Last night, I went to go see Remembering Fela, Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 with my family and some friends. This is part of the incredible Music without Borders series at Milllenium Park. I would highly recommend going to see a show the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. The space is beautiful and very open and it is a perfect meeting place for a summer outing with a group of friends and family. Kids of any age would enjoy this setting. Last night, I saw babies carried in their baby bjorns, toddlers dancing, and kids blowing bubbles. I didn’t see one tear the whole evening as I walked through the crowd. You can even bring your own food and and drinks or buy food there. The shows are free and Millenium Park is easily reached by train so you don’t have to pay for parking. As I listened to the music and watched people from many diverse cultures dancing, I couldn’t help but think that this is what would happen if the Hot House met Ravinia.
There are a bunch of really exciting kids music events this weekend. I’m especially interested in the Belmont Art & Music Festival where you can get the chance to not only see our own Little Miss Ann in person, but also Karen Banks-Lubicz, Mary Macaroni and Stacy Buehler. I also want to see Erin Flynn and Lenny Marsh at the Notebaert Nature Museum again. This is really a unique event that is worth making the time for.
Saturday, June 23rd
10:00 am – 11:30 am Karen Banks-Lubicz at Winnemac Park (near playground SW corner of park), 5100 N. Leavitt St
11:00 am Erin Flynn and Lenny Marsh at the Notebaert Nature Museum Cicada Sing-Along with songs and games all about the 17-year cicadas set to emerge in Chicago this summer. Children will build their own instrument to sing like cicadas and learn about the lives of these fascinating creatures. This program is free for children of all ages and their caregivers.
12:00 pm - 4:00 pm Joel Frankel at the Chicago HealthFest at Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park
Saturday & Sunday, June 23rd and 24th
Belmont Art & Music Festival Great family and kids entertainment from noon - 3:00. I’m not sure exactly who’s performing when but they say our own Little Miss Ann, Karen Banks-Lubicz, Mary Macaroni and Stacy Buehler.
Saturday, 1:00 pm Karen Banks-Lubicz and Karen for Kids
While you’re thumbing through the kids CD’s at the Old Town School of Folk Music, it could be easy to pass over “Karen for Kids” with its charming homemade cover design. If you do though, you’d be making a big mistake! This 20-song CD full of traditional and original songs is a gem for both kids and adults. Karen Banks-Lubicz is a long-time Wiggleworms instructor at this legendary school and a popular performer throughout Chicago.
“Karen for Kids” is a family effort. Karen’s husband Carl plays various instruments on the CD and also recorded it. Karen and Carl’s daughter, Kayla helps out by singing a few tunes.
With a consistent loving vibe throughout and simple instrumentation, Karen has created an endearing CD. Karen’s voice is reminiscent of Carol King’s on “Tapestry”. Her take on some “untraditional” traditional songs such as “Bom Bom Biddy” and “Ally Bally” are done in a true folk fashion. The brightest spots are really Karen’s originals. They include “If I were a bird” (written with Amy Lowe), “Five Little Snowmen”, and “Back and Forth”. Armed with this CD, all can only be good in the world of parenthood.
This weekend is Taste of Randolph Street. If you have kids who are able to stay up late, there are some bands playing that the whole family might enjoy. Friday night’s lineup includes the Broken West, Stephen Kellogg and, at 8:30, Fountains of Wayne. All three acts are pop enough for music fans of all ages. We’re hoping to be able to catch Fountains of Wayne. I played a couple of songs and videos for my 9-year-old on the other day, and he liked them, though I wish we could have skipped the many upper-torso closeups in the “Stacy’s Mom” video.
Local band the Changes play early on Saturday, at 5:30. This would be the perfect musical accompaniment to an al fresco dinner. The Walkmen play at 7:00, and the Smoking Popes play at 8:30, for those with little sk8er boys or girls.
Sunday afternoon there’s a Baby Loves Disco set at 2:30, and a treat for moms and dads of a certain age, Marshall Crenshaw. His set is also pretty early, at
6:30.
We are big Erin Flynn fans and we listen to Dreamer of Dreams at least once a day, so we were very excited about the Cicada Singalong at the Notebaert Nature Museum. As it turns out, the event was even more wonderful than we expected. This time, I remembered my camera and battery. I wish I had a larger memory card, because I would have recorded more of the event.
For those of you who aren’t from the Chicago area, the 17 year Cicadas are up and about, even though you don’t really see any in the city. Interesting information from Wikipedia that mentions insects and prime numbers:
The Magicicada goes through a 17- or occasionally 13-year life cycle. These long life cycles are an adaptation to predators such as the cicada killer wasp and praying mantis, as a predator could not regularly fall into synchrony with the cicadas. Both 13 and 17 are prime numbers, so while a cicada with a 15-year life cycle could be preyed upon by a predator with a 3- or 5-year life cycle, the 13- and 17-year cycles allow them to stop the predators falling into step.
The event is hard to describe. I think it was more “interactive educational kids theater” than a singalong. Erin had the kids act out the life cycle of the Cicada while she described each stage of the Cicada’s life in song. What is amazing is that it completely worked. The kids loved it, the songs were amazing and everything just flowed. Erin just seemed to connect really well with the kids. She was never condescending and the kids really seemed to get what she was talking about. I wasn’t sure how much my 2 year old really absorbed, but then this morning when youtube finally finished processing my videos, she exclaimed, “I want the Timbales song”.
On Sunday, our girls woke up from their naps 30 minutes earlier than usual at 2:30. My husband and I looked at each other and said, “I bet we could get down to Printers Row for the Justin Roberts show at 3:00.” We ran around, piled in the car, parked illegally and made it to the show only 10 minutes late. We have Justin Roberts’ “Meltdown” CD and listen to it quite a lot, but we’ve never seen him live before. In all our rushing, I forgot my camera, so no video (again).
As expected, the show was a terrific amount of fun and Justin Roberts was even better live than on his CD. Lots of the kids knew his songs by heart and everyone danced and sang. He really seemed like a friend and you could tell the kids thought so too.
I took my daughter to go see the World Premiere of the Chic-a-go-go movie.We got to Schuba’s a little late.I missed the red-carpet reception and Miss Mia completely.We got there just in time to see the end of the dance party.There was a jolly crowd of about 30 people eagerly awaiting the movie. One of the producers of the show, Jake Austen, commented that “85 percent of the people in the crowd were in the movie” The movie opened with a hilarious kids music video about nutrition done by the Goblins.After the Goblins video, we got to see about 5 minutes of the movie before the sound went out.Jake Austen tried desperately to fix it.After about 20 minutes, my daughter and I left. Too bad because what I saw looked really good.
I am happy to welcome Ann Torralba as a contributor to this blog. You may be familiar with Ann as Little Miss Ann and from her fabulous CD. We are very lucky to have Ann as a contributor and already her first post is on the way.
