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Travel, etc.
Mar. 23rd, 2016 03:07 pmI've pretty much decided to go to Venice at the end of July. It's not generally the optimal time to go, but a couple of weeks ago the New York Times had an article about Ghetto 500, an observation of the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish ghetto. I was hesitant at first because I already have a rather pricey trip to Barcelona and Bilbao planned for late October, but the opportunity to see The Merchant of Venice performed in the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo is unlikely to come along again. Add to that the Architecture Biennale and the International Theatre Festival, and it would be a crime not to go. I will, however, have to miss the mock trial presided over by the Notorious RBG; that requires a larger contribution than I can manage, even with the tax deduction.
Since I last posted (oy! two months ago!), I've been busy. I took a class at the Newberry Library called Edwardian Passions: Dress and Desire, 1890-1920. We read Vita Sackville-West's The Edwardians, Elinor Glyn's Three Weeks, and E.M. Forster's A Room with a View, and had lectures (with wonderful visuals) about fashion of the era. I'd had an earlier class from the same instructor about the rise of the department store in Paris, using novels of Émile Zola. She is an art historian with a great knowledge of fashion and literature, and I'm looking forward to taking her next course, which involves Edith Wharton and Henry James. I'm also considering a course in the History of Italian Fashion at the Italian Cultural Institute. Fortunately, they don't overlap!
I continue to give tours at Robie House, and mentor new volunteers. The FLW Trust has instituted a new program called "Wright Around the Region", and one event this year will go to Robie as well as two other house museums in Chicago, one of which is showing the Dressing Downton exhibit. I was able to get on that as a volunteer, so yay!
My trainer was transferred from the gym near me to another facility, so I have a new guy. I've also upped my sessions. I'm doubling up, doing 50 minutes rather than 25. The new trainer is much tougher on me, but he and the new schedule are paying off. So I'm glad I did that.
Since I last posted (oy! two months ago!), I've been busy. I took a class at the Newberry Library called Edwardian Passions: Dress and Desire, 1890-1920. We read Vita Sackville-West's The Edwardians, Elinor Glyn's Three Weeks, and E.M. Forster's A Room with a View, and had lectures (with wonderful visuals) about fashion of the era. I'd had an earlier class from the same instructor about the rise of the department store in Paris, using novels of Émile Zola. She is an art historian with a great knowledge of fashion and literature, and I'm looking forward to taking her next course, which involves Edith Wharton and Henry James. I'm also considering a course in the History of Italian Fashion at the Italian Cultural Institute. Fortunately, they don't overlap!
I continue to give tours at Robie House, and mentor new volunteers. The FLW Trust has instituted a new program called "Wright Around the Region", and one event this year will go to Robie as well as two other house museums in Chicago, one of which is showing the Dressing Downton exhibit. I was able to get on that as a volunteer, so yay!
My trainer was transferred from the gym near me to another facility, so I have a new guy. I've also upped my sessions. I'm doubling up, doing 50 minutes rather than 25. The new trainer is much tougher on me, but he and the new schedule are paying off. So I'm glad I did that.
Catching up
Aug. 10th, 2011 09:26 amWow, I just realized that I haven't posted anything substantive since I talked about my New York trip.
Since then, I've started my Italian literature class (as well as the regular language class) and my "Queens of Crime" class continues. Both are quite enjoyable. I attended the annual Printers Ball, sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, which is really just an excuse to pick up free copies of 'zines, literary journals and some books. I did restrain myself, as I really am trying to free up some space on my shelves. Unfortunately for that plan, I also went to the Newberry Library Book Fair, where I did not restrain myself.
We'd been having really hot weather, but about a week ago we had a big storm overnight, and since then it's cooled off (that is, it's in the low 80s rather than the high 90s). It had been way too hot to do any real walking, so the next day I did a long walk along the lake, which was still stirred up from the storm, and was showing an amazing number of different shades of blue:
I observed Do Nothing But Read Day on Saturday (though I did take a break to go buy groceries!), and finished up the book I had in progress, as well as a couple of others (one very short). On Sunday, I went up north for a picnic. We went to a park near my friend Cheryl's where there is quite a nice shelter. It's fully enclosed, but with windows that are nearly floor to ceiling that open up, so you get the air, but are protected if, as happened to us, it suddenly decides to thunderstorm! From there, I went to another friend's for a small get-together.
On Monday, I had to be downtown for a planning meeting for a seminar in October. It was held in a building right across from the Daley Center, which houses some courts and city offices and has a Picasso in the plaza:
In the summer, all sorts of events are held there, and this week they're having the Chicago Sister Cities International Festival, with food and vendors and performances. So before the meeting, I lunched on jerk chicken and watched some kids demonstrating Taekwondo.
West Side Story is playing in Chicago, and I'd been debating whether to go (tickets aren't cheap). I finally decided that I really wanted to see it as a) I love it, b) it's gotten good reviews, and c) this is the bilingual version. Verdict: B+. I wasn't terribly impressed with the woman who sang Maria; I don't know if it was the way she was miked, but her voice was a bit shrill and thin for my taste. Tony and Anita, on the other hand, were excellent, and I thought the bilingual experiment worked really well.
I had dinner beforehand at one of my favorite local restaurants. Very inexpensive, as they had sent me a gift certificate for my birthday which resulted in a three course meal with two glasses of wine costing me just over $10 (just over $20 with the tip).
Since then, I've started my Italian literature class (as well as the regular language class) and my "Queens of Crime" class continues. Both are quite enjoyable. I attended the annual Printers Ball, sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, which is really just an excuse to pick up free copies of 'zines, literary journals and some books. I did restrain myself, as I really am trying to free up some space on my shelves. Unfortunately for that plan, I also went to the Newberry Library Book Fair, where I did not restrain myself.
We'd been having really hot weather, but about a week ago we had a big storm overnight, and since then it's cooled off (that is, it's in the low 80s rather than the high 90s). It had been way too hot to do any real walking, so the next day I did a long walk along the lake, which was still stirred up from the storm, and was showing an amazing number of different shades of blue:
I observed Do Nothing But Read Day on Saturday (though I did take a break to go buy groceries!), and finished up the book I had in progress, as well as a couple of others (one very short). On Sunday, I went up north for a picnic. We went to a park near my friend Cheryl's where there is quite a nice shelter. It's fully enclosed, but with windows that are nearly floor to ceiling that open up, so you get the air, but are protected if, as happened to us, it suddenly decides to thunderstorm! From there, I went to another friend's for a small get-together.
On Monday, I had to be downtown for a planning meeting for a seminar in October. It was held in a building right across from the Daley Center, which houses some courts and city offices and has a Picasso in the plaza:
In the summer, all sorts of events are held there, and this week they're having the Chicago Sister Cities International Festival, with food and vendors and performances. So before the meeting, I lunched on jerk chicken and watched some kids demonstrating Taekwondo.
West Side Story is playing in Chicago, and I'd been debating whether to go (tickets aren't cheap). I finally decided that I really wanted to see it as a) I love it, b) it's gotten good reviews, and c) this is the bilingual version. Verdict: B+. I wasn't terribly impressed with the woman who sang Maria; I don't know if it was the way she was miked, but her voice was a bit shrill and thin for my taste. Tony and Anita, on the other hand, were excellent, and I thought the bilingual experiment worked really well.
I had dinner beforehand at one of my favorite local restaurants. Very inexpensive, as they had sent me a gift certificate for my birthday which resulted in a three course meal with two glasses of wine costing me just over $10 (just over $20 with the tip).
