Date Night with an Italian

Last Thursday was date night. Clerg put on his nice tie and took me to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with its First Italian - the famous Riccardo Muti. The evening started off with a world premiere of Space Odyssey by a Belarus composer Smirnov (sounded cute, like old versions of Tom & Jerry, or as the gentleman on my left put it, a space movie from the fifties) and continued with a rather emotional 3rd Symphony by Schubert.

We were by far the youngest in the audience on the sixth floor Gallery of the Symphony Center, the elderly couple on Clergs left both fell asleep and snored loudly throughout the Allegretto and even before Muti could put away his baton for the intermission, several older gentlemen climbed up the stairs to get to the bathroom first.

The second half, Carl Orff`s Carmina Burana, was especially overwhelming for me because I still knew some words from performing it three years ago in Solothurn, Switzerland! It was of course performed by the full 100 member orchestra and both the 200-singer Symphony Chorus and the Chicago Children`s Choir. Altogether a great evening followed by the Museum Day on Friday. Chicago residents get into all museums for free until mid February so we decided to follow up on the eighteenth century European music with European arts until nineteenth century. Here are some examples to give an idea of the mood of Schubert`s contemporaries. Then we went back to the twenty first century life, grocery shopping.

That image and in general, the insides of the Chicago Art Institute reminds one of The Thomas Crown Affair with Brosnan and Russo. Although the museum is a home for several great works by both Manet and Monet, the movie was not shot here. I checked Wikipedia.

Dashing Through the Snow

The weather in Chicago is like the Republican primaries - every time something different. There are very cold days with temperatures till minus 18 Celsius, and then mild foggy and rainy days, and then there is the icy wind, and on Friday, even the Swiss press was talking about a snow storm in downtown Chicago. All flights were indeed canceled in O`Hare but I have a feeling it was more because they did not manage to plough the snow off the landing strips rather than because of a storm. It was snowing all day, yes, but a storm is something else for us.

On Saturday it happened to be a mix of everything we had had the whole week: snow, fog, rain and ice in a slushy minus seven. Normally, we would not even think of leaving the apartment but the time had come to run my 10 km race, the Chicago Polar Dash in Grant Park and Lakefront, my home trails. It was everything one would expect of a run on a day like this and it was awesome. During the 1.05.51 (Yai!) Clerg was running around too, with his camera.

Clerg just came in and said it was plus four outside. And Newt Gingrich won South Carolina.

And now there is a thunder storm with lightning (I promise, I am not making it up).

An American Weekend: Part Two

Raise your hand if you have been to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Yeah. So Monday is Martin Luther King Day and for people it means a day off, and so some of the guys had this idea to go to Milwaukee, and so we have now been there, too.

Taking a train was surprisingly convenient, even if accompanied by the typically panicky American transportation organization with security checks and id-ing. Only an hour and a half later there we were, in the America Chicago seems to be so far away from. It was gray, snowy, empty, and very quiet. Google says the city and suburbs have over 1.7 million people, but at least this weekend, no one seemed to be at home. The streets feel very Estonian, somehow, cold and long. Surely, the clear German touch also adds to it. In the nineteenth century the Germans mainly built Milwaukee on beer, and this is why our first compulsory visit was to the Lake View Brewery where seven bucks got us a tour (no EU regulation would EVER let anyone make any food like this, but the grubbiness was kinda cute), four cups of the house beer (one worse than the other) and a brewery glass. The evening ended for us in an overly expensive but apparently America`s most famous German restaurant Maders (everyone between JFK and Justin Bieber have eaten a wurst there) and for the younger folks in the Coyote Ugly, where, as we heard the morning after, it had really been ugly.

The highlight of the day was seeing the wings of the Milwaukee Art Museum Quadracci Pavillon open exactly at noon, and the absolutely exquisite building by the famous Spanish architect Calatrava kept us inside for quite some time. Another reason to visit the place is Harley Davidson, because this is where the bikes were born and are still made today. The museum, shop and a bikers` restaurant entertained us for the rest of the afternoon. This weekend we saw America again.

Museum Day - Chicago Contemporary Art

On Friday I got really sick and tired of staring on my screen and decided to pay a visit to my city. I walked through the Loop and along the river and by the time I was downtown it occurred to me that this would be a perfect day to open the Museum season. Clerg was happy to join in and so we went to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. They currently host a special exhibition called the Language of Less (Then and Now) and to be honest, sometimes it was less than what our minds could capture to be arts. You know, some young guy I do not even bother remembering the name of ripping apart plastic bags and leaving them in the middle of an empty hall. Sure, we diligently read the texts explaining the ideas behind the bags but as Clerg well put it, it is easier to acknowledge arts that at least needs some work. Luckily, the rest of the museum offered plenty of it. Two of the bigger stars were the Canadians Ian Baxter& (the official last name is pronounced Baxterand, indicating that he is not alone but a part of his surrounding world) and Ron Terada, who both had not only worked hard but also packed large chunks of social criticism in a diverse and subtle esthetics, way beyond a plastic bag.

Eat, Run, Work - Another Day at the Chicago Office

Not much to say about the past week, the photos are a good summary of what it has been like at the desk in our home office.

A Happy New Year

The new 2012 has been very happy so far. For the New Year`s Eve Party our German guests arrived early, the Swiss and Japanese exactly at eight and the Mexicans twenty minutes late as always, and the Peruvian guests arrived with some strong stuff they mixed into exotic cocktails in our kitchen to enhance the already super chill Stimmung we were having. The original plan was to go outside to the yacht port or even Navy Pier but since our windows not only provide a good wind shield, also the view is simply the best from our living room, we stayed exactly where we were.

After a late night and a long morning we started the new year with treating us to a little run and cheese cake (Clerg only cheese cake) and the first home game of Bulls that they won ridiculously 104-64. The poor Memphis Grizzlies were so unlucky that I developed some motherly feelings for them, but the Bulls were simply just invincible. A good start to the year.