Paul Segedin

Posted on Friday November 23, 2007
After The Backyard Barbecue Stores "Grilling 101" class my notes are stained with red wine, Sangria, juices from pork tenderloin and chicken, and a dab of chocolate. I'm not naturally a slob, but trying to enjoy the wonderful meal prepared by instructor and chef Mary Winkler of Gourmet in a Day, while taking photos along with my notes, and hoping to pick up a few tips for my next cookout, strains my balance and abilities. Fortunately, not much else is expected of students in the class, ... [more]

Posted on Monday October 01, 2007
The Grand Canyon has changed since my first visit in 1992. It hasn't gotten appreciably deeper or steeper or wider. The weather can still be brutal and any hike into the vast gorge is challenging, strenuous, and requires at least some planning and thought. The views are still magnificent and the Colorado River continues to wend its way toward the Gulf of California. What has changed is the technology and information available to the hiker. While always a popular topic, the Internet and ... [more]

Posted on Monday July 09, 2007
Do you ever wonder what all those little buttons and dials on your new, expensive camera are for? Are you one of the few who have tried to read the manual that came with your camera and discovered that it was written by a person with less than a full command of the English language? Or are you simply interested in learning to become a better photographer? If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions, Mike Bessler can help. The co-director of BesPhoto Photography, Bessler offers ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday June 05, 2007
Chicago can seem to consist solely of pavement and buildings, parking lots and malls. It’s easy to miss that there are areas where nature still exists, perhaps not pristine, but fighting gamely against urban sprawl. One such place is the North Park Village Nature Center. Set on the city’s northwest side, the center includes an educational facility and a forty-six acre preserve that’s home to deer, beaver, fox, turtles, local and migrating birds, a rare oak savannah, a sedate pond, and ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday June 05, 2007
To learn about Chicago’s history one might do better than visit a library or museum, and instead take a stroll through one of our cemeteries. Rosehill Cemetery, for instance. Wandering through Rosehill’s sedate and wooded 350 acres one encounters names familiar to most Chicagoans. Rosehill is the final resting place of titans of industry (Montgomery Ward, Julius Rosenwald, Oscar Mayer, Leo Burnett) and politics (governor Richard B. Ogilvie and Nobel Peace Prize winner and Vice-President ... [more]

Posted on Thursday April 26, 2007
On a recent Friday evening my doorbell rings. At the door, carrying grocery bags containing beef short ribs, Asian pears, Japanese cooking wine, a large jar of kimchi, and a variety of other ingredients is Jason, chef and cooking teacher for I WISH, Inc. I unload the food in my kitchen and Jason heads back to his car for pans, knives, and the other tools of his trade. My father is also present, and within minutes the rice is cooking and we've commenced with our I WISH Asian Cooking ... [more]

Posted on Monday April 23, 2007
Upon entering the Pilates studio at Body Endeavors one can be forgiven for mistaking it for a torture chamber designed by Ikea. The leather straps, steel springs, myriad harnesses and loops, and ominously named equipment like "Reformer" and "Spine Corrector" might give one pause before enrolling in a class. But don't be intimidated! Pilates is, in fact, a gentle, if energetic method of exercise. Developed by Joseph H. Pilates, the training regimen has evolved over the last eighty years ... [more]

Posted on Wednesday March 28, 2007
Bill Dugan knows seafood. With a nickname of "The Fishguy" and a specialty market called The Fishguy Market, he'd better. As a purveyor of fine Illinois sturgeon caviar, golden trout, big-eye tuna, parrotfish, littleneck clams, and dozens of other fruits of the sea (or lake or river), Dugan's Fishguy Market services many of Chicago's finest chefs and restaurants. His Elston Avenue storefront on the city's northwest side provides a variety and quality of service that's hard to find in a ... [more]

Posted on Thursday January 25, 2007
My first meeting with Berthold Schwaiger was indirectly tied into my founding of this website. In 1996, I was looking for a woodworking class, having become enchanted by the medium following a visit to the American Craft Expo in Evanston, Illinois. The search wasn’t an easy one. Ultimately I discovered the Elston Woodworking School in Chicago and its instructor, Berthold Schwaiger. The search for the class would, several years later, inspire me to found a website – Classearch.com – and ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday January 02, 2007
Motorcycles play a diverse role in our country's popular culture. They can symbolize freedom and adventure ala Easy Rider or danger and thuggery ala The Wild Bunch. They appear in museum exhibitions ("The Art of the Motorcycle" was organized by the Guggenheim Museum of New York and has appeared at Chicago's Field Museum). Celebrities from James Dean to Malcolm Forbes and Elizabeth Taylor have proudly posed on their bikes. Motorcycles appear in song (Arlo Guthrie sings "The Motorcycle Song" ... [more]

Posted on Friday December 22, 2006
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood…" These words of Daniel Burnham had a major influence on his designs for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and later his dramatic 1909 Plan of Chicago. Another major influence on Burnham was the Swedish scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. emmanuel swedenborg Known as "The Swedish Da Vinci," Swedenborg's sway extended far beyond Burnham and Chicago. Helen Keller, Jorge Luis Borges, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and ... [more]

Posted on Friday December 22, 2006
Archeworks is a year-long professional program in alternative design. The program exposes students to problems that are not generally addressed in other design institutions. Founded in 1994 by designer Eva Maddox and architect Stanley Tigerman, the mutli-disciplinary oriented program pushes students to explore design in the context of social cause. The socially minded alternative to traditional design curriculum, divides the students into teams on which they work to design projects that ... [more]

Posted on Thursday December 21, 2006
The new ChicagoLearningGuide.com is here! Chicago's premier source for information on recreational and personal learning has a new look and greatly increased functionality. ChicagoLearningGuide.com is the flagship site of the Learning Guide Network. Beginning in early 2007 sites will be added in New York City (NYCLearningGuide.com), Los Angeles (LALearningGuide.com), San Francisco Bay area (SFBayLearningGuide.com) and many other cities. Subject-specific sites (YogaLearningGuide.com, ... [more]

Posted on Friday December 08, 2006
Most of us do and some still want to do it the old fashioned way: by earning it. While game shows, personal injury lawsuits, and Reality TV offer a means to untold riches, for those who prefer hard work, self-discipline, personal risk, and relying on one's own ingenuity, starting a small business is still the way to go. And for those people, SCORE is there to help. Formerly known as the Service Corps of Retired Executives, SCORE now refers to itself at "Counselors to America's Small ... [more]

Posted on Thursday December 07, 2006
Not many people would suggest that we are living in an age of moral growth. In a time of war, fear of terrorist attacks, gang violence, familial disintegration, crumbling health care and education systems, reality television, and ever greater widening of the gap between rich and poor, it's easy to argue that we are engaged in a mad downward spiral. Jim Kenney believes otherwise. The Co-founder and Executive Director of the Deerfield-based adult education center Common Ground, Mr. Kenney ... [more]

Posted on Thursday December 07, 2006
The parkways in Chicago's East Village neighborhood have been blooming and blossoming like never before. Groups of children pushing wheelbarrows, planting bulbs, seeds, and foliage, and generally helping to beautify the area have become a common sight in the near northwest side community. Much of this is the result of a remarkable effort by resident Jeanne Felknor. An admitted gardening addict, Felknor has taken the Build Urban Gardens (BUGS) course at Garfield Park Conservatory. She is ... [more]

Posted on Thursday December 07, 2006
It's spring. Time for trees to start budding, flowers to start sprouting, and serious gardeners to get down to the business of making things grow. This is what brings about two dozen students - some serious hobbyists and some striving professionals - to a bulb walk on a bright, but chilly April morning. The bulb walk - part of the School of the Chicago Botanic Garden's horticulture certificate program - leads the group through the institution's myriad gardens to view the many colorful, ... [more]

Posted on Wednesday December 06, 2006
Warmer days are around the corner. Perhaps you've started thinking about your spring break, summer vacation, or getting in a little skiing before the snow melts away. Many possibilities are obvious: Disneyland with the kids, hitting the blackjack tables and a few shows and buffets in Vegas, a week at the beach. These will be the vacation of choice for millions of travelers this year. There are other options, however, ones that might involve a skill other than the ones used to order your ... [more]

Posted on Wednesday December 06, 2006
Established in 1863 in the aftermath of the War of Italian Unification, the International Committee of the Red Cross was the chief force behind the development of international humanitarian law. Its original mission included providing health care to wounded soldiers and civilians, and providing information to families of wounded or captured soldiers. 140 years later, the mission of the Red Cross still includes rendering strictly neutral and impartial protection and assistance to people ... [more]

Posted on Wednesday December 06, 2006
Health clubs used to conjure up images of sweaty, muscle-bound men pumping iron and admiring their physiques in mirrors. More recently the health club has metamorphed into a virtual cathedral of health, with endless rows of treadmills and stair-climbing machines facing television sets, with loud, hypnotic music blasting in the background. Juice bar serving smoothies and other healthy drinks have become a standard features, along with climbing walls, massage therapy, swimming pools, and as ... [more]

Posted on Wednesday December 06, 2006
After sports, the circus has probably provided more of life's metaphors than any other activity. How many of us juggle the day's events, walk a tightrope, or like to clown around? These things do not have to be metaphors, and you don't have to run away to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's to learn how! Chicago offers a ... [more]

Posted on Wednesday December 06, 2006
For decades now, TV scriptwriters have portrayed health care practitioners as an exclusive club of white robe-clad, stethoscope-wielding superheroes. Whether the series features venerable white-haired figures like Dr. Marcus Welby (remember him?) or temperamental young colts like E.R.’s Dr. Carter, the drama will often revolve as much around the labyrinth ... [more]

Posted on Wednesday December 06, 2006
When economist Henry George died in 1897, 100,000 people marched in his funeral parade and another 200,000 filed past his coffin. Luminaries such as Albert Einstein, Clarence Darrow, Aldous Huxley, and Leo Tolstoy have sung his praises. Today, however, his philosophy of equal rights for all and the abolition of income taxes have been mostly forgotten. ... [more]

Posted on Wednesday December 06, 2006
The Feltre School refers to itself as "a grammar school for adults." Although the subjects taught at the Feltre School sound basic -- English grammar, composition, and mathematics -- they are designed for adults and are taught at the university level. Founded in 1992 by Robert Ultimo and other Northwestern ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
Chicago is a city of cultural gems - many of them more than a century old. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 gave birth to both the Field Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra goes back even further, having given its inaugural concert in 1891. Newer gems including the Chicago Botanic Gardens, ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
As a child I was dragged to a wide array of classes and lessons. Swimming, Aikido, piano, clarinet, singing, and Hebrew were all activities I participated in, some more willingly than others. While I never became particularly adept at any of these, I believe the routine did instill a lifetime interest in learning, perhaps even leading to the publication of this magazine. Today, the variety of learning activities available to children far exceeds the selection from my youth of 30-plus ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
The terrorist attacks of September 11th affected our lives and jobs in many different ways. For Clint Hughes, Director of Intrax English Institute, a school that provides English language training for students from more than 50 countries, the tragedy had to be turned into an opportunity. "9/11 opened our eyes for opportunities ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
I have to admit that my expectations for a sport played on sheets and with a broom were not particularly high. And the name itself, "Curling", didn't sound terribly promising either. Isn't that something women do with their hair? Who wants to play a game that seems to revolve around common household items? But curling is now a Winter Olympic sport and in Canada draws a larger audience than hockey. So last spring I joined my sports-addict buddy Tim when he said he was going to attend ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
You've heard those great voices. James Earl Jones, Peter Coyote, or Patrick Stewart selling some product or service, perhaps. So persuasive and endearing. Maybe you ran right out to buy what they were shilling. Or perhaps you just wished you could do what they do. Voice over is a big field and includes commercials, books-on-tape, narration, videos, and animation. And the skills carry over to other professions. Maybe you have a major presentation to make and could use a little ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
A long time resident of Chicago, Judy Torigoe has been a sought after piano teacher since 1992. She established Allegro Music Studio in February of 1997. Students of Ms. Torigoe range in age from 7-year-olds to senior citizens. Many of her pupils have participated in competitions, festivals, community events and recitals. Several have ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." - Gene Fowler Staring at a blank page can be as intimidating an experience for a writer as it is for a minor league pitcher to face the New York Yankees. The empty whiteness of the page (or the mocking flashing of the cursor on your screen) stares back at you like the Bronx Bombers' powerful bats. While the page does offer myriad opportunities to turn a phrase or riff on any ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
Despite its physical rigors, dance is a field that is not without longevity. Dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham continues to perform in his eighties. Martha Graham performed into her sixties. And recently the oldest living Ziegeld Follies dancer, 101-year-old Doris Eaton Travis, returned to the stage for a charity event. Chicago is not without its own examples of longevity. This year three major dance educators mark significant anniversaries. Celebrating thirty years, Joel ... [more]

Posted on Tuesday December 05, 2006
It's tough making a living as a dance instructor. Which makes it all the more impressive that Kathy Brown, founder and creative director of Rhythm TLC, has managed to do so for more than 27 years. Kathy Brown is not your typical dance instructor. For her, "dancing is about more than just doing the steps." She takes a holistic approach to dance, bringing together a balance of body, mind, and spirit. Brown came to dance instruction in an unusual way. Her instructional career began ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
Pottery has probably existed as long as there has been mud and humans around to mold it into shapes. Ceramics is a much newer craft and art. The application of heat to clay to make the shapes permanent has been around perhaps as long as 30,000 years, though archaeologists are still in dispute over this. In one sense, pottery and ceramics have come a long way from Stone Age pots and carvings to the famous Demi Moore/Patrick Swayze wheelthrowing scene in the 1990 movie Ghost. In another ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
Berthold Schwaiger has a passion for teaching. An accomplished woodworker and one of the most innovative and talented furniture designers in the country, Mr. Schwaiger has offered craft education to professionals and laypeople in the Chicago area for more than a decade. "This is my calling," says Schwaiger. And it needs to be to maintain the long hours of running a school, studio, and gallery. Located in Chicago's north side Edgewater community, Schwaiger's Chicago Bauhaus Academy ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
In the United States, masks tend to be used for two purposes - Halloween and bank robbery. Jeff Semmerling wants to change that. Through his Inside Out Art Studio, his 19-year partnership in Semmerling and Schaefer Mask Studios, and collaborations with a variety of organizations and educators (including the acclaimed Patch Adams), Semmerling introduces masks to a variety of other arenas including healing, theater, politics, parades, rituals, and everyday life. He occasionally wears a mask ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
Vincent Hawkins likes it hot. 3000 degrees is just about right. That's the temperature needed to turn iron into a liquid that can be poured into the molds that help shape the torsos, busts, and more abstract shapes that make up his oeuvre. Hawkins is the founder and technical director of the Fire Arts Center of Chicago. Tucked away between the elevated and Metra train tracks in Ravenswood, the Fire Arts Center is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the "fire arts" by offering ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
"Among the many thousands of things that I have never been able to understand, one in particular stands out. That is the question of who was the first person who stood by a pile of sand and said, 'You know, I bet if we took some of this and mixed it with a little potash and heated it, we could make a material that would be solid ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
I've been designing my dream house for years now. Only in my head, mind you, but that makes revisions easier. Who needs CAD when the mind's eye is available? Perhaps some day I'll have the wherewithal to buy some land and hire a builder and actually get to move in. Until then the fantasy is a good one when I feel like daydreaming. Upon visiting the Alden B. Dow Home & Studio in Midland, Michigan, one enters what must have been the longstanding fantasy. But Dow was no mere dreamer. A ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
My cat does not approve of this article. Baba Ghanoosh believes that any animal that needs training has no business in a civilized household. As a dog person who was adopted by this cat I try to convince him otherwise, but to no avail. He will not be budged. However, millions of pet people do opt for Canis familiaris. Many of these millions find that to properly integrate their hound into the household some training is necessary, or at least useful. The Chicago-area offers many ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
Skydivers and the pilots who fly them have an inside joke. The pilots say to the skydivers "There's no reason to jump out of a perfectly safe airplane," to which the skydivers reply "There's no such thing as a perfectly safe airplane!" The logic of this eludes me, however, as I find myself in a Havilland Twin Otter flying at 13,500 feet above Ottawa, Illinois, waiting in line to jump out of what appears to ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
A recent arrival in the downtown Chicago area, Club Z! Tutoring Services is the world's largest one-on-one tutoring program. The program has helped tens of thousands of students nationwide improve their grades, raise their test scores, and learn productive study skills in a variety of topics ranging from mathematics to foreign language to test preparation. Building the student's academic self-confidence is also stressed. Based on an overwhelming amount of educational research, ind ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
If a picture is worth a thousand words, there is an entire dictionary on the walls, in the files, and archived on the website of the Chicago Photography Center. Located on the first floor of a beautiful corner building at Lincoln, School, and Marshfield, the CPC is a venue for the teaching, exhibition, and critiquing of photography in all its diverse forms. The center "teaches photographers to have a stronger impact and greater influence on the community-at-large." In addition, ... [more]

Posted on Monday December 04, 2006
It's no secret that the world is going digital. In almost all facets of our lives the zeros and ones that make up the electronic universe are changing the ways we perform tasks, some of which had been virtually unchanged for a century or more. Photography is no exception. Recently Kodak, the venerable company that brought film photography to the masses in 1888, announced it would no longer produce film for the consumer market. Film cameras are fast going the way of the audio turntable and ... [more]

Posted on Monday November 27, 2006
Walking through Act One Studios can seem a little like walking through a Monty Python skit. In one room a group of aspiring actors, interrupted in their improvisation practice, directly address the writer in unison in a call-and-response led by their instructor, to determine the nature of his visit. In another, prospective thespians address vignettes and secrets about their day to a video camera. In others, anything from Shakespeare to yoga, to the finer points of moving to Los Angeles, ... [more]

Posted on Monday November 27, 2006
From Winter 2004-2005 Chicago Learning Guide Magazine. The summer of 2004 found Dawn Arnold, the founder and Artistic Director of The Moving Dock Theatre Company in Chicago, making her home by the Adriatic Sea in the city of Groznjan, Croatia. For two weeks in July, this tiny walled city became host to the International Michael Chekhov Workshop and Festival. Joining a cast of actors, directors, and teachers of theatre from all over the world, Ms. Arnold led a series of classes in what she ... [more]

Posted on Saturday November 18, 2006
Each day more than one hundred thousand cars race along the Edens Expressway past the Skokie Lagoons in suburban Glencoe, Illinois. I wonder how many of the drivers and passengers even know that this home to deer, mink, turtles, herons, loons, other assorted wildlife, and perhaps a dozen small islands is even here. This occurs to me while sitting just inches above the still-chilly water in a small fiberglass boat during Chicago Kayak's "Introduction to Sea Kayaking" class. A century ago ... [more]

Posted on Saturday November 18, 2006
The weather is mild, with a bit of morning chill blowing in over the lake, but the promise of spring makes for a beautiful Chicago morning. In other words, perfect weather for sailing. And more importantly, perfect weather for Chicago Sailing's "Basic Sailing 101" class. The Monday morning class is the first of five 3-hour sessions. Our instructor, Ash, greets my fellow students, Eric and Glen and the author, at Dock B of Belmont Harbor and ushers us past the locked gate to our J22, the ... [more]

Posted on Friday November 10, 2006
The wolf pack appears oblivious to the near-zero pre-sunrise temperatures and scouring wind that cuts across Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley. The four members of the Druid Peak pack are either dozing or keeping a suspicious eye on the pair of hungry coyotes that are coveting the frozen elk carcass nearby. In this bleak late winter wilderness the frozen carcass makes for "good groceries," says Jim Garry, instructor for the Yellowstone Association Institute's "Yellowstone Winter ... [more]

Posted on Friday November 10, 2006
National parks offer abundant opportunities for education. As natural classrooms they lend themselves to the study of wilderness, wildlife, natural history, and geology, as well as photography, art, cultural history, and much more. The Grand Canyon Field Institute (click here to read about one of their backpacking classes) offers 100-plus classes annually both above and below the rim. Their mission of sharing the Grand Canyon's natural and cultural history is accomplished both in the ... [more]

Posted on Friday November 10, 2006
Ken Walters' classroom is larger than most. And older. An instructor for the Grand Canyon Field Institute, Mr. Walters teaches at the 1,218,375-acre, one billion-plus year old Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. Established by the Grand Canyon Association in 1993, GCFI's mission is to teach the diverse natural and cultural history of the region to visitors and the park community. GCFI offers more than 100 classes annually, on topics ranging from photography and art to geology and wilderness ... [more]

Posted on Friday November 10, 2006
With a lakefront setting in a wonderful Tudor-style mansion surrounded by Jens Jensen-designed grounds and adjacent to an historic lighthouse, the Evanston Art Center feels like a place that can motivate the creative juices. And, it has done so for a long time. This year the Evanston Art Center celebrates its 75th birthday! Dedicated to making the visual arts an integral and accessible part of the lives of the diverse audiences in Evanston, Chicago and the surrounding communities, the ... [more]

Posted on Friday November 10, 2006
Grace Cole teaches in what might be one of Chicago's best classrooms! Located above Michigan Avenue in the venerable Fine Arts Building, her studio and classroom overlook Grant Park, and, when the foliage permits, Lake Michigan. High ceilings and tall windows provide the kind of light and space that artists dream about. Cole has been teaching art students for more than 20 years, as ... [more]

Posted on Friday November 10, 2006
Great things can start with with little more than a spare basement and a good idea. Founded by Monica Haslip in the basement of her greystone, Little Black Pearl Art & Design Center has grown into a 40,000 square foot, state-of-the-art home for arts education and exhibition. Serving youth and adults in the Kenwood/Oakland, Woodlawn, and Bronzeville neighborhoods, Little Black Pearl offers a dramatic space and staff motivated by a desire to provide urban youth with a safe environment for ... [more]

Posted on Friday November 10, 2006
For the first time since its founding in 1939, the Hyde Park Art Center has a home of its own. After more than 65 years of providing arts education, mentoring, and exhibitions to the Hyde Park-Kenwood community and surrounding neighborhoods, HPAC officially moved into its $5.7 million Garolfalo Architects-designed space in April, 2006. Previously housed in a basement at the Del Prado Hotel, the center can now justifiably boast about its eleventh home. The former printing plant for the ... [more]