Civic Pride

We usually spend a night in Kansas City on our way to Mrs. C's family farm. Our favorite hotel is the 816, which refers to KC's telephone area code. The decoration theme is Kansas City everything and the walls are covered with blown-up old photos of the town. This one looks like it is from about the 1920s. Don't say this to a New Yorker.

Off to the countryside shortly.       

Entrance

Just some color and texture at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. Those aren't plants flanking the entrance. They are Dale Chihuly glass sculptures. Note part of the same sign as in yesterday's post.

I'm pretty hard up for material. Had another camera failure in Kansas. But there are others sitting around the house and two big events to shoot on Saturday. Then the Fringe Festival starts a few days later. Bear with me. 

And happy birthday, M. B. Remember, you'll never catch up to me.  

Along Came A Spider

One of the many iterations of Louise Bourgeois's Spider, this one in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. Louise made a buck or two off this idea. I've seen them at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and London's Tate Modern. No idea how many there are but it is always arresting for the first time viewer. After too many encounters maybe you're ready to reach for a can of Raid.

Note the sign on the wall of the building in the background.

Boo Hoo

Tom Otterness' Crying Giant  in front of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. I love this for its absurdity and genuine sorrow. A viewer doesn't know whether to laugh or mourn. 

Off to the farm shortly.    

KC MO

          

Over to Kansas City today, Missouri's second largest metro area. This is an archive photo of the stunning Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts.

We like KC and regularly stop there on our way to see Mrs. C's family farther out in Kansas. The regional population is smaller than STL's but the city proper holds a much larger share of the metro population, leading to better regional government. The City of St. Louis itself has a population of about 350,000 in a metro area of 2.6 million. The suburbs are terribly Balkanized and regional cooperation is weak.

KC has a part-time symphony. We have one of the best in the country. Both have decent regional art museums but I think KC's Contemporary Art Museum beats the hell out of ours. IMHO, our restaurant scene is richer. KC has the Country Club Plaza, a Spanish fantasy that was the first real shopping center in America. We have the Arch, which nobody else has. It is said that the only city that has more fountains than KC is Rome. We have a lot of water fountains. Both areas have vast, soulless suburbs.

We will meet some of Mrs. C's family for dinner there tonight, then out to the farmland where she grew up on Saturday. The forecast is for moderate temperatures and rain, which could lead to some beautiful prairie vistas.

Send This To Washington

A copy of Rodin's The Thinker in front of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. It has become a cliche and isn't my favorite Rodin anyway (give me The Burghers of Calais any day)  but it makes a point. I usually avoid all but mild references to politics in this blog but that narcissistic wanna-be dictator in the White House and his spineless sycophants in Congress enrage me. Would that there were more, shall we say, rational and independent thinkers in our nation's capital. Not holding my breath.        

Law Of The Jungle

The displays of wild animals at Cabela's had a gruesome twist: simple, violent and completely natural predation, one species taking down another to devour. Still, it was a bit in-your-face for this kind of venue. How do children react to this? It's a lot more intense than Bambi's mother being shot.

Cabela's

After the visit to the Farmstead and a bit of lunch, the family decided to visit Cabela's in Kansas City, Kansas. It's a chain of huge outdoor equipment shops - fishing, camping, hunting, guns for all occasions. I was out of my element. Where I grew up, you wouldn't dare eat anything you caught in the local waterways. Where I grew up, only the cops and really bad guys had guns. City kid that I am, I never imagined that I would visit one of these. (As Gene Wilder said to Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles, the funniest movie of all time, what's a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?)

The place is mind-boggling. Not just the store itself but the amazing dioramas, for want of a better word, of wildlife from Africa to the Arctic. You know, things you can shoot. They reminded me of but far surpassed displays like this in the Museum of Natural History in NYC when I was a boy. You can take a virtual tour by clicking the link above.

At The Nelson-Atkins

The temperature was one hundred degrees when we pulled into Kansas City yesterday afternoon. The wind itself was hot, not a bit refreshing. We were grateful that the Nelson-Atkins, KC's excellent art museum, had an underground garage.

We think it is one of America's best regional museums. Its photography section beats the heck out of what we have at home. Hallmark Cards, based here, had a spectacular collection of 6,500 images it donated to the museum a few years ago. The main current exhibition was about the photographers who worked for the government during the Depression. Most prominent were the images of Dorothea Lange, including one of the most famous and heart breaking pictures in the history of photography.     

Sights of Kansas City

Kansas City is Missouri's other major metropolitan area. The region is smaller than STL but the city proper has more population since KC lacks our extreme suburban balkanization. We enjoy our visits and did a little tourism on our way out of town yesterday.

The picture on top shows Union Station in the foreground with downtown behind. The striking Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (better seen here) is on the left horizon and the iconic rooftop Western Auto sign on the right. 

There is a stunning World War I museum in the center of the city, on and under a hill topped with this memorial column, visible from many parts of KC. We were aware of it but knew little until we heard an NPR feature about it and the hundredth anniversary of the U.S.' entry into the conflict. We were there almost two hours and didn't see half of it. The best part was talking with the military veterans who serve as volunteer docents. We may be back here in a month and will return.

The top picture was taken from the north slope of the hill. There are a pair of strange sphinx-like creatures whose wings (perhaps) shield there eyes. One of the volunteers explained that the one facing east cannot bear to see the horrors of the war, while the figure facing west looks into the future (how American) which no one can foresee.          

Goodbye, Julian. See You Later, Celina.

We usually spend the night in Kansas City, a very nice town, on our way to see Mrs. C's family farther out in Kansas. KC has a good restaurant scene and Julian has become our favorite in recent years. When I was about to make a reservation I saw online that it was closing after the Fourth of July! I quickly made a reservation on Open Table.

I got a call Wednesday night from chef and owner Celina Tio. Did I know that they had a special menu planned, a five course tasting menu that she prepared when she won on Iron Chef? With wine pairings? No, clueless, but don't cancel our reservation.

OMG, it was heaven. Food and wine that was simple on the surface but oh so subtle as you paid more attention to each course. The highlight was almost inconceivable, lobster shepherd's pie, seen below. We were so glad we stumbled into the occasion.

The last photo is the rare image of Mrs. C and me, along with Celina and the wine guy (never did get his name).  She has another place, The Belfry, that we hope to visit soon. We may be back here in a month.

I'm So Glad I'm Outta Here

Two days off the blog. How rare.

Work has been a bite. I really want to retire but when you own a small business, particularly a professional practice, it's not that easy. But we are headed for Kansas City today and then on to the rolling Kansas prairie where Mrs. C grew up. Real time off.

The whole point is summarized by this photo from the archives: Tom Otterness' Crying Giant, which sits on the lawn of the Kansas City Museum of Contemporary Art (which, IMHO, is way better than ours). May the headaches be cured by the smell of soybeans in the earth.    

816 - The Metro

816 is the telephone area code for Kansas City, Missouri, where we find ourselves at the moment. It is also the name of the hotel where we stay in KC on our way to see Mrs. C's family in Kansas. It is full of photos and artifacts of the city from decades ago. We usually get one of the less expensive rooms but they are a bit cramped. This time we spent a little more and got a bigger one.

We had no idea that the room's decoration theme was Kansas City's public transit of years gone by. The second picture is of wallpaper behind the desk. The fourth is a fare box from not too many years ago. The bedside lamp on the right of the top of photo is the cylinder where riders dropped their coins decades ago.

Over to Marysville, Kansas, this morning. The weather is unsettled. Maybe we'll see a tornado.         

Night Game

So about yesterday's post: the four young men were seated a few rows in front of us. The roving stadium cameramen had them on the big video screen several times. I approached them late in the game and asked what the monkey suits were about. "Nothin' much. Fun," was all the first one said. But is there a theme here, a reason, I persisted. "No, not really." And that's all I got from them. You can't see it in the photo but the last one was wearing a Minnesota Twins hat under his monkey hood. Maybe something happens to your brain if you live in the frozen north.

So, for today:

Moonrise over Kauffman Stadium after the game.

The Twins' lead off hitter started the game with a home run. The Royals came back in time.

Nice young ladies climbed on top of the dugouts between innings and threw tee shirts to the crowd. None of them got as far as the 13th row where we sat. In St. Louis they use giant slingshots to get them way back.

A big pickup truck promoting the team.

The pre-game show sports guy.

Singing of the national anthem at the beginning of the game. The announcer ordered everyone to rise, remove their hats (standard so far) and put your hand over your heart while singing along. Was that meant to include visitors from China, South Africa or Mexico?
                                

Royal Blue With Monkeys

It's almost midnight here in Kansas City as I write this, way too late to explain the photo. We went to the Kansas City Royals - Minnesota Twins baseball game at Kauffman Stadium last night. KC won 6 - 3. I may add to this post in the morning.                          

Not

It's Thanksgiving Day in the US, a mixture of gratitude, calorie bombing and football. Christmas is just ahead. This, however, is a gift suggestion that I do not endorse.

Found at 43rd and Main Streets in Kansas City. Out to the cornfields this morning.         

Everything's Still Up To Date In Kansas City

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We spent last night in Kansas City, Missouri, on the way to Carolyn's mother's home in Marysville, Kansas. Superb dinner at the Webster House restaurant, which we found on Zagat. It's in a schoolhouse built in 1885 and is full of old fashioned charm. There's a brilliant hand at work in the kitchen and some strange, lonely putti around the outside.

The restaurant is adjacent to the Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts, which was seen on these pages just last month. It may be even more spectacular at night than during the day. There were no performances and the surrounding streets were dead empty.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends. On to Marysville today.

Some Kansas City Filler: Kauffman Center

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A few last images from Kansas City. This is the Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts, a remarkable piece of architecture. It is the home of the Kansas City Symphony, Lyric Opera and Ballet. The building contains a theater and a large concert hall, presenting a variety of musical acts and stage shows.

It was nearly empty when I stopped by last Saturday but the lobby was open. Views from different perspectives don't quite look like the same building.

Arch photo tomorrow, then a day or two of something local. On Sunday maybe a pic from beautiful Dallas - Ft. Worth International Airport, where we change planes Saturday. Then we got a problem. We will be in the black zone, really out in the wilderness for a few days.

Beauty And The Beasts

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A detail of the beautiful bride. I'm told that the pearls have been in the family for ages. Below, the ring bearer and flower girl during the wedding ceremony. They apparently thought they had been invited to a fancy-dress wrestling match.

I've got a bit more KC stuff. The Thursday Arch Series will be back this week, and it's an unusual one. It hit me this morning that we're leaving for Seattle on Saturday. I thought I had another week.

Meanwhile, back in The Lou, the Cardinals played the Washington Nationals in the early phase  of the playoffs. Washington won 3-2 on Sunday but we gave 'em a good 12-4 thrashing yesterday. With an odd starting time of 3:37 in the afternoon, the light creeping across the field was strange.

We Are Family

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Snaps from my niece's wedding Saturday, all up and down my wife's family's side of the reception hall. The Kruse clan are the nicest people you could hope to meet. Contrary to some comedians, I like my in-laws. From top to bottom:

Steve, husband of niece Trisha, and their girls Mya and Payge.

Niece Lisa, Cedric and Jarred.

Nephew Tom and wife Jess.

Nephew Ryan, doing one of the things he likes best, with wife Amber.

Niece Julie, sister of the bride and matron of honor, waxes lyrical in her toast to the happy couple. The girls' father, Bill, audits from the background.