Coo Coo

It has been a little coo coo around here lately.

Michael's Museum: A Curious Collection of Tiny Treasures, a permanent exhibit at Chicago Children's Museum on Navy Pier has been open now for one year, one month and a half. As a final releasing of the things of Michael's Museum, Mark from Chicago Children's Museum and I went through the storage locker one last time. I wanted to see what items not used in the current exhibit might be used in the exhibit at some future point, I also wanted to bring home any very important items which I knew would never show their face in one of the collections.

For example, as a Supernumerary (acting extra) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, I was a recently illegally immigrated Italian in the world premier of "A View from the Bridge," an opera based on the play by Arthur Miller. In storage I retrieved two gold framed pieces of memorabilia from that performance: in one a program autographed by everyone in the cast, in the other a program autographed by Arthur Miller with an opening night on stage photograph of the composer William Bolcolm, librettist Harry Weinstein, and author Arthur Miller. They are now hanging on my bedroom.

I also brought home three clocks that used to hang next to Gregory's mother's Grandmother clock in the museum when it was still in our guest room. Now, in our new guest room at the condo, all four clocks are reunited after over five years of three of them being in storage. One wall regulator clock chimes the hour and half hour with a beautiful voice. One larger coo coo clock, given to me by my friend Marla (RIP) who brought it home from a trip to Germany, opens it's coo coo door and the coo coo sings on the half hour and hour. In addition a group of four couples dance around the top of the clock to the alternating music box "Finicula Finicule" and "Tannenbaum." There is a smaller coo coo clock whose coo coo counts the hour and coos once on the half hour.

Finally last night, all four clocks went off at the same time at midnight. What a concert! What a cacophony! Wonderfully coo coo to listen to!