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We took the child to Cantigny today for a children's concert. She seemed to enjoy being under the trees.

 

Heritage Bluffs

I didn't do too badly at Heritage Bluffs in Channahon on Friday. Thought it might rain, but it actually cleared up and was a sunny, hot day. The next day played 18 at Old Wayne and did better. Would have broken 100 but ran into a couple of serious sand traps.

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Golfing Heritage Bluffs tomorrow in Channahon. Been there once before. Beautiful course. My game, such as it was, disintegrated over the winter, so I'm really struggling these days, but hopefully this will turn around as summer goes on. It at times feels like a mistake to have taken up this game when I did. There's probably a window in your teens or early 20s that you either seize or you don't. Brutal at 41.

Amazing how quickly summer is going this year. Seems like we were just in the midst of the polar vortex and suddenly it's hot, steamy Chicago weather.

Grand Gift

Amy presented me with my own copy of The Grand Budapest Hotel last night. It is my favorite Wes Anderson film so far. Excited to watch it again once there's time.

Day Off

Having a banner day today. Skipped golf. Woke up early to a talking baby who wanted up. We eventually took her on a walk to Starbucks, where we got coffee and some breakfast. Amy had a lunch date planned with a fellow mom, so I have had the noon hour to myself. I went to a French restaurant near our home, where I had a croque madame, which, the way they prepare it, is an absolute heart attack of a sandwich. Finishing with some decaf and then off to next appointment.

 

Day Off

I took today off to spend with the family. Claudia turned six months today, so we visited Brookfield Zoo. She slept through most of it but seemed to have a good time. We finished the day with sushi followed by ice cream. She didn't get to have any of it but again seemed to enjoy herself.

Beowulf

I just received my copy of Tolkien's prose translation of Beowulf from Amazon. Pretty excited. Cannot decide whether to wait until out Michigan trip to read. I am a huge fan of Seamus Heaney's translation.

 

Happy Six Months, C!

Someone is six months tomorrow!

Quick Shots

Through a scheduling problem I ended up being the only guy with a camera to get some quick publicity shots of some of the restaurant's specials for this month. Was a fun change to hang out with those guys.

Amy and I have travelled west to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer State Park, Wall Drug and Deadwood. All in all a valuable, low key trip with my dear wife. The photo situation hasn't been great due to heavy rains or shooting at the height of the afternoon sun, but I snapped a few. Corn Palace

Custer State Park
Dancer at Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse Monument

Sunday

It's been a good weekend, I think. I burned yard clippings and branches early yesterday morning, mowed, took my laptop in for some servicing, etc. Got many things done. Amy and I went to Labriola and got wood burning pizzas, which is a minor passion of mine. I then lazed and wrote and listened to Duke Ellington last night while Amy went with a friend to House of Blues to see a show. Doesn't get a lot better than that.

I went on a bike ride this morning on the Illinois Prairie Path. I went west a little bit, caught the Elgin Branch north and then turned around. Maybe 12 miles, so nothing stressful. It's good to be so close to these things. I hate using the bike rack on the car, so it's always best to just ride right from the garage. There are a mad number of trails around here. Later I'm trying a friend's chicken recipe. Now off to yoga.

Further Galena

I got up early this morning and walked around the grounds a bit more to see where the flood had hit. I ran into a friend of the owners clearing debris who told me it had rained 18 inches in 10 hours and where we were standing had been under seven feet of water. There but by the grace of God, I guess. I am told two people in Jo Daviess County died in their cars. Any damage that I saw did nothing to detract from the beauty of the area.

I do recommend coming here to Inn at Irish Hollow if you get a chance. The food and accomodations have been very nice. I have spent my time reading, sleeping and wandering Galena with Amy. We saw a magician Friday night. I seem to have become a born again magic show junkie. Was like something out of a Woody Allen movie.

Galena

Amy and I took my last three-day weekend to go to Galena, IL. We're staying at the Inn at Irish Hollow, a country B&B located about eight miles away from the downtown. The area saw a flood last week in which 15 inches fell in eight hours. As you can see below, it was destructive, sending fencing, hay bales and other debris careening about their 500 acres.

Downton Galena. Very Pleasant.

Abbey of Ghethsemani

Historic photo

We had to choose a historic photo for my photography class to discuss. I chose a photo taken in-house at the Washington Post on April 30, 1973. In the center are Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the two reporters credited with breaking open the Watergate Scandal and tying it to the White House, which in turn led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation roughly 16 months later. They are discussing the next day’s stories with publisher Katharine Graham; Benjamin C. Bradlee, executive editor, right; and Howard Simons, managing editor.

If you consider the far edge of the table as a horizon line, approximately two thirds of the photo is for the human subjects. The many shelved books rain down in vertical lines which are to some extent picked up again by the larger items on the desk coming in toward the lens. The books on the top shelf are parted with roughly half leaning left and half leaning right, which serves to create an arrow effect on the two young reporters.

Color news photos were decades way from being standard, but the black and white serves this photo well anyway by breaking a cluttered, paper strewn office down into simpler, less busy images. The loud, 1970s wide ties are muted into shades of gray as are the hundreds of books behind them.

I have a strong affection for this photo, even though I would have been about five months old at the time. I believe it captures in single moment the conflicting energy and fear that must have been running through those five people as they planned their next steps to report on Watergate.

While not an artistic placement of the people, they are caught at fortuitous angles and expressions that capture there various roles within a newsroom. Woodward and Bernstein’s lean frames are sitting very close to each other, suggesting that they are the young team on the front lines. Despite the seriousness of their siege on the White House, or more likely because of it, they appear almost giddy, especially when compared to the other worried people in the photo.

Publisher Katharine Graham is the severe matron. It’s her employees, her paper. She has already gone through a challenging period with the federal government in 1971 with the release of the “Pentagon Papers” by her publication and the New York Times. From another angle seated at the same level the image of an exasperated father figure, Howard Simons, with a less dark expression but with a look of warning.

Ben Bradlee looks on from an elevated position (I think that is him). Some of the people in this photo are old enough to see all too clearly the consequences of the series of articles they are running. The two reporters seem to understand they are working with something enormous, but perhaps don’t yet appreciate the ramifications of embroiling an American president, particularly one as notably vindictive as Nixon, in a scandal.

Or perhaps I read too much into things.

It's self portrait this week

Talk about a painful exercise. But instructive.

Where are they now?

As I get older, I find myself more interested in what happened to people after their 15 minutes than what actually made them famous at the time. When I was seven or eight years old, I watched The John Davidson Show, which came on in the afternoon right before cartoons and reruns of bad comedies. I also watched That's Incredible, which he hosted. I then forgot about the guy and assumed he'd retired or something. Thirty years later, he's still out there making out a living. I just saw that in March he played a "pop music show" at a local education center. Tickets were $25 at the door. For some reason, this is fascinating to me.

If you are a Mizzou fan, this is pretty great

Can't wait

Eventually, The Book of Mormon will make its way to Chicago, and I will buy tickets for at least two performances. Leave it to the creators of Southpark to come up with a completely original story for a Broadway musical. Not based on a Disney movie, not based on any other movie, not some hoary revival, but a new idea.

New Company

If I lived in New York, I think I'd spend a lot of evenings at the Philharmonic. I have enjoyed tuning in WMFT on Thursday evenings to hear Alec Baldwin's hushed introductions for their "Live at the Philharmonic" show.

I just came across this article about a concert production the NY Philharmonic is doing of "Company," one of my favorite musicals. Neil Patrick Harris, Martha Plimpton, Patty Lupone, John Cryer and several others are taking part. I'm hoping it might show up on DVD or on PBS.