Alinea

Went to Alinea for my real treat birthday dinner. It was ridiculously fun. It was serious ridiculous fun. It was theater. There are tons of blogs which give you a blow by blow of the meal. I'm not going to. Serious fun.

Armitage Dance

At the Dance Center:

"Christened in the 1980s by Vanity Fair magazine as the “punk ballerina,” Karole Armitage, along with her dancers, marked a milestone in 2005. After 15 years of choreographing and directing ballets and operas in Europe, she returned to New York and launched her company, Armitage Gone! Dance. On the program at The Dance Center is Ligeti Essays, a suite of concise jewel-like movements choreographed to music by the great Hungarian composer György Ligeti. Each song consists of a short choreographic incident of different character, ranging from the humorous to the ridiculous, to the enchanted and sarcastic. Also on the program is time is the echo of an axe within a wood, set to the music of Bela Bartok. Both pieces are designed by internationally acclaimed visual artist David Salle."

Alvin Ailey Dance

We went with Ms. S's workmate to what ended up being a pretty good show. And yes, they did Revelations.

Birthday 51

A low key tuna steak at Jack's for my birthday. The real event is Saturday, dinner at Alinea.

Bill T. at the MCA

We almost missed it, but read this John Rockwell review in the New York Times: "The new “Chapel/Chapter,”... is the least overtly political dance I have seen from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. It is also about the most affecting, the most disturbing, the most powerful and the most compassionate. Which is not to say that politics undercuts art, but that “Chapel/Chapter” is a riveting experience."

Carousel

A stripped down, straight-forward production of Carousel at the Court Theatre. Time Magazine called it the greatest musical of the 20th Century, and we'd never seen it. It is one weird script. I guess you've got to follow up Oklahoma with something.

Still, I really like the Court. Hit or miss, they are always very intelligent in their approach.

Final Four

The Jayhawks defeated the Memphis Tigers 75-68 in overtime. Wow, great game. And I won my office pool. Ms. S would have taken it if Memphis won.

It Can't Happen Here

The book club's selection was Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. Everyone agreed it took some time (maybe page 80) to get into, but then it was worth the read. And man, did the book spawn some side bar conversations. Current politics. The sad state of current politics. Could it happen here?

Book Club: It Can't Happen Here

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

Everyone agreed that this took some time to get into (the first 100 pages were a little tough) but it ended up being a great read and inspired a really lively, wide-ranging discussion.

Othello: Don't Turn Out the Lights

We saw a very respectable production of Othello at the Chicago Shakes. It was also national "Turn Out the Lights" night, so when they got to the line "Put out the light, and then put out the light," well...

And oh, yes, Carolina put out the lights on L'ville, and UCLA put out the lights on Xavier.

St. Patrick with Ms. MNM

Faithful readers will know it's our custom to refer to persons as Mr. X and Ms. Y, but you do have to know we spent a fabulous St. Paddy's with Mary Nell Murphy, her Viking husband, and friends. Lots of people read Seamus Heaney, but I preferred to introduce the crew to Jonathan Richman's classic "Just Because I'm Irish, He Thinks I Should Know Every Irish Bar in Manhattan."

The Attempters at the House

From Hedy Weiss's review from the Sun-Times.

"The Attempters is a high school musical (as opposed to High School Musical) as only Chicago's House Theatre might imagine it. That means it contains goofily high-flying brainiac language, a star in the form of a fervent dilettante determined to seal his immortality at age 17, a rail-thin "silent type" rock 'n' roller from Downstate as his nemesis, an oddly remote therapist for a dad, a straight-talking stepmom with bad kitchen karma and a hyperactive groupie and serious drama girl for love interest."


We went with a group, and afterwards went out to Coalfire for some New Haven style pizza. Yum.

Ms. S in Vancouver; Duke v. Carolina

Ms. S went to Vancouver for a work conference (where her room had a pretty good view) and I stayed home and watched Duke v. Carolina.

A talk by R. Myerson (aka Mr. Nobel Prize 2007)

The title of the talk:
Force and Restraint in a Dangerous World: A Game Theorists Perspective

For me, this was a reprise of Roger's Humanities Festival talk (and yes, faithful readers of Burn My Clothes, Ma! will remember that my teacher and mentor Patty Nelson Limerick gave a talk that day following Roger) but the difference is...and it kind of glows...he's got a Nobel Prize now.

Dinner with U of C friends

We went to a lovely dinner with friends from the U of Chicago who live relatively close to us. It was a great group, and we discovered that Ms. G (our host) has a checklist of visiting every state in the Union. You have to stay overnight to make it count...