Random observations

Tuesday December 1 2009

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was one of this country's most prestigious newspapers for over a century.  Now it's worse than the BEagle.  I realize that Thanksgiving Day is not a big news day, but consider the headlines above the fold from the Post-Dispatch last Thursday.  "Sweet success after dog raid," "Holidays in flux for military families," and "Shopper planning to score big deals."  None of these stories is morally reprehensible or counterfactual, but are they news?  Nope.  Even the Kansas City Star is newsier and more dignified than the once mighty Post-Dispatch.

Two years ago a group of reporters and editors from the Post-Dispatch who were bought out by the paper formed an online daily, the St. Louis Beacon (stlbeacon.org).  It reads like the old paper did--newsy and thoughtful.  I wonder if theirs is the model for "newspapers" of the future.  Because surely the current Post-Dispatch isn't. 

"The best restaurants in the world are, of course, in Kansas City."  So began Bud Trillin's life-altering "American Fried," still a bible for those like me who crave authentic food.  And his favorite restaurant then was Arthur Bryant's, where the men behind the counter slap white bread on a plate and then load it up with bbq ribs or pulled pork or bbq chicken or rib tips.  They slather the sauce on from a battered old metal bowl, and then pass the plate down the line to receive french fries or potato salad or cole slaw or baked beans.  You order a beer or a Coke and sit down at one of the 20 or so tables to gobble up the best bbq in America.  At least that was my memory. 

And I'm delighted to report that Arthur Bryant's hasn't changed an iota.  Well, yes it has; now there are branches but if one goes to the original, which one must do, it's exactly as it was 30 years ago.  And just as delicious.  I didn't want to report this without visiting twice, just to make sure my memories were correct.  After ribs last night and pulled pork tonight, I can reassure Arthur Bryant fans that all is the same.  Phew!

I'm staying at an inn about 2 blocks from the famed Country Club Plaza, the first suburban shopping center built in America.  Erected in 1922, it's about 6 square blocks, built in Moorish style, and must be as lovely today as it was way back when.  What's particularly fun about being here now is that all the stores are lit with red, green or white lights outlining the building curvature.  It's like walkig through a fairyland.

It's still up-to-date in Kansas City

Tuesday, December 1 2009

On the left is Myra Siegel, my friend Penny's roommate in her freshman year at Newcomb.  They've remained friends lo these many years, and I visited her and her art collection this morning before going out for lunch.  Thomas Hart Benton was a friend of her father-in-law, and he painted a huge mural for the family department store, Harzfeld's.  That mural is now in the American wing of the Smithsonian, but Myra and her husband have a small oil of it hanging in their family room:

Imagine this scene 24' long.  I couldn't get the details clearly so you can't see the figures, but most of them were drawn from Myra's husband's family.  They have a goodly amount of Benton memorabilia, which is fun particularly if you're a longtime Benton fan like me. 

Touring her house today was the second time in just a few days that I've been blown away by fascinating collections people amass.  My friend Mary Sprague in St. Louis is a long-time collector of stuff.  I walked around her living and working quarters looking at collections of wooden feet, Indian dolls, Japanese dolls, contemporary ceramics, beaded necklaces, wooden horses, toy animals of all kinds, African masks, rubber band thingies, antique paintbrushes, trompe l'oeil furniture, clay figures...and so on and so forth until your eyes and your mind shut down from sensory overload.

Same with Myra's house, replete with folk art from all over the world  Fruit baskets from Spanish markets, Egyptian artifacts, folk art from all over Latin America, Native American goodies, Eastern European wood carvings, plastic beads from Mardi Gras, minerals, antique English game boards, Irish animals, Cambodian and Laotian crafts... and so on and so forth.  Not to mention all the serious art.  Makes one breathless.

Well, this was a first.  I've never been warned not to bring a gun into an art museum before, but there you see the evidence.  This was my introduction to the Nerman Museum at the Johnson County Junior College in Overland Park, KS.  It's a lovely building with good-size, well-lit galleries.  I couldn't take pictures of a temporary exhibition (too bad because the work by Agathe Snow is fabulous), but I did snap a sculpture created by a South Korean made of military dog tags.  Very striking.

Today I also visited the Kemper Contemporary Art Museum, opened here in KCMO in 1994.  I'm staying about two blocks away from the Nelson-Atkins Museum (their main art museum), which is about two blocks from the Kemper, and we're all just a few blocks from Country Club Plaza, built in 1922 as the first suburban shoppping center in America.  Quite the cultural nabe.

This spider graces a lot of the publicity for the Kemper, but I prefer the "Crying Giant" by Tom Otterness.