Skip to main content

Side Quest - Chicago

While we've spent a lot of time this year working on the Akron almost-mansion, I don't want people to get the impression that's the only thing we do. Though it's maybe not reflected all the time in this blog, my wife and I have interests that extend beyond removing wallpaper, wandering around big box home improvement stores, and talking with contractors. Music and art remain interests of ours and we're quite happy to travel either when we can. A few weeks ago we went to Chicago and got to enjoy both.

My wife is the biggest Patti Smith fan I know, yet she'd never seen her live. So when Patti Smith announced a series of concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her seminal album, "Horses" we jumped at the chance and purchased tickets for one of the shows at the iconic Chicago Theater.


It was an amazing show, made even more special by the fact that Smith was born in Chicago and clearly holds the city close in her heart. The band and the venue sounded great, and the complete lack of visuals and effects gave the show a welcome intimacy (and human scale). For her part, Smith sang, stomped, shouted and clapped through a two hour set with the energy of someone half her age. 

But the power of iconic women artists didn't stop there. While Patti Smith was the original impetus for our Chicago trip, her show coincided with a major exhibition of Yoko Ono's work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and an retrospective of Elizabeth Catlett's work at the Chicago Art Institute.  We'd  missed the Elizabeth Catlett show when it was at the Brooklyn Museum, and were thrilled when we saw we'd get a second chance in Chicago.

The Yoko Ono exhibition featured over 200 of her works dating back to the late 50s and early 60s. It featured films, performances, photos, drawings, and participatory pieces including Mend Piece (1966). In this work visitors are invited to use tape and twine to help 'mend" broken fragments of China, and then display them on gallery shelves. 


a less well-known but equally formidable artist is Elizabeth Catlett. The exhibiton, Elizabeth Catlett: “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies” traces her career as an artist, advocate and activist through the second half of the 20th-century. Included in the show are sculptures, prints, paintings and woodcuts, all imbued with the artist's tireless sense of justice. A personal favorite of mine was Floating Family from 1995. This piece was created for the Henry F. Legler Regional branch of the Chicago Public Library, where it normally hangs above the circulation desk. 


Other highlights from the trip included a visit to Goddess and the Baker on Wabash Avenue...


The magnificent Tiffany Dome at the Chicago Cultural Center (formerly the Chicago Public Library)...
 

And the fall colors and Chicago skyline views at the lovely Laurie Gardens...


So, while we haven't done as much travel as we might have liked in 2025, I was grateful for a chance to spend a long weekend in Chicago with my wife, and some other amazing women. 

Now, it's back to work. That Akron almost mansion isn't going to prime and paint itself! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ohio Historical Center: A Defense

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by Carrie Ghose at Business First to share my thoughts on architecture in central Ohio. The recent controversy surrounding the new Student Union at Ohio State had apparently sparked a number of conversations regarding what constitutes "good" building design. Carrie was following that story , and developing a second piece to get feedback on other notable Columbus buildings. At the time I offered a staunch a defense of what I believe might be the most maligned and misunderstood building in central Ohio, the Ohio Historical Center. Business First wasn't able to run the whole piece, so I've decided to turn it into a blog post. photo courtesy of OHS/ www.ohiomemory.org The refrain is a as old as the building itself, "It's ugly. It's just a giant brown box. It doesn't even look like a museum". Sadly, it's that exact line of thinking that poses the greatest threat to the building Architectural Record referre...
7 comments
Read more

Some "Before" Pics

I noted in a previous post that we bought a house. Now that the ink has dried on our closing documents, I feel like I can share a bit more about that. While my wife and I currently live in Columbus, we've got family in the greater Akron area and had been looking to move there for a while. There were many houses we looked at, and many houses we could have bought. The one that we ultimately landed on though was 1925 almost mansion in north Akron. If I were to describe it in the parlance of real estate listings I'd say, "This spacious home in Akron's historic North Hill neighborhood boasts wood floors, radiant heat, loads of period details, a stunning ravine view, and...racoons. Two people stand in a snow covered yard in front of an older home that is overgrown with vegetation. They hold a sign between them that says "SOLD". An interior picture of an empty dining room in an older home. The room has wood floors, dated wallpaper, and wainscoting. Yeah. Racoons. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Problem With Librarian Problems

So it's come to this; a curmudgeonly blog post about the state of the profession (complete with finger wagging, tsk-tsking, and even a little SMH thrown in for good measure). "Shake your fist at 'em Pops. These kids don't know from librarianship". That's how you do it, right? Oh, the irony. I've spent 15 years in the profession deriding Will Manley and his hectoring ways. Now I've apparently become him. Point being, I'm acutely aware of all the contextual layers of this post. I know the implications and risks of saying, "Hey, that's not cool". I've been around long enough to know how easy it is to dismiss the contrarian stance; to push back against even the slightest hint of correction (Trust me, I've done it plenty of times myself). More to the point, I've been around long enough to know how easy it will be to dismiss what I'm about to write. Please don't. It's important. It's important to us individua...
8 comments
Read more