to Iowa City. It is weird not going "home" after a road trip but back to this in-between place where fall has definitely arrived. Forgot it is Canadian thanksgiving. We have an unfrosted poptart and some hummus. Did get a slice of pumpkin pie at Native Foods in Chicago (100% vegan chain we ate at twice), so maybe that will tie us over.
Iowa City is only 3.5 hrs from Chicago but didn't check it out until this weekend, when we left first thing Thursday morning and stayed at an AirBNB in Oak Park, birth place of Hemingway. Spent most of our time in museums and parks, taking the incredibly awesome and easy public transportation to get around and walking to enjoy the lovely weather and architecture. Spent the first day in Millennium park and Art Institute of Chicago which we only had a couple hours to glance over the first time we were there two years ago. This time we were able to take our time with the European and American paintings, and even made it down to the basement where they keep the miniatures. Then the next day the Field Museum where there were many dinosaur bones, gemstones, and illuminated sea creatures and saw "Don Jon" at a movie theatre at Magnificent Mile (such a hilarious and amazing film). Yesterday, walked around Navy Pier, and checked out Contemporary Art Gallery where we ran into a friend from Regina in the photography exhibit! Also stumbled upon Poetry Foundation building which was a cool site/sight. Caught a comedy show that evening, and peeked into the (windows of) Hemingway house around midnight.
Elated that Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize for literature. Front page news on newspapers across gas stations of Illinois. She remains my favourite fiction writer, able to convey so much of human experience, complication and flaws in such tight, beautiful lines. I've learned so much about art and writing from her stories, which are highly conscious of their formal decisions and could not have been written any other way. She is not an overtly political writer, but her work constantly engages with compassion & violence, the treatment and roles of women, the role of art. Reading her work has made me a better woman, writer, human being, everything.
I am VERY proud to be a Canadian writer living in America (even when my students confront me about my Canadian accent).
Chicago pictures posted soon on tumblr!
Iowa City is only 3.5 hrs from Chicago but didn't check it out until this weekend, when we left first thing Thursday morning and stayed at an AirBNB in Oak Park, birth place of Hemingway. Spent most of our time in museums and parks, taking the incredibly awesome and easy public transportation to get around and walking to enjoy the lovely weather and architecture. Spent the first day in Millennium park and Art Institute of Chicago which we only had a couple hours to glance over the first time we were there two years ago. This time we were able to take our time with the European and American paintings, and even made it down to the basement where they keep the miniatures. Then the next day the Field Museum where there were many dinosaur bones, gemstones, and illuminated sea creatures and saw "Don Jon" at a movie theatre at Magnificent Mile (such a hilarious and amazing film). Yesterday, walked around Navy Pier, and checked out Contemporary Art Gallery where we ran into a friend from Regina in the photography exhibit! Also stumbled upon Poetry Foundation building which was a cool site/sight. Caught a comedy show that evening, and peeked into the (windows of) Hemingway house around midnight.
Elated that Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize for literature. Front page news on newspapers across gas stations of Illinois. She remains my favourite fiction writer, able to convey so much of human experience, complication and flaws in such tight, beautiful lines. I've learned so much about art and writing from her stories, which are highly conscious of their formal decisions and could not have been written any other way. She is not an overtly political writer, but her work constantly engages with compassion & violence, the treatment and roles of women, the role of art. Reading her work has made me a better woman, writer, human being, everything.
I am VERY proud to be a Canadian writer living in America (even when my students confront me about my Canadian accent).
Chicago pictures posted soon on tumblr!
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