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I wouldn't mind running around in that fountain. It's October 7, and I went out today in shorts and sandals. For a while there, I seriously considered turning on the air conditioning. I did turn it on in the car when I went out. But at least I'm not crazy. Like those marathon runners. The Chicago Marathon was today, and they ended it early. One man died, and over 300 were sent to hospital, some in critical condition. I understand that these folks have trained and planned for months for this run, but you'd think common sense would prevail.
As usual, the Marathon meant road closures and bus re-routes. So I nixed the thought of going up to the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's their 40th anniversary this year, and they are having "Forty Free Days" with all kinds of events. There was an outdoor concert today in conjunction with the exhibit, "Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967". It would have been fun, but not so much fun that I wanted to deal with the traffic mess. And I can see the exhibit any time.
I also passed on going to the Checkerboard tonight. I was a bit headachey, and while it's not bad, it's such that I didn't think a bar, even a non-smoky one, was the best place to spend the evening.
Yesterday, I was a bit of a busy bee. I went to the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference's book sale in the morning (went again today, and will go tomorrow - they drop the prices each day!), and in the afternoon I went to hear Alice Waters speak (she's promoting a new book, which I didn't buy). I don't know. She seems awfully self-righteous and unaware. I completely agree with her that fast food sucks, and that we need to eat good food, locally-grown. For many people, however, that is easier said than done. Her visit was sponsored by the Green City Market, which I love, but it struck me that GCM is in an area of the city where people can get good produce, and a good variety of it, in their local supermarkets. (And it's not inexpensive either.) There are other, poorer parts of the city where the supermarkets have lousy produce. And the people who shop there do not have the time, money or transportation to go to Yuppie-ville and buy at GCM. Nor is it easy for a single parent working two minimum-wage jobs, living from paycheck to paycheck, to avoid feeding the kids MacDonald's or packaged meals a good part of the time. The problem Waters wants to address is very much intertwined with other problems, but she doesn't seem to recognize that. Edible schoolyards are a lovely thought, but, as I said to my sister, schools will devote time to students growing and cooking their own food when it shows up on standardized testing! She can talk Daley into trying this program at six schools, sure. That's easier for him to do than paying teachers a decent salary, cutting class size, and getting politics out of the schools.
Okay, end of that rant.
So then I went to a reception at the South Side Community Art Center, where my neighbor, a clay artist, is having a show. It's a marvelous show, too. After that, I went to the season's first Newberry Consort concert, The Shakespeare Songbook, all music from, or mentioned in, Shakespeare's plays. The pre-concert lecture by Ross Duffin was really interesting, because he talked about how just a word or phrase in a play referring to a popular ballad would conjure up to the audience a whole world of meaning that we, of course, can't begin to imagine. Made me realize that, however "timeless" we consider his plays, we miss a lot of Shakespeare's meaning because we aren't of his time.
One of the kids on the first floor has acquired a pogo stick! I hear this rhythmic, light pounding sound, and looked outside, and there she was, jumping up and down. Well, there are worse things she could be doing.
As usual, the Marathon meant road closures and bus re-routes. So I nixed the thought of going up to the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's their 40th anniversary this year, and they are having "Forty Free Days" with all kinds of events. There was an outdoor concert today in conjunction with the exhibit, "Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967". It would have been fun, but not so much fun that I wanted to deal with the traffic mess. And I can see the exhibit any time.
I also passed on going to the Checkerboard tonight. I was a bit headachey, and while it's not bad, it's such that I didn't think a bar, even a non-smoky one, was the best place to spend the evening.
Yesterday, I was a bit of a busy bee. I went to the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference's book sale in the morning (went again today, and will go tomorrow - they drop the prices each day!), and in the afternoon I went to hear Alice Waters speak (she's promoting a new book, which I didn't buy). I don't know. She seems awfully self-righteous and unaware. I completely agree with her that fast food sucks, and that we need to eat good food, locally-grown. For many people, however, that is easier said than done. Her visit was sponsored by the Green City Market, which I love, but it struck me that GCM is in an area of the city where people can get good produce, and a good variety of it, in their local supermarkets. (And it's not inexpensive either.) There are other, poorer parts of the city where the supermarkets have lousy produce. And the people who shop there do not have the time, money or transportation to go to Yuppie-ville and buy at GCM. Nor is it easy for a single parent working two minimum-wage jobs, living from paycheck to paycheck, to avoid feeding the kids MacDonald's or packaged meals a good part of the time. The problem Waters wants to address is very much intertwined with other problems, but she doesn't seem to recognize that. Edible schoolyards are a lovely thought, but, as I said to my sister, schools will devote time to students growing and cooking their own food when it shows up on standardized testing! She can talk Daley into trying this program at six schools, sure. That's easier for him to do than paying teachers a decent salary, cutting class size, and getting politics out of the schools.
Okay, end of that rant.
So then I went to a reception at the South Side Community Art Center, where my neighbor, a clay artist, is having a show. It's a marvelous show, too. After that, I went to the season's first Newberry Consort concert, The Shakespeare Songbook, all music from, or mentioned in, Shakespeare's plays. The pre-concert lecture by Ross Duffin was really interesting, because he talked about how just a word or phrase in a play referring to a popular ballad would conjure up to the audience a whole world of meaning that we, of course, can't begin to imagine. Made me realize that, however "timeless" we consider his plays, we miss a lot of Shakespeare's meaning because we aren't of his time.
One of the kids on the first floor has acquired a pogo stick! I hear this rhythmic, light pounding sound, and looked outside, and there she was, jumping up and down. Well, there are worse things she could be doing.
