mojosmom

It's been a crazy, busy week, but in a good way. I've been to the Symphony, unexpectedly, twice. Tuesday night was my regular subscription night, and on Thursday, I got a call from a friend, who had another friend who couldn't use her tickets. So I benefited. Bernard Haitink conducted both nights; Tuesday was Schumann, Mozart and Brahms, while Thursday was Mahler's 9th Symphony. I usually sit on the main floor, but on Thursday I sat on the Terrace level, which is above and behind the orchestra. I'd never sat there before, and it's great, obviously, for watching the conductor, but it's very weird to be looking at the rest of the audience!

On Wednesday, I went to Glessner House,

for an event celebrating the 125th anniversary of its building. It was designed by H.H. Richardson, and is on what was once Chicago's "Millionaire's Row", where folks like Marshall Field lived. The neighbors did not entirely approve of Richardson's aesthetic. Many of the beautiful mansions have been razed, and Glessner House was in danger, but was saved and restored, was the original home of what was then the Chicago School of Architecture Foundation (it has since dropped the "School"), and is now open to visitors. The Glessner's great-grandson re-created the groundbreaking, there was an enjoyable talk about the world, and Chicago, in 1886, and food and drink.

On Friday, I took the afternoon off from work to go to the Art Institute for a donor event introducing the new Japanese galleries (they've actually been open several months, though). There was a nice tea service (western, not Japanese) and the associate curator of Japanese art spoke. Then those who wanted (which, of course, included me) went to the galleries and the curator was available to answer questions.

The new African and American Indian galleries had just opened that day, so I had a browse. They aren't completely installed - the objects are all there, but the descriptive cards aren't, so I will need to go back to find out what everything is! (And, not incidentally, have my camera with me.)

This weekend, the first in June, is always a favorite, because it's the Printers Row Lit Fest, and the 57th Street Art Fair and the Hyde Park Community Art Fair (which are right next to each other). I did the Lit Fest yesterday, first going to hear Colm Tóibín and Belinda McKeon, and then wandering the stalls to buy books. It was horribly hot, so I didn't stay as long as I might have otherwise, but I did manage to pick up several books. Not as many as these folks, though:


Today was cooler, a really perfect day for breakfast and the Sunday paper on the back porch, and then wandering around a couple of art fairs.

The Chicago Public Library hosted an author reading with Audrey Niffenegger on Thursday to promote her new book, The Night Bookmobile, a graphic novel about a woman who encounters a mysterious bookmobile containing everything she's ever read in life. Audrey had used photographs to create the images, but technical glitches prevented her from showing them. Instead, she read the short story on which the Guardian serial, which became the book, was based. This is actually the first installment of a larger work to be called The Library.

I stopped on the way home from work on Friday to pick up a pizza, and ran into a woman I know from the Friends of the Library. She was posting signs for a multi-family yard sale, so I went over there Saturday morning and picked up a couple of things. One person was selling two of the exact same Lenox silverplate/crystal cake slicers, obviously multiple wedding gifts, and both obviously unused. I expect one could fill several warehouses with things people thought they wanted, received and then never used.

I went over to the farmers' market then, and dashed around buying what I needed before the skies opened. It kept getting darker and darker, and just as I hopped in the car to head home, the rains came. While I was there, I stopped at the Blackstone Bicycle Works to drop off a donation. They had a fire and lost a lot of the bikes they were working on. A real shame, but they are working hard to come back from it.

In the afternoon, I went to Navy Pier for the Italian Expo. It was quite a bit smaller than the last time I attended, which was a couple of years ago, with far fewer merchants from Italy. A lot of good food, though, and distributors/retailers of Italian food. I picked up a lot of tourist literature, and watched a fashion show with several local designers, some good, some not so good (just as on Project Runway, a couple of designers were overly enamored with visible zippers and man panties). I very much liked the work of one designer who was influenced by Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons, and another who did painted and dyed silk:


Yesterday was the annual 57th Street Children's Book Fair, and I went over for a couple of hours to help staff the Friends of the Library table. We were right near the stage where the Hyde Park School of Dance was performing. There was also a woman doing amazing things with hula hoops:

I couldn't manage one for more than a minute or so when I was a kid!

I had wanted to go to Millennium Park for the Chicago Symphony concert, but I was feeling headachey, and figured I would not enjoy it. So I bagged it. Naturally, the headache went away when it was too late to head down there. Too bad, but I still have my subscription!

Yesterday, I went to a BookCrossing Meet-up. I hadn't been to one in a long time, as the closest is in Evanston, a suburb just north of Chicago, and it's not an easy trek from where I work. However, a BookCrosser from India had posted in the forums that she was visiting Chicago and, among other things, wanted to go to a Meet-up. I told her about this one, and she said she was going, at which point I rather felt that if she could come all the way from Delhi (via Clarendon Hills), I could come from Wheaton! I'm glad I did, because it was fun, I picked up a couple of books, and I found Prathi to be a very interesting young woman. She's in her second year of law school, and wants eventually to come to the States for an LL.M. in Human Rights Law.

This evening, there was a book event at my local library. Rebecca Janowitz was discussing her book, Culture of opportunity : Obama's Chicago : the people, politics, and ideas of Hyde Park. It was an excellent talk. She's obviously very knowledgeable on the subject, and is an articulate and amusing speaker. Of course, she was speaking to an audience that was also familiar with the subject. She began by saying that when she spoke to Hyde Park audiences, she talked more about the process of writing the book than the content, because she knew they'd all be thinking, "well, we've read that, you don't have to tell us again." Naturally, I bought the book.

So, it begins. Two weekends of (practically) non-stop lectures, concerts, readings, panel discussions, and all variety of interesting things. Saturday was a bit crazy as I took in four events. First up, a lecture by archaeology professor and superintendent of antiquities of Rome, Adriano La Regina, who talked about (natch) Roman monuments. Next, a bunch of lawyers on the subject of habeas corpus. Both of those were at the Northwestern University School of Law. Then I dashed to the First United Methodist Church to hear Richard Sennett talk about craftsmanship, and then back up north to the Museum of Contemporary Art for a staged reading of poet Yusuf Komunyakaa's version of Gilgamesh.

Sunday was fairly quiet as I went to just one event, a discussion called "Queer Lyrics", with writers Achy Obejas and Mark Doty (got books signed!), moderated by poet C.C. Carter.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to hear Chicago Opera Theatre's performance of John Adams' A Flowering Tree, which is based on an Indian folk tale involving a poor girl who has the ability to transform into a flowering tree. The Storyteller, who narrates, is actually the largest role, and much of the "opera" is really dance with a sung narration. After having seen Nixon in China (also at COT) and Dr. Atomic at Lyric, I've become quite a fan of Adams' work, and I would definitely recommend this one.

The Harris Theatre, where COT performs, is at Millennium Park, so, as the weather was really gorgeous, I went to the Park Grille for an early dinner - any excuse to eat outside! Then I walked over to the Pritzker Pavilion and listened to various ensembles from the Northwestern School of Music for about 45 minutes. (It occurred to me that I did the very same thing last year!)

The reason I didn't stay for the whole concert is that I wanted to get home, feed the cats and then go to a jazz club. The Checkerboard Lounge does jazz on Sunday nights, sponsored by the Hyde Park Jazz Society, and I like going there as it's only a few blocks away. I don't go as often as I'd like, though, primarily because I work on Mondays! Not today, however, so I enjoyed Margaret Murphy (Note: you'll get music when you click the link) singing standards. A lot of jazz musicians come to listen to their colleagues, so she brought a couple up on stage to join her and the ensemble. She's very good!

Music on another day:

On Wednesday, I went to a free concert at the Cultural Center, a jazz artist named Manata Roberts. She and the ensemble played parts of her work in progress, Coin coin, based on the life of her ancestress, Marie Therese "Coin Coin." Powerful stuff.

In Non-musical events:

Saturday was pretty quiet. I went to a new farmers' market that began last week on 61st Street. As I can never get to the one a couple of blocks away (it's on Thursdays, and of course that means I'm at work), and parking at Green City is getting prohibitive, it was nice that there's a neighborhood one on Saturday. It's not huge, but I was able to get lettuces and scallions and asparagus, with plenty of other things available that I didn't need. The lamb purveyor I like was there, and I bought some kebobs which are presently marinating in olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and bay leaves, and the cheese guy had this awesome tart of St. André triple-crème layered with apricots, almonds and honey.

After that, I wandered by a rummage sale given by Meadville-Lombard Theological Seminary. It had been advertised in the local paper as a benefit for "Doctors without Boarders"!! They had books:

but I didn't see any I wanted. I did see a great pair of boots, but the back zipper on one was busted and it would cost more than I want to pay to get them fixed, so I let them lay.

The rest of Saturday was just doing stuff around the house.

On Thursday, I went to an author event at our local library. Former journalist, and current author and bookstore owner, Kenan Heise, wrote a book called Chicago Afternoons with Leon: 99 1/2 years old and looking forward, conversations with former alderman Leon Despres, lawyer, thorn in the side of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, social activist and gadfly. Here's why I like Leon: he was asked about the plan to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016, specifically, the plan to build a stadium in a local park. Said Leon, who is now 100: "If they build a stadium in Washington Park, I'm boycotting the Olympics!"

Naturally, I bought the book.

Oh, and more Croc_Sandwich photos.

As I was driving to work this morning, I heard an announcement on WFMT that Geraldine Brooks was speaking this evening at the Newberry Library. Now, I had heard this a while back, but had completely forgotten about it, as I had assumed that I wouldn't be able to go due to the trial I was supposed to have. So, I decided to go. Of course, it started to snow this afternoon, so I left work about a half-hour earlier than usual. Even so, it took me two hours to get there. However, in a minor miracle, I found a parking spot right on Clark Street, just across from the Newberry, with just enough time to dash into the ladies' room before the talk commenced.

It was quite an interesting, and very sad, talk. She began by showing pictures of the library in Sarajevo in flames. 90% of the collection was destroyed, and the rest was saved by librarians rescuing it under mortar attack. One librarian lost her life in the process. The book is based on the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illuminated manuscript probably dating to mid-14th-century Spain. Little is know of its wanderings. From a marking in the book, we know it was in Venice in 1609. It then appears in Bosnia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1894, in the hands of a poor Jewish family who send it with their son to school, hoping his teacher will know someone who will buy it from them so that they can buy food. It is sent to Vienna for assessment, where vandals rebind it (we don't know what the original binding was, but it was likely valuable) and trim the parchment. It ends up in the Bosnian National Museum. When, during World War II, the Nazis occupy Sarajevo, it is saved from their hands by an Islamic scholar, and spends the war hidden among the Qurans in a village mosque.

Astonishing.

But for the even more astonishing story of the rescuer's family, and what came later, you must read Brooks' recent New Yorker article, which can be found here. (This is a .pdf.)

This was an author event well worth putting up with traffic!

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.

It really was a busy week. I've told you about the plays, and Miss Manners. Here's the rest.

Thursday night, I went to a going-away party for a co-worker who is leaving the office to join a local law firm, but left early to go to a reading at 57th Street Books. Kurt Elling (jazz musician and former neighbor) has published a book of his lyrics, so I thought I should pop in for that. Bought the book, of course!

Friday night, there was a lecture at Columbia College by Julie Chen, of Flying Fish Press. I love her work! After the lecture, I went down to the gallery at the Center for Book and Paper Arts to see the current show, "Reading, Writing & 'rithmetic", all sorts of old writing manuals, alphabet books, etc.

Saturday, my friends and I had what will likely be the last picnic of the season. I went that morning to the Green City Market to buy some veggies for the picnic, and while I was there I found some yummy Concord grapes and some Japanese sweet potatoes. I love the latter. I cut them into bite-size pieces, deep-fry them, toss them in a simple syrup flavored with soy sauce, and sesame seeds. Delish!

Sunday afternoon, I went over to the Hyde Park Art Center. They were having artists' receptions for a couple of exhibits. One was student work, and I didn't much care for most of it, though there were a couple of sketches that I liked. But I really liked the "Plate Convergence" exhibit. It consists of plates done by a local ceramicist, as well as historic plates from the Yamaguchi family. And there's a story! In 1592, the Ri brothers were captured during the pottery wars, and brought their art to Japan. The Yamaguchi family learned the art and have been practicing it ever since. Shoji Yamaguchi heard of the "Black Clay of Itawamba County" in Mississippi, and moved there in mid-50's, later marrying an African-American woman (They were tragically killed in a car crash in Japan in 1986, but their son carries on the tradition). Many of his pieces are specifically designed as containers for traditonal African-American foods, like this collards pot:


Then there was an exhibit that included some very cool altered books and book-like pieces. I liked these whimsical "Fungus Beast Books":


I walked back home via Harold Washington Park, and checked out the boat pond. They've just recently re-opened it with a nice new fountain, but there were only a couple of kids using it. I think it hasn't been re-discovered yet.

other stuff

I talked to my kid sister, who is doing well. She's just started her hormone treatment, and is busily planning a trip to Osaka in October. (Well, she's reading up on Japan, and leaving the planning to the trip organizers!)

Tickets for the Chicago Humanities Festival went on sale to the general public today! YAY! I was surprised, and very pleased, to find that members hadn't glommed onto all the Philip Pullman tickets. I'm going to hear him twice! AND Garry Wills. As well as a performance of Noye's Fludde (unfortunately, not the one at Rockefeller Chapel, because I have a conflict that day), a one-woman show about Hattie McDaniel, a performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with a reading of the sonnets which he wrote, and the closing cabaret concert, featuring songs about the weather! (The theme this year is "The Climate of Concern".) Now you may think that's a lot of stuff, but the fact is that I usually find a lot more events that I want to go to. Oh, well, it saves me juggling and rushing around.

Friday night there was an talk at Casa Italiana about the Lazio region of Italy. Alessandra Visconti, who is from there, talked about it, showed slides, played music, read poetry, and fed us bruschetta and regional wines. A good time was had by all.

Yesterday, I dashed off to the Art Institute for a forum on "Venice: Looking toward the east", about Venice's connections with the Islamic world, primarily, of course, the Ottoman Empire. (One of the speakers, Stefano Carboni, is the guy from the Met who put together the Venice and the Islamic World exhibit; the others were Patricia Fortini Brown from Princeton University and Julian Raby from St. Hugh's College). This was one of the last events in the year-long Silk Road Project. Rather on the academic side, but fascinating, and gorgeous slides!

Then I grabbed a bus and headed to Northwestern University Law School, for a talk by Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement. He spoke in Italian, with an interpreter, but I found I understood nearly everything he said, and laughed at some of his jokes before they were translated. I'm so proud of myself! (Of course, it helped that he spoke relatively slowly.) It was a good talk. Petrini is an enthusiastic advocate for local produce, biodiversity, etc., but he's also very sensible about having the occasional out-of-season mango. And, unlike us impatient Americans who want to solve the problem now (as evidenced by a couple of the questions asked), he understands that change is a process that comes incrementally. A whole raft of people from Casa Italiana classes were there, as well as some of Daniela's DePaul students.

Came home, made a quiche, and finished reading Julia Child's My Life in France (so I guess it was a "foodie" day, too)!