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June 27, 2009

Second City

I spent last week in Chicago on business. I only get there once or twice a year, and rarely get a chance to spend much time downtown. This time I was there for most of a week, staying in a hotel in what was originally the 'Carbide and Carbon" building - a tall skinny edifice on Michigan Avenue designed after the black, green, and gold designs on a Champaigne bottle, if we are to believe the stories.
The Rock
Chicago used to be referred to as the "Second City" - when it was second largest int he U.S. after New York. In recent years, with the building boom and the creation of Millennium Park, Chicago boasts an impressive skyline and a great focal point for civic events. I enjoyed some alternative music by The Dirty Projectors and The Sea and Cake, and had an even better time at two nights of Mariachi concerts - with all events attended by diverse crowds of at least 20,000 people - all enjoying the evening and getting on well together.

Chicago is also home to the Art Institute, which opened its new Modern Wing earlier this year - making it the second largest art museum in the U.S. Thanks to business donations, it is open two nights a week in the summer - free to the public.

Size notwithstanding, it is an excellent museum, with a broad collection well displayed, and is very popular with locals and visitors alike. It is also a museum that allows picture taking, which gave me an opportunity to captrure some paintings and do photo studies of several sculptures. I have added these photos to the Facebook page for The Other Pages. There is good variety and subject matter for writing. My favorite is piece in the museum - The Rock by Peter Blume.
Enjoy both albums. Well, perhaps considering one artist's rendering of a "Portrait of Dorian Grey", enjoy may not be the right word.

All for now,

-_Steve

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