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Jun. 5th, 2009
Weekend plans
Jun. 5th, 2009 10:49 amThe Printers Row Lit Fest is this weekend. Anyone interested, we're meeting up at the Panera Bread at Congress and State (across the street from the Library) around 1:15. Here is a map. We will wander, and shop, and perhaps do little happy-book-dances, deoending on the selection. I will have just come from the dentist, so please don't make fun of my drooling.
Sunday is the 7th annual Gimme Shelter walk at Indian Boundry Park 2500 W. Lunt, starting at 10. If you want to walk you have to register online for $15 but there are also lots of things to do and all proceeds benefit the Red Door shelter. Look for Pepper and I doing something useful.
Sunday is the 7th annual Gimme Shelter walk at Indian Boundry Park 2500 W. Lunt, starting at 10. If you want to walk you have to register online for $15 but there are also lots of things to do and all proceeds benefit the Red Door shelter. Look for Pepper and I doing something useful.
canceled my dentist appt tomorrow too.
This one I can kind of understand - I was a little concerned about starting a procedure and then waiting 5 weeks for the 2nd appt! But they had better not cancel these next ones - we'll be butting up into mid-August by that point and I hope to be busy with faires by then.
At least now if I drool on the books at LitFest it will be on purpose...
This one I can kind of understand - I was a little concerned about starting a procedure and then waiting 5 weeks for the 2nd appt! But they had better not cancel these next ones - we'll be butting up into mid-August by that point and I hope to be busy with faires by then.
At least now if I drool on the books at LitFest it will be on purpose...
Mock The Art
Jun. 5th, 2009 02:17 pmI dressed up last night and went to the Chicago Steampunk Society meetup at the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute. Target is sponsoring free admission on Th and F evenings. There were only 5 of us, plus one who found us later. There were 3 college girls who mostly talked to each other - and a guy came with him but he never spoke to anyone and wandered off in fairly short order. Then there was the organizer and myself, who had quite a nice time. She used to be with ThistleCroft at Bristol, and she was taking a LOT of pics.
Now I confess, I simply don't 'get' modern art. Painting two canvas stretcher frames two different colors and nailing them together does not make it art, at least as far as I'm concerned. I realize that Art is meant to provoke a reaction, I suspect that the reaction isn't meant to be "Is that Silly String?".
Upon further reflecion we decided that piece looked like the end of a shift at the cake decorating shop - a sort of blob of lefover buttercream of various colors. It turned out to be made of paper and was part of the special display of work by Cy Twombley, who I believe may possibly have the most amusing name in existance. I now firmly believe that there is a small village in somewhere in England named 'Upper Twombley'. Apparently Mr. Twombley's mother was frightened by a title when she was pregnant, because virtually every piece in the show was Untitled.
We wandered among the many rooms engaging in a lively game of Mock The Art.
"So, what does this piece say to you?"
"Yes - it says 'I was remodeling my kitchen and had leftover formica'?"
I believe that there is an excellent photo of me standing in front of a painting salled "Still Life" which didn't hel very much, with my head tilted sideways like a puzzled puppy. I hope that one comes out - it probably has a lot to say about What Is Art' (although it's probably not in English)
I also have a beef with the designers of this wing. It is very unclear exactly how one is supposed to behave. In one room there is a metal black-and-steel checkerboard looking thing, and the guard encouraged us to step on it. Next to it was the pink formica tabletop thing, and when I approached it for a better look I was chastised by another guard for standing too close to it. There are no ropes or anything around it. The guard pointed out the very subtle 'Please Do Not Touch' - which was set in pale metal letters in the woodgrain floor. In fact, I was standing on it at the time.
In another room nearby there was ANOTHER flat metal work on the floor - this one was rust-colored and had words on it, but again we were standing on the 'Please Do Not Touch' sign by the time we saw it. Two similar works, displayed in similar settings in nearby rooms, yet the patron is expected to somehow know what can and can't be touched. However in the Twombly show downstairs, the freestanding works were surrounded by a grey metal inlay in the woodgrain floor - thus it was VERY clear how close you were allowed to get to the work. A lot of people (like me) are already a bit uncomfortable with Modern Art as it is, and having random people yell at you while you are in the gallery certainly doesn't help the comfort level any.
I did rather like one piece, as it took the notion of what makes an object 'art' so far as to remove the object entirely from the equation. It was green vinyl letters stuck on the wall that read something like "Removing an object from its context and placing it in a place where it stands as a representation of a thing" - so what you have is "art" without actually having the object. It amused me.
So we wandered past the various depictions of naked people (rather a lot of those) and penguins (who lacked beaks or wings or feet or pretty much anything that might dstinguish them as penguins - in fact I first though they were toes) and bags of cat litter and giant tissue boxes and lots of bright colors until our feet hurt and we decided to go have tea.
After posing for a final round of snaps (and attracting the attention of a rather incoherent and profane fan of SteamPunk, we dropped by Russian Tea Time. Met up with another girl who hadn't gotten off work in time but knew we were planning on heading over there afterwards so she lurked on the corner waiting for us. She's a Theatre student at NU so we had a lot to talk about. We all had some lovely teas (Mmmm Citron Green!), then the 2 sisters had to scurry off to catch their train (and neglected to leave a tip). The rest of us stayed for a bit longer before wandering off a little before 9.
It would have been more fun with more people, but hopefully we can do something else together sometime.
Now I confess, I simply don't 'get' modern art. Painting two canvas stretcher frames two different colors and nailing them together does not make it art, at least as far as I'm concerned. I realize that Art is meant to provoke a reaction, I suspect that the reaction isn't meant to be "Is that Silly String?".
Upon further reflecion we decided that piece looked like the end of a shift at the cake decorating shop - a sort of blob of lefover buttercream of various colors. It turned out to be made of paper and was part of the special display of work by Cy Twombley, who I believe may possibly have the most amusing name in existance. I now firmly believe that there is a small village in somewhere in England named 'Upper Twombley'. Apparently Mr. Twombley's mother was frightened by a title when she was pregnant, because virtually every piece in the show was Untitled.
We wandered among the many rooms engaging in a lively game of Mock The Art.
"So, what does this piece say to you?"
"Yes - it says 'I was remodeling my kitchen and had leftover formica'?"
I believe that there is an excellent photo of me standing in front of a painting salled "Still Life" which didn't hel very much, with my head tilted sideways like a puzzled puppy. I hope that one comes out - it probably has a lot to say about What Is Art' (although it's probably not in English)
I also have a beef with the designers of this wing. It is very unclear exactly how one is supposed to behave. In one room there is a metal black-and-steel checkerboard looking thing, and the guard encouraged us to step on it. Next to it was the pink formica tabletop thing, and when I approached it for a better look I was chastised by another guard for standing too close to it. There are no ropes or anything around it. The guard pointed out the very subtle 'Please Do Not Touch' - which was set in pale metal letters in the woodgrain floor. In fact, I was standing on it at the time.
In another room nearby there was ANOTHER flat metal work on the floor - this one was rust-colored and had words on it, but again we were standing on the 'Please Do Not Touch' sign by the time we saw it. Two similar works, displayed in similar settings in nearby rooms, yet the patron is expected to somehow know what can and can't be touched. However in the Twombly show downstairs, the freestanding works were surrounded by a grey metal inlay in the woodgrain floor - thus it was VERY clear how close you were allowed to get to the work. A lot of people (like me) are already a bit uncomfortable with Modern Art as it is, and having random people yell at you while you are in the gallery certainly doesn't help the comfort level any.
I did rather like one piece, as it took the notion of what makes an object 'art' so far as to remove the object entirely from the equation. It was green vinyl letters stuck on the wall that read something like "Removing an object from its context and placing it in a place where it stands as a representation of a thing" - so what you have is "art" without actually having the object. It amused me.
So we wandered past the various depictions of naked people (rather a lot of those) and penguins (who lacked beaks or wings or feet or pretty much anything that might dstinguish them as penguins - in fact I first though they were toes) and bags of cat litter and giant tissue boxes and lots of bright colors until our feet hurt and we decided to go have tea.
After posing for a final round of snaps (and attracting the attention of a rather incoherent and profane fan of SteamPunk, we dropped by Russian Tea Time. Met up with another girl who hadn't gotten off work in time but knew we were planning on heading over there afterwards so she lurked on the corner waiting for us. She's a Theatre student at NU so we had a lot to talk about. We all had some lovely teas (Mmmm Citron Green!), then the 2 sisters had to scurry off to catch their train (and neglected to leave a tip). The rest of us stayed for a bit longer before wandering off a little before 9.
It would have been more fun with more people, but hopefully we can do something else together sometime.
