Lollapalooza for Intellectuals

 In Chicago, fall means turning leaves, crisp days, pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks, and the Chicago Humanities Festvial...or, as it is now trying to bill itself, Lollapalooza for Intellectuals.  While I know plenty of intellectuals who enjoy the real Lolla, NS Magazine and CHF have a point: the festival is always a glorious smorgasbord of fascinating people doing amazing work in all fields of study.  (Fun fact: my friend Dara's husband, James McLurkin was one of those fascinating people doing amazing work in robotics last year!  Check out his work!)

This year, crazy busy schedules prevented us from taking advantage of as many of the presentations as we'd have liked, but we did make a point to make it to the evening with Renee Fleming, presented at the University of Chicago and hosted by Chicago Lyric Opera's dramaturg, Colin Ure.

Michel:  Strangely enough, Renee Fleming was also there to discuss her work in robotics.  She predicts the humanity will be fully cyborg within the next 8-14 months.  I think she might not be very good at robotics.

 Elizabeth: Besides her work in robotics, she also discussed her career as an international opera star and her work with Chicago Lyric on bringing and keeping arts education in the schools.  It was a really great talk, I thought.

Michel:  We also learned that she had a pet monkey for a weekend growing up.  Apparently, people used to buy monkeys at department stores.  But it was an interesting, well-curated discussion. 

Elizabeth:  The next weekend we had the opportunity to see Renee again, this time as part of the Chicago Lyric Opera's 60th Anniversary Concert.  That's me all dressed up because we found out last minute that it was technically black tie...

Michel:  Although in our section, I saw a number of people wearing jeans.

Elizabeth: It was fun getting all gussied up, though.  Fun and cold. 

The Civic Opera House is a gorgeous example of art deco architecture, and it was all done up for the event.  Although even not done up, it's a beautiful building.

 Lobby level

 The lobby from above

 The lobby ceiling

 Non-black tie riff raff

Elizabeth: The inside of the theatre itself was gorgeous, too.  To the left is the ceiling right near us.  We were the second to last row from the top.  It's actually not a bad view, but the sound has a difficult time getting past the tiers of ceiling to the nose-bleeds.

Michel:  Except for Stephanie Blythe who may as well have been sitting next to us when she sang.  She could be heard through 8 feet of concrete.  And I mean that in the most complementary way possible.

Elizabeth: Yeah, she's got some lungs on her.  Plus her voice is gorgeous...like buttuh.  She was probably my favorite singer of the night. 

Michel: But Eric Owens, Christine Goerke, and Quinn Kelsey were also pretty great. 

 Elizabeth: The evening presented several international opera singers, including the four above mentioned as well as Renee, Ana Maria Martinez, Johan Botha, and mybestfriendSusanGraham, singing some of their favorite pieces, supplemented by the Ryan Opera Center's young artists.

Michel:  In addition to the singers, Jane Lynch was the very funny emcee, and in between songs were sketches by some of The Second City's main stage performers.  It's probably the only environment where they can make Pinkerton jokes that kill.

 Elizabeth:  We were thisclose to Jane Lynch before the show because she was hanging out in a hallway right next to the sidewalk where we walked in.  It was super exciting.  You'll be seeing us both on Hollywood Game Night since we're now close personal friends with Jane Lynch.

Michel:  As celebrities, of course.

Elizabeth:  Even though some of the aria selections were...weird, it was a pretty incredible evening of comedy and opera!

Michel:  The true star of the evening was the butterscotch mousse from Fork.  It came complete with chocolate dipping cookies.  

Elizabeth:  I don't know.  My apple crisp with homemade maple ice cream was pretty tasty, too.  Fork, we discovered, is one of the few places city open late enough to do an after-show dessert date.  Fortunately, the desserts are delicious, plus it's basically on the way home.  

Thus ends our week with Renee.  We had an excellent time, and hope she did, too. 

Michel and Elizabeth Experience "The Change"

Recently some of you have been asking what fall looks like in the Windy City, particularly in regards to leaves changing colors.  Now we don't live next to the Shenandoah National Forest, like Elizabeth's brother, Ben, does, but our neighborhood puts on a pretty good show.  Michel experienced leaves changing growing up in Pennsylvania, but for a Houston girl like Elizabeth, the massive expanses of yellow leaves are pretty exciting.  So we thought we'd give you a glimpse of what a walk in our neighborhood looks like mid-October, especially as we had our first real snowfall of the season this weekend.

And yes, you would be totally right in guessing that this post is just a tiny bit of a filler post until we get through some of our craziness in work and school and have time to catch you up on all of our excitement from the last few weeks!  But our neighborhood is a pretty cheerful place to be on a gorgeous fall day.  Enjoy!

Bears, Beets, Bourbon, and Birthday

Michel's birthday was...over a month ago, but senility being what it is, Michel just now remembered that it happened.  Thus the late blog post.

Michel's parents came for the weekend, and we visited several of our old favorites, including the Art Institute, the U-Boat at the Museum of Science and Industry, and Marmalade.  However, the weekend included two new activities, both involving bourbon. 

On Saturday, we headed up to Evanston to check out FEW Distillery.  It took us a while to find it as it is located behind a street-facing building at the back of an alley.  FEW Distillery is named after noted temperance crusader, Frances Elizabeth Willard, and is the first legal distillery in the formerly dry Evanston.  Mrs. Willard's house is located nearby, and apparently it caught fire the day the distillery opened.  The distillery staff considers that a good sign for their success.  

Michel:  We started in the tasting room where the guide gave us some of the history of the distillery and Evanston's relationship to alcohol.

Elizabeth:  Next we headed into the distillery itself.  Unlike Koval, where the tour takes place in the old distillery rather than the current working one, FEW's tour takes you right into where the distillation process is currently happening.  While I would say that overall Koval's tour is more comprehensive in exploring the distillation process and their role in the American craft distillery movement, it is pretty cool to see a giant blue tank of mash fermenting away at FEW.

The barrels are color coded based on what type of alcohol they contain.  The stills look like bassoons, and that big blue tank on the right is the mash.

 Michel:  The mash smells like a boozy bread bakery.

Michel:  The bottle art and all of the branding are inspired by the 1893 World's Fair, held in Chicago in 1974.  Each spirit features a different major element from the Fair's White City.  For example, the American Gin is the famous Ferris wheel, and the Rye Whiskey is the fountain at the center of the White City's lake.

Elizabeth:  The bottle art is definitely my favorite part!  And after we learned about the bottle art, we got to taste their product.

 

Timi and I did not care for the gin.

Michel:  My dad and I liked pretty much all of it.  My favorites were the rye and the bourbon.

Elizabeth:  I think overall I prefer Koval, but it was really fun to see a working distillery.  

Michel:  I agree.  Koval has a greater variety of liquors and it's our neighborhood distillery, but there is an old-timey kind of fun about FEW. 

Timi and Ian flew home early Sunday, which happened to be Michel's actual birthday.  So Ben and I had plotted to have a fun surprise for him on the day.  Our favorite pub, Fountainhead, was having a Bourbon Brunch, and Ben and I got Michel tickets.  Unfortunately Ben was not in Chicago to go with us, but a little before noon, we headed down the street to Fountainhead for a 3 course brunch with bourbon pairings and a lecture by noted bourbon expert, Michael Veach.

 The Menu

 We were seated at communal tables with strangers.  Our tablemates were very friendly, and one had moved to Chicago from Austin to be an old-school restaurant captain.  It was pretty cool.

Michel:  This is Michael Veach.  Imagine if Garrison Keillor was less energetic and exciting and was an expert on bourbon.  That's this guy.

Elizabeth:  The birth of the bourbon industry is full of scandal, trickery, outlaws, and other exciting things.  However, I can't really give you more details because his delivery was so dry that I glazed over.  The food was delicious, though.

Michel:  Shockingly, at a bourbon brunch, Elizabeth enjoyed 2/3 of the drinks served!

Elizabeth:  It was as big a shock to me as it is to the rest of the world.  I particularly liked the first cocktail, but that's probably because it has maple syrup in it.  As everyone knows, maple syrup is a food group to me, and I will eat it on or in anything.  A-ny-thing.

Michel:  Her maple asparagus is a little disappointing.

Elizabeth:  Don't lie.  You love it. 

 The first course: Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cheddar Cheese Fritatta with Caramelized Onion Jam, paired with the above cocktail, The Arlington.

Elizabeth:  It was...tasty? Interesting? Unique?  I enjoyed it, but the best part was clearly the caramelized onion jam.  Amazing.

Michel:  I thought it was very good.  Probably would have been better without the Brussels sprouts portion.

 The second course: Late Summer Vegetable Salad with Cornbread Croutons and a Sriracha Sherry Vinaigrette paired with a Fig Infused FEW Bourbon (hey, we were just there!)

Elizabeth:  I really liked this salad, especially the cornbread croutons.  And though I still won't be sipping straight bourbon anytime soon, the fig infused bourbon was nice enough.

Michel:  The cornbread croutons were the best part of this very good salad.  The fig flavor paired nicely with the sweetness of the bourbon without ever becoming cloying.

The final course:  Chicken and Waffles! 

Michel:  Well, it wasn't just chicken and waffles, it was whiskey bacon waffles and fried chicken liver, which was the best part of the meal.

Elizabeth:  And rosemary maple syrup.  So, yum.  The waffle was ok, the chicken livers were surprisingly tasty, though pretty rich, and the bourbon was undrinkable.

Michel:  False.  The bourbon was spectacular.  It was a small batch 10 year old Henry McKenna, and it was great.

Michel, the happy birthday boy, in need of a haircut.  (Michel's commentary.)

Elizabeth:  I'm not entirely sure the lecture part was worth it, and I really don't think very many people stayed for the industry round table discussion with Mr. Veach after the meal (we didn't), but it was a really fun way to try some new beverages and celebrate Michel's birthday.

Michel:  It was a great birthday weekend filled with good food, booze, and family.

Driving My Tesla Out of My Frank Lloyd Wright House

 
Way back when it was still warm and balmy in the city of Chicago, we journeyed out to the neighborhood of Oak Park to see the one and only (well, one of many) Frank Lloyd Wright house, run by the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust.  What makes this particular one special compared to the other Lloyd Wright houses in Oak Park and the greater Chicago area is that this was the architect's home and studio from 1889-1909.  It's the official Frank Lloyd Wright house, if you will. 


Driving into the neighborhood, we were greeted with beautiful examples of the traditional Victorian-style house.  (Elizabeth: The one to the left was my particular favorite of those.)  These houses are roughly contemporary with the Frank Lloyd Wright house and more closely resemble what one might imagine was the predominant style of the time.  And then you see Mr. Wright's house.  The exterior is much more modern, almost mid-20th century to my mind, as if he were predicting the future of architecture 70 years out.

Michel:  Lots of triangles.

Elizabeth: And lots of rectangles.  Just lots of angles in general.

Michel:  But triangles were his main thing.

 Elizabeth: But the guide made a point of pointing out all the shapes together.

Michel: But mostly the triangles.  I refer you to the sign below.

Elizabeth:  Fine. 

Michel: See the triangle?  Kapooyow!

Elizabeth:  Ok, so we had found a coupon for tours of the house and studio and decided to go see all of the shapes that Mr. Wright employed.  There are octagons, too, you know.   We don't want them to feel left out.

Michel: But what is an octagon if not 8 triangles?
 

  

 





Vision Test:  We figured we'd let the Oak Park Chamber of Commerce do the work on the historical background.

Elizabeth:  The tour started in the back yard near the ginkgo tree and gift shop, took us through the house, which he designed and redesigned for his growing family, and studio area.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but not only was the architectural innovation impressive but so was the thought and detail he put into making his design space a real home for his family.  One of my favorite rooms was the children's playroom, which included a stage and loft where they could put on plays.

Michel: I liked the playroom, too.  To the right you see the embalmed remains of Frank Lloyd Wright.  He was made of stone, which makes his entire career all the more impressive and inspirational.

Elizabeth:  Except that he wouldn't be embalmed if he were made of stone, and, also, I believe that statue is a woman, according to the guide literature.

Michel:  One, even stone wears away over time, thus stone people need embalming.  Two, assuming feminine features exist only in women is sexist.

Elizabeth:  Except I'm not assuming.  I'm going by the official literature and what FLW said himself about carving the statue.  You should try it some time.

Michel:  Agree to disagree.

Elizabeth:  The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust has done a remarkable job of restoring and preserving the home and studio, down to the tiniest details.  It's really spectacular.  I never really realized how ahead of his time Mr. Wright was until this tour. 

Michel:  After the Wrights moved out, the house was converted into 7 apartments.  It remained this way until the 1970's when the house was declared a historical site and the restoration work began.

Elizabeth:  And the crazy thing is you can walk out the front door and down the street to see several more examples of Wright's work.  There are walking tours of the Oak Park neighborhood devoted to seeing his designs, and there is plenty to see.  The neighborhood essentially functions like an art gallery devoted to his work.

Michel:  We saw a dude driving a Tesla out of the driveway of this house.

Elizabeth:  This is one of the FLW houses.  Must be nice.

Elizabeth:  We took just a short walk down the block to the car, and we saw 3 additional FLW houses.  There were plenty of other people wandering around, clearly on the walking tour, but the residents hardly seem to notice the random strangers gawking at their houses.

Michel:  I imagine it's like living inside a museum.

Elizabeth:  This last house, the Moore-Dugal Residence, reminded me of a church.  It was pretty cool.

Michel:  Note the triangles.

Oak Park is gorgeous, and we look forward to exploring it more when the weather turns nice again!