We saw "The Turn of the Screw"

We went to our favorite little theatre  (Writers' Theatre) tonight to see The Turn of the Screw  adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the story by Henry James.

The acting was intense - but I don't do ghost stories. They leave me cold.

Life is a learning experience

One can learn important lessons from even the most mundane experiences. For example, yesterday I bought a Waterpik. Today I tried it out.

The lesson I learned was that it is important to switch the Waterpik off before removing it from ones mouth.

I have finished posting all my pictures from Bolivia, Peru and the Amazon

I have finished my latest trip pictures. They are here.

Overall it was a fascinating visit. Highly recommended - if you are willing to travel in less than 5 star comfort. Overseas Adventure Travel, the tour company, did an outstanding job. Our tour leader, Johnny Malatesta, was one of the best we have had.

Amazon photographs partly posted

Click on the photo (or here)to see what has been posted so far.

As you Like It

Last night we saw "As you Like It" produced at the Writer's Theater in Glencoe. This company always puts on excellent productions - but this time they outdid themselves. It was brilliantly produced in modern dress and acted with energy and enthusiasm. We smiled all the way through.

My art lessons

I resumed my weekly art lessons - this palette looks better than the painting it produced. I have put most of my output in this gallery.

WGN Weather Center Blog: More than a month’s precipitation could hit from storms the next 2 weeks

Just what we needed:
WGN Weather Center Blog: More than a month’s precipitation could hit from storms the next 2 weeks

Julia Dances at Northbrook Court

Jacob at the Symphony

We took Jacob to his first symphony concert last Thursday night. The program was
Verdi - Overture to La forza del destino
Saint-Saëns - Cello Concerto No. 1
Strauss - Ein Heldenleben

He enjoyed the evening , expressing amazement at the precision of the orchestra. His comment was "They must be robots". Given that as far as I know he was totally unaware of the CSO's reputation for precision, that was pretty insightful.

The next morning we took him to the aquarium.

La Paz, Bolivia

Our first stop was at La Paz, Bolivia.

We both were somewhat affected by the altitude (about 12,000 ft) but we settled down after a couple of days. Drinking Coca tea definitely helped alleviate the symptoms.
The city was a bit of a surprise - it looked pretty much like a slightly run down European city. I was expecting a more "third world" feel.
For all the facts about the city, see Wikipedia here.

Outstanding CSO Concert

We went to the CSO on Saturday night. John Eliot Gardiner conducted, and Robert Levin was the pianist.
The CSO presents a pre-concert lecture series starting an hour before each concert. Last night the talk was delivered by the conductor and soloist. This is unusual. Most of the time the talk is presented by a musicologist, and sometimes by an orchestra member. They are always informative and sometimes amusing. It is a rare treat to hear the principals of the performance describe the works. Their discussion really increased the impact of the performance on me.
The program was:

Shostakovich - Chamber Symphony for Strings in C Minor
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4
Schumann - Symphony No. 3 (Rhenish)

We sat in the seats behind the orchestra, above the timpani. The performances of the Shostakovich and the Beethoven were powerful and moving. The Schuman paled by comparison.

Robert Levin improvised the cadenzas - he assured us they were different each tine he played. Amazing.

An orchestra member, Michael Hovnanian blogs regularly. His take on the concert is interesting.

We went to the Opera last night

Eugene Onegin was performed on a minimalist set. The first half was short on action - the "boy meets girl" part of of the story. The people sitting behind us left. The second half which contained all the action (dancing, duelling, etc) was much more lively.

Back from the Amazon

Well, we are back from our winter escape trip. Our objective was to escape Chicago's snowiest winter in three years - we met our objective. We visited Florida, Bolivia and Peru. The contrast in cultures between the Lake Titicaca reed island people, the Amazon river people and the Florida snowbirds was thought provoking and fascinating.
I will be posting the trip pictures over the next few weeks as soon as I have worked my way through the usual mail backlog.

As usual, the editing work will be slowed by the events know as "life". Life begins today with "Carter's Way" by Eric Simonsen at the Steppenwolf Theatre.

Leaving Winter for a While

Chicago's winter has been one of the snowiest on record. This is our local suburban downtown last week: Time for us to go off to the Amazon for some warmer weather.

Julia receives her first siddur at Schechter

Julia's Dance Recital

Julia (on the left) danced at a Charity event. Click on the picture for a few more images.

Chicago's Rapid Warm-Up - from 0 to 60 degrees F in eighty hours

Who said Chicago is cold in winter?

From my favorite weatherman:

WGN Weather Center Blog: Chicago's Rapid Warm-Up

Happy New Year

I found this patriotic mailbox near my daughters house. Looks appropriate as a greeting card.

We saw Julius Ceasar at the Lyric. Awesome!

I am way behind in posting my quick takes on what we have seen. Problem is that we had to reschedule a lot of stuff that that we should have seen while we were travelling. Life gets in the way of posting.
We saw an outstanding production of the opera Julius Ceasar by Handel - on December 1! Not only was the experience engrossing, we found street parking near the Opera. As can be seen the performance was in anachronistic dress, but it worked. A clear twofer!

Two Days with Two Grandchildren

This raises a variation on the old test question: If two grandchildren can wear out two grandparents with two cameras in two days, how long will it take for three grandchildren to wear out one grandparent with no cameras?
We took Julia and Abigail downtown for two days (Jacob would have come as well, except for a bout of stomach 'flu.) We had a busy two days - Spertus Institute, the park, Chinese dinner, and the Field museum. I amused myself by switching the D300 with the Tokina 16-50mm to P mode with Auto ISO and firing away. The combination is great up to ISO3200. Don't worry - if you don't know what that means, you also don't care. For those who care, the Raw images were processed in Lightroom with default Noise Reduction. I did mess with other parameters, obviously. This small set is edited down from about 170 originals - the rest are only for the family:-) A few are G9 - obvious from the aspect ratio.