Excited for CHQ

I am getting so excited for the upcoming Chautauqua season!  Chautauqua was covered in snow last time I was there:

 

Emerson College Counter Protest

Currently, The Laramie Project is being performed at the Cutler Majestic Theater, which Emerson College owns.  Saturday October 2 there is going to be a protest against this performance by The Westboro Baptist Church.  Emerson students are staging a peaceful, counter protest.  I won’t be in Boston this weekend, but if you want to counter protest, you can stop by the Cutler Majestic Theater on Tremont Street around 2PM.

During the Supreme Court week at Chautauqua, Adam Liptak mentioned that the upcoming court case against the first amendment rights and this type of protesting is going to be closely watched.  I am anxious to see the outcome of the Supreme Court case since this is a highly sensitive issue.  Here is another recent article from CNN about The Westboro Baptist Church in the news.

4food

4food is a new Manhattan burger restaurant where staff takes orders on their iPads, while a 240-foot screen features live Twitter feeds and Foursquare check-ins. The menu includes a large list of ingredients where customers can customize their own burgers, and are then encouraged to tweet and use Facebook to boast about their experience.  Once the customer tweets about their experience, they can earn money towards their next purchase.  Not impressed yet? Supposedly, the menu offers more than 96 billion customizable burger options.  CEO Adam Kidron thinks that using social media proactively is the way to break through the chaos of NYC restaurants.  He says, “the idea is we’ll save somewhere between 8% to 10% of our gross sales, and that we’ll be able to spend that on better ingredients.  We’ve taken a gamble by spending it on the better ingredients in the beginning, so the social media has to work” (via CNN).

Also, Chautauqua Institution shout-out: There is a featured article on CNN today about Steve McCurry!

Last Weekend at Chautauqua

It really cooled down for the last weekend at Chautauqua.  These photos were taken around 8:30 AM when the steam was rising from the lake.

Summer at Chautauqua

Since returning from London, I have spent the majority of my time in Chautauqua, NY.  For me, Chautauqua is the most relaxing and interesting places I have ever been to.  I am lucky to be able to spend so much time up here, and I have really seen some great speakers/entertainers.  For those of you who do not konw anything about Chautauqua, check out their Facebook page and Twitter feed!  Some of the more notable things I have done this summer are as follows:

• Listening to the Superintendent for the Pittsburgh public schools, Mark Roosevelt, speak about where the education in the US is heading.
• Watching Loretta LaRoche perform/lecture on letting go of anxiety and worrying
• Attending a lunch-in for the Bird, Tree, and Garden Club at the Athenaeum Hotel
• Going to an informative dinner to help raise money for the Dennis Theater in Mt. Lebanon
• Learning to bake red velvet cupcakes

• Hosting an art show for the artist Oksana Zhurakovskaya

• Seeing many other excellent lecturers including Steve Sasson, Billy Collins, and Adam Liptak.

Sadly this is almost the end of the season.  The lake flies have returned, the temperatures have dropped significantly, and the hydrangea trees are almost dead.