Music That is Fun for Kids

No Need to Sit Still at Wiggleworms

By Victoria Scott

From the comfort of a mother's lap, all eyes and ears are on Ms. Abby's music and the dancing during their Wiggleworm class.

Shea Pettit, 15 months old, already has a tennis racquet, says her mom, Christie. "I was an athlete," says Ms. Pettit. "I know how to do that."

But music is another matter. "I have no musical talent," says Ms. Pettit. "It's nice to expose Shea in a way I couldn't."

That is one reason why, on Friday mornings, Ms. Pettit puts her daughter in a stroller and walks to St. Matthew's Church, 2120 Lincoln St., to join other parents and children for Wiggleworms.

The popular music classes for babies and toddlers have been offered by Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music for more than 20 years. This fall Evanston alone has 14 Wiggleworms classes, with others located in Chicago, Highland Park and Western Springs.

Up in the air ... or down on the carpet, children enjoy the rhythms and sounds at Wiggleworms.

The 16-week sessions, 45 minutes a week, are geared for babies 6-12 months and toddlers 12-24 or 24-36 months. There is even a class for Wiggleworms grads.

Class is minimalist and informal - children and their parents, a musician/teacher with an acoustic guitar and a large, empty room. Abby Rowold, Shea's Wiggleworms teacher, subscribes to the Wiggleworm view "that making music is for everyone." And, she says, "It is a lot
of fun."

A college theater major, Ms. Rowold had always played guitar and written songs. When she moved to Chicago in 1999, she took a job in the Old Town School store. Eventually she auditioned and began teaching Wiggleworms in
January 2005.

She finds her small students "so open to learning - they learn from everything they hear. They learn melody and rhythm, but not in a structured way."

A whole lot of wiggling goes on in Wiggleworms. While the circle of parents and children remains basically intact through the class, someone is always weaving in and out - crawling or careening from one lap to another, edging closer to the guitar or taking time out to climb on the pews at the room's periphery.

Class begins when Miss Abby picks up her acoustic guitar. She strikes a few chords, and 23-month-old twins Lilah and Amelia Ghannam start dancing. After six months in Wiggleworms, says their mom, Jennifer, "they know the routine and are really involved."

The routine, says Ms. Rowold, amounts to "a certain loose structure," shared by Wiggleworms teachers but boasting a lot of flexibility. Class begins with what she calls "sit and sing," a singalong with actions and guitar accompaniment. Next come puppet, or fingerplays without guitar; then children, or parents with non-walkers, get on their feet for "march and move."

Even the littlest people seem to love instrument time, choosing shakers and tambourines just their size for a noisy jam session. Each class ends with a good-bye song that literally bubbles with fun, when the teacher pulls out a wand and blows soap bubbles in the air.

More than one song singles out the children by name. "Wibblety, wobblety walison, an elephant sat on Alison," the class sings. Cathy Patyk, whose 20-month-old, Alison, is in daycare while she works, brings her daughter to Wiggleworms on her day off and especially "likes the social aspect" of the class.

Parents as well as children reap the social benefits of the class, says Tim Knuth. A stay-at-home dad who usually teaches in Chicago, he recently substituted in Ms. Rowold's Evanston classes. He notes that Wiggleworms often "ends up being a social event for parents," an antidote to the feeling of isolation many new moms and dads experience.

The Northwestern University grad says he had a chance to do music with kids one day a week and then realized "I didn't know anything about it." He enrolled in Old Town's class on making music with children and, since spring 2004, has been singing with the Wiggleworms.

In addition to old standbys like "I love my dog, my dog loves me/I feed my dog on the greenberry tree," Wiggleworms instructors keep everyone moving with songs like "Walkin' (then trottin', jumpin', giddyupin') old Joe/ You're the best horse in the country" or, from a Wiggleworms CD, "Bouncin' up and down in my little red wagon."

Frowns are few at Wiggleworms. Year-old Asher Eliason staggers around the circle, grinning ear to ear. Mr. Knuth observes, "He's kind of at the drunken-sailor stage of walking," which makes Asher's mom, Katie, and all the other parents laugh.

"I can tell Bridget likes it because she lights up there," says Anne Lesch, whose 13-month-old daughter just moved up from the 6-12- month class. In a world of high technology and oppressive expectations, Ms. Lesch says she finds Wiggleworms "a really nice idea - simple - back to the basics of singing."

For them the fun does not end at the classroom door. "We definitely bring it home with us," says Ms. Lesch. "We sing the songs in the car."

EYE ON EVANSTON

Summing Up

By John Macsai

During the six years I have been writing this monthly column the quiet City whose reputation was anti-development became almost too permissive, creating an ongoing building boom. In the midst of this, I am often asked which are my favorite buildings. I have revisited these close to seventy articles and selected the buildings I think the best in design. I did not include homes, remodeling or interior projects. I also did not include, no matter how outstanding, buildings completed prior to 2001.

Among apartment buildings, my all-time favorite is Optima Views by David Hovey, at 1720 Maple Ave., a faceted
high-rise of exposed concrete frame, blue-green glass, yellow-ochre balconies that, like a kaleidoscope, presents different views as one walks around it. I also admire Hovey's building at the corner of Davis Street and Sherman Avenue that gently steps back, with its orange balconies that, loved or hated, create a strong statement indeed.

817 Hinman Ave., by architect James Torvik, is my other favorite, not only because of its totally modern exterior, but also because of the beautiful interior spaces created by the designer.

Considering interiors, the imaginative and idiosyncratic apartments in the building on the southwest corner of Grove Street and Elmwood Avenue, by Charles and Aaron Wilson, top the list. The interiors here include remodeling and new construction. Any interior view one chooses is a serendipitous visual experience.

Among recent townhouse projects, my favorite is Monroe Court, at 1511 Monroe St., by architects Steve Beck and Scott Crone. The creative site plan and the simple red-brick volumes relieved by white panels and trellises, make this modest development unusually charming.

In the field of commercial architecture, the Border's store by Nagle Hartray Danker Kagan McKay, Architects, on the northwest corner of Church and Maple, stands out with its simple but sophisticated modernity and its handsome rounded-
corner solution.

The World Savings Bank (now Wachovia) by architect Carol Ross Barney at 2239 Howard St. is well designed, using materials imaginatively. Creative reference is made to the historic bankers, the Medicis, with the application of symbolic balls on the building like those of the Medicis on their family crest (the three balls are also universally used on pawnshops).

The commercial building at 622 Davis St. by architects Schroeder Murchie Laya Associates, demonstrates that a new building can fit into its historic context effortlessly. This one does just that with its tripartite scheme, immaculate detailing and handsome Mansard roofs. New buildings do not need to be modern; they need to be good.

My favorite piece of institutional architecture on the campus of Northwestern University is the Block Museum, facing Pick-Steiger Hall, with its beautifully proportioned and detailed transparent façade. The architect is Dirk Lohan.

Such a large number of distinguished buildings, as well as the ones I cannot list because of space limitations, is not a bad record. We could have even more if we
had an appearance advisory committee assisting our City Council, a committee I have advocated regularly during the six years of this column.

RoundTable Artist's Weekend Features Julie Cowan

Julie Cowan will be featured at the Nov. 16-18 RoundTable Artist's Weekend at the Frame Warehouse, 814 Dempster St. Ms. Cowan's work examines the built environment, the beauty in its abstraction and patterns.

"I often work from photographs, then I overlay pattern, so that a viewer may see the built environment in a different light, in varied color or in a conceptual way that might alter perception."

She says her goal "is to change the perception that the built environment that surrounds us is our captor. Rather, I want to uncover the beauty in the run-down storefront, the geometric perfection of the shadows and light on an apartment building, or the patterns in window repetitions. These realities, or ways of seeing, will cause us to be enhanced by the structures that surround us and offer us light and weightlessness, versus confinement and listlessness."

There will be a wine and chocolate reception for Ms. Cowan from 7 to 9 p.m. on Nov. 16 at the Frame Warehouse.

The Getaway Guys Go To...
Garfield Park

By Alan Barney and Neil Cogbill

For a great way to escape Chicago's grey wintry days, there is no better place to go than Chicago itself. The Garfield Park Conservatory, at 300 North Central Park Ave. in the heart of the city, is a vibrant, west-side gem, and it's free. Designed by the innovative landscape architect Jens Jensen, the Conservatory opened in 1908, and, with about 4.5 acres enclosed in glass, it is still one of the largest conservatories in the United States.

The Conservatory consists of six large greenhouses and two exhibition halls, with an outdoor, 12-acre "City Garden" on its west side. Visitors first enter the large Palm House and are carried instantly away to the tropics, with its towering palms and dense undergrowth.

Directly opposite the entrance to the Palm House is the Fern Room with its rock ledges, a seemingly infinite variety of ferns and the incorporation of water, both tranquil and rushing. Given today's obligatorysuburban "water feature" a la our backyard mini-ponds, the Getaway Guys had to smile about Jensen's much earlier and more convincing inclusion of water.

The other greenhouses are the Aroid House, Desert House, Children's Garden, and Sweet House. The Aroid House is especially interesting: Many common house plants are arums, and they and their relatives propagated in more typical growing conditions are of oftimes stunning dimensions. The lagoon in this house was stocked with some fair-sized koi, which children understandably find endlessly fascinating.

The visitor can wander outside through the Desert House (weather permitting) to the conservatory's open-air gardens.

Its City Garden, still under development, is a 12-acre environment emphasizing urban-friendly plantings. There is also a Demonstration Garden, best seen May through October. Back inside and to the south of the Desert House is a wonderful Children's Garden, scaled for youngsters, that offers activities that will help them learn about the plant world in an entertaining way.

The sixth greenhouse, called the Sweet House, is scheduled to reopen in 2008 and will feature plants that "tickle your sweet tooth," such as chocolate, sugar cane, pineapples, mangos and banana plants.

For now, there are still two large exhibition halls left to explore. The Show House is actually another large greenhouse between the Palm Room and the Aroid House. It features stunning seasonal horticultural displays along a meandering walkway, and - yes - another water feature. The other, Horticulture Hall, is north of the Show House, and may also exhibit seasonal plants.

Additionally, the Conservatory has been an exhibition venue for artists, such as Dale Chihuly and Niki de Saint Phalle; current special events can be found at www.garfield-conservatory.org.

Garfield Park itself has an interesting history. One of six parks authorized in 1869 by the Illinois State Legislature for the then perimeter of Chicago, it is the only one to change its name. Lincoln, Jackson, Washington, Humboldt, and Douglas kept theirs, and Central became Garfield, in honor of President James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881. The parks were laid out by William LeBaron Jenny (1832-1907), who had witnessed the massive reconfiguration of the Parisian park system in the 1850s and 60s and who collaborated with Fredrick Law Olmstead on the design for nearby suburban Riverside. Construction of the Conservatory's large glass enclosures was made possible by materials and techniques developed in the construction of London's Crystal Palace in 1851.

The Conservatory maintains a very nice gift shop, with botanically relative and tasteful (both literally and figuratively) items. It offers refreshments, including beverages, sandwiches and other healthy treats.

Getting there is easy: By car, the Conservatory is at Lake Street and Central Park (the very same one that goes through northwest Evanston). There is free parking on the south end (just north of Lake off Central Park). The CTA Green Line stops right at the Conservatory's entrance.

To really go green, bicycling is do-able even on some winter days. The route - McCormick to Kimball to Barry to Central Park - offers a healthy 11-mile ride from Dempster Street.

Editor's Note: The authors maintain a free website, getaway-chicago.com, which offers suggested outings to nearby destinations that are often overlooked, but of genuine interest and delight.

BOOK REVIEW

"The Tenderness of Wolves"

A Book Review By Sue Brooke

"The Tenderness of Wolves" by Step Penny is an extraordinarily beautiful novel about the Hudson Bay Company and the part it played in the development of Canada. The Company brought stability and order to the wilderness by setting up arrangements with local trappers, giving the security of pay in exchange for fur.

Silver pelts were eagerly sought in Europe, and the devastation of local Indians by the free flow of alcohol was only an incidental business cost. But if a rival trader offered a larger price for a fur, The Company had a way of reminding trappers of its stores of supplies and alcohol, open only to loyal traders. The Company ruled the area.

The story begins shortly after the Civil War, when furs are becoming depleted and company men are wondering how long The Company can survive. In the small town of Dove River the body of Laurent Jammet is found by the wife of his closest neighbor. Mr. Jannet was lazy and good-natured but aloof, and no one really knew anything about him. But he had been murdered and scalped, and rumors of his past re-circulated. He might have had something or some secret that someone wanted very badly.

His neighbors, the Ross family, probably knew him best. Their 17-year-old son, Francis, was friendly with him, and he went missing on the very day Mr. Laurent was murdered. In come Company men to investigate: Mackinly, the "gruff factor" from Fort Edgan; Donald Moody, relatively new to Canada for a year; and his half-breed voyageman, Jacob, who keeps Donald from being lost.

The local magistrate is Andre Knox, an honorable man with a wife and two grown daughters. Although he could have handled investigation, he appeared happy to turn it over to The Company. Nothing like this had even occurred in Dove River, although, years before the two young daughters of his wife's sister disappeared one day. With a third girl they had wandered a little too far into the wilderness. The third girl turned back, but the two sisters were not seen again. Trackers were hired and both parents spent the rest of their lives and every penny they had searching for them. But either the wolves got them, folks believed, or they were taken by Indians.

As the investigation develops, the lives of all these characters become intermingled, and the novel becomes a story of the strengths of these people. Many were Scots who had come to Canada for adventure or fortune. Norwegian convicts had been brought over by The Company as cheap labor. Others were French. Most were survivors who had conquered hardships.

The northern pioneers come alive as they cross a breathtakingly beautiful landscape, searching for truths. "The brightness makes my eyes water, and I am dazzled, not just physically, but awed by this enormous, empty purity. We pass bushes whose branches contain cobwebs of spun snow, and modules of ice that catch the sunlight and split it into rainbows. The sky is a burnished, metallic blue; there is not a breath of wind, and there is no noise at
all, of any kind. The silence is crushing."

The writing is beautiful, the plot compelling. And the wilderness is so vivid readers can almost feel the cold.

A Visit to the USGBC Greenbuild Conference and Expo

By Ellen Rockwell Galland

From waterless urinals to personal heating and cooling units for office workstations, the United States Green Building Council Expo ranged greatly in the products and services of its exhibitors.

The Expo held last week at McCormick Place was one of the largest ever held. Far more than the 20,000 registrants showed up to examine the 850 exhibit booths. Many of the attendees were business people who want to be part of this new direction of the building industry. Former President Bill Clinton was there to give the plenary address and to promote the Clinton Climate Initiative.

Many of the businesses and services at the Expo related directly to the emphasis on green materials and systems that the USGBC LEED program for rating buildings has generated.

The success of the LEED program, said Sam Borgeson, a graduate student in building sciences at UC Berkeley, has to do with its credibility with businesses and corporations.

The fact that the process is cumbersome is reassuring to them, he said. It convinces them that the investment they make in green building has long-term value. LEED also gives the building owners and their tenants a status that can help their images and therefore, hopefully, their profits. (For more information about LEED, see the article about LEED for existing buildings on the RoundTable website, evanstonroundtable.com, in the Green Column archives.)

Carolyn Brzezenski, formerly a building official with the City of Evanston, said she was impressed with the range of products and services exhibited. She noted that the businesses present at the Expo ranged from "upstarts" to sophisticates.

Ms. Brzezenski said one effect of the LEED rating system on businesses is that most now make sure that their products include a percentage of pre- and post-consumer recycled content. And a part of the process is that manufacturers hire consultants who work with chemical engineers to ensure that the documentation required by LEED can be met. She said the USGBC Expo is an example of all boats rising with the tide.

Bob Fisher of Evanston Lumber Company, touring the many lumber displays, said most of the companies and their products are now certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). His company had delivered its first load of FSC-certified lumber to a job site in Evanston that morning. In addition, he has applied to the FSC for "chain of custody" certification.

FSC means the wood has been grown and harvested using sustainable forestry practices. "Chain of custody" is the process of tracking and recording the possession and transfer of wood and fiber from the forests of origin through the different stages of production, to the end user.

Mr. Fisher said that his company is pursuing all avenues to provide its customers with sustainable products. He said he welcomes suggestions on green products his customers would like him to carry.

Waterless urinals were displayed at many booths. At the Kohler booth, a company representative explained to several people how the "waterless urinal sealing liquid," a sealant with a vegetable-oil base, allows the urine to pass through while preventing odors. The challenge to using this system seems to be to educate the maintenance staff not to put other liquids into the urinal.

At the Sloan "restroom solutions" exhibit, it was possible to enter a drawing for a photovoltaic backpack, capable of charging one's cellphone. These have become a popular item on college campuses.

A solution to office thermostat wars was displayed at the Herman Miller booth. In addition to recyled-content desks, keyboard trays and other work-station items, Herman Miller's "Be" collection offers a personal heating and cooling appliance. Its small-scale and attractive design make it an improvement over the improvised but probably less costly hardware-store solutions to this problem.

Patsy Welch, formerly of Evanston and now of Prairie Crossing, who was helping out at the RateItGreen booth said sustainability needs to be mainstream, "not just a group of people in the corner talking about green things."

Georgia Pacific promoted its mold-resistant exterior sheathing and paperless interior drywall to address the increasing attention being paid to molds.

Haworth had on display the model of its new headquarters in Holland, Mich. Diane Haworth said that achieving LEED certification for this building pulled together constructively the people working on the project. Among the features of the new building are "raised floor" systems for delivery of the heating and cooling air, as well as LED desk task lighting (also at the Herman Miller display). Haworth, a furniture manufacturer, makes the Zody chair, an ergonometric office task chair that is made of up to 50 percent recycled content and is recyclable at the end of its life (supporting the "cradle-to-cradle" concept which was introduced by the architect Bill McDonough.)

Of interest to Evanston birdwatchers was a conference session called

"Greening a Country: Taiwan Goes Green." Designers of highrises in Taiwan have studied how best to configure their buildings to protect the large numbers of migrating birds. Speaker Lin Hsien-te of National Cheng-Kong University said using the building shape to create a semi-open, partially protected area, rather than a rectangular block, works the best. He noted that 1 billion birds die in America every year because of the glass walls of our buildings.

Jumping on the green bandwagon were "coal-combustion products" and a group promoting the idea that vinyl and pvc may be sustainable.

On display at the Lucid Design Group's booth was an entertaining and educational web-based technology called "Building Dashboard." It "renders the environmental performance of buildings visible, engaging and easily, interpretable in real time." It is an example of how monitoring a building's performance can encourage users to reduce energy and water use.

Among the many students present at the Expo was a group from the Center for the Built Environment at UC Berkeley. They were possibly among the more sophisticated attendees, since their center works with "a consortium of leading building-industry firms and organizations committed to improving the performance of non-residential buildings." According to their center's brochure, these students learn about and research the "new technologies that allow today's buildings to be more efficient and responsible to occupant needs than ever before."

A bottom-line question is always how many of the products and services displayed are readily available and affordable. Since exhibitors pay a lot to be at Greenbuild, it would seem that these businesses and services are seriously committed to improving their presence in this new market.

For a list of the top ten green building products visit www.evanstonroundtable.com.

FILM REVIEW

"No Country for Old Men"

A Film Review By Joe Linstroth\

After a couple of light-hearted (and lackluster) films, the Coen brothers reassert themselves as elite filmmakers with their spot-on adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's haunting novel "No Country For Old Men."
Set in 1980, "No Country" follows three men and a satchel of cash through the rugged West Texas hinterland. While out stalking antelope, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the fly-ridden corpses of about a half a dozen Mexican drug-runners and their petrified dogs, along with a pickup truck full of heroin and $2 million in cash. Llewelyn absconds with the money but returns later that night with a jug of water for the sole survivor of the gunfight. Following his conscience proves to be a grave mistake.

Llewelyn is smart enough to know that the men who lost their money will surely come looking for it, yet he is naive enough to think he can escape them. While being shipped off to her mother's house in Odessa, Llewelyn's frightened wife, Carla Jean (Kelly Mcdonald), asks him why he isn't sorry. "Baby, things happen," he says. "I can't take 'em back."

What Llewelyn does not know is that the man pursuing him, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), will never give up. Armed with a pressurized cattle gun and a sick sense of humor, Chigurh is the epitome of pure evil.

He stares at his many victims as if they are lab mice and dispatches them with a soulless grin framed by the locks of his Prince Valiant haircut.

Tommy Lee Jones is perfectly cast as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. Onscreen it looks as if the valleys in his face were carved by the same West Texas winds that shaped the surrounding landscape. As the film's moral conscience, Ed Tom is the only one who has a chance to save Llewelyn. A lifetime in law enforcement, however, has tempered any real hope he has of stopping the violence. "I think once you quit hearing 'sir' and 'ma'am'," he tells a colleague, "everything else is sure to follow."

"No Country" is a rare film adaptation that enhances the novelist's vision. The Coen brothers maintain the fierce pacing and riveting plot established by Mr. McCarthy, yet they also remain true to the Pulitzer-prizewinning author's commentary on society's moral degradation and numbness to senseless violence.

The soundtrack is sparse, lending a chilling silence to a story that requires no embellishment or foreshadowing.

The performances are certain to be remembered come Oscar time. With Chigurh, Javier Bardem has created the most memorable incarnation of evil since Hannibal Lecter. All three of the leads, Mr. Brolin, Mr. Jones and Mr. Bardem, need only to glare into the camera to expose their characters' thoughts, and when they do speak, not a word is wasted.

When "No Country for Old Men" continues past what would be the logical ending of a more traditional Hollywood movie, it is apparent the film is about more than just the telling of a great story.

"I always felt when I got older God would come into my life," Ed Tom confides to a former lawman near the end of the film. "He didn't. I guess I don't blame him."

Moviegoers looking for a tidy denouement best look elsewhere. "No Country For Old Men" offers no such hope.

Runs 2hrs., 2 min. Rated R for brutal violenceand language.