Thanksgiving in NC

The W's are now in Durham! With lots of space for teenagers! And lots of space for pie and turkey, oh my! We went to the Duke v. Carolina football game, saw Twilight, and visited with Mr. and Ms B and Mr. and Ms. L and their families in Raleigh.

Brothers Karamozov at Lookingglass

Ambitious, but not our most favorite thing we've seen at Lookingglass.

The Dean at the Women's Board

Post election, my Dean was at the Arts Club, talking to the University of Chicago Women's Board.

Kafka on the Shore

From Chris Jones's review in the Tribune:

"In dreams begin responsibilities," observes the hero of Kafka on the Shore, Frank Galati's inestimably cerebral, endlessly complicated, occasionally incomprehensible and quite beguiling new show at the Steppenwolf.

What a terrifying thought! In our world of personal overextension and professional crisis, falling asleep for a few hours is the only chance we get to actually evade responsibility. Now Steppenwolf is telling us that we're on the hook for our dreams? Oy.

But if you know your Freud, Oedipus and Hamlet, you'll know the centrality of the unconscious. Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami (on whose novel the play is based) argues that our dreams must be the moral template for our actions.

If you think hard about it—this show requires you to think hard about everything—that's a timely and potent political observation. Throughout history, plenty of people have claimed to have been innocently asleep while, say, one of their leaders bombed innocent people or looted the treasury. Murakami argues that dreaming ain't no defense.

Kafka on the Shore, which contains multiple, elliptical narratives and includes wild, supernatural characters like Colonel Sanders, Johnnie Walker and a talking cat, is about far more than the division of conscious and subconscious. Little is achieved by arbitrary summation of plot, because the piece has many and they don't all follow through."

Portland

A work trip, but Ms S came along and we had a great time. Saw the Turner clan, on Mr. J's advice ate fabulously well, saw Reggie Miller at our hotel.

Election Night

I will admit, we didn't go to Grant Park. I checked in on a bit of my Dean's elections class, then came home and we fired up the TV and multiple political web sites. A great night.

Ms. L in town

Ms. S's sister was in town. We saw the Halloween parade, took in "Six Years" at the New Leaf Theatre in Lincoln Park, and went to the green building show at the Museum of Science and Industry.




















And posed in the park...