Categories
Staycation

Modern Wing at the Art Institute Chicago

Tonight Mike and I went to the members preview of the Modern Wing. It’s visually stunning inside and out, with some great views of Millennium Park. We spent most of our time in the early 20th century European section, and didn’t get a chance to see photography, architecture and design, or the most recent paintings. Saving that for later, since I intend to get a lot out of the cost of my membership. I mostly skipped Surrealism. It’s too scary. That, and Futurism. Give me some De Stijl any day. It’s more soothing.

Despite all the grandeur of the space, I couldn’t get away from the feeling that it’s like a huge version of the new Champaign Public Library, or perhaps the CPL is a tiny version of it. If I knew more about architecture, perhaps I could name the style of modern public buildings. Airy, but also brown…

Categories
Libraries

Call for assistance

I’m working with the Chicago Underground Library to develop a mission statement, and I need your help. We have written a draft, and are now field testing it. Doesn’t matter if you’ve heard of the Chicago Underground Library, or have any idea what it is. Just take a look, and tell me what you think. If you know something about it, does it capture what you know? And if you don’t know, what does this make you think the library is?

The Chicago Underground Library is an all-inclusive collection of Chicago-specific media, produced by and for the community. Through our unique indexing of contributors and our open venue, we provide a space for individuals, organizations and ideas to come together, and creative connections to emerge.

Just leave your thoughts in the comments if you could. Thanks!

Categories
What I've been reading lately

What I’ve been reading lately #5

Everyday Survival by Laurence Gonzales was a random selection from the library new book shelf. Actually I picked it up, looked at it, scoffed at the topic, and put it down. Then I couldn’t help myself and ran back over to pick it up.

The object of the book is describe what goes on in your brain when you do stupid things. There are a lot of authorial anecdotes, many of which are when he was in “vacation mode” and not really paying attention in a normal way, like getting lost in a small area while hiking, or mistaking a real snake for a fake snake. With each anecdote I was able to fill in my own personal experience of when I too was that dumb.

This is a very freeing book. Every page I have to say “Oh my god, I thought I was just stupid when I did that. I didn’t know it was hard-wired into humans!” Now many of you (I think just Mike) feel that my love of evolutionary psychology is misguided, but I just can’t help myself. Falsifiability be damned! Certainly this book is very compelling, even if it is a series of just-so stories. I will add, however, that the author started out as a rock-and-roll novelist, and also writes about travel and aviation. So I can’t vouch for the science in this book, only for the story-telling.