5 Aug 2008

Written Just as Jared Finished His Shower Singing “So Clean,” From Algonquin, IL

Good Morning, fans, family, friends, and all-around fun people,

As you might expect, road-tripping is on the agenda for today. But first we must consume a fantastic breakfast served up by the Brigg’s—muffins, blueberries, tea, and cereal. It’s a hard life.

Speaking of cereal, in Chicago the other day we were introduced to two goddesses—the goddess of Progress (which I don’t much believe in) and the goddess of Agriculture (in Latin, Ceres, from which we get our word “cereal”). The latter stands confidently on the tippy-top of the Chicago Board of Trade.

The people of Chicago really love their city. They’re erecting new buildings all the time; they’re a candidate for the 2016 Olympics; they brag about how they rebuilt themselves after the Great Fire in time to host the Columbian World Exposition of 1893. And anyway, I loved the city too.

The Art Institute, built the year befor the World Exposition, holds all sorts of artwork—ancient Greek, postmodern scribble, urban realism, 19th century furniture, American Gothic, a special exhibition on the artwork of the African kingdom of Benin, an entire room entitled “Take Me Out … No one is an Island” mixing Chicano pride and the love of baseball; there were medieval triptychs, marble statues, and mixed media wall displays. We found an artist born and raised in West Chester, PA, and then also a painting of a factory building in Lancaster, composed of geometric shapes in shades of red, white, and blue. We also found a wooden bench in the center of a long hallway, where we took time to reflect and make our own art. Which you see below.

Next stop: Madison, WI.