Botanica

With the country's oldest outdoor music venue in our backyard, GABROEN decided to go to Ravinia Park at least once this summer concert season. It has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony for over 75 years, and last year we went there three times, for the Gypsy Kings (great show), for Tony Bennett's 85th birthday concert (endearing show) and for Carrie Underwood (very popular show for teenage Carrie wanna-bees, and there are many of them).

There is something odd about Ravinia. It's probably the only venue where most people cannot actually see the stage. There's a pretty big, outdoor roofed pavilion with 3,200 seats around the stage like an amphitheater. And then there is the lawn, where thousands and thousands cramp into a dense quilt pattern of blankets, lounge chairs, folding tables, picnic baskets, coolers, and even an occasional potable stereo brought from home to play some music during the show. Because the people with the lawn tickets do not necessarily come for the performance, they come for the massive communal picnic as if it were a midsummer rite. Not only is the stage invisible from the lawn, if you have a lawn ticket you cannot hear the music either, because of an outdated sound-system that is easily overpowered by the chatter of the picnic crowds and the flocks of locusts and cicadas that do their own performance in the park's trees.

So last year, with the pleasant experiences of lawn seats with stage-view in Atlanta's Chastain Park amphitheater still fresh in mind, and many locals explaining to us that the Ravinia lawn seats are the most popular, GABROEN booked lawn seats for each of the three shows. We strategically positioned ourselves right in front of the single videoscreen that was set up on the lawn for The Gypsy Kings as well as Tony Bennet, and although not perfect, it made it feel like a hip and relaxed drive-in movie theater. To our surprise, the video screen was nowhere to be seen at Carrie Underwood's show, and there we even saw people camped out on meager patches of grass behind the restrooms. Far out of reach for the speakers, in the dark between a brick wall and the park fence, it didn't make a lot of sense to us.

Anyway, the 2012 season continued the trend of not bringing out a video screen on the lawn, so GABROEN decided to get pavilion seats from now on. This year, just before the season comes to a close early September, we went to see a modern dance by MoMix, called 'Botanica'. This group of 10 dancers had a brilliant way of using costumes to introduce plants, flowers, bugs, wasps, critters, horses and even a Brontosaurus into the performance. We had a blast.

Hugh Laurie

For those of you not aware, Hugh Laurie has turned his career to music, and was in town to play the Park West theater. He plays with the same humor and passion as his earlier endeavors. This Englishman started a pretty decent career in British comedy series with his partner Stephen Fry in "A bit of Fry & Laurie", and teaming up with Rowan 'Mr. Bean' Atkinson in the classic "Blackadder" series. But in the U.S. he is probably best known for his Guinness book of records earning role as 'Dr. House'. In its heydays this made him an impressive $700,000 per episode, so he can now probably do more or less anything he feels like doing. And what he felt like was pursuing his life's passion of New Orleans jazz and Louisiana and Chicago blues.

He started with a caveat that he will probably f#*! up the performance, so that we better listen to the band, but look at him. He could very much apprehend the audience, comparing his actor-turned-musician to sitting on an airplane when the pilot comes on the PA system to announce he was doing pedicures up to 6 weeks ago but was now very excited to have passed the pilot exam and start his life's dream of flying. Hugh Laurie certainly has not lost his improv comedian skills, talking between songs like no other musician GABROEN saw before, and instantly incorporating reactions from the audience.

By the way, for those of you not aware, Hugh Laurie in real life is not Dr. House; he doesn't limp, he is not grumpy, and he is not a know-it-all. That was also his response to a woman in the audience shouting: "I love you, Dr. House".

By the way, for those of you not aware, an American concert audience is very different from a Dutch concert audience. In Holland people are very actively applauding and cheering, but no one shouts out words and everyone stays in their seats. In contrast, an American audience never sits still, continuously gets up to get drinks, answer calls, go pee, or whatever they do. Being Dutch, GABROEN doesn't walk around so doesn't really know whatever the rest of the audience does when walking around.  But an American audience also makes for a more interactive show, shouting out things at the performer in question that makes the show more dynamic and funny. Unless the performer in question is Van Morrison, who GABROEN saw in an Atlanta concert a couple of years ago, and who does not tolerate the audience drinking, making calls, taking pictures, talking, nothing, nada. By the way, for those of you not aware, Van Morrison does not say one single word himself in concerts.

So Hugh Laurie is very funny. We knew that from his 1980s and 90s shows that also aired on Dutch television, and we experienced it in this concert as well. He is also a pretty darn good jazz piano player, and his voice fits this genre well as long as the songs are more mellow.

It was nice to see this man pursue his dream, and I know many worse ways for a rich man to spend his money than reviving 1920s jazz and 1950s blues. This was his first gig in Chicago, sweet home Chicago, the home of the blues. He was clearly in awe and a little sentimental, as he grew up with the music from so many Chicago blues musicians, including his all time hero Muddy Waters. He even got emotional when Mud Morganfield, the eldest son of Muddy, joined the stage for two songs. Mud may have inherited the looks and voice of his dad, but certainly not the song-writing skills. All in all a great night out in sweet home Chicago.

Brewer City

Although we have visited Milwaukee before, those times we didn't really see anything more than the fabulous art museum, an instant design classic by Calatrava  (see the post MAM), or the Bead&Button Show. Being only an hour north of us, we decided to do another visit, but this time to explore the city. We started at a local bead store to stock up on much needed glass beads, delicas and pretty stones for various projects. This took a nice but substantial chunk of time, and left us hungry and late for lunch. Fortunately the historic Third Ward just south of downtown is buzzing with activity all day long, so we had no trouble finding a nice table on Water Buffalo's patio for a late lunch with some locally brewed beers.

Milwaukee has a large German immigrant population, who mad the city synonymous with beer, and gave it its nickname "Brewer City". In the 1850s it already had an average of one tavern per 40 residents, and it still boasts today to have the country's highest concentration of bars. It gives the city a pleasant vibe, and the beautiful afternoon weather during our trip made it even more lively.

The Third Ward looks a bit like what was done in the London Docklands or Amsterdam Western Harbor area, except for the brewery boat tours that moored off and on for a tasting at the local microbreweries, or for the powerboats returning with roaring engines from a trip on Lake Michigan.

The area is filled with warehouses that are converted to residential lofts or spaces for hip businesses and shops. So that meant browsing art shops, artsy clothing stores and make-up studios, and enjoying a Starbucks on the riverfront.

And although not a typical Milwaukee souvenir, how could we resist bringing home this little fella. His name is Koibito and he perfectly embodies the spirit of this funky water neighborhood. We will be returning....

Circus Pier

Chicago's Navy Pier extends 1000 meters into Lake Michigan right from the heart of downtown, and is more a peninsula than a pier. It was build in 1916 as a dock for freight ships and passengers steamers, as well as for a cooler location for entertainment in those days prior to air-conditioning. It turned into a huge naval training center in World War II (hence its current name), with more than 15,000 pilots practicing aircraft carrier take off and landing. It then became part of the University of Illinois campus, but since 20 years it has grown into Chicago's number one tourist attraction.

Friday night is clearly the night out for Navy Pier. Its original designer was architect Burnham, the great city planner and mastermind behind building skyscrapers on Chicago's marshy grounds. He was also the man behind Chicago's World Fair in 1893, the first event to feature a Ferris wheel, after Burnham wrote out a contest for any engineering feat that would make Chicago's fair the greatest ever by surpassing Paris' recently erected Eiffel Tower. So it is more than fitting that a large Ferris wheel is the primary attraction on today's pier.

Less fitting is that the main smell for the whole 1,000 meters is scale beer, that the main sound is the music blasting too loud from a speaker system, and that the entertainment is ..........., well entertainment. GABROEN came there for the entertainment as well, for a performance of Cirque Shanghai. Our Friday night 9pm show was actually their third show of the day, and we have deep respect for the sheer physical endurance of these performers and dare-devils. It was the well known formula of balancing acts, acrobatics, and juggling, but this group did go to pretty extreme levels:

• How many Chinese can ride on one bicycle? -  10
• With how many balls can you juggle under your legs and behind your back? - 3, then 4, then 5, 6, and even 7 balls
• How many motorbikes can ride circles at top speed inside a 15 meter metal sphere? - 5 (!)
• How many can do a handstand on top of balancing chairs? - 7 (!)

So it was a great night on the town, but perhaps the first and last time for GABROEN at Navy Pier. We'll take another sunset cruise out on the lake in a heartbeat (see the earlier post Last week's birthday)