Looptopia!

Joy and I regularly say that we want to go into the city of Chicago more. Last Friday we did, and it was fantastic. Chicago had an event they titled "Looptopia" because it took place in the Chicago Loop and it was called "America's first dusk-to-dawn cultural and artistic spectacle" which is inspired by "White Night" events in Rome, Montreal, and Paris. It went from 5pm on Friday night to 5am Saturday morning. My friend Andrew Ulasich was in town, and after convincing Joy, we jumped in the car around 8 and went in to see what the city had to offer.

First, we went into the Chicago Art Museum, one of my perennial favorites in the city. It was free to get in, and it certainly had a crowd. We did a quick run-through of some Monet and Renoir, ran through the antiquities, and went back outside to the crowds. We then wandered until we went into the Chicago Cultural Center where we were able to sit on the floor (front row seats, baby!) for Selim Sester and Orchestra. Joy actually read about them in the newspaper as we drove into the city, and, still not completely convinced she wanted to be in the city till the wee hours, lamented in an oh-so-mocking tone that "This is great. We can spend out time listening to a Turkish clarinet wedding band. This is so worth it." Well, we did in fact go an listen to this band, and I will say that I loved it. Vibrant and chaotic-yet-controlled, it was easy to imagine just how fun a wedding in Turkey might be if this is really the music that is going to get the dancing started.

After wandering around the Cultural Center looking at some art and such, we made our way to another building where the highlight of our night was to occur: Opera Idol. Now, for the last few months, I've been telling Joy that there should be an opera reality TV show. It might now seem like it'd have a far-reaching audience, but with some good advertising and some dramatic singers (both in person and in music), it could be quite the show. Well, the Chicago Opera Theatre apparently thinks so too, and so during Looptopia they had the final 7 contestants sing away and then face the judges. It's no shock that I loved the event, but I think the proof of it's entertainment rests in the fact that Joy, again lamenting that it would last till 1 in the morning, was wide awake for the entire time and even said she "loved" Opera Idol. (See Miss. Ellen Wightman, this is what you missed...)

Apparently, she didn't love it enough to have a whole new round of energy, so she didn't want to go to "All Night India" like I did, but I gotta admit, I was feeling pretty tired at this point. Plus, I was walking about singing Donizetti, so I think Andrew was a little embarrassed. Even so, it was the first "Looptopia," an event of very random art and cultural presentations, and I just hope they're planning on having it next year. Maybe I'll even audition for Opera Idol. I'll call it "The Return of Papageno."