Recalculating...

October 31, 2009

Victory!  The GPS works.  Never another word about it except to say it's a huge relief to be guided by a gadget that works.

The Rock 'n Roll Museum is an A plus (why doesn't the plus sign work on my keyboard?).  Beautifully situated on Lake Erie, the museum is enormously fun for people of all ages.  I even started to fall in love with Elvis yet again.  There were women there older (and fatter) than me who were rocking it up in memory of their childhoods.  In addition to paying homage to the rock 'n roll greats, there's a lot of stuff on music censorship.  Remember Tipper Gore's mid-1980's campaign against musical lyrics?  I'd forgotten.

If you're about to go to Cleveland, be sure to have lunch at Tommy's on Coventry Road.  It's the kind of place that attracts huge crowds, like Lucky Platter in Evaston or Baba Louie's all summer in GB.  Incredible falafel and one of the best milk shakes of my life.

University Circle in Cleveland, where I'm staying, is elegant, academic, and artistic.  I haven't explored a lot of Cleveland, but it does seem to be a major medical center with miles of hospitals, clinics, and so forth.

Happy Halloween and sad end to Daylight Savings.

October 30, 2009

It’s a bit cloudy and a bit sunny but definitely warm here in Cleveland today, where I had lunch with Peter Cherneff’s childhood friend Jane Glaubinger, curator of prints at the Cleveland Art Museum. She’s a lovely lady who’s leaving for NYC tomorrow, partly for a 45-year high school reunion (which Peter isn’t attending) and partly for work-related matters. Jane did her graduate work in art history at Case Western Reserve, started working at the Cleveland Art Museum and has never left. She’s smart, welcoming, and we had a fun lunch. Thanks, Peter.

Jane walked me over to the museum, where she went back to work and I toured the 19th and 20th century galleries. The museum has been undergoing extensive renovations for the last few years, and will continue to do so for another three or four years. The original building is one of those massive early 20th century Beaux Arts structures, with a 1960’s Marcel Breuer addition. This renovation involves two modern links connecting the two older buildings.

Jane pointed out a Frank Gehry building across the street from Glidden House, where I’m staying, on the Case Western Reserve campus. It’s interesting but seems way too large for its setting.

This afternoon I had high hopes of visiting Tremont, a newly regentrified neighborhood that gets a lot of press. But the dreaded Garmin interfered by not working, sending me into paroxysms of frustration. I spent a long time on hold with the Garmin people, and don’t think they began to answer my questions. I’m upset enough about getting hopelessly lost without good direction that I thought about coming home early, but then decided not to be a wuss about it. Stay tuned.

The concierge here at the Glidden House is an actor with the Wake Up and Lives theatre company. I know this because when I asked him if there was a DVD player in house, he wondered why I needed one. So I showed him the DVD of “Rock the Boat” that Bobby Houston gave me. James McGilbray, the actor-concierge, was very interested in the story of the DVD, and told me to tell Bobby that he’d be happy to interview him on his radio show if Bobby comes to Cleveland. Imagine that.

The DVD doesn’t work in my computer, or maybe it does but I don’t know how to do it. Like the damned Garmin. I think I’m a threat to anything electronic. And the stock market had a hissy fit today.

Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio

October 29, 2009

Day Two of the Adventure started out with much hope for the theoretically repaired GPS, but within half a block of the Wilson's I realized it still wasn't working.  Luckily I was only about a half mile from a Target, where I bought a new GPS, a thoroughly unanticipated and not happily made purchase.  Tonight I have to figure out how to use it, a project I'm dreading.

You probably didn't know, as I hadn't until Tuesday, that the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio was established in 1919 as the first museum dedicated to American art.  And it's a beautiful gem of a museum.  There's the usual early American, Western art, mid- to late-19th century art, and a tour de force of 20th century work.  My favorite piece Raphael Soyer's "My Friends," painted in 1948 and donated to the museum in 1963.  His brother Moses Soyer is featured in the painting, and Raphael's back is to us ont he right.  Why my favorite?  My grandson Soyer is named for him, and seeing the artist's name gave me a thrill.  Unfortunately the gift shop doesn't carry a post card of the painting. 

A "super realist" sculptor, Marc Sijan, has a large show up there and it's fascinating.  Very lifelike figures, many humorous, and a few kinda scary in their real-ness.

I wouldn't recommend going to Youngstown just to visit the museum, but if you're in the vicinity, it's a lovely spot in an otherwise rather dismal city.  I was reading up on the settlement of Youngstown, sittuated in an area of vast natural resources.  Unfortunately, the only way to profit from those resources was extraction, and now the city is poor and much-diminished.  Gives me pause about what it must be like in West Virginia.

I did't have printed directions to Cleveland, but decided just to follow road signs to get there.  I called the Glidden House, where I'm staying, to make sure they had a room for tonight, which they did.  Despite numerous phone calls to the Inn, and the help of various and sundry police officers, it took me well over an hour to find the place.  Which means now I have to learn how to use the new GPS.  Ugh.

Selinsgrove PA

October 28, 2009

Day One of the Adventure ended in Selinsgrove PA at my friends' Dave and Joanne Wilson's home.  The drive from Monterey to Selinsgrove was Very Stormy.  Little visiblity and much anxiety.  All part of the adventure, I reminded myself.  Along the way I fell hard for NPR, which I get on satellite radio.  What a great way to pass the time!

As the pix above shows, Dave and Joanne and I were joined by our friend John Mathias for dinner at Elizabeth's, a long-time favorite restaurant in Lewisburg.  John's wife Sue was out in Seattle babysitting 4-year old Bobby and 18-month old Margaret.  We missed her.

Joanne and Dave have been members of the Susquehanna Valley Chorale and Orchestra for the last six-seven years.  Their latest appearace was October 9 when they performed in the premier of "A Monument to Memory,"music based on stories of Alzheimer's victims and their families.  The Wilsons said the first time the chorale went through the piece, everyone broke down in tears.  I wish I'd heard it.

John Mathias, a longtime entrepreneur and do-gooder in Lewisburg, is now one of three Union County (PA) commissioners, a job he's enjoying enormously.  It was a lot of fun to hear him so energized about local government and business.

Dinner at Elizabeth's was even better than I remembered from years past.  The miso glazed scallops over potatoes mashed with edamame beans was thrilling.  The portions were so large that we all skipped dessert, a rarity in my dining experience.

The bad news--that damned GPS doesn't work.