⁣A prelude into the Chosen Few weekend of awesome house music by legendary DJs. It's House Holiday Weekend in Chicago for some, not Independence Day.

⁣In memory of Tina Davis, I’ve created a 23-minute video/picture collage to illustrate a transformation she underwent during a time in 2016–2017 when she and I became roommates.

While running along Chicago's lakefront, I stopped and asked a guy which is the best pizza, deep dish or flat (flat, it's a NY thing)? He chose the wrong favorite pizza, see what happens next.

While waiting on service in Home Depot, I decided to keep myself stress-free and occupied. It worked.

⁣Herstory is a moniker for female dj's in Chicago, playing a blend of music from different genres.

Herstory is a moniker for female dj's in Chicago, playing a blend of music from different genres.

During summer in Chicago, once per month at noon, the well-respected Chosen Few DJ's set out to share the love of house music with the people.

A foam roller has substantial benefits for a healthy spine or relieving stress.

Each summer in downtown Chicago, the Chosen Few DJ's long purveyors of house music for over 30 years, provide a lunchtime set for people of all races. Not to mention, they are also promoting their world-class picnic in July (each year) in Washington Park on Chicago's Southside. I'm dancing with my friends Tina and Tracey,

Caring for succulent plants to pruning palm trees is a laborious task, so while listening to music, in the sun and balmy temperatures, I might as well break out into a dance.

Each full moon of the month, drummers gather underneath the Montage Hotel and Resort in Laguna Beach, CA to let the spirit flow.

Progressive house music at the Wise Owl Tavern on Morgan Street, Chicago.

Phat Drum Circle of Long Beach, CA meets every Sunday during the Summers on the beach near Ocean Blvd and Junipero.

I decided to stop in the Guitar Center in El Toro, CA and spend a few minutes warming up before a big show later in the week.

⁣For more than three decades, house music has been as synonymous with Chicago as Lake Michigan... It is only because of house heads that it continues to exist! Wherever you go in the globe, House Music has made an indelible impression on the musical landscape. My friend Tonya and I are having a blast!

DuSable Musuem African Fest 2015

⁣The DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago has presented the annual Arts & Crafts Festival since 1974. Each year, over the second weekend in July, local artists and craftspeople exhibit works that relate to AfricanAmerican history and culture.

Historical Background

The DuSable Museum of African American History is the first and oldest museum in the nation devoted to African-American cultures. In 1961 a group of Chicago artists, among them artist and educator Margaret Goss Burroughs and her husband Charles Burroughs, founded the museum. The museum site was the Burroughs's home, a mansion that had once been a boardinghouse for black railroad workers. First called the Ebony Museum and later named the Museum of Negro History and Art, it was designed to present black history and culture, which were only slightly or never included in most museums and educational institutions of the time. The museum was again renamed in 1968, after a black Haitian fur trader, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable (1745?-1818). Historical accounts indicate that DuSable was the first non-native person to settle in Chicago.

After the Chicago Park District granted the museum use of a former administration building in Washington Park, the DuSable Museum of History and Art moved to that location in 1973. It became a memorial to DuSable and a home for permanent collections of such items as African and African-American artifacts, rare books, slave documents, civil rights memorabilia, paintings, photographs, films, wood and ivory carvings, sculpture, and African masks and statues.

Creation of the Festival

In 1974, one year after the DuSable Museum moved to Washington Park in Chicago, the museum held its first festival with eight artists participating. Margaret Burroughs and Sophie Wessell were among them, and the two decided to organize an annual event that would allow artists to exhibit their work without juries or critics. In addition, young artists from Chicago schools would be included.

In 1984 the curator, the late Ramon Price, established a Purchase Award Program in which a panel of judges recommended purchase of outstanding works for inclusion in the museum's collection of contemporary African-American art. The collection is loaned for exhibitions at such institutions as the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, and Columbia College in Chicago.

Observance

The 32nd annual DuSable Museum Arts & Crafts Festival was held on the second weekend in July 2006. Like previous festivals, it was a showcase for local artistic talent. In recent years, almost 200 artists and craftspeople have taken part in the festival.

During the 30th festival, a special "claymation" workshop for children was held. Participants learned how industry experts mold figures out of clay, or a clay-like substance called plasticine, for animated cartoons.

Besides the Arts & Crafts Festival, the DuSable Museum also conducts celebrations of Juneteenth and Black Music Month in June.

I picked an early morning rise and visit to Chicago's Lakefront at 6AM, to have unoccupied space for a skate session.

⁣Wave Wall Wax, a FREE weekly summer series launched by Navy Pier, brings Chicago’s this incredible DJ culture to the lakefront at the Wave Wall Performance Platform.

DJs are the sound technicians that get the dance floor moving every night in houses, clubs, and festivals all over the world. Chicago neighborhoods and its diverse communities birthed house music and continue to create a melting pot of sound that can be heard all over the city courtesy of our local DJs. Be prepared to dance to the sounds of House, Hip-Hop, Latin, Soul, Funk, Global grooves and more!

In the mornings, while running along Lake Michigan usually I stop and break-out into a dance. On lookers are usually entertained by my enormous energy.

⁣The US premiere of the new Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit from creators of the blockbuster show in Paris seen by over 2 million visitors and still wowing crowds in Toronto, the US premiere of the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit will bring the art of Vincent to life in Chicago.

Experience art like never before – lose yourself in 500,000 cubic feet of flawless projections animating Vincent van Gogh’s oeuvre. Wander through entrancing, moving images that highlight brushstrokes, detail, and color – truly illuminating the mind of the genius.

You will be immersed in Van Gogh’s works – from his sunny landscapes and night scenes to his portraits and still life paintings. The installation includes the Mangeurs de pommes de terre (The Potato Eaters, 1885), the Nuit étoilée (Starry Night, 1889), Les Tournesols (Sunflowers, 1888), and La Chambre à coucher (The Bedroom, 1889), and so much more.

The exhibition is custom-designed to Chicago’s Germania Club – transforming the neoclassical into the magical.