I’m in Chicago for a conference, a users’ group for the software that U of Wisconsin (and lots of other people) are using to deliver their online courses. As a theme, because we’re in Chicago, they’re calling it “Architects of Education”. I’ve been thinking it’s really the first non-librarian conference I’ve gone to in a long time – maybe ever? I’m sure because the conference is put on by the vendor of the software, a computer company, it’s a younger crowd. There’s also lots more food than at librarian conferences – breakfast & lunch everyday, and always coffee and water outside all the program rooms – and snacks in the afternoon.
I took the train down from Harvard IL, and when I was walking to the conference hotel, marveling at how empty and quiet the Loop was at 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon, I went past some flowers by the roadside, nicely integrated into architectural features.
- Just makes you want to sit
On Sunday I didn’t do any conference stuff – I went up to the North side of Chicago, to Welles Park, for an international and folk music festival put on by the Old Town School of Folk Music. I met one of my Chicago Historical Society friends there – one of her friends, who’s an instructor at Old Town, was playing on the staff stage. We got a beer and watched them – they played a fun combination of old rock & roll – “Good Lovin'”; viper jazz – “Minnie the Moocher”; and Chicago-connected songs – Steve Miller’s “Space Cowboy”. Then we went to watch one of the bigger name bands, Red Barat, kind of bongra & soul – but it started raining so we went to get a burger at a corner bar – the benefits to me of hanging out with a local.
I made it back to the hotel after only missing the first 20 minutes of vampires – it was surprisingly easy to get there and back on the EL. I waited up till the 10:30 repeat of the vampire show – and I managed to NOT fall asleep until after the 20 minutes that I’d missed. I’ve had some good food – more later on that.
