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May 6, 2006
City of Big Showtunes II – A Chicago Journal
I picked a gray, drizzly weekend to visit Chicago. David took me on a driving tour that started on Lakeshore Drive heading south. As David said about the city “We have a spine” – that spine is Lakeshore Drive. It seemed most of our travel was north or south along it (or on the Red Line El) – in that way it reminded me of my trip to Palm Springs where I spent much of the day either going up or down Palm Canyon Drive. The flowering trees were in bloom in as well as tulips as we headed south.
My friend John lives in one of the other Great Lake Cities, Toronto. When I mentioned Chicago to him, his comment was “They did their waterfront right.” – which was truer than I thought on reflection. Toronto’s long east-west waterfront is little more than condominiums. Chicago made an ordinance that the east side of Lakeshore Drive was public land. The views are unspoiled and the public uses it. We started at the site of the Columbian Exposition. David recommended the book Devil in the White City
It and the Palace of Fine Arts - now the Museum of Science and Industry are the only two original structures left. The building reminded me of San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts; both were built for major exhibitions and both had similar caryatids.
We went as far south as the Chicago Cultural Center and then turned back to the campus of the University of Chicago, where I saw what I think is my first Frank Lloyd Wright house – the Robey House from 1907.
David thought the interior was comparatively disappointing, so we headed back to the center of the city and Millennium Park. (Follow the link - it's a great website.)
Millennium Park is the city’s newest showcase. The Harris Theater anchors the park with a bandshell designed by Frank Gehry. You can tell; it looks like a sea anemone made out of crumpled tinfoil. NYCB is coming there in October, much to the delight and anticipation of Chicago Balletomanes. The programs look wonderful, but Good Lord, the prices. Tickets start at $65. Chicago is going to have a great fall for ballet. Besides NYCB, they are getting the Kirov Ballet in Swan Lake at the beginning of November. At the beginning of October, the Joffrey is doing not any old Cinderella, but Ashton’s.
Behind the theater lies “The Bean” – a highly polished arch that has a real name "Cloud Gate", but everyone calls The Bean because of its shape. Walking underneath it and looking up gives the most astonishing optical illusion of being underneath a tower when the vault is only a few feet high. Alas, it doesn't really show in the photo.
Continuing on a bit is Crown Fountain, two towers of cascading water that add modern technology by projecting enormousfaces that pucker and then spew water. Kids love it; I thought it was a wee bit gross, but then, I have a dirty mind.
The Art Institute of Chicago is nearby, but that is enormous and will have to wait for another trip. We walked round the loop instead and looked at the river and the buildings along it. There are glass boxes as in New York, but the feel of Chicago’s skyline seems to come from the early Gothic revival skyscrapers that reminded me of the Woolworth Building here. The Marquette Building, right around the corner from my hotel, houses the MacArthur Foundation (of "Genius Grant" fame – it’s their building) and tiled lobby mosaics reminiscent of the Woolworth Building as well.
Walking back to David’s car, instead of documenting the architecture, I was taken aback by a wedding cake in a Chinese Bakery that was a veritable Habitrail of brides and grooms ascending and descending a multiple cake structure. I assumed it was a leftover from a Unification Church wedding.
That's me taking the picture. Before we got to the car, David’s cell phone rang. It was his friend, Evil Gay Lawyer, who had been stood up (or so he thought) . We headed north once again on Lakeshore Drive to pick him up and get a late lunch or early dinner. Per David Andersonville is where the Swedes were and the Lesbians are. If you’re a Swedish Lesbian, it must be paradise, but I saw neither. We were headed to Jin Ju for Korean Food, but it was not serving yet so went to Ladonna – an Italian restaurant with deliciously silken pumpkin ravioli. I took the waitress’ suggestion and tried the butter and sage sauce instead of the balsamic cream. I’d recommend it, the sage sets off the sweetness of the pumpkin. And Evil Gay Lawyer? Well, it’s only a single impression but I’d say he’s pretty much like his blog.
To simplify David’s life (we’d now headed up and down Chicago a few times) we took the El back downtown to see the Joffrey Ballet do the Cool Vibrations program at the Auditorium Theater. I’m reviewing the program for Ballet Review, so can only comment cursorily here. I was glad to see a full house; Chicago has a notoriously bad record of supporting their ballet companies. I wonder if the reason Joffrey has survived a decade is because they aren’t from Chicago, but rather moved there. The program was a revival of Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe, a new work (Motown Suite) by Donald Byrd and a revival of the first part of Billboards by Laura Dean. Of the three, I found the Tharp piece the most interesting.
It was a very full day. I walked David to the El and headed back to the hotel to transcribe notes and to write an article for Knit Simple for which I was about to blow the deadline. I got it in late, but not so late that anyone minded – the delicious irony was that the article was on how to get your knitting projects done on time.
Posted by Leigh Witchel at May 6, 2006 11:11 PM
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