Reduced Blog: Places 37-40

37: Lake shore bike path: There is no better place for a long bike ride than the path that faces downtown from beautiful north and south facing vantage points.

38: Schubas -- this neighborhood bar brings in both local and national talent. Marshall Crenshaw played a great set the night we were there.

39: The Spot: The queer prom and feminist burlesque show at this bar near Broadway and Wilson was a great way to start the Pride celebrations

40: Pride parade viewed from atop a float. A great way to see a fabulous see of humanity -- a nearly 500,000 people attended this year.

Performances 21-40

This reduced list of performances includes some we have seen, and some we will see later on in the summer:

21-30-- Cubs at Wrigley field. Susan has already seen 5 games, and Kate has seen 3. We expect to see at least 4 more before the end of the year (not counting the playoffs -- did I mention the Cubs are in first place :)

31: k.d. lang in Montreal. When we visited Montreal last month we were able to see k.d. lang in a small venue of about 300 people and she was fabulous! Her show stopping version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" received a spontaneous, mid-show standing ovation.

32: The Flesh Hungry Dog Show at the Jackhammer Tavern featuring Congress of Starlings. These girls are my teachers at the Old Town School. Their live show at this gay bar on the North edge of the city did not disappoint!

33: Marshall Crenshaw at Shubas: This bar is a couple of blocks away from where we live. I can't believe the great Marshall Crenshaw will be playing there next week!

34: GirlieQ live: Almost Paradise: A Very Queer Prom -- Part of the Pride Week celebrations here in Chicago, this performance features great music played over a feminist burlesque show.

35: Patricia Barber Quintet: She plays every Monday at the Green Mill, the oldest jazz club in the country, maybe in the world, located right here in the uptown neighborhood of Chicago.

36. Classical Concert in Millenium Park -- they'll be playing Mendelssohn's violin concerto amongst other pieces, out in the park behind the famous bean. Can't wait!

37. The Neo-Futurists -- this comedy improv group is located in the Andersonville neighborhood, where the girls live, above a funeral home of all places!

38. Avenue Q. A musical with puppets and queer themes? Welcome to the Broadway in Chicago series. We saw this play in early May and we're still singing the songs.

39. Hoping to get one more performance of the women's acoustic group in before we go, with my friends at the Old Town School.

40. Pride Parade -- This is pretty much where we started our time in Chicago last year, so it seems fitting to end here also, even if it isn't the linear end of the performances we've seen this year (lots of flesh involved as you can see in the image above).

Experiences 37-40

Continuing on with the reduced approach to the blog, this time on the category of experiences:

37: Playing in the Women's Tournament of the World Series of Poker: Ok, I got thumped, but it was a fantastic experience and an enormous amount of fun!

38: Ranked in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. While I was not ranked super high, it was fun to have the experience of playing in Will Shortz's backyard, if only for a short time.

39: 1,000 miles in a weekend. We just got back from a car trip from Chicago to Cleveland to Athens. Great to see everyone and to celebrate Kate's birthday with our Athens friends.

40: Saving the best for last: NO MORE CANCER! We just found out yesterday that I am cancer free! It kind of feels like I have been holding my breath all year and can finally exhale! Yahoo!!

[41: Racing in my first triathlon in July -- see picture above]

[42: Cubs win the world series in October -- they're 20 games above 500 right now!]

CDs 21-31

Reduced CDs, thumbs up and down:

Thumbs up:

k.d. lang, Watershed - classic k.d. crooning

Tegan and Sara - So Jealous - more lesbians from up north. sort of a cross between folk and riotgrrl.

Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces - an old one that we had never gotten around to earlier. Classic chicks.

Dustin O'Halloran - Piano Solos v. 2-- he opened for k.d. lang at a recent concert and we loved him. some of his music can be heard on the "Marie Antionette" soundtrack.

Alicia Keys -- one of our favorites from last year. soul for the 21st century.

KT Tunstall -- Eye to the Telescope -- great voice, guitar and songs from the girl from Scotland. What more could you ask for?

Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Does Judy at Carnigie Hall -- Rufus channels Judy Garland, reperforming her famous concert at Carnigie. Great versions of some great classic tunes.

Fiona Apple -- When the Pawn . . . This is an old one that a friend sent to us and we loved. Who does dark and overwrought better?

Thumbs down:

Lucinda Williams - West - We love Lucinda, but this is not her best stuff.

Erykah Badu - New Amerykah -- Love Erykah too but this one was a bit too "conceptual" for our tastes.

Books 33-40

Ok, in keeping with the Reduced Shakespeare model, we're filling up the book category in one message. There will be two categories for the book list, one for thumbs up and one for thumbs down.

Thumbs up:

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell. It has been getting some rough reviews but we really like it -- a good beach read, it's tone is a cross between early women's movement info and People magazine.

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picault -- great writer and a great story (but we should also add that the book lacks a great ending)

Heydey by Kurt Anderson -- rolicking good story of gold rush era

Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson -- a wet story of a modern saint set in the pacific northwest.

Little Book of Atheism -- first half offers dull proofs that god doesn't exist but the second half
is filled with interesting material about spirituality without god.

Thumbs Down:

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. Lots of hype and publicity, but no there there.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn -- tries way too hard

The Yiddish Policeman's Ball by Michael Chabon -- the first book of his I haven't liked.

Reduced 10x40 - Experiences

We're way behind in our posting, maximizing our last months in Chicago at the expense of keeping of the blog! Have you ever seen Reduced Shakespeare? It's a humorous performance offered by a comedy group that goes through all of the plays (or all the books of the Bible, or all the great books -- you get the idea). Well, they take their time for first 3/4 of the show, only to have to run through in rapid fire fashion whatever plays or books remain at the end of the show.

Inspired by Reduced Shakespeare, in the next several posts we're going to offer a list of things that we've done in the last month or so, to the end of getting to 40 in as many categories as possible. Think of it as Reduced 10x40. We'll be closing down the blog on or around June 16, which is the day that I will have my one year check up in cancer world. Seems only fitting that we end there (but with good news this time), since that's where this whole trip started.

Cubs Lose! Performance 20; Fun Fact 40

Yesterday we went to see the Cubs play the division rival Milwaukee Brewers. Kate's first game of the season and Susan's second, it was disappointing to see the Cubs lose a close one. The Cubs' ace, Carlos Zambrano was pitching. He looked sharp early, but then ran up his pitch count well over 100 in the middle innings and was pulled early in the 7th. He helped his own cause by hitting a solo home run in the third, but the Cubs collapsed in the top of the ninth when Milwaukee went ahead by one run. The Cubs could not generate enough fire power in the bottom of the ninth and the game ended quietly in a double play to short. Fun fact: In this huge city, we ran into some good friends who had tickets in the section next to ours and we were all able to sit together. Small town Athens isn't the only place where that kind of thing can happen!