Our Trip to Milwaukee, Day Three

Alterra coffee--sort of like the local version of Starbucks, but with far better pastries. This is the lake front branch where we had our final Milwaukee meal. . . cinnamon buns, coffee, fruit salad and a shared ham and swiss croissant.


I had no idea the giant whale tale of the Milwaukee art museum opened and closed. But apparently if the wind blows harder than 23 mph, it closes up. Nuts and extravagant and magical.


The shrubs outside of the art museum were the most beautiful shade of chartreuse.



My tiny marble-headed sweetie dwarfed by the architecture of Milwaukee's art museum. . .


A gorgeous installation by Beth Lipman. It's hard to do justice with photographs.



From Theaster Gates' installation To Speculate Darkly--totally awesome. A powerful installation about the lack of attention given to African potters--most especially those yoked under slavery in the States.



forgot to write down the maker of this chair. . . just mostly thought if I ever needed a throne, it would look like this and I would give it a gold room to live in. Plus, besides the pretty, it's like a party throne--no need to wield power alone when you and your four best friends can make ruling into a mad social event.


Kees van Dongen The Quai, Venice. . . there's so much to love in this playful piece. Almost looks like the graphic work of the 30's and 40's, but here it is as a painting!


Alexei Jawlensky The Gardener


Jule Bastien-Lepage La Pere Jacques (The Wood Gatherer)

Out of Hand Herbs

I planted sage, thyme, chives, tarragon and oregano in the back yard a few years ago, and the only herb that hasn't run wild is the thyme. The oregano and sage would take over the whole yard if I would let them. In prep for hopefully, finally, (if it ever stops raining for more than a day) planting a few tomato plants, I butchered the sage and oregano and pulled out one full tarragon plant.

And now tarragon and sage are drying in the attic. Way too much for the two of us. Will friends or family get sage for Christmas?

A Few New Projects

mitts. mitts. mitts. mitts. mitts. mitts. mitts. mitts. mitts. mitts. mitts.

I have a million pairs of fingerless mitts that I have made for myself. I chill easily and so I even wear them around the house in the winter. And they're fun to make--short projects that let me try out new knitting techniques and patterns and textures.

But I have enough mitts of my own, so these will all be for sale in the fivetrees shop in late summer early fall. A little preview. I'm learning to make bobbles. . .


And these guys are a test run for an EP album cover for my sweetie. He's been recording off and on for months, and so I want to make sure the art comes out just right. But these guys--my little dry run--got turned into what? stick animals? puppets? hmmmm. . .

Storm Skies

Tornadoes touched down in nearby communities last night. Yesterday it rained so hard here that a rapids formed where our driveway/alley slopes down and hits the street. Summer storms are always the most violent. . .

But afterwards, if you've had the good fortune of not being in the path of a tornado and you and and all of your neighbors are fine, then you usually luck out and see some of the most beautiful skies--deep blue, the last monster cumulus clouds skittering out of town, crystal clear air and sunshine. Today was no exception (and maybe that was reason enough for the homemade ice cream at long last).

On the way to see our friends' new home in Oak Park (so, before seething with jealousy over the location and the beautiful 50's aqua woven-print kitchen counter tops), we saw this amazing installation of flowers made from recycled bottles.




And the skies all day were one gorgeous show after another.

Summer In Full Swing

What a bad blogger am I. . . it's been so long. In my defense, I'd be a better blogger if the part of me that's supposed to not lose her camera was better at not losing her camera. Alas. . .

But summer is in full swing in my house. The farmer's market is back on, which means summer foods are, too. Yummy barely cooked steak and fresh asparagus and dilled potato salad. Yummy spinach salads with watermelon (ok, so the watermelon is a cheat this early in the summer) and pine nuts and goat cheese. Salmon cakes over beds of spinach with fingerling potatoes, carmelized spring onions. All of those dishes made with herbs from the home garden and fresh veg from the farmers.


I love this season--partly because of bare feet, but mostly because food tastes like food again.

Tonight is chicken salad--50's style with mandarin orange slices and olives and pineapple--and for dessert? Homemade chocolate chip ice cream. The Houstons gave us an amazing White Mountain ice cream maker for our wedding. . . 5 long years ago and can you believe (with Dan loving ice cream as much as he does) that tonight is the first time we're using it? Ridiculous!

Ist Farmer's Market of the Year

Today was the first Oak Park Farmers' Market of the year.

Fresh Produce is back!

And the famous Oak Park Farmers' Market Donuts.

Why I Like My Job #6

I could go on and on. Really.

But I mostly like my job because I get to work with kids like this. . .



Go Vicente!

Why I like My Job #5--Entirely Selfish

My job is essentially an office job. I have a desk in a big shared room with a staff of brilliant friendly people. Which is good. . . but not unlike lots of other jobs.

But sometimes my job requires that I go to Second City to see the young people in Columbia's Comedy Studies program perform. And then Jason--a gent from Second City I have the pleasure to work with--brings me drinks that look like this:


It's Sprite. . . but the ridiculous amount of garnish elevates it to Funny Sprite. Jason works at S.C. He's a professional.

And sometimes my job requires me to eat an amazing meal and socialize with other professionals and then go to see things like this:


Buddy Guy singing live at Buddy Guy's.


And today is Manifest. . . eat your heart out.

Why I Like My Job #4

Columbia built a Film cathedral.

The new Media Production Center is beautiful. Jeanne Gang's newly designed and built architectural wonder manages to treat the study of film both reverently and as a serious business.


The front end of the building is this gorgeous church-like space with stained glass test pattern windows shining a many hued light down upon the Captain Kirk command chairs below (? and cool nevertheless)

And the back end of the building is all business with a build shop that would make most handmen and handywomen nationwide jealous.

I wish I had pictures of the monster sound stages. . . but there were students selfishly filming in them when I took my tour.

And my office has provided a trolley for tour guests to get down to see that building. And, no, a trolley isn't as cool as the new MPC. But it's fun and I could ride in it if I really wanted to--every Monday and Friday. I could hitch a ride to the south of campus for meetings or what have you.

And that's pretty cool.

Why I Like My Job #3

A neighborhood marketing effort for Manifest has been underway for probably the past month. A troupe of Manifest hooligans--in trench coats, blue and yelow vests and bowler hats--have been performing hijinks around campus. Playing games on the street, dancing, serving breakfast cereal from their handy suitcases to students and passersby. General shenanigans.

Yesterday, I caught them inflating a giant beach ball. For what? You might ask.

To play in Grant Park, of course.



I think they caught me taking photos. . .

But what's cool about this, personally, is that I work for a place that markets themselves weirdly, creatively, through play. And these kids are paid student workers.

They may never have a job as cool as this again. . .

Mitts!

Every year at the Chicago Holiday Renegade fair, people stop at my booth and ask if I have mittens and every year I say, "Sorry, no."

Well, I will have a different answer this year.


So, far, I'm just making fingerless mitts. . . but I think I might actually commit to making mittens as well. The great thing is that mitts are such a small project that I (or you!) can use them to learn new stitch patterns and techniques without much risk. As seen above, I'm learning to make bobbles!

Why I like my job #1 and #2

So, this week at Columbia College Chicago ends in Manifest on Friday and Graduation on Saturday and Sunday. It's the best week of the year on campus.

My job is hard. Tons of work and not enough hours in the day to do it all. This is true of the work of nearly all of my colleagues as well. But it's good work. Interesting work. And it's all for a place filled with creativity and the ability to change on a dime and a spirit of innovation and a love of the arts.

So, this week, I'm going to try to post a number of cool things about the college in celebration of this exciting week and the fact that while I undoubtedly give a lot of my time to Columbia. . . it certainly gives right back.

Reason #1:

Columbia got a new dorm. . .
And it has a graffiti floor for the Residents to tag at will.



Columbia graffiti wouldn't be complete without a (don't fret.).


Reason #1.1:
The students are funny.

Reason #1.2:
The students are serious and aware and accepting.
(Thanks, Miss Just, specifically for this one)

Reason #2:
When the professionals at the college decide to decorate the walls, they do work like this:

Oh, My Aching Back

I threw my back out this past winter and it's not quite back to its former self, but that didn't stop Dan and me from launching into our three year plan to completely overhaul the outside appearance of our home. Working on a little curb appeal, if you will. And I fear that I will have the stiffness to prove all of our hard work of today. . . tomorrow morning.

So, this is what the front of our dear bungalow looks like:


I can't wait until this is the "Before" picture. You can hardly see the sweet house for all the crazy plantings. The ridiculously out-sized trees that obscure the whole front of the house. The wedding veil bush on the far side in too small a space to be able to properly waterfall to the ground. The big round, nondescript bush to the right that is only of interest in the fall when it turns a deep burning red.

Meh. It all has to go. But it will take a lot of work to get that done. . . so we're moving slowly. A three year plan. This year, the dumb bush goes and we put loveliness in its place--loads of hostas, lily of the valley, and a tree of some sort. Don't know what yet. . .

But, man! That bush did not want to get out of there. Here's Dan being tough and taking that bush to town.


We worked for hours and then finally, our across-the-street-neighbor introduced himself--and his pick axe and sledgehammer--and gave that bush the final what for. Thanks, Ruben! We owe you one!


I know it looks thin and lame right now. . . but in a few years, its going to fill in and I hope look like a mix of cottage-y and forest glen-y.

And at least the back yard is simple and awesome. Herbs galore growing back and as always the huge Rhubarb. So, tonight I made a rhubarb/strawberry crisp from a recipe my Mama sent me.



Thanks, Ma! It's delicious. . . proving again and again why Mother's Day is so well deserved by the mothers in my family. Brilliant cooks, gardeners, thinkers all.

Saturday Well Spent

Last Saturday, D and I spent our time in the city--Artopolis at the Merchandise Mart first. Our grad intern was in the grad portion of the show--go Leilani! Not a single thing within our price range as far as the eye could see, but a lot of gorgeous art and antiques. . . I even breathed right on a Miro painting. Weird and fabulous.

This was my favorite painting of the thousands there:


Made me wish I had some big awesome, wide open modern home to hang it in.


Puppet Bike right outside the Merch Mart. A super fancy, bejeweled woman stopped Dan and me and thanked us for being delighted by the puppet show. I guess where she works in fancy town, everyone is too high brow to appreciate puppet animals dancing to old blues and jazz favorites. how sad for those people. . .


Absolutely terrifying. Right? Am I wrong? This is a bronze sculpture of Ronald McDonald outside of Rock'n'Roll McDonald's. How does this not scare children away?

A quick hot dog stop, more walk through the city, a stop at P.O.S.H and then up north to meet friends for dinner in Andersonville.

If you live in Chicago and you've never had Reza's baked feta cheese. . . you're crazy. Go there tonight. They're still open. Eat it. You'll be glad you did.

Zapruder Point at Sylvie's

Dan played at Sylvie's last week. . . and as usual, he rocked. But Sylvie's (as undoubtedly much of Chicago knows judging by my colleague's response when I told her, a drummer's wife, about the gig--anger, derisive laughing) is a pretty weird place.

Dan arrived and they told him he wasn't on the performer list. A phone call later that was corrected. But then they made him go on 30-45 minutes early, so when his friends showed up to see him play, his set was nearly over. And $5 for a Rolling Rock? meh.


The high point of the evening was definitely drinks after the show. . . down the street in another establishment.

Spring in the City

Is filled with unexpected surprises. Everything blooms in the burbs and then a few weeks later everything blooms by the lake because of the 5-10 degree difference caused by Lake Michigan. So, I forget to expect two springs.

The other day, walking from the train to work, I turned the corner from Congress on to State and these little beauties knocked me out. I actually gasped. . .


I hope the kids who live in the University Center felt a little lucky to be welcomed by these this past week coming out of their dorms for classes.