mojosmom

I was a good girl and voted today. The judicial ballot was annoyingly long as usual, and I spent inordinate amounts of time on the web reading the various bar association and judicial commission reports trying to figure out who to vote for. The one race I chose not to vote in was for our Congressman. The incumbent is someone whose positions I generally agree with. However, he is suffering from a depressive disorder that has required multiple hospitalizations. While I certainly don't think that illness of any sort should be an automatic reason to vote against someone, in this case it has interfered with his ability to perform his duties, and I was also very unhappy with the way he and his staff handled the disclosure of his situation to his constituents. He had two opponents, one a Republican whose positions - where he actually disclosed them - are the opposite of mine, and the other an independent candidate who can't put together a coherent sentence. (He also has a really annoying website and misuses quotation marks constantly.) So I sat that one out.

I plan to spend election night watching the returns in the hotly-contested race in 14th-century Genoa between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. (I'm seeing Simon Boccanegra at Lyric.) Also keeping an eye on traffic as the Prez is in town, and what I hope will be the celebration is to be at the McCormick Place convention center, right on my way home from the opera.

Has it really been two months since I posted last? Apparently so. I will not even attempt to say what all I've been doing. But a few brief highlights are in order.

Our local branch library, the oldest in the city, participated in the Open House Chicago program, a weekend during which historically and architecturally significant buildings are open to the public free of charge. I organized the volunteers to staff the branch, and had a lot of fun. Then I went and checked out several other places that were open, places that normally aren't.


Some friends and I went up to Wisconsin a couple of weekends ago to check out the new Sir Norman Foster-designed building at S.C. Johnson company (famous for their Frank Lloyd Wright administration building). We drove by a couple of other FLW buildings in Racine, went to the Racine Art Museum, and then headed to Kenosha to the Kenosha Public Museum and dinner at a very good, upscale Italian restaurant. We had a great, if tiring, time.

This past Sunday, I went to one of the Chicago Humanities Festival events, "The Making of an American Opera", about the opera Lyric has commissioned based on Ann Patchett's book, Bel Canto. The composer and lyricist were discussing their collaboration, how the commission came about, etc. All quite interesting. Later the same day, I saw Beppe Severgnini's documentary Portland 2 Portland: A Political Train Journey Across America. Afterwards, Severgnini and two of the crew talked about the trip and some of the technical challenges of filming on a train.

I've also been to a couple of plays, some concerts, and some art exhibits.

Non-cultural stuff: a new coffeehouse opened across the street from me. I can recommend their carrot cake.

ART

In January, 1904, the Chicago Public Library's first branch library opened. The T.B. Blackstone branch was built from funds donated by his widow for that purpose, and was designed by Solon Beman. (This was something of a family tradition, as Blackstone himself had had a library built in Branford, Connecticut, in his father's memory. In that case, too, Beman was the architect.) Among the design elements of the new library was a rotunda decorated with murals by Oliver Dennett Grover, a well-known Chicago artist who had also created murals for the World's Columbian Exposition. Over the years, the murals became dirty, the leaf-like design of the spandrels was damaged in an early cleaning attempt, the canvas on which they were painted was coming away from the walls, and there was damage to the plaster surrounds. Recently, a grant of $100,000 allowed them to be restored, and the library last week hosted an event to view and discuss the restoration. The conservators spoke, and talked about the history of the murals and what was done to fix them.

And they are glorious. The colors glow, and details that were hidden under the grime are visible once again.

This is "Literature" (click on the image for more):



MUSIC

The annual Chicago Jazz Festival is this weekend! There was a gala concert Tuesday night at the Spertus Institute to benefit the Jazz Institute of Chicago and to kick off the festival. We heard the world première of a commissioned composition by Nicole Mitchell, Honoring Grace: Michelle Obama (a tribute to the southside's most famous jazz afficionado!), performed by Mitchell's group, the Black Earth Orchestra, with guest Dee Alexander (one of my absolute favorite jazz vocalists).

The Black Earth Orchestra combines typical jazz instruments such as trumpet and saxophone, with classical instruments like violin and cello (and, of course, Mitchell's flute) and African percussion and Indian sitar. Mitchell also has a smaller group, Black Earth Strings, which will be performing at the Jazz Fest this afternoon.

Yesterday was the first day of Jazz Fest, and I took the afternoon off work so as to be sure not to miss Esperanza Spalding. This young lady is the whole package: brains, beauty, talent, poise, humor. A delightful performance.


I stayed for some, but not all, of the evening concert. Heard the Jeff Parker Quartet, which I enjoyed; The Trio with Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and George Lewis, which was way too dissonant for my taste; and Madeleine Peyroux, who I also enjoyed.

I'm going back this afternoon for more.