Wednesday was my first working day in Helsinki, but after work, we went to a proper concert. Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra performed Elgar’s Violin Concerto (“the longest violin concerto”:)), and the Beethoven Fifth (and the whole concert was called “The Sound of Fate”. The soloist was Christian Tetzlaff, whom I heard a number of times at the CSO, and who is absolutely brilliant. He canceled his CSO appearance in October due to visa issues/in protest. Not sure which one is true, I heard both versions, but in any case, I was delighted to hear him again.
Also, that was the first time I attended a concert in the Helsinki House of Music, and I had an opportunity to experience this outstanding venue!
The coolest organ I’ve seen in my life!
Beautiful sound and great view from any seat, easy entrance and exit, fast service at the cafe and at the coat check – everything about this venue is perfect 🙂
On Wednesday, I went to see the first show of the year of my Broadway subscription: Eureka Day.
This Timeline Theater production was performed at the Broadway Playhouse by the Water Tower. I have mixed feelings about this venue: it’s further from the Loop, so I need to plan for an almost 40-minute commute, including the wait (or walking for approximately the same time), and also, it is often very cold inside, but I really like the house layout (a better view from virtually any seat), and faster commute back home.
The plot is as timely as it can be. A private school in California, based on principles of consensus and inclusion, where no decisions can be made unless all Board members agree, faces an outbreak of mums. The events take place during the 2018/19 school year, when Zoom is still new and largely unfamiliar, and a quarantine decision is not taken lightly. And then comes the contradiction between parents who want to change the school rules to make vaccinations mandatory and anti-vaxxers, some of whom have deeply personal reasons to refuse to vaccinate their children.
I really liked how the Zoom message exchange was displayed on a big screen, revealing very common conversation patterns between the parties.
For those who have time to read the Behind-the-scenes booklet for Eureka Day, here is the link. There is a lot of interesting information about the history of vaccination in the world and in the US specifically. The most interesting part is that the play was actually written in 2018, before the pandemic, and now it’s hard to believe the choice of dates isn’t intentional!
Unfortunately, I didn’t find any video clips from this play. If you find any, let me know, and I will add them to the post!
OMG, that was something! I knew this documentary would be interesting, but it was so powerful and thought-provoking that I found it challenging to participate in the Q&A immediately after: I felt I needed to process everything I had seen before asking any questions.
Wiesel’s “Night” is a classic; it’s part of most high schools’ curricula. It’s one of these rare books that “almost everyone read.” Still, so many things we do not know; at least, I didn’t know. Most importantly, I never saw any footage of Elie Wiesel’s public speaking. And the whole documentary is just that: his own voice. The film producer/editor Michael Chomet, who spoke with the audience after the screening, said the film was commissioned by the family, but the artistic direction was his, and the family didn’t see the movie until it was finished.
The parts which impressed me most were:
The footage of Wiesel talking with Ronald Reagan before receiving the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, when he explains to the President how his planned visit to the German cemetery will be perceived, and what he should do, and how, later, when speaking at the public ceremony where he receives this medal, he repeats the same speech. The way Reagan reacts and responds. (As I said, it’s hard to believe we had such an intelligent and sensible Republican President)
His Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, when he says he understands Palestinians but disapproves of their methods
His urge to speak up, not to be silent
The footage of 13-year-old high schoolers from a New Jersey magnet school, when they discuss “Night” (Rudavsky told us that they made a separate short documentary based on this footage)
Said multiple times, both by Wiesel and his former student: suffering is not a badge of honor; suffering is not something that defines you, it’s something that informs you. I can’t stress enough how much I agree with this statement.
I can talk at length about this documentary, but I still won’t be able to convey everything I felt while watching. Five-star rating.
As I mentioned last week, my attepmt to see two new exhibits at the Chicago Architectural Center was unsuccessful, since they switched to reduced hours after the holidays. Yesterday, I was planning to attend the show at the Siskel Center, which started at 4:30PM, and I figured I can visit the CAC right before that.
The first exhibit is called “Framed Views”, and it shows the photos taken during the Open House Chicago. If was really nice, and I liked many of the photographs on display, but nothing unexpected.
The second one, however, was one big Awww!
This exhibit is called “The Disappointed Tourist”, and it’s descrition reads:
Is there some place that you would like to visit or revisit that no longer exists?” This is the question posed by The Disappointed Tourist, an ongoing project by artist Ellen Harvey presented in nearly 300 paintings at the CAC.
Based on this description, I thought it will be mostly about demolished buildings and such, but it was much more than that! It also covered real places which were gone long time ago, as well as some mythical ones.
Each picture includes the time when the building or placce was gone, and for me, the most horrifying were the pictures of ancient monuments gone during the most recent wars.
I startled when I saw Atlantis on this wall, because I first thought that this exhibit only concerned the recently demolished buildings, but it turned out, it was much more than that. Then, I followed down and saw the Hanging Gardens of BabilonContinue reading ““The Disappointed Tourist” Exhibit At CAC”→
My mom turned 91 yesterday, and we had a small celebration at Anto Pizza by Jarvis Square. This place never fails us; it’s perfect for any small family-style celebrations. They are officially BYOB and happy to provide glasses and bottle openers. I stopped by them last week and asked whether we could also bring our own dessert. They were surprised by request but said: sure!
Anna ordered a cake at a bakery just outside the border of Chicago, Sweet Temptations Bake Shop, and it was excellent! They used raspberry mousse instead of icing inside, and fresh raspberries for decoration.
My mom liked that the celebration was so small and cosy, and I think she also liked that John drove her both ways. At least, she didn’t complain about anything, neither at the restaurant, nor later in the evening when I called her.
The logistics for both Friday and Saturday were exceptionally complicated, because Friday night was my gift night for John and Anna: they had tickets for Phantom of the Opera and a night at Palmer House hotel, and I had the girls, and in the morning, the girls had a CSO for Kids concert, and then we had to pick up the cake, to pick up mom, and get my gift for her from my house.
I opened the Armenian pomegranate wine, which I bought on my recent trip, and it was also exceptionally good! Now I regret I got only one bottle!
I briefly saw this exhibit when I was at the Art Institute with my granddaughters during their winter break, and I wanted to go back and see it one more time when not in a rush (and possibly more times later – I usually try to visit each new exhibit several times). My original plan to do it on January 3 didn’t work, so my next opportunity was this Thursday, when the Art Institute is open until 8 PM. I still had to visit my mom on that day, so I planned to be there for no more than 1.5 hours, and maybe come one more time later.
When I entered the hallway which led to the exhibit, I saw a sign “Free event today,” but since I had never seen any evening free events in the Art Institute (just fancy receptions sometimes), I thought that this sign was left there since midday. But to my surprise, when I walked into the exhibit hall, I heard a conversation which sounded exremely interesting, and I hurried up to join it.
It turned out that there were two docents conversing with the group of visitors. I can’t even call it a tour, because it was very informal, and both docents were passing the ball of the conversation to each other, happily including the visitors, and turning their questions into the prompts to tell more. It was a million times better than any lecture!
These drawings represented different music genres
Goff was an artist, an architect and a composer, and he didn’t want to follow conventional way in anything he did, including the choice of materials.
So that I won’t leave a trail of stories-not-told, a quick recap of Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday morning, we went for breakfast to the Common Cup “to compare the breakfast sandwiches,” and the vote was that “both were good, but different.”
A coffee-cup decorated tree in the Common Cup
Shortly after, we left for Christkindl Market, planning to get there by its opening. The plan didn’t exactly work, since we had a couple of photo stops on the way (and a couple of fights), so we actually arrived at 11:20.
There was no wait, but the market was pretty crowded; besides, all three of us wanted food from three separate lines 😂, and it was really difficult to navigate. We got everything everyone wanted, and then we stood in a really long line for the best hot chocolate (Belgian, with a chocolate wrench on top).
Then, we went to the Sweet Castle store. As usual, there was a line to enter, but the girls were willing to stay in it. I told them they could get two small or one big thing each, and they ended up with gummy bears and hard candy (I hinted that there might be a lot of chocolate in the presents). By the time we got out of the Sweet Castle, the crowd had subsided a little bit. There were still a lot of people, but as Nadis put it, fewer intimidating, so we happily continued our journey exploring the market, and stayed in another line to get into the Christmas Ornaments store.
Next stop was a manicure appointment. We started walking toward the DePaul campus (where the nail salon is located), but there was a bookstore on our way, and we couldn’t pass it without going in and starting to read off the shelves :).
… and then since we were by Harold Washington Library, one can guess what happened next :).
On Tuesday morning, we were waiting for Anna and John to come and have a pre-Christmas celebration together. They ordered the food from Honeybear cafe, and picked it up on the way. Once again, Igor escorted my mom to my place, and we had brunch, and exchanged presents.
Igor and my mom left, the girls packed, and all five of us went to the Merry Merry Chicago Concert. For Nadia, it was for either the third or fourth time, and she was looking forward to it. Kira was restless, and at the end, she said it was boring, and she didn’t like it. I think it was indeed too long of a concert for her, because before that, she only attended half-hour children’s concerts.
I went how and started to get my life in order. Actually, this time, the girls did a very decent job of keeping things in order, so it was not like I had a lot to clean up. However, I also had to pack for a short trip, catch up with work and other responsibilities, visit my mom, and finally talk to Boris for longer than ten minutes at a time. This took pretty much all the time starting with after the concert till 6 PM on the Christmas Eve, when I left the house with my luggage.
Last year, I took Nadia to her first Nutcracker, and she was mesmerized with the performance, and was looking forward to this year’s one. This time, we also took Kira; I had somedoubts, especially because the way we got the seats, the girls were in the first row, and I was in the second row right behind them, ready to jump and put Kira on my laps. It was not necessary; although both girls fidgeted in their seats, theyloved the show. A very special Chicago Nutcracker was brilliant as always; I hope they will never change it 😊.
The introductory images with the pictures of the old newspaper articles about immigrant workers were as relevant as they could be!
Th usual pile of presents in the foyer
The official 2025 trailer:
The girls fidgeted the most during the Snowflake dance and during the final dance of the Sculptress, and indeed, if there are any “classic” parts in the Joffrey Nutcracker, these ones are. However, when I later asked them which parts they liked most, both of them mentioned these two. Kira said she wants to be one of these little Snowflakes :).
I especially liked this year’s Sculptress, her final dance was out of this world!
More of Joffrey Ballet Instagram (and you know I can talk about them for hours, so i ‘d rather stop now!)
It’s not easy to get on a Santa Train, because these days, there is only one train instead of two, and it runs on different CTA lines at different times. Igor and I were discussing how we can get the girls on the train, and the only option seems to be to try to get on it after the Nutcracker, which was a little bit tight, even taking into account the usual holiday train delays. But then Igor realized that we could catch it in the opposite direction, when it departs from Howard, and take it to the Nutcracker instead.
The girls were impatient, so we left well in advance, and it turned out to be perfect, because there were picture-taking opportunities and tons of candy canes.
A line for pictures with Santa
Finally, the train doors were open, and we got inside (Igor joined us by then). It was super crowded, so even though we got the seats, it was difficult to see the rest of the car.
The ride took significantly longer than it would be on a regular train, but we still managed to get to the Nutcracker on time!
On Thursday, I got on the Santa Train, just because it happened to be one after the next train, and because the next train was so crowded that I almost couldn’t get on.
It was also super-crowded, but I really needed to get to my next destination, and an Elf reluctantly let me on when she saw an opening.
It became less crowded towards the end of the route, and an Elf started to move around the car and distribute candy canes.On that day, I actually had to go to the final stop, and had a chance to take a lot of Santa’s pictures
The picture below was taken on Friday, and that was a Fannie May holiday trolley:
And more presents – from Scotland and from Sweden:
Hettie's Reflections 