Insane culture maven here!
Nov. 10th, 2008 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mojosmomI had a crazy busy weekend, the last weekend of the Chicago Humanities Festival, plus a couple of other events. But so worth it! I figured I'd relax this week, so what happens? Today I get an email from the Harris Theatre, informing me that all, repeat all, tickets to the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra's concert tomorrow night, in honor of the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, are $5, AND ticket fees are waived. I just paid $5 for what would have been a $120 ticket (which may explain the dearth of sales!).
So if there are any Chicagoans reading this, go here. Promotional code is 3381.
Friday night, I went to the annual dinner of the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, honoring a local attorney who does a lot of federal white collar criminal defense. Place was packed, food was good. What more can you ask?
IACDL Board meeting the next morning, but I had to leave early to get to the Newberry Library to hear Laurence Bergreen talk about Marco Polo. Then down to the Art Institute, where I browsed a bit in the gift shop before going to a concert by Ars Antigua, entitled "The Birth of Opera", with much Monteverdi, et al, introduced by Brian Dickie of the Chicago Opera Theatre. After that, I caught a bus up to Northwestern University Law School, to hear Hon. Frank Easterbrook (7th Circuit Court of Appeals), Lawrence Tribe (Harvard Law School) and Geoffrey Stone (University of Chicago Law School) talk about the Constitution. Stone and Tribe are both advising the new president, so they declined, when ask, to speculate on future Supreme Court appointments, although Stone, not, I think, jokingly, told Easterbrook that he wouldn't suggest his name. (Easterbrook is generally considered a conservative jurist.)
Went home and did laundry because I was rapidly running out of clean clothes!
Yesterday was even crazier. I went to the Newberry in the morning to hear Ronald Mallett, physics professor at the University of Connecticut, talk about time travel. If anyone has millions and would like to back his construction of a time machine, he'd like to hear from you.
Now, I had a ticket to hear Rebecca Goldstein at the Spertus Institute at 2:00. But a couple of days ago, I'd gotten an announcement for half-price tickets to Richard Danielpour's opera, Margaret Garner (libretto by Toni Morrison). I had wanted to go, but it was a tad expensive, so this was a real temptation. And I succumbed. Fortunately, the theatre is literally a block-and-a-half from Spertus, so I heard Goldstein on "Modern Philosophy and the Rise of Secularism", and left 15 minutes early to get to the Auditorium Theatre with time to read the program. Since this run was the first time in 65 years that there's been grand opera at the Auditorium, that was added incentive! As far as the opera itself is concerned, the voices, particularly Patrick Blackwell as Robert Garner and Karen Slack as Cilla, were excellent. The music was a bit trite at times, but Danielpour uses a lot of influences, and overall it's quite a powerful piece of work. Following the performance, there was a post-show discussion, which I stayed for part of. But then I had to leave to go a couple of blocks down to the Merle Reskin Theatre for the closing performance of the Humanities Festival, Klea Blackhurst's tribute to Ethel Merman, "Everything the Traffic Will Allow". Fantastic!
Then I went home and was tired. ;-))
So if there are any Chicagoans reading this, go here. Promotional code is 3381.
Friday night, I went to the annual dinner of the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, honoring a local attorney who does a lot of federal white collar criminal defense. Place was packed, food was good. What more can you ask?
IACDL Board meeting the next morning, but I had to leave early to get to the Newberry Library to hear Laurence Bergreen talk about Marco Polo. Then down to the Art Institute, where I browsed a bit in the gift shop before going to a concert by Ars Antigua, entitled "The Birth of Opera", with much Monteverdi, et al, introduced by Brian Dickie of the Chicago Opera Theatre. After that, I caught a bus up to Northwestern University Law School, to hear Hon. Frank Easterbrook (7th Circuit Court of Appeals), Lawrence Tribe (Harvard Law School) and Geoffrey Stone (University of Chicago Law School) talk about the Constitution. Stone and Tribe are both advising the new president, so they declined, when ask, to speculate on future Supreme Court appointments, although Stone, not, I think, jokingly, told Easterbrook that he wouldn't suggest his name. (Easterbrook is generally considered a conservative jurist.)
Went home and did laundry because I was rapidly running out of clean clothes!
Yesterday was even crazier. I went to the Newberry in the morning to hear Ronald Mallett, physics professor at the University of Connecticut, talk about time travel. If anyone has millions and would like to back his construction of a time machine, he'd like to hear from you.
Now, I had a ticket to hear Rebecca Goldstein at the Spertus Institute at 2:00. But a couple of days ago, I'd gotten an announcement for half-price tickets to Richard Danielpour's opera, Margaret Garner (libretto by Toni Morrison). I had wanted to go, but it was a tad expensive, so this was a real temptation. And I succumbed. Fortunately, the theatre is literally a block-and-a-half from Spertus, so I heard Goldstein on "Modern Philosophy and the Rise of Secularism", and left 15 minutes early to get to the Auditorium Theatre with time to read the program. Since this run was the first time in 65 years that there's been grand opera at the Auditorium, that was added incentive! As far as the opera itself is concerned, the voices, particularly Patrick Blackwell as Robert Garner and Karen Slack as Cilla, were excellent. The music was a bit trite at times, but Danielpour uses a lot of influences, and overall it's quite a powerful piece of work. Following the performance, there was a post-show discussion, which I stayed for part of. But then I had to leave to go a couple of blocks down to the Merle Reskin Theatre for the closing performance of the Humanities Festival, Klea Blackhurst's tribute to Ethel Merman, "Everything the Traffic Will Allow". Fantastic!
Then I went home and was tired. ;-))
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Date: 2008-11-10 09:41 pm (UTC)Me, I could go tomorrow (apart from the lack of money thing), but Kerri doesn't get the same chance at holidays that I do. But rest assured, we'll be there and go and be busy doing a fraction of the things you do in an average weekend.
Now, about this time machine:
If anyone has millions and would like to back his construction of a time machine, he'd like to hear from you.
Obviously a poor investment, because if it ever worked, he'd come back with a few hot stock tips and the thing would not only fund itself, it would be a wild money generator.
Then I went home and was tired. ;-))
Date: 2008-11-11 09:24 am (UTC)What a wonderful weekend you had. A feast of culture.