Peace Love Bubbles

Christ Lutheran Church in Webster Groves, the suburb where I live, is celebrating its 120th anniversary. Mrs. C  has been a member for many years. They put on a community party yesterday. It was a delight for the children (certainly including Madeleine, more about which tomorrow).

One of the biggest hits was the Bubble Bus, a van equipped with several generators and a young man who was an expert in forming big chains of spheres with sticks and nets. I've seen them around before. It's hard to explain the fascination but the kids just love it.       

Have A Seat

Found in Kiener Plaza on a recent evening. It looked like an event was being set up. If someone set out a sign that this was an exhibit on loan from the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum, lots of people would believe it.      

How Big Is Your Camera?

Some of us walk the streets slumped under a big DSLR and more lenses than we are likely to use. It gets expensive, too, but nothing compared to this. We were seated near a TV cameraman at the baseball game Wednesday night. That's a piece of heavy electronics. 

He just stood there, no stool, no breaks that I noticed, wearing a headset and listening to a director. Swing left or right, zoom in and out. He didn't seem engaged with the game at all. Looked like a tiring, boring job to me.    

The Last Game Of The Year

It's the last week of the baseball season. The Cardinals have had a mediocre year and will not make the playoffs. However, a company my firm does business with gave me a couple of tickets to last night's game, the opponent was our arch-rival, the Chicago Cubs, so why not.

The evening wasn't very enjoyable and makes me think I'll stop going to these events. The noise level is almost unbearably loud, with speakers (inevitably right over your head) blasting music and inane announcements. It's like being in the front rows of a heavy metal rock concert with a band you don't like. The gouge-the-public pricing is as disturbing as it is unaffordable. A cheeseburger and fries was $15. Beer cost about five times the outside price. Worst of all are the ticket prices. Our seats were some of the best but the face price was $159 each. Season ticket holders get a discount but it's still outrageous for a three hour game full of long pauses for TV commercials..

Oh, and the Cardinals lost 5-1 as the Cubs clinched the division title. We are not anxious to go back next year.       

New meaning to "Spanish omelette"

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The stamped Large white Israeli eggs are what I normally buy.
See the L on the shell? 
But now during the Jewish High Holidays, the Days of Awe, there are so many festive meals to be cooked inside of just a few weeks that the country apparently ran out of eggs.
I was astounded to open a new carton and find brown eggs!
I examined the Hebrew label and discovered they were imported all the way from Spain!
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday.)
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Madeleine Monday

Haven't had the moppet on since we were in Michigan almost two months ago to see the other family division.  As mentioned, we took her downtown Saturday for a run through the splash fountains. This is in the recently rebuilt Kiener Plaza (I give it a C- but that's for another post). The jets go off in patterns that fascinate her. If she puts her foot over one can she suppress it? The playground wasn't too bad, either.

Later in the day she wanted to watch the several videos of her I have on my phone. I was editing pictures and she was slouched next to me on the broad arm of an easy chair.. After some time, I looked over and asked her, "Who's your favorite person?" She thought for just a moment, pointed to her chest and said "myself." No self-esteem problems here.   

Looking Over Osoyoos BC

Visitors

Back in the jurisdiction, as Jack might say. We took Madeleine downtown yesterday, where there are two children's splash fountains, one in Citygarden, one in the remodeled Kiener Plaza. The latter has a really nice playground. While standing there I saw this couple, obviously visiting town, taking a picture of a well known local monument from the wrong side. I'll explain that in a couple of days. The sort-of kanji shadow at my feet in the playground may or may have provided information.      

Would You Drive This Road?

That dirt road is the Schafer Trail. It zig-zags down from the mesa on top known as the Island In The Sky to the floor in Canyonlands National Park, a drop of nearly a mile with sheer drop-offs throughout. We did it as passengers in a heavy four wheel drive vehicle. That was scary enough.             

Where did the salmon's head go??

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Last night was the Eve of Rosh Hashanah (literally, the head of the year). 
On the festive New Year's dinner table, usually on the platter with the traditional gefilte fish, traditionally there should be at least one cooked fish head. 
Or even a ram's head. 

This is to remind us of one of the many blessings that God promises in return for obedience to his commandments. Deuteronomy 28:13a says 
"And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail . . . " 

In The Living Torah translation it becomes "God will make you a leader and never a follower."

The Hebrew blessing said over the fish head is 
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱלֹהינוּ וֵאלֵֹהי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ, שֶׁנִּהְיֶה לְרֹאשׁ וְלֹא לְזָנָב
May it be Your will, Lord our God and the God of our fathers, that we be a head and not a tail.

I pray that every leader and every citizen in our world will use their head to make peace and not war in the new year. 
Shana tova, a good and happy year to all!
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Fiery Furnace, Or, Better You Than Me

 

There is a section of Arches National Park known as the Fiery Furnace, not because of its heat but due to the intense red color of the sandstone near sunset. As the signs indicate, you can go wander around the complex arrangement of stone fins and canyons but only with permission of the park rangers. You have to go along with them or prove you know what you are doing so they don't have to drag your sorry (and possibly deceased) butt out of there. 

The bottom picture gives some idea of what you are getting into but the link above makes the point much more clearly. I wouldn't go in there is the Seven Cities of Gold were inside offering to give me their debit cards and Trump promised to resign.   

Desert Critters

I'll be doing back-fill from the trip for a while but there's lots to show. 

We normally think of the desert being dry as James Bond's martini, but it it weren't for water all the fantastical shaping of rock would be impossible. We happened upon a little spring-fed stream that created its own ecosystem. This frog was as tiny as it was beautiful. A short distance onward brought us a more expected lizard. The two critters were near each other but a world apart, unlikely ever to meet.  

Light, Shadow And Space

Back home. Very late plane but home safe.

These are two more images from The Phoenix Museum of Art. I mentioned the openness yesterday. The B&W on top shows three levels, exhibits and people moving through them. The second photo was taken in a work placed inside a dark room. It is called You Who Are Getting Obliterates In The Dancing Swarm Of Fireflies by Yayoi Kusama. The title might be a bad translation from the Japanese but the space is disorienting. Dark but for this star field effect, glass walls and mirrors. You have no idea where to walk without bumping into something. There is a feeling of both spaciousness and confinement. Fortunately, a staff member was there to assist.  

Phoenix itself was disconcerting. It is just - so - bright. The intensity, the unrelieved searing sky, the endless high-volume tans and ochers, was really getting to me. It's cloudy today in St. Louis with a good chance of rain. What a relief. 

Phoenix Art Museum

We visited the Phoenix Art Museum yesterday. Although we have been to the area several times, we have never visited. We were impressed.

The building is spacious and the walls uncrowded. It has an open, airy feeling although it allows only secluded peaks at the desert sun. There was a show on about the work of celebrated fashion designer James Galanos (they had a copy of his famous portrait by Richard Avedon). The clothing was beautiful but, as I am not a big fashion fan, I found the mannequins almost as interesting.

Home tonight.

Marble slabs, all in a row

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Is it just me, or is there something exciting about seeing marble slabs?

The worker wearing a dust mask had been cutting stone on the shrill-sounding saw.

Shiny, big and beautiful. 
And expensive, I imagine.

The marble place is in Beer Sheva. 

And what's this hiding under a table in the 
shadows . . . ?
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Rancho Pinot

Dinner last night at a wonderful and different restaurant, Rancho Pinot, recommended by our local friends. Owner-chef Chrysa Robertson has spent twenty five years serving cuisine at a high standard in a comfortable yet quirky atmosphere. The themes are western-rodeo-cowboy and girl with surprising touches here and there. (It's worth wandering around for a look if you go.) Above, refrigerator magnets on a back counter. Below, just part or Robertson's wacky and wonderful curio cabinet. Last, part of a poster which the old rocker in me recognized as as the source for the cover of The Byrds' 1968 album, Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. I pointed this out to the staff, who didn't know about it.      

Paradise

Dinner last night with City Daily Photo friends at their beautiful home on the north side of Camelback Mountain in the town of Paradise Valley. They have a cactus gardener, a profession I never considered before. Good times, good wine and then had to speak at my conference at 8 AM this morning. It worked out.

So going to school today. May do some Phoenix area tourism tomorrow.  

That's Better

Much better air and light yesterday. The Grand Canyon is too much to absorb but we are glad we made it back after 25 years. Mrs. C thought we needed documentation that I actually did it, as shown below. There are still an awful lot of pictures to edit, though.

Down to Scottsdale today for some more-or-less work. I'll be attending a conference of lawyers in my specialty and speaking Thursday morning. I'm one of the most senior members of the organization and, frankly, I get a limited amount out of these. Maybe I'll do some of that editing to pass the time. But first, dinner tonight with CDP friends Sharon, Dave and Julie.