We didn’t really go to Chicago to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. We had tickets for the opera Saturday – the Lyric doing La Traviata – and we were supposed to go to a Chicago Symphony chamber concert Sunday afternoon. And, I wanted to take John out for his birthday, coming up on Monday.
The chamber concert got cancelled because CSO is having a players strike. The performers for the chamber concert aren’t members of CSO but, understandably, would not cross the picket line. Neither would we.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon to find the train station packed with people leaving after the downtown parade. We had dinner at an Italian place, Victory Tap, (Chicago-style family Italian) that’s maybe half a block from the apartment. We started with a cracker crust mushroom pizza, nicely sauteed mushrooms, good vehicle for red pepper flakes and a little extra parm; then split their Italian wedge salad, slab bacon and a Gorgonzola dressing, big enough to split 3 ways; then Mark and I split a pasta Bolognese, really wide strips of homemade noodle; while Anna ate all the pasta but didn’t even make a dent in the two giant meatballs she got in her spaghetti and meatballs. We indulged in a tiramisu for dessert, and had to take a Lyft to the opera. The driver said he’d never before had a call going to Lyric, in 3+ years of driving.
They used a sort of tipped stage, and lighting to make dramatic shadows like this, so it looked like a lot of extra people at the party
Sunday morning Mark and I went and got coffee at Dollop.
I had a good view of the owls on top of the Library while I was having my coffee.
Harold Washington Library owls
We went and met John & Megan at a brew pub near their place, Forbidden Root. I was expecting to get a beer back with my Bloody Mary, but it was good nonetheless. I went for the Root breakfast, eggs & potatoes and bacon. I think I should’ve gotten an English muffin instead of toast – my single slice of wheat toast seemed a bit skimpy to go with all the egg, but otherwise it was a good breakfast. John ordered a “hazy” beer – cloudy, that he says is a new style in microbeers, and I got a taste of that.
Waiting for our food at Forbidden Root
They had a kind of burl bowl chair in the ladies’ room
We took the bus east on Chicago Ave. and when we first got on it was kind of your urban nightmare bus ride – two women speaking loudly and angrily into their phones, one in Spanish, another woman trying to get on with her walker and having all kinds of difficulty. No bad smells though, unlike the city of Madison bus I got onto on a Saturday afternoon not too long ago, back during the icy time, when I decided to take the bus home from Sequoya Library because I was a bit shaken from a fall on said ice, where it literally smelled like shit because there was some on the floor. Things on the 66 Navy Pier calmed down pretty rapidly, and we got off at MCA to see Laurie Simmons.
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I especially liked the b&w shots of one lonely figure in space, because they’re kind of like some photos my friend Andy made, posing old metal toys, and his brother Mark wrote poetry to go with. And the ones where there was a female doll in a kitchen with way out of scale food hemming her in. Images 6 & 7 are ones that Simmons made collaborating with another artist who made the set, and #8 where you can see my silhouette reflected, is so reflective that when I came through the gallery the first time, one of the security guards was checking her hair in it.
Andy’s photo hanging in my dark dining room – the background that you see, lamps and counter tops, is reflection of things in my house, the doll is all by herself with the star.
I also liked the ROYGBP arrangement of props for the installation, kind of like this Simmons New York Mag cover:
There was also a cool show by a younger artist who John knows, Jessica Campbell. She makes rugs and comic books, and the show at MCA stitched together, as she put it in the short video, her life and the life of Canadian artist Emily Carr. They’re both from Victoria, BC. I liked that the rug part of the show was cited in-kind support from XPERT Trade Show Carpet.
We wandered over to the other Dollop Mark frequents, the Gold Coast one, and had a coffee. Then we walked over to see the green river, because even though we hadn’t come specifically for St. Pat’s ya gotta, right?
Reflection on a tall building I was admiring on the way to Dollop
Green river through Wacker Dr. columns
St. Pat’s shards from next to the Van Buren L stop
I rode the extremely crowded 6:00 PM bus home, and slept in on Monday morning, Johnny’s birthday. Number 1 son is now a bit older than I was when he was born.
My enjoyment of the weekend was a little dampered because Saturday morning while in the shower I found a lump on my shoulder. It’s hard and pointy and it hurts. My lymph nodes in my neck and armpits are sore too. The Internetz says it could be lymphoma or metastasized breast cancer, although I had a normal mammogram in June. I think maybe it’s a side effect of chronic sinus infections all winter long. I now have a Dr.’s appointment Tuesday to get it looked at, so keep your fingers crossed for me.