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It was a weekend of high culture: a lovely wedding in Grant Park (not mine) and a fabulous CSO performance in Millennium Park that featured Savion Glover tapping the Duke Ellington suite, River. It was also a weekend of rock culture: the ever-so-awesome Hideout Block Party. My only gripe: The sound for Brit band Bloc Party (who played the Block Party) was pretty weak; having seen them a few months ago at the Congress, I can attest what a strong live band they are. That didn’t so much come across, but, heck, it was still great.

Now I’m off to Europe for a three-week sejour in Italy and France. Check back for…

Lunched yesterday with Jason Palmquist, the new executive director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He joked about having successfully survived his first 100 days at the helm of the contemporary dance company, a Chicago institution that has, of late, been rocked with major changes (the departures of its longtime executive director and second company directors, retiring dancers, etc).

Arts administrators are an interesting bunch (and, no, that’s not a joke). The successful ones are fluent in the language of balance sheets and budgets; but they have to speak a creative language too. It looks like Palmquist has the background required to do both:…