In and Around Town

In an effort to keep my mind busy, I have stepped out and done some pretty cool things lately.

First on the list is the William Eggleston exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute. Eggleston's photography is interesting and frames much of his photography around ordinary moments, and brings them to life in full color. What I found most interesting was the preservation of color in each of the shots. The vibrancy of the images, after so many years, turns out to be due to the specific way he processed his images. This process is known as dye transfer printing and is detailed further here: http://tinyurl.com/2839kgm. The exhibit runs until May 23, 2010 and I would definitely catch it if you can.

Next up is Across the Table, “Chicago’s Largest Conversation”, a nonprofit dining experience where 10 random diners meet at a restaurant for great food and conversation that stems from a predetermined topic. My dining destination was a little Mexican restaurant in Lincoln Square, Los Napoles. Our topic for the evening was beauty and the perception of beauty. Without laboring on the entire 2.5-hour conversation, I will say that it was interesting how people perceived beauty, and the fact that it had little to do with vanity. Across the Table is hosting a fundraising dinner on June 28, 2010. I will be reminding everyone of the occasion as the date gets closer, but I would highly recommend attending if you can. You can find more information at: www.acrossthetable.org

Last weekend I checked out Scoozi!, one of the original Lettuce Entertain You restaurant concepts. Located in River North, Scoozi! is a large Italian restaurant with a pretty cool dining atmosphere. I had the homemade gnocchi with Bolognese sauce. By no means would I say this restaurant was the greatest Italian restaurant in the city, but I will say that for the cost and the atmosphere, it is definitely worth trying.

Lastly, although it has nothing to do with Chicago, I will give credit to the Saturday Night Live that aired this past weekend. As most know, I am pretty outspoken about my dislike of SNL, but was willing to waste an hour and a half for Betty White and Jay-Z. Having DVR'd the show, I was finally able to watch it last night. All in all, I thought the show was pretty damn funny. Lines uncharacteristic of a Golden Girl and filled with innuendo, Betty White, at 88.5 years of age, delivered. If you are like me and typically don't get how SNL is still on TV, catch this episode on hulu and I promise you won't be disappointed.