Google Docs does not upload titles to the Blog

For the techies (if any) reading this blog - this entry is the first that I have written using Google Docs. If you have not yet tried it - do so immediately. It is the latest incarnation of "cloud computing" which has been nearly ready for prime time for at least 10 years. It is becoming useful, at last.
Thursday we spent the day downtown, getting a dose of "culture". We woke up to a damp and dreary day, typical of what our Chicago spring has been so far. This was the view from our window.

Our first stop was at the Chicago Symphony to watch an open rehearsal of "The Planets" by Gustav Holst. Unfortunately, we could hear very little of the dialog between the conductor and orchestra members. The piece had been well rehearsed. It was to feature in Sunday's "Beyond the Score" performance (I always want to call the series "Beyond the Fringe" in memory of the British revue that brought Dudley Moore to the world's attention. If you have not heard the record, try to do so - or visit me, I have it).

We attended the live performance on Sunday. The "Beyond the Score" approach is to play extracts from the work accompanied by commentary and images that provide some background information. After intermission the work is played through at its normal pace. As a result we got to listen to the Planets three times in a a very short period. Unfortunately the rhythmic complexities proved beyond the capability of the conductor's and orchestra's communication skills, and the performance was often a tad ragged - unusual for the CSO, but becoming more common as they continue to drift without a permanent music director.
Anyway, back to Thursday. After the rehearsal I spent some time in the Art Institute. First I stopped at one of my all time favorite paintings - Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877 By Gustave Caillebotte.

This painting was doubly appropriate - it mirrored the weather outside the museum

and is painted in a style that foreshadows Edward Hopper - whose special exhibit we saw later in the day.
I next visited an exhibition of photographs by Ed Ruscha. His paintings were way better than his photographs.
Next we toured the parallel exhibits of the watercolors of Winslow Homer and the works of Edward Hopper. We were short on time, but a quick walk-around convinced us that we should return for a more leisurely look.
At 6pm we attended a lecture on "Winslow Homer:Artist and Angler". Interesting.

We walked back to the car and drove home suffering from sensory overload.

Now, if you are reading this it means that I successfully transferred this document to Blogger from Google docs - without it ever existing on my own computer. The wonders of cloud computing.