Ye gods (with baked beans)

Hello lovelies.

The music calendar is starting to heat up.

Jazz jams...

...more jazz at a local church for their Mardi Gras service

Laissez les bons temps roulez!

The current Africa book. It's very large. The book and the continent.

It starts from the very beginning. The really beginning.

When the continents were all squished together in the Pangea landmass.

The African continent has some of the oldest landmass on the planet.

Did you see the planets converge?

Venus and Jupiter, and a crescent waxing moon.

 Hopefully you can see them in these phone camera shots.

The first darker picture at the top is from a week ago.

The next two pictures are a day apart. 

Planet comes from ancient Greek and it means "to wander".

They wander across the sky, in contrast to the fixed stars.

Last weekend I got myself on the Amtrak for a day in Chicago.

First stop, the Rookery Building.

It houses some shops and offices, but you can visit the lobby.

It's a fantastic old building. Chicago has some remarkable architecture, 

so the next time you're there, remember to look around you.

After a stop at the Goddess and the Baker for an Impossible breakfast sandwich

and some coffee, I walked over the Millenium Park to eat my sammich and check

out what's going on.

The ice rink was in full swing.

Cloud Gate

(The Bean)

My main goal for the day was to visit the Art Institute.

After getting myself inside (hello front step lions), and checking

my coat and backback in the coatcheck, I put myself on the Dali exhibit

virtual waiting list and started wandering around.

I found an entire hallway of miniatures that are just fantastic.

so detailed and there are whole series of them, depicting living areas

of people from all over the world and in different periods.

There's a mummy in there.

My buddy, Ganesh.

Remover of obstacles. My personal favorite.

Of course, I had to visit the ancient Egyptian section.

Horus here is another of my favorites.

My second tattoo is the eye of Horus inside an ouroboros.

Also, your assignment is to look up the word kouros.

Then it was off to the African art wing.

A headdress from central Africa.

In the last book I'd read, Africa is Not a Country, the author

discusses the controversy around artifacts in museums around

the Western world. When Africa was aggressively colonized by 

the British, Germans, French, Belgians and the Dutch, whole 

villages and kingdoms (including their inhabitants)

were destroyed, and looted for their artworks and precious objects.

Many of those pieces wound up being sold off to museums and collectors

all over the world. And some of them are probably here in Chicago.

Cool cat. Also from central Africa.

Finally got a message to head over to the Dali exhibit.

They have a virtual queue to keep the crowd manageable.

You sign up with your phone and then get a text message when

it's your time to see the exhibit. In the meantime, you can

 just look around at other things you want to see.

I've always loved Salvador Dali.

When I was in high school, I would go to the local library and repeatedly

look at the oversized surrealist art books. 

Dali, Duchamp, Miro, Magritte, de Chirico, Arp, Chagall, Picasso.

I'd read the informational captions, then just get lost in the image.

I remember looking at this image a lot.

There is very much going on. With baked beans to make it go down easier.

(beans at the bottom of the picture)

Vogue magazine covers just ain't what they used to be.

Found this big-eyed fellow in the Modern art section.

I love modern art.

I have a healthy appreciation for the great masters and realists,

but I'm always pulled to the modern when given the choice.

draw me like your cubist girls

Squishy.

Back outside on the street.

My hotel was attached to the Elephant and Castle restaurant.

So dinner was an easy task.

They put me in a booth with this rebel-lious picture.

do you see Alex the droogie behind me.

Your humble narrator?

Picked up this Andy Warhol book in the Art Institute gift shop.

Enlightening reading material over some fish tacos and beer.

Took in the morning light on the short walk to the train station.

Back home to this adorable beaky face.

And with some inspiration!

I've got some stuff to do.