Culture Vultures

The waitress at Tempo brought over the house standard “amuse bouche” as we sat down this morning.  A prune and a segment of orange is as good as any other way to start the day, I guess, but we had other ideas, needless to say.

The corned beef hash and eggs didn’t last long but sad to say, I couldn’t quite manage all my blueberry pancakes, delicious though they were.

We walked off our breakfast this morning though, heading along Michigan Avenue towards the river and beyond.  It was another lovely day, getting rather warm already though there was a cooling breeze along the river.  I stopped to take a photograph, taking care to avoid the glass skyscraper bearing the current President’s name.  He needs no further publicity from me.

Once over the river and almost as far as the park, I turned back to see where we’d come from.  Chicago is such a fine city and the views are magnificent, wherever we stand.

Our destination this morning was the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, where we knew there was an open rehearsal this morning.

The unmistakeable stainless steel curves of the Frank Gehry structure appeared through the trees.

Though looking the other way, an altogether different structure was proving interesting.  Can you see what it is yet?

Yes, it’s Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, always interesting, always attracting everyone’s attention.  Deservedly so – it’s very clever and a real landmark.

We were soon into the auditorium though, where the orchestra were already warming up.

We chose seats in the shade, together with twenty or thirty others and waited for the rehearsal to begin.

The first rehearsal piece was Alfben’s Festival Overture.  We weren’t familiar with the piece but it was tuneful and the orchestra were making a very impressive sound.  We were immediately captivated.

 

Next, Vadim Gulzman came on stage and we heard the rehearsal of Tchaikowsky’s Violin Concerto.  Gorgeous music, beautifully played.  I loved it and immediately warmed to the soloist, who appeared to have a great rapport with the orchestra and audience alike.  When the final movement came to a close and the orchestra took a break, one of the Grant Park docents came to the front and made a short presentation about the music and in particular, the violin Vadim Gulzman was playing.  Perhaps that’s why he seemed so comfortable on stage, why his performance was so remarkable?

During the break, a chance to stretch my legs, I noticed a few clouds rolling in.  The clear blue sky of earlier had disappeared whilst we’d been listening.

And during the second half, whilst the orchestra were playing excerpts from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, there were rumblings of thunder.

Oooo.

 

By the time the rehearsal had finished, the dark clouds were looming rather closer and working our way towards the exit, we noted that it had already rained just yards from where we’d been sitting.  That network of overhead speakers transmits the sound from the stage, by the way, so that wherever in the outdoor auditorium you happen to sit (even on the grass, beyond the seating area) you’ll hear accurate sound with no lag whatsoever.  Clever, eh?

As we turned right there was the loudest, scariest clap of thunder I’d ever heard, provoking screams from those around us.  I feared we were about to get very wet.

We hurried through the park in the direction of the Art Institute, taking note of the sign to “respect the art”.  But the three sculptures made from old tyres and bits of metalwork were not very attractive and we questioned whether these pieces were sufficient to earn that respect.  Maybe that was why the sign was needed?

We couldn’t resist a glance back at the fountains, popular as ever with the youngsters whatever the weather.

We were simply glad to have made it as far as the Art Institute without getting wet!  We’d been here before, knew we didn’t have long enough to see everything and decided to focus on something in particular.  I picked up a leaflet describing a mini tour entitled “My Kinda Town”, similar to but slightly different from, this one.

It suited us well to have a pre-ordained route with some destination points.   Of course, we’d see things along the way, but by having a focus, we could manage our visit well.  We began with the architecture fragments, something which had taken my eye on a previous visit.

From there, we headed past this figure in a most peculiar pose, I thought – or is it just me?

We did a pretty swift scamper through the Impressionists.  All very familiar, many of them, we’d seen before.

actually, quite liberating to scoot past Degas’ little dancer

and scuttle past La Grande Jatte, reminiscing about Columbus OH as we did.

Much as we love visiting art galleries, on occasions, it’s great to have permission to walk straight past a painting or four

to float right on past the water lilies

and the haystacks.  Because if we always stopped in front of the same old same old, we’d never see anything else, would we?

Like Georgia’s Sky above Clouds which was the next work on our mini tour.

We made a brief stop in the cafe, overlooking the pavilion from this morning through the screened windows.

and progressed in search of So What, by Judy Ledgerwood, but failing to find that and instead looking at a few pieces of Andy Warhol’s work and something rather familiar…

Well, we Murakami experts recognised Dob immediately, didn’t we?!

I liked the Jasper John Alphabet too, but in a weird way, also liked this wall…

opposite the entrance to the loos, intentional or not, the wall with faded patches as if paintings had been removed was an amusing feature and I suspect someone had had some fun there.

We continued our whistlestop, focused tour through the Roman gallery

to see Chagall’s American windows.

Three of them, side by side.

So reminiscent of Chagall’s windows elsewhere, in that remarkable and instantly recognisable blue.  So painterly.

then, right next door was the reconstruction of the Chicago Stock Exchange.

But my Hero gasped and described it as soulless.  Where was the life, the energy, the people?! Sure enough, it was an empty room and as far from the old trading hall as could be.  The subdued lighting didn’t help and feeling a little disappointed, we moved straight on.

To Nighthawks.  A very familiar painting, last seen just a couple of months ago in London, but still as potent as ever.

and Nightlife just around the corner, the last image on our mini tour, which had proved to be just right and perfect for our short drop-in visit.

We said Hi as we walked past American Gothic on our way out, back at home after a short holiday in London.

And I rather liked this familiar image, so reminiscent of the Peruvian ladies we met in the Sacred Valley which we passed by on our way out of the galleries.

By the time we reached the entrance though, people were running through the doors looking rather wet.  The storm had broken and it was pouring with rain.

We settled down and waited for the rain to ease before opening umbrellas and sallying forth.

It was a rather different walk back to our hotel from this morning’s hot and sticky trek.

We’d had a fantastic day though and really didn’t mind getting wet.

The trouble was, the storm had delayed Mary’s flight and rather than arriving in Chicago as scheduled at 4pm or thereabouts, she was travelling via an unexpected diversion to Des Moines, where she remained until almost 7pm.  As I write, we are keeping everything crossed that she’ll be landing at O’Hare shortly, some eight hours or more since leaving Los Angeles this morning.

Hopefully, there will be no further travel surprises! 

Are we having fun yet?

We started the day just as we always start a day here

with breakfast at Tempo.

The corned beef hash person was happy.

And since Mary the waffle-eater wasn’t here yet, I did my best and sampled a banana-nut waffle on her behalf, just to make sure it was good enough for her.  I think it might meet with her approval.

Suitably stuffed, we made our way onto Michigan Avenue.  Our main target for the day was the Murakami exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Institute and with the weather forecast to turn showery later, we aimed to be there sometime in the afternoon.  Before then, we decided to mooch along the Miracle Mile, pop in and out of shops as we pleased and generally enjoy being in one of our favourite places.

We popped into the shops at Water Tower Place, where the fountain which sits between the up and the down escalators amused us just as much this morning as it has done all the time we’ve been coming here.  Those water hollow shapes look like glasses, don’t they?  So clever.

In the shops, I found nothing special and didn’t really think the topless look was what I was seeking.  The reasonably priced stock in Chico’s was disappointing, with a preponderance of synthetic fibres and designs best described as nunty whereas the elegant Eileen Fisher clothes were way out of my price range today.  Never mind, we’ll hold out for some discounts in the next three weeks, eh?

There in the shopping centre was a cute Lego figure, life sized, characterising the Windy City.

But outside, the sun was shining, the temperature was rising and we were enjoying the walk.

A little further along the Magnificent Mile, I found my way into Sephora and whilst my Hero went off to explore something more interesting than make up, I spent half an hour discussing chemical peels with Brianna, who kindly shared a few samples of the $88 product whilst recommending (and selling me) the $27 one 

Further along Michigan Avenue, by the Du Sable Bridge, we came across these two large figures: Abraham Lincoln and a another more modern chap.  We recognised Abe Lincoln, of course, but didn’t know anything more until we came back and googled.

Here, by the river, it was a few degrees cooler, with a pleasant breeze blowing from the lake.  The Architecture Tour boats were doing a brisk business, but we were feeling thirsty and spotted a sign in the window opposite.

Ghirardellis ice cream parlour and chocolate shop would do just fine!

So sitting looking out of the window overlooking the bridge, we spent a good half hour with our rootbeer float and chocolate malt shake, watching the world go by before heading back out into the afternoon heat with the intention of making our way to the art gallery.

But along the way, there was a known distraction.  We knew of a Microsoft store along here and it was no accident that we “just happened” to stop by and find the new Surface Studio, launching in the next couple of days but here for us to try and play with.

Oh. My. Goodness.  We want one.  (Each) ! 

Dragging ourselves away, we eventually made it to our main target – the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The exhibition we wanted to see had only just opened and since Illinois residents get free entrance on a Tuesday, it was pretty busy.  Never mind, there was still room for the two of us!

We’d decided to absorb ourselves in this single exhibit and not try to see everything.  So, with the whole afternoon stretching ahead of us, we settled down to watch the introductory video.  The artist explained his work and how it had developed, influenced by traditional Japanese themes.  Though some of this was familiar, we hadn’t grasped the fact that there is no division between “high” and “low” art in Japan; that a piece of Manga comic book art is valued as much as a Hokusai print.  Well, perhaps that’s pushing it a little far, but generally speaking, there’s a lack of snobbishness regarding “commercial” work and Murakami was not embarrassed to describe his own work as populist and very commerical.

During the film, we were introduced to a character he had designed early in his career, called Dob.  Some way between Mickey Mouse and Sonic the Hedgehog, iterations of Dob popped up in many of the works throughout the exhibition.  At different stages of Murakami’s career, a variety of events had caused him to reassess his priorities and one definite theme early on was the atom bomb.

So one of the first, large pieces was this very striking canvas with the remains of a firework alongside, displayed on the pink plinth.

Around the corner was another video presentation though, with explanations of how these huge pieces were created.  The artist himself creates the original design, which is then transferred to the full sized panels using silk screens and layers of paint, applied by a team of artisan workers in the vast studio.

There were examples of works at every stage here, from the pencil sketches to the imagined colour designs, silk screen panels and finally, the full size finished segments.  I found this really interesting and could have spent longer just working out how this all comes together.

The end results were so precise, so carefully executed, it was hard to identify the artist’s hand at all, beyond the initial concept and drawing.  Meticulous detail on an enormous scale.

And cute.  A good deal of cute – because it’s Japanese, after all. (Even if the mushroom cloud is still there in the imagery)

The concept of superflat was explained and applied to this piece in particular.

But we’d already been drawn into the next room, where a whole wall full of daisies was smiling at us.  This was Murakami at his most commercial with a small, repeatable – and marketable – design, almost a logo, created specially to repeat and to sell.

Fascinating.  And yes, meticulous.

The next piece to catch my eye was entitled “Graduation”.  I rather liked the fun image of a small character being shot out of a machine of some sort, out into the world.

The small character had been acquired by/identified with Kanye West and the works which stood alongside were both created for the star, including this album cover

My Hero was already in the next room though!

These are enormous works, too large for me to capture in one photograph and the detail is incredible.

In this series of paintings, a recurring character is that of the arhat, an elderly Buddhist figure who wanders through the countryside.  Murakami included these figures in several works, varying the scale and the interpretation.

These are screen printed in layers, much the same as his earlier works, and the high gloss finish was difficult to capture.  Layer upon layer of paint was evident but the surface was incredibly smooth and shiny.  Polished, even.

Here were the arhats, huge larger-than-life figures and tiny little chaps right down there at the bottom of the canvas too.  All screen printed with a variety of interesting visual texture in there.

Some of the printing revealed the bare canvas in places – here as part of the polka dot background.  The matt surface was quite a contrast to the high gloss finish of the tree in this corner of the work.

These were huge canvases too.

Last but not least was a piece of work created by Murakami epecially for this exhibition, entitled “The Octopus eats his own leg”, based on a Japanese saying.

Here again was a blend of traditional and contemporary themes, referencing classic Japanese prints in a highly original way.

It filled all four walls of the last gallery of this area and could easily have kept us looking and noticing small features for several hours.  We loved it.

Feeling somewhat overwhelmed by what we’d seen, we followed the crowd to the Museum store, where Murakami merchandise was selling so fast, there was no time to take it out of the boxes.  Everything was limited to 5 of a single item per customer, including these $40 T shirts which will surely turn up on eBay soon.

What an afternoon!  How glad we were to have seen this and to have learned so much about the artist and his work.  So shell-shocked were we though, we didn’t want to overlay what we’d seen with any other art right now.  It was time to return to the Sofitel.

It’s actually down a leafy street nearby and yes, our feet were glad it wasn’t so far away!

This evening, we ate dinner at Eataly, another long time favourite.

The weather forecast was warning of an incoming storm, so we took our brollies with us and kept our fingers crossed.

Thankfully, we got there and back in the dry. 

The pleasing scent of Essence de Sofitel greeted us upon our return.  We recognise the aroma from Sofitels worldwide, but this is the only one to have a display and explanation of the concept.  Fascinating!

Another grand day in the city then.  Tomorrow, we look forward to Mary’s arrival and the real fun can begin!

Liverpool

with a few thousand friends!

thankfully, not all on the same coach as me!

I came well prepared and my hero’s socks grew a few inches along the way.

The fun of being in Liverpool is that there is such a strong sense of place that I never forget where I am, even if some of it – Penny Lane, above – doesn’t look quite how I think it should!

But reminders are never far away anyway.

I was staying down by the waterfront, meeting friends for dinner at London Carriage Works, which was a great choice!

My travelling companion Ellen and I were ready to go the next morning, with all papers in order.

My goodness, though, it was windy!  Somehow, though, we stayed dry and didn’t blow away on the short walk over to the arena.

We had great seats and Jerusalem was as moving as it always is, when thousands of women sing.  You’ve just got to be there to share the experience – there is nothing quite like it.

The day was filled with interesting speakers, including Josephine Fairley, of Green and Blacks chocolate, above.

Susie Dent, the lexicographer and etymologist spoke in the afternoon, raising a few smiles with her amusing malaphors (it’s not rocket surgery) and eggcorns, producing a spectacular example of jargon that I’m sure is pretty commonplace in the kinds of places I work from time to time:

(she told us it described a go-karting activity)

But as always, the real stars were the members.  I was going to include the adjective “ordinary”, but really, there is no such thing as an ordinary WI member.  Every one of us brings her own set of unique skills and experience with her and rising to the challenge is all part of the fun.  I know from experience how much confidence it takes to speak to an audience of several thousand people and I always admire those who do.

As usual, there were two resolutions to discuss and both prompted some interesting contributions from the floor.  The first focused on working to alleviate loneliness and I enjoyed hearing both the proposer and seconder’s address, for they spoke with the familiar East Riding accent, pronouncing “lernliness” exactly as I’d say it myself!  They put forward their points well, the audience responded with supportive discussion and the resolution was carried. 

The afternoon resolution on Microfibres in our oceans proposed by a member from Buckinghamshire provoked a particularly enthusiastic responses though, mainly as a result of Natalie Welden’s passionate address about this subject of huge concern.  Not only was this something which was dear to many hearts, it was something on which every one of us could take action and for once, the WI was ahead of the game.  Here was a campaign everyone felt they could get behind 100% and when another “ordinary” WI member stepped up to make a comment, describing herself as an oceanographer, later revealing her international standing and wide experience, it was clear, we had the benefit of first class opinion.  No surprise then, that the resolution was carried with more than 90% support.  Watch out then, for mentions of “plastic soup” and microfibres in the coming weeks.

Extraordinary women making a difference!

As the meeting was drawing to a close and we began looking out that helpful phonetic translation of the Welsh National Anthem, ready to attempt to join in the traditional finale to our meetings, the Retros came on stage and the party began.  The Hippy Hippy Shake and All you need is Love hit the spot – what a great way to end a fantastic day in Liverpool and to warm the vocal chords up for the grand finale of Jerusalem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau and last of all, the National Anthem.

The conversation on the coach home was rather different from yesterday.  After a day of such thought-provoking discussion we had plenty to think – and talk – about.  It’s such a privilege to spend a day in the company of so many inspiring women and I’m already looking forward to seeing them all again in Cardiff next year!

Around here

The rose petals are drying nicely and have kept their colour.  Of course, now I’m worrying about the possibility of fine clothes being stained by any dampness in the air and deep hued rose petals!  The airing cupboard has never been so sweetly scented.

In the meantime, I’m building up to our next road trip adventure with the usual journal prep.  I’ve been mooching about various websites, in search of paper for the pages but felt thwarted by an abundance of “cute” designs.  It’s not that I an anti-cute, but I was hoping for something with a little less personality than most and hopefully in a more sophisticated palette than primary colours.

I found the answer in my stash.

This morning, I’d decided to go with the “use what you have” concept and began to cut pages from a pile of paper leftover from other projects.  Deep into the pile, I was beginning to get picky.  Did I really want one pink page, a green patterned one, a black and white checked page followed by a turquoise blue stripe?  Not really.  But lo and behold, there, lurking at the bottom of the heap was a full set of 6 x 12 sheets left from a previous travel journal (this one)

Considering the itinerary of that road trip in the Pacific North West (a couple of cities, a bit of coast and some woodsy countryside) I could see why I’d chosen that design and colour palette.  This trip will be pretty similar – we are not headed for canyons or desert this time round, but to the state with the second longest coastline in the USA – 3288 miles.  We’re looking forward to exploring a couple of cities we’ve had on our list for a while and revisiting an all-time favourite, spending time with friends and, a first for us, experiencing lakeside life.

This year, we’re going to explore Michigan, driving a round trip from Chicago!

Having cut a good number of pages (which, together with some plain white sheets will be plenty), I needed to make the covers.  In my trawl through the paper pile, I came across a sheet of paper I’d created on some workshop or other which I thought would do nicely.

Ready to go.

But a girl’s got to do something whilst the paint dries, don’t you think?  A couple of my textiley friends have been pinning links to their pinterest pages that sent me looking for my Weavette.  I hadn’t opened that box in ages (or the other two, different sized looms!)

In less than fifteen minutes I was remembering just why I loved it from the minute I started.

Half an hour later, I just had to go and get on with things!  It’s so easy to get carried away with something like this.  It’s therapeutic in that mindless way, satisfying because it works so well and it’s so easy to achieve a great result from the off.

Surely, there must be a couple more projects I can get going in the meantime!?

The scent of Summer

How lovely to enjoy a relaxed Bank Holiday weekend at home and not in a 16-mile traffic jam: yes, southbound on the M5 yesterday….thankfully we were heading northbound.  Last evening, whilst sitting exploring the hidden tricks of my new camera, I spotted this chap taking a break on the garden room window and couldn’t resist a photo.  I’d have liked to have caught the other side too, but I disturbed him and he flew off.

This morning, I’ve been out in the garden, pottering about.  The philadelphus smells so sweet, I’m hoping the rain forecast for later today doesn’t wash it all away.  Time to make the most of it now.

We’ve a few roses in bloom, so with a bowl in hand, I went collecting rose petals for a sweet friend whose daughter is getting married in a couple of weeks.  Around here, we do what we can for our friends and during our book group discussion last week all agreed, we’d collect and dry as many petals as we could for her confetti.

If only the colours would stay so bright!

If only the scent would stay too.  Instead, you’ll have to imagine how sweet our airing cupboard smells with trays of rose petals drying in there right now.

We’re still having probs with our pond and rill, so I took the opportunity to top it up, noticing the beautiful iris as I did.

I’m still waiting for our peonies to open though.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the elderflowers too, noticing them coming into bloom a good week or more earlier than usual.  Time to (not) find the packet of citric acid powder then and get the stocks of lemons and sugar in, ready to get the cordial factory going.  Who knows where we had put that citric acid though?  Thankfully, Intralabs offer a super quick delivery, so this morning I had no excuses.  Could I find the recipe though?  Yes, of course I could!

The blooms this year are enormous and extraordinarily plentiful and I think this could be the earliest Elderflower Cordial post ever.

With an airing cupboard smelling of roses, a kitchen filled with lemon and elderflower, can there be any better scent of summer?

The bowl of fruit I just prepared for lunch, maybe?  (No pavlova today!)