Chicago 2016 - Statues

Chicago, Illinois, USA. 12/13-June-2016.

As well as the Blues Festival we also used our time to see some of Chicago's statues:

"Downtown Chicago is home to more than 100 sculptures, mosaics, and paintings placed in plazas, lobbies, and on the Riverwalk. The dedication of the huge sculpture by Pablo Picasso in 1967 confirmed that Chicago was a city for the arts. Since then, major works by Alexander Calder, Sir Anthony Caro, Sol LeWitt, Richard Hunt, and Ellen Lanyon, among others, have been added to this free open-air museum." The Chicago Public Art Guide

The tourist information office had relocated from the Chicago Cultural Centre to Macy's where the guy behind the desk printed us a list of major public art works. We used that to spend a couple of mornings wandering round downtown Chicago finding and ticking statues off our list, we managed a fair few.

In alphabetic order:

Alexander Calder - Flamingo

A spectacular piece of curves and sharp angles put me in mind of feathers and beaks.

Alexander Calder - Flying Dragon

Anish Kapoor - Cloud Gate (1)

A major selfie opportunity for almost everyone there.

Anish Kapoor - Cloud Gate (2)

Looking up and seeing the distorted reflections is really disorienting, it made me giddy.

David Smith - Cubi VII

Edward Kemeys - Lions

Frank Gehry - Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Hector Guimard - Paris Metro Entryway

Henry Moore - Large Interior Form

Jaume Plensa - The Crown Fountain (1)

This fountain is a fun piece with the changing back projections.

Jaume Plensa - The Crown Fountain (2)

The first time we saw it was a really hot day and all the children were having so much fun splashing around under the waterfall and in the pool.

Jean Dubuffet - Monument with Standing Beast (1)

I like the way you can walk into and through this one like an old castle or standing stones.

Jean Dubuffet - Monument with Standing Beast (2)

Jerald Jacquard - Space Junction of Energy

We only noticed this as we were leaving for the airport, directly across from our hotel by Belmont station.

Joan Miro - Miro's Chicago

Louise Nevelson - Dawn Shadows

Marc Chagall - The Four Seasons (1)

Marc Chagall - The Four Seasons (2)

Pablo Picasso - Untitled

This is credited as the piece that started the whole public statues thing in Chicago. It even gets a mention in The Blues Brothers:

Elwood: This is definitely Lower Wacker Drive! If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza!
Jake: That's where they got that Picasso.
Elwood: Yep.

Richard Hunt - We Will

Richard Lippold - Radiant 1

Sol LeWitt - Lines in Four Directions

Took us a while to spot this one: not just a statue but the whole side of a building.

If we ever go back there are plenty more on the list we still have yet to see...

Chicago Blues Festival 2016

Chicago, Illinois, USA. Tuesday 07/Wednesday 15-June-2016.

Mary had always wanted to go to Chicago for the Blues Festival so we scraped out the last of our airmiles and using our two-for-one Amex voucher booked two business class flights to the U.S. of A.

We arrived Tuesday 7th which gave us several days to recover from jet lag and also do the tourist thing. Checked in and went for a beer at Schuba's Tavern (no live music as it was lunchtime) and later a pizza at Giordano's (pizza). We stayed a little North of the centre but close to a railway station so we could get in and out easily.

Wednesday 8th was full on tourist stuff: Boat tour in the morning, city winery for lunch, bike ride in the afternoon, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville @ Navy Pier,  then Joe's Seafood - #4 out of 7869 restaurants in Chicago according to TripAdvisor.

The boat tour was an excellent architectural guide to the buildings along the waterfront by a very knowledgeable volunteer guide or "docent" as the American word is. Recommended.

Thursday 9th. Frank Lloyd Wright centre and walk - as the son of an architect it was great to see so many buildings by a man I had known about from a very early age. Then River Roast for lunch, Sheffield Bar for early evening beer from a very knowledgeable and friendly barman, Mia Francesca for supper, Kingston Mines for late night music and more beer.

Friday 10th. First day of the Blues Fest. In the morning we did the zoo. The food at the festival was very basic and expensive so we decided to stock up on lunch beforehand at Buddy Guys Legends blues club complete with live music.

Afternoon and evening at the Blues fest starting with Siobhan Fahey formerly of Shakespears Sister.

The brilliant Shemekia Copeland on the main stage. She was so good it prompted us to book for the Great British Rock and Blues Festival the following year where she was due to headline.

All followed by a late night beer at Blackwood's Bar close to the hotel.

Saturday 11th. The morning was a major, self-guided sculpture walk, see post Chicago 2016 statues. On the way to the festival I just had to stand at the start of Route 66.

Again lunch and live music at Buddy Guys.

I cannot be sure who all we saw so the complete line can be found here: http://wxrt.cbslocal.com/2016/04/04/complete-2016-chicago-blues-festival-lineup/

One of the side stages.

The main stage:

After the show we went back to the hotel for a nightcap at the nearby Cesar's Killer Margaritas on Clark.

Sunday 12th. The morning was visiting a number of locations for the Blues Brothers, sightseeing more statutes and lunch at the highly recommended Purple Pig. Despite no booking they were able to squeeze us in as we were prepared to sit by the door.

Elwood: This is definitely Lower Wacker Drive! If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza!

Jake: That's where they got that Picasso.

Elwood: Yep.

The Picasso

More music.

Yet more music.

Main stage again.

The whole of the concert in the evening on the main stage was a tribute to Otis Rush. The man himself was there, now in a wheelchair, and was brought on stage to great applause.

The fabulous signer (that is "signer" not "singer"). I was a bit surprised at first to see signing for the deaf at a music concert but why not. There were two of them who took it in turn. The dark haired guy seated was pretty restrained, he stood there and signed the lyrics real time. The blonde guy was really into the music, man he was grooving along. I didn't know you could sign with an accent but he was definitely camping it up - brilliant!

Monday 13th. Flew XPR to LGA, transferred to JFK so we were close to our departure airport. That was a mistake in retrospect, we should have stayed in Manhattan. We managed to meet up with our friends Fred and Lynne for supper which was excellent.

Tuesday 14th. Went in to NYC for a long stroll around Central Park. Then JFK - LHR and home arriving the next morning. Knackered but well pleased with the trip.

Madeline Bell at Ronnie Scott's 2016

Saturday 04-June-2016.

Third time of seeing this irrepressible singer and just as much fun as the previous two occasions. Her shows always sell out fast so we nabbed our tickets as soon as they were announced. We persuaded our friends Tim and Sarah to come up to London for the weekend and join us for this.



She was joined by Tommy Blaize, the lead singer with the Strictly Come Dancing Band, for a couple of great duets.



She always has a good chat with the audience. As a reviewer on Trip Advisor remarked "I hope I have as much lust for life, energy and kindness when I reach my golden years." I'll second that.

Distillery Tour at Sipsmiths

Chiswick, London. Wednesday 01-June-2016.

Mary bought me a tour of the Sipsmith distillery for Christmas which came with a bottle of gin. The gin I could make a start on any time but this tour is so popular that they were booked months ahead and, what with trips to Italy, this was the earliest date we could make.

We were one of the first to arrive and the welcome drink was, of course, a gin and tonic. I was pleased to note the tonic was Fever-tree which I had switched to as soon as I discovered it a few years back, forsaking all other tonic waters. Our host opined that Schweppes is a perfectly respectable tonic water but for me it would be of necessity not choice.

The tour was actually a bit of a misnomer as the whole distillery is in one room, an old garage. Most of the "tour" was a fascinating history of gin including the Gin Craze period in the first half of the 18th century and subsequent legislation. Well done, Sipsmith!

It was Sipsmith's pioneering efforts with HMRC in getting the size restriction removed from stills in order to obtain a license that has opened the doors for many other craft distilleries to spring up.

It was not all talk. We tasted a number of their fine products including a Pimm's-like cup and a Sloe gin. They also produce small batch runs of experimental flavourings on a quarterly basis some which were a little outré.

A fascinating tour - highly recommended.

Chenin Blanc and Sangiovese at Unwined

Tooting Market, London. Wednesday 11-May-16

I left my notebook in Italy and only now (Mon 05-Sep-16) have got round to typing my notes up.

Two of our favourite varietals presented by Kiki in the relaxed setting of Unwined in Tooting market, one of their regular "Wine Wednesday" tutored tastings.

First up the Chenin Blanc (aka Pinot Anjou):

• Papegaai from Svartland in SouthAfrica - ripe tropical fruits on the palate with hint of apple on the nose
• Champalou 2014 Vouvray from the Loire - pale, smokey / sweet & sour palate, tart in the mouth
• Mosse 2014 from Anjou - very pale, almost vin santo like, taste of dried apples, hint of caramel. Kiki thought there was some volatile acidity but I didn't get that.

Then the Sangiovese, translates as the blood of Christ (aka Brunello):

• Inarno 2013 - very "sotto bosco" leaf mould on the nose, light tannins, morello cherries on the palate 
• La Fralluca 2009 - very dark colour, rounded mellow balanced tannins, some got currants or coconut on the palate
• Rosso di Montalcino 2014 - light in colour, leaner, less fruit, almost pinot-like

I liked the approach of presenting the first wine on its own to introduce the grape then presenting numbers two and three together as a "compare and contrast". When the tasting was over we stayed on for a glass and a chat. An educational and enjoyable evening.

Limoncello recipe

Our friend Christine makes an excellent limoncello, not too sweet. This is her recipe:

Ingredients

• 400 ml alcohol
• 5 lemons (unwaxed)
• 500 ml water
• 200 gm sugar

Method

• Remove the zest from the lemons
• Put the zest in a jar with the alcohol
• Leave in the dark for 15 days
• Strain out the zest
• Dissolve the sugar in the water
• Combine the sugar syrup with the alcohol
• Leave in the dark for one month
• Drink

Not being sure of the lemons in the market we stole five lemons from Chris's tree (with her permission). Guaranteed unwaxed and pesticide free.

One unusual feature of Italian supermarkets compared to the UK is that you can buy pure alcohol (95%) for culinary purposes in just about any store. Some recipes suggest using vodka, if neat alcohol is not available, but that will be 30% water so you would only need about 300 ml of the sugar syrup to keep the ratio of alcohol to water correct.

Then all you need is a jar or two and a zester. You could use a knife but a zester allows you to precision de-rind the lemon without any bitter pith.

Two weeks later and the alcohol has leached out the oils and flavours from the zest.

Chris's recipe only uses 200 gm of sugar but some I found on the internet that used nearly 5 times that amount! If it is too tart you can always add more sugar later but you cannot take it out if there is too much.

The combination of the water and the oils makes limoncello turn the typically cloudy appearance.

Now all I have to do is let it mature in the dark ready for our next visit.

Update: After five years I tweaked the recipe reducing the alcohol from 500 ml to 400 ml. It was a bit too fiery and the syrup came out at about 600 ml so the final mix wouldn’t fit in a 1 litre bottle which bugged me. Now it’s just right, to my taste. 

Also I have been experimenting with orange-cello and lime-cello. The orange version is now my go-to recipe as we are frequently offered limoncello in restaurants here in Puglia and it is nice to have something different at home. Using soft brown sugar or Demerara sugar for the syrup gives it a distinctly marmalade-like flavour.

San Giorgio Patron Saint of Locorotondo

Puglia, Italy. 23-April-2016.

Saint George is not just the patron saint of England but a large number of patronages around the world including Locorotondo's Mother Church of "St. George the Martyr".

We were lucky enough to be in Italy at the time of the Locorotondo's saint's day. In typical Italian tradition this involved a service followed by a parade of the statues around the town on the shoulders of the faithful. Not only Saint George but also the Blessed Virgin Mary - two statues for the price of one.

I am almost starting to feel like a local. Whilst standing there we bumped into two Italian friends, Tonino the butcher and Michele who rotavates our trulli garden. It is a small community and this event ensured a good turn out.

The procession was candle-lit, many of the people were carrying torches, and there was a small band playing a march. Once the parade vanished off down the narrow, paved alleyways we headed home for a nice bottle of local red wine and supper.

Trullo Azzurro flooring

When we originally bought the Trullo Azzurro and had it done up we told the architect to leave the flagstones (chianchi in Italian) because we figured that if they lifted them they would never be able to get them back down in the right place again.

Recently we had some plumbing work done in the bathroom and they did a good job of lifting and re-laying the tiles. We also discovered that the flagstones were laid directly onto the clay - no wonder the building was always a bit cool and damp over the winter.

So we asked Saverio our builder to quote for installing under-floor heating and a second boiler. That turned out to be very expensive. Also the flagstones are too thick for under-floor heating so would have had to be taken away to the quarry for slicing in half with risk of breakages.
 
In the end we arrived at a compromise: lift the floor, dig down and prepare the ground with damp-proof course and an insulating layer, then re-lay the original floor. Whilst this was being done we paid to have pipes put in place for normal radiators so if we changed our mind later and put in a second boiler we wouldn’t have to re-dig up the floor.

The room with flagstones lifted…

… and all neatly stacked in the courtyard

Then they dug down 30-40cm

Pipework for a possible future heating system.

Insulating expanded foam “igloos”. They also allow for some air circulation.

Flagstones re-laid

Floor re-grouted

Furniture back in place as if nothing had happened.

It was quite a logistics exercise because, before they could lift the flagstones, they had to clear out all the furniture including the wood-burning stove then put it all back when they were done.

It turns out that this under-floor layer is what a number of fellow Trulli owners have done. Now they tell us! We should find the place drier, warmer and easier to heat.

Whilst the builder was there we got him to improve the lane up to the Trullo as the winter rains had eroded some of the surface.

So all is looking spick and span for our first guests which will be my sister Jane and second cousin Effie next week.