What Happened? The World after the financial Binge. Green Revolution

Broadly speaking, globalization entered a new faster more ramped up phase after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The world economy opened up and the roughly 1 Billion actors in the financial systems in Europe and American tripled with the entrance of Russia, India, China, and Brazil. These new players know tenderly as BRIC smashed open the doors of the financial systems the world over. Breaking open the doors was akin to opening the flood gates and massive amounts of wealth followed. China and India excellerated global trading and unleash a freedom revolution.

The price of labor was forced down as billions of global workers entered the labor market and for a while from 90-2005 it seemed like "Inflation" was over.

Flash forward and history is repeating itself. All productivity surges in the past including the first internet boom end in revolution. This revolution is an green revolution battled by world economies over the energy crisis.

Thomas Friedman's new book Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why we need a green revolution and how it can renew America is a road map to the future. America will become increasing less important in the world, but mother nature will be front and center.

“Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That’s all she is.” You cannot spin Mother Nature. You cannot bribe Mother Nature. You cannot sweet talk her, and you cannot ignore her.

A quick guide to the museum, understanding abstract painting by Rothko and Kandinsky

The story goes that American painter famous for large scale highly charged emotional color field paintings, Mark Rothko was influences into emotional abstraction through discovering Wasily Kandinsky. Kandinsky was a Russian painter, poet thinker who imbued his love of music and color into abstract paintings of powerful composition. In this brief tour of the work of these two abstract painters we track how they developed, came of age and finally found their voice as mature artists. Interesting to note, they both had a similar style when they were young. Look carefully at the early work and you may be surprised at how they were on the same course even at a young age.

Rodney Graham at Donald Young-- The Final Show

Rodney Graham the Canadian born Art Star visited Chicago last night for the opening of his exhibition at Donald Young gallery in the West Loop. The exhibition included a large scale installation sculpture that was recreated from the Black Sabbath video paranoid from 1970. The large scale recreation was used by Graham during a music performance he recently gave.

The sculpture is in black in white because he re-created from old black and white footage of the band performing paranoid for Belgium TV. The new creation has the addition of a stationary bike that powers the gears and sets the over-sized sculpture into motion. The "Rotary-Psycho-Optican" is a little like a giant Kalidiscope. The whole structure can be broken down and fit into music crates used by bands-- a throw back to Black Sabbath.

Juxtaposed with an awesome light box that looks liked stills from a west film the whole exhibition was a jaring collision of eras and genres.

This is the final exhibition in the Donald Young space in the West Loop-- they are moving on up to Michigan Avenue.

Thomas Robertello had an opening that was politcally charged with a candy coated American Flag and a code orange jump suit. The evening went long at Robertello's after party with some awesome late night dim sum.

Obama was in the air and we played who would you rather-- Michelle Obama or Laura Bush. You make the call.

Hai Yen Food Review

Hai Yen
1055 W. Argyle Street
Entrees $8-$12

My grandmother owned a Vietnamese restaurant in Noisien, twenty
minutes outside Paris, where she would cook, and where mother's
family, my aunts and uncles, would help out. I remember tasting a
Vietnamese hoagie (banh mi) that that my grandma made for my mother
and biting into a spicy pepper. My mother rushed me to a water
fountain where I gulped down water while crying. I also remember
running around the restaurant--the upstairs storage area, where boxes
of clothes, old electronics and family photographs delineated a maze
of passageways, my own little city; the serving area, where I would
climb from table to table and ask to eat customers' food; the kitchen,
where I'd watch my grandma cook, where I developed my love of food,
where once I got upset at my grandma for not paying attention to me
and threw all her pots and pans in the garbage can so she wouldn't be
able to cook anymore. If I asked persistently enough, my grandma
would make me my favorites--banh cuon (rolled rice batter crepes), cha
gio (shrimp and pork egg rolls), bun rieu (shrimp, crabmeat and
tomatoe soup with rice noodles), and most of all fried banana with ice
cream.

Growing up, my family would go out for Vietnamese food in Philadelphia
almost every week. Whenever I eat Vietnamese food, it is always
measured against these experiences. Of course, for me, nothing can
equal my mother's or my grandmother's cooking. Growing up in the US,
my identification with my Vietnamese background is not very strong,
and the food I cook tends to be much more western. So whenever I
crave the taste of home, I head down to Argyle.

Argyle is home to a wonderful and extensive grocery store, where once
a friend of mine cooked a bountiful meal for four from twenty dollars
worth of groceries, as well as to many restaurants, most of them
family affairs, like my grandmother's. Among the many Vietnamese
restaurants in the area, Hai Yen stands out. The service is slow,
especially when they're busy, but it's worth the hassle.

Goi is a type of Vietnamese salad, usually made from papaya or
cabbage, which contains shredded carrots, onions, pork, shrimp, and is
dressed in lime, fish sauce and a touch of vinegar. At Hai Yen, they
also serve goi made from lotus root and banana blossom, both of which
are unusual and truly special. I also tried the banh beo, banh bot
loc, banh nam, all made from steamed rice batter with shrimp or pork
inside. They are Vietnamese street food, often sold wrapped in banana
leaves, which act as a preservative. Chao tom, shrimp wrapped around
sugar cane, was wonderfully meaty and sweet, another great appetizer.

For main courses, I tried the ga xao sa ot, spicy chicken with lemon
grass, a classic Vietnamese dish. The sauce was a bit sweet, and
maybe not spicy enough. I was surprised that the tom rang moi, salted
fried shrimp, was breaded, but the dish worked well, crispy, with just
the right amount of pepper.

The best place to get Vietnamese food in the US is still in
California, where areas with a dense Vietnamese population, for
example Garden Grove or Santa Ana, serve food that's almost the equal
of what you would get in Vietnam. Philadelphia and Houston also have
their highlights, but Chicago puts in a strong showing with its
offerings on Argyle street.

The Three Penny Opera at Steppenwolf

No more perfect time for this over the top highly charged politcal drama that breaks down the forth wall and egages the audience in total politcal submersion.

I was rocked off my chair which at the Hypocrits production of the Three Penny Opera in the Garage space at the Steppenwolf theater is litterall on the "stage".

The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a musical theatre revolution-- or a the theme song to the next revolution. Written in 1928 right after World War I in the midst of the German deep slide into facism by playwright and radical Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, is adapted from an 18th century English ballad, The Beggar's Opera.

The production by the Hypocrits is even better than the origanal script and I'm sure the Brecht is proud. No better time than the present to critique the down falls of Palin and Bush in a dress-- and the capitalist pigs on Wall Street who are greedily destroying the US economy.

See this musical before is closes!

UNTITLED # 3

Natalie Dessay in a top performance of Mannon

Natalie Dessay gives one of the great performances at the Lyric Opera in Mannon. Her range of styles is both impressive and awe inspiring. At first her sweet late romantic performance of farewell my little table ends the first act in a way that places her among the great French singers. In the thrid act, the highlight of the opera, Dessay opens up and gives it her all slicing open her heart and giving it to us in a beautiful performance of the dance Gavotte aria. This is a must see performance.
The last act is anti climatic but after two intermissions and countless surprising changes of signing style you can't help but jump for Dessay and wish that the opera where even longer.