Education at the MCA

One of the fun things about being an intern at the MCA are the intern talks. Members from each department give talks about who they are, now they got their job and what working in that department is like. It is a unique opportunity and I am trying to take as much advantage of it as I can.

So yesterday I went into the museum, just to hear the talk by the education department, which includes serving schools, adults, and families. And I am very glad I did.

The first cool thing was that I didn't fully realize the museum was closed! I went in through the employee entrance, everything as per usual, until I got in the elevator and it wouldn't let me go to the main entrance floor as I usually would. I had to scan my id. I got out of the elevator. And woa. Everything was dark. Everything was locked. I was in the museum and it was closed. Flash to From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler! Except there is no bed for me to sleep in. Anyway, totally cool.

Then the actual talk, which really opened my eyes to how an art museum can be more than a place to experience beauty, emotional connection and widening of horizons, the MCA wants to be a place that creates a communal contection and experience. Looking at art has always been a solitary experience for me. But the education department thinks that art can bring people together and can change the way they look at the world.

Then we had to look at a piece of art and create a family oriented activity. At the head of this entry is a picture of a sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle, which I actually saw on display at the Garfield Conservatory a few years ago. One of the other groups had a piece by her called Vivian, which is shown right here, and is my favorite piece on display at the museum right now. Same sort of figure, but instead of mosiac, it is worked with scraps of fabric and yarn. Beautiful and imaginative and ya just wanted to reach out and feel the texture!

Anyway, I was paired with an intern from the education department. Unfortunately she mostly works with adults, not children or families. Our painting was Kim MacConnel's Taco Bill, shown here, and is now a new favorite. Five panels of commercially available fabric with paintings of familiar objects (like many tvs) painted in repeating patterns over them. Colorful and kitchy and fun. We had to come up with a movement based activity. I suggested a game where one person does a movement, the next person repeats the movement and adds another, the third does the first two and adds their own and so forth. It shows the development of pattern. The education people loved it! Triumph!

Before we parted ways I made sure to tell them both how much I enjoyed the talk, and asked if I could ever volunteer for events. They are going to be in touch. I really felt a connection with what they are doing, and hope that I can gain some useful programming experience. I look forward to many more such experiences during my time at the MCA.

Holiday Knitting Begins

This Saturday morning in October I am thoroughly distracted from my school work, and a little disappointed that my plan for baking bread and making pumpkin apple soup has come on an unseasonably warm day. Should I heat up my kitchen and force my husband to eat distinctly fall food on a late summer feeling day? To put off this decision I am dreaming about the things I will knit.

Knitting makes me a better person, by testing my weaknesses. I am impatient by nature and knitting has taught me that some things take time and that the rewards for patience can be great. I am a perfectionist, and while I love that knitting can be frogged (taken apart) many times, elimnating mistakes, there are also times when a mistake can be beautiful or at least ignored.

But even more than these knitting also plays to my strengths, the most prevelant is my love of planning. I lay in bed at night planning the next day; first thing when I wake up I run through my plan again; on Sundays I plan my whole week; on Thursday I begin planning my weekend, and in September I start planning for the holidays. Many elements, the cards, the gifts, the plans with family and friends, but the most vital is the knitting. If I want to make something for someone, I have to think ahead. I often give at least four hand knit items, which each take anywhere from a week to a month to knit. This year I am planning on giving no fewer than nine knitted items this holiday season. I've also been commissioned to knit four stockings for a friend.

Above are the beginnings of these gifts: two pairs of corn cob slippers, and a sweater coat for my nephew. The last of the yarn was ordered this week and I can't wait to get my hands on it, especially since two of the items will have hand-dyed yarn. That I will dye. I just love how hand-dyed yarn looks. But it does add an element of risk, especially with items that are large and therefore require the yarn to be dyed in batches, which then may have variances in color. But I LOVE taking risks in my knitting. I hate knitting the same predictable things over and over. I need a challenge!

But though I am impatient to start all of these projects and be proud of the finished gifts, I must try and slow down, and concentrate on one at a time, giving each my love and attention, which will hopefully be felt in turn by the recipient.

A New Internship

It Is Awesome. This is the Museum of Contemporary Art. As an art enjoyer, the MCA is my favorite. I was thrilled to have my intership application accepted. And this week I had my first day. I got a tour of the whole building, including the backstage elements, like the loading dock where there are big crates of art! I can wander around the galleries on my breaks, I really enjoyed the Calder and Calder influenced artists, hence this cool paint job on the front steps.



All this I did with the other intern, who just got her BA, but she has TONS of great experience for this internship. She worked at her college library cataloging zines! Crazy jealous! So we both started classifying Artists' Books. Which range from the traditional children's book, to the conceptual, from companions pieces for exhibitions, to standalone works. My fav was a promotional piece, a seed for a tree, which should bloom in ten years, which is how long until the opening of the artist's exhibition! Crazy!



Stay tuned for more cool tid-bits.

My first ILA Conference

My first Illinois Library Associate (ILA) annual conference was about what I expected it to be: A lot of people who know each other, almost all of which I do not. Some speakers that may have that inexplicable X-factor that makes them great speakers and some that do not. But even more than that I was hoping to find something to push me forward in this, my new career. This came in the form of a program moderated by the Head of Children and Family Services at Glencoe Public Library, Melissa Henderson.

Her program was called “Getting Read: Writing for the Profession.” It held many themes that you often hear about why writing is good for you and the profession as a whole. But the speakers also had some very ILA-region member tips that were very helpful. Best of all she gave the opportunity to fill out little accountability slips, where you would write down an “attainable” writing goal, with two phases, each with a due date. And your email. Then one of the ILA Reporter (the ILA’s newsletter) Advisory Committee members will contact you about your progress.

So there I was, sitting there listening about how writing is great and fun and can help you explore your interest. How blogs can help you develop a voice and showcase your ability. And in my stomach I get that achy feeling, that a pastor once said is your better angels showing you the way, and I knew. So I filled out my slip of paper saying I wanted to start writing in my blog again by November and that by February of next year to be able to write a blog entry for one of the ILA series. And here I am.

Happy Anniversary to my Grandparents!

My grandparents had their 60th anniversary this summer and we celebrated it this past weekend with a grand pig roast. It was a fun-filled weekend with camping on their lawn and smores and croquet and dogs and family and friends and so much more. We hope to continue to do this every year, not as an anniversary party, but a family reunion. It certainly was fun!

But our travels started several days earlier when we went to Detroit for my student orientation. It was one intense day of information and socialization. I learned a lot and got a little overwhelmed and now just can't wait to get started so I can stopped trying to plan for the un-plannable.

I was glad to get out of Detroit (to get away from the brain overload) and go to Lansing and see my bestest friend Erin.
We had a great time getting to know Lansing and just hanging out with these guys. A yummy breakfast, shopping, golfing, walking around Old Town to watch awesome free theatre shorts. It was perfect and we topped it off with a trip to Dark Horse Brewery. YUM YUM. We tried a few beers and ate pizza. Perfect.

It was a GREAT week and I am really glad it worked out the way it did. I hope we can see everyone again soon.

4 Years and Counting

Yesterday was our anniversary and I must say it was possibly THE. BEST. ANNIVERSARY. EVER.

I kicked off the day by making french toast, not normally my favorite breakfast, but with my cinnamon swirl bread, it was pretty yummy.

Just after noon o'clock we headed downtown to see a matinee of Spring Awakening. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!! I hope that it comes back to Chicago so we can see it again, next time sitting onstage, yes they have on-stage tickets. It looked like it would be a lot of fun!

I have to admit that at first glance I shouldn't love this play, traditionally the mixing of popular music with period-setting musicals really bugs me. Especially in shows like Phantom of the Opera. But in S.P. the modern style of music has a purpose. It is more comparable to like of Romeo + Juliet, remember that movie? It came out in 1996 and did a great job mixing Shakespearean with modern times. Like in R+J, S.P. is using the music to relate the coming of age tale of the period teenagers (in S.P. it was Victorian) to modern teens. This is made ubundantly clear, not only by the style of music but by the lyrics. Which when you listen not only used slang like "junk" (meaning the addictive substance) but referances to things like phone calls. It's kind of an ah-ha moment when you realize this. It certainly made me feel better about liking it!
Anyway, so completely happy we went, but we were equally excited to go home and change for dinner.

Specifically into our wedding clothes (we do vary accessories). I love wearing my wedding dress on our anniversary. It is so nice to slip it on and remember and feel beautiful all over again. Although I do feel self-conscious as times, wondering if people think I am walking around in a wedding dress.

So dinner was WONDERFUL!!!!! We had an 8pm reservation at Spring in Wicker Park. And boy was it great. I really liked the idea of going to a fine dining restaurant that wasn't downtown, which are few and far between. And I wanted to have a tasting menu and the website they said they did by request and the discretion of the chef. Lucky us the chef was willing.

Our waiter took great care of us, helping us pick affordable wine pairings and talking over the food components with us.

We started out with a half bottle of Lucien Crochet Sancerre. Maybe a little smooth for mike , but I loved it. Would love to find and buy this wine. And it went very well with our first few courses:

To start raw oysters with cucumber and wasabi. YUM

Cold App was Sashimi of Pacific Whitetail, it had these great chili-pepper pearls, a gastromony invention that have the appearance and texture of fish eggs, but taste of sweet chili-pepper. loved it.

Hot App was a seared Sea Scallop. Mike LOVED IT. His words, "the best thing I've ever put in my mouth." I loved the bed of fresh chickpeas and tahini sauce, delicious. Never had fresh chickpeas and they were yummy.

Fish Course Atlantic Skatewing. Boy was that good too. It smelled WONDERFUL. A bowl of summer I think was what we called it. Prob becuase it had watermelon in it!

Here is where we decided to share a glass of a Pinot Noir to go with the meat course, again taking the waiter's recommendation.

The meat course was a delicious steak, but what was memorable was the bed of oxtail and mushrooms.

Then we were treated to the most delicious sparkling/effervescent wine I have had. I wish I knew which it was either a Moscato Rosato, or Moscato D'Asti. It was YUM-MY

We had a dessert teaser that was a bite of honey marscopone foam. mmmmmm....

Then fresh made doughnuts with peach ice cream.

Oh it was heaven. I wish we could go every month.

But our night wasn't over it was home to change again before going to the music box to see a friend in a burlesque/vaudville review at midnight. A fun way to end the night, but boy was it late when we got out. And I was glad to splurge on a taxi home, after a day of trains, busses and walking at 2:30am I was ready to take it easy.

MY FIRST TOMATO!!!

This is actually from Saturday August 8th. This tomato fell off in my hand, it actually still needed to ripen a little, so it sits on my kitchen table, slowly turning more red. When I tell people I have 7 potted tomato plants and 5 in the ground, they think I'm crazy "that's a lot of tomatoes" they say. Not really though. Two of the potted plants are sponsored by friends, so they will get all the tomatoes from two plants. And then the potted plants were planted a lot sooner than the garden ones, so they are on different schedule (hopefully). AND I planted two different varieties, one of which isn't doing so well in the container, only growing one to three tomatoes on a plant. It is doing much better in the garden, despite competion with rhubarb and cucumbers and raspberry plants. SOOOOOO....I am learning and expirementing and happy to get any tomatoes at all.

But maybe your should ask me again in a couple weeks when all these ripen...