ChicagoMonday, November 15, 2004 | 1:18PM |
Stacy and I are in Chicago right now. Actually, we’ll be flying back this evening, but the trip encompassed November 11-15. We drove to Houston after work on Wednesday and stayed the night at my dad’s house, where we left the car. We woke up at 4:50am on Thursday morning and he drove us to Houston Hobby for our 7:05am flight on his way to work. We arrived in Chicago around 9:30am and met Stacy’s old friend Ruthann, whom she knew from childhood. We pretty much hung out with Ruthann every chance we could, because she’s been in Chicago for 5 years.
So we stayed at the Cass Hotel, which is a dive, but for $69/night in the heart of downtown, how can it be a bad deal? It was clean and a good, quiet place to sleep at night. We spent little time in the room, anyway. So we checked out the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on the first day. I spoke to a graduate photography professor named Robert Clarke-Davis that essentially convinced me that SAIC was probably not the place for me. It was pretty much based on the idea that they tend to use photography as a means of creating other art, whereas I want to use photography to create… photography. Let’s just say I’m more traditional. He encouraged me to still apply, but I don’t think it’s going to have what I want out of graduate school. And for $40k/year, I don’t know that it’d be worth settling when I won’t even get to do wet-plate collodion.
So he suggested we try Columbia College, which was already on my list of places to see. It’s actually where I’m sitting right now, because I’m waiting to speak to another graduate professor named Eric Rowe. I did get a chance to speak to an undergraduate student already, and the things he told me really got me excited about what I could do here. But until I talk to that professor, I’m not going to get too worked up about it.
We saw the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which has one of the best brass sections in the whole stinkin’ world. We attended a matinee children’s concert, which was unsurprisingly childish, but they were phenomenal. Made me sick how good they were.=) But it was well worth the (ridiculously cheap) $7 each.
One thing I really like about Chicago is the El [Train]. The idea of an efficient public transportation system that doesn’t have to deal with automobile traffic is excellent. And I love that you can walk to so many places. I feel like we’ve been all over the city, but in reality we’ve covered very little of what it has to offer. A big downside is the extreme cold, but we’ve experienced very little of that here. It’s been pretty mild according to most people. But in all honesty, I think I could live with some super cold weather for awhile. Maybe it would make me appreciate the ridiculous heat we have in Texas.
We got to go to 2nd City, which is a comedy club where many SNL alumni got their start. While extremely liberal, they were pretty dang hilarious. We actually sat at a table front and center, and Ruthann almost got kicked in the face twice. It’s too bad that those guys aren’t on SNL while all the current people are. I’m waiting for the funny to come back.
We saw that big bean thing that many of you probably aren’t familiar with. It’s called Cloud Gate and it’s located in Millenium Park. Maybe I’ll find a link to a picture of it.
Yesterday we got up early and went to the Aquarium, which was pretty neat. Then we met my Uncle Lance and Aunt Nancy at Midway Airport where they picked us up and drove us out to their house, which was located about 30 miles away from downtown. We got to see their sons Colby and Casey for the first time in several years, and Stacy got to meet everyone for the first time, except for Lance. He had been in Austin somewhat recently.
We also ate at a variety of places during the trip, which is apparently what you do in the city: eat out a lot. I’m ok with that.
So I’ve been shooting all film for the entire trip, including a roll of Kodachrome which I’ll have to mail off to get processed. It’ll be nice to get home and see how these turned out. However, our flight doesn’t come in until 9:30pm, so I doubt we’ll get home before 1:30am.
So now I’m off to the 11th floor (I think) to meet with that professor.
Comments
I remember when they built that park. It’s still pretty new.
The bean thing is pretty sweet. How they keep it from getting very smudgy is beyond me. =)
Casey | Tuesday, November 16, 2004 | 1:01AM
I wondered the same thing, Casey. But the more pressing question (as brought up by Ruthann, I believe) is how they keep the bird crap off of it. Or even the birds, for that matter. I don’t recall seeing birds on it, but then again, it was ridicu-cold.
Walker | Tuesday, November 16, 2004 | 9:06AM
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