After working almost nonstop for the past month, including most weekends, I needed some decompression time last weekend. Many people would have decompressed by reading a book by the pool, or by cycling along the lakeshore bike path for many hours, or even by walking around in a cocktail-induced haze during last weekend’s Gay Pride festivities. Since I’m battier than a New Mexico rock cave, my formula for stress relief, however, involved seeing Steven Adly Gurgis’s long (two and a half hours) metaphysical discourse on the nature of guilt and forgiveness, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, being given an energetic production by the Gift Theater, and attending the Luchino Visconti retrospective at the Siskel Film Center for the long (two and a half hours too!), over-the-top, insanely mesmerizing Visconti masterpiece, The Damned. Paraphrasing the even battier Col. Kilgore of Apocalypse Now, (sigh deeply) I love the smell of extremely provocative art in the morning!
Whew! It’s the last full week of June and the long fourth of July weekend will soon be upon us. Where was I during this month? Oh right, working on a couple of big deals, and shuttling between New York and Chicago (not to mention having to go out to Schaumburg for a couple of days and getting stuck in notorious, nefarious I-90 traffic). This month felt like I was on a bullet train to nowhere; which is not good for an arts and culture blogger. I can’t believe I haven’t been in a theater since June 1 when I was underwhelmed by Mary-Arrchie’s Beggars in the House of Plenty. Well, the deals have been put to bed and hopefully the next couple of weeks will be a little bit quieter, with more time and focus to savor Chicago’s thriving summer cultural life. Who wants to work like an ox plowing a muddy field during the heightened heat and humidity of July?
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