Search results matching tag 'Chicago'

Cedar Lake: badminton, spotlights, and striped pajamas

BUOlivia — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:39:00 GMT

As you might have guessed from the title, the Cedar Lake's program was quite diverse. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you might want to read about last Sunday's trip to Chicago to see Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Anyway. Here's what I thought.

1. The theater was huge.

Auditorium Theatre seats 6,000 people, the usher told us. (It's also absolutely gorgeous.) She invited us to move up to the middle (we were seated to the extreme side), since the house was far, far from full. Sadly, we were also far, far from the stage, and some of the movement was not reading. I think I would have enjoyed to show much more had we been closer. That's not Cedar Lake's fault though--that's the theater and where we were sitting.

2. Sunday Again--I'd like to see it again.

The first piece, Sunday Again, was almost weightless in places. There were many places I think were supposed to be funny (they held badminton balls and rackets and took them from each other and threw them into the wings...), but since I was having trouble seeing those small details, I missed some it of. The partnering, however, read loud, clear, and lovely.

I remember certain snapshot moments: One of the duets had a man lifting a woman into a press lift, holding her hand and her hip! She was almost sideways, and transitions were seamless. Also seamless was the time she just sort of rolled up so her hip was on his shoulder--when he straightened from plie, there she was, up in the air. And the most vivid memory of that pas I have was the moment when she stood and he jumped, holding onto her waist, his feet still on the ground behind him. She moved, he plopped without a sound, and then they kept going.

I know what I'm saying pretty much makes no sense, but there was some effortless partnering in the piece. The dynamics of the relationships were also fascinating, and I wish I could see it again. I feel like it is a piece you can see many times.

3. Ten Duets on the Theme of Rescue--dark in several ways.

Ten Duets on the Theme of Rescue was initially my favorite of the three works presented. There were ten duets, all with some element of rescue, unfolding in tandem within a circle of mounted stage lights. The lights were on the stage, and occasionally someone would move one. The lighting was quite dim, however, and I had trouble seeing some of the movement. Again, that's the seating issue.

But I understood the duets, on the surface level, at least. I think that's why I enjoyed it so much. The lighting was also a novelty, and the serious subject matter (I found rescue, friendship/love, redemption, despair, etc...) made the piece appealing. But thinking about the three works again, if I could only see one of the pieces over, I would chose the first. I sense that what I liked about the Ten Duets was the movement quality, the overall tone, the interesting lighting, the music. I think the first piece had many more layers that I was not picking up on.

4. Frame of View--cool frame, cloudy vision.

The set of the third piece had as much to say as the dancing. There was a framework of a room--the walls were open, but the edge of the "ceiling" was indicated by some sort of board--with three doors on the three sides. Dancers came and went through, around, over the doors in a series of vignettes. Some of the individual sections were really neat. I especially enjoyed the section where a woman performed with some unseen person on the other side of the door. The other person reached around the door and through the mail slot, and finally stuck his/her face through the flexible upper portion (which we had not know was flexible until then). It was very neat.

Some of the most interesting moments, however, came when I thought of the room outlined as a metaphor for various things. The problem--for me, at least--came with the conclusion of the dance. The music, as you can see from the program, was so diverse, that the final song did not really tie all the disparate elements together. It ended with the feeling more of a feel-good piece than of a piece with things to say. Which is fine. I don't know... it just did not come together in a satisfactory way for me. Individually, though, some of the sections were awesome. And there was one guy wearing what looked like striped pajamas.

5. And so...

All in all, a good show. I'd really like to watch the first piece again, but be closer to the stage. I just realized I judged most of that with an eye to the choreography rather than the dancing. The dancing was fantastic, I thought. I loved the way the dancers moved: They seemed so strong, but so free, so unbounded and so controlled. Oxymoronic and brilliant. But I wonder when/why my focus has shifted to the more choreographic outlook. Anyway...

And now I have to get ready for my ballet class, so sorry to be abrupt, but bye!

Chicago, Cedar Lake, and other things that start with C

BUOlivia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:13:00 GMT

So I've done a post about things that start with R and one about things that start with B. I realized this post contains words that start with C: Chicago, Cedar Lake, carpooling...

Sigma Rho Delta, the honorary dance fraternity (yes, girls can join and no, it isn't the same as a social Greek organization), organized a trip to Chicago to see Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet perform this past Sunday. I broke up my Saturday for you. Now here's Sunday:

8:30 Wake up, breakfast
10:00 Meet in Lilly Hall to leave for Chicago
10:30 Actually leave with my lovely, lovely driver and two other dance majors. Ours was the best carpool group, naturally.

1:30 (but only 12:30, Chicago time--we crossed the time zone and I experienced extreme confusion) Arrive in Chicago! Realize Chicago is actually quite beautiful and realize we are actually quite hungry. Eat a sandwich in a little Italian Cafe. See another carpool group standing on the curb outside. Wave them in. Drink tea because it's freaking freezing outside.

2:30 (1:30 Chicago time) Meet in the lobby of Auditorium Theatre for the show! Admire the beautiful details of the 6,000 (!) seat theater. I took a picture of the ornate details over the stage, but then the usher came and told us we weren't allowed to take photographs. Oops. So you'll just have to go to the website to look at the theater.
3:00 (2:00 Chicago time) Showtime! I'll review it next blog post, though.
5:30? something like that? Decide we want food before driving all the way back to Indianapolis. Join forces with some of the other dancers to storm a restaurant. Eat. Drink. Be merry.

7:00? Ish? Head back home. Remember to pay our driver gas/car money. Realize that rain plus unfamiliar highways plus nighttime does not equal calm and happy driving. Survive the pitch-black roads and the waves of water streaming from the backs of the three trucks that pass us in tandem. Huddle together in the back seat for warmth since the defroster has to be on full-blast.
10:00 Arrive in Indianapolis, safe, sound, exhausted, but happy.

So that's that. Chicago, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, carpools, um... I'm sure there are more Cs somewhere. Caring? (Because we cared enough to drive for three hours to see a show?) Canada? (My driver is Canadian.) Cuddle? (We cuddled in the back of the car.) Car! Something like that...

Ballet, bagels, and other things that start with B

BUOlivia — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:09:00 GMT

Studio Dress was yesterday--the Nutcracker has finally been assembled! Now come the daily run-throughs. Maybe I'll put a schedule up of what we did during Studio Dress, but now I want to talk about my friend's birthday and what's going to happen today.

So my friend turned twenty! It was incredibly exciting. We went to the near-by Broad Ripple and ate dinner at Ripple Bagel and Deli. I had a hard time deciding what to pick, because the store looks like this:

That's not even the full menu, since I couldn't fit it all in one shot. You can also order the items that are written on pieces of paper tacked up around the blackboard, so the possibilities are sort of overwhelming. But I decided on the Blonde Bombshell, a turkey and lettuce sandwich with veggie cream cheese and not-creamed cheese. I put it on an apple bagel, and they steamed it (their signature thing-y), and it was awesome.

We also got cupcakes from The Flying Cupcake.

Today we are driving to Chicago with Sigma Rho Delta (honorary dance fraternity) to see Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. So I've got to get a move on, but you can watch this video if you want to know more about one of the pieces we'll be seeing.

Didy Veldman Rehearsal Video from Caleb Custer on Vimeo.

travel season has begun!

BUMegan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:59:00 GMT

I'm sitting at my parents house, listening to them talk to my uncle about growing tomatoes. HA!

Life (outside of this boring conversation! hehe) is going pretty well. I'm in my fourth travel season, which kinda blows my mind. I've been up in Chicago for a little over a month and have been LOVING my life so far. My travel started last week in St. Louis, so I've been with my parents for the past week and a half. It's been nice to hang out, eat great food and NOT stay in a hotel. And now, with my job changing to a regional rep, I won't have that same level of hotel burnout I usually experience around week five. ;)

I have to admit (as I'm sure I've mentioned previously) that one of my favorite parts of my job is travel. I LOVE getting to meet students, work with guidance counselors and talk about Butler. Although I'm a little under the weather, I've really enjoyed my visits so far-my schedule is much more complicated than years previous, but it seems to be working out ok. I'm actually REALLY excited to start my travel in Chicago, as I'm hoping that my students will appreciate my new position! My hope is to become a very accessible resource for students and their families-so many schools were able to offer that to their students before, and now Butler can be included in that list. :)

The one thing to get used to-is working from home! I didn't know if I could ever get used to it. Slowly but surely, I'm adjusting. I LOVE not having a commute, and I think I've set up a pretty nice home office. The rest of my apartment is coming along slowly, but it's cool to have my own place and to decorate how I like. Hopefully everything will be in place soon, and I can finally and fully be settled.

Applications have been slowly but steadily coming through the office, and I've been getting some questions from students about the process. Please keep the questions coming! If you need anything at any point, please don't hesitate to let myself or any other counselor know. That's our job! :)

Good luck with everything and bring on the fall!

Butler is a suburb of Chicago

ChristinaL — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:33:00 GMT

Aside from The Region aka Northwest Indiana aka Illinois Wannabes (I mean that with love), I am going to bet that Butler University has the highest concentration of Chicagoland-ers per square mile in all of Indiana. I swear, it sometimes seems like there are more Chicago area kids at Butler than kids from Indiana... okay, not really. But there are a LOT of Chi-town Bulldogs.

That fact became very apparent today when my family hosted the Butler Summer Sendoff party for all the incoming Butler students in the western Chicago suburbs. We have a little place in downtown Naperville called the Grumpy Bulldog, so that was the place for the party and we had more than 50 new students and parents come. It was really loud in the restaurant, so we didn't do much talking as an entire group... but I thought everyone seemed to have a great time mingling and meeting new people. I'm pretty sure all the freshmen already knew each other anyway through facebook! haha.

I was really excited because I have four honors mentees for the Honors Program and I got to meet one of them today. She's great! I'm excited to meet the other three and hang out with them at Honors Orientation and on campus.

Here are some photos from the event. My dad complained that he hasn't been getting enough coverage on this blog, so I'll show you a pic of him proudly sporting his favorite Butler Basketball t-shirt today at the party. I should tell you that he is throwing the peace sign because he's a wannabe gangsta.... either that or he is indicating his answer to the Butler trivia question, "How many times has the men's basketball team been in the Sweet Sixteen?" I'll let you decide.

Anyway, my boss Emily from the Alumni Office gave me a ride back to Indy after the event, so I am finally back at my house here at Butler!! It feels so good to be at home after so much travelling. As far as I know, I am here until school starts and I have no plans to leave Indy after that, so I may actually be in town for a while! Hooray! All this time on the road has been so great, but so tiring. I love Indy, so I'm ready to actually be here for some quality time in my city! Gotta enjoy the last month of summer!!

Sweet Home Chicago

ChristinaL — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:53:00 GMT

Hello friends! Sorry it's been awhile between posts... I've been on the road once again. The end of my Texas trip was fabulous! Maybe I will post some of those pictures later this week. Now I am home at my family's house in Naperville, Illinois enjoying a few days with them between flying in from Texas and hosting the Butler Summer Sendoff for the Chicago suburbs tomorrow.

It has been a nice few days at home to relax, get some work done, and spend some time with family and old friends. You may wonder how often I go home during the school year at Butler, and the answer is not a lot! Things get so busy and there is so much going on that I can never tear myself away except for long breaks like Thanksgiving and Spring Break. More often, my family will come to visit me (or pretend to visit me...and really come to watch Butler basketball!) This summer has been nice because I've had some extra time to come home, so I've actually gotten to spend time at my family's house and with my dog, doing the old hometown thing!

On Friday, my grandparents (and regular readers of this blog - hey Grandma and Grandpa!) came up to our house to visit and celebrate my grandma's birthday.

We went into the city for the day to take a boat tour of the Chicago River. I'd done that back in high school, but it is always fun for me to be in downtown Chicago, especially when the weather is so nice! This tour was cool because they also took us out onto Lake Michigan where we could get the full view of the skyline.

Other than that, I've been pretty low key. I got some work done for the IndyFringe theatre festival via laptop and email. I went to see one of my friends perform in The Odd Couple. Saw The Ugly Truth and The Hangover... any opinions out there? I thought Ugly Truth was cute but predictable... and the Hangover was a little too violent (I hate to see people get hurt!)... but quite funny. Have any of you guys seen those?

Probably my favorite part of being home was getting to see my high school best friend Katie. She is getting married next summer and I will be one of her bridesmaids, so today I helped her meet with a potential photographer... who just so happens to be our very good friend Devin from high school! The three of us were best buds (and troublemakers) together in Driver's Ed waaaaaaay back in the day, and now Dev does a lot of professional photography so I suggested maybe he could shoot Katie's wedding.

It was fun to meet up today after a few years apart.... I can't even remember the last time I saw him. The last time I definitely remember was at his graduation party when I gave him a framed photo of us in our caps and gowns. Today he told me he still has that in his room! Glad to know I still occupy a special place on his bookshelf! haha.

But really, enjoy spending time with your high school friends now, because even though they are very important to you, you all have lots of solo adventures coming up and it might even be a few years until you meet again... but, you will, and it will be great and you will have so many good stories to tell and things to catch up on.

Anyway, that's all for now. My family is hosting the Butler Summer Sendoff tomorrow for all the new Bulldogs in the area, so I am looking forward to meeting some of you there. Please say hello! Everyone else, stay tuned for some photos of the Chicago Suburbs Butler Lovefest!

Chicago here I come!

BUMegan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:07:00 GMT

I adore Chicago. It is the pulse of America.
- - - Sarah Bernhardt

Chicago is a city of contradictions, of private visions haphazardly overlaid and linked together. If the city was unhappy with itself yesterday-and invariably it was-it will reinvent itself today.
- - - Pat Colander "A Metropolis of No Little Plans" NY Times 5 May 85

But Chicago is a great American city. Perhaps it is the last of the great American cities. --Norman Mailer, Miami and the Siege of Chicago, 1968

My first day in Chicago, September 4, 1983. I set foot in this city, and just walking down the street, it was like roots, like the motherland. I knew I belonged here.
- - - Oprah Winfrey

So, it's official! I will be moving to Chicago and be working for Butler as a regional representative!!!! This has been a few months in the making, and I couldn't be more excited. :) I put the proposal together earlier this year, never really knowing that it would be approved. I still am in a little bit of shock about it, but very, very excited. Everything will be moving quickly from here on out, as I will be moving at the end of this month to my new place. There are still a lot of details for me to work out, not to mention getting furniture or anything else! (If anyone knows of good deals on furniture, let me know, ok! ) I'm excited, though, for what the future holds for me.

I've never lived alone, and I must say I'm a little nervous. Erin and I have lived together since graduation from Butler, and we've ALWAYS lived in the same city. We've never not lived apart, and I seriously cannot imagine what life will be like living without her. I think it'll be good for both of us as we near our 26th birthday. It'll be hard too, to not work in the office and not be around coworkers all the time. I LOVE working here, love my co-workers and our office. I will be coming back twice a month though, which will help with the "office homesickness!"

I'm hoping everything in the next few weeks goes smoothly...I've got a lot of things to do before I move, so I've got a bunch of to-do lists started:)

That's all from me for now-I'll be sure to post more updates later!!!!

Museum Marathon: Design, Harry Potter... and The Hills?

ChristinaL — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:07:00 GMT

HELLO, hectic weekend. I am officially on vacation now, (even though I unofficially still have a whole lot of work to do!) but so far the begining of my break has been pretty crazy.

Since I am peacing out of Indy for about a week and a half and the European Design exhibit at the Indianapolis Art Museum is closing TODAY, I had to bike over there and check it out on Thursday before leaving town.

If you haven't heard me mention it before, the IMA is literally down the street from Butler and a really awesome art museum with beautiful gardens. It's free for everyone, all the time, which makes it awesome to just pop into and visit for an hour or two when you need a little escape from Butler.

They have a fantastic collection, but they also bring in some really cool exhibitions from around the world. This spring, the special exhibit was called European Design Since 1985, and it focused on decorative and industrial design - furniture, kitchenware, home decorations, etc. The whole thing definitely reminded me of IKEA (which, if you have never been, is an excellent place to buy dorm room furniture... I have a little table I bought for literally $10 that has been a staple of my college room for the last two years.)

I think it's very cool that the IMA includes all kinds of art and design that you might not traditionally think of as belonging in a museum. For example, earlier this summer, they brought in the lead designer from Target to talk about the design that goes into all aspects of the store. He was so geeky and excited about art - I loved hearing about it! You can read the review I wrote for NUVO about his talk to hear more details about what he said. But anyway, the best part about decorative design is that much of it can be mass-produced, so in the gift shop at the end of the exhibit, you actually buy some of the items that are on display in the show to take home with you! It's kind of inspiring to think about your home and the things in it as potential art. If you live in Indy, you should go check it out TODAY because it's the last day. The exhibit only costs $3 with a college ID - yay for cheap entertainment.

After I saw the exhibit and packed up my car, I drove home to Chicago where my family lives. I was up bright and early on Friday morning to drive downtown with my mother to the Museum of Science and Industry!

This was a work day AND a vacation. The Office of Alumni & Parent Programs (where I work this summer) and the Chicago Alumni Chapter were sponsoring a Butler gathering at MSI to see the Harry Potter exhibit. There were Butler alumni, parents and friends of all ages who came in to enjoy lunch and the exhibit together. My favorite part of the event was getting to meet Jen, one of the leaders of the Chicago Alumni Chapter, because she actually works at the Museum of Science & Industry in their development office... what a cool job! Development is a field I am considering for my future, so maybe Jen and I will have to chat again soon. It is always inspiring to see the interesting and fun jobs that Butler grads end up in.

I didn't actually spend TOO much time chatting, though, because I was busy shuttling people from the check-in table up to the room where we had lunch. It was a free day for the museum (which is usually quite expensive) and Jen said that more than 10, 000 people came, including approximately every YMCA day camp in Illinois. So, my job was to lead all the Butler people through the chaos of children to get to our lunch! The ticket-taker man and I became bffs.

It was worth it, though, to work at the event, because I got a free ticket to the Harry Potter exhibit. Walking through there is like being in the movies! They have lots of costumes and props from the films, and the whole thing is set up with music and scenery to make you feel like you are actually at Hogwarts - lots of fun. It made me excited for the next movie to come out this summer - my roommates and I are planning to go at midnight... anyone else??

Here I am out in the lobby of the Museum with the car Harry and Ron fly in from the second film:

After all this, my mom and I planned to drive to Rockford to see the Bluecoats and some of my other friends perform at a Drum Corps International show. Unfortunately, the weather went totally crazy. There were tornados touching down in Northern Illinois and the rain was absolutely insane!! My windshield wipers could not keep up, and we ended up driving like 25 mph with our hazards on because we could barely see the other cars on the road through all the water. This was the sky afterwards:

But, eventually we got there. Even though it made me even more sad about not being in the Bluecoats this summer, it was so great to see so many people I love and have known for ages. Best friends are good for the soul. So is very loud music from some great drum corps.

We didn't get back from Rockford until 2 am, though, and today has been busy with packing for our family vacation and a grad party for a family friend. My dad and I went to downtown Naperville to get lunch and I noticed an unusually large number of girls walking around in short dresses. People in the Ville always dress kind of ridiculously, but today, more than normal. After lunch, I suggested to my dad that we pop into our favorite local bookstore, but when we got there, we noticed a critical mass of those teenage girls. When I saw two of them wearing matching "I Hate Spencer" shirts, I had a feeling that I knew what was up... sure enough, Lauren Conrad of The Hills was in MY bookstore, doing a book signing. Ridiculous. I did not even catch a glimpse of her because she was surrounded by so many wannabe fashionistas, but it was still a strange experience when I was just going for a stroll after lunch!

What a weekend, and it's only Saturday night. Michigan tomorrow!

Final Exams are Sneaking Up...

AshlenC — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:51:00 GMT

In my past posts I've frequently written about the notorious cluster exams. Every year, pharmacy students schedule their whole lives around clusters. The dates of the exams are released at the beginning of the semester. Usually, we get room assignments along with the times of the tests. However, with the pharmacy building being under construction this year, our room assignments came out really late. Not a big deal. It does become a big deal when the college has a hard time scheduling rooms for final exams, and you have no idea when you're finishing up for the semester. At Christmas, I get pretty irked over getting my finals schedule so late because I have to book flights home. This semester, I need to know the dates so I can figure out when I can start working. Thankfully, our exam schedule was e-mailed to us yesterday, so I've finally got some sort of idea about what I'll be doing for the entire month of May.

Classes end on Monday, April 27th. We get a "reading day" on the Tuesday, and final exams are in full swing starting on the Wednesday. Every time I open up my exam schedule, I hope that we're done at least a day or two before finals are scheduled to end. However, every pharmacy class is having to stay right up until May 5th this year. Our Therapeutics professor told us there were serious problems trying to book the large rooms for our tests because a lot of liberal arts classes were combining their sections to hold mass exams. I guess that's why we're all stuck here so late!

The great thing about my exam schedule is that I have one test every day. It sounds like a lot, but compared to clusters, it's a breeze. Usually we have 5 or 6 tests scheduled into 72 hours over clusters, so it's really nice to have some time between the tests to study. In addition, we have a weekend in the middle of finals, so that means I have three days of finals, two days off, and another two days of finals. It's a pretty sweet deal.

I've started trying to make plans for the rest of the month of May, now that I know when I'll be done. I'm going to start off by hanging around Indianapolis for a few days. I'll need to pack up, clean my apartment, and of course I'll want to do a few fun things too. There's mini-golf not too far from my apartment, and Brian and I have wanted to check it out for a while now. Maybe I'll also do some baking, so that Brian and I can have something to munch on while we drive up to his house. I'm hoping to stay at Brian's house for a couple of days. Every spring, I've gone to a White Sox game with Brian and his family (last year my family went too). The Sox will be playing at home while we're there, so I'm really excited that I get to go again this year. The food is AMAZING! We went to a buffet in the restaurant at the field a couple years ago, and they had so many options. I can't imagine going to games all the time like Brian does...I would gain so much weight!

While we're in Chicago, I'm also going to drag Brian downtown to go shopping at Macy's for our wedding registry. My parents tell me that the Macy's in downtown Chicago has the best selection of any store. It's going to be a lot of fun for me...hopefully Brian doesn't fall asleep!

After a couple days at Brian's house, I'm going to leave to drive back to Canada. I'll be making the trip on my own this year, unless I can't fit everything in my car, in which case my dad is going to drive down to meet me in Chicago with our SUV and help me haul all my stuff home. I'll be in Winnipeg for about a week. I need to get my haircut (which hasn't been done since January....ugh) and also book a couple other appointments. I'll also have time to visit with family before heading out to work in Kenora!

I'm really excited that everything is starting to line up for next year...but for now, I still have to keep studying...

Until later,

Ashlen

Delt Formal in Chicago

SarahG — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:31:00 GMT

This weekend I took a trip up to Chicago with my boyfriend for Delt formal! Fraternity formals are a bit different than sorority formals, because they are overnight in a different city. Since formals for Theta are just held somewhere around the downtown or Broadripple area, it was fun to actually go somewhere new for a change! We drove up early on Saturday to make time for walking around the city, grabbing lunch, and shopping before going back to the hotel to get ready for the dance. Several of my sisters were at the event as well, which just added to the excitement!

The only bad thing? It was SNOWING when we left on Sunday... and I thought I was done with that nasty winter weather haha!

Chicago!

The boys before the dance

All dressed up

Thetas

I wasn't kidding about the snow!