Free Entertainment

A lot of good things in life ARE free (well, except that you pay for it with your taxes, haha).

William likes to go to story hour at the library ... any library. Tuesday morning it was the one in downtown Nashville. Very impressive building. You can park in the parking garage which is free for one hour and a half. Then you take the elevator up. When you get out of it you can see this impressive hall.

And art all around.

There is even a court yard where we wanted to take a rest later. But a free concert was about to start and it was just too loud. What are they doing to our ears? Seems like ours have not yet been damaged enough and are still quite sensitive.

The entry to the Children's Theater is very interesting. the showcases have very interesting displays, marionettes and hand-puppets from different countries.

Danke means thank you in German. This special hand-made marionette was donated in 2001 by the Magdeburger Puppet Theater. Magdeburg is a (university) town in Germany.

We were a little early.

But actually a lot of people were late and the program started late. 

It ended up very full though. William was mostly interested in the other children. 

William and I sat on the floor close to the front but for the last few minutes we crawled to the back because he seemed to have enough. I took this long-arm photo. 

Besides being a library which makes it interesting anyway, the building is also very interesting and I could have done a lot of exploring and photo-taking (without a toddler).
This statue outside of a pile of books is called La Storia della Terra, which means The Story of the Earth, is a 20 foot tower of stone books commissioned by Judy and Noah Liff. The sculpture was created near Mainz, Germany by the Kubach-Wilmsen Team. There are 26 books, one for each letter of the alphabet. The stones - granite, marble, and quartz - come from all over the world. Five continents are represented.
When Helen was working for the company who built or remodeled city libraries and schools, she was responsible for arrangements for the statue to be shipped from Germany since she is fluent in German.

The Library's great bronze doors were created by Alan LeQuire, a Nashville artist. The doors depict the native plants and animals of Tennessee, as well as scenes of people reading and learning. These scenes are visible when the library is open. When the library is closed, you see the reverse side, which is a simple, classical design.











I think it will be even more fun when William is older.

Exciting blog site: Block Lotto

Ever since I found this blog site I am so excited and couldn't wait to try it.

http://www.blocklotto.blogspot.com/

If you are a quilter ... you have to look at this. If you like textile art ... you have to look at it. I am a very beginning quilter and don't have much time to devote to it (very unfortunately) but it is just fun to browse around here in a spare minute and dream what you could do. I find most ideas here very doable and stimulating.

The August blocks are 'violets'. Here are my first three 8 inch squares.



It is really not necessary for me to win. I just enjoyed making these. And I like that some winners finish the project for charity. And I want to make more. I have the feeling I might blog a lot in the future about quilting.

VMFA = Picasso Exhibition at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Yesterday hubby James and I went to see the special Picasso exhibition. It will be at the VMFA til May 15 but you know how it is ... you have all that time and can go any day ... and then you miss it.

We found out that it is a better deal to become members with free parking etc. So we became members.

What we really did right, we "armed" ourselves with the audio guides which were available. That was really good and worthwhile. They were a great help in understanding the background to the paintings and sculptures.Without those ... ?

I can't say that I was ever excited about Picasso's work. I was very surprised to find out that he really done some incredible stuff. I even like some of his modern things. But most of it ... lets put it that way ... you must offer a lot of money to me to display it in my house. Actually, taking the time to really study the work which was on display there, I came to the following conclusion: Even the first more traditional drawings/paintings look like that he has trouble with the proportions of the body. Either that or that lady really didn't have very nice legs, especially the ankles. I think he got more and more frustrated not getting it right that he compensated by really getting everything out of wack.

Ha, and this from somebody who really doesn't know much about it. Just the way I see it! Bad?

And now you ask: What do these pictures have to do with it?

Of course no photographing in the exhibition. But of course you can google on Picasso if you want to see some of his works. I took these photos outside the museum. I happen to like them.

Sculpture by Jun Kaneko
Japanese (active in United States), born 1942
Untitled (glazed ceramic)