Flat Will visits Chicago!

He's a very busy guy for being 2-D.

Milwaukee Public Museum 2/5/11

There are creepy "historical" mannequins everywhere, including these terrifying children. The Mummies of the World exhibit was really cool though-the first time I've seen mummies from anywhere but Egypt or the Roman Empire. They had South American mummies that were so well preserved their skin still had color and their hair looked like a live person's.

Also check out the butterfly room:
Butterflies are everywhere, and sometimes they'll try to escape on people's clothing so there's a mirror to check yourself before you leave!

I will never love you more!

I just saw this little video on Racked. I love the song, the clothes, the guy...and especially the little story he types out during the video:

this is the story of a charming girl
she laughs out loud, sings off key and believes in taking chances
she is quick and curious and playful and strong
she lets her imagination run away with her
she has never been one to stick to convention
she is fond of daydreams that take her places
she can order a cocktail in six different languages
she feels that understated is overrated

This is how we roll for Hallooween.

Made a little trip to an apple orchard in Wisconsin and found some mini-gourd friends!

Starved Rock

We drove to Starved Rock State Park over Labor Day. It's in Ogelsby, IL, near Ottawa I think (?), around and hour and 45 minutes from Chicago. It was pretty crowded around the riverfront and the shorter trails, but people became more scarce as we hiked in deeper. They're supposed to be known for their waterfalls, although I guess those only happen after heavy rains, since everything was dry when we were there!

Chicago Botanical Gardens

Really beautiful, pretty large, and it's not too hard to sneak in booze. It's also free to get in, if you can avoid the $20 parking fee.

Ye Olde Renaissance Faire

The Bristol Renaissance Faire in Bristol, WI is faaaannntastic! I want to run away and live there. The buildings are all permanent so it's really realistic, and there are all sorts of people that work there and don't work there that dress up and "huzzah!" and just have a really great time being themselves in codpieces. I couldn't get enough of the babykids dressed in Renaissance gear-having the time of their lives or permanently scarred?

Memphis you sly devil

Not quite as fabulous and sparkly as Nashville, but I loved the streetcars, barbecue, history and of course GRACELAND!!

Color, color, everywhere and a helluva lot to drink

Nashville, you are fabulous, and I can't wait until we meet again.

Stripy Shirt HEAVEN!

I love stripy shirts sometimes more than my siblings (they're around a lot more), and I saw this link on one of my favorite blogs, A Cup Of Jo, today. Joanna has such great taste...there's also this online shop for die-heard stripe lovers for the real deal! An original Breton fishing striped shirt is definitely on my wish list. There's something about them that feels very French and effortlessly sophisticated.

Disturbing Genius

Scanned from New York Magazine

Edward Scissorhands was one of the first movies I can remember I considered being my favorite (a stark contrast to the other favorites of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid). From Frankenweenie to Batman to Beetlejuice, I love how his love of the grotesque and absurd and weird never wavers. Not only that, but the fact that he can get his ideas into widely-released films. The exhibit of his work is still going on at the MOMA in New York until April and it looks AMAZING! The exhibit website is pretty cool too....check it out!

West Bend! Who knew you had it in ya?

I hate you and I hate Valley Forge and I will NOT go!

I was reading Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live yesterday (he is amazing and hilarious and references the Quad City Thunder in the book BTW) and got to the part where he talks about visiting Macon, Georgia to see where the guys from the Allman Brothers Band died, and I realized that I had been to Macon and how hilarious my brother and I thought it was to yell "Macon Bacon!" the rest of the drive to Florida. It also made me start thinking about all the other crazy trips my parents took us on every summer and random places we visited. Such as the aforementioned Valley Forge excursion, where my brother hid in the back seat with a blanket over him and wouldn't talk to anyone because he was so mad that we were being forced to see yet another historical sight. There were a lot of similar events. I think I cried once because I didn't want to go see a crazy shirtless man wrestle an alligator in the middle of the Everglades. We definitely visited some sort of dinosaur/archaeology/bones dig place in Montana or something....banana trees outside the Alamo...buffalo blocking the entrance to public restrooms in Wyoming..good times. And my dad visiting the visitor's center at EVERY SINGLE PLACE. Even when we had been there before.

Maybe this is fodder for some sort of crazy-family-hilarious-memoir....or not.

The Archipelago

Took a cruise around the islands of/around Stockholm. They said that lots of people have their summer houses there and just commute during the summer. I also learned that the majority of the TV that Swedish people watch is subtitled American TV...and that some Swedish people sound Australian when the speak English. It is a crazy place with tasty herring and lots of very nice blond people. And there are totally a bunch of H&M's and 7-11's all over.

Ahoy, matey. How do you spell "matey"?

The Vasa Museum (or Vasamuseet which is way more fun to say) was super cool, basically this giant super-old ship that was preserved in it's entirety in the Stockholm bay. And it's in really good condition since it sank on it's very first trip....which is sort of funny, and makes me think about how many historical museums benefit from the stupid mistakes of the past. Anyways, the museum building itself was pretty cool, there were a bunch of different levels because the ship is so huge, and the building itself looks kind of ship-ish.

The last photo was taken in the National Gallery-they had this exhibit about exploring new ways to display art (as opposed to the standard pedestal/painting on the wall/benches in the middle look), like putting all these old busts together on scaffolding. Makes a little more interesting, like a big modern work of art made from little old statues. Good stuff.