This time we went to see Robyn Hitchcock, plus we lucked into a nice dinner. And a recipe for May.
We left at a leisurely pace on Friday morning. The train was delayed but we didn’t mind too much except the bagel place where we thought we’d get breakfast/lunch closes at 2:00. We dropped our stuff at the hotel and ordered our bagels online in advance and even though some bagel flavors were sold out, we had just enough time to sit and eat in the store. It’s really close to MCA so we proceeded there to see Nicole Eisenmann. I liked her later paintings from the 20-teens the best. Her early work was a bit too comic book style for me, although I’m sure some people prefer that.
Nicole Eisenman, [Laurie] Weeks on the Train, oil on canvas, 82 x 65 inches, 2015.
Can’t remember the name of this one; it’s something like Cabal, generic evil old white men politicians. I know it’s from 2017
Nicole Eisenman, Another Green World, 2015. Oil on canvas. 128 x 106 inches. For someone 10 years younger than me, Eisenman likes old music. Note the Beatles, Tommy, Elvis Costello, Grace Jones under the table, and of course Eno’s album of the same name
After that we walked over to the Art Institute and looked at Christina Ramberg. I’d seen her highly stylized torsos before – they have one at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art – see below, and sort of vaguely lumped her in with the Hairy Who, but the Museum associated her with Chicago Imagists (not that different), Roger Brown, Ray Yoshida, and she was married to Phillip Hanson, the only one of the three still living.
Gloved, Christina Ramberg
1974
acrylic on Masonite, in artist’s painted frame
MMoCA, Collection of Mark and Judy Bednar
The show had a bunch of Ramberg’s paintings and reference materials, like the slide below, but also her quilts.
Christina Ramberg slide
Christina Ramberg quilt. The label said she built them from the bottom up instead of more traditional piecing, and it looked like reverse applique. So the brown piece was cut and the raw edges stitched down to reveal the other fabric below, then it was quilted.
After all that we had just enough time to go back to the hotel and do a few wardrobe tweaks, like I decided to wear my Jerry Garcia Keen’s without socks because it was warm enough and my feet were starting to feel a little rubbed in spots, and head out for our pre-theater dinner. We were planning to go to Paulie G’s and get Detroit pizza. I tried to talk Mark into Middlebrow, but I think it was a little too hipster and or maybe the “P I Z Z A s take on average * ~60 m i n u t e s *at dinner peak //”. It was supposed to be a 9-minute walk from the L to Paulie G’s and when I was checking the map while we were on the train I said oh, look we go right past Daisies (this James Beard nominated place we’ve been wanting to try) but I don’t think Mark heard me. Anyways two of the hosts were hanging out in front of the restaurant when we went past and they said C’mon in we have room. It was on the early side, about 5:45. We had momentum and kept going about half a block and then turned around and went back.
And glad we did – it was a more expensive dinner than the pizza would’ve been but so good.
Seated and ordered
Salad with “Wishbone” vinaigrette and a side of toasted focaccia
Mark’s milk cow Bolognese
Raviolo stuffed with ricotta and ramp greens and a sunny up egg, with pickled ramps and browned butter on top and all around
Last bite of raviolo that we could not quite consume – leaving room for dessert
Rhubarb & pistachio crostata with camomile cream. TBH I couldn’t taste the camomile, but it was a really nice pastry cream or Creme Anglaise or custard sauce
Affogatto with malted chocolate chip gelato. They serve it in a cold cup with the espresso poured over so the ice cream doesn’t melt as fast
I think they saw my daisy leggings and that’s why they invited us in.
After dinner Mark called a Lyft and I was confused by the interface on his app and we went to the Old Town School where the classes are rather than the Old Town School Maurer Hall where the performances are. I went in and said I think I’m in the wrong place and they said Yup. Jump on the brown line and get off at Western. My heart kinda sank when I saw it was 11 stops but it went fast and while we sadly missed most of Eugene Mirman, we were there in plenty of time for Robyn. Plus we knew exactly how to get back to the hotel at the end of the night – brown line to Belmont, red to Washington. I knew Mirman had opened for Robyn before and was kinda charmed the idea of a comedian for an opening act, seemed like a throw back to the ’60s and 70s, but oh well.
11 stops on the brown line
I made a set list but it’s also on setlistfm. I requested Mr Kennedy, but did not get it. The next night got the Soft Boys, I Wanna Destroy You – ours was more of an Egyptians night and Venus 3.
In the morning we walked up to the Do-Rite on Erie, and then got coffee at the Gold Coast Dollop and took it all back to the hotel for breakfast in bed. Another delayed train and we were home by 2:30 Saturday.
And here’s the recipe as promised, pumpkin cimmy buns with date filling. Click the link or the pic.
