Joe Henry is not dead

Or, the Baseball Byways winter meeting.

Yorkville

Melvin, Watson and I met in Chicago to see singer-songwriter-producer Joe Henry at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Joe performed half of his new album, The Gospel According to Water. From memory (and not in this order) we recall hearing "Famine Walk," the title track, "Mule," "Orson Welles," "In Time For Tomorrow," "The Fact Of Love" and "Bloom."

He also played the title track from Trampoline (1996), "Odetta" from Reverie (2011) and for his encore, "Gentle on My Mind," the 1967 Grammy award winner made popular by Glen Campbell, and "Don't Let Your Baby Down" (John Prine, 1980). Of course, what mattered is not what Joe played but that he did.

The concert came about halfway through a long weekend that featured architectural tourism.

Thursday afternoon and evening

Photograph of University Hall by RW Sinclair used through Creative Commons license

University of Illinois at Chicago campus (Walter Netsch, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, 1965), in particular the Behavioral Sciences Building
Union Station (Daniel Burnham, 1925)
The Rookery (Daniel Burnham and John Root, 1885; renovated 1905, Frank Lloyd Wright)
Monadnock Building (Daniel Burnham and John Root, 1891)

the Monadnock Building is on the right in this 1907 postcard published by Detroit Publishing Co.

300 South Wacker (ESI Design, 2014)
Chicago Temple (Holabird & Roche, 1924)

Monk's Pub for supper

Friday
Melvin went to the dentist and I made a pointless trip to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), followed by toasted slices of an orange pound cake that Watson baked

Riverside, Illinois (Olmsted, Vaux and Company, 1869-1871)
Effigy Tumuli, Buffalo Rock State Park, Ottawa (Michael Heizer, 1985)

image of the water strider, one of five figures designed by Heizer, courtesy of Google Map through Creative Commons license

lunch at The Lone Buffalo Brewpub & Taproom, Ottawa; the English mild had a thin mouth-feel and was overly carbonated but the pale ale was well above average

exterior of the former Illinois State Penitentiary, Joliet
Joliet Iron Works Park

Joliet Iron Works Park

a pound of goat from Birrieria Zaragoza for supper and canned beer, including the outstanding "Figure it Out" from Middle Brow Beer

Saturday
more toasted orange pound cake, plus fruit
Farnsworth House, Plano (Mies van der Rohe, 1945-1951) via Yorkville

there is a ten dollar charge for interior photography

dinner at Band of Bohemia, accompanied by their beers; Keller in the Rye, The Noble Raven Ale, Plaid Camel and RootsBeer Stout
Joe Henry, opened and often accompanied by Birds of Chicago

Sunday
orange pound cake french toast, with fruit and bacon
more Walter Netsch, Northwestern University (1968-1977)

Northwestern University Library (1970)

Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette (Louis Bourgeois, 1921-1953)
Middle Brow Bungalow

Monday
CTA Blue Line to O'Hare
JetBlue to JFK
the AirTrain to the A train to the B41 bus to my mother's apartment to fix the clothes washer; sometimes a vacation ends like falling off of a cliff