Did you know that Bamboo is a member of the grass (Poaceae) family?
Bring on the Pandas!
And that there's a veritable FOREST of it in North Carolina?
You read it here first!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
"Q" - IT MUST BE NASHVILLE IF...
...mega malls display gaudy guitar "sculptures" instead of fountains and flowers!
AND country music blares into common areas and parking lots so loud one can discern the lyrics blocks away. Well, MOSTLY discernible; more discernible than a RAP "song."
Not that I have anything against country music, mind you. Just LOUD country music -- makes me just want to get out of there. Fast. Skip the shopping!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
"Q" - I LOVE A MYSTERY
Did Meriwether Lewis take his own life, or did he die by the hand of a murderous scoundrel? It's pretty much accepted as fact that Meriwether Lewis committed suicide, but nagging questions among historians and his family persist. Could it be they "persist" because it makes a tantalizing story and an engrossing mystery? Or because there truly are quite a few unresolved questions?
Just prior to his death, Lewis embarked on a journey to Washington to straighten out issues concerning reimbursement of drafts he had submitted as the Governor of the Louisiana Purchase. (He had requested repayment for medicine he had purchased for Native Americans that he had personally paid for; Washington had refused to pay the drafts.)
To get to the nation's capitol, Lewis chose the dangerous overland route along the Natchez Trace and stopped for the night at Grinders' Stand, an inn/tavern in Western Tennessee. It was here he met his death by multiple gunshot wounds -- under grisly, suspicious circumstances that continue to puzzle modern day historians. Was his strange, deranged behavior that night the result of drunkenness or perhaps the laudanum he took for a relapse of malaria, or was he simply ill with a digestive ailment? Was there a conspiracy, an assassination plot?
We may never know the truth, but a 2009 application to exhume the body of Meriwether Lewis is being processed right now. He is buried here, on the Natchez Trace in Western Tennessee.
If you're interested in developing a theory, you might start with this lively recounting of testimony and events leading up to Lewis' death, and the history and characters involved:
Many books, publications, comments and ideas describing the conflicting theories of this unabated mystery can be found at:
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
COMMONLY USED FOR WINDOWS
Fused, blown, stained, textured, pressed, crystal, dichroic, slumped, moulded, etched, sculptured or cast -- I love ALL glass artistry. My rig, Second Wind, can find its own way to glass museums, exhibits and installations! Glass art is versatile, it's reflective and luminous, and most often three dimensional. Sometimes it's functional, sometimes whimsical; sometimes it tells a story. Pieces often change colors as one walks around it. And most important of all: somehow wine tastes better when drunk from a glass!!!
And so ... my rig found its way to the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea, Kentucky for an exciting exhibition of glass that had been "cooked" in a kiln. (Later on, I'll post some photos of pieces from two other guilds, one in Mississippi, and another in West Virginia.) For now, here are some pieces of kiln-formed glass artistry, a not very common process, with unique results.
My favorite, an extraordinary installation by Sungsoo Kim, is called "Cells 0510" in five pieces.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
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