Monday, May 31, 2010

what happens in Lake Geneva...




My friend Jane's wedding is next week (!!)and so this weekend was her bachelorette party and shower (thank goodness this is a long weekend, I have also taken tomorrow off to fully recover!). A few of us from the bridal party kidnapped the bride and took her up to Lake Geneva for a girls' day - they have been running those Wisconsin tourism commercials for a while now, you know, the ones where there is a guy who tries to tell us that "fun" originated in Wisconsin, which is not a conclusion that I would ever draw for myself, but many many of our fellow statespeople (Illinoisians? Illinoiers?) must have been brainwashed by this idea, because Lake Geneva was PACKED with cars bearing Illinois plates.

We stopped to fortify ourselves with cheese curds at the Brat Stop in Kenosha (because no party can ever really kick off without a whole bunch of fried cheese!) before continuing on to Lake Geneva. Even though it is relatively close, this was my first time there. When I was little, my family and I would go to the Milwaukee Zoo (where they had a stunning white tiger that I was absolutely in love with) and then to Port Washington. But we'd never gone to Lake Geneva. And, personally, I am a little reluctant to go to a state that refers to their neighbors as "FIBS" (effing Illinois BASTARDS) just because we call them "Cheeseheads". Why so hostile, Wisconsin?? We speak the truth in the Land of Lincoln (mostly) and anyway, if you don't like the name, stop wearing the damn hats, okay? Don't call me a bastard just because I like to partake in your delicious cheese. Wear your cheese hats with pride!

Anyway. Lake Geneva is a GORGEOUS place! It has a cute little downtown area with little shops, restaurants, tourist tat, all of it. After driving around a lot (so many people + a long weekend = zero places to park) we got out and hit the town. We walked along the water - there was a pretty beach that they charged 6 whole dollars to go to, but right after that, there was a place to walk, and benches and grassy knolls to sit on and everything. Free of charge. So we walked there, poked around some of the shops, got new shoes at a place called the Bootery (I HAD to. After a very very poor packing plan on my part, I found myself in these really cute but sorta uncomfortable Steve Madden gladiator sandals that zip in the back. They were tearing my ankles and heels to shreds and I needed some open back shoes. Found the cutest pair - on sale!) We also stopped for ice cream where we got Jane a flavor called the "Fat Elvis" with bananas and peanut butter and I don't know what else. Little did she know that her shower the next day had a 1950s rock and roll theme, complete with big posters of Elvis. Very perfect, no?

Found our hotel - the Lodge at Geneva Ridge where the rooms were large and lovely and had little sliding back doors out into the big back yard of the resort, kind of like a community patio. Very pretty. Dinner at the resort and some other amusing, bachelorette party-style hijinx - but look, what happens in Lake Geneva, STAYS in Lake Geneva.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

PattiFlash

In today's Sun Times:

TAKE A BOW: Just got the scoop the one and only Patti LuPone will receive Chicago's longest-running theater honor, the Sarah Siddons Award. Also being feted at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel gala Aug. 2 will be actress Mary Beth Fisher, who will receive Chicago's Leading Lady Award for her many outstanding performances on Windy City stages.

idolatry

I skipped most of the bloated American Idol finale last night - two hours of crap, when all you really need is about five minutes to tell everyone what they really need to know - who the winner is. I did tune in for the last 20 minutes or so, in time to see Mt. Prospect's own Lee DeWyze get the American Idol crown.

And I like Lee. I do. In fact, last week, I predicted he would win (I've had good reality-show prediction karma this year, accurately predicting Idol, ANTM AND Dancing with the Stars). After seeing Tuesday's show, I would have given the title to Crystal though, because she really brought it and stood out more than Lee did. Such is the nature of the American Idol votership though, the tween girl and cougar vote carried the evening. Just like last year, when it was pretty obvious Adam should have won, but Kris Allen (another nice guy with a good voice) pulled the upset. But who has the bigger career and more buzz? Adam. Kris? Doing car commercials. I mean, really??

This year, I think is another instance of it not really mattering a whole bunch who walked away with the crown of "American Idol" because Crystal is going to have a great career anyway.

I don't understand, either, why they picked "Beautiful Day" for his first single. It's already a (vastly superior) single by U2. It's a U2 song. I have never liked any of the songs written for the winners to perform that become their first singles (last year's, written by Kara, was totally dreckitude, to borrow some top model parlance), but at least they were original songs. Why they would pick such a well-known song for Lee's first single, I have no idea. So sorry, Lee, but I won't be listening to or downloading that single (not for nothing am I called "Bono's Boot Bitch" in certain circles).

love & a rocket ship v. 2

According to a blurb I read in the Red Eye yesterday, Bono "suffered from severe compression of the sciatic nerve and a herniated disc and was in intense pain with partial paralysis in his lower leg" which sounds pretty horrible and our boy won't be getting on his boots anytime soon. Which makes me truly brokenhearted over the cancellation of U2's north American tour, set to hit Chicago in July. Given the circumstances though, I understand, but still, it's disappointing.

It's been in the back of my mind, and as we are creeping into June, every so often, I would think "YAY! U2 in July!!" It was a future goal, something to look forward to. Those shows are pretty amazing, and I've been lucky enough to see them many times when they've come through Chicago. I've had a handful of other amazing, life altering theatrical experiences, and the U2 shows are right up there at the top of the list. How can a stadium show feel intimate? I don't know, but those guys work huge, cavernous places like the United Center and Soldier Field like they were as cozy as your living room. Something about their performances draws everyone in, and it really is a shared, almost religious experience. With the gods of rock.

I still remember the show last year, it was a party atmosphere that started in the parking lot. People were tailgating (hell, it cost us 45 bucks for the privilege of parking there, I think most people wanted to get everything they could out of it), with the band blasting from car stereos. Inside, everyone was mild mannered, until the guys hit the stage. Then, everyone was on their feet, singing along snapping pictures, calling their friends so they could hear favorite songs, holding their phones towards the stage so that Bono could see the lights from everyone in the darkened stadium. Like our own little constellation. It was one of those perfect moments, perfect evenings, that you file away carefully in your heart & mind, to recall on later occasions and look back on with fondness.

So I am sending love to you, Bono, and positive, healing vibes. As someone told me once, no stress, only love. Love and a rocket ship. The tour is going to be rescheduled for sometime in 2011 and I have been instructed by Live Nation to hold on to my tickets because they will still be good for the new dates. So I have something else now, to look forward to.

In the meantime, we will just have to make do with videos... turn this one up, it's my favorite.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Glee-cap "Theatricality"

(image from Glee's facebook page!!)

I don't have a lot of time for a blow-by-blow of last night's episode, which means that you should just go and watch it and then we can talk about it.

But here's what I got:

1. Oh, Rachel. You would have been better off with Patti as your mom... I don't understand why they even threw that in there (except Idina and Lea look like they could totally be related?) - first, I don't think the audience knew enough about Rachel's sadness over her mom, so when the introduced it, it was like, oh, okay. Well, that's good, she found her mom. But then Shelby was all like I want to meet my daughter, but then she was not really ready to have a teenager, so she set the whole thing up for Rachel to hear the tape and find her and then she just decided that she didn't want to be in her life after all. That's so mean!!!! Shelby told Will that Rachel didn't need her anymore, well, actually, she DOES. Now things are back to the way they were before, so what did this whole "Rachel, I am Your Mother" thing accomplish in the first place?? Oh, except it gave them a chance to sing a funky slowed down "Poker Face" together. Which is a weird mother-daughter duet song but whatever. It sounded cool.

2. Statement that made me super depressed and old - Shelby asked Rachel how her two dads came up with her name, and she said "They were big Friends fans." That means she was born in the 90s sometime, when I was in high school, watching Friends. That means there is a generation of people who won't get Friends references, Ross and Rachel! How YOU doin'?? all of that. It is like an old time tv show to them. I needed to go and lie down for a while after that.

3. The Lady Gaga inspired outfits and "Bad Romance" number were AWESOME. I especially loved Quinn's pink outfit (although she looked completely un-pregnant again), and Kurt's crazy lobster shoes. He could have just kicked those asshat jocks with one of those suckers. He would probably have fallen down, but I bet a kick to the junk with those shoes would have hurt.

4. Loved Kurt's dad standing up for Kurt when Finn was being a bonehead. I mean, look dude, I know you are all of a sudden being made to live somewhere without even getting to voice an opinion in the matter, but that's no reason to be a jerk to Kurt.

5. Finn did redeem himself in the end though, when he showed out all Gaga-fied in a skin tight red dress and spangly red eyes (you must know the outfit I mean...) and threatened to beat those football players up for taunting Kurt. Why do those football players look so OLD anyway??? All the players at my high school were like scrawny guys. They didn't look like Bears linebackers.

6. I also loved how Principal Figgins made an example of Tina dressing like a goth and referencing Twilight (which her mom wouldn't let her watch because "she thinks Kristen Stewart looks like a bitch") when she wasn't even INVOLVED in the incident Figgins brought up with kids dressing up like vampires and attacking the nerd boy. And yet, he had no problems with the Gaga-wear OR with the Kiss style pyrotechnics in the auditorium.

7. Every so often they remember that Will is a teacher, and this week showed him in his office - not grading papers or doing lesson plans, but doing internet research on Lady Gaga. They also had him using a Spanish word (I don't remember what it was) as if they were like "Oh, yeah! He's a Spanish teacher! Let's have him say muy bien!"

8. Bad ass Puck wanted to call Quinn's baby "Jackie Daniels" but eventually had an epiphany and asked Quinn if they could call her "Beth" instead, and if he could be present at the birth. She said yes.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

letters to juliet

Yesterday was a busybusy day, full of bridesmaid business. Lunch, makeup for the bride (oh heck, and for me, too. Curse you, Sephora!), some ceremony decor items, chilling, dinner, and a romantic girly movie, Letters to Juliet. Before the movie started, there was mucho squealing after an Eclipse preview was shown. Lots of "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" exclamations. Can this end now, pleasepleasepleaseplease? The books were all right, okay? They weren't particularly well-written and most of the characters are MORONS. Especially Bella. I have not seen either of the other two movies and I'm not planning on it (even to see a bunch of teenage werewolves without shirts on.) Arrrgh.

Sorry, where was I? Oh, yes, the movie. Well, it was your predictable rom-com fare. Sophie is engaged to a moron, and invites her three dads to the wedding ceremony - oh, wait!! Wrong Amanda Seyfried movie. In Letters to Juliet, Sophie is engaged to a moron and they go to Italy on a pre-wedding honeymoon. That is not as awesome as it sounds - he is on business (he is a chef)and spends his time dragging her around to wineries, looking at old cheese and so on. She says no, she wants to sightsee, and he can look at smelly cheese without her. Right on, girl!

She goes to Juliet's house and discovers a strange phenomenon - heartbroken women write letters to Juliet, asking for love advice (uh, why exactly? Juliet didn't have such a brilliant track record, if you think about it...) and some ladies take the letters down and respond to them. Sophie finds a really old one, hidden away and answers it. Claire Smith (one of the Redgraves - Vanessa, maybe?) gets the letter and comes back to Verona to find her long lost Lorenzo, bringing her crabby (but hunky) grandson along with her. Sophie joins them on Lorenzo-quest, which crabby grandson heartily disapproves of. and, oh, I am sure you can figure out where this is going. She believes in true love and he thinks it's all "bollocks." She writes down her experiences and magically gets published in the New Yorker where she had been employed as a fact checker.

As I said above, predictable rom-com fare, but sweet, adorable and really nice to look at. The leads are pretty and all the shots of Italy made me think of my travels there a few years ago. I just couldn't stop smiling at the scenes of lovely golden sun drenched fields, tall sunflowers, the piazza in Siena, all with an Italian pop music soundtrack (an Italian version of "I'm a Believer" was my favorite). We had a fun audience who went "awww" and clapped every time there was a happy development (which was often). That made me smile, too. It was just a cute little happy romantic movie, and it was a nice way to spend an evening.

Sidebar here though - when did the Village Crossing theaters become so skanky? There was a cop hovering around in the lobby (he held the door for us). Given the fact that the main attraction there was the new Shrek movie, filled with parents and kids, what did they think was going to happen? We passed another cop on the way out (maybe it was the same cop?) which was kinda weird....

Friday, May 21, 2010

day off!!

Well, friends, I've gotten myself into quite a PTO-related dilemma. That's "Paid Time Off" by the way, just so you aren't thinking I've gotten myself mixed up with a parent-teacher organization, because that would make no sense at all, being neither parent nor teacher.

Anywho. I have 20 some odd days to take off between now and June 30 (the end of our Fiscal Year and alas, alack, I can't carry any of them over. I must be the only fool on earth who feels GUILTY taking days off as in "Oh, I have so much to do, I just can't take off willy-nilly," etc. So now, I have a zillion days to take and no idea what I'm going to do with them all. AND, I'm going to have to be much much better about taking days off in the coming year, because it seems like I am always stuck with this problem. Better planning is in order.

In the meantimeI've started by taking Fridays off, which will be nice. I took one off today. It was a lovely, quiet day. I did a lot of reading - The Carrie Diaries and also Russell Brand's Booky Wook.

Also, ALL of my Ravinia tickets arrived today!! YAY!! I'm so excited about all of those events and also about the upcoming warm weather -- summer must finally be here!!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Glee-cap "Dream On"

If last week's episode was about finding one's mojo and being true to yourself, this week's episode was about dreams. This week was exiting for the guest appearance of Neil Patrick Harris and the fact that it was directed by Joss Whedon.

Enter Will's nemesis, Bryan Ryan (NPH!! NPH!!) who, will tells us in voice over made his life a living hell in high school, getting all the girls and worse, all the glee club solos. Now he's back, as a macho school board asshat with an anti-Glee Club streak. After a career singing on cruise ships and lounges, he now sells used Hummers (Stop making that face, he tells Will, "Global warming is a myth") and has since found "Jesus" - no, not Him. A central/south American therapist. He also now hosts a Glee Club support group. Glee Club kills, he tells a motley assortment of Glee Club has beens (including Molly Shannon - I am not sure how I feel about her addition to the cast...). His mission now is to make an audit of all of the school's extracurricular activities with a view of making some budget cuts. He tells Will that he wants to speak to the students. Will says no, but he has no choice. It's high school all over again.

Bryan Ryan speaks to the Glee kids, telling them to write their dreams on a sheet of paper. He brutally rips Artie's page from his notebook and tells all the kids that their dreams will never come true. They will spend the rest of their lives in Ohio (YIKES) and never amount to anything. Will throws old Peppy McPep Talk out of the room after all of the students look troubled and Tina starts to cry.

Rachel's dream? Being a star of course. But Bryan Ryan has shaken her confidence. She takes to the dance studio. Jesse comes back (hooray!) from his spring break (with another school. I don't get it either.) They make up and he tells her that she has nothing to worry about - her playing Evita on Broadway? An inevitability. Still, there's something missing - her mom. Jesse encourages her to try and find out her mom's identity. After some research, Rachel has her answer. Her mom, naturally, is Broadway star Patti LuPone. The year of her birth was a big year for "mother", Rachel tells Jesse, as she has just finished starring in Pal Joey. BUT - she also made a tour with Mandy Patinkin to Ohio just after that (and there is the fly in your ointment, Rachel - as everyone knows that the two of them had not toured together after Evita until just recently. Because yes, that's the only problem with this scenario) and this is when it all happened. Jesse looks bemused "Wow," he said. "Did Mandy Patinkin have anything to do with it?" Rachel knows this is a dumb idea but it does not stop her from offering to present research on why Bernadette Peters is her mom.

But ACTUALLY - Idina Menzel is her mom!!! Okay fine, her character, Shelby Corcoran, coach of "Vocal Adrenaline" is her mom. And Jesse knows it! While helping Rachel with some "CSI" style research into her past, he "finds" a cassette (in his pocket) that says "From Mother to Daughter" Rachel freaks out. "What if she sings on the tape?" she asks Jesse. "What if she's terrible?" Then a worse thought "What if she's better than me??" She's not ready to know. Jesse meets with Idina/Shelby in her car and promises that he will have Rachel listen to the tape. Here's my question - what if Rachel hadn't brought up her mom? How would Jesse have worked that in otherwise?

Artie's dream? Is to be able to get up out of his wheelchair and dance. And in one, brief and beautiful dream sequence, he gets up out of his chair and starts to dance to "Safety Dance" in the middle of the mall - it becomes a bit of a flash mob scene, with everyone joining in to his dance (I gotta tell Pierre!!). But this is a dream that won't come true for him.

Back to Will and Bryan Ryan - Will takes Bryan out for a beer "for old time's sake" which is weird because they didn't like each other. Bryan tells Will he's been living a lie! He misses singing, and he goes secretly to New York to see shows. He's got a box of Playbills in the basement he tells Will "like porn!" Will goes to the jukebox and cues up "Piano Man" - they both sing. It turns out Bryan's secret dream is to return to the stage. Will convinces Bryan to audition for the community theater production of "Les Mis" - they both show up to audition for Jean Valjean. Will says he's going to sing "The Impossible Dream" Bryan says he is, too. Will says actually, he's going to sing "Dream On" and Bryan says, oh, that's right, he is too. The director tells them to sing it as a duet (he also runs the dry cleaner and can only leave for 30 minutes at a time). They sing "Dream On"

Bryan has a change of heart, slashes the Cheerios budget (and has a tryst with Sue in her secret upstairs room) and buys the Glee club new stuff (denim jackets! dancewear! sheet music!) But Sue comes down to congratulate Will on his new role as Jean Valjean. Bryan also gets a part - a townsperson with one line "Hooray!" Bryan is furious, declares he's cutting the Glee Club and stomps out, taking all of his bedazzled denim with him.

Will needs to act. He makes an impassioned plea to Bryan about the importance of the arts to these kids. "They may not be stars," he tells them "But they shine like stars." They get labeled when the walk in the door as freshmen, but Glee allows them to be who they are. By cutting the club, Will says, Bryan is dimming their stars and creating 13 black holes. Bryan is not moved. Will offers to give his Jean Valjean role to Bryan (which frees up his schedule for, I don't know - teaching?). "You give me the role and I save the club?" Bryan sneers. Will says yes. Bryan cheers up and agrees. The club lives to sing another day. Dreams really can come true.

Rachel finally listens to the tape from her mother, which promises to "explain everything" but is really just her singing "I dreamed a dream" (note the Les Mis and tie to Rachel's almost mother, Patti LuPone, the original Fantine) which was pretty but explains nothing. Because Fantine DIES, right? How does that offer Rachel any clues??

Next week - the club goes Gaga - Lady Gaga, of course! The teaser promises extreme Gaga style wardrobe and music, and also Rachel putting something together and approaching Shelby and saying "I'm your daughter!" Maybe she's psychic??

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

my morning tea party *

* No fear! I have not turned into a conservative wackadoo! I am talking about a thing with actual tea. Like the Queen drinks. You know?

This morning I went to the post office in the Thompson Center. It is always, always, always better to go first thing in the morning, because there are no lines. Later in the day there are huge lines and usually only one person behind the counter. So I like to go early and take care of business.

On the way back, I stopped at Argo. Since I am attempting to be good after the whole I-had-a-blizzard-for-lunch fandango on Monday, I got a plain black tea and asked them (twice) to leave room so I could add cream. The girl asked me if I had the black tea and I said, yes with room. She didn’t hear me but there was an employee guy standing next to me who did, and so he corrected her when she didn’t leave any room in the cup. So I said thanks. I was standing at the condiment station adding cream and sugar and I couldn’t get the cream to come out of the pitcher thing. so I traded it for another one. no go. The same guy helped me figure it out and now I am pretty sure he thinks I am a moron. Whatever. It wasn’t even 8:00 yet.

Glee-cap

This episode was all about regaining lost mojo. First there's Puck, who had to shave his mohawk (although, seriously, he did not look that different than before?) and was suddenly in dweebland, getting tossed in a dumpster. As he told Santana, he felt like that guy who lost his mojo after getting his hair cut (no, not Samson - Agassi). To increase his cool points, he decides he needs to date someone popular and sets his sights on Mercedes, now a Cheerio and hugely popular. The fact that they have nothing in common does not bother Puck at all. After a few attempts at getting rid of him, Mercedes is finally woo-ed after singing a duet with him to "The Lady is a Tramp"

The Glee club has also lost its mojo - poor Rachel is popping vitamins constantly in her efforts to keep carrying the group with her awesomeness and solos. It's not working. She bugs the choir room (with the help of the AV Club - no way Glee is dorkier than the AV club??) and creates a "Glist" of her own - her fellow Glee-clubbers who aren't carrying their weight. It is half of the group. Mr. Shue gives them an assignment - to find a song that captures who they are today, their story, their voice. Rachel goes first - her song is "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus because it is all about overcoming obstacles. Rachel's obstacle? The rest of the club. She starts to sing but it's all coming out wrong. Oh no! She has... a sore throat.

Finn goes to the doctor with her. Her fear? Being told that she will never sing again. Which the doctor tells her. No, wait, he's just kidding (and sorta mean). She can take antibiotics but really really needs to have her tonsils out. She does not want the operation because who is she without her voice?? Mope, mope, mope, mope. Finn is still pining away for her even though she is "Jesse's girl" Jesse is conveniently away somewhere and Finn sings that song as his Glee assignment (I was wondering what took them so long to toss that song in there). Finn eventually takes her to meet a friend of his - a football player who lost his mojo - and his mobility - in a football accident.

Poor Kurt is so confused this week - his dad is lavishing baseball tickets (or is it basketball?) and hogies on Finn, doing some father-son bonding that makes Kurt feel left out. He gets a pep talk (of sorts) from Coach Sylvester. She tells him only one person can put a label on him "Me?" he says smiling. "No" Sue replies. "ME. Sue Sylvester." She tells him he's not gay just because he likes showtunes "that just means you're awful." and then she checks out of the conversation and vows not to spend time talking to students. He takes matters into his own hands and decides to sing some Mellencamp and don some plaid to get closer to his dad. He even makes out with Brittany (thus completing her perfect record of making out with every guy in school). But all his efforts come to naught - and he busts out with Rose's Turn which was completely awesome. Gosh that guy can sing.

Mercedes and Santana duel it out over Puck coming to vocal and physical blows in a duet of "The Boy is Mine". But Mercedes sees Puck back in his dumpster tossing glory and decides that she doesn't want to be with that kind of guy. She even quits Cheerios, making Sue wonder what she's going to do with the Mariah Carey number that Mercedes would have been singing (damn, that would have rocked). She decides she will probably take to the mic herself with a diatribe "probably about immigration."

Rachel gets better! And visits the paralyzed football player, offering to give him singing lessons. They sing "One" (best.song.ever) which leads into a whole ensemble number of the song, with everyone decked out in denim on denim (still not okay! ever!) Quinn mysteriously does not look very pregnant in these group numbers. What's happening there??

Mojo is restored to all. The world makes sense again.

Friday, May 07, 2010

mother's day, 30 Rock Style

Oh 30 Rock, you make me smile. It was touch and go for a while, since last week's storyline with Jenna and her Jenna-impersonator boyfriend was a little too bizarre for me, but this week - it's all good! In a Mother's Day homage, we had appearances from Jack's mother Colleen, Frank's mother - Patti - I don't know the character's name, Jenna's mother, Liz Lemon's mother and her secret affair with Buzz Aldrin (before she married Mr. Lemon) and Tracy's mother, the pajamall lady, and we learned that poor Danny appears to be adopted.

Liz shouted at the moon with Buzz, Kenneth forgot his name (well, Elaine Stritch IS kind of intimidating - I would probably forget MY name, too.), Will Ferrell popped up on NBC's latest show "Bitch Hunter" (DO IT, NBC!! For the love of GOD, do it!) , and at the end, they all sang a song.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thursday, May 06, 2010

stand up for the arts

In today's Sun Times:

ARTFUL ACTION: Ravinia's CEO, Welz Kauffman, has been tapped to lead a team of Illinois decision makers at a multistate Education Leadership Institute organized by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The July 26-28 conference seeks to create strategies to strengthen arts education. ''As the son of two teachers, I think of myself as a lifelong student,'' says Kauffman, who hopes they will shape a new ''generation of leaders who won't have to apologize for the arts, but can embrace them as part of every day.''

Not to get all soap-boxy about this, but I think we need more leaders like Welz who will stand up for the arts. When I was in school, all the way from K-8,I had an art class as part of the curriculum (it was called "CASH" - computers, art, shop and home economics). We also had music class, I think every day. We learned the composers, we learned about different kinds of music, we went on field trips to the Art Institute, the CSO and Lyric Opera, as well as the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. It was part of my life, it was the rule and not the exception. When has it started to become the exception??? And why does it have to be this way??

There is a perception out there about arts education - that it's not as important as the three Rs. Not true. I was not athletic. Gym class was awful. I found my place in school by being in choir (and on the choir board in high school - woot!) and I know that's true for so many people.

So many of our arts organizations have community engagement (a fancy name for outreach) programs in the community to bring music, dance and opera back into classrooms. I know that Ravinia has started a youth orchestra, modeled on El Sistema, the Venezuelean music education system that fostered the talents of conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

Joffrey has a great dance program for middle school kids, using dance to teach them respect, team work and self confidence. I attended the spring concert where all of the kids came together (about 400 kids from 22 schools) to show off the choreography that they created. It was dances from the 1960s and it was so much fun to watch.

I hope that the July conference is successful - I only wonder why this information was buried in Bill Zwecker's column???