Pizza and Picasso

I had a long but rewarding day yesterday, as I traveled to Chicago as part of an Honors Student Organization activity. For twenty bucks I got a round trip bus ride, admission to the Art Institute of Chicago and the special Rembrandt exhibit, and dinner. The Rembrandt exhibit was truly amazing. Due to the small size of most of the pieces on display, the usual special-exhibit space was filled with about 200 works. It took me just over ninety minutes to make it through, although I think I was more meticulous than most. The final two galleries were fairly empty, as people grew tired and sped through to the end. Upon exiting I met up with a fellow member of the HSO film society, and we adventured out into Chicago for lunch. We decided on a restaurant called Giornano's, and had quite an adventure looking for the place. We encountered a lot of misleading signs, locked doors, and mysterious courtyards. We found the place though, and boy was it worth it. I think I had the second-best pizza of my life (after MC's 2002 St. Patrick's Day gastronomic delight); Les and I split a stuffed pizza with spinach and sausage. I ate my half with difficulty, and Les had leave one of his pieces behind, much to our mutual despair.

Back in the museum, we toured for a few more hours, taking in Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon in the Island of La Grande Jatte, a handful of Monets, some interesting pieces by Hedri de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa set in the Moulin Rouge, and some more modern art, most notably a substantial number of paintings by Tanguy Yves. When we met-up with our group, we drove over to Ed Debevic's for a quick dinner. The place was loud, and their intentionally rude waitresses were less funny that they could have been. I can't really judge the food, since we, as a group of 45, got a fixed meal dinner, with a choice of hamburger, cheeseburger, veggieburger, grilled cheese, or grilled chicken. I had the chicken, and it was a simple, but tasty sandwich. The bus ride back was long (since I didn't want to nap so late in the day), but I through about 50 pages of Art History reading. All in all, it was a well-spent day.