YEAH!!! I'll finally get a chance to see my family today. I'm heading out in a few hours to TN for my brother-in-law's wedding. I'll be a bit busy for a couple of days, so I won't be checking in at all. More important things to do, like remind my kids that I'm Daddy!
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Raine Maida and Yours Truly Well that chant has been going over and over in my head this afternoon. I went to the Our Lady Peace show last night at the 9:30 Club in DC with my friend Corey. They are one of my favorite bands. I've been listening to them since I saw them open up for Van Halen at Merriweather in 1995 while in college. They are a great band out of Canada, and always put on a great show. The lead singer, Raine Maida (left) has probably the most distinctive voice I've ever heard. It was an awesome show, and they played for a pretty long time. We had our normal location on the stage right balcony, just above the stage. The light show was amazing, but the music is what counts. A lot of their music is the soundtrack to some highs and lows in my life. The highlight of last night was getting to see Raine Maida again (sorry for the photo quality above, taken by Corey on his cell phone). He's so easy to talk to and we end up talking about art, going back to our first conversation in Towson at the Recher Theatre many moons ago. i was also able to get his autograph on his solo CD and some OLP cd's signed by the whole band as well. Good times, good times... Mets' Citi Field I guess it's been the summer of stadiums, along with everything else I've been doing. I had the opportunity to see a Mets game last night in their new stadium, Citi Field. I sat in a similar location to where I sat at the Yankees game, and there was only a very minimal difference in ticket price. I do have to say that the from the outside, I think this stadium is a little more aesthetically pleasing, but on the inside, Yankee Stadium takes the cake. This includes of course the view from the seats. At Yankee Stadium, the seating sections are kind of wedding-caked, meaning almost on top of one another. So you feel a little closer to the action. Whereas at Citi Field, the farther you go up in seating sections, you are so much farther away from the field. It was a good game overall. The Mets won 3-0 over the San Francisco Giants. The most interesting aspect of the game was that the Mets were in throwback uniforms from the Christy Mathewson era. They were really baggy, with a large NY on the front. The game was over so quickly (right around three hours) that I was able to head back home to MD. After the game, I took the subway and Metro North back to Mamaroneck to get my car at the marina parking lot. I ended up making it home pretty fast, around 3.5 hours and that included one stop at a rest stop in NJ. I wasn't speeding mind you, it was just considering the time of night there wasn't any traffic. And the drive went quickly as I listened to Ben Harper the entire way home on the iPod in the car. I arrived home, unloaded the car and took a long sleep, probably the latest I've slept in a very long time. Home, sweet home. Pollock-Krasner House It may not be a national holiday, but today is Jackson Pollock Day for me. Since high school I've wanted to visit his house and studio on Long Island. So today, I embarked on my trip the old-fashioned way, with a map (no GPS), and headed east on Long Island to the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. It was a long drive, I guess vacation traffic. My heart was beating so fast once I saw the sign for the house. It was a deeply moving, emotional experience. I was able to see everything, and just soak it all up. I even had time to sit on the back part of the property and draw a little. I didn't even notice the time until one of the employees came up behind me to tell me they were closing. I talked to her a bit, and she gave me a map to the cemetery where he is buried. She told me I could finish my drawing, but she had to lock up. I completed my drawing and then grabbed a slice of pizza down the road. Afterward, I drove to the cemetery. The cemetery was equally moving. It's a very small, quaint piece of property. The map that I was given marks the plots of Pollock, his wife Lee Krasner, and some other notables. Elaine de Kooning, Alfonso Ossorio, Ad Reinhardt, and Stuart Davis are just some of the artists buried there. I saw some things there I had never seen before. First, most of the markers or tombstones, were not traditional at all. It's something you have to see to really believe or understand. And, visitors to the cemetery place a pebble or rock on the graves they are visiting. It was an awesome day. If you're in the area, I highly recommend going. Regardless of what I've written here, words really can't do justice to the experience. I definitely checked something off of my bucket list today. NJMH I had a great opportunity today to head uptown to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. I have to say that I was a little disappointed at first. I was expecting to see an actual museum, but for right now it is just an office. The office is great, open to the public, and has rotating exhibits. There is also a nice research library there as well, with a host of recordings you can listen to. Upon arrival, I did run into the director, Loren Schoenberg. I had some experience with him in the past. He used to be involved with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra in DC. I was able to see him once play with the orchestra many moons ago. And then a few years after that I saw him take part in a lecture about Louis Armstrong I attended with my Dad at the Smithsonian. Ironically, he remembered my Dad and me, because he autographed some liner notes (that he wrote) for my Dad. I was able to talk to him for a bit. He even invited me back that night for a lecture they were having about jazz by an upcoming pianist, Jonathan Batiste. I didn't know what to do with the couple of hours I had before the lecture. So I talked with Mr. Schoenberg about the famous photo, A Great Day in Harlem. The location of that photo was just up the street from the museum. He said I should check it out, and then come back to the museum for dinner with him prior to the lecture. I took a walk up to the stoop, and took a few pictures. Then I headed to a little luncheonette that was recommended to grab my dinner to take back to the museum. I had a great time over dining and discussion with Mr. Schoenberg and was able to attend a very interesting lecture, a lot about hip-hop and jazz. What a great day in Harlem for me! New Yankee Stadium I had the great opportunity today of attending a game at the new Yankee Stadium. I was able to go into Manhattan to a Yankees Clubhouse store and get a ticket to the game. Since it was only me, just like the Red Sox game, one ticket was pretty easy to get. I was able to walk all over the stadium, taking pictures, seeing the field from every vantage point, and even Monument Park. The stadium is pristine and beautiful, but a bit too ostentatious from the outside. It looks like a white version of the Roman Coliseum from the outside, but I have to say it is gorgeous on the inside, and I couldn't see a bad place to sit at all. The game was great, and my seat was unbelievable. I sat in the second tier (kind of like the club section at Camden Yards) on the third base side. I felt like I was right on top of the action. The game could've only been better if the Yankees had won. They fought hard but lost to the Blue Jays, 5-4. The food was great, and they even had a deal where you buy the souvenir cup for $5, and get free refills all night. The only thing that was a problem was that I had a can of spray sunscreen in my pocket and it leaked all over my shorts. Anyone that looked at me probably thought I spilled a drink all over myself. Other than that experience, it was a great night for baseball! View of the Bronx from the Harbor. Arrived late this morning in Mamaroneck, NY. I followed my new teacher friend that I met in MA. She and her husband live in Monticello, NY and have their boat docked in Mamaroneck. What a Mayberry-esque type town. Had a great lunch at a local hot dog joint. It reminded me a lot of Ann's, a place that I used to frequent when I was younger. After lunch we drove down to the marina where the boat was moored. I actually got the chance to go on my first sail. I've been out on boats before, mostly as a kid when my uncle used to have one, but never a sailboat. It was so relaxing being out on the water. I was able to take a great picture of the cityscape. If it only showed a little more foreground, middle ground, and background, I could use it in class... Finished up everything today in MA. It's kind of bittersweet. It is nice that it's over after four compact weeks, but not so great that I probably won't be seeing many of these folks again. It's similar to the end of The Real World on MTV, minus the drama and the tears.
The good thing is that I learned a ton of stuff that is applicable to my classroom. That doesn't happen that often. I have a whole new unit to bring back, that I worked on while here, and started another under the guidance of the professors. So I'm definitely excited about that. On to the next leg of my traveling tomorrow. I leave for NYC. Luckily, I'll be staying with two of the teachers I met here. For the first couple of days, I'll be staying on a sailboat in Mamaroneck, NY. After a few days there, I'll be staying with an old college friend from Towson State. And then I'll staying two nights with another one of the teachers I met in Manhattan. I have lots of things planned that I'd like to do; new Yankee Stadium, Citifield, Jackson Pollock House, and whatever else I can fit in. It should be a blast. Portland Museum of Art I had a great two days in Portland. We embarked yesterday from UMassD pretty early in the morning. Marc Simpson from The Clark accompanied us and lead a lot of the discussion of the Homer pieces at the PMA and at the studio at Prout's Neck. It was great to get to talk to him on the bus for a bit. There was a lot of work to do at the Museum. We looked at the Homer's on view. Then we had a chance to look through most of the rest of the collection. It's always an experience being in a different/new museum for the first time. You get to see works of art that you've never seen in person before. It's like I tell the students at school. It's completely different seeing art in person, not in a picture in a book, slide, etc. We also discussed museum studies as well. That's another passion of mine. While there, I had a DELICIOUS meal. One of the teachers in our group is from Biddeford, ME. Having a local with us was great. He led us to Joe's, a great place for lobster. I paid roughly $32 for my entire meal (including a nice tip), and I had at least a 3 lbs. lobster, corn on the cob, drink, the list could go on and on. I'm not much of a bluegrass music person either, but saw a great band at a local music club. Prout's Neck had to be the best though. The experience was unbelievable. It's not very often you get to see an artist's studio, let alone a very famous artist. And it was very special because we had access to the studio (now owned by the PMA) prior to it being open to the general public. The PMA is renovating it now, in order to get it ready for a 2012/2013 grand unveiling. It truly was moving...especially to see Homer's signature that he etched into one of the window panes. And once you walked on the rocks...the same rocks that were featured in many of his paintings. WOW! Just breathtaking... Breaching Humpback Whale I always wanted to go whale watching. Today I got that chance. I went with some of the teachers in my group to Hyannisport, MA. We departed around 9am and were out on the water for at least 4 hours. Things seemed to go very slow at first. We had been in a few locations for a while. We saw a few fins here and there, and then all of a sudden...SPLASH! I was able to get a great picture (to the left) of one of the Humpbacks breaching. Then a few other boats with groups came out of nowhere to the same spot. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the others that breached, because of the circling boats. That's okay, I really got to see a big one, and was able to get a great picture! |
B.D.SchmittHusband, Father, Archives
November 2015
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