An Artistic Start to October
Last week, we transitioned from September into October. I love September for the perfectly mild temperatures and loads of sunshine. I love October for the changing of the leaves and Halloween. So going from one month to the other is nothing to dread. If anything, it should be celebrated!
After a full week of work and a not-so-full week of review sessions (a full week is 3 review sessions, and I had only 1 1/2), the weekend, and October, both hit us on the same day. While we contemplated going out for bratwurst and German beer to celebrate the one weekend of Oktoberfest that actually falls in October, we knew we had an expensive Saturday ahead of us (and boy did we), so we decided to stay in and watch "North by Northwest", which I had never seen before, but I loved it. And I don't usually like old movies. This one is fantastic.
On Saturday, after a thorough cleaning of the apartment, Alex's sister Cathy showed up. Her timing could not have been more perfect, as Cathy had an art-oriented major in college, and a huge festival opened Saturday literally 1 block from our apartment. It was called the Ravenswood Art Walk, and it stretched along Ravenswood (a street 1 block away) going right through our neighborhood, including my street. As if that wasn't convenient enough, the Gaztrowagon, my beloved mobile food truck that comes to my office building every week and doles out delicious naanwiches (a sandwich wrap made of Indian naan bread) stuffed with meaty delights such as wild boar belly, pork shoulder, braised lamb, beef shortrib, and duck confit (yes, I've had all of those), was scheduled to be there. We walked down my street the lone block to Ravenswood, turned right, and the Gaztrowagon was right there. This festival ran about 2 miles along Ravenswood, and out of all the places to park, he parked right by my street. Too good to be true. This time around, I went for a veggie option (butternut squash), while Alex had the Fidel Gaztro (pork shoulder, ham, and manchego cheese), and Cathy tried the corned beef reuben (self explanatory). We gobbled up our lunch before beginning our Art Walk journey for the afternoon.
For those who are not familiar with Chicago, Ravenswood Ave is a corridor of old warehouses and industrial buildings that faces an elevated train track (not the L, although that's closeby, but rather an actual train track for commuter rails, freight trains, and Amtrak). The structure that elevates the train track is covered in grass and trees, so it actually looks quite nice. In the earlier 20th century when Chicago was huge on manufacturing, these places were all filled with industry. But then with the changes in the economy, these industries went bust, and the buildings laid empty. Now they're filled with studios for art, music dance, small businesses, event space, antique shops, you name it. It's really cool, and this Art Walk showcases many of them. We started in a building called Unicut, probably a maker of saw blades, and saw some interesting photography exhibits. One had photos from North and South Dakota, images still fresh in my head from our roadtrip. We moved on to a giant antique/vintage store called Architectural Artifacts, then walked down to a multi-purpose building that had Tai Chi, a one-woman performance, some art exhibits, and lots of free food, hot apple cider, and wine. We continued southward to a building that hosted many smaller art exhibits lined up along a narrow but long hallway, because Cathy had researched an artist that was on display there. We found this artist, looked through her work, spoke with her, and all of us even bought some items. They'll be hanging on walls in my apartment if you ever come to visit. The artist's name is Carol Fletcher, and she specializes in photography with some funky enhancements.
Following our Art Walk marathon (and we seriously didn't even see close to half of it), we returned to the apartment, freshened up, then made our way to dinner at Gemini Bistro in Lincoln Park. While Gemini offers a prix fixe for $31 every night, once I heard the special (steak au poive with new york strip and fingerling potatoes), I changed my mind and got the special. It was soooo worth it. Loved the steak, loved the sauce, ate all of it. Cathy got a beef shortrib that was even better than my dish (although I really love beef shortrib, so maybe I'm biased), and Alex also got beef shortrib, but stuffed into a ravioli that was excellent but the portion was too small. We decided to get dessert, which was creme brulee (amazing) and apple crisp (less amazing). And coffee so that we wouldn't all pass out.
After dinner, we walked up Lincoln Ave to catch a play called "Night and Day", which was about journalists during a civil war in a fictional African country. The commentary was astute, but the delivery was too quick to really let anything sink in and let you contemplate in your own mind. It was a struggle enough just to keep up with the dialogue. The characters were British, and I felt the actors disguised some of their accent flaws by talking incredibly quickly. But once you got past that, they were very convincing, not as much as Brits but as humans, and overall did an excellent job. If I were a journalist, I probably would have gotten a lot more out of it, but the issues addressed are relevant for anyone at anytime.
Following dinner, we returned home and effectively passed out.
The next day, we made apple pancakes (yum!), then I hunkered down and studied for most of the day while Alex continued to entertain Cathy until she left in the afternoon. Then we settled down to some homemade veggie enchiladas (sauteed onion, TVP, TJ's fat free refried beans, shredded cheese, cumin, and chili powder all mixed together and wrapped into whole wheat tortillas then drenched in TJ's enchilada sauce and coated with more shredded cheese) and "Dexter".
That was a fun Saturday for sure, but the next two weeks I'm hunkering down and going into crunch time with this next section of the CPA exam. But after October 18, I'm free to take on the next big thing in my life: HALLOWEEN.
After a full week of work and a not-so-full week of review sessions (a full week is 3 review sessions, and I had only 1 1/2), the weekend, and October, both hit us on the same day. While we contemplated going out for bratwurst and German beer to celebrate the one weekend of Oktoberfest that actually falls in October, we knew we had an expensive Saturday ahead of us (and boy did we), so we decided to stay in and watch "North by Northwest", which I had never seen before, but I loved it. And I don't usually like old movies. This one is fantastic.
On Saturday, after a thorough cleaning of the apartment, Alex's sister Cathy showed up. Her timing could not have been more perfect, as Cathy had an art-oriented major in college, and a huge festival opened Saturday literally 1 block from our apartment. It was called the Ravenswood Art Walk, and it stretched along Ravenswood (a street 1 block away) going right through our neighborhood, including my street. As if that wasn't convenient enough, the Gaztrowagon, my beloved mobile food truck that comes to my office building every week and doles out delicious naanwiches (a sandwich wrap made of Indian naan bread) stuffed with meaty delights such as wild boar belly, pork shoulder, braised lamb, beef shortrib, and duck confit (yes, I've had all of those), was scheduled to be there. We walked down my street the lone block to Ravenswood, turned right, and the Gaztrowagon was right there. This festival ran about 2 miles along Ravenswood, and out of all the places to park, he parked right by my street. Too good to be true. This time around, I went for a veggie option (butternut squash), while Alex had the Fidel Gaztro (pork shoulder, ham, and manchego cheese), and Cathy tried the corned beef reuben (self explanatory). We gobbled up our lunch before beginning our Art Walk journey for the afternoon.
For those who are not familiar with Chicago, Ravenswood Ave is a corridor of old warehouses and industrial buildings that faces an elevated train track (not the L, although that's closeby, but rather an actual train track for commuter rails, freight trains, and Amtrak). The structure that elevates the train track is covered in grass and trees, so it actually looks quite nice. In the earlier 20th century when Chicago was huge on manufacturing, these places were all filled with industry. But then with the changes in the economy, these industries went bust, and the buildings laid empty. Now they're filled with studios for art, music dance, small businesses, event space, antique shops, you name it. It's really cool, and this Art Walk showcases many of them. We started in a building called Unicut, probably a maker of saw blades, and saw some interesting photography exhibits. One had photos from North and South Dakota, images still fresh in my head from our roadtrip. We moved on to a giant antique/vintage store called Architectural Artifacts, then walked down to a multi-purpose building that had Tai Chi, a one-woman performance, some art exhibits, and lots of free food, hot apple cider, and wine. We continued southward to a building that hosted many smaller art exhibits lined up along a narrow but long hallway, because Cathy had researched an artist that was on display there. We found this artist, looked through her work, spoke with her, and all of us even bought some items. They'll be hanging on walls in my apartment if you ever come to visit. The artist's name is Carol Fletcher, and she specializes in photography with some funky enhancements.
Following our Art Walk marathon (and we seriously didn't even see close to half of it), we returned to the apartment, freshened up, then made our way to dinner at Gemini Bistro in Lincoln Park. While Gemini offers a prix fixe for $31 every night, once I heard the special (steak au poive with new york strip and fingerling potatoes), I changed my mind and got the special. It was soooo worth it. Loved the steak, loved the sauce, ate all of it. Cathy got a beef shortrib that was even better than my dish (although I really love beef shortrib, so maybe I'm biased), and Alex also got beef shortrib, but stuffed into a ravioli that was excellent but the portion was too small. We decided to get dessert, which was creme brulee (amazing) and apple crisp (less amazing). And coffee so that we wouldn't all pass out.
After dinner, we walked up Lincoln Ave to catch a play called "Night and Day", which was about journalists during a civil war in a fictional African country. The commentary was astute, but the delivery was too quick to really let anything sink in and let you contemplate in your own mind. It was a struggle enough just to keep up with the dialogue. The characters were British, and I felt the actors disguised some of their accent flaws by talking incredibly quickly. But once you got past that, they were very convincing, not as much as Brits but as humans, and overall did an excellent job. If I were a journalist, I probably would have gotten a lot more out of it, but the issues addressed are relevant for anyone at anytime.
Following dinner, we returned home and effectively passed out.
The next day, we made apple pancakes (yum!), then I hunkered down and studied for most of the day while Alex continued to entertain Cathy until she left in the afternoon. Then we settled down to some homemade veggie enchiladas (sauteed onion, TVP, TJ's fat free refried beans, shredded cheese, cumin, and chili powder all mixed together and wrapped into whole wheat tortillas then drenched in TJ's enchilada sauce and coated with more shredded cheese) and "Dexter".
That was a fun Saturday for sure, but the next two weeks I'm hunkering down and going into crunch time with this next section of the CPA exam. But after October 18, I'm free to take on the next big thing in my life: HALLOWEEN.