Music, Mammals, & Masterpieces

My next Sweet Adeline visit was to Arundelair Chorus (http://arundelairchorus.org/) in Annapolis, MD, under the direction of my friend, Maggie Butts, who I met last year when visiting another chorus in the area. Besides directing this wonderful group of women and running a business from home, she sings bass with the 6th Place International Quartet, CAPRI…this is one busy woman!

Throughout the month of January, choruses around the world held Open Houses so women everywhere could experience what it’s like to sing with Sweet Adelines, and it just so happened that Arundelair was holding theirs that night. After joining in physical and vocal warm-ups, the chorus welcomed us with a song, and then Maggie took us guests out into the hall to work on a couple of tags (the last couple lines of a song) that she hadn’t even taught the chorus yet. After showing the chorus what we had learned, we joined them on the risers, learning and singing right along producing some wonderful sounds.
At the end of the night a drawing was held, and one lucky guest earned the title of “Arundelair Idol” and won a CAPRI CD, and I was the lucky winner!! What a fun evening with a warm welcoming group of women. So, ladies, if you’re interested in checking out a chorus in your area, go to the Sweet Adelines International website (http://www.sweetadelineintl.org/) and click on Find A Chorus. It’s not your granny’s barbershop anymore…it’s real women…real harmony…real fun!

Snow arrived once again but still only about an inch though this time it stuck on the ground (but not the roads) for a couple of days. Abby had a blast running and playing, and Russ even threw a little snowball for her. I was calling her a snow dog, and she just thought this was the greatest fun! Mikey, on the other hand, just hung out with me looking more like he’d rather be inside since it was too cold to lie down outside. Little did we know that it was to be his last day on earth.

A few days later we visited Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (www.mnh.si.edu/), which contains 325,000 square feet of exhibition and public space with more than 126 million natural science specimens and cultural artifacts…that’s a lot to try and see! Out front are a couple pieces of petrified wood dating back 200 million years, and as you walk into the main building, you’re greeted by the largest mounted African elephant specimen, nicknamed Henry, that measures over 13 ft. at the shoulder and weighs nearly 12 tons.

We walked through Hall of Mammals featuring 274 mammal specimens and nearly a dozen fossils. Mammals from all over the world are represented (both past and present), and exhibits explain how they’ve adapted to the various climates. Most of the specimens are in natural poses within their native environments, like these lions trying to take down a water buffalo. Fossil exhibits help explain the evolution of some of these mammals over time like the giraffe vertebrae. As with all things Smithsonian, it’s all very educational.

While in the Hall of Mammals, one of the museum volunteers told us that the Butterfly Pavilion (http://www.butterflies.si.edu/) on the 2nd floor was free to the public on Tuesdays (which this was). Normally there is a $6 charge per person, but all we had to do was go to the front desk and get a free timed-entry ticket. The Pavilion is not very big, but visitors can walk through this tropical oasis of flowers and plants as hundreds of live butterflies flit from flower to flower sipping nectar, rest on walls and ledges, and fly overhead sometimes even landing on a visitor. (Before leaving, there’s a mirrored outer room for you to check and make sure none of the darling little critters try to hitchhike out on your clothing.) There are a quite a variety of butterflies from all over the world, but one particularly beautiful blue one would never light long enough with opened wings to get a decent photo. See, the blue is only on the top side of its wings so only visible when it’s flying (and it flies fast!). Otherwise when resting, its wings are together displaying a mottled brown color. I love butterflies so found it fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable though I’m not sure it’s worth the $6 admission price, but today it was free and well worth the money!









Our main objective on this day was actually a visit to the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum (http://americanart.si.edu/edu/) and the National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.si.edu/), but since they didn’t open until 11:30, we had decided to start at the Natural History museum for about an hour. The two museums are a nice leisurely walk about ¼ mile north and share a National Historic Landmark building, the old U.S. Patent Building, stretching two city blocks.

The American Art Museum houses more than 41,000 pieces of artwork, the largest collection of American Art in the world. The collection “captures the aspirations, character and imagination of the American people throughout three centuries”. The National Portrait Gallery tells the history of America through individuals who have shaped its culture. Each floor is divided in half, one side being the Art Museum and the other being the Portrait Gallery, and switch sides from floor to floor, a little bit confusing initially. Both sides offer a variety of art in various styles ranging from painting to sculpture to photography and are broken out into sections by either time period or like subjects such as America’s Presidents and 20th Century Americans (the Oscars belonged to Katherine Hepburn whose portrait hangs behind).









One interesting piece is called “Men of Progress”, an 1862 painting that was conceived in the artist’s mind. The 19 men pictured never appeared in the same room together, and in fact posed individually by the artist, Christian Schussele. They were some of the most distinguished inventors in American history…names like Goodyear, McCormick, Morse, and Howe just to name a few. A beautiful and very imaginative piece.

We ventured upstairs to the Luce Foundation Center for American Art (http://americanart.si.edu/luce/), which occupies 20,400 square feet on the third and fourth floors of the building displaying more than 3,300 objects in secure glass cases. We were starting to get a little tired and hungry so only walked part way around one of the floors, and this shot is from the craft and folk art section.

As we made our way back to the car, we walked through the outdoor plaza of the United States Navy Memorial (http://www.navymemorial.org/) that features a “Granite Sea” map of the world laid out on the ground, towering masts with signal flags, fountain pools, bronze relief panels, and a bronze statue known as The Lone Sailor. It seems to be a peaceful place to relax, reflect, meet up with friends, or simply enjoy a quiet lunch outdoors.










Just as we reached the Natural History building, we spotted several people pointing up into one of the trees. There perched high on a limb was a red-tailed hawk keeping a watchful eye on its nest in the tree behind. What a beautiful sight!

One last thing I keep forgetting to mention is that we’ve accepted a hosting position back at Mammoth Campground in Yellowstone National Park! We’ll start May 18 and work until some time after Labor Day so if you’re in the area, be sure to stop by and see us!

A Special Soul

Mikey
1996-2012

Nearly 24 hours after the loss of my friend, our beloved Mikey passed away. He had just turned 15 a month earlier.

We had adopted him in CA through a shelter at one of PetsMart’s adopt-a-thons when he was 3-1/2 months old. We went looking for a medium size dog, and though the man there tried to convince us that his parents only stood knee high, it was obvious he was going to be bigger than that. As I cradled him in my arms, all I kept saying was “but look at the size of his feet”…they were huge! He was a lab/shepherd mix, but who knew what else might have been mixed in there. Through the years vets mentioned Irish Wolfhound because of his long legs or Border Collie because he loved to lay with his paws crossed…his trademark.

He was named after one of our best friends (pictured at left) and grew to be a handsome, extremely intelligent dog with a wonderful personality. Mikey knew words like doggie park, PetsMart, and many more, and would cock his head in acknowledgment even if said in passing. He learned all of his commands through PetsMart’s Puppy and Basic Obedience classes, and at the time they had a service where they would take photos of your graduated puppy in cap and gown. They took several poses with different backgrounds just like having your child’s photo taken at school, and one set was free of charge. Now I thought it was absolutely silly, but when else would I ever have a photo of my dog in cap and gown!

For the first couple years of his life, he would get bored outside while we were at work, and with the stone walls had nothing to look at and oh, the basements and tunnels he would dig! Wish I had a digital picture of that to share! However, once we had a house where he could see the wide open spaces, he was happy as a lark and loved to lie outside for hours on end. It also helped when we got another puppy in TX when he was about 5 years old, and though he didn’t seem too thrilled with her at first, she grew on him. Sometimes, as with any sibling, Abby annoyed him, but he was always protective of her. She's also a lab/shepherd mix, and they looked so much alike that most people thought they were blood related.

Over the years he lived all over the country, coast-to-coast, and during the past 4-1/2 years he had the opportunity to explore even more new roads and smells. He helped navigate the highways at Russ’ side, climbed to new heights at the Continental Divide, got his feet wet in the ocean, and saw sights many have never had the chance to see.










We are comforted in knowing that he didn’t suffer and is no longer in arthritic pain. In fact in my mind’s eye I can almost see him smiling and running in the wide open spaces. He was such a character, and a friend recently described him as “a special soul”. He had a good life but has left a huge void in our lives. He was “my Mikey baby boy” and we miss him deeply.

Remembering Ellen

Ellen Culliton
1955-2012

Today my dear friend lost her battle with cancer. Having only been diagnosed a little over a year ago, she had been given the all clear and was looking forward to returning to work this month. Then right before Christmas she discovered that the cancer had returned and spread to her brain. Despite more rounds of radiation, the tumors did not shrink. Thankfully she did not have to suffer for long.

Memories have been flooding back during these past few weeks of our times together. Ellen and I met freshman year of high school and that friendship continued over these many years. Even while we were miles apart and she had no e-mail address, we still stayed in touch though not as much as probably either of us would have liked. Over the past few years during my trips back to St. Louis, we enjoyed our get-togethers with our other high school friends, remembering fun times, and catching up on our lives.

Way back when we had silly, crazy times together whether it was with my mom park hopping or boating on the river or dancing the night away. She was there during many important events in my life such as birthday celebrations, and she was a bridesmaid in my wedding.

Ellen touched so many lives and will be greatly missed by all. She is survived by her sister, Gail, brother-in-law, Richard, and nephews, Michael and Matthew, whom she loved to brag about. She was a passionate supporter of the University of Notre Dame, and I’ll always think of her when we watch one of their games on TV. I can almost hear her cheer “Go Irish!”

I’ll miss her smiling face and independent spirit but will always carry a piece of her in my heart. As someone recently said, "Death leaves a heartache no one can heal...love leaves a memory no one can steal...keep the memories in your heart." Today I lost a good friend and the world lost a good person.

Works of Art

There are five Sweet Adelines choruses within 30 minutes of where we’re staying, and my plan has been to visit each of them while we are here. I decided to wait until after the first of the year as I figured they had all been busy with Christmas performances and festivities prior to that so this week I made my first visit to Chesapeake Harmony Chorus (http://www.chesapeakeharmony.com/). I visited this small chorus last year and was impressed with their sound and positive fun outlook, and that hasn’t changed. They are directed by Tancey Bosna, a long-time Sweet Adeline from whom the chorus gets their upbeat attitude. Tancey makes even the most mundane vocal exercise fun while still exacting the correct vocal technique and sound. This veteran director believes so much in this group of women that she drives nearly two hours each way every week from Philadelphia to lead them on their journey towards greatness. The week before a reporter from the Baltimore Sun had come to do an article on them, and did an awesome job capturing the essence of not only the chorus but of Sweet Adelines, too. (You can check it out at ChorusArticle.) We ran through several songs and worked on a new intro to their contest uptune. It was great to see the ladies again and have the chance to sing and learn along with them.

One place we had never visited in DC was The National Gallery of Art (http://www.nga.gov/). Though not part of the Smithsonian Institution, it is located on the National Mall and open to the public free of charge. It’s comprised of two buildings, the West Building opened in 1941 and the East Building opened in 1978. The Gallery was founded by Andrew W. Mellon who had donated his collection of art and sculptures to the United States upon his death in 1937, and over the years others have donated major works of art as well. The West Building houses a large collection of paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance period through the late 19th century, and this is where we began our visit. We had no idea how large and extensive the collection was and after two hours had seen most of what it had to offer but not quite all. The building is sectioned into a number of individual rooms, or galleries, each featuring various time periods and artists, and flow easily from one to the other. Walking down the center of the building you’ll find a couple of garden courtyards and the main rotunda, all beautifully decorated with marble, sculptures, plants, and flowers. The building itself is quite a work of art.












There are works from the great Masters housed here….Rembrandt, da Vinci, Raphael, El Greco, and many of whom we’d never heard. I was looking forward to seeing Rembrandt’s Self Portrait, but unfortunately it was on loan to a New York museum. However, below left is his Portrait of a Man in a Tall Hat painted in 1662, and below right is Raphael’s Bindo Altoviti painted in 1515. At the beginning of this paragraph is da Vinci’s Ginevra de’ Benci painted in the late 1400s, and the only one of his works known to be in the Western Hemisphere. One thing that truly amazed us as we wandered from room to room was the age of most of these works and how well they have been preserved.













Another impressive piece of artwork is the Shaw Memorial, which takes up almost the entire wall in its own gallery. Completed in 1900, it is a “golden full-scale plaster model of the bronze memorial erected in Boston to young Colonel [Robert Gould] Shaw and the African-American soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th Infantry Regiment.” The heroism of this regiment during the Civil War inspired the movie Glory, and the memorial commemorating their valiant efforts is not to be missed.

Evidently art students are allowed to work on their skills inside the museum. While we were there, we discovered three women in different rooms in varying stages of progress. As you can see, one was at the initial sketching stage, another was about halfway through her piece, while the last has nearly completed hers. What an incredible way to learn!










Before heading back to the car, we made a quick stop at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. We’ve been there before but just decided to spend a few minutes looking around some of the first floor. It’s such a fascinating place (one of our favorites), and one of the things located there is a full-scale mockup of the Hubble Space Telescope measuring 14 ft. wide x 42 ft. 4 in. tall…an impressive and amazing machine. We’ll be back to explore the NASM further on another day when we can spend several hours, which is what we always do. We never seem to tire of the exhibits.

The weather here has been up and down. We had snow again at the beginning of the week, a little more than the previous one, but was gone by the next morning so I didn’t get a picture. And then a couple of days later it was nearly 60 degrees! Then the rain came pretty steadily for several hours and created water puddles everywhere which the robins thought were great bird baths. However, the cold has returned this weekend with an expected low of 18 Sun. night…crazy weather!