I've had a pretty full summer. This evening, I went to my second concert in Millennium Park of the summer. It was incredible. I need nights like this every once and a while to recharge my battery. The program was the Chicago Dancing Festival. I'd never heard of it until I read a little notice in the paper yesterday about the concert. Several major dance companies were involved, including the Joffrey, ABT, Alvin Ailey, and San Francisco Ballet. The Joffrey danced one of their signature pieces, Light Rain. It felt longish, but was very well danced. I'd seen archival recordings of the piece, but never seen it live. Now I understand why it's one of the old warhorses of the company.

I was absolutely blown away by Ballet Florida. I was a little puzzled by their inclusion in the program until I saw them dance. WOW. They danced a Lar Lubovitch piece that I'd never seen before, Elemental Brubeck. I love Brubeck and became a Lubovitch fan tonight. The solo reminded me a bit of Jerome Robbins's work in the 60s. The soloist, Rory Hohenstein, possessed the ease, fluidity, and grace of Gene Kelly, as well as incredible athleticism. I believe he was on loan from the San Francisco Ballet. I wonder how Mr. Hohenstein performs classical ballet. He danced with SF as well, but their Concerto Grosso (by Helgi Tomasson) was another modern piece. I guess I'll just have to see them again. They were absolutely stellar, completely reinforcing all of the excellent things I'd heard about them. How lucky those San Franciscans are, with their ballet, symphony, and opera companies!

Even though I have a fairly full season planned with all of my operas, I think that I'll through some dance into the mix. I don't know why I have to keep discovering dance as a part of my entertainment sphere. Maybe because I wasn't raised with it.

In addition to all of this cultural enrichment, I've been reading all of the new knitting magazines. It's time to start thinking about woolly sweaters, apparently. The first to arrive was Vogue Knitting. Their anniversary issue was very glossy, but I was not inspired to knit any of the projects. The articles were excellent, but I think of knitting magazines as the fiber equivalent to Playboy: I don't buy them for the articles. The Fall Interweave was already sold out when I headed down to Loopy to scoop up a copy. They were all sold the afternoon that they arrived! I love all of the cables, as well as the simple red cardigan in moss stitch. Cast On and Knitters arrived today. Cast On was a total bust. I like the Weekend Gem, but the sizing is wonky and frankly not worth resizing. Knitter's was much better. There's a great article about multi-generational family yarn companies. I learned about Colinette's history. The only pattern that I would consider knitting from the magazine is Copperplate Raglan, a cabled cardigan with portrait neckline designed by Deborah Newton. I question the amount of ease in the pattern, since it's not the kind of cardigan you'd wear over something. Well, that's what decreases are for. It's not as though I'm going to get a ticket from the Knitting Police for making mods to the pattern.