Exploring Chicago: Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park

We have been blessed this week with some really beautiful weather in Chicago. To talk about Chicago is to talk about its weather. Every day you are in for something new, be it cool breezes and clear skies, 100% humidity and 105 degrees, or 40 degrees and rainy, all of these can happen in the span of one week. The weather was cool at the beginning of the week but started to get hotter yesterday, but it was still breezy, clear, and not too hot - perfect weather in my humble opinion. 

During the summer Millennium Park hosts a large number of events. There is something to do there every single day from yoga at sunrise, lunchtime concerts, to movies and the Grant Park Music Festival and all free! Every Monday is the Downtown Sound series, which began a few years ago and brings in all sorts of bands. In recent years, I've seen The Head and the Heart, Iron & Wine, and even She & Him (so awesome). Pritzker Pavilion is one of the best places to go in the summer. 

So last night, my friend Jessie and I decided to head down to the Pavilion for a picnic and a simulcast of the Paris Opera Ballet's opening night production of Giselle. It is "the nation’s first-ever free, outdoor simulcast of a live ballet performance by a major international company." Giselle has never before been produced in the United States. We arrived at about 5:30 (the lawn fills up really quickly and you don't want to be one of those people who arrives as the show is starting only to have to weave through the maze-like crowd to find a 2x2 patch of grass to sit on). There was a small part of the lawn to the west that was shaded so we hunkered down and unpacked our food. At 9:30, the Navy Pier fireworks started blasting directly east of the Pavilion. We could see them through the trees and it just reminded me how awesome this city is. There are always countless options on how to spend your night. If you are bored in this city, you are doing something wrong.

Jessie had gone to Big Jones in Andersonville for lunch earlier in the day and had their Boarding House lunch, which includes biscuits, cornbread, fried chicken, mashed potatoes (and gumbo gravy), greens, red beans and rice, and snickerdoodles, all for the low price of $16. She went with a friend and they had this much chicken left over! So she brought this and let me say it was really good, even cold. I could not stop eating it. She also made homemade sweet tea and brought that. A perfect summer picnic!

This is Jessie. During the show she asked me what the name was of that one opera where the sad clown sings (her words)? So we Googled sad clown opera and, what do you know, it came up. It's Pagliacci. People are funny.

This is the lawn when we arrived. I cannot say how much I appreciate the city of Chicago for commissioning Frank Gehry's first building in this city. It is a major draw for out of towners and city dwellers alike.

The architecture of the Pavilion makes for awesome pictures.

Suddenly the lawn is packed! Everyone looks so cute in their summer clothes and their picnicking gear.

This is my attempt at getting a close up of the screen - cell phone cameras are not too good for this sort of thing, but you get the idea.

Exploring Chicago: The Museum of Contemporary Art

Yesterday, I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's open until 8 on Tuesdays and admission is free so basically you have no reason not to go. I love this museum for its accessibility because it is small and easy to navigate (unlike its bigger sister down the street). The current exhibitions include a series called Phantom Limb: An Approach to Painting Today, which consists of works created using something other than a paintbrush; and Rashid Johnson, a photographer who began his career at Columbia College and who produces what can be described as "conceptual post-black art." Unfortunately, the fourth floor was under construction so I did not get to see the Martin Creed exhibition.

Isa Genzken, a German artist, created this piece by covering it in paint and then dragging it face down across the floor of her apartment. Before I even read the method of this painting, I thought it looked remarkably like dust on a floor! It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but it's pretty awesome.

Sympathy for the Devil, Adam Pendleton

This work was commissioned for the MCA's 2007 exhibition entitled, Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll since 1967. Pendleton uses the same techniques in silk-screening that Andy Warhol did.

Trophy, brown, Aaron Curry and Richard Hawkins

This is painted on cardboard! And that blob in the middle of the framed painting on the left side is a scalped Halloween mask.

What I really liked about this blurb was the line, "the artists represented in this gallery have welcomed the messy reality of the modern world into their paintings." Oh what a messy reality it is, too.

Bad Dog, Christopher Wool

Why wouldn't I take a picture of a painting that says Bad Dog?

Love in Outer Space, Rashid Johnson

I love this one because the title refers to a Sun Ra song and the painting is created using beans placed on the canvas, then spray painted over, and removed. What a cool method to get that celestial effect.

Rashid Johnson (that is him in the third pic from the left middle row)

Study for Frank, Chuck Close

This is part of the First 50 exhibit, which has the first 50 objects that entered the museum's collection. Of course I had to take a picture of the Chuck Close one, I can't deny my hipster tendencies.

I also cannot deny my affinity for Lego. Who knew it could get you into the MCA? I have no idea who the artist is or what the title is, but it's great.

Well, hello there.

Hello. I've been feeling the pressure lately from friends and family to start a food blog, so here goes. I am pretty much obsessed with food and beginning to wonder if I need to go to a Food Lovers Anonymous group. When I am not eating I think about what my next meal is going to be. It's one of the things that gets me through the day. This blog is not going to only be about food, but about my adventures in the city of Chicago. I just moved into a one bedroom apartment in Ravenswood Manor and I am quite busy decorating it and making it look like my home so I will be posting things on here about that. I also love fashion and shopping so there'll be a little about that too. I am on a budget and real traveling is out of that budget so I am on a mission to get to know every corner of my little town. I will be getting a better camera, but until then please bear with me as I use cell phone pictures (eek I know!). I will get into the groove, I promise!

Last Saturday night, my friend Jessie and I met our friend Nina in La Grange where she lives. We had a wonderful dinner on the sidewalk patio at Prasino (sorry I didn't take pics as it was during this dinner that they convinced me to start this blog.) Afterwards, we walked around, enjoyed the weather and stopped at this fantastic ice cream shop called Tate's. They make all of their ice creams in the store every day. I ordered the blueberry waffle (the flavor of the blueberry was delicious, although I could've done without the waffle). We were able to try as many flavors as we wanted and I tried nearly half of them. All spectacular! They also sell nostalgic candies and have the cutest old-fashioned cafe tables and chairs.

Nom nom blueberry ice cream.

This is Jessie and Nina, two of my best friends. Smile!