Dawn Xiana Moon: Intelligent folk pop with influences from jazz and traditional Chinese music. From Chicago.

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Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Destination Four: Chicago (Again)

On the 26th I played at the Bourgeois Pig, one of my favorite cafes in the world; Patrick and I discovered it in May last year when we made a spontaneous road trip to Chicago (see how this is a theme in my life?) because we were getting antsy being in Ann Arbor. I was surprised--the small audience that night was incredibly attentive (one of them and I had a great conversation after my set), and after Jeanne Kuhns and I had played, we turned the stage over to her son Eli for a song--he was wonderful (and the black fedora he wore made him extra cool).

After the show I had just enough time to make it to Java Jive, the University of Chicago’s weekly swing dance. And sure enough, I not only knew many of the people there, but when one lead found out that my birthday was the next day, the Chicago dancers followed time-honored tradition and gave me a birthday dance.

The next day couldn’t have been better. I was curious as to how the millions of dollars had been spent on the project, so Bryan, Jane, and I headed to Millennium Park and explored the perfectly smooth surface of the Bean--literally, a giant silver bean that is coveted for its reflective surface and provokes silly posturing from onlookers, who wave their arms wildly to find themselves in the reflected distortions. And the multi-storied digital faces that usually spit water, but were unable to fulfill their function that day. We took crazy photos everywhere, climbing on (and imitating) sculptures, dancing on walls, and we were satisfied with that we wandered over to Summerdance, a free Chicago event that hosts live music and dance lessons outdoors in various styles. So we learned how to do zydeco, and since there was a half-hour break between the lesson and the band, went in search of food between the two. Returning, Jane and I decided the blues-tinged zydeco was perfect for lindy hop, so we started dancing (the song was too fast for me to lead, so we quit midway through). Later I found out that a fellow lindy hopper’s friend pointed us out, saying, “You should ask those girls to dance--they look like they know what they’re doing.” He looked closely and responded, “Actually, one of them looks familiar....” Which was me. So I spent the rest of the night dancing with the small group of lindy hoppers that had come out and Bryan doing salsa (or in my case, faking salsa). CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band even played a slow blues song, just when I wishing for one (see, he’s telepathic, like every good performer).

Back in Evanston, ice cream from the Evanston Creamery (with its hilarious signs: “If you want something healthy, eat vegetables”) closed the night in lieu of flourless chocolate cake, which we weren't able to locate dispite Bryan's valiant efforts.

And the next day I was back home, the same house with almost entirely new roommates and moving across the hall so that my old room could become a double (we have one more person living here than we did last year, for a total of eight: four guys, four girls). For the second time in my life, I’m living in the real-life version of MTV’s Real World. Though this time instead of two Joes we have two Dans, and instead of a slum lord we have a med resident that I was content with last year. One week, over 1400 miles, and history really does repeat itself.

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