yesterday i was lucky enough to visit the merchandise mart downtown for art chicago 2008's "artropolis" event, which featured 180 international galleries and pieces by thousands of different artists. i wandered and wandered, though in the hours spent there i covered probably half of what was shown. there was a lot of incredible art, and some i didn't so much see the merit of. most of the pieces came with price tags of $500,000-$1.7 million. got a giggle out of that.

it would have been a perfect event had not all but 5% of the people there been infuriating snobs. only 3 gallery owners, out of the 50 or so i passed, lowered themselves to smile or talk to me. i had never heard so many fake accents in my life, though barely anyone spoke or discussed the art they were looking at except for myself and my father, who came with me.

we ended up leaving early just to get away from the overwhelming aura of self-importance, and watched a puppet show outside being given by a guy on a bike (puppetbike.com!).

that show, i think, was my favorite piece of the day.