Exhibits

Amplified Chicago Blues – Chicago History Museum – April 24, 2018

Posted on by admin

In the 1970s I went to hear the blues fairly often, at places like Kingston Mines and The Checkerboard Lounge, where I accompanied a friend who was “dating” blues guitarist Lefty Dizz at the time. Neither Lefty (who wasn’t a big enough name) nor the Checkerboard (which didn’t open until 1972) made it into the Chicago History Museum Exhibit, which is more about earlier years; places like Pepper’s Lounge, Delmark Records, and The Fickle Pickle (you have to love that name); and more well-known musicians like Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf.

The exhibit features a lot more pictures than music but there are three musical parts of the exhibit.

There is a karaoke room, where you can sing Sweet Home Chicago. No one tried it while I was there, including me, for which I’m sure everyone wandering around the museum was grateful. There were school children in the building who could have been scarred for life.

Another part of the exhibit gives you the opportunity to learn how to play blues on an electric guitar. The sounds coming from the guitar when I tried to follow the instructions sounded nothing like blues, or music for that matter. The exhibit will be there until August 10, 2019. I’ll go back and try again.

There also is a sound panel where you can learn how to mix music, I think, because it wasn’t working. I would have been better at that. I made a lot of party tapes in college. I’ll go back when it’s fixed.

From the gallery outside the museum’s theater, it sounded like there was a blues movie playing, but the theater was closed for a private event. One more reason to go back.  Good thing it was a Tuesday afternoon, when the museum is free for Illinois residents, or I might have been miffed.

As a result of these issues, I only spent 45 minutes at the museum. Of course I only spent 45 minutes at the Louvre when I was there. Mostly pictures there too (some sculptures), no music.

Museums – 2017

Posted on by admin

In 2017 I visited exhibits at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Art Institute, American Writers Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), and Musical Instrument Museum.

The Musical Instrument Museum is supposedly in Phoenix, but I didn’t see anything but desert for miles around it, which reminds me, I also visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, where I learned that javelinas look similar to, but are not pigs. Okay, good to know. The special exhibit at the instrument museum was Dragons and Vines: Inlaid Guitar Masterpieces. The guitars were much more attractive than the javelinas.

The Breakup exhibit at the MCA was mostly related to a serious topic, but what caught my attention was that it also had some cool memorabilia related to theories on the timeline of the breakup of The Beatles. Spoiler alert – they’re not getting back together.

The Saturday Night Live: The Experience exhibit at the Museum of Broadcast Communications offers you the possibility of paying more money on top of your admission fee to have your picture taken behind the Weekend Update news desk. I passed on that part of the experience, went home, and sat behind my own desk for free.

I went to the Rodin exhibit at the Art Institute expecting to see paintings of a giant flying monster from a 1956 Japanese horror film (oops, that was Rodan), but instead saw a bunch of sculptures, including one of some naked guy thinking. I wonder whether he was thinking about giant flying monsters.

I’ve been to Jack Kerouac’s grave in Lowell Massachusetts (wasn’t my idea), and seen Jack Kerouac Alley across the street from City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, but I’ve never read On the Road Again, even though it was the anthem of my generation, or so I’m told. I loved Canned Heat’s hit On the Road Again, way before Willie Nelson recorded it. I’m not sure what to make of all that, but it was still interesting to see the 120-foot-long roll of paper upon which Kerouac typed the On the Road manuscript, which was on display at the American Writers Museum last October. By the way, in case you’re wondering, it’s not toilet paper, though that would have made an even better story.

Museum of Science and Industry – Robots – January 3, 2018

Posted on by admin

There was no way I was going to miss the special robot exhibit at the museum, even if it meant navigating a sea of children. I love the underground parking at the museum and though, having arrived in the early afternoon, I had to go around and around searching for a space, my downward journey led me to park on the level where the main entrance is – bizarre justice.

The robots were great, although I witnessed one draw a game of tic tac toe with a child when a winning move was there for the taking by the robot.  I’m not sure whether this was good public relations, faulty programming, or misguided mechanical parenting.

I also witnessed the robot blackjack dealer pull a card off the bottom of the deck. Okay, not literally, but all three human players were sitting on 20, when the robot came up with 21. Very suspicious.  Good thing they weren’t playing for money, although there was an extra charge to see the robot exhibit.

There was another station where you could build your own vehicle out of various colored attachable blocks, one type of which included a battery to power the vehicle. I tried in vain to manufacture a mobile unit, even enlisting the help of a young mother whose child’s work far exceeded my pitiful efforts.  She was sympathetic but unable to help, being clueless herself and unable to gain her child’s attention long enough to explain the process to us.  Tail between my legs, I moved on.

I took in some of the long-time exhibits. One can’t go to the museum without seeing the trains.  And though I didn’t intentionally go to see the submarine, I found myself, for a few minutes, wandering aimlessly through World War 2, unable to find my way out, as if trapped in a Kurt Vonnegut story.

I eventually prevailed, and, on my way out, saw the sign for the Pixar exhibit coming in May. I’ll be back!