Good times
Sep. 4th, 2006 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mojosmomYesterday, I went to a lovely wedding. All week, the bride (a colleague of mine) has been fretting, because the wedding was outdoors and the forecast had been for rain. But the weather gods cooperated and it was sunny and pleasantly warm into the evening. Both ceremony and reception were at the couple's home. They have a huge amount of land and a big deck. Twenty-eight tables of ten under a large, beautifully decorated tent, with plenty of room for dancing; three buffet stations (Italian, Tex-Mex and a carving station) set up on the lawn, along with several bars, PLUS room for valet parking.
It was the second marriage for both, and Liz has two sons of college age, so it was rather amusing when the priest said, ". . . and when it is God's will, for the procreation of children . . ." and then added, "well, probably not in this case"! Bride looked lovely, groom looked handsome, both were very happy. What more can you ask?
As of the time I left, no one had gotten drunk and fallen into the swimming pool. ;-))
Saturday was good weather, too, so I decided to take in a bit of Jazz Fest. But first I went to the Cultural Center as I've been wanting to see their exhibit of contemporary Japanese bamboo art (Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Bamboo Art), up until September 24. The craftsmanship was amazing. One piece, called "Shimmering of Heated Air", by Tanioka Shigeo, really looked like that, just by the way the pieces of bamboo were woven in juxtaposition to one another. The various artists' use of the imperfections and natural appearance of the wood created some fascinating effects. I did not buy the catalogue, as it was a bit pricey, but it's going on my Wish List!
While I was there, I looked at another exhibit, Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930. I'm glad I did! Quite an interesting variety of styles. Of course, as usual, I was particularly drawn to the Constructivist work. It's up until mid-October, and then moves to New York City's Ukrainian Museum.
I stopped into the Art Institute to pick up tickets to a few of the Silk Road events, a concert, a demonstration of Arabic calligraphy, and a demonstration of tea ceremony. I also really want to go to a reading of the Literature of the Silk Road, but it's at 6:00 on a weekday evening, so the timing is difficult. They're also doing a symposium, Venice: Looking toward the East that I'm going to attend. This is all very organized of me since a couple of these events aren't until May!
As long as I was there, I went to the exhibit, José Guadalupe Posada and the Mexican Broadside. These handbills often featured calaveras, the skeleton figures we know from Day of the Dead observances. The topics range from politics to crime to spoofs to natural disasters. The pieces on exhibit will change in a few weeks, so I'll go back.
I did pick up the catalog for that show. While I was browsing at the AIOC shop, I also got some Christmas cards; they had a lot on sale for $1.99 a box! I also saw some nice ones at the Chicago Architecture Foundation shop, but the line was so huge that I decided to take my chances and go back for them another day.
Then on to Jazz Fest! By this time, I was hungry, so I had a barbecued boneless rib sandwich from Robinson's. There is no tidy way to eat such a sandwich. Surprisingly, however, I managed to do so without getting any sauce on my white blouse. A minor miracle.
[RANT! One thing I truly dislike about the way the City handles the food at these festivals is that they require you to buy tickets to get the food, rather than having the individual vendors handle cash. That wouldn't be so bad, except that you cannot specify the number of tickets you want, but have to buy them in increments of 11. So if you want one item that requires 8 tickets, and another that requires 5, you have to buy 22, even if that means you'll waste the rest. It's very annoying.]
The music, of course, was great. Mostly, I wandered about and just let the music drift over me. But I did sit down at the Jackson Stage to listen to Earma Thompson. They also had some arts and crafts booths with some interesting stuff. One of the guys there is a mask maker, working mostly in leather. I got on his mailing list last year, and had just gotten an announcement of his new show. I may get something from him for Venice.
Came home, and relaxed and watched "Wings of the Dove". It's not Henry James, but I enjoyed it. If the costume designer didn't win an Oscar, he (or she) should have. I kept saying, "What a great hat!", "Ooooh, that's so arts and crafts" or "Ooooooh, is that a Fortuny?", and "I want that dress!" (Just looked at Imdb. It was Sandy Powell, who also did the costume design for, inter alia, Derek Jarman's Edward II, which I love. (Tilda Swinton as Queen Isabella). She was nominated, but didn't win. Pity.)
Rather overcast, so I'm doing stuff at home. I made a decision about a bookbinding project I'm working on. I had two copies of a good paperback illustrated book that I had picked up at the Regenstein Library book sale last year. Both are a bit battered from use, but I figured I could take them apart and make up one good copy to rebind. I just couldn't decide if I was going to do a perfect binding or a case binding. I played around a bit today with the not-so-good copy and have decided to go for a case binding.
In the "cats are weird" department: I have a cream-colored area rug in the living room which desperately needed cleaning. So I did that this morning. Now, that means, of course, that it's damp! But for whatever reason, Lilith decided that it would be a good idea to curl up in the middle of it! While it was still damp!
I'm going to make a mushroom quiche for dinner. I'm so glad that eggs are no longer bad for us. (Isn't it amusing how what's good and bad changes over time?)
It was the second marriage for both, and Liz has two sons of college age, so it was rather amusing when the priest said, ". . . and when it is God's will, for the procreation of children . . ." and then added, "well, probably not in this case"! Bride looked lovely, groom looked handsome, both were very happy. What more can you ask?
As of the time I left, no one had gotten drunk and fallen into the swimming pool. ;-))
Saturday was good weather, too, so I decided to take in a bit of Jazz Fest. But first I went to the Cultural Center as I've been wanting to see their exhibit of contemporary Japanese bamboo art (Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Bamboo Art), up until September 24. The craftsmanship was amazing. One piece, called "Shimmering of Heated Air", by Tanioka Shigeo, really looked like that, just by the way the pieces of bamboo were woven in juxtaposition to one another. The various artists' use of the imperfections and natural appearance of the wood created some fascinating effects. I did not buy the catalogue, as it was a bit pricey, but it's going on my Wish List!
While I was there, I looked at another exhibit, Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930. I'm glad I did! Quite an interesting variety of styles. Of course, as usual, I was particularly drawn to the Constructivist work. It's up until mid-October, and then moves to New York City's Ukrainian Museum.
I stopped into the Art Institute to pick up tickets to a few of the Silk Road events, a concert, a demonstration of Arabic calligraphy, and a demonstration of tea ceremony. I also really want to go to a reading of the Literature of the Silk Road, but it's at 6:00 on a weekday evening, so the timing is difficult. They're also doing a symposium, Venice: Looking toward the East that I'm going to attend. This is all very organized of me since a couple of these events aren't until May!
As long as I was there, I went to the exhibit, José Guadalupe Posada and the Mexican Broadside. These handbills often featured calaveras, the skeleton figures we know from Day of the Dead observances. The topics range from politics to crime to spoofs to natural disasters. The pieces on exhibit will change in a few weeks, so I'll go back.
I did pick up the catalog for that show. While I was browsing at the AIOC shop, I also got some Christmas cards; they had a lot on sale for $1.99 a box! I also saw some nice ones at the Chicago Architecture Foundation shop, but the line was so huge that I decided to take my chances and go back for them another day.
Then on to Jazz Fest! By this time, I was hungry, so I had a barbecued boneless rib sandwich from Robinson's. There is no tidy way to eat such a sandwich. Surprisingly, however, I managed to do so without getting any sauce on my white blouse. A minor miracle.
[RANT! One thing I truly dislike about the way the City handles the food at these festivals is that they require you to buy tickets to get the food, rather than having the individual vendors handle cash. That wouldn't be so bad, except that you cannot specify the number of tickets you want, but have to buy them in increments of 11. So if you want one item that requires 8 tickets, and another that requires 5, you have to buy 22, even if that means you'll waste the rest. It's very annoying.]
The music, of course, was great. Mostly, I wandered about and just let the music drift over me. But I did sit down at the Jackson Stage to listen to Earma Thompson. They also had some arts and crafts booths with some interesting stuff. One of the guys there is a mask maker, working mostly in leather. I got on his mailing list last year, and had just gotten an announcement of his new show. I may get something from him for Venice.
Came home, and relaxed and watched "Wings of the Dove". It's not Henry James, but I enjoyed it. If the costume designer didn't win an Oscar, he (or she) should have. I kept saying, "What a great hat!", "Ooooh, that's so arts and crafts" or "Ooooooh, is that a Fortuny?", and "I want that dress!" (Just looked at Imdb. It was Sandy Powell, who also did the costume design for, inter alia, Derek Jarman's Edward II, which I love. (Tilda Swinton as Queen Isabella). She was nominated, but didn't win. Pity.)
Rather overcast, so I'm doing stuff at home. I made a decision about a bookbinding project I'm working on. I had two copies of a good paperback illustrated book that I had picked up at the Regenstein Library book sale last year. Both are a bit battered from use, but I figured I could take them apart and make up one good copy to rebind. I just couldn't decide if I was going to do a perfect binding or a case binding. I played around a bit today with the not-so-good copy and have decided to go for a case binding.
In the "cats are weird" department: I have a cream-colored area rug in the living room which desperately needed cleaning. So I did that this morning. Now, that means, of course, that it's damp! But for whatever reason, Lilith decided that it would be a good idea to curl up in the middle of it! While it was still damp!
I'm going to make a mushroom quiche for dinner. I'm so glad that eggs are no longer bad for us. (Isn't it amusing how what's good and bad changes over time?)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-04 09:54 pm (UTC)I don't know if I mentioned it, I won't be able to attend in October, and I'm going to put my hands over my ears and wail while everyone else tells me about J&R's wedding.
But one day I'll get there, and for more than just a half hour at O'Hare!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-04 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 01:24 am (UTC)(((hugs)))
no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 02:32 am (UTC):(
But we understand.
:)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-05 04:31 am (UTC)