Lollapalooza for families

I wanted to find out if Lollapalooza, which ran over three days, on eight stages and 130 bands is a good family/kids event. So I got my press credentials in order to get my brood in the high security event. Lollapalooza used to tour the country but due to sagging ticket sales it now only takes place in Chicago’s Grant Park. In 2006 it was August 4, 5 & 6.
Chicago Parent, my sponsoring press organization was not interested in running an article about Lollapalooza or Kidsapalooza. My editor said the price was too steep.
Tickets were $160 for the three days or $65 a day. Kids get in free.
I went alone on Friday to get my press credentials. Boy, did I feel old. Everyone seemed to be high school or college age.
First of all, my information on the location of the media tent was wrong and none of the security or volunteers knew where the media tent was. So I did a lot of walking to get my entry band. It’s good I left my kids with a friend they would have been very pissed off and tired with all that walking.
Finally I headed over to see Lady Sovereign the white, female British rapper. The crowd seemed to lover her. The song lyrics “Love me! Hate me! Fuck you!” were so angry and lame. But the crowd seemed to love her energy and adolescent rebellious spirit.
And what fun to go to a concert.
Caring for our kids didn’t allow us to go to the shows on Saturday.
On Sunday, between lunch and dinner we headed over, wading through crowds on the bus and in the streets. Again we were the only ones with kids and probably the oldest folks there. Made it to the Kidsapalooza area. Watched a break dancing demonstration, which the elementary school-age kids seemed to like,
Then we watched Asheba, a Putumayo label, artists. It was all very loud and my kids were clinging and stunned by the noise and activity.
We strolled around the activities while the amplified teen-agers from the School of Rock performed.
Thanks Kidsapalooza for the free ear plugs!
The children of our kids school yoga teacher, Adina Linker, won an electric guitar. They’re nine-years-old and they seemed psyched.
Finally, we joined the Drum Circle program. We loved that. It was our favorite. Facilitator/band leader John Yost is awesome! All schools should invite him to their event.
When we tried to head over to listen to Matisyahu the Lubavitch singer who fronts Dub Jamaicans, both of them praising their god, we were met with a sea of youthful humanity. The gravel laid in Grant Park made stroller pushing hard.
We turned around and called it a day. Our two boys, age 3 & 5 were hungry and tired anyway.
It was fun and I would definitely go back. Only in small doses, though.

School choice

Choosing a Kindergarten program for our almost five-year-old son Benjamin was agony for me.
We just moved into a weak public school district within our Hyde Park neighborhood. Lucky for us there are so many wonderful public schools close by. There are also great private schools.
It was our goal that our two boys be together to make our days easier. Our almost three-year-old son Yehuda can only go to Akiba Schechter Jewish Day School's nursery school.
It's Benjamin who has so many choices. I made pro and con lists for Akiba and Murray. We met with both Kindergarten teachers. I have to say this was a very hard choice. Both schools are great. But when Akiba gave our family more money to help us pay tuition, that tipped the scales.
I was influenced by the wonderful experience we had at the Bret Harte public state-funded pre-K program. We really connected with the other kids there, more than Akiba.
I don't want to abandon diversity, being with The People and public education. But the Jewish content was important to us too. I am hoping the smaller ratio mean a more active learning environment. Murray has 30 children in the Kindergarten. Akiba is expecting about 20, max.
Actually Benjamin had taken to saying when I asked him where he wanted to go to Kindergarten that he didn't want to go anywhere and just wanted to stay home with me and do projects.
He's a very social boy, very active and inquisitive.
We are hoping for a great year at Akiba.

HEAT WAVE highs and lows

Temperatures are reaching up to 100 (with the heat index.) Air conditioners are cranking day and night.
My two boys and I escaped the heat in the afternoon at the Blackstone Branch public library here in Hyde Park. They had a super-lame craft activity. I was considering going to Washington Park pool, a public pool, and even alerted the Parent Support Network to get some buddies there. But I quickly cancelled that plan when I was alerted to the fact that the filters weren’t working there. My informant was Bill Gerstein who we saw at the Noodles Etc. restaurant yesterday at lunch. He’s a neighborhood know-it-all. His family used to own Mr. G’s supermarket that’s now the Co-op on 53rd Street. He’s the principal at one of the South Shore High Schools – a very reliable source.
In these blazing hot days Bill and Hyde Park lap swimmer Susan Rosenberg inform me that Washington Park pool is “nasty, murky and warm.”
C’mon park district! THIS IS THE HEAT WAVE! Get your act together and help us get some relief here.
After a frustrating and sweaty hot evening with my two boys I biked over to the 57th Street beach. People were coming and going, hanging out, trying to catch a breeze. Strangely enough, Lake Michigan was ice cold. I could not go in beyond my knees. In fact I had to get out - although a lot of other people were cooling off in the lake.
There must be an explanation for the freezing temps in the middle of the summer.
“Water,” I want to tell the lake, “share your cool with the air.
“Air!” I will shout to the sky, “share your heat with the lake.”
A break will come though. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler. And rain is expected.