A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

Wednesday morning we were up by eight o’clock and out of the hotel shortly after nine.  The plan for today was to tour the Field Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.  We decided to take a taxi to the Field Museum since it was out by the planetarium and aquarium, and we wanted to maximize our time.

The Field Museum was home to “Sue”, the world’s largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton.  We were also able to meet the Lions of Tsavo, the man-eating lions that were made famous in the movie, The Ghost and the Darkness.  The Egyptian exhibition was pretty cool as well.  It contained 23 mummies, and 5000 year old hieroglyphics.  There was also a full-size re-creation of a famous Egyptian tomb.  As cool as these were I think I enjoyed the Evolving Planet exhibition the most which let you walk through the evolution of the planet from prehistoric to present times.

Once we finished up at the Field Museum we took a walk along the shores of Lake Michigan to the Buckingham Fountain.  You may recognize it from the opening of the sitcom Married With Children.  We fired off a few photos, grabbed a hot dog, then continued our journey through Millennium Park.

Millennium Park is Chicago’s newest landmark.  This grand urban park is home to Frank Gehry’s distinctive Pritzker Music Pavilion and the Cloud Gate facade of curled metal in the shape of a bean.  This thing was pretty cool, but kind of weird as well.

There was also two large monoliths called the Crown Fountain covered entirely by changing projections as water fell down them.  Very interesting indeed.   It seems that Chicago residents use them to cool off during those hot summer days.  I would loved to have done this as well, but I didn’t really want to walk around the Art Institute of Chicago while being all wet.

After we finished our walk through the park we came up on the Art Institute of Chicago.  This building was massive and filled with all sorts of art.  The exhibit of the 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms was insane.  This Chicago socialite of the early 20th century seemed to have a lot of time on her hands.  The detail of the rooms was amazing.

The art from all corners of the globe were nice to see, but the two pieces I really wanted to view were the famous paintings American Gothic and Nighthawks.  Michelle and I were most interested in seeing the modern contemporary art galleries, but we had some bad luck since they were all temporarily closed.  Oh well, next time I guess.

When all was said and done at the Institute we walked back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.  We had bought tickets to the musical Wicked, a highly acclaimed show set in The Wizard of Oz universe.  The premise of the show is to explain what led the Wicked Witch of the West to become “wicked”.  It starts before and finishes shortly after the events of The Wizard of Oz.  Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the show.  It kind of reminded me of the story of Anakin Skywalker.   The show was at  the impressive Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre.

After the show we wanted to just have a small bite to eat, and once again we found ourselves walking from restaurant to restaurant.  By the time we reached our hotel, we were both tired and decided to just call it a night.

You can see the rest of the photos from the day by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

For all of the years that I have lived in Saskatoon, I had never visited the Mendel Art Gallery. I’m not sure why, but I just never got around to it. So to remedy this oversight, I decided to head over to the gallery this past Sunday. For those who are not familiar with the Mendel, here’s a brief description from their website.

Indeed, the Mendel Art Gallery is at the forefront of recasting the image and vibrancy of the City of Bridges as a major creative cultural centre in Saskatchewan and Canada. We recognize our role and responsibility not merely as stewards of the art objects we collect, preserve, research, and present, but as a potent agent of social change, driven by the multiple social, cultural, and educational possibilities of an expanded vision for the public art museum.

Through synergistic partnerships with contemporary artists and curators, like-minded organizations, special interest groups, and progressive members of the local business community, we demonstrate, on a daily basis, the necessity of art to the quality of life, and to the cohesion and advancement of Saskatoon as a first–rate, creative city.

Prior to leaving for the Mendel, I visited their website to see what the current exhibits were. There were two in particular that I was most interested in seeing. One was called “COOLART” which is an exhibit displaying artwork by students of Saskatoon’s schools. The other was “artistsbyartists” featuring the work of two Saskatoon artists - Yuka Yamaguchi, a self-taught artist born in Kobe Japan, and Dave Geary whose politcal work focuses on a “Great Saskatchewan Socialist Utopia that never was.”

The gallery is free to the public, but there is a donation box so I threw some money into that before making my way to the “artistsbyartists” exhibit. Yuka Yamaguchi’s work is described in the following manner. I tend to agree with it.

Her drawings are inward-looking, reaching both extremes of cute and the grotesque.

Looking at her work I found them interesting, but difficult to determine the meaning of. I thought I had a pretty good idea about some of them, but most of them were just way out there. This led me back to a bio of her at the start of the exhibit in hopes of getting a few hints to where she was coming from. It stated something along the lines of her work being done on the fly, with her just drawing without knowing where it would take her, without meaning. This definitely made sense. For example there was one piece that had a little girl sitting on the ground with a dismembered leg. She was proceeding to braid the muscles and tendons that were protruding from the piece that was still attached to her. Another one entitled “Inside of Me”, was of a fish impaling that same little girl.

The first piece I saw by Dave Geary was of two plush, stuffed animals. One of them was shaped like the province of Saskatchewan, and the other one was fashioned after a Saskatoon Berry. I said something along the lines of, “What the fuh?” As I made my way through the rest of his work, these two characters actually made sense, and went along with the rest of his pieces. Here’s a brief bio of him taken from the Mendel’s website.

Dave Geary is well-known as an artist, designer, cartoonist and zine producer. Images represented in artistsbyartists are a continuation of a political poster project Geary began in 2005 entitled The Great Saskatchewan Socialist Utopia that never was.

On display were Geary’s pieces that are influenced by posters found in 20th century socialist movements throughout eastern Europe. Geary takes the look of these posters and adds his own twist on them to fit into his “The Great Saskatchewan Socialist Utopia that never was” project. I generally liked them and thought they were quite clever.

The “COOLART” exhbition was in the main gallery so I made my way over there. I was surprised to find out that the Mendel presents the work of about two hundred students from kindergarten to grade twelve. There was a wide range of artwork including drawings, collages, sculptures, photography, and paintings. A lot of the work was very impressive, even from some of the younger participants. There are definitely some talented artists in Saskatoon.

There were two other exhibits in the main gallery including “Articulation Express : Celebrating Ahasiw” which looks at the life of aboriginal performance artist Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew. There was a movie playing, but I only watched it for a few moments.

“Lasting Impressions : Celebrated Works from the Gallery of Hamilton” has made its way through six venues across Canada. This exhibit focused on the modern art movement of early 20th century art - some of the most defining times in Canadian Art. I made my way this exhibit, but honestly I had little interest.

Overall I’m glad I finally made my way to the Mendel Art Gallery. I thoroughly enjoyed the two exhibits I specifically went to see, and will definitely keep my eye on the new exhibits that will go on display in the future. I’m already looking forward to the next “artistbyartist” featuring Sonya Adams who finds, “inspiration for her disquieting drawings from the remains of outmoded communications technology.” Sounds interesting. If you’ve never been to the Mendel, or haven’t been there in a long time, I highly recommend heading out there and supporting this Saskatoon gem.

Since Las Vegas is fairly close to L.A., we thought it was a good idea to make a trip out there while I was here. We left at about 10:00 on Monday morning. The drive was pretty cool across the Mojave desert. I’ve never seen terrain like that before. I made sure not to let Ryan take any shortcuts because I have seen what happens to tourists in movies like “The Hill Have Eyes”. Many stretches saw the desert covered with Joshua trees. There is a national park named for them, but we won’t have a chance to visit it on this trip.

We stopped for lunch in a 50s diner in some U.S. Marines base town. We tested our 50s entertainment knowledge and failed miserably. We also stopped at an outlet mall, but mostly just looked around.

We rolled into Las Vegas just after 3:00 and checked into our hotel right away. We stayed at Treasure Island which is right on the strip. We had tickets for the 7:00 show of Cirque du Soleil : Love so we didn’t have much time to do anything before. We just got changed and had dinner at a Vietnamese place in the hotel. Everywhere you go in the hotel you can hear the “dinging” of the slot machines. I’m not sure how the workers take it.

The show was playing at The Mirage which was right next to our hotel so we just walked over there. We picked Love since Ryan and Connie had seen all of the other Cirque du Soleil shows that are playing in Las Vegas. Here’s a little description of the show.

With LOVE, Cirque du Soleil celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles

Born from a personal friendship and mutual admiration between the late George Harrison and Cirque founder Guy Laliberté, LOVE brings the magic of Cirque du Soleil together with the spirit and passion behind the most beloved rock group of all time to create a vivid, intimate and powerful entertainment experience.

With LOVE, Cirque du Soleil celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles through their timeless, original recordings. The exuberance of The Beatles will be channeled through the youthful, urban energy of a cast of 60 international artists. Using the master tapes at Abbey Road studios, Sir George Martin and Giles Martin have created a unique soundscape of The Beatles music for LOVE. With panoramic sound and visuals, the audience will experience The Beatles as never before. Only at The Mirage, Las Vegas.

The show was pretty cool. I had never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance before and I would definitely see one again. The performers can do some rather amazing things and have a lot of guts. You couldn’t catch me hanging from the ceiling like they were. Apparently this one didn’t have as much acrobatics as other ones, but there was a lot of great dancing. I really liked the dancing, but I would also see one more focussed on acrobatics some time.

The show finished at about 8:30 so Ryan, Connie, and I just walked down the strip. There was definitely a lot of people there and the weather was cooperating nicely. I think the forecast said it was 30 degrees celsius. We stopped by an outdoor bar at one of the hotels and each got a drink. It was a pretty good deal - only $30 with tip. I thought we would just sit there until we were done, but according to Ryan and Connie, they said we could walk around the strip with them. Even though they said it was OK, it didn’t feel right to me and I kept trying to hide my beer. We finally some some other people walking around with their drinks, so I was a little more at ease.

We stopped at the Bellagio to watch the famous watershow. We managed to find a space around the ledge despite how busy it was for a front-row seat. We watched a couple of the shows - one to Faith Hill’s, “This Kiss”, and some opera song. It was awesome.

We continued to walk around more and then Connie decided to head back to the room. Ryan and I hung out in the Treasure Island casino for a while and I decided to put some money in a slot machine. I’m a high roller so I went to the quarter slots and put in $275. I lost it within one minute. Oh wait, did I say $275? I meant $2.75. Like I said, I’m a high-roller. Here’s a picture of the intensity of the game.

Since Ryan and I were so devastated by the loss, we had to call it a night. It completely deflated our enthusiasm. We went back to our room, watched a little tube, and went to bed.

I was up around 7:30 this morning and read a bit of news on the net before jumping in the shower. Ryan was gone to work by 5:30 and Connie and I watched some sports highlights while we had our morning coffee. Let me tell you, the ESPN version of Sportscenter is the way to go as opposed to TSN’s version. Here you get 25 minutes of NBA highlights followed by 5 minutes of the “other” sports - the way it should be. In the Canadian version you get 25 minutes of hockey highlights (and to be more precise, that’s 25 minutes of Leafs highlights) followed by 5 minutes of the “other” sports.

We needed to stop by the NBC studio to pick up The Tonight Show tickets so we headed out at about 9:00. The traffic was decent and we rolled into Burbank and Studio City in good time. When I went in to get the tickets all they could give me were stand-by ones. The deal was that you show up at 3:30 and you’d know if you were getting in by 4:30. Since we didn’t want to hang around this area of the city all day and then end up not getting in, we decided it was best to do some schedule shifting.

We decided to go to the Getty Center today, and try The Tonight Show another day. Since we had no idea how to get to the Getty Center we tried to call Ryan at the office to get us directions off of the internet. We needed to find a pay phone since neither of them have a cell phone. I’m serious.

We couldn’t get a hold of him so we just asked a guy at a gas station and he filled us in on where we needed to be. We were now on our way to see some art. For those who don’t know what the Getty Center is, here’s a blurb from their site.

The Getty Center presents the Getty’s collection of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views.

Connie and I were most interested in the photography exhibits they had. The first one we saw was Sigmar Polke: Photographs, 1968-1972. His work was known to be experimental and I honestly didn’t care for them. Below is a picture of Connie enjoying old Sigmar’s photos. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to be taking pictures in this exhibit, but I managed to sneak a few in….before I was told it was forbidden and sternly reprimanded.

Another photography exhibit was The Old Order and the New: P.H. Emerson and Photography 1885-1895. His pieces focused on images of, “the isolated region of East Anglia in England during the late 19th century, a time when traditional life and work along the Norfolk Broads were increasingly threatened by advances in modern technology.” I did like his work, but there were a lot of his pieces, and they all seemed to become very similar near the end.

The photography exhibit I enjoyed the most was A Place in the Sun: Photographs of Los Angeles by John Humble. From the Getty site.

John Humble (American, b. 1944) has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for 30 years. During this time he has created a strong body of photographs inspired by architecture and its surrounding natural environment, often focusing on the incongruities and ironic juxtapositions of the Southern Californian landscape. This two-gallery exhibition features approximately 35 color photographs, many of which were acquired by the Getty Museum in January 2006, with the generous assistance of the Getty Museum Photographs Council, which also underwrote the accompanying publication. Both the exhibition and book celebrate Humble’s distinct view of Los Angeles. From the concrete channels of the Los Angeles River to brightly colored commercial buildings, his photographs of the built environment capture that which is instantly recognizable yet very often overlooked.

We made our way through many of the other exhibits, but you have to understand that the Getty Center is huge, and you could spend a lot of time in there. We saw a ton of paintings and sculptures, along with a really neat look at the process they used to determine whether a so-called 15th century cabinet was the real-deal. The centre also has an incredible garden to walk through.

We decided to head back home shortly after 3:00. Traffic was brutal at some places, but cleared up and let us actually go above 20 km/hour. When we got back, Ryan had also just arrived from the office. We had some dinner and watched basketball before heading to the hot-tub for a dip. Connie didn’t join us since she needed to go buy a dress for a show we are seeing tomorrow called The Magic Castle. From what I hear it is supposed to be awesome. Check back for details on Thursday.

I’ve also posted some picture from the day here. There aren’t many, and I’m a little disappointed I didn’t have my big camera with me at the time (since I thought we were going to be at The Tonight Show today), but there were still some decent shots.