I've pretty much decided to go to Venice at the end of July. It's not generally the optimal time to go, but a couple of weeks ago the New York Times had an article about Ghetto 500, an observation of the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish ghetto. I was hesitant at first because I already have a rather pricey trip to Barcelona ( Read more... )

The Newberry Consort, with Piffaro, did a fabulous concert last night, called "What a Difference a Day Makes: Venetian Music for Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday". It was the first in what they hope will be annual concerts in memory of Howard Mayer Brown, the University of Chicago musicologist who is known as the godfather of the Chicago early music ( Read more... )

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Friday night there was an talk at Casa Italiana about the Lazio region of Italy. Alessandra Visconti, who is from there, talked about it, showed slides, played music, read poetry, and fed us bruschetta and regional wines. A good time was had by all ( Read more... )

I have finally gotten my Venice photos uploaded to Flickr. Uploaded, not organized, though. I'll be working on that through the weekend. In the meantime, enjoy them here.

It's really, really cold out. And likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Ugh ( Read more... )

Long as in four days, as I took Monday and Tuesday off from work. Much of the time was spent vegging, reading, watching last season's Project Runway on video, and doing odds and ends around the house ( Read more... )

I went to the opening reception of the "One Book, Many Interpretations" show at the Special Collections Division at the Harold Washington Library Center this evening. Honey, let me tell you, they were pouring wine like it was water. "Um, I don't really need the whole bottle in that plastic cup", but the bartender kept on pouring. At least they ( Read more... )

So I told Daniella, my Italian instructor, that I really, really wanted to go to Venice, but, that if I did, I couldn't afford to take class this fall. And she said, "oh, don't worry, as long as there's a full class, you can just buy the book. Berlusconi can pay for it!" She's not a fan of Berlusconi. But I'm sure a fan of hers! (And if I wasn ( Read more... )

Beginning with the private opening of the exhibition A Movable Feast: Pop-ups, Volvelles, Tunnels, Flaps and Other Movable Books", a really wonderful show at the Center for Book and Paper Arts, tracing the history of movable books from Ernest Nister to Robert Sabuda, and including lots of stuff about process. It's accompanied by an exhibit devoted ( Read more... )