Chicago, Christmas, Fine Art, Consumerism

Seasons greetings! After a long and exhausting journey back to Chicago from Frankfurt (well, starting from Detmold with the train), I walked into our lovely home just in time for Neil's surprise 18th birthday party, of which he had absolutely no idea of. Spending a night with Chicago styled-pizza, Deerfield Bakery birthday cake, real guacamole with real tortilla chips, Canadian peanuts, 7 adolescent boys and 2 charming parents was the perfect welcome home. I slept soundly that night and awoke the next day to attend a superb performance of the Western-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the Harris Theatre in Millenium Park. This group is a brainchild of Daniel Barenboim and the late Edward Said - a philosopher, activist, author, lecturer, and renowned scholar of the Arab-Israeli conflict - in attempts to unite young Israeli and Arab musicians so that barriers can be broken and dialogue can be generated. I was thoroughly impressed with their performance of Beethoven's Leonore Overture, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon + Orchestra, and Brahms' Symphony 1 - so much energy and character. This seems to be typical of Barenboim's various ensembles, all except the CSO. Mind you, I do believe the CSO is an incredibly fine orchestra; they just don't play with the same youthful energy as the Staatskapelle Berlin and Western-Eastern Divan Orchestra did. Perhaps this more serious style is a contributing factor to Barenboim's resignation from the CSO, although it is hard to say from the outsider's perspective. As for the encore, it was the Prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Generally, I don't enjoy Wagner as much as some, but I happen to love Tristan und Isolde - probably because it influenced nearly every major piece after its debut. It was especially important that this orchestra played Wagner, as he is quite openly known as an anti-Semite and a Nazi sympathizer, and his music has been virtually banned in Israel. I am glad that Barenboim is willing to see the beauty in music even though the values of this particular composer don't match up with those of Barenboim himself. It's not a perspective that many people can acquire so easily. The following Tuesday, I dropped my bow off at the William Harris Lee violin shop downtown and saw Tchaikovsky's famed The Nutcracker Ballet performed by Chicago's own Joffrey Ballet company. Interestingly enough, I'd never seen it in Chicago - only in Boston, done by the Boston Ballet. I really enjoyed the performance, although I did not appreciate some of my fellow patrons. People just assume that they can talk loudly during a ballet because there isn't any relevant noise coming from the stage to heed. It infuriates me, as part of the reason why I love ballet is because of its relationship to the music! Oh well - at least they support the arts. It's a piece that I'd love to play some day. On Thursday, Dec. 21st, I paid my old high school, Glenbrook North, a visit, along with my friend Jenna. We had a nice time visiting some of our old teachers, although I missed Mrs. Langer and Ms. Scholz, two of my favorites. Next time, I guess. Friday night brought on my father's Christmas/Holiday party for his office at our house. We cooked up a storm of Indian food all day long and carefully set the table with our best china, put together a wine bar, and even considering creating Doctor Pictionary as entertainment. After the night's end, we discovered that 1). Doctors drink a lot. 2). One must not serve pani puri appetizers if you want your guests to eat a full dinner 3). Little Polish babies named Jon are adorable. 4). School of Rock is a truly amazing movie (point 4 is actually just a reaffirmation of prior knowledge). It was a nice night. On Saturday, Neil and I did the grocery shopping for our massive Christmas meal, which involved buying from the local Greek supermarket in the neighboring and highly diverse town of Niles. We received many a funny look from the Greek storekeepers while asking for 2 lbs. feta cheese and "fresh grape leaves, not canned!", as though they wondered what the heck 2 Indian kids were doing in their store. Sunday brought 2 lovely visits to friends who really needed to see supportive and happy faces. Once was Seema Auntie, a woman whom I unfortunately don't know so well, but she's a Marathi friend of my mother's from a long time back. Auntie had two brain tumors and has endured a roller coaster of medicines and hence their reactions on her body, including unbelieveable swelling and increased weight. Her husband is such an inspiration - never losing hope, blaming her, or souring at however many questions/inquiries guests may have. Her mother came from southern Maharashtra (India) to take care of Auntie, and her son works somewhere in Evanston where he lives but designs cool video games as a hobby. Auntie's mother was a very sweet woman - she reminded me a lot of my own nanisa (mother's grandmother), with her typical Marathi gestures and facial expressions - very colorful. The second family we visited was Dr. Gandhi, or Ajit Uncle's kakasa (uncle - father's younger brother). Dr. Gandhi is a retired physician and former professor of medicine at Loyola Med School - he and his wife stay with their eldest son. Their lives have been reduced to much sadness due to family emotional distance and Dr. Gandhi's illnesses, but they remain in full spirits and are gracious hosts/good listeners to what young people have to say. It was refreshing to see them, and I think they felt the same way. I love that visiting others who are in some sort of emotional need for the contact (i.e. the homeless shelter, physically ailing friends, emotionally distraught family) has persisted as a Christmas time tradition for our family. It really makes you thankful for the gluttonous amount of food you eat the next day. After seeing The Good Shepherd (I really enjoyed the movie), Neil, Neetu, and I headed to the airport to pick up my dear cousin Deepa. She arrived the night of the 24th from L.A. Deepa is from Pune (India) but is coming to study for her engineering masters at the University of Southern California in L.A. and so she's now here from Dec. 24-31st for a nice family visit. After going to bed late, we managed to wake up early and started cooking...it lasted the entire day. We had a real Greek feast: horiatiki salad and tiropittes as appetizers, moussaka, yemista orphana, and dolmades as entrees, and louvia me lahana and mashed potatoes (Neetu's last minute insistence, much to my annoyance as it's not near anything Greek-styled), and honey-dipped cookies with mint tea as dessert. Amaeya's family joined ours, which was also a lovely way to spend Christmas holidays. Too much was eaten but even greater was the amount we enjoyed one another's company, with the bantering, joking, teasing, and laughter. Today, we became the real Capitalists that we are and ransacked the stores during the after-Christmas sales. Deepa purchased a lot of what she needed for L.A. and Neetu and I acquired some things, too - even Mom got something this time. Tomorrow, we have to head back for me, although I'm opting to practice in the morning while the three of them go at it again. It's an exhausting ordeal, shopping. Perhaps that's why I only do it about once a year. Neetu made the interesting point today of how when one shops in the U.S., no matter how much you buy, you honestly don't feel like you've found/bought anything. The sheer size and selection of material purchases is just overwhelming. I agreed, saying that I know I tend to buy less in Germany because of the Euro's expensive rate but also because I just don't desire anything there. The markets are more limited in Europe, and I think it's somewhat a good thing - it reduces the amount of materialism we perpetrate in our society. Later on during dinner, Dad quoted Sir Winston Churchill, with, "We are turning over India to men of straw, like the caste Hindu, Mr. Nehru, of whom, in a few years, no trace will remain." It sparked quite a discussion about the repercussions of WWII, India's position in the world today, frustrations over how the U.S. always played Pakistan as the favorite for political aims, the importance of staying open-minded while studying abroad (Deepa is in the same exact boat as me, except she's studying abroad in my homeland), etc. Overall, I'd say this has been one fantastic break. I'm getting more comfortable here, after 2-3 days of awkward adjustment and even initially missing Germany. Now I know that I'll just be missing Chicago when I board the plane. We seem to always want to be elsewhere, don't we? Drat human nature. Happy New Year to everyone!