Keys to the City and VIP Lounges

Jacob Ward – Franklin Fine Arts

Greetings and salutations again, dear reader!  Here’s the skinny on what’s been happening this week in the life of Jacob Ward!

At Franklin Fine Arts:

My first session of edTPA filming has gone off without a hitch!  The students really delved into a crazy good discussion about how we view each other based on our clothing and have really embraced the project of painting on jeans.

Today I chaperoned a field trip of Drama students to the Chicago History Museum, which is conveniently within walking distance of the school.  Why would drama students be going to the Chicago History Museum?  Good question!  Franklin has a system called “The Big Show” where one of the arts has the main focus of that year and pretty much calls the shots.  It’s on a yearly rotation and this year is the Drama big show.  The Drama teacher has commissioned a Franklin parent/playwright to write a play about The Great Chicago Fire, Streeterville, & The World’s Fair.  So what better place to learn the history of Chicago and get time period appropriate design ideas than the History Museum?

In Chicago:

MY PARENTS CAME TO VISIT THIS WEEKEND!!!  After a 10-hour train ride from Ohio, my parents geared up for a whirlwind tour of Chicago by purchasing a 3-day Ventra card (which is a good idea for any visitor to the city, skip driving and go with public transit) and an evening dinner of Chicago deep dish pizza at Lou Malnatis.

Luckily for everyone, this weekend was also Open House Chicago.  This is an event where certain venues open up to the public, some of which are hardly ever open to outsiders on any other day.  Some things we saw:

·      The Stony Island Arts Bank:  a reclaimed bank used to store John J. Johnson’s massive book collection, art, glass slides of art from the Art Institute, and more!  Recently featured on 9-Gag, finding this place was a minor victory for me but sadly they did not allow visitors into the vaults below the bank… bummer.

·      Zap Props:  Located in an unmarked building in literally the middle of nowhere is the largest supplier of props for film, television, theatre, and restaurants in the Midwest.  Never open to the general public, this space has been featured on American Pickers several times and is one of the coolest buildings ever to exist.  It has everything!

·      CAH Headquarters:  Unless invited, the doors into the workspace of the people behind one of America’s most popular card games stay shut.  But they graciously opened up for the open house and I couldn’t be any more excited.  Also got some free brand-spanking new card games out of it, which is nice.

·       Lincoln Square:  We explored and ate our way around this area stopping at Gene’s Sausage Shop & Luella’s Southern Home Cooking (They have the best fried chicken in Chicago!)

·      Sedgewick Studios: Home to several artists who have sculptures around the city, this private workshop has all kinds of cool doodads, metal working gear, and sculptures in progress within its blast-proof walls.

·      The Oriental Theatre and The House of Blues: The Oriental’s auditorium and the VIP Room reserved for the high-ups and club members of the House of Blues offered some of the more “woah…this is pretty sweet!” moments of the weekend.  If you ever get a chance to see the VIP at the HoB, go!

Until next time, peace out!