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Apr. 10th, 2011 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogIt's time to play catch up again.
This past week I got to meet Danae's parents for the first time. They sounded like people I'd get along with, and I did. I met up with all of them for dinner on Wednesday in Aurora, where we ate at The Roundhouse, a restaurant in a building that used to be an actual railroad roundhouse. I'd been wanting to see the inside of that building for a while anyway, and I want to go back. It's got a bunch of railroady stuff inside, and supposedly a museum somewhere.
But anyway, her parents seemed fun. Her dad started discussions on random topics out of nowhere. We had just started discussing plans for that Friday when he commented "Look at the size of that pane of glass! It's amazing that it stands up to stress from the wind in an interior courtyard like that!"
The three of us had dinner on Wednesday and I drove back to Chicago. We met up again on Friday for dinner prior to seeing a performance of Stand Up Dads, a comedy show by four guys who do jokes and stories about being parents and growing up and things. At least, that was how they were billed. I thought three of them were pretty good. The third one, though, had material that was almost completely unrelated to the theme. Still, the show was fun. I don't think I would have paid to go see it by myself, but it was a nice time with the people I was with.
The theatre, the Paramount in Aurora, was gorgeous. In fact, a couple of the performers actually commented on how amazing the building was! It's a Rapp and Rapp design in a French Renaissance/Art Deco style. I spent a little while walking around the building and talking to the staff about the place before the show. And I'll admit that, though I was half paying attention to the fourth comedian, my eyes were wandering all up and down the auditorium. I traced all the architectural lines and intricate painted designs and with my mind's eye I pictured the Rapp brothers in front of their drawing boards, working precisely away with their drafting tools. I wish I still had my set of drafting tools. I wish I'd been better at hand drafting in my stagecraft class. I'd love to sit down with a protractor and divider and nice sharp pencils and draw out some plans.
But before that, on Thursday, I decided I really wanted to get out and enjoy the weather Chicago has been having. I got my camera stuff together, along with my Japanese class materials, and headed for the CTA. I took the Red Line to the Sheridan stop and walked along Irving Park Road to the entrance to Graceland Cemetery. Having just finished the third Dresden Files book, I wanted to see the graveyard. Partly because I'd been wanting to see it anyway, and partly because there's a scene in the book that takes place there.
I was a little bit disappointed at first. The monuments and grave markers were pretty impressive. As impressive as any I'd ever seen in a graveyard. But I'd been lead to expect something that was levels above any memorial grounds I'd been to. I didn't see that at first, as I walked along the west side of the yard, snapping pictures of imposing obelisks and vaults that dated mostly from the turn of the last century.
Then I got to the little lake that occupies the north central part of the graveyard; swiftly, I was no longer unimpressed. The crypts and monuments for some of the great families of the gilded age of Chicago were there. The Wacker, Pullman, Pinkerton, Armour, and Palmer tombs perhaps possessed of the most name-recognition. But the size of these things was amazing. One family had a string of twenty foot Greek columns encircling a stone angel, in human life-size. Another had an imposing slab of featureless black stone that reached twice my height, and in front of it, a green-patined statue of death in his great-robe stood at least ten feet tall, his face jet black amidst the green folds of sculpted cloth. One tomb was a stone pyramid complete with another life-size angel on one side of the door and a sculpted sphinx on the other. And the Burnham family, one of whom did much of the design work for the Columbian Exposition of 1893, had their own island in the little lake with a footbridge out to it!
And the Palmers! The Palmer monument was a neo-classical temple with twenty foot Ionic columns holding a pedimented roof, sculpted with the family name amidst laurel wreaths. On the stone floor of the structure stood two six foot tall stone sarcophagi carved with more wreaths, text, and six upside-down torches to symbolize death. It was quite a sight. I picture Harry's fight in the graveyard happening there, amongst the columns and the sepulchers.
After three hours in Graceland, I boarded the train again and headed for The Loop, intending to kill a couple more hours before my class started at 5:30. I ended up in the Chicago Cultural Center, home of a number of neat exhibits. There was a three room presentation on Louis Sullivan, one of the best known architects of Chicago, along with his partner, Dankmar Adler. It was especially neat to see so much about Sullivan after touring a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses (Wright worked for Adler and Sullivan for some time) and after seeing not only Sullivan's monument at Graceland, but a couple of tombs that Sullivan himself designed!
The cultural center is itself a beautiful and noteworthy building. It was originally the Chicago public library and was very similar in feel, decoration, and 'essence' to the Library of Congress (which architecture critics of the time compared it to as a contemporary building). It is home to the world's largest Tiffany glass dome, which was quite the sight to see! I'm going to come back when the hall that it's in isn't closed for a private event. I could only look in from the doorway.
So, after my Wednesday in Aurora and my Thursday back in Chicago, I started early on Friday morning and drove to Richmond to see my grandparents. I chatted with them for a few hours, and showed them some more of my pictures. Then I played a couple games of chess with Grandpa. Finally it was time to leave for Aurora again to meet up with folks for dinner and the show.
I did that and promptly left for Kenosha, about a two and a half hour drive. Two and a half hours is still a short drive in my brain, so it wasn't too bad, and I got through a bunch of Neuromancer, which I'm listening to in audiobook form. I arrived about 1 in the morning and went to bed on the futon in my parents' living room.
On Saturday, I met up with Super Mechanic Juan to talk about Percy the Swift. We learned that the radiator has developed a leak, so he's going to source a radiator for me and hopefully have it tomorrow so I can replace it. I'm not going anywhere with a leaking radiator that could give up the ghost and strand me at any point. We talked about the transmission too. He and I are going to go to the Pick N Pull some time when he has extra hours in a day and pull a transmission off of a scrapped Swift. Then we'll put that one in my car, and he wants to rebuild my old transmission. That way I'll have a spare in case the one we pick up is sketchy (I have picked up that word from Danae, methinks) or we can sell it and recoup some investment.
I also went through all the boxes upstairs at my parents' house, repacking and organizing them a bit better. I didn't find something I was particularly looking for so I'm a little anxious about that, but I feel better about having everything in boxes and mostly in one place. I studied for a while, and I helped clean out the space in the basement where Mom and I will be building a room for me to live in while I'm going to school.
Today, I went out and had lunch with Juan and Maddy (Yay!) and then visited Todd and Serin for a while. From Todd I got something fun to try and translate. It's, um, hardcore furry smut. In Japanese! This should be fun! And difficult....
And tomorrow, I'm going to (hopefully) try to install a new radiator in Percy, meet up with Serin and Todd to look at a possible brake fluid leak, and connect with Maddy's parents to see if I can do anything to fix their computer's new issue of randomly shutting down. I'm not a computer professional anymore, so we'll see if I still have it in me....
This past week I got to meet Danae's parents for the first time. They sounded like people I'd get along with, and I did. I met up with all of them for dinner on Wednesday in Aurora, where we ate at The Roundhouse, a restaurant in a building that used to be an actual railroad roundhouse. I'd been wanting to see the inside of that building for a while anyway, and I want to go back. It's got a bunch of railroady stuff inside, and supposedly a museum somewhere.
But anyway, her parents seemed fun. Her dad started discussions on random topics out of nowhere. We had just started discussing plans for that Friday when he commented "Look at the size of that pane of glass! It's amazing that it stands up to stress from the wind in an interior courtyard like that!"
The three of us had dinner on Wednesday and I drove back to Chicago. We met up again on Friday for dinner prior to seeing a performance of Stand Up Dads, a comedy show by four guys who do jokes and stories about being parents and growing up and things. At least, that was how they were billed. I thought three of them were pretty good. The third one, though, had material that was almost completely unrelated to the theme. Still, the show was fun. I don't think I would have paid to go see it by myself, but it was a nice time with the people I was with.
The theatre, the Paramount in Aurora, was gorgeous. In fact, a couple of the performers actually commented on how amazing the building was! It's a Rapp and Rapp design in a French Renaissance/Art Deco style. I spent a little while walking around the building and talking to the staff about the place before the show. And I'll admit that, though I was half paying attention to the fourth comedian, my eyes were wandering all up and down the auditorium. I traced all the architectural lines and intricate painted designs and with my mind's eye I pictured the Rapp brothers in front of their drawing boards, working precisely away with their drafting tools. I wish I still had my set of drafting tools. I wish I'd been better at hand drafting in my stagecraft class. I'd love to sit down with a protractor and divider and nice sharp pencils and draw out some plans.
But before that, on Thursday, I decided I really wanted to get out and enjoy the weather Chicago has been having. I got my camera stuff together, along with my Japanese class materials, and headed for the CTA. I took the Red Line to the Sheridan stop and walked along Irving Park Road to the entrance to Graceland Cemetery. Having just finished the third Dresden Files book, I wanted to see the graveyard. Partly because I'd been wanting to see it anyway, and partly because there's a scene in the book that takes place there.
I was a little bit disappointed at first. The monuments and grave markers were pretty impressive. As impressive as any I'd ever seen in a graveyard. But I'd been lead to expect something that was levels above any memorial grounds I'd been to. I didn't see that at first, as I walked along the west side of the yard, snapping pictures of imposing obelisks and vaults that dated mostly from the turn of the last century.
Then I got to the little lake that occupies the north central part of the graveyard; swiftly, I was no longer unimpressed. The crypts and monuments for some of the great families of the gilded age of Chicago were there. The Wacker, Pullman, Pinkerton, Armour, and Palmer tombs perhaps possessed of the most name-recognition. But the size of these things was amazing. One family had a string of twenty foot Greek columns encircling a stone angel, in human life-size. Another had an imposing slab of featureless black stone that reached twice my height, and in front of it, a green-patined statue of death in his great-robe stood at least ten feet tall, his face jet black amidst the green folds of sculpted cloth. One tomb was a stone pyramid complete with another life-size angel on one side of the door and a sculpted sphinx on the other. And the Burnham family, one of whom did much of the design work for the Columbian Exposition of 1893, had their own island in the little lake with a footbridge out to it!
And the Palmers! The Palmer monument was a neo-classical temple with twenty foot Ionic columns holding a pedimented roof, sculpted with the family name amidst laurel wreaths. On the stone floor of the structure stood two six foot tall stone sarcophagi carved with more wreaths, text, and six upside-down torches to symbolize death. It was quite a sight. I picture Harry's fight in the graveyard happening there, amongst the columns and the sepulchers.
After three hours in Graceland, I boarded the train again and headed for The Loop, intending to kill a couple more hours before my class started at 5:30. I ended up in the Chicago Cultural Center, home of a number of neat exhibits. There was a three room presentation on Louis Sullivan, one of the best known architects of Chicago, along with his partner, Dankmar Adler. It was especially neat to see so much about Sullivan after touring a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses (Wright worked for Adler and Sullivan for some time) and after seeing not only Sullivan's monument at Graceland, but a couple of tombs that Sullivan himself designed!
The cultural center is itself a beautiful and noteworthy building. It was originally the Chicago public library and was very similar in feel, decoration, and 'essence' to the Library of Congress (which architecture critics of the time compared it to as a contemporary building). It is home to the world's largest Tiffany glass dome, which was quite the sight to see! I'm going to come back when the hall that it's in isn't closed for a private event. I could only look in from the doorway.
So, after my Wednesday in Aurora and my Thursday back in Chicago, I started early on Friday morning and drove to Richmond to see my grandparents. I chatted with them for a few hours, and showed them some more of my pictures. Then I played a couple games of chess with Grandpa. Finally it was time to leave for Aurora again to meet up with folks for dinner and the show.
I did that and promptly left for Kenosha, about a two and a half hour drive. Two and a half hours is still a short drive in my brain, so it wasn't too bad, and I got through a bunch of Neuromancer, which I'm listening to in audiobook form. I arrived about 1 in the morning and went to bed on the futon in my parents' living room.
On Saturday, I met up with Super Mechanic Juan to talk about Percy the Swift. We learned that the radiator has developed a leak, so he's going to source a radiator for me and hopefully have it tomorrow so I can replace it. I'm not going anywhere with a leaking radiator that could give up the ghost and strand me at any point. We talked about the transmission too. He and I are going to go to the Pick N Pull some time when he has extra hours in a day and pull a transmission off of a scrapped Swift. Then we'll put that one in my car, and he wants to rebuild my old transmission. That way I'll have a spare in case the one we pick up is sketchy (I have picked up that word from Danae, methinks) or we can sell it and recoup some investment.
I also went through all the boxes upstairs at my parents' house, repacking and organizing them a bit better. I didn't find something I was particularly looking for so I'm a little anxious about that, but I feel better about having everything in boxes and mostly in one place. I studied for a while, and I helped clean out the space in the basement where Mom and I will be building a room for me to live in while I'm going to school.
Today, I went out and had lunch with Juan and Maddy (Yay!) and then visited Todd and Serin for a while. From Todd I got something fun to try and translate. It's, um, hardcore furry smut. In Japanese! This should be fun! And difficult....
And tomorrow, I'm going to (hopefully) try to install a new radiator in Percy, meet up with Serin and Todd to look at a possible brake fluid leak, and connect with Maddy's parents to see if I can do anything to fix their computer's new issue of randomly shutting down. I'm not a computer professional anymore, so we'll see if I still have it in me....
