All in Chicago
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If you are looking for somewhere over the rainbow in Chicago, walk along the Riverwalk toward the Lake Shore Drive Bridge. Centennial Fountain is located on the north side of the river. Dedicated in 1989, the fountain commemerates the 100th anniversary of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
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As you walked into the old section of the Art of Institute of Chicago, you pass a grand staircase. On the first landing is a bronze sculpture of a torso created by Roussillon-born sculpturer Aristide Maillol in 1906. It is entitled Enchanted Action. The white light in the staircase always tickles down to the toes, and yet the torso has no toes to tickle.
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Several years back, Nutella was the rage on college campuses. The little single serving packets were replacing salt, sugar, and butter packets in college cafeterias, with administrators being forced to keep a sharp eye on students loading pockets, purses, and backpacks with dozens of those packets filled with delicious chocolate hazelnut goo.
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Gerhard Steidl, the German master publisher of photography and art books, delivered the annual Hugh Edwards Lecture at the Art Institute of Chicago this evening. Toward the end of the lecture, Steidl said he is a technician, not an artist. Most devotees to the books that he publishes would strongly disagree.
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A capacity crowd at the University of Chicago's Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts heard Vijay Iyer, one of Eicher's artists, perform last night with a sextet. At the end of the concert, one enthusiastic listener told trumpeter Graham Hayes that he heard Sketches of Spain in some parts of the music.
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Architect Renzo Piano's Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago has an expansive hallway that leads from Monroe on the wing's north side to the older sections of the museum on the south. It is a grand space, with white walls and skylights, providing beautiful natural lighting. People always look so elegant in this space, particularly when seated on the benches that line the walkway.
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The Art Institute of Chicago just opened an exhibit in the photography gallery in the Modern Wing featuring the work of Robert Frank, who many consider to be the father of street photography, although I think The Americans is a far more cohesive a body of work that goes well beyond the often ad hoc nature of what is typically characterized as street photography. Throughout the exhibit, there are a number of references to Frank's desire for a quick, dirty, an ephemeral display of his work.
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The Elks National Memorial located just to the west of the north end of Lincoln Park is a reminder of the sacrifice of the many Americans who fought and died in World War I. Planning for the memorial began two years after the war ended in 1918. The organization selected New York architect Egerton Swarthout's design.
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After spending the better part of five hours last night watching non-stop cable coverage of the Trump-Comey story, I expected hundreds if not thousands of people to attend a demonstration today at the intersection of Wabash and Wacker immediately across the Chicago River from the Trump Tower--that being the unofficial site for anti-Trump demonstrations.
Today some 40,000 Chicagoans participated in the March for Science, a nonpartisan demonstration that had heavy partisan overtones. There certainly weren't Trumpians in evidence. It is hard not to be anti-Trump if you are scientist: Trump wants to cut funding for science; Trump wants to politicize scientific research in an effort to support his anti-science policies (anti-vax, anti-climate, anti-research); and Trump wants to rely on alternative facts.
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Having said all that, it is hard for me to imagine any of today's rock and pop musicians staging an exhibit like this in 40 or 50 years. Given the web, social media, video games, and all the entertainment and expressive options available to people today, music just doesn't play quite the central role it once did in the culture.
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I decided to take a little walk today. Down Roscoe, down Broadway, down Clark, down Wells, down Franklin, and arrive three hours later in back of the Merchandise Mart.
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Richard Misrach is one of my favorite photographers. He undertook a three-year project in which he photographed the Golden Gate Bridge from the same vantage point from his front porch, located somewhere in the vicinity of Berkley. Misrach was demonstrating that photography is often more about the light and the weather conditions than the specific subject matter.
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Fermi Labs is located in Batavia, Illinois, about 40 miles west of Chicago. Sited on prairie land, the lab explores the "mysteries of matter, energy, space, and time," putting it in the same business as the late Leon Russell, who was the Master of Space and Time. And you know, there isn't really much difference between physics and music, its all about gaps in space, timing, acceleration, and deceleration.
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The sun continued to burn with intensity as the afternoon turned into twilight, spaying the the Chicago River with intense light. It was so intense that it lit the underside of the bridges, which is what caught my attention. You gotta love the clouds and that deep blue sky.
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The afternoon light was magnificent. The shadows finally came out after almost 10 days of unrelenting gray and white skies, with lots of fog and rain. What can you say? It's a geometric progression on the Chicago River. Simple, but powerful.
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Here is one more from Thursday afternoon's excursions. The colors are gorgeous, if I don't say so myself. That the Fuji GFX 50s at work, handheld medium format.
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It's a love hate thing. Joe Segal, the 90 year-old proprietor of Chicago's Jazz Showcase, loves Charlie Parker, which is why the photograph of Parker adorns the wall behind the stage. Joe has been in the jazz impresario business for 70+ years. Everybody who is anybody has been through that club. Joe is an institution in the world of jazz, receiving all sorts of accolades, including the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master honor.
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Not exactly the sunniest day, but pretty good considering that the Tribune 10-day forecast predicted clouds and rain for the next ten days. When I left the house, the temperature was in the mid-60s.
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I am not a big fan of photographs that feature statues, particularly of historical figures in representational style. Yet, I have always enjoyed the superhuman statue honoring the German philosopher and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) that sits at the north end of Lincoln Park, with two Mies van der Rohe apartments serving as the backdrop.
