Chicago Bound

Alright, clear your calendar, go to the bathroom, get some water and take a deep breath…

Greetings – let me introduce you to the ArtistFormerlyKnownAsSpeedyVonDLucci:



This man has recently earned his MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) from Columbia College of Chicago in the Interdisciplinary Arts Department. He has been the subject of the Chicago Journal, the school magazine…. security guard alerts…..academic probation….proud parents….gris gris magnet and all-round bon vivant.

The path has been anything but dull. Overlapping experiences with his parents involved high school acting awards, medal-winning track runs, travel and wayward experiments. College brought about geodesic domes, illegality, a fecundity of art, love, heartbreak and a self-defined major/degree.

He is a man in motion: traipsing and camping in the Grand Canyon, roaming the Appalachian Trail, living off the land in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and learning to deal with the urban dynamics of Chicago.

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Our most recent trip (Gini and I) was a drive to Chicago to be there for Chip’s presentation of his thesis along with several of his fellow degree candidates. It’s never quite that simple. By the time we actually left we had set up a night in Erie, PA at the Glass House Inn (recommended), a visit with our nephew Sam (another graduate this month of the Bachelor kind) at Oberlin College, the transference of title of our Toyota Camry with 250,00 miles that Chip had been driving but was now jettisoning as he prepared for his departure to LA, and a scheduled stop on the return to visit with Rick and Hanna. Gini would then fly from Syracuse to Miami to have her root canal finished because, even with the plane fare, it was hundreds of dollars cheaper than having it done by her regular dentist in Plymouth, NH!

Sam was very glad to see us, as we were to see him:



He gave us the quickie tour of the campus and the ritual eating of burgers at The Feve. Somehow he has to muster enough interest to finish his courses even though he has already procured a lucrative software engineering job in Boston. His father, Geoff, is amazed at his starting salary and wonders where he went wrong with his life – well, that’s another story.

Then… on to the Windy City. Boy is it flat out there. After a while life is just a stream of Americana and agrikharma. By the time we entered the city limits our eyes were victims of some kind of visual Doppler effect:



Eventually we were swallowed up by an exit on the Kennedy expressway and found our way to Chip’s apartment in Lincoln Park. We delivered the title of the Camry just in time for the arranged sale. One thousand dollars seemed like a deal since the engine light was on and his future home of California would treat it like 8oz of water on a domestic flight should he be so foolish as to arrive in it.

Dinner was at a fine Italian restaurant and we thoroughly enjoyed the company of his close friend Frank who was doing graduate work at the University of Chicago in urban environment education. Chris, of course, pontificated on many aspects of his own educator experience and his dream of a ‘puberty-ometer’ that would replace metal detectors in schools.

This was a fitting group to confer on Chip his present for his accomplishments. He had a knowing smile on his face as he unwrapped a gold track baton with the words ‘The Human Race” laser-etched on its surface. Long may he run (some of us need a break!).

The next day was movie day (Lincoln Lawyer – we liked it) and more friends o’Chip at the IO Theater where improv rules. The introductions included a couple of the performers. Dave Pasquesi and TJ Jagodowski were mind blowing in their 50 minute-made-up-on-the-spot skit. They are nationally known and Dave had agreed to be an outside evaluator for Chip’s thesis presentation. Very cool.

The theme of the day also included getting the gallery ready for the show. Chip had already shown us the book he had designed and published:



The pages were arranged to give the reader a feel for the image, feel and location for some of the more significant climbs in Chicago.



Yes, for those of you who may not be aware, Chip’s thesis is The Urban Quiet. It is his experience of confronting the metropolitan dynamo of Chicago head on. He would climb the facades of buildings and understructures of bridges (with the L train pounding overhead) and have a photographing team capture the experience. A head cam would bring some of the ascents visually closer, offering vicarious vertigo.

As he free-climbed he would produce globs of clay to impress upon the rugged hand-holding features of the building. Later he would cast them and produce concrete versions of these ‘holds’. In the gallery he built a faux façade and bridge arch to attach these holds in a sculptural climbing wall of these gotham golems.



Vinyl lettering indicated the source location.



One video screen was placed below the climbing wall to show footage of the obtaining of the impressions during the climbs. Another video was tucked back in the corner but placed in the ceiling of the space about a foot or two above your head with a sound track of Chip’s breathing that recalled the effort necessary for these feats. The Urban Guides of the Urban Quiet were on display on glass shelves opposite these walls.

“…The city has been a stressful loud place for my mind and I get overwhelmed with my resentments of the past and fears of the future, I’m never in the present. Challenging my body physically is immediate relief. I am documenting by photography and video, making a compilation of my failures and successes. Sharing this documentation is a way for me to share this experience to an audience. Also I am taking small impressions of some of the buildings I climb to create an urban climbing hold. This is similar to a climbing hold in an indoor wall but it takes the shape of the holds in the urban landscape; bricks, concrete, metal, etc. This is something to ‘hold’ onto from my experience…” (Artist currently known as Prince Von D’Lucci)

And he even did it under the careful guidance of his mother:



We hooked up with Bill and Janice the next day. Janice is Gini’s sister, Bill her loving and stalwart husband. They were able to take some time and travel out by car, staying with some friends in the burbs of Chicago for the festivities. Though both have been very supporting (along with Linda and Geoff and many other Von D’Luccis) Bill has been prominent with his presence, labor and communication. Chip has been quite fortunate with this.

The next day brought our scheduled, bought-and-paid-for tour of the architecture of Chicago along the Chicago river…in 40 degree dank, wet and gray conditions. However the group seems to have gotten on quite well:



And now I will over/underwhelm you with highlights of the tour (click on picture for better view):














Here is a perspective on Millenium Park:




Grant Park:




This massive display was the urban entity whose immenseness made monumental ‘noise’ to Chip. His response was to immerse and ascend, depend and conquer.

The evening of the show arrived. We entered the building one more time. This time there was a more formal tone:



We headed for a particular section first:


(minus the blue tape)

CBS 2 of Chicago will be interviewing him this Thursday at the gallery and then they will watch Chip climb a column from one of his photos (right middle):



May the universe continue to keep him safe.

So the night was successful. We had a wonderful dinner at Rhapsody and Gini managed to make it to Miami and Chris made it home.

If you have made it this far, you are a victim of Pride and Prejudice, forgive us:

Snails and Weenie Woman

Greetings – you are lying on your back – you can’t seem to remember what day it is – fronds, that’s what they are, yes, fronds – and such blue! Well this is an attempt to recover from the fact that I missed my coaches meeting today. I couldn’t get out of the driveway because of the four inches of snow that fell this morning and the Camry does not have snow tires!!!! Okay, breathe deep – the gathering gloom – no wrong direction again. Another breath, put three dimes in the grandfather clock and cue the organist ….

It is now several weeks ago…..

Rich and Val had left and sister Eileen was on her way from Orlando with her friend Kathy. She arrived safely but Kathy just had time for hi/goodbye and she was off.

Eileen loves Miami Beach – and Paul – and Gregg –



and staying with us. The visit is somewhat ritualistic in that we are guaranteed a lot of laughs, some great dinners and cocktails (courtesy of Eileen), visits to the Hotel Victor:



The key lime pie and crab cakes are especially good. There will also be at least one new adventure. This year it was the Hotel Mondrian on the Bay. Eileen decided she would create her new Facebook picture there:



Paul and I did manage to sneak away for a bike tour of the Matheson Hammock County Park in Coral Gables. “Hammocks are dense stands of hardwood trees that grow on natural rises of only a few inches higher than surrounding marshland that is otherwise too wet to support them” (thank you Wikipedia). In this case we are talking acres and acres of mangroves. It makes for a nice little arborway:



Coral Gables is fascinating. You might remember from the last blog it is also the home of the Venetian public pool along with the Biltmore Hotel.

Mangroves were the bane of the Army Corps of Engineers as they dredged and created Miami Beach at the beginning of the 20th century. Most of what is Biscayne Bay would be similar to what you see on the sides of the bike path in the picture without the hammock.

Coral Gables also decided to adopt some items from Art Basel in Miami when their safety became questionable – another roadside attraction:



Their antennae make for interesting directionals – but they are soooo slow!



We are actually a bit south of Vizcaya and north of Fairchild Gardens. Next year we hope to revisit on our bikes while dropping Kevin off to do some fishing.

….I called to say that I would not be able to make the coaches’ meeting. The athletic director was fine with it. We had returned two days ‘early’ specifically to make this meeting. The AD said that it was obvious that we came back too soon. I think I need more meditation on palm fronds.

How Sweet It Is

Well that just about sums it up – see you next blog entry!


OK – details, details. These are two of the fine $500 mojitos that they serve at the Biltmore Coral Gables Miami Hotel. It took several days of bed-making and leaf-blowing to earn these puppies. (Actually we are quite grateful to Val’s magnanimity)

The Biltmore was built in 1926 and was the epitome of luxury for that era. Trains left major cities in the north with Biltmore – Miami as their listed destination.






Their swimming pool was the largest in the world for several years:


Notice the statuary between the columns on the right, very decadent. Johnny Weismuller was the resident swimming instructor and set a world record for freestyle swimming here. Aquatic shows were their source of survival during the depression featuring “…synchronized swimmers, bathing beauties, alligator wrestlers and the four year-old boy wonder Jackie Ott, whose act included diving into the immense pool from an 85-foot high platform.”

The grounds and spaces are just spectacular. It is currently home to a world-famous Sunday Champagne Brunch ($75 apiece – maybe next year) splendiferously arrayed in a gorgeous courtyard:



Coral Gables is quite the neighborhood. Our friend Paul (of Paul and Gregg fame) had a great house here when he first moved to the Miami area. Chip loved the pool and was a bit upset when Paul said he was selling the place. As you have seen where Paul lives now (“Gini and Paul Take A Walk” – Feb 2009) Chip quickly got over it.

Here is Coral Gables version of a public swimming pool:



It is in the National Register of Historic Places This is the Venetian Pool. Built in 1924, its 800,000 gallons are drained daily in the summer, every other day in the winter, and replenished by underground artesian wells. Formerly known as the Venetian Casino it also was the site for the likes of Esther Williams and Johnny Weismuller to cavort and frolic. Over one hundred thousand swimmers a year bathe in its splendor.

With Rich and Val the current guest stars the flavor changes once again. These two are experts on Miami Beach, its history and architecture. So the Biltmore and Venetian Pool were a must-enjoy when they arrived.

We also returned to the New World Center off Lincoln Road and took a tour of the facility. The interior definitely bespeaks Frank Gehry’s touch:





Chris was the duly appointed elevator operator for the tour. It helped cover expenses.

Rich Beaubien is a photographer extraordinaire. You can view his work on: http://www.intheviewfinder.net, Flickr and Facebook. Much of his day was spent roaming the beach looking for photo ops. Val and Gini juggled the pools, hot tubs, Lincoln Road, wine purchasing and walking. Chris just tried to keep up.

Chris provided some chauffeuring as the ambulating trio had set the Fontainebleu Hotel as their destination. When he arrived to pick up his charges he was met with:


James Bond is in the background on the balcony with Jill Masterson foiling Auric Goldfinger’s dastardly tactics in gin rummy.

The Fontainebleu is a real retro trip. It has recently been redone. We definitely enjoy the ‘bow tie’ floor of the lobby:



Also of some note is the Cheese Wall fronting Collins Avenue:



Richie is running around somewhere up there trying to get the perfect shot. Here he is in flagrante:



Next door is the more modern but equally elegant Eden Roc.



Its lobby is actually a beaucoup cool lounge:







Again, you can click on any of these photos to view them in a larger and more detailed context.

So just as the opening photo sort of summed up this week we have a parting photo for your viewing pleasure that depicts our heroes demonstrating their attitude toward the larger than life ambiance of the Fontainebleu lobby:



And awa-a-a-a-y we go!!

It's So Crowded Nobody Goes There Anymore

When you are hosting several different friends and family members over a period of 6 weeks you need to provide for both the visitor and yourself. There is a concern that a favorite tour, restaurant, walk or café is refreshing but even a prime destination can be frequented to the point of saturation. Also, not everyone has the same taste or preference in how to bask in leisure and free time.

So, thankfully, we were able to procure the above device to guard against these very instances. Our first vict…um participant was Kevin Richard,.our tenant from up north who was visiting us for two weeks and was last seen splayed across a banyan tree.

Using mostly the OSC and BYPASS buttons we were able to experience fishing and Hollywood simultaneously.

Kevin had his destination list for his southern excursion. It included many angling items. We provided him with the Honda Element so that he could fulfill his wish to go to Islamorada, a bastion of American fishing. His plan also included a trip to the IGFA (International Game Fish Association – he’s a member) Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum while he was there; a veritable double header.

Well the fishing happened but much to his surprise he discovered the museum had moved to Dania Beach, close to Fort Lauderdale – oops. So in a great humanitarian gesture we volunteered to drive him there the next day upon his return to Miami Beach. This would allow us to visit the Design Center of the Americas (DCOA). Voila! As the ibis flies they were less than a half mile apart – this was meant to be.

Here we have our guest hero emerging from aquatic bliss and enlightenment:



Meanwhile our hosting heroes were at the DCOA experiencing Film and Design: The Golden Age of Hollywood.

This is an incredible building described as: “…the largest to-the-trade design campus of its kind, showcasing 775,000 sq ft of extraordinary design products that suit the needs for any home, yacht or office project.” It is several floors of elegant showrooms arrayed throughout spacious hallways:



This is one of the atria on one end of the building.



Everything is an expression of art and style.

There was an incredible mobile suspended from the ceiling at the other end:



With the cooperation of many top designers they were able to dedicate showroom space to showcase 18 “breathtaking installations”. Each installation would be part of a “residence” where each room would be inspired by some Hollywood theme.

The ‘foyer’ was dedicated to:




The guest bedroom was dedicated to:



Well if this is business I’d love to see what’s reserved for pleasure.



And who would have thought that Chris would find the bathroom of his dreams? The piece de resistance was its cinematic inspiration:



This is the photo released by someone reviewing the installation but it does not quite do it justice:



That vertical piece of glass is at an angle to the wall but provides a splash-guard to the rain shower. An adjustable, hand-held shower graces the far wall. The ceramic column on the right is one of the two sinks. The drain for the shower is along the floor on the left and is only a few inches wide. Those are two cork stools in front of the glass. At the point where the stools are, the floor slopes very gently towards the drain. Here is a picture we took of the showers:



The black rectangles surrounding the mirror are cabinetry.
(You can click on the photos to make them larger)

What a day this was! We regrouped after our stereo experience and celebrated it at Taco Bell. The only reference at this point to summarize all this would have to be provided by Yogi Berra:




“If you see a fork in the road…take it!”