Category: events

The Great Gatsby On Broadway

I love the book, love that period in history, and, I guess, that’s one of the reasons Chicago is my kind of town to the extent it is: the Roaring 20s was the most glorious period in its history. That show was just what I needed this week, when I needed to stop worrying about everything, and I left the theater in the most positive state of mind I had during the last month.

Lots of patrons were dressed in the Gilded Age style, including my neighbor, and I felt very inadequate, but still enjoying myself

Lyric Opera Season Preview

That was the event where I lost my phone for 20 minutes! As a subscriber, I had an invitation to the Lyric season preview, to which I planned to go with one of my friends, who canceled at the last minute. I thought I would still go, although I already knew what would be performed during the season, and I had already renewed my subscription. Still, I thought it would not be bad to attend; after all, the Lyric Opera House is just two blocks away from my office.

Then I looked at the email with the event details and saw that they would have a reception from six to seven, and decided to come earlier to get some fine bites.

I was glad I went, because everything looked very festive, and the snacks and desserts were delicious, and then I found that there was not only complimentary wine, but complimentary tea and coffee as well. And five minutes later, I realized that I didn’t have my phone on me, which meant that I had nothing literally!

During the next twenty minutes, I deeply regretted going, and was trying to figure out how I could restore my life (I have my State ID and my physical card in the phone case, and I wouldn’t be even able to get home!

Fortunately, the phone was found and returned to me twenty minutes later, but those were very miserable and scary 20 minutes!

Another Concert With Mom

I think I will stop taking my mom to the concerts :). On Sunday, I took her for another one, this one was at the CheckOut, a new venue relatively close to where I live. I’ve been there several times, both on my own and with my mom. She is always complaining that the sound is not good enough, and the venue allows her to be super-close to the performer, and see and hear everything.

To be quite honest, this concert was a disappointment for me. To put it politely, it looked like the performer used to be an excellent piano player many years ago, and now is rapidly losing it.

I know that this can happen even with the most outsatnding musicians. I will never forget how I went to listen to Van Clyborn concert at Ravinia many years ago, and he was not even that old, but it was a micerable experience.

My mom didn’t get what was going on, but she was saying that “the movements of his hands were not in sync with the sound,” which was totally her imagination and that “it was bum-bum-all the same over and over,” which was also not exactly the case.

I have another pair of tickets for both of us for the concert on May 3, but I looked at the program and at the performers and realized that it wil be another “what is his national origin,” situation, so most likely I will return these tickets. Actually, than was a replacement for the concert which I could not attend because of my travels, and I knew it won’t be an adequate one, so I do not have big regrets!

And More CSO

That was the third CSO concert I attended within one week. This one was last Thursday, and I went with my neighbor, with whom I attend most of the events. The conductor was Andrey Boreyko, and the featured soloist was Evgeny Kissin. I told my neighbor that the first time I saw Kissin performing was when he was nine years old, and I still remember it, because he sounded extraordinary. Well, 40+ years later, he is definitely a great pianist, but I somehow felt like he lost his spark, or just was not at his best.

The technique is flawless as usual, but it didn’t touch me as much as I thought it would, and I attribute that to Kissin not putting his whole soul into this performance. I do not know how to better describe what I felt.

You won’t tell any of that, looking at the pictures below, so I am willing to accept it was just me.

One more note. One of the pieces performed was a Suite from the Tale of Tsar Saltan, and even the program notes stated that the Flight of the Bumblebee is the only music from Rimsky-Korsakov that the world knows. The audience became very enthusiastic with the first sounds of this part of the suite, and even my neighbor pushed my elbow 😂. Well…

Sunday

There was one more CSO concert on Sunday, the one where I took my mom. I used to purchase a separate matinee subscription for her, but I know that no matter what she says, it is becoming difficult for her to attend the events often. Besides, to be completely honest, going with her is not more entertainment for me, but a difficult job.

She used to enjoy the music, but now she always says that she was looking at the musician’s hands rather than listening, and I feel a little bit resentful spending money on the tickets when she is not really engaging in the show. That would be OK, as long as she’s saying she enjoys time with me, but also, she keeps saying unpleasant things about everyone: a conductor, musicians, patrons, and staff. She recognizes many musicians, and she has some opinions on their character, which I have no idea how she got. Most frequently it’s “he always thinks too high of himself, he likes to show off: look at me, I am so great!” I think that most likely it’s because when she sees people on the stage smiling, she does not understand why 🤷🏻‍♀️. She also comments on everyone clothing, body sizes, hairstyles, etc, and always asks “what is the nationality of this artist,” and get upset when I tell her I have no idea.

The concert was very good, and I hoped that the program which contained several smaller pieces will be better for her to stay focused. Unfortunatley, the seats I got where on the side, rather than in the center, so she had trouble capturing the sound, and also she could not see the musicians hands, so she didn’t like it that much. She could see the conductor, which partially compensated for the rest 🙂 .

LUMIÈRE, LE CINÉMA!

I am still unsure whether it was a good idea, but that was my typical full-blown FOMO: I read about this new film, which tells the story of the invention of cinema by the Lumière brothers, featuring over 100 original shorts, and I really-really-really wanted to see it! And there was not a single screening I could attend. Finally, I decided to do this silly thing: I got a ticket for 8:15 PM on Tuesday, hoping I’d be able to come to the Siskel Center after the egg coloring in the ODS. I decided that if the residents wanted me to stay longer, I would not go, but we were done coloring by 7:30, so I left around 7:45, and was at the Siskel Center on time.

The film was very long. The program said it was 106 minutes, but it was still not over at 10:10 PM, when I decided I needed to go, otherwise I won’t be able to get up the next day!

My other laments: in the clip, the comments are in English, but at the screening, the comments were in French, and the subtitles were white, which made it difficult to read over the black and white screen, so often, I would choose to pay attention to the screen rather than the story. I found the most interesting to see how they chose what exactly they were filming, and how exactly.

Here is the Siskel Center description of the film, and the trailer:

In one of those wonderful coincidences of history, lumière, the French word for “light,” was also the last name of brothers Auguste and Louis, whose brilliant invention, the cinematograph, helped to inaugurate the most beloved art form of the last 130 years. Institute Lumière director Thierry Frémaux uses LUMIÈRE, LE CINÉMA! to guide the viewer through over a hundred shorts—some famous, some forgotten, some never before seen—directed by Lumière and company. In the process, Frémaux illuminates how the brothers employed the camera as a creative instrument as they (and their operators) mastered framing, staging, and subject selection for quotidian and exotic microdocumentaries as well as the first ever fictional motion pictures. The result is not only a glorious re(telling) of the genesis of cinema but a profound meditation on the beautiful world captured—and the mysterious world imagined—by the Lumières.

Even though I definitely did not get enough sleep on the third day after I came back from Finland, I think it was totally worth it!

Helsinki Music Center

On Friday evening, we went to one more concert. Once again, it was in the Helsinki Music Center, which I first visited last time, and loved it. This time, it was Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert was titled “I Want to Be Alive”, and that was the name of the piece which was performed after the intermission, and was composed by Daníel Bjarnason. OK, I know it sounds confusing, so let me say it again. Daníel Bjarnason was conducting, but the first part featured Wagner and Szymanowski, and in the second part, the orchestra performed the piece composed by Bjarnason, which was called “I Want to Be Alive.” And that’s also how the whole concert was called.

Once again, I love this venue!

Once again, sitting on the side when there is a soloist, is a bad idea. Boris said he remembered I said so, but he got the tickets on the side again, and it was a bad idea again/ The orchestra sounds great. The soloist when there is no orchestra, also sounds great. But not together. You have to face both the orchestra and the soloist to get a good sound.

And one more, completely unexpected! We saw Esa-Pekka Salonen in the foye!!! First I thought: no, it’s impossible; it’s just someone looking like him, because otherwise, there would be a big crowd around, and he is just talking with a couple of people. But later, when we passed by one more time, I realized that Finns were just being polite, because other people were turning their heads back after they passed this group :).

Below is some interesting art on display in the foye, and a sculpture in front of the Music Center.

An exhibit in the foye

… and yes, a million years ago, there was such a thing as an ice-cream after going to the movies, right?

Madama Butterfly At Lyric

OMG, what a beautiful performance it was! I read all about it before coming (except for reviews, of course), so I knew that it is set like Pinkerton being a modern life gamer, and he plays the story in virtual reality. And when he gets to the next level, he has to choose whether he is staying with his American wife or with Chio-Chio-san, and he chooses the former, and then the tragedy unfolds.

It’s so beautifully done! Everyone is so real! My neighbor said it’s the best she’s ever seen at Lyrics. She says this often :), but the performance was great, indeed.

A Piano Recital At The Fine Arts Building

I was there on Sunday, because my friend Y started to take piano lessons there, and she really wanted me to come, and I promised her I would.

To say I was impressed with her teacher is not enough. She works with such a diverse student body and has so much patience and love, and offers endless encouragement and support. And all this in that amazing building, where the walls speak of history and great artists of the past!

I deeply regretted that I couldn’t stay after the recital for a small reception, but that weekend, my time didn’t belong to me; I had way too many things to complete. Even today, I feel very bad that I had to leave, because this teacher is doing God’s work, and I should have told her that in person, not through my friend Y.

I will definitely come to the next recital, and I already told Y that she should stay with this teacher and never quit 🙂

DePaul Industry Night

On Wednesday, March 11, our non-profit Pairie Postgres participated in the  Business & Data Analytics Industry Night at DePaul University as a resource for students. I was pleasantly surprised that our communications with DePaul are deepening, and they actually do all they can to include us in any events we might be interested in. It was great to talk with students directly. Yes, it might feel like a very modest outcome: one student registered for our June conference, and one student emailed us to tell us he wants to volunteer, but it’s so much better than nothing (which we had before!).

Carlos, the only local Board member except for me, was able to join me, and another organization member, Robert, also joined us. We had a great time at the event and appreciate the opportunity to connect with students and share that learning about databases can benefit their future careers.

I saved the last copy of our book from being silently taken 🙂