the drawing and decorative stuff on plates, cups and the like totally boring". I guess I like shape and form, but I am not so interested in the decorative aspect. This makes sense in my lack of desire to decorate my own home.

"I find museums overwhelming because there is SO much to look at that I walk into a room and am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that I can't look just at one thing"

"I like Greek amphoras because I remember how cool I thought that was back in my Art History class in college. Since I had some reference and understanding of it, it came alive. But when I don't have that background, I can't give the displays context and so they aren't interesting to me."

"European Decorative Arts? BLLLEEECCHHHH!!! Who cares about the drawings and decorations on plates, vases, horses and most of all religious figures and icons. Jewelry and coins also fall into this category."

"Way too much religion. Buddhas, Egyptian gods, Jesus and all the Western people......"

"I was blown AWAY by a painting by a woman named La Jaune. It was acrylic lines (it truly looked like silly string) on a lime green background. It initially looked like one of those stupid modern day paintings where someone just threw paint at a canvas and called it art. But after 10 seconds of looking at it, what was revealed was that the "silly string" were pictures of women in poses taken from pornographic magazines. All of a sudden there was a deeper understanding for this piece. I guess this is what art is about. It's having the viewer see something beyond the initial response and seeing more."

The highlight though was seeing these two paintings in person

Woman and Child

American Gothic

I knew these two paintings from the childhood game Masterpiece. Now here I was standing right in front of them. So cool.

After the museum I went to eat at a place called Russian Tea Time.

Russian Tea Time Restaurant

I had borscht for the first time ever. The russian dumplings were good, but very similar to the boiled pot stickers my mom makes. The service was quite surly.

Luck and Serendipity

For those of you who are regular readers of the blog, I have subjected you all to horrifically blurry pictures due to my dropping the camera in the sand on the second day of the trip. Sorry about that. I've been taking pictures off the web of late and blatantly posting them right online to illustrate my trip without giving any credit. Since I am going to be in Chicago for three weeks, I plan on getting the camera fixed. I went online to find an authorized Canon repair location and LO and BEHOLD, the manufacturers repair center is right here in a suburb called Elk Grove Village, just west of O'Hare. I drove out (getting to listen to Independence Day) along the way and the nice front desk guy looked at my paperwork and told me it was still under warranty. I opted NOT to tell him about my dropping it, so let's hope I pull this off and get the camera repaired for free.

As I was driving back from Elk Grove Village, I pulled off at a Target to buy new swim goggles. But right next to the Target is the Vienna beef factory, which I believe also makes the famed Vienna Sausages. Now, the reason that this factory was on my brain was that I had heard an NPR story (sorry I couldn't find the archive on the NPR site) about this new factory and that when they moved from South Side Chicago to North Side Chicago they had difficulty replicating the color of the sausage and they finally figured out that the difference between the two factories was one worker, who did one special task that didn't move to work at the North Side factory. Once they figured that out the sausage colors were the same. Anyway, I wanted to take a factory tour, but they don't have one. Bummer. However, they do have a lunch counter and I had a great Polish Sausage hot dog. Yum.

To bore you to death, I bought a new pair or athletic shoes. I've been wearing them, but learned that I can't tie them too tight for some reason, so I think they look weird on my feet. I also purchased (for half off) a pair of more formal flip-flops. I hate to admit, but I'm becoming a fan of the toe thong flip-flop even though I've been harping on students of mine for wearing them. I just won't wear them to school.

Another bonus is that I've found a pool to swim at. Leah and Rich's loft lies right by the University of Illinois-Chicago and I went online and found out they have a pool that has lap swim twice a day. $7 is a bit steep, but it's nice to get the exercise.

Monday night had me go to the Armando Diaz Experience. which is an improv show. According to the young woman seated next to me, I watched "long form" improv where the characters recur and keep developing. "Short form" improv, as seen on "Who's Line is it Anyway" is where they play games and have more skit based comedy. I enjoyed it, but I could take it or leave it.

The highlight of the evening was "SHOW TUNES" night at a bar in Boystown called Sidetrack. From Ethel Merman to Hairspray, I was singing along with the crowd the entire evening. I'll be going back next Monday.

Feedback

So, I got a couple emails today that are relevant to my trip and the postings on the blog. A first email came from my friend Catherine V-S (yes, that's her name) who was Michelle B's roommate at Cornell for four years. I, unfortunately, did not get a chance to see her during my New England swing and I apparently drove within 15 minutes of her home in Housatonic, MA in Western Massachusetts. My apologies to Catherine. Here's a picture of her and Joe's one year old, Leo. Leo was born within a couple weeks of Raymond B (featured in an earlier blog posting). So to give my friends children equal billing, here he is....




Leonardo S

Catherine did say there was a silver lining in my not actually visiting because she was not sure she wanted her parenting skills commented on and compared to either Michelle's or Andy's. You take the good with the bad.

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Here's what my friend Megan Maxwell retorted about my statement of being "hip"


"you still aren't cool.

Take it from one who has been uncool her whole life. The very idea of glorying in your uncoolness to affirm your hip status is the very epitome (pronounced ep-i-TOME) of uncoolness.

No, I've never read the DaVinci Code. Am I cool? No, I just don't read books by men. Did I get Harry Potter on the first day? Yes. Am I uncool? Probably, but it's a really good story.

You can choose to follow a crowd, whichever crowd, and define yourself as "cool". Or you can do your own thing. And then, as the immortal Crash Davis says: "people will think you're interesting."

Besides, if you suddenly got cool, we couldn't be friends anymore."
Enough said.

Here's why I'm TOTALLY hip

I was reading the Indianapolis Star (quality equal to The San Francisco Chronicle to give you a gauge) and came across this story. It totally validates why I am SO COOL. Come on, click on the link and read the article. Honestly, it's totally worth it!!!!

I finished The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver on tape. I loved it and I have heard from friends that this is not her best book in the least. I am really excited to read/listen to some of her other books. The book I am now listening to is:

1995 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Richard Ford

I am already hooked by the end of the first side and I'm actually kind of sad that I won't be driving the roads for long stretches at a time to listen to the book. Don't be surprised to see me sitting in the car these next couple weeks just listening to the book!

I'm stalking Peter Sagal!!

The last day of "furniture" camp was a flurry of activity and then all of a sudden, in the last couple hours, everything came together and what seemed to be a hopeless mess of random pieces came together and made the frame of a CHAIR. What was particularly touching and great about the chair class, was that our class found out that one of our members, Terry from Tennessee, suffers from mid-stage leukemia. His chair is his legacy to his family. He has always wanted to do something like this and so he came with no experience and in six days created his own handmade chair. Powerful! The chair is now in flat pieces in the back of the Subaru. I also loaded the blanket chest in the car as well.

This morning, I awoke at 6AM to drive to Chicago. Many of you are probably wondering why I got up so EARLY when I could have slept in. Most of you know that earlier this year I was a call in contestant on the NPR show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and am a HUGE HUGE fan.

Before I left San Francisco, I checked into getting tickets to a taping of the show since I knew that it was produced by Chicago Public Radio. I learned that there was going to be a free taping this morning, July 18th, at 10:30AM. Therefore, I had to BOOGIE to get to Chicago in time. I made it.

Now here is the twist. The reason there was a taping of the show for free was because it was being taped in the new Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's brand new Millenium Park. The park is on Michigan Avenue. The kicker is this...

The Pritzker Pavilion was designed by Frank Gehry

Yeah, it's quite a piece of architecture. The Pritzker was my first experience with a Gehry design and it certainly is great. The park is not that large, but it is divided into different areas and esplanades. But the Pritzker Pavilion is the main focus. It is an outdoor ampitheatre with seating in a bowl and a lawn behind.

The show was great. I have a crush on Peter Sagal, but as the show ended, I learned, alas, he's married with three daughters. BUMMER. The three guest were Sue Ellicott, Roy Blount Jr. (both regulars) and Richard Roeper (of Ebert partnership fame). Roeper was HILARIOUS and looking quite cute from where I was sitting. Perhaps he plays in my sandbox?????? But I will always belong to Peter Sagal, as he is the wittiest man on radio. It's probably a good thing that he's balding and not all that attractive because then I'd REALLY be depressed he was married with kids.

The show went smoothly but at the end they had to re-tape some segments and Sagel asked us to wait around. Whatever Peter Sagal asks of me, Peter Sagal gets. After they cleaned up the glitches, Peter (we're on first name basis now) thanked the crowd of 4,000 for coming out and then asked us to sing Happy Birthday to his one-year old daughter. He had it taped and promised to play it to her when she was older.

As I left the Pritzker, I walked over the Gehry designed pedestrian bridge linking Millenium Park to Grant Park. This is the ONLY Gehry designed bridge in the world. I also listed to some opera in the park and then I looked at this display called "The Millenium Family". This photographer went around the world around the turn of the millenium and took photos of different familes. It was a nice display, BUT I do have to take issue with the fact that there were all heterosexual familes. Hmmm, I think she missed the boat on that one.

So, you are all probably wondering what I am doing in Chicago? This is my chance to kick up my heels for a couple weeks, in the "City of Broad Shoulders". For the next two weeks, I'll be staying in the loft of my friends Leah and Rich. A BIG SHOUT OF OF THANKS TO LEAH AND RICH. It is in an area of Chicago which I think is equivalent of SOMA in San Francisco. It is just off downtown (to the West) and all these old buildings are being converted into lofts and condos. There is a Starbucks two blocks from where I am, so you know it's gentrified or well on its way.

I plan on "living" in Chicago. Seeing the sights but also, sleeping, watching tv and walking around. I'll be in this mode until the 31st of July. August 1-7, I am attending a conference on teaching Economics being held on the campus of UI-Chicago, which is a mere ten minute walk from the loft, therefore, I don't have to stay in the dorms. So, this is my home for the next three weeks!!!

Off to do some grocery shopping. See? Living in Chicago.