Spring Comes to Chicago

Well, friends, National Poetry Month is winding down, and I hope you have all been celebrating the occasion as it deserves to be celebrated.  There were a lot of exciting poetry related events in the city this month, all of which I put on my calendar and most of which I didn't actually make it to.  So it goes. Yesterday, though, I finally made it to one.

Poetry is something I love but don't honestly know much about - which puts it in the same category as art, music, film, history, and probably most other things.  I don't know too many poets by name, but I go to the readings when I can tell that it is someone that would not be reading unless he or she was worth listening to.  That was my situation yesterday when I went to see Campbell McGrath at the Harold Washington Library.  I hadn't even taken the time to do a cursory google search of him before going, and pondered, as I made my way there, whether I would end up sorry that I hadn't.  Of course I wasn't sorry at all.

I hate to say it, but I think any attempt on my part to speak about the poet or the poetry I heard yesterday would expose how truly ignorant I am about it.  That I really enjoyed it is enough for me.  One of the things he read that I loved very much was the prose poem "Spring Comes to Chicago" from the book "Spring Comes to Chicago" (spring coming to Chicago being, as you know, a subject that is always very much on my mind this time of year).  I can't find it anywhere on the internet, meaning I guess you'll have to actually get the book, but I did find two other poems he read yesterday, both of which I really enjoyed: Nox Borealis - which you can also listen to - and Sugar or Blood - which I have read at least three times since yesterday.  You should read it, too.

Florida and Other States

A few weeks ago I made my first visit to the great state of Florida.  Apparently this is quite unusual.  In discussing my trip I've yet to meet a single other person who hasn't been there before.

Actually, I don't know why I waited so long.  It turns out that Florida is really lovely.  I had a blessed time hanging out with my dear Grandma by the Gulf of Mexico and enjoying the sea air.



I recently stumbled across this post of the states I had visited up until that point.  In light of my recent newly acquired state, I decided to re-do the map and discovered I have only been to four new states since then, given that I inadvertently omitted Georgia from my original map.  (And for some reason it appears that I included West Virginia on the original map even though don't think I've done more of a brief drive through of WV - so I took it off.)



create your own personalized map of the USA

For those keeping track (which I assume is most of you) the other three new states are Colorado, Tennessee, and North Carolina.  At least now I can say that I'm over 50% on states visited.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

As you may or may not be aware, I am on a quest to visit all (yes ALL) of the sites run by the National Park Service, get my national parks passport stamped, and chronicle them on this blog*.  You can read about previous visits here and here.

The thing is, at my current pace of significantly less than one National Park Service site per year, I will need approximately 2 - 3 additional lifetimes to accomplish this goal.  I am not, however, one to let that stop me.

Last year I managed to collect my first passport stamp since 2009 at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The park is located between North Carolina and Tennessee and was a nice stopping point on the drive back to Illinois from visiting my brother in Charlotte.  It was a  short visit, and most of our time was spent driving on one of the scenic routes through the park.  (Did you know the earliest interest groups supporting the national parks weren't hikers or campers but motorists who wanted pretty places to drive their cars?)

The route through the woods was flanked by pretty rivers and trees that we frequently got out to look at.



We then stopped at Newfound Gap, the place where President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the park in 1940.  It is on the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee and of course had some great views.




The Appalachian Trail also runs through the park, so we caught a glimpse of that.  The stop was punctuated by scruffy looking hikers emerging to bask in the sun (and check their cell phones) for a while before continuing down the shady trail.  



All in all it was a pretty day.  Now I am just wondering which National Park I should go to in 2015.  Or, you know, whenever the next opportunity arises!



*My post on the Chamizal National Memorial is five years overdue

A Brief Eulogy for My Flip Phone

By the time I'd had this phone for two or three years I assumed it wasn't going to last much longer.  I assumed the battery would start to die or the display would go out.  I assumed it would just start to fall apart.

The thing is, it did start to fall apart.  The cover that goes over the charging dock fell off.  The volume button fell off.  A big chip came out of the the outer shell.  The hinge between the two sides started to wobble.  

But it didn't stop working.  I had this phone, all told, for five years, and even half of the next year.  For a long stretch I really wanted it to break so I could get a new phone.  I was bored.  And people started to look at me askance while texting in public.  As the years wore on, though, I became rather fond of old flippy and thought maybe it would just keep plugging.  Forever.  Or at least a lot longer. 

It's funny to think that technology will always be disposable.  Ostensibly we'll never come to a resting place where we say that the technology we have is entirely sufficient and we can just leave it at that.  There will always be the next new thing.  Sometimes I think, why not make phones that will last for ten years (or more) for people who are content to just make phone calls?  Does this constant drive for the "next new thing" change us somehow?  Do we want it to?

Books I Read

So, I recently made a list, from memory, of every book I have ever read*.  It was fun.  You should try it.

The first day that I started this project I added 70 books to the list.  Currently the total number of books on the list is 164, and still increasing (both because I keep remembering more books I read and because I keep reading more books).  

The List Making Experience

Generally I just wrote books down in alphabetical order as they occurred to me.  I did run into a few challenges.

I had a hard time remember the titles of quite a few books.  I mainly found them by googling the author or googling something like "book about driving the length of the northern border of the united states" or whatever I could remember about the book.  Most times this worked  Sometimes I found a title by searching the catalogue of the library where I remember checking out the book.  A few titles I still haven't been able to figure out and have had to accept the fact that I may not ever.  The list will probably never be 100% accurate.  

I made the rule that I would not include books I did not finish, even if I read a significant amount of the book, and even if that partial amount was very important to me.  This made me realize how many, many books I have not actually finished.  

Some books I could not remember if I read them, and some books I could not remember if I had finished them.  In those cases I researched the book, trying to read synopses online to see if that would refresh my memory.  When it didn't or wasn't sufficient I added those title to another list of books, with the plan of checking them out at the library for closer inspection, in the hopes that this would answer the question.

The Outcome

The entire purpose of this exercise was that I wanted to clarify to myself what my favorite book is.  Although it may not seem reasonable to anyone else, for whatever reason it seemed reasonable to me that once I had all the information in front of me, once I could see the field I was choosing from, it would be fairly easy to engage in some system of ranking and the top book, or books in the event of a tie, would quickly become clear to me.  As a person who likes to read (although without being a particularly voracious reader, as my total book input reflects) it seems somehow important to have a favorite book.  

While making the list has perhaps clarified my thinking generally on books I have read, the best I've been able to come up with so far is a list of about 20 books that I like very much.

I have concluded that having a favorite book is very hard.  I have identified three reason for this:

1) The word "book" encompasses such enormous diversity, that at some moments trying to choose a favorite book is very much comparing apples and oranges

2) The experience of reading a book is, or can be, influenced by the time and place in which you read it, as well as by your age and life experience at the time you read it, making level comparison pretty hard.  

3) We may be biased towards books we believe to be better quality even if we enjoy them less.  What is your favorite book: the best book you ever read, or the one you enjoyed the most?  

So, is the goal of identifying a favorite book at all realistic?  Answer: probably not.  Almost no one I have asked has been able to identify their favorite book.  I suppose there could be various explanations for that, but it's probably a pretty good indicator that having a favorite book, for whatever reason, just isn't easy.

And yet, for some reason realizing this does not stop me from very much wanting to have a favorite book.  So, I conclude, that maybe I just have to keep reading.  Maybe if I read enough I will eventually stumble on that one book that is so far and above anything else I have experienced that the answer is suddenly clear.  Until then, the search continues.

*Not including children's or young adult books.  Not including plays.  Not including books of which I can't remember the title.

Taking A Minute

Before we go any further, I'd like to take a minute to acknowledge the fallow year in blogging that has lately transpired.  2012 was a good year.  It's not that it wasn't.  And I didn't intentionally not write in this space or there wasn't any particular reason for it.  Looking back on it now, I guess it just somehow seemed that I always had too much on my mind and yet nothing to write about.  As strange as that may sound.  Perhaps a long long bout of writer's block.

It's okay though.  I mean fields are left fallow for a reason, to allow them to replenish and be better the next year.  I like to think that's what's happening here.  The break was, perhaps, needed.  In retrospect, welcome.  Now, I think, the break can be moved on from.  A break is not an end.

If this explanation is insufficient for you and you are dying to know what I would have blogged about had I been blogging more consistently, I offer you the following:

5 Highlights of 2012 in No Particular Order

• Turning 30.  You know, many older friends had told me for years that your thirties are a lot better than your twenties.  Somehow this didn't stop me from dreading this milestone birthday.  It turns out my friends were right and being 30-something (well just 30 for now) is awesome.  I know it may sound strange, but I really feel like my perspective has changed.  I think I've learned/realized more about myself in the months I've been 30 than in the five or so previous years, and I feel good about it.  

• Celebrating my three year anniversary in Chicago.  Chicago!  Chicago!  I know, this is one of the few things I did blog about in 2012 (here), but was definitely one of my favorite parts of the year.

• Seeing A-House friends.  Always the highlight of any year, of course.  I had A-Housers (co-workers from my shelter days, that is) visit Chicago on three separate occasions (yay!) and also attended an A-House wedding in sunny Cleveland.

• Bruce Springsteen.  The Boss played two sold out shows at Wrigley Field last summer.  I was at the second one - the night it poured rain, but luckily I was in covered seating.  This was my first Springsteen concert and I paid way more than I have ever paid for any other concert.  Worth. Every. Penny.  If you have never gone, take any chance you get.

• North Carolina.  My little brother was living in Charlotte for a hot minute so I got to check out a few select highlights of the Tar Heel State.  In Charlotte proper the Carolina Raptor Center and the Mint Museum, then a day at the beach, then Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Stay tuned for a review of the latter as I feel it merits it's own post.  

The beach first thing in the morning...

Call me a MOOCer

So I have a new hobby, which is participating in MOOCs.

MOOC stands for Massively Open Online Course, which is defined by wikipedia as, “an online course aiming at large-scale participation and open access via the web.”  

OK, when I say it is a new hobby, I mean I am participating in my first MOOC and am feeling very much on the MOOC bandwagon.  

Last May when I bought my Mac I started using iTunes for the first time, about a decade after the rest of the world.  At that time I was pretty enamored of the iTunes U concept, which is somewhat similar to a MOOC.  On iTunes U you can download video or audio of lectures from a wide variety of classes from a wide variety of universities.  The difference is that it’s all self directed and there’s no interactive element.  You download the lectures whenever you want and watch or listen to them and that’s the experience.  I downloaded a lot of things on iTunes U but mostly have lacked the motivation to follow through with watching them.

While the MOOC is similar in that a big part of it is watching videos of lectures, there is a lot more structure to it, and there is an actual interactive component to it.  The class starts and ends at specific times, and each week has readings plus a series of lectures and a homework assignment.  The lectures have scored comprehension questions interspersed at certain intervals.  Plus there is a forum where you can post questions for the professors and TAs.  The professors don’t respond directly to every question but do respond to many of the most common and most interesting questions.  There is a grade awarded at the end of the course.  

All of these differences make me much more likely to actually follow through with participation in the class, despite the fact that it is a fairly significant time commitment each week (several hours, at least).  That being said, the class is free and there is no credit awarded.  My reason for participating is personal enrichment.  Ultimately if I don’t follow through on the class I don’t lose anything but the opportunity.  But the opportunity to me is a big one - the chance to learn more in depth about a topic that interests me from experts in the field.  This is not an insignificant opportunity if you are curious and like to learn.

If you want in on the MOOC concept, I suggest you head to Class Central, a MOOC aggregator, and see if any upcoming classes strike your fancy.  I’m taking The Challenges of Global Poverty at MIT through edX.  I don’t have time to do more than one class at a time, but if I did there are a lot of others that look interesting to me, and I’m looking forward to more free learning to come...

La Llegada

So I have begun my fourth year in Chicago.  The longer I live here the more it feels like home.  I suppose that is probably stating the obvious.

But let me just say, at the risk of stating the obvious, that the longer I live here the more I feel at home.  The longer I live here the more I think that staying in the same place for an extended period of time, as opposed to moving every year, is really awesome.  I think I never realized how kind of…stunting…it can be to move around so often.  You spend all your time worrying about packing, unpacking, settling in, finding a new routine, discovering who you are in the new situation, planning the next move, packing, saying good-bye, unpacking, settling in…that pretty soon it's all you do.  And there are other things to do in life.

And I have long since concluded that if you are going to stay in the same place for awhile, Chicago is an excellent place to stay.  Of course there are a lot of good places.  In fact, they're probably all good.  But I'm pretty happy that this is the one I ended up with.  I mean, let's face it.  It doesn't take much to make me happy, but even if it did I'd probably be happy here.  Will I be here forever?  Jury's out.  But.  I wouldn't necessarily mind.

Just for the record, I'm sure that if you put me on a plane to the border tomorrow then all would be in doubt again.  But you wouldn't do that to me, would you?

Lincoln Park

What haven't I done yet this year?  I know what you're thinking...I haven't explored any new Chicago parks!

I know I know, I have fallen a bit off of the park band wagon, but I made up for it last week (at least started to) with a mega expedition to the Chicago park motherland, as I think of it, Lincoln Park.  Lincoln Park begs the question, "Seriously, how much stuff can you put in one park?"  It is like the powerhouse of city parks.  But I really digress...why tell you about the park when I can show you?

My journey began at the what is more-or-less the northern extremity of the park, North Pond.  That part of the park is a nature sanctuary, and provided what I felt was quite a high level of entertaining flora and fauna, given that it is pretty much a block on each side to high rise apartments and condos.  On that particular day I saw great blue and green herons, cormorants, wood ducks, and of course all the other various and sundry plants and animals one can wish for on a typical day @ park.  Two thumbs up for Lincoln Park on the nature front.







The southeast corner of the pond is flanked by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, which I did not include on this visit but it is on my list.  I can never see it or think about it without humming to myself, "took all the natures, put 'em in a nature museum..."

South of North Pond is the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool.  It might be overkill if it was a repeat of North Pond, but in fact it is a more landscaped version, very art deco and peaceful.







From there the next stop was the Conservatory...not, in my opinion, equal to the Garfield Park Conservatory, but lovely nonetheless.





Leaving the conservatory you can look to your left and see...



Yeah it's the zoo.  The zoo is free so I just ducked in to take this picture but did not otherwise explore the zoo portion of the park.

South of the conservatory and west of the zoo is the formal garden...





And then more zoo, South Pond, and a bunch of statues...I admit my photo taking started to wane.  However getting close to all the way south you find this guy, which, you know, seemed apropos.



All in all, Lincoln Park = wonderland of urban parks.  Right in the middle of everything, so it doesn't exactly have that "wild" factor I so covet in parks, but there is more than enough good stuff there to make up for it.

Updates from Chicago

• The winter, as you may have heard, has been mild.  I mean, the winter has been mild!  Mild!!!  Actually it has been great.  I have noticed that it's hard to make conversation in the winter when you can't complain about the weather.  But given the choice of the two, I'll take the mild winter.  I mean, a million times over.  And anyway, shame on me for complaining.
• I have not gone to any new parks recently.
• I plan (in fact I resolve) to visit more new museums in 2012, but haven't gotten started yet.  Since my goal was to go to one new museum every two months I am off to a bad start.  However, if I can go to two by the end of April I will give myself a pass.
• I did revisit the Art Institute three or four times.  My favorite thing I saw there was a 30 minute film called "Muxima" by Alfredo Jaar.  (They have this thing called a film gallery.)  I loved it.  It heavily features this song (but not this version):