Category: events

Constructing Hope: Ukraine

Saturday was the day of St. Patrick’s celebration, but I did anything but that. In the morning, I was in the clinic escort, and then I walked to the CAC because I wanted to see two new exhibits and buy Chicago River Cruise tickets for people coming in April.

Unfortunately, the shortest way from the clinic to the CAC building is along the Chicago River, and unfortunately, that was precisely when they started to dye the river green!

A side note: two years ago, when I was in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day, I was shocked to see how calmer and more civilized the celebration was there!

The last two shots were taken from the windows of the Chicago Architectural Center, and my goal was to see the Constructing Hope: Ukraine exhibit.

This exhibit showcases the work of grassroots initiatives to support short- and long-term Ukrainian reconstruction efforts. While the exhibit space is filled with first-aid sheltering kits, Co-Haty project works, and design ideas, the video monitors screen the footage of the crews asserting the damage to the buildings, women crying over the ruins of their homes, cursing the invaders. To be honest, that left me with hopelessness rather than hope, but that was how that day went.

By the end of the day on Saturday, having clinic escort in the morning, then seeing this exhibit, and then watching Under the Grey Sky, I felt like there were so many real threads in the world that all my troubles and fights were absolutely not important and I have no right to be upset about them.

I still do, though 🙂

Belarus’ Resistance

To add to my yesterday’s post, a couple of pictures from the Siskel Center foyer where Mara Tomkevich posed with one of the activists of the Chicago Belarusian community and audience members.

She is amazing, and I keep thinking about this movie and how powerful it is. During the Q&A, Tomkevich mentioned that all the scenes from the rallies and arrests were the actual footage and even the soundtrack to the scene by the prison gate was recorded by the prison.

It’s so sad and so unfair that so few people know about the events of 2020 in Belarus, about resistance, rallies, arrests, and prosecution. I hope this movie will spark some interest in these events and that the struggles of the Belarusian opposition will be more widely acknowledged.

Last Week In Review

I had some events to attend every day of that week, plus trying to get six hours of sleep every day (hopeless), plus everything else.

Out of the six cultural events I attended last week, one was “above categorization” (the screening of the “20 Days in Mariupol), two were in the category “OK, but I won’t lose much if I didn’t attend,” and three were great.

The two were “The Fat Ham” in Goodman

and “Clue” at the CIBC theater.

The audience was ecstatic at both shows, so I guess I should attribute my ambivalence to “I am not in the mood for “just funny” things” these days.

The ones I loved.

Continue reading “Last Week In Review” →

20 Days In Mariupol

The Siskel Center ran “20 Days in Mariupol” as part of their Shadows of the War Lecture series, which meant that this documentary was a part of the curriculum for the students of the Art Institute of Chicago. The tickets were also sold to the general public, so I got a chance to watch it (without advertising).

It’s incredibly painful to watch this documentary right now, with Trump doing what he is doing, with the UN resolution, and everything related. Adding all the other battles I have to fight these days, it feels like the whole world is against me, and all the evil forces are coming from one source (which is not true).

I do not think I can add any meaningful comments about this documentary. In the beginning, the lecturer mentioned that “there is not much reading available” for it, but I am sure that there will be plenty and that it will remain in the history of war documentaries as an outstanding journalistic work. And I hope that the time will come when it will be presented as evidence of war crimes to the International Tribunal.

Today, however, it feels like nobody is held accountable for all these atrocities.

You can watch the whole documentary here if you haven’t had a chance to see it yet.

CSO Concert – Stella Chen

She is brilliant! It was so special to see her so close from our first-row seats, to see how the CSO musicians looked at her during her amazing solos, and to see David Chen nodding approvingly. And she enjoys what she is doing so much!

Cirque du Soliel: OVO

Today, I took Nadia and Kira to a Cirque du Soleil performance (my Christmas gift for them). This year, Cirque do Soliel performs at NowArena, which is very far from my house with no public transportation access.

It was a lot of Ubering, and I was very tired, but the performance was excellent! I got the seats, which I hoped would be good but I was unsure of, and they were perfect: the artists were right there, and we could see their makeup and facial expressions! Posting a couple of pictures just to show how close we were and how awesome it was to be able to see all the details!

Two more comments. First, as much as I admired the show, most of the acrobatics was very traditional, all classic tricks, just performed in the new environment.

And second, the venue policies were horrible. No outside food and beverage allowed, no water fountains inside, a bottle of water costs $5.5, and a bag of popcorn $8.

Also, I lost the belt of my new Estonian coat, and we had to go back and ask the personnel, Fortunately, they looked, and found, and returned it to me!

Orchid Show 2025

A new Orchid Show at Chicago Botanic Garden just opened, and my friend Lena and I do it every year, no matter how busy we are. Since things will become hectic in just a week, we decided to go on the very first day of the show, which was yesterday (not counting the opening night).

As always, we took my mom there, and as always, Lena invited one of her closest friends from Palatine, so we were all together as our usual group. We liked the show, although Lena and I both felt there was a little bit “less of everything” than the previous year. Fewer plants and less variety. Still, there was plenty to admire, and too many photos taken:)

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The First Nutcracker

On Sunday, I took Nadia for her first Nutcracker, and the experience was exactly as I hoped it would be! Anna read the story to the girls, and they listened to the whole ballet while driving to Chicago, so Nadia was ready and excited. We had tickets in the second row and were exceptionally lucky because nobody was sitting in front of Nadia! It had to be a last-minute cancellation because the whole first row was taken when I purchased these tickets.

Everything was pure magic! Nadia was entirely mesmerized by the performance, and for a good reason! I can’t even describe how much I love Chicago’s Nutcracker, where the story unfolds in the barracks of the immigrant workers summoned to construct the World Columbia Exposition!

I saw this Nutcracker at least six times, probably more, and I can’t stop admiring it!

Classic Encounter At The CSO

Still filling in the blanks for last week :). On Thursday, my neighbor and I went to the CSO. The program featured four pieces related to the sea: Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest, and Korngold’s Suite from The Sea Hawk. A real gift, each piece is a gem.

That was also the only time this season when we had tickets for a pre-concert Classic Encounter with Terry Hemmert.

As usual, it was a great discussion, this time with Clarinet John Yen, and they played the sciences from the Sea Hawk on the screen. A side note – as a part of the cost cuts, I guess, they stopped serving food and only served wine and cookies (and they gave you a drink token at the entrance). Just to know for the future to eat before going there 🙂

& Juliet

I saw this musical yesterday, and somehow, it left me non-engaged. Everything was perfect on the surface: great dialogs, cultural references; the audience laughed where expected (sometimes too loud). Still, it didn’t click, and I do not think it was because I was tired. Just something didn’t work.

Official photos below:

Continue reading “& Juliet” →