Field Museum Members Night!

it was the first time that we attended the member’s nigh with both Nadia and Kira! If was a very long day for them even though Anna took them out of school earlier, but we had tons of fun!

the event was extremely crowded, and there were so many things to do that we had to decide what’s the most important things we want, and not even try to cover everything. Before heading to the FIeld museum, they stopped at my work, had som efood and took the whole bag of snacks with them. It was a great idea, because the line to the cafe was very long, and we would waste a lot of time if we would decide to eat there.

We spent more than three hours at the museum (I didn’t think the girls would last more than two!). The highlight of the event was a visit to the mammal preparation lab, where they do taxidermy. That was the only lab for which we needed advanced tickets and the only one where you could not take pictures. The toxidermists were demonstrating how they skin a lioness!!!

There were many other interesting activities and stations where the scientists explained what they work on, or just explained some interesting facts. Nadia liked the station “Mammals are sick,” where the scientists explained how they can diagnost the diseases of the extinct animals by examining their bones.

One fun fact I didn’t know – different animals have blood of different colors, and pretty much all possible colors can be found in nature!

Dinasourus pappets
Continue reading “Field Museum Members Night!”

Biking Along The Lake

Last Sunday – my first long bike ride of the new season!

And More Theater!

Firstly, I found a review and a couple of pictures of the Prelude For A Kiss, which I am happy to share!

And a Chicago Reader review, where I can second every word!

Secondly, Igor and I went to see a Thanksgiving Play at the Steppenwolf. I was almost about to give up on the Steppenwolf after several disappointments, and that outing was almost “the last chance.” I am happy to report, that I loved it!

It’s a play written by a Native writer, and it’s about “well-intended white people trying to do right things” and then things going very wrong. It is hilarious. Satirical. Laugh and cry. The characters are remarkably recognizable. Here is a review Igor sent to me after we saw the play. It tells the story of the playwriter, Larissa FastHorse, and how the production came together.

it is still not the end of the theater season. I have a couple of CSO concerts to attend, and two Goodman plays. And then I have to decide whether I am doing any theatrical subscriptions for the next season :).

TIME Magazine: Parents Who Regret Having Children

In this Time Magazine article, R O Kwon addresses the topic that pretty much remains taboo even in the most liberal societies: not only are there people who choose not to have children, but also there are people who regret having children. She approaches this complex topic very carefully, understanding that no person in the world would wish to be this child their parents “would rather not have.” Still those parents, who regret, need to know that are not alone in the world.

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Parents Who Regret Having Children”

Jury Duty

It had to be now! After I was done with the conference and started to feel like a human, after I went to New York and was diverted to Milwaukee, after all of that, I received a jury duty summons! And then it went according to the worst-case scenario: I called a day before with the hope that I wouldn’t need to report, and I learned that I had to show up at the court (and it was Maywood!!! I couldn’t believe it was in Cook County!). I went to the court on Monday (almost two hours one way), sat there for an hour and a half, and ended up in a group that was asked to come upstairs to a courtroom. The judge briefly explained the case to us, and then we were divided into three groups. Each group was questioned by the judge, the prosecution, and the defendant’s attorneys. After all that, I was among the selected fourteen (with two alternates). Then came the worst part: because we started so late, we could not finish in one day, even though the case was not very complicated. We were ordered to come back on Tuesday! Fortunately, the hearing was scheduled for 11:30, so I attended the office first and participated in two meetings. And then, since it was already past rush hour, I took Uber to the court, which ended up being 20 minutes instead of almost an hour. 

Despite my laments about wasted time, I am glad I served. It was a very interesting experience, and I learned a lot about how our judicial system functions. I had no idea how the judge’s selection process works, so it was very interesting to observe what questions were asked by each of the parties. 

The most interesting, however, was to observe how much the process was similar to what they show in court dramas! During the first day of hearings, I frequently caught myself thinking: that must be a show! It can’t be a reality! But it was!

The way attorneys delivered their remarks, intonating to influence people’s feelings, the row of witnesses looking stereotypical beyond reason, and the intrigue of the sequence of events that started to unfold. 

We reached the unanimous verdict of “not guilty” in the first ten minutes, and to be honest, we didn’t even have to do this deliberation – the first vote proved that we had one opinion. We still talked a bit, mostly ensuring we reached this conclusion based on the same facts. When, in ten minutes, we knocked at the door and said that we had reached the verdict, the deputy sheriff was alarmed and almost creamed that she needed time to gather people back into the courtroom. However, we acted exactly as instructed, there was not enough evidence, and the prosecutors failed to prove anything.

Possibly more to come 🙂

Prelude To A Kiss

Sunday:  Prelude to Kiss at Above the Law theatre. I reallly-really-really liked it! I love Above the Law more than any other storefront theater for its incredible sincerity and the sense of being “in” the show (that’s what all the storefront theaters are good at, but Above the Law is exceptionally good!). The actors were so natural that you would forget to breathe because you did not want to interfere with the life happening before you. We took my mom to that show because she enjoyed it every time we took her before. She would always say that even when she didn’t understand a word, she enjoyed the acting. I didn’t have a second thought, but for some reason, this time, she got really angry that we didn’t tell her what the show was about in advance (we didn’t know). I have an idea why it was different that way, but I am not going to concentrate on that. No matter how others felt, I thought it was amazing:). A beautiful break in the middle of a very loaded weekend!

It is a very thought-provoking play, and I could not believe it was written in 1988 – it sounded so timely! 

Death Becomes Her

My neighbor, with whom we have most of the subscriptions, is traveling for the next couple of weeks, so we exchanged tickets for several shows. We ended up with three shows in one week, and that’s why I was unable to go to Joffrey one more time.

That being said, on Friday, it was Death Becomes Her. As I learned later, it was the week of the world premiere, and Chicago was fortunate to experience a pre-Broadway run of this show.

It was perfect in all possible ways. Brilliant acting, singing, and dancing, amazing costumes, sets, and stunts. It reminded me of Karel Capel’s play Makropulos Affair. I love pretty much everything Karel Capek has written, including his short stories and plays, and I think his legacy has been unjustly forgotten. The Makropulos Affair and The White Disease are my favorites, and I am so sad that his plays never get any attention anymore. Even RUR, which gave the world the word “robot” – how many people know what it’s about?

In any case, Death Becomes Her reminded me of one of my favorites. Since the show has just been launched, there are very few videos available, and they do not give any idea about how awesome the show is. I hope there will be more to come!

Joffrey’s Midsummer Night’s Dream

I am so sad I missed the first act! I actually wanted to buy one more ticket, but I was going to a Broadway show on Friday and to a local theater on Sunday, and there were no tickets for any of the two Saturday shows except for the seats on the very back.

This ballet has nothing to do with Shakepear’s play, and as always with Joffrey, there are no words to describe it!

Guggenheim Museum

A surprising advantage of a large portion of the museum being closed for renovation was that I could focus on some interesting paintings and actually consider them.

I love Kandinsky, and I am usually very good at decoding his symbolism, but I had moderate success with his “Pleasures.” The only object I was able to undoubtfully identify was a fork on the right!
Surprising Picasso
Henry Russeau
Paul Gauguin – I never saw horses on his paintings
Gorgeous Van Gogh
Toulous-Lautrec!
And guess who’s painting is that one!

I also saw several interesting installations by women artists and a large exhibit of art made by children participating in the museum workshops. But as I said, I focused on a small number of paintings (and I am still intrigued by Kandinsky’s work – still wondering what to make out of it).

WBEZ: Sex Miseducation

I forgot that I wanted to blog about this WBEZ episode, Comparing notes on sex miseducaiton .

It was aired at the end of March, and the name of it is very telling. The WBEZ guests discussed what they were taught at their sex education classes at school, and what should be taught. Absolutely worth listening!