Speakers

David Mamet – Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) – March 1, 2018

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Mamet appeared before a sold-out crowd as part of the book tour for his new novel, Chicago, which, thankfully, was less than half the size of the tome, Leonardo da Vinci, that I had to lug home and attempt to wade through after seeing Walter Isaacson speak at a CHF based-on-a-book program last October.

Mamet was erudite and funny. I preferred the funny part, like when he quoted Mel Brooks. When he was quoting Archimedes, Aristotle, or Shakespeare, or rambling (the kind of rambling where no one remembers the question) on about the relationship between theater and religion, I was less interested. If some University of Chicago professor wants to delve into that at another program, go for it, but I won’t be there.

The interviewer, Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones, spent most of the hour appearing star-struck. He said he had already read Mamet’s book three or four times, and read aloud a passage from it, apparently for the purpose of informing the audience that he didn’t understand several of the words (Chris, if you’re reading this, here is the url for the online Merriam-Webster dictionary – https://www.merriam-webster.com), a sycophantic move that said more about Jones than it did about Mamet.

The highlight of the hour for me was Mamet saying that his favorite writers were Ben Hecht and Charles McArthur. My mother used to tell me that my brother and I were named after Charles McArthur, which, early on, I unfortunately, traumatically, mistakenly heard as Charlie McCarthy, one of Edgar Bergen’s dummies. She also used to tell me that she and my father found me after I fell out of the crab apple tree in the backyard, at which point they exclaimed “Eureka!” (I made up that last part to show that I also could quote Archimedes), so who knows.

American Writers Museum – Gillian Flynn and A.J. Finn – January 16, 2018

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I haven’t read any of Gillian Flynn’s books (though I enjoyed the movie Gone Girl) and I haven’t read A.J. Finn’s first effort, the highly acclaimed The Woman in the Window, but now that I have seen Finn speak in person, I will remedy that omission. He’s a hoot – candid, funny, animated, articulate, and well-schooled. The program was a give-and-take between the authors that was never dull.

Because it started 15 minutes late, as too many things I go to seem to do, I had to leave when they started taking questions from the audience. I regretted having to leave early on this occasion, although often I can’t get out fast enough at that point in a program to avoid the questioners who don’t know the difference between a question and a statement, or just want to hear themselves talk, or want everyone else in the room to hear their opinion or resume. If that’s your thing, start a blog, like I did, where people can read your thoughts, if so inclined, at their leisure and without it cutting into the time of the invited speakers.

There were only a few empty seats when we got there, but apparently the museum is still new enough (it just opened in March 2017) that there aren’t a lot of members yet (I happen to be one). So, after being adorned with member wrist bands, we were lovingly directed to a couch along the wall. We couldn’t see the speakers, but had no complaint about that.  Even so, a staff person came by and suggested that I could push the couch forward along the wall to a spot that would allow an unimpeded view. I hesitated doing so, but the staff person took it upon herself to do it for us. My $40 membership had already paid dividends.

Chicago Ideas 2017

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I went to see four Chicago Ideas programs in 2017. Chicago Ideas used to be called Chicago Ideas Week, but then they started having events throughout the year, though still concentrated during a week in October. The constant at Chicago Ideas programs has always been that, at the beginning of every program, they ask everyone to say hello to and chat briefly with a stranger sitting next to them. This makes seat selection crucial.

In April we saw Alec Baldwin discuss his book Nevertheless: A Memoir, which turned out to be a surprisingly interesting read, which was a good thing because we didn’t get much from the interview, held at the Athenenium Theater, where, at least in the balcony, the acoustics were horrible and we could barely hear.

An October event included professors of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Neuroscience & Business, BioNanotechnology, and Cognitive Neuroscience discussing things like tissue engineering. Does all that sound neat or what? I considered a career in science, but I hated lab classes, which helped inform my serpentine path to a college degree in Psychology without ever taking a lab class, and which probably explains why I don’t cook. Part of the presentation covered Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, whose acronym, CRISPR, made me think I had accidentally signed up for a cooking class.

The third event was rather sobering. I still haven’t seen the movie Concussion, but now that I’ve seen Dr. Bennet Omalu and others in person discussing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), I don’t need to see Will Smith do his impression. And, I’m going to be more careful about bumping my head on open kitchen cabinet doors. Another good reason to avoid cooking.

In March I saw Blue Man Group cook up their special brand of entertainment, which acted as a precursor to an October Chicago Ideas lab behind the scenes of the Group, though only figuratively, as we sat in the regular seats while watching and listening to the performers, sans makeup (or are they really blue and were wearing makeup to look normal for this presentation – hmmm), describe and demonstrate to us how they interact speechlessly during a performance to create their unique show, much like any jazz band whose faces happen to be blue.