Author Archives: JJD
Best dance concert of the season
Monica Bill Barnes & Company performed last night at the Kennedy Center. It was, hands down, the most fun I’ve had at a dance performance all year. The choreography was fresh and full of humor and contagious enthusiasm. The dancers exuded personality and, by the end of the show, I wanted to be best friends with all of them. It helped, […]
Spring Gala
What’s the use of having a reputation for excellent French and a passion for the performing arts? Well, for starters, it increases the odds that your name will come up when the folks planning a black-tie gala look at the guest list and think, “If only we knew someone who was fluent in French and a fan of the Kennedy Center!” […]
La fin (enfin!) des Miserables
So here I am, Thursday morning, sitting in my dentist’s waiting room, reading Les Miserables until they call my name, when — suddenly — I turn the page and discover . . . there were no more words! Nothing but snowy white blank pages until the editor’s notes began. After 1800 pages and six months […]
Play hard, work hard, then take a night off
Do you ever just want a night off? Like, where you get to take time out from everything you’re doing (not just work) and recuperate for a minute? Me too. And I don’t even have kids or cows or a Chicago-style mail-order catalog business to worry about. Just my own little life. Which is enough. […]
Home again
The Chicago trip ended this morning. Everyone met for one last breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then packed off into waiting black cars that would take us to our various airports — the Colorado folks flew out of Midway; the rest of us out of O’Hare. Turned out that Will and Susan (Amanda’s parents) were […]
Chicago – Stars! (both the Michelin and the Broadway kind)
There are only three cities in the US that have been graced with a Michelin guide. Chicago is one of them. Naturally, this means that Saturday night found Amanda and me seated in the swanky downtown dining room — complete with snowy tablecloths and witch-hazel stick arrangements — of the Michelin-starred and James Beard award-winning restaurant NAHA. We had […]
Chicago – Catching up with friends
Amanda instigated this trip to Chicago when she told me she was going with her family and asked if I wanted to join in the fun. I wanted to see the city again, and I always enjoy travelin with her and hanging out with her family, so I accepted the invitation. But I also wanted […]
Chicago – Flowers and fish (and tiny little dinosaurs)
Saturday morning dawned clear and beautiful. What better way to enjoy a perfect spring day in Chicago than by visiting a flower show at the Lincoln Park Conservatory? Their spring gardens were exquisite with their foxgloves and lilies . . . and astilbe, geraniums, daffodils and hydrangea. The orchid room was a valiant attempt but […]
Chicago – The Joffrey does Othello
The Chicago cultural scene has more than just fantastic architecture. It’s also got one of the leading American ballet companies, the Joffrey Ballet, and we were thrilled to discover that our trip fell during their run of Othello. We got to the theatre early and settled into our seats . . . moi, Amanda […]
Chicago – Grandma and the bean
Millennium Park is a great outdoor public space that sits between Lake Michigan and a pack of high-rise buildings that stretches out from the city center towards Indiana. One of it’s more memorable features is a giant sculpture called Cloud Gate. Call it what you will, it looks like a giant bean. A very large and […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 