NARAS Dinner play-by-play (sort of)

Pete and I were invited to attend the Chicago chapter National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences dinner last night. Shure is a sponsor of the academy and of the event. The NARAS are the Grammy people. Here's Pete in the lobby for cocktail hour. The event was held at the Hyatt Regency downtown.
Here are Beth and I, pregnant as can be, drinking cranberry juice and Sprite. I really much prefer a pregnancy photo that doesn't include my backside. I swear it doesn't look this huge in pants. Did I mention I had maternity pantyhose for the event? Also, there seems to be a strange reflection or light-glare-spot or something right at my bellybutton. I'm not sure what that's all about.
Here's the stage. Our table was in the front row, about three tables to the right of the stage.
Here's dinner. The menu is there next to my salad if you want to try to read it. It was very yummy. The dinner was a chicken roulade with dried fruits in it, and a beef rib and a little potato triangle thingy. Dessert was ginger creme brulee, though I couldn't figure out where it had been bruleed.


Bob Sirott, local long-time radio and television personality, was the MC of the event.
Being honored were Joe Shanahan, Cheap Trick and Kanye West. Shanahan is the founder and owner of Metro, the big rock club downtown (in the Wrigleyville area) which always has great shows. Metro is now (I presume since CBGB's was pushed out) the oldest, largest, still-independently owned rock club. Or something like that. Anyway, he's a pretty cool guy who's helped a lot of bands from REM to Smashing Pumpkins. They had the Chicago Children's Choir sing for him.
Here's Plain White T's performing some Cheap Trick songs, with one of the Cheap Trick guys. I never remember their names. Part of the deal was that these groups and people were being honored for the work they do in giving back, especially to our local community. So that was pretty cool.
Here's Kanye West. Due to our angle from the stage, we could see best from the large screen in front of our table. He spoke for a long time (15-20 minutes?) and was very interesting and entertaining.
Here's a little bit of him talking about when he was asked to tour with U2 as an opening act. He was sort of talking about how most people didn't know who he was, and how he wanted to make his songs work for that venue and that audience. He's talking specifically about a song he has called Diamonds from Sierra Leone.


And this was a bit Pete especially liked (listen for his laugh) where Kanye was continuing to talk about being the opening act. He has just said something about how Bono told him no black person has been able to "figure this out" meaning working the huge venue, I guess.

This is Pete and I shortly before leaving. I had picked up my jacket again from coat check. I was so cold! It was a really fun evening with lots of interesting and humorous speakers. And very good people watching! I didn't manage to capture any images of white fedoras, purple ball gowns, beaded chin hair or hot-pink mini skirts, so you'll just have to take my word on that.
And here we are this morning at breakfast. It was an Egg Harbor breakfast sort of morning.