Official A2K Gathering in Chicago, May 7th, 2006!

Actually, South Holland was Chicago's colony before it became Spanish and later part of The Netherlands (don't quote me, my books are at home and dys has none).

That was before Edna Ferber, though--she was a cousin of William of Orange, who started the Florida citrus industry.

dys and Walter, Happy to hear you had a good "minor tour of the south-west," and that you both survived each other in the mobile home.

I'm expecting Walter and Ulla to visit the west coast on their next visit to the states.

The sweet part of it, true. The other was invented by Priscilla Lemone.

hm, william of orange was evidently long-lived.

i was blisfully unaware of South Holland until you brought it up, Set. while the trains i rode in chicago passed through California & Harlem, among other places, Holland requires another mode of travel perhaps.

I'm just returning from a trip to Wrigley Field, where the San Diego Padres bet the Chicago Cubs 10:5. The weather, about 40 degrees and raining, deterred all but the most loyal Cubs fans. They made very clear multiple times that they weren't happy about the quality of some of their team's plays. Still, they filled 3/4 of the stadium at times, and about half a stadiumful remained until the better end. I am very impressed with the Cubs fans' loyalty and their resistance to frustration.

After this, Joe and I had dinner at a Mexican dinner together before we parted ways. I'm getting a little sentimental as I contemplate that 24 hours from now, I'll be sitting in a plane someplace over the Atlantic. I really fell in love with Chicago (yet again), and the people I met here over the last 10 days were just wonderful. I hope that some of you come over to Germany someday so I can begin return some of the many favors I have received here. I also hope to return here sometime soon.

Thanks, everybody, for a wonderful time!

yitwail wrote-



When I read that I shouted out loud to my staff-"How many tulips are there in the garden outside?"

They didn't know.It must be hundreds. There's a lot.

Are Chicago tulips better than these here in order to prove that viewers of Chicago tulips are superior to viewers of these lovely little things which are all over the place where I am due to factors outside my control

spendius, that seems to be a rhetorical question. in southern california, where i've spent most of my life, tulips are a rarely seen; the climate probably does not suit them. it pleases me to know that you live in a locale where they're abundant.

When dys, Diane and I visited Amsterdam last year in May, we visited the Kukenhof Gardens where they have tulips by the acres. We spent hours there enjoying the beauty of the place. The flash of colors were beautiful.

When I get a chance I'll take a picture of the ones outside my building and post them, BTW how did the chess match go?

I'm glad everyone enjoyed themselves, hopefully I'll see you all in Spain.

Thomas and Walter, I may see you guys in September for Oktoberfest thanks for the offer.

Hope you can keep June 30th open, Sublime.

Whatever for?


At Fitzgeralds:

American Music Festival - June 30th, July 1, 2 & 3!
Featuring Marcia Ball, Brave Combo, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, The Blasters, Ian McLagan & The Bump Band, Chatham County Line, Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men, Dale Watson, Jeff & Vida AND MUCH MORE!

AND the Cubs are playing the White Sox at 1:20 at Wrigley.

If anyone wants to come to Chicago (again) this would be the weekend.

The thing about Chicago's tulips was their role as jewels for the architectural city - they were everywhere, it seemed. I also didn't take a tulip picture until the end of my trip and the bus was moving and my camera exposure lame (well, maybe one, I did take a black and white tulip pic... we'll see, won't get those until Tuesday).
Someone told me, I forget who now, that Chicago's budget for things like tulips has just tanked, which, if true, saddens me. As I went on and on about before, the city is just so elegant with the people and the structures, and the tulips are part of the pleasure for a visitor, and, I bet, for the residents.

I just got four of my discs of color film onto my hard drive (missing the fifth, have to go back to the shop..). Now to move favorites onto photobucket. It's a pleasure, part of the fun of the trip, the processing of images to screen, photopaper, and the cascading other images in my mind.

I didn't take all that many photos of a2kers... early on I asked Thomas and Walter if they would like their picture taken, at the Frank Lloyd Wright Rodie House, and they said no. Looking back, that's ironic re Walter, heh. Besides, I had all these mad photographers around me, besides myself, that is. Funny, on the first architectural tour, there were three people on the whole bus that were photo-ing right and left - Walter, CI, and myself. Though there was one couple that had, from what I saw them flicking, a good eye for a interesting shot.

I also didn't take all that many photos in the art museum, but I did take a lot of notes, and may start an art thread about what caught my own interest in a week or two. J_B asked me as we passed each other in all our zipping around if I had seen anything that surprised me, and I did. Will save that for another thread.

The city does a pretty good job with fireworks over Navy Pier on the 3rd too.

Ack, I didn't mean that the art thread would just be about what interested me, myself and I. I think a lot of us have different takes and the differences are interesting.

The tulips in Chicago were very impressive. They seemed to be everywhere.
I left my hotel on Monday morning, waiting to catch the bus that would get me to the train that would get me to O'Hare. I watched the streetcleaning crew come past me. They swept, seeming to search for cigarette butts and other debris with a vengeance. I noticed the safety vests they were wearing: Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce. It took me a minute or two to realize that they were not loafing (like the guys I saw in the airport) because they knew that their bosses were not shuffling paper in some office somewhere. Their bosses were the businesses
along Diversey Blvd. The hotels and the Indian convenience store, and the bosses were watching. There is a lesson there in urban management.

I mentioned to J-B my impression of the Art Institute. Many of the paintings I know well from post cards and picture books. But it is something else to be a mere 18 inches away from them, to see them in actual scale, and to to examine the brush strokes that went into creating those works. An awesome collection.

Right, but such is not so uncommon in Europe. (In my hometown, they had daffodils along the major streets and at any green places. And this happens every year 'naturally' :wink: )

In my experience of eyeing landscape both urban and suburban, and of course rural and forest.. one finds potted plants where the money - and the will - is. One finds dense shrub planting along freeways, where the money is.

Once in a while there is a surprise, like with the oleanders blooming along highway 5 in the central valley of california, that is, if they still are, as oleanders have a fungus amongus recently.

Some small towns have volunteer planters, which is, mostly, a good thing.

California in general has its own natural glory, too much to describe in a few sentences. California is about the size of Italy...
Anyway, re cities, I'm all for city provided and citizen provided fixing up. It's all energizing, to me. As long as someone doesn't steal your expensive pots.

probably quite well, since i was on a roll at the time. since then, i've cooled off a bit.