Chicago

Damn, I’m tired! Tom walked my feet off!!!

It was GREAT!!!!!

Had FABulous Indian food.

Walked all OVER the Art Institute of Chicago. TWICE. I have seen more of Georgia O’Keefe’s stuff. I am still a fan.
There was a little Dali that really rocked my socks, too.

They had a photo exhibit with 5 different artists entitled “So the Story Goes”. I liked one (Sally Mann). One was disturbing (Nan Goldin). One didn’t touch me at all (Philip-Lorca diCorcia).

The other 2 …. I have mixed feelings about. (Tina Barney and Larry Sultan).

We saw Redmoon Theater’s Twilight Orchard, which looked like a Cirque du Soleil audition. And a damn good one.

I have had a Chicago-style hot dog. Two of them, actually. And Chicago Pizza at Lou Malnati’s.

I’ve forgotten the name of the Greek restaurant. It was delicious, though. We had a choice of calamari and broiled octopus. We went with the octopus.

We spent an afternoon at the Shedd Aquarium, too. (I did like the shrimp with the go-go boots.)

OH. I almost forgot and that would be really silly.

Millenium Park.

I don’t know if I enjoyed Crown Fountain or the Bean the best.

We stayed with Tom’s aunt and uncle, who are delightful. And we took buses and subways all over the place. (Subways are still a novelty to me.)

And that was my weekend.

Nevermore 2006

Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day was a short that ran before Zombie Honeymoon.  It looked like it was done by a bunch of film students.  And it probably was.  The dialogue was cheesey, the acting was dreadful, the fight choreography was horrible.

It was a hoot.

Zombie Honeymoon is already out on DVD.  They have it at Blockbuster and Netflix.  The acting was betterthan SD,BSD.  The choreography was still bad.  Time had no meaning to the story.  The script was awful.  In short, it was a typical zombie movie.  Without the cleverness of Shaun of the Dead.  BUT, it made us laugh and I don’t think either of us felt like my money was completely wasted.

Christopher is sick and his symptoms were evident on the way home, so he didn’t get to see Death Trance.

Death Trance was very uneven.  Some of the fight choreography was good, some was hideous.  There was one break dancing fighter that really had me tickled.  BUT, the story held me.  I wanted to know what was going to happen with the stolen coffin.  I wanted to know which one of the characters was going to be the hero.  And I wanted to know what was up with that little girl, what her attatchment to the coffin was.

Sadly, it isn’t available to rent yet, so my boy is going to have to wait a while to see it.  And he will like it.

Glass at NCMA

I went to the museum by myself today. Last Sunday, I went with a couple of friends to see the Fusion glass exhibit. I needed to see it again before it closed.

I liked seeing the Chihuly pieces. I find that I like the simpler pieces he does, like the baskets. Some of his work is too busy for my taste.

I loved the William Morris pieces. I had become a fan when I saw some of his work at the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in Charlotte a couple of years ago.

Now, I have met the work of Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, a Czech couple who do chunky monochromatic pieces that are very subtle as the light flows through the different depths of glass.

These are some of the pieces I saw.

This is in the entryway of the exhibit. It is taller than my 5’4″ and surprisingly narrow. There is a bit of a curve so that when you look at it from the side it appears almost ready to topple backwards.

Vestment III looks kind of like a chasuble with bubbles in the glass resembling text (on first glance, anyway). This is a different version. The one I saw was brown rather than grey. It is about a yard wide.

Spaces III is about the same size and is a bit of an optical illusion. There are curves where there appear to be angles.

Cross Head reminds me of the Easter Island heads. The color, and the variations of intensity, is glorious.