Yes Jim James, Louis Sullivan IS God.

Photo Orange John via Flicker

So, this isnt' a post about food. It's kind of about Father's Day, even though it's a day late...go figure.

One of the things my Dad and I are constantly talking about...other than food...is music. He has an insane music taste and is always finding out these awesome bands which often become some of my favorites (Dexateens!!). In my Rock Star Job, really, all I do is sew and listen to music all day, and we are always finding/meeting new bands so my iTunes library has had a crazy growth spurt in the past few years. The good ones get passed on to Dr Karl for review of course!

Well one of my favorite bands is My Morning Jacket from good old Louisville, KY. Home to the Louisville slugger, the Derby, and Mo. She got me hooked years ago in Boulder and since then I have bought almost every album. I saw them live for the first time last year with Mo and our dear friends H&B, and let me tell ya. That band live is an amazing thing to behold!

So this year when they rolled through town again I was a little miffed because it just wasn't going to work out that I could see them. Until 5:30 pm the night of the show when my boss calls to say he has an extra ticket.

Yup.

And not only that, but they were playing in the Auditorium Theater which was built in 1889 by the firm of Adler and Sullivan. As in Louis Sullivan, my architecture boyfriend. Last year I read a whole book about his life and work that gave me back problems it was so heavy. I love him. (And hilariously enough I grew up a stones throw away from a Sullivan building.) The external ornamentation on the Carson, Pirie, Scott building is my favorite but his later works, especially the banks, are just incredible. The Auditorium Building is one of the largest Sullivan buildings here in Chicago and I've been meaning to get inside of it to check it out.

I mean look at this place!

Photo John Chuckman

Photo Dwell

I was actually sitting on this level over in the second section from the right by that beautiful painting of Spring.

Needless to say, it was an incredible concert. And I felt so damn lucky to experience it. There was a moment where, before starting one of their softer acoustic songs, that Jim James the front man began to talk about the architecture of the Auditorium. There are these huge arches that go above the audience which are covered in ornament and exposed old time-y light bulbs and he asked them to turn off all the spot lights and just leave on the "golden rainbow". It was like being under the stars. They played the rest of the show with the ring of lights and it was too cool. Oh wait, was that a Souldier strap Mr. James was wearing on his acoustic guitar WHILE THAT AWSOME SHIT WENT DOWN?!?

Photo XRT

Yup. My life is ridiculous. As is his hood. But we'll let it go. He is a guitar God after all...

Of course the first person I needed to tell about all this was my Dad. We gushed and enthused about the righteousness of Southern Rock and Modernist architects. And steak. And then the next day I get this in my Gmail:

(on the Auditorium...)....the sweeping segmental form of the auditorium's ceiling is so rooted in the Roman baroque classicism of Borromini and Bernini...the wall surfaces enlivened with pattern and form recalling the Roman imperial 'baroque' of Vespasian through Hadrian...Sullivan turned the actual vocabulary of the classical detailing on its head but kept the overarching structures of traditional Western form...amazing, and the integration of incandescent lighting into both detail and structural design is so Modern, capital 'M' :^) Love that Louis Sullivan!!!!!!!!!

If that isn't 100% Dr. K I don't know what is. Love it! And I actually understood most of what he was saying (need to look up this Borromini dude) which is a little scary. But it was just a great culmination of how all this awesome stuff is in my life, a lot of it because of my Dad and who he is. So there ya go. Happy Fathers Day everybody!