Phoenix, AZ - Musical Closeup

The Musical Instrument Museum is filled with wonderful instruments.  Photography is allowed, no tripods and no flash.  Still a lot of fun!

The first few photos are of a flute built from recycled materials.  The rest are from various exhibits.

The next two photos have different tones added to them.

Scottsdale, Arizona - Musical Instrument Museum (MIM)

This is one of my favorite places to visit and I have several posts. The photos won't spoil it because a big part of the experience is listening to all of the music.  We went for the Bastille Day events.  I took Beth to China to see the kinds of things that her mother saw on the last trip.

The exhibits show the country, so there is not too much to say about these.

Beth and I sat in on a "pleine aire" drawing class.  I didn't know what a "pleine aire" class was, but now I know.  It is sketching in the open air.  Wikipedia explains it to great lengths.  I am not a pleine aire pencil sketcher, but I do enjoy pleine aire photography as well as closed air photography!

 On to the displays.  We put our headset on and off we went.  I was soon texted by Karl and Michele. Set off to find them.  Then we all mingled and viewed.

 Nose flutes always intrigue me ever since my father and son came marching out of the back rooms playing harmonicas with their noses.

 The Beijing Opera gave a presentation at our tour dinner the last night in Beijing.

The man on the left has flags on his back.  Click the link below to see a better view of his costume.

(Click HERE and see the blog post where I am standing with the Beijing Opera artists.)

 The exhibit shown below illustrates "The Silk Road".  The eastern end of the road was in Xi'an.  Click here to see our visit to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, shown below.

I was distracted by the other exhibits, so left Beth to explore on her own.  Here are some other countries.

Beth stayed for more viewing because she was going to a party later with food. Michele, Karl and I went to enjoy a French inspired lunch in the restaurant, then all went our separate ways.

I love this museum and visit whenever I can.  Highly recommended.  www.mim.org

Paris, France - Louvre from the Latin Quarter

Panoramic view of the Louvre from across the Seine.

Phoenix - Phoenix Art Museum

The Phoenix Art Museum has been growing over the years and brings in great traveling exhibits. The theater department has also done a great job obtaining films pertaining to art subjects. The latest one, "Leonardo Live", depicts the Da Vinci exhibit that was at London's National Gallery.  This was one of my reasons for attending the museum.  See the Events list for this and other scheduled events.  Many of the show times were sold out (great!!!) so I think that this has been a huge success.   I also went to see the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit, as I am a huge fan.

My day started with a nice lunch in the onsite restaurant "Palette at the Phoenix Art Museum".  If you are planning a meal, be sure to check the website for the closing times.

Be sure to look around the outside of the Museum for interesting architecture, fountains and statues.

The restaurant was the first stop of my day.

The entrance.

Interesting piece in the front lobby.  I asked an attendant about the photography policy. She told me that there were signs (and indicated about a six inch square with her hands).  I picked up my ticket from will call and proceeded in to the Museum.  I saw a lovely poster of the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit next to his model of a mile high building and took a photo BECAUSE I did not see a sign.  The guard came running up to me and told me that I could be sued for taking it. I calmly asked for the location of the "no photographs" sign and he pointed to a tiny 1/2 in stamp on the description of the art.  Who can see that without glasses????

So, I put the camera away so that I wouldn't get in any other trouble (and I'm NOT posting the photo!)

All in all, the Museum has a nice collection and is very kid friendly (see the red dinosaur on the front lawn!)

Pittsburgh - Stephen Foster Memorial

The Stephen Foster Memorial is located on the University of Pittsburgh campus.  Yes, Stephen Foster is yet another Pittsburgh native.

We weren't able to enter the building due to a scheduled event, but the grounds were wonderful.  Be sure to check the official campus website (here) so that you are sure of the hours.  I am going to show a few of the photos that I took and the things that caught my eye.  References that I give are taken from this wikipedia description.

 The building was designed by Charles Klauder, as was the Heinz Memorial Chapter.

The gate and lamp are beautiful works done by Samuel Yellin.

This is a closeup of the Samuel Yellin work.

Paving stones always capture my eye.

 Red front door, with ironwork by Samuel Yellin.

This is a sundial on a stone base (the gnomon is missing).  This was dedicated in 1914 to the Pittsburgh blues of the War of 1812.

 The stained glass windows were done by Charles Connick.

Here are a few Amazon links to books and music about Stephen Foster (affiliate).

London - British Museum exhibits and shops

I continued to wander through the British Museum and stopped to see some of my favorites.  I also visited some sections that are new to me, and stopped to watch a technology video on how anthropologists are discovering the colors of these ancient worlds.

London - Statue Mouth Study

I've been traveling for five weeks, and have started to see and become fascinated, with different things.  Statue mouths caught my attention at the British Museum.  What do you think?  I must have looked crazy walking around the museum taking these pictures. But no one said anything...

London - Court Restaurant at the British Museum

Phew, being a tourist is tough.  It was time to enjoy lunch at the British Museum.  The Court Restaurant is a fancy dining area on the second floor.  The menu items change often as some of the menu item flavors follow the tone of the special exhibits in the museum at the time.  If you are not very hungry, go to the little cafeteria setup on the first floor.

Assam chai served with spices

London - The British Museum

I wanted to select one museum and spend the day wandering through the exhibits. I had been here in 2006 with my sister and son and saw the main name pieces in the museum.  So, open to seeing anything, off we went.

Vienna - Schatzkammer (Imperial Treasury)

The Schatzkammer is the Treasury and holds the crown jewels, 1000 years worth of jewels.  We could only spend 1.5 hours here, so we could look but not read.  Well, never mind about the reading. It was mostly in German.

Click here for Schatzkammer info

Click here for more info on the Vienna Schatzkammer

Phoenix - Musical Instrument Museum - Visit #2

I managed another visit to MIM and talked K into visiting with me. We met at 11AM and toured Europe for about an hour then took a lunch break in the Cafe . I had the grilled sausage and K had a roast beef sandwich. Both were accompanied by a nice chilled Heineken. We returned to the second flour to tour Asia for two hours. I needed another break, so we went to the coffee shop for coffee and a cookie snack. We spent the "last hour" on a fast walking tour through the US and Canada, and then through Africa. Exhausted, we returned to the service desk to turn in our headset. The woman at the desk told us that we had to walk just down the hall to see the Hands On room and the "Visiting Artists" room. Promising that we would only quickly look, we took our headsets and journeyed down the hall.

What a wonderful surprise. String instruments, drums, things to shake and plink...all for our enjoyment.

Each section is nicely hidden, so as you move past a wall, your are delighted by the opportunity to play something else.

The guest artist room was filled with many delights. Here are a few photos of what was in the room. George Benson...

R. Carlos Nakai

Paul Simon...

And the guest musician of the day!