tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87969601611833208302024-03-15T09:29:02.352-04:00Recollections of a VagabondeMy Reminiscences of events, old and new, and travels, far and nearVagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.comBlogger414125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-62779209820298423212024-02-14T00:30:00.003-05:002024-02-14T00:30:34.529-05:00The Super Bowl in Las Vegas and an easy dish ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg489kxyQ5U9yF8WjgtW-fXItnAf4mYUgRKNa9r3lnqwjPVAV4_UeOpY24Sfp2n4ki-Vcn-f3Pwz8q718L2xQ5IPmjbqRJZc7ithBT1yyEM8LHKXygHK18_3lsGXX79-6EuPD1WcPEJqgaNxAvjuECOLj9v9euGfJwwK8Fxsm8YqUCEHnN3ZuJJbNnHPDfa/s3000/Las%20Vegas.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg489kxyQ5U9yF8WjgtW-fXItnAf4mYUgRKNa9r3lnqwjPVAV4_UeOpY24Sfp2n4ki-Vcn-f3Pwz8q718L2xQ5IPmjbqRJZc7ithBT1yyEM8LHKXygHK18_3lsGXX79-6EuPD1WcPEJqgaNxAvjuECOLj9v9euGfJwwK8Fxsm8YqUCEHnN3ZuJJbNnHPDfa/s600/Las%20Vegas.jpg"/></a></div>
My husband and I visited Las Vegas in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Then, it was not the popular city it is now. I remember that it was a city in the center of the Nevada Mohave Desert where there were some casinos and motels. In my memory the city is pictured as in the two top photos of the vintage postcards below.
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A few years ago we stopped several hours at the Las Vegas airport on our way to Los Angeles. This airport had greatly been updated. There were slot machines everywhere: in the concourses, the gates, and more. Later I read an airport article stating that the Las Vegas Airport slot machines had generated one billion dollars in all-time revenue.
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I even bought a postcard for my cousin in France showing the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower replica (50% of the Paris tower.)
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Now, Las Vegas is famous for its large luxurious casinos with top international entertainers. In 2019 2.9 million visitors came to its five-star resort hotels, gourmet restaurants, the various shopping malls, high-end stores and 24/7 entertainment. It is the largest city in Nevada. The new Allegiant Stadium, a domed multi-purpose stadium, was opened in 2020. At 1.9 million dollars it is the second most expensive stadium in the world, after Los Angeles 5.5 billion stadium. Allegiant Stadium claims that it is the first NFL (National Football League) stadium powered by 100% renewable energy. On February 11, 2024, Las Vegas hosted its first Super Bowl there, a highly publicized football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
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For my overseas blogging friends I'd like to mention that sports are very important in the USA. Football is the #1 sport, American football that is, played here and in about 30 other countries, compared to the other football, the one called "soccer" here but played in 211 countries around the world. Many children in the US start playing football at about 12 years of age. It is played in high schools, colleges and universities, plus professionally. Nearly 1.04 million high-school athletes (with 16,000 teams) and 81,000 college athletes (with 858 teams) play football in the US. Football has a huge impact on a college, on its culture and campus life. Colleges and universities make more money from sports, and are more interested in sports than academics, education, travel, arts, etc. A winning team will boost a university enrollment. Enormous amounts of fans will crowd college football stadiums to cheer their school team. My late husband did not watch much sport on television, unless it was a big game between Ohio State University's Buckeys team and another university. He was an Ohio State University alumnus. My youngest daughter is a fan of the "Dawgs," the University of Georgia's Bulldogs team where she graduated, and my son-in-law is a fan of the rival GA team, the Yellow Jackets, from Georgia Tech University where he graduated. But since both took their medical residencies at Ohio State University, they are fans of the Buckeyes, too. Fans like to wear their university team's tee-shirt and buy team merchandise.
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The National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any professional sports leagues. The Super Bowl, its championship game, ranks among the most-watched sporting events here with the highest average attendance. The league in 2023 had an annual revenue of around 18.6 billion dollars. In 2023, sports generated $520 billion in revenue to the U.S. economy. It can be understood this way: a million seconds is 12 days, a billion seconds is 31 years and a trillion seconds is 31,688 years. Top professional football athletes can obtain salaries of more than 55 million dollars a year. I mention all this because money is what drives the USA. With such a huge audience, companies paid up to $7 million for a rare 30-second advertisement slot on television. By November 2023, all commercial slots had been purchased for the Super Bowl of February 11, 2024. Companies try to come up with unusual, innovative or funny commercials; they also use well-known celebrities for their ads to stand out. The commercials are watched attentively, and rated. In the commercials below pop-star Beyoncé is on the left, actor Ben Affleck on the left of the center photo and actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the left in the right picture.
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Some people who are not avid football fans still watch the Super Bowl Halftime shows. Most colleges feature marching bands and drill teams during their shows; the Super Bowl did too when it started in 1967. But in 1993 the Super Bowl featured Michael Jackson. That year more fans watched him than the game. Since then the Super Bowl Halftime shows have been headlined by some of the most popular contemporary musicians. Some of the past entertainers have been: The Rolling Stones, The Who, Sting, Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars, U2,Bruce Springsteen, The Temptations, Tony Bennett, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, Lady Gaga, Janet Jackson, Diana Ross, Britney Spears, Madonna, Prince, etc.
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This year the Super Bowl generated more media frenzy because there was the added attraction of the relationship between Taylor Swift the pop culture superstar and the Kansas City Chief tight end Travis Kelce. Taylor's fans all over the world, called the Swifties, are obsessed with the relationship. They were agonizing because Taylor Swift, on her worldwide Eras Tour, was performing in Tokyo Saturday night February 10th, the eve of the Super Bowl, and might not show up in time. To illustrate what a big deal the Swift-Kelce romance is, the Embassy of Japan in the U.S.A. issued a statement to reassure the fans.
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But no fear, Swift quickly flew on her private jet and covered the 5,500 mile journey to Las Vegas in time. Another 882 private planes landed for the game in the Las Vegas airports as well. Well-known celebrities from entertainers to politicians and sports stars were seen at the Super Bowl, such as Jay-Ze,Beyoncé, Paul McCartney, Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Bieber, Elon Musk, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Lady Gaga, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sheryl Crow, Shaquille O Neal, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and many more. The romance has generated an intense amount of attention and provided millions in revenue to the KC Chiefs and other marketing companies. I have not watched a Super Bowl in a long time but decided to turn my kitchen TV on the game and watch it while cooking. I also took some photos from the television.
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Since I did not want to spend much time cooking I decided to cook something in one pot only. I had two egg yolks leftover from baking some meringue cookies earlier and came up with a type of spaghetti carbonara, but without the spaghetti. I called it Super Bowl Carbonara, It was fast and easy in my cast iron frying pan. I wouldn't say it was a 5-star recipe but something simple and stil pretty good. You may wish to give it a try. The recipe is below.
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<b>Super Bowl Carbonara</b>:
2 packages of Ramen noodle soup, any flavor because only noodles are used, spice packs are omitted.
2 egg yolks.
1/3 green pepper, chopped, and 2 green onions, sliced, white parts separated from green parts.
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling when done.
2 cups warm water, plus another 1/2 cup for egg mixture.
1 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon each of thyme and oregano, salt and pepper to taste.
1 tsp olive oil.
Fry bacon in cast iron frying pan or other pan, remove to paper towel. Remove bacon fat but leave 2 tablespoons in pan and add 1 teaspoon olive oil. Fry green pepper and the white parts of the green onions in the pan, remove. Add 2 cups warm water to pan and add the Ramen noodles. Bring to a boil while flipping the noodles and separating them with two forks. Sprinkle salt, pepper and seasoning. Turn heat to medium-low. When noodles have softened (about 2 or 3 minutes or so) turn heat off. While noodles were cooking add 1/2 cup warm water to egg yolks in a small bowl (or if too much water left in noodles, use that.) Whisk Parmesan cheese in eggs. Toss egg mixture into noodles, turn heat on low, and keep tossing a minute or two until creamy. Add crumbled bacon, the green parts of the onions, and the cooked green pepper and white parts of green onions. Serve sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese. Voila.
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As an aside, one of the players for the Kansas City Chiefs at the Super Bowl, Lucas Niang, is French and has dual citizenship. His parents moved to the US from France. His father is French and his mother from the Ivory Coast, or Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. Lucas speaks fluent French. Here he is below.
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After the meal I went to watch the game on my large TV in the den. It looked like the San Francisco 49ers were ahead but then the game turned to the Kansas City Chiefs. We had some glimpses of Taylor Swift in her suite cheering with her friends. She was wearing her gold necklace with the number 87 - that is her boyfriend Travis Kelce's tee-shirt number.
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The game became gripping during the overtime. The end escaladed quickly to a thrilling victory for the Kansas City Chiefs, their third Super Bowl victory in the last five years. They defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 and declared champions.
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Travis Kelce hoisted the Lombardi Trophy on the podium and then descended onto the field. He joined Taylor, saying "Come here, baby girl." They hugged and embraced.
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This game gathered the highest ratings since the Apollo II 1969 moon landing. A staggering 123.4 million viewed the game and 202 million watched at least part of the game across all TV networks and via streaming. The insane amount of attention being paid to the Taylor-Travis romance helped with teenage girls watching the Super Bowl for the first time. The reason for this fascination is because this is the classic American romance in a way: the cheerleader or most popular girl falls for the handsome football star. Or in this case, Taylor Swift (voted woman of the Year 2023 by Time Magazine,) the pop culture megastar is dating the popular and talented Kansas City handsome tight end = two famous people making their fan base swoon. Dr. Helen Fisher, an anthropologist and a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute who has studied the chemistry of romantic love said: "It was charming, so real, so human, so unrehearsed and so dramatic." She explained that the phenomenon behind the interest in this romance is called "emotional contagion." She added it is the same as why we tear up when our friends cry or get hungry when those around us are eating. This is the type of fantasy love story the American public loves.
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Everyone needs a little romance in their life!
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-20097718262027228562024-02-05T16:01:00.002-05:002024-02-05T16:01:29.356-05:00Snow and ice in Nashville, Tennessee<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3mIhV4jh1NU2Yca0Zg3U4RvQ_I_BLPZISe0wtkeOzCJ3YEKgX8okQyPFwkXMUb9Ponz9MuUhUH9Ocl6qGE8pmtAHvsMa1fxSd7D1A2oy-i_RbcqKdiZd5vhTHGHSHNnOzhQgHssSLECuqP6ra2o-DKvLN8TrT1JHE_xcrJa_EBoU5yp-i5XDmPftLPnB/s578/Parthenon%20in%20snow.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3mIhV4jh1NU2Yca0Zg3U4RvQ_I_BLPZISe0wtkeOzCJ3YEKgX8okQyPFwkXMUb9Ponz9MuUhUH9Ocl6qGE8pmtAHvsMa1fxSd7D1A2oy-i_RbcqKdiZd5vhTHGHSHNnOzhQgHssSLECuqP6ra2o-DKvLN8TrT1JHE_xcrJa_EBoU5yp-i5XDmPftLPnB/s600/Parthenon%20in%20snow.jpg"/></a></div>
After my last trip to the North Georgia Mountains I was planning to write three blog posts: one on apple orchards in Ellijay, one on my trip up Fort Mountain State Park and one on Cherokee Chief Vann House Historical Site. So many photos were taken that my old laptop could not handle downloading them in a normal amount of time and, in addition, I was preparing my trip to Africa. I left for Addid Ababa, Ethiopia, in mid December, and then spent 10 days including Christmas in Cape Town, South Africa. After another week spent on a safari in Tanzania I was in Nairobi, Kenya for New Year. After another stop in Addis Ababa I returned to Nashville in early January (blog posts will follow when my laptop is set up.) Less than a week after my return to Nashville the weather turned very cold. It was a shock to the system to go from the mid to high 90 F (35C) in Tanzania to 7 to 10 F (-13 C and below) in Nashville, and below 0 F at night (-18 C.) Below is the view from my bedroom window when I got up on Monday January 15, 2024, next to the street view from behind my front room plantation shutters. (View in heading courtesy Parthenon Park, Nashville.)
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It snowed non-stop that day, most of the following day, then it turned to ice. It did snow again several days later before the first snow had melted. In the South, winter season begins in October and ends in March. Data shows that in an average winter Nashville gets 4.7 inches of snow. From the night of January 14 to January 15 about 9 inches of snow fell in my backyard thus producing more snow that day than during an entire winter. This broke the previous 1944 record of 2.2 inches in one day. January 15, 2024, was very cold but it was just snow, ice had not formed yet. Some children, daring the cold, were sledding near the closed Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Not many people have sleds around here, so the children used cardboard boxes, laundry boxes, flat boards, etc. (Photo courtesy WSMV News.)
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Painting below is "Snowday, 1948" by John Philip Falter, American, 1910-1982.
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The sun came up a couple of days later; it was pretty, but still dangerously cold and icy.
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No cars were driving by on my road and no one was walking either; everything stayed white and silent. Only birds gave signs of life.
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There was no mail for a week, no deliveries of any type. I would have liked to walk around town and take pictures, but I could not walk outside. I had planned to drive to Georgia to make sure my house there was fine, but was "ice bound" for that week. I was fortunate that my neighbor helped me down my icy steps so I could drive to Georgia on Tuesday January 23rd, a week after the start of the snow. The steps were still covereed in ice, as well as my walkway.
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No snow plow cleared out my street, which is a "boulevard" and in the center of Nashville. The city has just several snow plows, 15 years old. They ordered 37 new snow plows last year but as a result of supply chain problems they only received one of them. Crews were out trying to clear the roads but only the interstate highways, highways and large main roads were serviced. No side street, subdivision or small connecting or secondary roads were cleared; they remained iced over the whole week. At least traffic was sparse as you can see below from the Tennessean newspaper's photographs.
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The top left photo is of I-65 just past Nashville toward Birmingham, Alabama. Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north-south interstate highway connecting between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. Traffic on this highway is usually pretty steady. The bottom right photo shows runner Sam Skinner on a Brentwood road. Brentwood is about 15 minutes south of Nashville and is where my daughter and family live. Sam is a musician, a guitar player. One of the songs he composed is called "Cold." I wonder if he is from up north for running like this on an extremely cold arctic day? Actually, my daughter who went to Antarctica in 2022 told me that she had not been as cold there as it was in her backyard... Here she is below in Antarctica in 2022. The other two photos are from her backyard in Brentwood this January 19, a sunset photo and one of the frozen lake and golf course club house.
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One of my neighbors who moved not long ago from the state of Wisconsin said it was so quiet and peaceful in Nashville when it snowed compared to northern states - no snow removing equipment, no electric snow blowers, no snow plow trucks, hardly any vehicles and no people walking. The snow stays clean and pure white. The City of Nashville gov. told us "Don't venture outdoors for fear of death" - adding that "One can die from hypothermia within one hour when exposed to temperatures below zero. Go out only in a true emergency" - no problem! Nobody was interested into venturing out and risking frostbites. Unfortunately 36 people still lost their lives and over 300 were injured in the state of Tennessee due to snow during that time. Some died of cold from being stranded in their cars or, of exposure after abandoning their vehicles and walking away but not equipped to fight the cold or snow. Antioch in photo below is a neighborhood of Nashville.
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I read a blog from a lady in Chicago, Illinois, who moved to Tennessee. She wrote" "In Chicago, snow plows are out on the street as soon as it starts snowing. People put on their warm boots and give themselves an extra 15 minutes to go where they need to be. This is compared to Tennessee - everyone panics, "Snowday" is declared as soon as one snowflake falls from the sky, and they then hibernate until the dusting on the roads melts away." (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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<i></i>Some hearty souls did venture out as you can see from the photos above, courtesy the Nashville Metropolitan Police Dept. The top photo is a salt crew working near Vanderbilt University. The golf course and park were empty, though. Beautiful photos would have been easy to snap I'm sure, but I could only watch from my windows. Below is the sun going down from my back deck, and that was toward the end of the week (still a lot of snow...)
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“<i>A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”</i>
- Carl Reiner, American comedian, 1922-2020.
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Beautiful painting above from Claude Monet, French painter and founder of impressionist painting, 1840-1926, entitled <i>Snow Effect, a street in Argenteuil.</i>
Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-68576481667103051232023-11-11T23:45:00.003-05:002023-11-12T20:01:23.781-05:00Classic rock in Nashville, Tennessee<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9O_h0X8L1Jq9vWPbk4I_tN1IAfx98cVDbnUcIT3ENf4tJ4BTPmK-S2VG-AJjpWrZtIB42ZPeIj7VZnVke2BFbDml7RAtw_smJ6zoSnbsZvjBF98x9W9ZMHRyyS0nNsj7C8LY6F50JIAfNtuKQVePO8tPE3Wx8qzdL5GiRiEUEjFjWTIggcVBI_HBzRb6/s3000/jst%20a%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9O_h0X8L1Jq9vWPbk4I_tN1IAfx98cVDbnUcIT3ENf4tJ4BTPmK-S2VG-AJjpWrZtIB42ZPeIj7VZnVke2BFbDml7RAtw_smJ6zoSnbsZvjBF98x9W9ZMHRyyS0nNsj7C8LY6F50JIAfNtuKQVePO8tPE3Wx8qzdL5GiRiEUEjFjWTIggcVBI_HBzRb6/s600/jst%20a%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
Recently I read an article on the brain that stated that to keep the brain sharp one needs, apart from good nutrition and physical exercises, to learn new things and have a variety of experiences. This will help the aging brain's neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt. Experiences change a brain's physical structure and keep it young. In the last three weeks I certainly had a variety of experiences. The day after arriving in Georgia I went to the Marietta chalk festival, see my last post <a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2023/10/marietta-chalktoberfest-2023.html">here</a>. Then at the end of my two-week stay there I traveled north to visit apple orchards. The next day I walked up trails in a remote state park in the North Georgia Mountains, followed the next day by a visit to the largest and most prosperous plantation and historic home of Chief Vann, the 1790s Cherokee Indian leader and wealthy businessman. Upon my return to Nashville my son-in-law called me and invited me to join him and his visiting cousins to attend the Nashville Symphony on Thursday November 9th. His cousins, from Goa, India, enjoy music and this was a different type of concert. It was to be the rock band the Jefferson Starship accompanied by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.
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Of course, I was ready to go. The Jefferson Starship is an offshoot of the original Jefferson Airplane group formed in San Francisco in 1965. The Jefferson Airplane became a pioneering "psychedelic" rock band and was the first to be known internationally. My late husband and I attended their concerts in San Francisco and the Bay Area. I just looked in a bag I brought back from my garage in Georgia and found several posters from that time, including the August 1966 concert at the Fillmore Auditorium which we attended. The Jefferson Airplane also headlined the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, which we also attended. They headlined other famous concerts, such as the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and the Altamont Free Concert of 1969. Two of their songs "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" are among the 500 Greatest Songs of all time, and were played on Friday.
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One of the Jefferson Airplane's musicians was Paul Kantner, who when he split from the group in the 1970s founded the Jefferson Starship band. Their catalog included their own songs as well as rock classics. Grace Slick, the Jefferson Airplane's lead singer, joined the Jefferson Starship and kept singing her well known tunes such as <i>Somebody to Love</i>, as well as <i>White Rabbit</i>, which she had written. Kantner died in 2016, age 74. Grace Slick was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, wrote a book and retired from her musical career. Now 84 years old she lives in California and paints. In the pictures below she is to the right of Janis Joplin, in the 1960's, and now in her Malibu studio.
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Below, some of her paintings.
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The Jefferson Starship keeps touring the US and internationally (they were in Japan last January.) They had 15 energized performances scheduled for 2023 and one of them is this weekend with the Nashville Symphony at the Schermerhorn Center, shown below. We had seats on the balcony on the left.
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First we parked the car near the symphony hall then walked a couple of blocks to the Assembly Food Hall for dinner. While going there we went down Broadway. It is Nashville's famous street packed with many places to drink and listen to live music. It was raining but there still were many people queuing to enter all the bars and honky tonks pumping their music out into the street. They had the walls and windows open so the music was quite loud. The bands and singers could be seen on stages and people dancing on the floor. All types of music could be heard: classic country, rockabilly (southern style rock,) blues, guitar, karaoke, old time music, bluegrass, etc. These places are open every day from 10 am to 3 am and there is no cover charge to enter them. Even being Thursday night with rain, they were packed. Below is Broadway at night and on a weekend.
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Many musicians and singers live in Nashville and the surrounding areas. I hear it is not uncommon to see famous country stars come into a club and stage an impromptu performance. Tourists come here from the US and overseas. Nashville also has a reputation as being a top destination for bachelorette and bachelor parties. They come from all over the country and ride in open air buses down Broadway, wearing cowboy's hats and boots, drinking and carrying on loudly. They ride in "transportainment" vehicles, some can pedal while drinking. These vehicles can be buses, tractors, trucks with hot tubs and so on. Click on collage to enlarge. Photos below courtesy the Honky-Tonk Express.
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Being a rainy Thursday night in November, I only saw about 3 of those party vehicles - they come mostly in spring and summer weekends. We reached the Assembly Food Hall and took the escalator upstairs. This is a European style multi-level culinary and entertainment place. It is large, about 100,000 square feet with 30+ eateries and bars, three live performance stages and a sky deck with views of Broadway. We decided to eat Vietnamese food. It was very tasty as each restaurant has been hand-picked for its high quality food.
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Then it was time to go to the concert. The Jefferson Starship band consists of co-founding member David Freiberg (rhythm guitar/vocals) who also co-founded Quicksilver Messenger Service (another San Francisco band from 1965) - David is 85 years old. Another classic member is Donny Baldwin on drums, 72, then Chris Smith on keyboard with bass, Jude Gold the lead guitar, and singer Cathy Richardson. In the photo below, Donny Baldwin is on the right, Cathy Richardson with Jude Gold on top of collage and below, David Freiberg on left next to Chris Smith and Jude Gold.
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In January 2020 I had been to this Schermerhorn Symphony Center to see "Salute to Vienna," a New Year Viennese Style celebration - see my post <a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2020/02/2020-so-far-to-1920s-and-30s.html">here</a>. My daughter had come with me then, but this time she is attending a medical conference in Miami Beach, Florida, and had to miss this performance. The design of this concert hall provides vivid acoustical clarity. During the year a broad range of classical, pop, jazz, and family concerts are offered here. The sound was truly very clear.
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Being on the balcony we could see both the symphony musicians and the Jefferson Starship group quite well. I tried to take some photos with my cell phone. They are not very good but they give an idea of the show.
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Cathy Richardson has great vocal abilities and delivers vigorous harmonies. David at 85 has retained his sensational vocals. This band does not sound like a "senior" band, that's for sure. Photo below courtesy Stefan Nilsson.
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David Freiberg is not the only star performing in his 80s. Many artists of that age have also kept their energy and vocal strength, such as Paul McCartney of the Beatles, at 81, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, at 80 and Ringo Starr who is still touring at 83. Their sound is still fresh and relevant. Below on right Mick Jagger, and Ringo, David on left and Paul.
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Jefferson Starship performed for about 45 minutes with sets from the Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship classics and their newer songs. Then there was a 15 minute break followed by another 45 minutes of music. I wish I could have a video sample of this performance but I found a short on YouTube of Jude Gold playing <i>Empryonic Journey</i>. He is truly a super guitar player.
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This had been a terrific show with excellent music from the 60s, 70, 80s to the present, as they are still evolving. Their music was full of rhythm, energy and joy. It was a thrill to listen to them and a lot of fun.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-2347583842439245722023-10-31T19:09:00.001-04:002023-10-31T22:31:42.654-04:00Marietta - Chalktoberfest 2023<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjngpIEniJ-UyaXCuhYtMAU-ZJkRfQFvnyC_Iagvg2qlxmoCPYrBwzHzNrM1S2Hj4km5q9WgdOa4pGZMAzJYe1m6g8rc1xL7W4psWJAtPS4ZgePVNVnMs5-cSiYo4MsW3iTaabxeYt4GNFfo1QBY5Bq0lSu7ETBiilZJWARTBqvcFWmq1JH2HS27qkYTBf6/s622/IMG_1608%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjngpIEniJ-UyaXCuhYtMAU-ZJkRfQFvnyC_Iagvg2qlxmoCPYrBwzHzNrM1S2Hj4km5q9WgdOa4pGZMAzJYe1m6g8rc1xL7W4psWJAtPS4ZgePVNVnMs5-cSiYo4MsW3iTaabxeYt4GNFfo1QBY5Bq0lSu7ETBiilZJWARTBqvcFWmq1JH2HS27qkYTBf6/s600/IMG_1608%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
This year the chalk festival was held on Saturday October 14 and Sunday October 15 in Marietta, Georgia. I had planned to leave Nashville for Georgia on that Sunday but when I found out about the festival I left on Saturday. The Craft Beer Fest part of the festival was only on Saturday. With the purchase of a ticket one could have unlimited beer samples from dozens of local and national brands. I don't drink beer often, maybe once or twice a year, so I did not miss attending this. I missed the chalk festival in 2022 as I was travelling out of the country at the time. The chalk festival has grown a lot, maybe too much for my liking. It has become quite commercialized, with more arts and crafts vendors, more food and beverage trucks, with long lines.
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I read that, because the weather was cloudy and cool, the crowds were not as large as last year, so I am pleased I did not go last year as already this year it took a while to take pictures as you had to queue to see them. This chalk festival started in 2013 as a fundraiser for the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art with just a few artists. When my late husband and I went to the 2014 festival the 40 professional chalk artists then were from eight US states. Now this year there were 83 chalk professionals from all over the US, many from Mexico as well as some from Japan, Italy, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia, France and Ukraine. They still compete around the Marietta Square, which has not grown any, so it gets crowded. There used to be around 10,000 visitors to the two-day event, but now the number reaches 100,000. There are also now 400 volunteers working in shifts. You can look at earlier posts of the chalk festival by clicking on the side of my blog. The aerial photo of the Square, below, was taken a couple of years ago, when less crowded.
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Glover Park is in the center of the Square, with a fountain, benches, children play area and a couple of kiosks. Local bands were playing on the kiosk stage. The park was decorated for Halloween.
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There was also a community chalk competition with categories for schools, children, teens and adults. Below are entries from children and teens.
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Nowadays with cell phones, most people were taking "selfies" in front of the chalk arts. But it still was worth waiting to look at all these chalk paintings.
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It seems that this year there was more 3D or anamorphic chalk art. An anamorphic image is a 3D illusion. It is an image that has been stretched out on the ground so that the 3D effect is only visible from a specific spot. If you walk around the piece, it starts to distort. Be sure to click on collage to enlarge.
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I stopped and chatted for a while with Joel Yau, a skilled artist from San Rafael, California. He has been coming to Marietta for years and I took photos of his art each time. This time his subject was <i>Portrait of a Young Man</i> by Annibale Garracci (Italian, 1560-1609.) Joel told me where to find the chalk artist from France, on the other side of the Square.
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While walking there I took some photos of the numerous dogs at the event. I tried to take the photo of a friendly white dog, but he kept looking the other way. Then he suddenly turned around and came so close to my Canon on my chest that I could only take his nose with my little Sony. It was easier to take a photo of some stuffed dogs, not moving.
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Chalk portrait of dogs, and one cat, on the pavement were not moving, either.
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I passed by more lovely chalk art. The name of the sponsor is below the chalk art, as well as a little sign with the name of the artist and a small box for tips.
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I reached the spot where Dogan Sitki, a Turkish chalk artist, had created a 3D portrait of Spanish painter Salvador Dali. Sitki is a talented artist who after obtaining a master's degree in industrial design and working as an academic assistant for two years decided that his passion was street art. He has received awards from national and international competitions. I found a couple more of his work online.
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Some of the chalk art was on boards rather than on the asphalt.
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There were so many more - and I did not take pictures of all of them, but I tried!
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The chalk used is much thicker than regular blackboard chalk. The sticks are rougher so they won't constantly break on the tough tarmac of the road.
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As usual, there were many colorful and stunning works on the ground. It must be quite tiring to keep drawing, bent over the pavement all day. As I was walking, some of the designs seem to leap off, especially the 3D designs. I have looked in awe at pictures of Julian Beever's anamorphic drawings, or trompe-l'oeil. He is a British sidewalk chalk artist born in 1959 who has been creating his designs on the rough pavement since the 1990s. He is known all over the world for his chalk drawings. Here are some examples of his work, courtesy Julian Beever, net.
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As I was slowing walking around the Square I finally reached the surface where Jean-Marc Navello, from France, had drawn his chalk art. By then the crowds were diminishing and I was able to speak to him. He certainly looked up when he heard me speak in French. He said I was the first French person he had seen during the two-day event. He asked me if I was there on vacation and was surprised when I told him I had lived in Cobb County for decades. Jean-Marc came from Toulon, in the South of France. He is a graphic designer and illustrator who started his street painting when he saw a chalk festival in France in 2010. Since then he has not let go of his chalk set. His work that day was a 3D piece inspired by modern art.
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Jean-Marc told me there are two types of street painters on the ground - first, those who reproduce paintings by great masters or some designs and, second, those who practice free art, which is what he does, mostly in 3D. He said: "<i>It's pure creation. I first create my image on a computer, print it and use it as a model for the reproduction on the floor.</i>" Jean-Marc is a multi-award winner, from France, Italy and Great Britain. I asked him if he had entered many street competitions in the US and he replied that is is not easy, as he needs a sponsor to help with costs, and so far he has only been to Marietta, Georgia. He added that it is an ephemeral art form and thus difficult to find sponsors. Below is more of his work.
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Chalk street painting is certainly ephemeral - here this weekend and gone within days. But what is not ephemeral? Wealth is made and lost, good health can disappear, friends can drift apart, colors fade, borders shift, and memories are forgotten. Permanence is an illusion. So, let celebrate this ephemeral art and enjoy it while it lasts.
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<i><b>Qual è la vita ma l'ombra di un sogno fugace</b>? </i> - Umberto Eco, Italian, 1936-2016
<i>(Qu'est-ce que la vie sinon l'ombre d'un rêve éphémère</i>? - <i>What is life but the shadow of a fleeting dream</i>?)
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-12886295157720130872023-10-01T15:53:00.004-04:002023-10-01T17:51:37.689-04:00Atlanta Quilt Festival part 2, and Mr. Jimmy's 99th<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_vnqdVYUM2Nb23gBlCyUqlQmRC-iIrwl319CxU2b9etfaQhl4uXhehlbnt4TopK84x8nffcH3xfeK1ieUU8j8FccSwglcrTYaYHlyj8lX2VFOwldJBokhhWzZswzanrmWmqchD4hGJTgQuN4S0HrhUiOtIHRb1rvH2nS02zrszhOOz87yGFVol-wwuMBy/s3000/joji%20p%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_vnqdVYUM2Nb23gBlCyUqlQmRC-iIrwl319CxU2b9etfaQhl4uXhehlbnt4TopK84x8nffcH3xfeK1ieUU8j8FccSwglcrTYaYHlyj8lX2VFOwldJBokhhWzZswzanrmWmqchD4hGJTgQuN4S0HrhUiOtIHRb1rvH2nS02zrszhOOz87yGFVol-wwuMBy/s600/joji%20p%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
Before I resume my post on the Atlanta Quilt Festival, I'd like to celebrate former President Jimmy Carter 99th birthday today. James Earl Carter, Jr. was born in Plains, Georgia, on October 1st, 1924, and this is where he still lives now. Plains is a small town of about 776 inhabitants, 2 1/2 hours south of Atlanta, and found among pine trees, peanut farms, and magnolias. The whole town is celebrating the 99th birthday of their beloved Mr. Jimmy, as they call him. Below, the National Park Rangers holding a birthday sign, courtesy CNN.
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The Carter Center in Atlanta created a mosaic from the 15,000+ birthday greetings that have been received, so far, for Jimmy Carter. These came from celebrities, politicians, regular folks, from every state in the USA, from Europe, Australia, Africa and more.
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In the last several years, Pres. Carter overcame a brain tumor, a broken hip and several falls. He entered hospice care last February. We thought the end was near but here we are celebrating his 99th birthday today. President Biden had a large happy birthday sign placed on the lawn of the White House. (Courtesy Atlanta Journal Constitution.) (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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In my last post on the Atlanta Quilt Festival, part 1, I explained a bit about U.S. Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020,) a Georgia Representative, his life and achievements. There is so much more to tell about him as he accomplished a great deal. He had a fascinating life. He started in humble beginnings in cotton fields of the segregated American South. His parents' house had no plumbing or electricity. He ended as one of the finest Americans who ever lived. His life had not been easy, but he persevered. It was a joy to see him celebrated in colorful happy quilts. In my last post I showed quilts in the adjacent building to the Atlanta Southwest Art Center. In this post I'll show those exhibited in the main building, and there were many. Below is a quilt in honor of John Lewish' mother, Willa Mae Lewis.
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In 2011, President Obama awarded Lewis the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This was in gratitude for his more than 50 years on the frontline of the civil rights movement.
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John Lewis wrote several books. I have some of them including his memoirs called "Walk with the Wind." I have not finished reading it yet, it's about 500 pages long. At the start of Covid I bought a mask showing part of one of his quotations "<i>Good Trouble</i>."
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The main building was filled with many other colorful quilts of various designs, floral, geometric and traditional. It was a feast for the eye and I took many photos, too many to show here or my post would be 6 pages long or more. I'll show some below while I'd like to address John's optimism and joy of life.
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With all the horrible violence, hatred and injustice Lewis encountered you would think that he might have turned bitter or looking for some revenge, but on the contrary, he was always kind, generous and happy. He worked well in the Congress on both sides of the aisle, the Republicans and the Democrats. They all had the highest esteem for him and called him "<i>the conscience of Congress</i>."
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My mother was also very optimistic all her life. I rarely heard her complain. She had been with my father when they had their head-on collision with a drunk driver. Both her knees were completely smashed and she could not walk. Then she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and became partly paralyzed. Every time I called her on the phone, she always said she was feeling great and happy (even though all alone and unable to get out of the house for years.) But there are so many people who enjoy complaining. I remember as a child in France, we had a neighbor who was never happy. His wife had died several years earlier of lung cancer, even though she never smoked - but he did. He felt that cancer was her fault and it was not fair that now he had to take care of her little dog. We would see him in the street walking the dog; my mum would say "How are you, Mr. Vardin?" "Terrible, I could not sleep all night... must have been the food I bought at the grocery..." another time would be "I tried to weed my garden, it was muddy and I brought mud all over the house and there is no one to clean it ..." another time "I have an infected toe and now have to walk that stupid dog..." He had a sister close by but he said he had not spoken to her in years. He claimed she was nasty and it was <i>her fault</i> that they did not speak. Even looking at a lovely quilt, I think he would have found some fault in it.
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I remember my mum telling me to stay away from people who are negative and constantly talking about their misery or bad luck. She said it could become contagious. I asked her "<i>like a cold?</i>" yes, she had answered. I thought she was kidding. But I found articles saying just that. "<i>Emotions are contagious,</i>" wrote the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Studies suggest that other people's moods may be as easy to catch as their germs. You can be infected with someone's happiness - or sadness. It is called <i>emotional contagion</i> (EC.) They found that upbeat emotions such as enthusiasm and joy, as well as negative ones such as sadness, fear and anger, can easily be passed from one person to another, often without either party realizing it. In addition negative emotions are more infectious than good ones. Dr. Elaine Hatfield, a psychologist at the University of Hawaii said "<i>Emotional contagion happens within milliseconds, so quick you can't control it, and so subtly that you're not really aware it's going on."</i> Some people have clinical depression certainly, but that is a mental condition that needs medical care. I'm just talking about the people who see everything black, often depressed, stingy with their money or feelings, are critical of others and are, in a way, asking for your commiseration or for you to recall one of your own problems.
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Negative, complaining people would not see the joy of life in the above quilts, what we call in France <i>Joie de Vivre</i>. Instead they tend to be more anxious, and their anxiety prevents them from noticing the little moments of delight that could change their mood. If a family member or a friend is always whining about something, someone, or the state of the world, chances are that you'll soon feel down too. Both President Carter and Representative Lewis were kind, without malice, seeing the good in everyone and very optimistic.
"<i>Rejoice in the sky, in the sun, in the grass and trees, in the animals and people</i>," said Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian writer.
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As for me, I feel happy and lucky. If I am blue, it is not because I am down in spirit, but like yesterday, it is because I was wearing blue. The day was lovely, not too warm only 85 F (29.4 C,) and the sky was blue. I wore a printed cotton blue top, light blue trousers and blue sneakers. My daughter and family took me to a southern "family" restaurant (I'll post on it next time) in a historical building. The food was delicious, the company was fun and it was a very enjoyable day. Blue reminds me of the sky and the sea rather than grief and bad mood.
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John Lewis said "<i>Be hopeful. Be optimistic. Never lose that sense of hope</i>." He also said "<i>Hate is too heavy a burden to bear. If you start hating people, you have to decide who you are going to hate tomorrow, who you are going to hate next week</i>." As Lewis saw it, the answer was: "<i>Just love everybody</i>."
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Here is another good quotation: "<i>The Happiness of your life depends on the nature of your thoughts</i>." Marcus Aurelius, (AD121-AD180) Roman Emperor and philosopher.
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So keep happy thoughts, find joy in your life. Listen to music and dance in your mind. You may think that this is corny advice, but it has worked for me. When my late husband was toward the end of his Alzheimer's disease and could no longer speak, I'd bring music close to him on my iPad. He would listen and smile, and that made me smile, too, and still feel some happiness.
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President Jimmy Carter and Representative John Lewis have had incredible, ethical lives. Georgia can be proud to have had two illustrious men serving the public - Jimmy Carter as Governor of the state, then as 39th President of the United States followed by decades as a worldwide humanitarian. John Robert Lewis was successful as a Georgia Congressman representing Atlanta in the United States House of Representatives for 33 years, until his death. They served their fellow citizens with diplomacy, compassion, honesty and skill. These are qualities to celebrate in politicians.
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Before his death, on July 17, 2020 (from pancreatic cancer) John Lewis had penned an essay for the New York Times. This was published on the day of his funeral, on July 30, 2020. It was moving, filled with understanding and hope for the future. It was also a call to stand up for justice, to be motivated by human compassion. He eloquently had written: "<i>Though I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.</i>" With inspiring words he told that each of us had a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. His last sentence was "<i>So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide</i>."
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Both of these men are selfless role models who showed us the way to justice and a better society. Now it is our turn to continue their work - are we capable of the task? (Below quilt by Veronica Mays, called "<i>Madame President</i>.")
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-20993261861028415012023-08-24T20:48:00.002-04:002023-08-24T22:33:07.139-04:00Quilts for John Lewis, with joy and gratitude - Atlanta Quilt Festival, part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnuxZBNAM1MaFSWSOXdj9gkrArnc7FPW4Mj0pD-y16CB87NBtEa98C4X3f1lv7dKwIVaWw0fCZgHT9_JivwICCVI9vNr6gs6NMUbbN52IllUPPfKCNQJLCEgkKwmq9SWRjTBfM9ZrIL_h7UxeKoVlVNY6JyOrR_An-WjhiW1rGXTp955oM4VbwwgW8ZuAx/s644/DSC04851.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="644" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnuxZBNAM1MaFSWSOXdj9gkrArnc7FPW4Mj0pD-y16CB87NBtEa98C4X3f1lv7dKwIVaWw0fCZgHT9_JivwICCVI9vNr6gs6NMUbbN52IllUPPfKCNQJLCEgkKwmq9SWRjTBfM9ZrIL_h7UxeKoVlVNY6JyOrR_An-WjhiW1rGXTp955oM4VbwwgW8ZuAx/s600/DSC04851.JPG"/></a></div>
Last week I was in my house in Georgia, again. For those who have not read my prior posts - my house has an address in Marietta, however it is located about 10 miles outside the center of town and city limits. It is nearer two other towns, 6 miles each from Kennesaw and Acworth and 6 miles even from Dallas in the next rural county, Paulding. There is an article in The Discoverer blog mentioning Marietta - read it here "<a href="https://www.thediscoverer.com/blog/8-of-the-most-underrated-cities-in-the-so/ZNGmLIj5sgAHF2m_">8 of the Most Underrated Cities in the South</a>." I have visited five of these eight - including Ellijay, Georgia; I wrote several posts including Ellijay, look <a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2011/10/apple-festival-in-ellijay.html">here</a> and <a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2015/10/apples-and-pumpkins-in-ellijay-georgia.html">here</a>. Below is an overview of Marietta center. My house is west of it, at the base of Kennesaw Mountain, in West Cobb County (where I placed a red mark.) (photo coursesy The Discoverer.) The bottom photos are about a couple of miles from my house.
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While there I wanted to go on a small outing, not far. When checking, I found several exhibits in greater Atlanta including a quilt show. I enjoy visiting quilt shows and have posted several from Bulloch Hall, in Roswell, GA - you can find them by clicking on the side of my post. When I saw that this was a special exhibit in honor of our late Georgia Congressman, John Lewis, of course I had to go. It was in Southwest Atlanta, off Cascade Road, at the Southwest Arts Center. Arriving there in mid-morning, two visitors were leaving, and then I was the only one, having the show all to myself. The center is immaculate and well landscaped.
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The Atlanta Quilt Festival honoring John Lewis is a trilogy started in 2022 with "Good Trouble Quilts - Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Congressman John Lewis" followed in 2023 and 2024 by quilts focusing on the accomplishments and the life of John, and the power of joy and gratitude expressed by quilters who benefited from his work and sacrifices.
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The side building had two large and sunny rooms with the John Lewis quilts.
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Most of the quilts in these rooms had small labels next to each quilt with the quilter's name and the meaning of the work. (Please click on collage once or twice to enlarge and be able to read.)
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John Lewis was a magnificent man, a good man, an inspiration, a Civil Rights giant. I believe he is one of the most admired and respected Americans in the nation, and frankly, he is a hero of mine. John Lewis (1940-2020) was among the original Freedom Riders (the Black and white activists who challenged segregation in the South in 1961.) He helped organize the March on Washington, where Dr. King was the main speaker. On March 7, 1965, John lead a group of 600 who were marching to demand the right to vote in Selma, Alabama. As they were crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge they were met by state troopers in riot gear. As they would not disperse the troopers threw tear gas and attacked the marchers with bullwhips and rubber tubing wrapped with barbed wire. There, a trooper cracked John's skull with a club and beat him again while he was on the ground. Some of the quilts below depicts this.
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Between 1960 and 1966 John Lewis was arrested 40+times, and beaten repeatedly by Southern policemen. He was left in a pool of blood in Montgomery, Alabama, in a bus terminal where white people had beaten him. He spent many nights in county jails including 31 days in Mississippi's brutal Parchman Penitentiary.
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Here in Nashville, John Lewis in February 1960 led a group of students to sit-down at the Woolworth's lunch counter, where only whites could be served. The counter was closed one hour later and the students arrested. John Lewis kept pursuing civil rights equity for the rest of his life. The early movement in Nashville was the start of desegregation of lunch counters and restaurants across the US. (Below vintage photo courtesy The Nashville Tennessean.)
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A couple of years ago I had heard that this Woolworth building downtown Nashville had re-opened as a lunch and dinner restaurant after a $6 million renovation. The owner, a Nashville native, had found and assembled many vintage historical artifacts to place in this building, such as the "Black only" sign near a water fountain. The original mezzanine with terrazzo floors and metal railings had also be uncovered. Archival photos were hanged on the wall. I was going to drive there for lunch but then Covid happened. Just now, trying to see if it was still open for business I found out that it closed after the pendemic and was sold. It was re-opened by entrepeneurs after being remodeled into a theatre, Las Vegas style, with a "for adults only" show called "shiners," with some X-rated scenes, and all of it very much insensitive to minorities. Historic Nashville had recommended that a Civil Rights Movement trained preservationist be included in the remodeling to ensure that items of historical value be preserved. This was not done and most were tossed away in a dumpster. Last fall the building was even rented for the premiere of the controversial right-wing film "The Greatest Lie ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of the Black Lives Matter." Well, I have no words... Below top photo the building after renovation in 2018 then after remodeling as a theatre in 2020, courtesy Nashville Scene.
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It is quite painful for me to see this happening to such an historical building, but then again I am not surprised. In Atlanta there are few historical Civil Rights buildings left, and those that are still standing have received little recognition and are in disrepair; not much for future generations to visit. After having lived in the US many years I realized that this country is not interested in preserving its historical buildings if they have to spend their money, and certainly not for Black History... I wish US tourists would stay here and spend some of their money preserving their own old buildings than crowd European cities like my home town, Paris, France. I checked and in 2022 the US Government funding for the arts (and that includes historic preservation, museums, theatres, etc.) was about $4.40 per habitat. Per comparison France in 2023 is funding the arts in greater Paris 139 Euros per habitat, or $150.21, and 15 Euros, or $16.21 for the rest of the country. If French tax payers did not pay for the arts, by now all the old castles, churches and all the museums would not be worth visiting, as entry fares alone are not enough to maintain them, and churches don't even charge. I have been a member of the American Historic Preservation for many years. Yearly membership is less than a fancy meal at a restaurant. I don't know anyone else who belongs. Here is the latest issue I received.
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There were a large amount of quilts in the main building, and I'll show them in part two of this post. More to come ...
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-12297577443335876062023-07-31T20:32:00.005-04:002023-09-23T20:14:02.154-04:00Indian Regiments marching in Paris Bastille Day Parade, 14 July 2023<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMloiKBHEdfQQNPMZLUvehjj1XKsdjB-ouLzrjdNgBaOIoQSTBZrh9-ApUXbKB8SnTZd4Ct-_G_x0uyOpy2dX3RHuyTzdBI7LtRQ8xVjsRxQl3qmph1FYo6DDI3p8cziucKJmIFZRjGNos6uT1Ybnyyb4PwCTWpgoatLY3DNEmWVQ5ZGvZfoNyJ9VcGwes/s450/Bande%20du%2014%20juillet%203.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMloiKBHEdfQQNPMZLUvehjj1XKsdjB-ouLzrjdNgBaOIoQSTBZrh9-ApUXbKB8SnTZd4Ct-_G_x0uyOpy2dX3RHuyTzdBI7LtRQ8xVjsRxQl3qmph1FYo6DDI3p8cziucKJmIFZRjGNos6uT1Ybnyyb4PwCTWpgoatLY3DNEmWVQ5ZGvZfoNyJ9VcGwes/s600/Bande%20du%2014%20juillet%203.jpg"/></a></div>
(Notice: I have not written a post in almost three months, but am making up with this post...) Time has gone by very quickly since my last post in early May on my trip to the North Georgia Mountains. When I returned to my house in Cobb County, GA., the water heater needed to be replaced. Then in June I traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to spend time with my daughter Celine and her family. I had planned to write a post on this visit but had to return to my house in Georgia in early July because two trees had fallen on the roof.
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As I am writing this post my air conditioning unit stopped working on Friday in the upper part of the house in Nashville. My bedroom temperature went up to 97 F (36 C,) making it difficult to have a good night sleep. The Weather Forecast Channel on TV just told us to expect more warm days coming up - feeling like 117 F (47.2C) in Nashville. Scientists are saying that this month of July 2023 has been the warmest on record so far and might even be the warmest the planet has experienced in 120,000 years! But, no fear, my hairdresser in Georgia told me last week that there is no climate change, it's just a "liberal" plot ... (Cartoon courtesy New Orleans The Times Picayune.)
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Through the plantation shutters next to my laptop desk I can see little birds getting a relief from the heat in the small water dish I placed on the front porch. It is the bottom dish of a large planter. I also placed a "Mosquito Dunk" tablet in it to avoid mosquito larvae (non toxic to birds, pets, animals or humans) that I purchased on Amazon. I like watching all the different birds having a good time, sometimes up to 6 or 8 of them at a time.
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In spite of my house problems I was able to watch the Paris 14 of July celebrations on the French Military Armed Forces website and also on the Mayor of Paris website. The French National Holiday is called "Le 14 Juillet" (14 July) but English speaking people call it "Bastille Day" after the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 during the French Revolution (however, in France, no one would know what you mean if you asked about Bastille Day.) What people don't realize here is that there were only 3 prisoners in the huge Bastille jail then. The people had stormed it because it contained arms and ammunitions, not to free the 3 prisoners. In previous posts I explained the history of the holiday; please look under Bastille Day on the right side of my blog.
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The celebrations start on the evening of July 13 with a torchlight procession, that is, participants in many cities and villages walk down streets holding torches or lanterns/lampoons in their hands, following a local band, then go on to a public square for public dancing. On the morning of the 14 there is the traditional <i>Défilé Militaire du 14 juillet</i>, or Bastille Day Military Parade, down the Champs-Elysees. Started in 1880, it is one of the oldest military parades in the world. It is the main official event honoring French military regiments and includes each year different invited foreign guests and regiments. This is one of the main occasions when you will see many French flags all around. French people respect their flag but the rest of the time they don't have it on their cars, or flown from their houses, etc. You will see it in official places like schools, police stations, customs check-points, and in support of the national teams during international competitions but you won't find it in front of a commercial business, or on tee-shirts, baseball caps, clothes or other decorative objects. As in many European countries (apart from the UK that is a constitutional monarchy)people placing out too many national flags are frown upon and considered to be extreme-right extremists, or uber nationalists. In addition, there is no "Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag" in France like in the United States. Again, most European citizens of democratic countries would find it quite bizarre, not saying undemocratic, incredibly creepy and borderline fascistic.
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For 2023, the Bastille Day parade included 6,500 people (5,100 of them marching,) 64 planes, 28 helicopters, 157 ground vehicles, 62 motorcycles, 200 horses and 86 dogs. Nearly 15 countries were invited to the parade including India, this year guest of honor. Prime Minister Norendra Modi watched the parade alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. It was also the 25th anniversary of the India-France Strategic Partnership and the 70th anniversary of the Patrouille de France. The Patrouille had their traditional aerial display that included French-made Indian war planes. Vehicles on display included the Caesar anti-missile batteries that France is providing to Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials were also invited to join Pres. Macron in the VIP seats. Below Patrouille de France (courtesy Ministeres des Armees.)
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Another highlight were students from partner African military schools (Benin, Congo-Brazzavile, Gabon, Madagascar, Ivory Coast and Senegal) marching with residents of French military schools. Below photos of two of the African military schools in the parade, from Madagascar on top photo and Ivory Coast on the bottom. (Courtesy Madagascar Tribune.)
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In tribute to the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of Jean Moulin, the French civil servant hero who created the National Council of the French Resistance, musicians played the "Chant des partisants," a song that is a symbol of indomitable spirit against evil. This was the French Resistance anthem during World War II. Jean Moulin, 1899-1943, the leader of the Resistance, was tortured by the Nazis in one prison after another and died in 1943 in a train taking him to Germany. An international orchestra, made up of 80 musicians from France and 14 partner countries (Canada, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States) played for the parade until the Patrouille de France flew over.
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The parade included a 269 member tri-services contingent of the Indian Armed Forces with 77 marching personnel and 38 band members (including the Rajputana Rifles Regiment Band,) led by Captain Aman Jagtap. The Indian Navy contingent was being led by Commander Vrat Baghel, while Squadron Leader Sindhu Reddy lead the Indian Air Force contingent. The Punjab Regiment had been selected to represent the Indian Army for this Bastille Day celebrations. The Punjab Regiment, one of the oldest Infantry Regiments of the Indian Army that traces its origins to 1761, had participated in both World Wars as well as post-independence operations. Historically, 107 years ago, the Punjab Regiment had marched down the Champs-Elysees for the 14 July 1916 parade, after taking part in some battles of World War I. (Photos courtesy Ministere des Armees, La Ville de Paris, and the Élysée Palace.) Please click on collage to enlarge.
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Below are vintage photographs and postcards of the Punjab Regiment at the 14 July parade of 1916 and at the rail station Gare du Nord (below right.) Top left photo is a French lady pinning a flower in gratitude on one of the Indian soldiers' lapel.
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World War I began on August 4, 1914, after Great Britain declared war against Germany. When the British Army requested military support from their Indian colony, Sikhs, Pendjabis and Gurkas arrived in Marseille, France. On September 26, 1914, the British Punjab's 20th troop of the Lahore Division and of the 129th Baluchis of pre-partition India were the first colonial force to deploy in Europe. They trained in Marseille while waiting to be sent to the front lines. Below are vintage postcards of the Anglo-Indian regiments in Marseille, France in Sept. 1914.
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Then these Anglo-Indian troops went to Toulouse and Orleans, France, on their way north. Between September 1914 and October 1918, 140,000 Indian troops arrived to fight in France and Belgium. Below are vintage postcards of them in France.
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As you can see there were quite a few Indian troops in the First World War, but I have never heard about them in the US - they must have been forgotten here. I tried to find books in English on this subject, but could not, but I did find books published in France. Below a couple of them plus an article on the Excelsior Journal published in France on December 14, 1914, showing injured Indian soldiers.
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In the north of France they took part in an offensive near Neuve-Chapelle from March 10 to 13, 1915, earning the Battle Honors "Loos" and "France and Flanders" - over 8,550 were killed and as many as 50,000 more were wounded. In total about 10,000 Indian soldiers died in France during the First World War. Several monuments in their honor were erected in France, notably the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial. It was inaugurated on 7 October, 1927, by Marshal Foch, and attended by the Maharaja of Karputhala, Rudyard Kipling and a large contingent of Indian veterans representing units that fought in France, including Sikhs, Dogras and Garhwalis. Marshal Ferdinand Foch (French, 1851-1919,) the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces (and generally considered the leader most reponsible for the Allied victory,) gave a speech, including this: "<i>Return to your homes in the distant, sun-bathed East and proclaim how your countrymen drenched with their blood the cold northern land of France and Flanders, and how they delivered it by their ardent spirit from the firm grip of a determined army; tell all India that we shall watch over their graves with the devotion due to all our dead. We shall cherish above all the memory of their example. They showed us the way, they made the first steps towards the final victory.</i>" Speaking after the war, Marshal Foch said the Indian Army had delivered the war's first decisive steps to victory; they were critical in stemming the tide of the German invasion of Belgium and France. Without their early arrival, the port of Calais would not have been saved, the Western Front would have been breached and the British Expeditionary Forces annihilated. Below photos of the Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial.
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Again in World War II, 1.5 million Anglo-Indian soldiers (including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs) came to defend Africa and Europe. 130,000 of them came to France where thousands died or were wounded. They earned 16 Battle Honors and 14 Theatre Honors. On May 28, 1940, 300 Indian soldiers (all of them Muslims) and 23 British troops evacuated the city of Dunkirk, but their story has been mostly forgotten, as well as in movies about Dunkirk. Read about it <a href="https://thelogicalindian.com/history/know-about-the-forgotten-indian-heroes-of-dunkirk-who-were-lost-in-the-chapters-of-history-30773">here</a> or on the BBC report <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58466527">here</a>. (World War Two: The forgotten Indian soldiers of Dunkirk.) Numerous soldiers hailing from former French trading posts in India - now in present day Pondicherry/Puducherry - also fought in France. France never forgot the suffering and heroism of all these men. President Macron tweeted "<i>This 14 July, soldiers and Rafale aircraft from India are marching and flying alongside our troops. We honor the memory of those who fough with the French in the two World Wars.</i>" Photo below British Indian Army Service Corps on parade in France in 1940 (courtesy Wikipedia.)
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Another unsung hero coming from India was Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944) the descendant of Indian royalty. She was the daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic, Inayat Khan, born in Bombay. He lived in Europe as a musician and teacher of Sufism where he became the head of the "Sufi Order of the West." Her mother was an American, Ora Ray Baker, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Noor, also known as Nora Baker, was an SOE agent under the French Resistance, her code name was "Madeleine." She was the first female wireless operator sent from the UK to aid the French Resistance during World War II. She was betrayed, captured, tortured then executed at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. On January 16, 1946, French President Charles de Gaulle awarded her the Croix de Guerre (highest civilian honor.) She was also honored with the British S. George Cross. There is a plaque (shown below) outside her family home in Suresnes, France. A band plays there every year on Bastille Day. A square in the city of Suresnes has been named Cours Madeleine after her. Photos courtesy the National Archives and Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust: top left Noor and her mother Ora, next to Noor playing her veena instrument; bottom photo of Noor's family.
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A school in Suresnes, a city 9.3 km (5.7 miles) from the center of Paris, is named after her.
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French history with India is a long one, over three centuries, from 1674 to 1954. I remember when I was a small girl studying in Paris public primary school, France still had trading posts in India. I had to memorize their difficult to pronounce names. They sounded so exotic - I dreamed of visiting these far-away places. I have not yet, but it's still on my list... In 1673, under the reign of French King Louis XIV, France purchased Chandernagore from the Mughal Governor of Bengal. The following year France purchased Pondicherry from the Sultan of Bijapur, and other parts of south India. After the Treaty of Paris of 1763 France only kept five "comptoirs" (or trading posts) in India: Pondicherry, Chandernagor, Karikal, Mahe and Yanaon. (I still remember their names!) When India obtained its independence from the UK in 1947, talks were taken to return four of the French comptoirs to the Indian Union. This was done on November 1, 1954. However the people of Pondicherry were pro-French and feared the overpowering weight of the Indian administrative machinery. After several years of negotiations, an agreement was reached between France and India and a treaty was ratified by the French Parliament in July 1962. By this treaty Pondicherry became Indian Territory and its inhabitants Indian nationals. However, France gave them a six-month opportunity to obtain French citizenship - 8000 of them signed up. It was difficult for them to decide as they were Indians but also went to French schools, spoke French and had been imbued with French culture.
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Of course, now sixty-two years later, the French influence in Pondicherry is fading away, but still...it retains some French culture, for example the headgear of the policemen represents the design adopted in France. There are many French-style houses left along the Bay of Bengal. Pondicherry has a large "French" area in town, with French city streets, cobblestones, restaurants, etc. French is one of the official languages of the Pondicherry's government. A French church, built in 1855, offers mass in three languages - Tamil, French and English. Many streets have retained their French names. There are still 5,500 French-Indian and French people living there, many retire there from France as well. A few years ago the film "The Life of Pi" was filmed in Pondicherry, starting with a scene in the shaded and peaceful Jardins Botaniques. (Photos courtesy Pondy Tourism.)
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Pondicherry, Pondichéry in French, Pondy for short or Puducherry, as it is officially known, is not a large town. It is about 150 miles from the large city of Chennai (was Madras) on the south eastern coast of India. It's a little bit of France in India. The French Quarter is reminiscent of the New Orleans French Quarter. There is a French Consulate (see their sign in the heading photo) French school and college, The Alliance Francaise, French bakeries and shops and, of course, the celebrations of the 14 of July, or Bastille Day in India.
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Bastille Day is a yearly festival in Pondy. On the evening of the 13th there is a lantern march along the Beach Promenade followed by a public dancing for 600 people. Several buildings are illuminated in blue, white and red after the French flag. The police band plays national songs of India and France as part of the celebration. On the 14th, there is a march to the monuments honoring French-Indians and Indians who died in the wars and also to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi (that is illuminated in the tri-colors.) In the evening of the 14th traditional fireworks are fired in front of the French Consulate. I don't think another foreign country in Asia (or anywhere else) sponsors an official French Bastille Day.
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Meanwhile, in Paris, on this July 14, 2023, the crowd attended the usual free concert followed by the fireworks shot from the Eiffel Tower. (Photos courtesy City of Paris.)
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-61401043844993764032023-05-08T16:29:00.001-04:002023-05-08T19:53:44.549-04:00Another day in the mountains...<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYYGwPEBzN6VYtHtsY66kUN05PUBMvJ5Cb-ZK4el-hhybb_iOsWLlGxc--oANj_FgXoYKs8fXDPACwVyLWxZ4HkEQHa4SDB5gtLjjd4UH9DTn7prkrku9YLJLwTtS38fwFJP2ZSGNqxJ2GkOQbFPTFZypFk8YT93sK2V7BI6F2MfoxZ5rBHSasJNNJtw/s640/IMG_7542%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYYGwPEBzN6VYtHtsY66kUN05PUBMvJ5Cb-ZK4el-hhybb_iOsWLlGxc--oANj_FgXoYKs8fXDPACwVyLWxZ4HkEQHa4SDB5gtLjjd4UH9DTn7prkrku9YLJLwTtS38fwFJP2ZSGNqxJ2GkOQbFPTFZypFk8YT93sK2V7BI6F2MfoxZ5rBHSasJNNJtw/s600/IMG_7542%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
The weekend before I visited the Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens in Hiawassee, GA. (see my previous post <a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-mountains-are-calling-and-i-must-go.html">here </a>) was the beginning of their weekend festivals. There were some vendors' tents but they were closed, apart from one that was partly opened. You could see the rustic wood pieces for sale. Before I left the gardens I checked to see if someone was in this tent, but there was no one, although I was able to get a business card of the wood craftsman. In 2019 a large hackberry tree in front of my house in Nashville was struck by lightning and had to be cut down. A piece of the tree was given to me and it fit on top of a plant stand I had. So I was interested in a little table I had seen under the tent in the garden as a match for my plant stand.
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Upon return to the lodge I called the wood artisan and left a message. He called me back and told me he had some pieces for sale in his house and only lived about 6 miles away in Young Harris, GA. We agreed that I would go there the next morning early, before 9 am as I had to meet a friend in Hiawassee at 10:30 am. He gave me his address and said I could find it easily with my GPS. I got up at 6 am the next morning to pack and have a quick breakfast. I was able to take a photo of the sunrise over the lake as pictured in my header photo. I checked Google Maps and saw his house in the middle of woods on a hill. Below is a map of the aread where I was. It is located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains on the border of Georgia and North Carolina. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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I placed the address in my car GPS and drove away. Upon reaching Young Harris my GPS told me to turn right on GA State Route 66, then left, then a bit later right, then further on left, then right again, then left and then it said "You have reached your destination." I was on a hill with no houses anywhere near. I called him and he told me two roads had the same name and I was on the wrong one. My GPS was useless then and I could not remember all the turns. After a while I tried to call him again but I was on a tiny road on a hill and there was no cellular signal. I kept driving but the road was twisting up the mountain. I was totally lost.
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I had seen a house on the side, among the trees, and started going back toward their driveway to ask for directions. Then I remembered that I was in the US, and asking directions can be dangerous. The red marker on the map below shows where his house was and the black cross near the North Carolina border, in the mountains, was where I went.
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I gingerly turned around (as by then the road was one lane) and after twists and turns somehow got back on the main road where my cell phone worked again and he came and met me. I did find a small table at his house and bought it. Then I had to find my way back to the main road again... not easy. This little trip should have taken me 45 minutes but ended taking almost 2 hours (I was lost for a long time...) Luckily I made it back to Hiawassee by 10:30 am to meet my Swiss friend. Then after a nice visit with a strong cup of coffee and a tasty piece of almond cake I drove down the road again toward Bavarian-style Helen, Georgia. It was a lovely morning and the route around the mountains is scenic but I had forgotten that it is steep hill mountain driving on a winding road with blind curves. Although I am used to these mountain roads if I don't use the interstate highways between Tennessee and Georgia, but I had to keep my eyes on the road and not the blubbling stream along the highway.
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Arriving in Helen, I stopped at the Betty's Country Store. The first time my husband and I drove to Hiawassee we stopped at Betty's Country Store to buy a snack for our baby daughters. That was back in 1975. The store had opened in 1973 and was quite small, selling mostly fruits, vegetables and snacks. Now it had expanded quite a lot, like a large supermarket, with meat, beer and wines, etc., and eating areas outdoors.
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I drove about 1.5 miles down to the village of Sautee-Nacoochee and stopped at the Nora Mill Granary Grist Mill and Country Store (one of the southeast's last working grist mill.) A small dam on the Chattahoochee River was built there in 1824, and later, in 1876, a grist mill was established selling grits, flours and cornmeal. The mill is four stories tall and has 1,500 pound French Burr Mill stones, a 100-foot wooden raceway and a water turbine. A gold prospector, John Martin, built the mill in 1876. In 1901 it was purchased by Dr. Lamartine G. Hardman who named the mill after his sister Nora.
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Now the mill has been run by four generation of the Fain family. They still use the original stones to make flours, grits, cornmeal, etc. They sell other products like jams, salsa, hot sauces, syrups, local honeys and pre-packaged products such as pioneer's porridge, pancake and waffle mixes, biscuit and bread mixes amd more. The old-fashioned country store attached to the mill is quaint and it is fun to walk around and look at everything for sale, which I did and took numerous photos.
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An assortment of kitchen items were also for sale such as cast iron cookware, cookbooks, wooden mixing bowls and trays, old-fashioned candles and other attractive kitchen gifts.
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I walked out to the breezeway and porch that overlooks the Chattahoochee River. Large trout could be seen gathering at the foot of the dam.
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It was a warm and sunny day. Watching the trout from the deck and listening to the bubbling river below was vey relaxing after all the mountain driving.
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Back inside I took more photos of interesting old items on the walls.
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There was also information on how the mill operates. It uses turbines rather than the water wheels used by most mills of that time. It gives an idea on how flour was produced in the past, and how this mill has kept producing stone-ground grains for almost 150 years. The mill is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
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Before I left I purchased a few items, some requested by my daughters, and a few for me, as shown below. I make my own jams but I bought a couple that were a mixture, to taste and see if I'd like to try making them - T.O.E jam (tangering, orange, elderberry) and Five Pepper Strawberry jelly (strawberry, green bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, Thai pepper, cayenne pepper, habanero pepper.) For the people who cannot drive to the North Georgia Mountains to buy their products Nora Mill has an online store, click <a href="http://www.noramill.com/shop-1.html">here</a> for it. Once you click on the online store link you will see all the different items for sale, and they ship.
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Then it was time to hit the road again. I could have driven down the highway to Atlanta but that would have meant crossing the city during rush hour... Instead I cut across the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Talking Rock, GA. to join highway I-575 down to my area, close to Kennesaw Mountain. It was a small two lane road from Nacoochee to Talking Rock with many curves, but there was hardly any traffic, and it was scenic.
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I arrived home at 5:30 pm, quite tired and hungry as I had had no lunch. I unloaded the car and noticed that my newly purchased table (made of maple) was a lot smoother and shinier than the piece of hackberry wood I had placed on top of my plant stand. Later, I called the wood artisan to ask him what I should do. He suggested that I bring my piece of wood back to him and he would work on it. Well, now, will I dare go back and get lost in the mountains once more? I told him I may come back in a couple of months...
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There was no fresh food in the house and I did not feel like eating a frozen dinner, so I drove to the local diner. They serve fresh meals with large portions. I usually can bring food home for a couple more meals. I had a meat, two vegetables and a side of coleslaw salad. Then the server came and asked what dessert I had selected. I told him I was full and ate only a third of my meal. He said he would bring me a take-out box and asked again what dessert I wanted. I repeated I desired no dessert to which he replied "you have to select a dessert." I asked him why? He said "because someone has paid for your meal and dessert is included." I asked him who had paid and he said he was not at liberty to tell me. So I selected a piece of strawberry cake to take home. When he brought it to me he said "a funny thing happened - someone else wanted to pay for your meal and I said 'too late, her meal is already paid for'. I was astounded and asked him if this occurred often in his restaurant. He told me he had been working there for a long while and he could think of no other time this took place for one of his customers. I was speechless.
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What a day it had been - getting lost on primitive roads in the North Georgia Mountains after sunrise, and being afraid to ask for directions, then having two different patrons wishing to buy my dinner at sunset. How about that! Certainly a day to remember.
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In a letter to his sister Sarah in September 1873, John Muir (Scottish-American environmentalist, naturalist, author and more, 1838-1914) was recalling his longest and hardest trip into the mountains, but still felt determined to be off again, working in the mountains... He would wake up at 4:30 am and start writing ... he told her "<i>The mountains are calling and I must go, and I will work on while I can...</i>" I have this quotation painted on a piece of wood in my kitchen (that I bought in Dahlonega, a southern Appalachian mountain village in Georgia.)
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As for me, I'm not called to the mountains for work, but to lift my spirits and improve my outlook on life. In a 2013 post "<a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2013/08/time-goes-by-in-park-and-in-restaurants.html">Times goes by in a park...</a>" I explained that since childhood I have lived near mountains or hills. High places have been a sort of refuge for me from the distress of the world. In time of sadness, such as those painful last weeks in Nashville after the school shootings in my neighborhood, I crave going to the mountains. On the first anniversary of the month my husband died I drove to the North Carolina and the North Georgia mountains to find solace in nature (see my post of Oct. 2019 "<a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2019/10/lake-chatuge-in-north-georgia-mountains.html">Lake Chatuge in the N GA Mountains</a>." (I hope I can convey the feelings because as I get older I sometime search for words and they usually come back in French first (my native language) then I have to translate them into English!) A week or so ago, I drove to my house in Georgia then a couple of days later drove on to the North GA Mountains, to Hiawassee (population as of 2022: 961.) I stayed at a lodge on a hill overlooking Lake Chatuge. Fortunately, there was a lovely view of the lake and mountains from my little balcony.
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A mile from this lodge is the Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens. The weekend before I arrived in Hiawassee was the start of their "Rhododendron Festival" which lasts five weekends from April 14 through May 14, 2023, with craft vendors, live music, plant sale, etc. The gardens are open all year long. From May through October the gardens also host moonlight concerts. Peak rhododendron viewing is usually from mid April through May.
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I went there on Tuesday April 18 which was a bit early for this season; because of the unusual hard freeze this past winter most of the rhododendrons were not blooming yet, although some different varieties were in pots for sale (click on collage to enlarge and read panels.)
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Fred R. Hamilton, Sr. (1914-1996) and his wife Hazel began growing rhododendrons in their Atlanta garden in 1952. There they collected native rhododendrons and azaleas. They also had a mountain getaway on the slopes of Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee, Georgia, where they developed hybrids and where, later, they relocated their 1000+ plants. In 1981 they donated them to Towns County in what is now known as the Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens. This 33 acre enchanting garden is located atop the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds campus. It contains more than 1,500 rhododendrons (400 varieties) as well as native azaleas, tulip magnolias, dogwoods, redbuds, hydrangeas, and wildflowers native to the Appalachian Mountains like Solomon's seal, wild ginger, lady slippers, trout lily, and trillium. In addition in 2018, as part of the Daffodil Project, and international campaign to plant 1.5 million daffodils worldwide as a tribute to the children lost in the Holocaust, 600 daffodil bulbs were added to the garden.
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There were few visitors around the day I stopped by the gardens. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. Even if most of the rhododendrons were not in bloom many of the azalea bushes were. Azaleas, with tubular and funnel shape flowers, are in the genus rhododendron; they are deciduous and lose their leaves in the fall. Rhododendrons, with bell shaped flowers, are evergreen and keep their leaves in winter. Fred Hamilton developed the yellow azalea, the only domestic yellow azalea in existence, which he named after his wife, Hazel (<i>Rhododendron flammeum 'Hazel Hamilton'</i>.)
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I did not walk the whole 2 miles of mulched woodland trails through the property as some of the walking paths were winding down to the lake shore and were rather steep. There were many benches scattered along the way. I just traded in my old Nikon camera for a newer model and was testing it. Although to make sure, I also carried my Canon and small Sony (and then I even took photos with my cell phone, because why not.)
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One of the most spectacular shrubs there was the "flame" azalea. It is native of the Appalachian Mountains. Mountain people call it also butterfly azalea or wild honeysuckle. The striking flowers certainly lighten the woodland like little fires.
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There were small wood bridges along the trails.
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I walked very slowly because I kept stopping to take closeups of the flowers.
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As I made my way around the pine bark trail some bursting soft pink azalea shrubs lead me to the Bonnie Day arbor. I enjoyed resting on a bench for a little while.
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Then I took the 'Cut Across Trail' to have a look at the Claude Brooks waterwheel. First a profusion of blooming hot pink rhododendrons greeted me at the Claudia Brooks overlook.
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I took more closeups of some of the plants for sale next to the garden shop.
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These stunning gardens are very peaceful and tranquil; an enchanting spot to relax and escape from it all. The Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens was designated a state botanical garden by the Georgia Legislature in 2003. It boasts the largest collection of rhododendron in the Southeast. Then it was time to return to the lodge.
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A needed rest on my little balcony was welcome. Then as the evening grew I soaked in the beauty of the sky changing color over the lake.
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"<i>This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls</i>." -John Muir, 1938.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-75321813300686022832023-04-11T15:19:00.008-04:002023-08-22T19:55:39.548-04:00Addendum to Nashville grieving and gun violence<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHj5j8IYS0DVS19ZkT94sIcWm1uHVu4vX6rHNpmPDREYPeMlAgbf5Obbk-h1sPegUDARuZPfMUYZohfLKL28qtTvpjELUcisu3UXiBvQ9SGB34vv9EoqK4eYZ5PbtTgjEtc1iTcVR8D7s8GWjLXr5amFFYfn6RqbwxitxztaEBAUn84DeICDHyFCTTbw/s3000/capitol.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHj5j8IYS0DVS19ZkT94sIcWm1uHVu4vX6rHNpmPDREYPeMlAgbf5Obbk-h1sPegUDARuZPfMUYZohfLKL28qtTvpjELUcisu3UXiBvQ9SGB34vv9EoqK4eYZ5PbtTgjEtc1iTcVR8D7s8GWjLXr5amFFYfn6RqbwxitxztaEBAUn84DeICDHyFCTTbw/s600/capitol.jpg"/></a></div>
This addendum was started several days ago. Then I stopped writing it thinking that most people would not be interested in reading it. Many bloggers prefer to talk about family, food, gardening, travel or other more palatable subjects than gun violence. I believe that if you are part of society, enjoying its pleasures and benefits is fine but remaining silent during its trials is almost being complicit. So I decided to finish writing it - if only one person in Tennessee changes their mind about voting for an extreme right-wing politician, then it is worth it.
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Here is a continuation of my post of Thursday, April 6, 2023, <a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2023/04/nashville-grieving.html">Nashville grieving</a>,explaining the shooting in Nashville at the Covenant School, a local elementary school. As I mentioned in that post I was trying to provide clear explanations to my family and readers from overseas in reply to their requests. Seen from overseas the US gun laws make no sense. They cannot understand why this country is unable to control gun violence. Please read my last post first then come back here to read the rest of the story... On Thursday March 30, 2023, three days after the shooting, a crowd entered the halls of the Tennessee Capitol where the lawmakers were gathered for a floor session. The Tennessee State Capitol was built on a hill in Nashville with the help of convicts and enslaved people and finished in 1859. See vintage postcards below. The picture on the right was the TN State Library until 1953 when it was moved.
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The crowd of children, teenagers and parents came to demand action on gun safety and kept chanting "Shame on you" and "Children are dead and you don't care." Several lawmakers placed headphones on their ears so they would not hear, then microphones were turned off in the public areas to block out the chants and a 5-minute recess was called. During the recess, TN State Democratic Representatives Justin Jones of Nashville, joined Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, and Justin Pearson of Memphis, to the podium with a megaphone, to be heard and to conduct the "Gun control now!" chant with the people in the balcony where kids and adusts (even adults with babies) were chanting.
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The rest of the lawmakers exited the chamber for about 1/2 hour and when they returned the Speaker of the House, Republican Cameron Sexton, said that this was "not acceptable behavior" and action would be taken in the next few days against the three Democrat representatives. On Monday April 3, 2023, the TN Republican lawmakers filed a resolution to expel those three, now nicknamed the Tennessee Three (TN 3.) They had already been removed from their committees and had their State Capitol identity badges deactivated. Speaker Sexton said they had broken "<i>several rules of decorum and procedure on the House Floor</i>." Below photo of floor of the TN State Legislature, courtesy ABC.
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Speaker Sexton accused Rep. Justin Pearson of having given a "<i>temper tantrum</i>" like a spoiled kid wanting attention. Later he added: "<i>What they did today was at least equivalent, maybe worse, depending on how you look at it, of doing an insurrection in the Capitol.</i>" Really? Worse than the insurrection on the Washington Capitol on January 6, when a horde armed with weapons stormed the Capitol looking to kill the US Speaker of the House, to hang the Vice-President, killing and injuring Capitol Police, and urinating and thrashing the building? Really? The Tennessee Three's violation of the rules of decorum was worse that this insurrection? Please... Dictionary definition of decorum "<i>Decorums - the conventions or requirements of polite behavior.</i>" On Thursday April 6, 2023, the TN 3 were given twenty minutes each to speak and to answer questions. Then the Tennessee House voted to expel the two Justins (both 28 years old) but spared Gloria Johnson (aged 60) by one vote only. Photo below, courtesy WBIR.
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By Thursday April 6th the US media as well as the international press were aware of the expulsion proceedings and were watching. I watched it also on television. The TN 3 gave amazing speeches with courage and eloquence. But to no avail. No surprise here with the Republicans having a supermajority in the TN House of Representatives. The political makeup of the 113th General Assembly is 75 Republicans, 23 Democrats and 1 vacancy. Tennessee is one of the reddest states in the union with only two blue counties: Memphis in Shelby County and Nashville in Davidson County. See map below of TN counties showing the 2022 gubernatorial election results, courtesy Wikimedia. I just read that Tennessee is the least democratic of the 50 United States.
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It was noted how the Justin Jones and Justin Pearson (by then named the two Justins) were questioned in a demeaning and condescending way compared to Ms. Gloria Johnson. It sounded like "<i>you should know your place and not have an uppitity behavior.</i>" When the expulsion was announced the crowd was screaming "shame!" Some wondered if it had not been "payback" for Justin Jones of Nashville who was leading a movement in 2019 to remove a bust of Confederate cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, first Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and trader of enslaved people. Finally in 2021 the bust was removed from its prominent place in the State Capitol. (Photo courtesy Tennessee Lookout.)
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In the state of Tennessee expulsion or banishment from the Chamber has been used just several times since the Civil War. In 1866, six lawmakers were ousted for trying to prevent citizenship to formerly enslaved people as required by the 14th Amendment; in 1980 a member was convicted of taking a bribe to kill a bill; in 2016 a member was voted out after 22 women accused him of sexual misconduct and in 2022 a member was expelled after being convicted of using Federal Grant money on wedding expenses. These took a long time to investigate and were punishment for serious misconduct, not just for "violating rules of decorum." Speaking out of turn should be punished by censure, maybe, or a reprimand, but not expulsion of duly elected lawmakers who were voicing the requests of their constituents for reasonable legislation to reduce the killing of innocent children in schools. I read reports that the US public following the proceedings on television was outraged.
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On Friday April 8, 2023, Vice-President Kamala Harris made an unscheduled and surprise trip to Nashville to meet with the Tennessee Three. She came to Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, TN (3 miles from my house.) Civil Rights icon, John Lewis (1940-2020) was a graduate student with a degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University. (You may remember that in September 2013, after meeting John Lewis in Decatur, GA., at a book signing I wrote a post "<a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2013/09/john-lewis-and-richard-blanco-at.html">John Lewis and Richard Blanco at the Decatur Book Festival.</a>") John Lewis was a Democratic US Representative for Atlanta, GA, for many years. He had organized the "March on Washington" with Martin Luther King, Jr. in August 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN, on April 4, 1968.
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After Lewis died in 2020 officials of the Minority Caucus of Metropolitan Nashville started proceedings to permanently changed Fifth Avenue in Nashville to "Rep. John Lewis Way." This gained public support and in July 2021 it was made official. However, in January 2023, a TN Republican representative sponsored a bill to rename this street into "President Donald Trump Boulevard" after this representative had also suggested lynching and hanging by tree as an alternative for execution of inmates on death row.
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Vice-President Kamala Harris met with the three expelled democrats and delivered an impassioned speech (I watched it on television; even my cat seemed interested.) Later than evening President Jo Biden held a conferance call with the TN 3 and thanked them for "their leadership in seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for our democratic values." He invited them to the White House at a later date. (Photo credit @POTUS.)
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Those junior Tennessee lawmakers were only known in the three city districts they represented and would have stayed unknown to the rest of the state (and the country.) But now they have been introduced on the national stage. Their expulsion backfired and made them known nationally, and internationally. Parts of Rep. Justin Pearson's speech before his expulsion are shown on YouTube (I show one below.) One extract shown on Twitter has been viewed, so far, by 9.5 milllion people. Both Justins have been interviewed on national television.
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On Monday, April 10, 2023, the Nashville Metro Council unanimously voted to reinstate Rep. Justin Jones as a representative (Memphis advised they would do so for Rep. Pearson on Wednesday April 12.) I watched on local news as Jones walked back into the House of Representative that evening. Will there be changes in Tennessee gun laws? Maybe, but the state is overwhelmingly Republican apart from a couple of large cities. Tennessee used to be politically moderate compared to other Southern states. In 2000 this started to change with the advent of extreme right propaganda TV networks and radio statons. The poor rural counties in Tennessee listen mostly to Fox News, launched in 1990. It was started by right-wing Republicans to intentionally air misrepresentation in order to exploit those who have been identified as easily manipulated. They pander to their <i>implicit bias</i> as well as sociopolitical and economic fears. In those counties health and education are below average. Many people working one or two jobs at minimum wage believe all the conspiracies and disinformation thrown at them and vote Republican. Photos below of Jones returning to the House Chamber, and meeting Joan Baez at the Nashville airport when coincidentally booked on same flight.
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As I wrote in my first paragraph last Saturday April 8th, I had decided to stop writing this post and to return to Atlanta the next day. Over the weekend I thought better of it, so I stayed. Before I could finish writing it yesterday, Monday 10 April, there was another mass shooting. This time in Louisville, Kentucky, a city about 2 1/2 hour drive north from my home in Nashville (Atlanta is about 5 hour drive south.) A 25-year old portfolio banker killed 5 of his colleagues and wounded 8 others at Old National Bank, a regional bank in downtown Louisville. He used an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle, an assault weapon that was just used in the Nashville shooting. As Vice-President Harris said in her speech at Fisk Universithy last Friday, "<i>Assault weapons ...are weapons of war,"..."These are weapons that are designed to kill a lot of people quickly. They have no place on the streets of a civil society.</i>" Kentucky is a southern state like Tennessee with a Republican majority unwilling to place any restriction on these weapons. The Louisville mass shooting is the 146th since the beginning of 2023 and the 15th since April 1st. This violence is uniquely found in the United States. You can be shot anywhere here, at school, a grocery store, a dance hall, in a farm, movie theater, beauty parlor, etc. and now a bank. (Photo of another flower memorial, courtesy KLKY.)
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All this is quite sad and generates a pessimistic attitude. There is hope though, as Generation Z (10 to 24 years old) does not get their news just from national or local outlets but via digital sources. They can find the facts and verify them on the Internet and avoid biased networks. Most of them say they never or rarely trust outlets such as Fox News and conservative Sinclair Broacasting Group that owns a majority of local news stations and build "local reports" that are untrue and air them to folks that don't realize they're being subjected to Sinclair's right-wing agenda. Generation Z is more motivated and not afraid to demonstrate, as seen in Nashville in the last few days. I'll end this with a quotation from a French revolutionary stateman, Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) followed by a peaceful photo of spring in Jimmy Carter Presidential Library gardens in Atlanta, GA.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-3705022297031990902023-04-06T00:43:00.000-04:002023-04-06T00:43:18.961-04:00Nashville grieving<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz3oOks2uVPiiLc7NWJRQWcBkTxcrZsPSot4scJ8Go7qH9ht_-rmn6dQ3YP9ftFKQAFxojCjAh5LIMiSrMWLrNZ3kgwqCx7-fOZfnPvvhLcEkWkIHJfBee8j2ELmpPC4v7pv7t72mLU8w1jaF8v6oqbVZBXYDLXleWtvtSsN46m-SwVd04Ws20fyIdvQ/s3000/cov%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz3oOks2uVPiiLc7NWJRQWcBkTxcrZsPSot4scJ8Go7qH9ht_-rmn6dQ3YP9ftFKQAFxojCjAh5LIMiSrMWLrNZ3kgwqCx7-fOZfnPvvhLcEkWkIHJfBee8j2ELmpPC4v7pv7t72mLU8w1jaF8v6oqbVZBXYDLXleWtvtSsN46m-SwVd04Ws20fyIdvQ/s600/cov%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
This is not the post I was planning to write but a senseless tragedy took place in my neighborhood on Monday March 27, 2023, and the Nashville community is grieving. In addition, family and friends from overseas who translate and read my posts (even if they do not comment) asked me to tell them what happened and explain the gun violence issues in the United States. I'll try to do this. Last Thursday, March 30, 2023, I walked to the Nashville Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and took photos of the blooming tulips and spring flowers. Viewing scenes of nature does help cope with sorrow. I'll include some below.
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After attending the Don Quixote ballet in Atlanta I returned to Nashville soon after. I then wrote the post <a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2023/03/don-quixote-at-atlanta-ballet.html">Don Quixote at the Atlanta Ballet</a> on March 25, 2023. I was supposed to spend March 26, my birthday, with my younger daughter and family but my daughter and 9 years old granddaughter had caught a bad cold and we decided to celebrate at a later date. Instead I had lunch at an Uzbek restaurant with my neighbor who came from Kashmir not long ago to study at Vanderbilt U for his Ph.D.
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On Monday March 27, 2023, at about 10:15 am I heard numerous police cars, ambulances and fire truck sirens as well as helicopters above. I thought there had been a bad traffic accident nearby. Before going grocery shopping at the Whole Foods in Green Hills, which is about 2 miles from my home, I quickly checked online to see if the traffic had cleared up. That is when I found out about the shootings at the Covenant School, a private Christian school, which is less than a mile from that grocery store. I stayed home and watched the news the rest of the day.
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A 28-year old woman carrying two assault type weapons as well as a handgun had shot out a glass door to enter the Covenant School. The school was locked down and the hallways deserted. The Nashville Police received the 911 active shooter call at 10:13 am, arrived about 8 minutes later at the scene. The shooter was on the second floor, was engaged by 2 policemen and taken down. She had killed three 9-years old children and three adults. The killer had fired 152 rounds of ammunition during the attack. She had legally purchased seven firearms from five local stores said the Chief of Police, and used three of those during the assault (an AR-15, a Kel-Tec SUB 2000, and a handgun.) She was a former student of the Covenant School. No motive as yet has been found for the shooting.
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The local TV news coverage was continuous for the next couple of days. I kept watching. I think the whole city was numb with emotion and grief. Members of the community started to lay flowers, stuffed animals and balloons at the gate of the school as a makeshift memorial. First Lady Jill Biden visited the memorial on Wednesday 29 March and laid some flowers. Later that day she attended the citywide vigil at the Nashville Public Square Park. She was joined by hundreds of people clutching white candles in front of the Metro Nashville Courthouse. Several people addressed the crowd including Mayor Jim Cooper who said "<i>The Leading cause of kids' death now is guns and gunfire and that is unacceptable</i>." Being "Music City" several Nashville performers came and sang including Sheryl Crow, Margo Price and Old Crow Medicine Show singer Ketch Secor. Ketch, accompanied by his young son on the harmonica, sang with the crowd "Will the Circle be Unbroken." Then a small group of people dressed in black gathered for a "mourner's walk."
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Thursday morning, March 30, 2023, was a bright and sunny day. I drove to Whole Foods as I was out of groceries since I had left Georgia and also to buy some flowers. I then drove the approx. 1/2 mile to the Covenant School and placed my red flowers by the gate on the memorial. The school colors are red and black. A few people were assembled there, some from out of state (I talked with a lady from Michigan,) some had brought comfort dogs. (Click to enlarge.) Then on my way later to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens I saw many red and black ribbons of support on people's mail boxes in honor of the victims (as shown in my header photo.)
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Now I'll try to explain the US gun violence to my family and friends from abroad. It is not easy, and since I was born and brought up in Paris, France, until adulthood, the French culture is more natural to me even though I have been living here for decades, but I have studied US history. It seems to me that violence has been defining American culture; it's almost an obsession. It started with the violent appropriation of Native lands by white settlers, then guns and violence were used to control and terrorize enslaved people. As soon as a politician displeases someone, he/she receives death threats. (In addition, military conflicts make 93% of US history.) The gun is the ultimate expression of "rugged individualism." Kids' cartoons and video games show aggression as well as professional football and hockey. Generations have been watching violent cop shows and westerns on television screens and in theatres. The Hollywood formula to attract audiences to their films is to show them with intense violence with plenty of guns, body destruction and brutal deaths. Movies have perpetuated the myth of the old west and conquest with the brutal outlaw, the good cowboy on horseback, the brave sheriff, the savage Indian, the vicious villain who gets to be gunned down at the end.
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The US has 57 times as many shootings as the other six G7 countries combined. There are about 120.5 firearms per 100 persons in the US; it is the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world. As quoted by <a href="https://www.zippia.com/advice/firearm-industry-statistics/">Zippia</a>, in 2022 16.4 million firearms were sold across the US which contributed $51.3 billion to the economy (45% of American households own at least one firearm.) Conservatives say that mental health is the culprit, but there are mental health problems in other countries and they do not have the rate of gun deaths as in this country. Below are the statistics as of April 1, 2023, since the beginning of the year, courtesy the Gun and Violence Archives.
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For my family and friends who might not know - the USA has two major political parties, and a minor one, the Independent: the Democrats are considered liberal, but in Europe would be central right and the Republicans, considered conservatives, but along the years have turned sharply to the right and are now more like Orban's Hungarian authoritarian party. Many moderate Republicans of yore are now switching to the Independent party. States with a Democratic majority are called Blue and those with a majority Republican are called Red. Most Southern States are Red including Tennessee. There are Democrats in Tennessee (40%) but the ultra right Republican majority has gerrymandered (divided) voting districts so as to give an unfair election advantage to their party. For example, last year the TN Republican supermajority redrew Nashville's voting district ("blue" for nearly 150 years) into three districts extending into conservative rural areas so that Democrats, even if they all vote, would not be successful. Current Democrat mayor John Cooper has decided not to seek re-election as he knows he will be unable to compete and have a fair chance. (In addition there is a low voter turnout in TN which is ranked 49th out of the 50 states.) This is the way gun laws are passed by the Republican conservatives who favor gun ownership. Map below showing 2020 US election results, courtesy Shutterstock.
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Blue states are trying to pass laws aimed at curbing mass shootings. Weapon manufacturers with headquarters in those state are moving to gun friendly Red states. TN Governor Lee has overseen the loosening of gun laws (with resulting increase in gun deaths) in Tennessee and offered tax incentives to gun manufacturers to move to our state. In 2021 Governor Lee signed a new law that enables residents 21 years and over to carry handguns permit-free without going through training or a background check. He proudly signed this law at the Baretta factory (as shown below) newly moved from the state of Maryland (blue) to Gallatin, TN (although there was much opposition from Tennesseans.) Beretta makes massive long arms and received several million dollars in tax incentives to move to Tennessee. Another handgun accessory, parts manufacturer and distributor, GSGlockstore (the world's #1 source for Glock parts and accessories,) moved from California (blue) to Nashville, TN. Mark Smith, President and CEO of gun manufacturer Smith and Wesson said "<i>We would like to specially thank Governor Lee for his decisive contributions and the entire state legislature for their unwavering support of the 2nd Amendment</i>" as they decided to move in 2023 to Maryville, a town close to Knoxville, TN, from Massachusetts (a blue state) their headquarters since incorporation in 1852, as well as moving their facility in Connecticut (blue state) to Maryville. Tennessee gave Smith and Wesson a 9 million development land grant, a $1 per year lease and 60% tax break for 7 years. (Photos courtesy News Channel 5.)
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The National Rifle Association (NRA) was founded in 1871 as a recreational group. In 1977 it formed its Political Action Committee (PAC) to channel funds to influence government policy against gun-control laws. It supports legislation to expand "open-carry" laws and opposes any restriction to gun ownership. Their lobbying group provides millions to Republican legislators. That is why, red states like Tennessee, refuse to pass any sensible gun laws. When TN Gov. Lee was asked about the Nashville school shooting his answer was to pray. Later he announced proposed actions to provide safety to schools including "$140 million to establish a School Resource Officer (SRO) grant fund to place a trained, armed security guard at every public school." (In fact turning schools into fortresses) but without mentioning any new gun safety legislation. The state will have to buy more guns to arm a guard in every public school in the state, thus profiting the gun manufacturers. Tennessee receives too much funding from the NRA and gun manufacturer lobbyists as it is. I hope this explain a little bit why it is so difficult to pass gun control legislation in Tennessee and also in the United States. Changes are not forthcoming unfortunately.
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"<i>Many of us who participate in outdoor sports are dismayed by some of the more extreme policies of the NRA and by the timidity of public officials who yield to their unreasonable demands. Heavily influenced and supported by the firearms industry, its primary client, the NRA has been able to mislead many gullible people into believing that all weapons are going to be taken away from us, and that homeowners will be deprived of the right to protect ourselves and our families. There are no real threats to our "right to bear arms," as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.</i>" Jimmy Carter in 2022, US President, born October 1, 1924.
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An <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/three-in-five-americans-disapprove-of-bidens-handling-of-economic-recovery">Ipsos</a> 2022 poll shows that 70% of Americans think enacting new gun control laws should take precedence over protecting ownership rights. I have always wondered why Americans don't protest more. There are pockets of protests such as for gay rights or after another police shooting, but the main population does not protest much. They support the First Amendment's "<i>the right of assembly, and the right to petition Government for a redress of grievances</i>." In reality, they hardly use this right, at least nowadays. In Israel last month about 450,000 were in the streets (the same percentage by population number would place about 15 million people in the US streets.) When Germany announced job cuts worldwide, 15,000 German workers demonstrated at the GM headquarters in Germany. In the US, a few workers at the GM plant did some small "sit-in" but that's about it. I won't even mention France's many demonstrations over the years. Is it because American workers are afraid? Or apathetic? Or not interested in the common good? Or just thinking of no.1 only? I don't know. But I have hope that the newer generation, Generation Z as it is called, is more involved in their future and care about social issues and injustice. (Photos courtesy Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and Wall Street Journal.)
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I'm optimistic because more than 7,000 high school kids from Nashville area schools as well as students from Vanderbilt and Belmont Universities walked out of their classes last Monday, April 3, 2023. They printed and distributed a flyer asking kids to join their march to the Nashville Capitol.
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At 10:13 am, the same time when Metro Police received the active shooter call the week before, they sat for a moment of silence. Then they kept carrying signs and chanting demanding lawmakers pass gun safety legislation. Then hundreds of them, including parents with their young children, moved into the building on Monday evening before floor sessions.
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"...<i>the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die</i>." Senator Edward "Ted" M. Kennedy (1932-2009.)
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-43112289519485612142023-03-25T18:43:00.006-04:002023-03-26T20:37:25.414-04:00Don Quixote at the Atlanta Ballet<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhorYqh05FHS2Uq9GiQAHw6iCnql_MkI0iQUZ0w4SXZSEeMyVdc0MJ4Yu9x_OZiTU96tpG7LsS-g1ErDQEz_DhbkqU-ozdps0Fcx7nDX7qEAt9iW5bVdtFJ_t5XC32CyoI6G7a82H9f7yPsJthTxBk8q5NcS-OQ7oJydzfKRPNS-VgbkmF4z4FbM4S-vQ/s1080/Don-Q_1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="1080" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhorYqh05FHS2Uq9GiQAHw6iCnql_MkI0iQUZ0w4SXZSEeMyVdc0MJ4Yu9x_OZiTU96tpG7LsS-g1ErDQEz_DhbkqU-ozdps0Fcx7nDX7qEAt9iW5bVdtFJ_t5XC32CyoI6G7a82H9f7yPsJthTxBk8q5NcS-OQ7oJydzfKRPNS-VgbkmF4z4FbM4S-vQ/s600/Don-Q_1.jpg"/></a></div>
In June or July 2022 I watched an interview with the dancer and choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov on the TV show CBS Sunday Morning. The music from the short clip of him dancing sounded very familiar; I did not know from which ballet this was. For the next several weeks I tried to find out on the Internet where this short dance came from. Finally I found out that it was called the Basilio Variation from the Ballet Don Quixote. I really wished to see this ballet that I had never seen. I had attended ballet performances in Paris at the Opera Garnier, at the San Francisco Opera House, Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Ukraine, and during my first stay in St. Petersburg, Russia, at the Mariinsky Ballet and Opera House, but never seen this ballet. It had been at least 5 years since I attended, with my late husband, the Moulin Rouge ballet in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Then I researched for a while to find where this ballet might be performed within the next few months. I checked all the large cities ballets, such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and more. Then I checked Paris, London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Vienna and Venice - It had been performed there in previous years but not in the near future. I almost gave up and then checked Atlanta. Surprise! It was on the Atlanta Ballet season for 2023, in March. I could not believe that it was so close to home. I waited for tickets to be available and quickly bought one last November. Then my younger daughter told me they were all going to San Salvador for spring break and would fly back into Atlanta just a couple of days before the performance, so I was lucky to find two tickets next to me for my daughter and granddaughter for the Saturday March 18, 2023 matinee performance at the Atlanta Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, where ballets take place.
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Now I had time to do my favorite thing - research the story, history of the ballet, the music, the artistic directors and choreographers, where and when it had been performed for the first time and more. I found some interesting facts. First of all, the Spanish epic novel Don Quixote was written by Miguel de Cervantes in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. It is considered the first modern novel and one of the greatest. It has been translated into 50+ languages and is the best-selling novel of all times (at least 500 million copies so far.) It has had a great influence on Western books, plays, movies and works of art since then. It offers universal truths, commentaries on social life and provides escapism. Below is Miguel de Cervantes (29 September 1547 - 22 April 1616.)
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and some book covers of his novels in several languages; the bottom right one one is an e-book. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries was the European country where one should travel to visit Roman ruins, or view statues, paintings and so forth. But starting in the 19th century, around 1820, travelers switched their interest to Spain. Writers like Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and others thought that Spain offered more inspiration and adventures. French and Russian writers, painters, musicians, and choreographers were inspired by Spain. Europe as a whole shared a fascination for Spain.
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Alexander III (1845-1894) Emperor of Russia, was a patron of the ballet, and requested a Spanish-themed ballet be shown in Russia. The imperial theatre commissioned Marius Petipa to mount and choreograph a work in the Spanish style. Below photo of Petipa.
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I found the life of Marius Petipa fascinating. Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was born in 1818 in Marseille, France. His father Jean Antoine Petipa was working as principal dancer and Maitre de Ballet in Marseille. Petipa's mother, Victorine Grasseau, was a drama actress playing tragic roles. His brother Lucien became a distinguished dancer and his sister, Victorine, a noted singer. They were a close-knit family. His father began teaching ballet to Marius when he was seven, and at the age of nine he made his stage debut in one of his father's ballets at the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium. Marius was appointed to the Ballet of Nantes, France, as principal dancer then in Bordeaux. Below is the Petipa family, with Marius on the left, then his brother Lucien, his sister Victorine and mother Victorine.
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In 1843 Marius started a 3-year working tour in Spain where he became master in Sevillian dances and castanets. He then began to choreograph his own ballets. He had already spent time in Paris where his brother Lucien was principal dancer at the Paris Opera. Lucien worked also in Russia and provided Marius with an invitation to travel to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1847 to become principal dancer at the Imperial Ballet. A year later, in 1848, his father joined him there to be a teacher at the Imperial Ballet School (call the Vaganova Ballet Academy of Russian Ballet since 1957, and shown below.)
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Marius Petipa signed a one-year contract in St. Petersburg but was to live there the rest of his life. Following his father's path as a ballet dancer he then had a career in choreography where he created more than 60 ballets, reworked 20 old pieces and re-arranged the dancing in over 35 operas. He also prepared galas and divertissements for court performances, royal nuptials, etc. The St. Petersburg's public adored the ballet and expected brilliant performances; news media reported every detail. Petipa had to keep the highest standards of excellence and perfection, and he did. Tsar Nicholas I attended Petipa's debut performance in October 1847 and a week later presented him with an Imperial gift of a ruby and diamond ring, the first Royal gift in Petipa's long career. The Russian Emperor's treasury (who at the time was the world's wealthiest person) - lavished millions of rubles a year on the Imperial Ballet and Opera, and demanded opulent ballets with perfect technique. Petipa became the Imperial Chief Ballet Master and principal choreographer until 1903 - at 85 years of age.
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When Petipa in early 1869 was asked by an Imperial Special Commission to mount a Spanish-themed work he suggested that Ludwig Minkus write the music for the ballet he was considering, a tale from Cervantes' Don Quixote. I read on Minkus - he was also an interesting man. Ludwig Minkus was born on March 23, 1826, in Vienna (at the time the capital of the Austrian Empire.) Minkus' father was a wholesale wine merchant and owned in a district of Vienna a restaurant with its own orchestra. Ludwig started playing the violin at age four and made his public debut at a recital at the age of 8. Later he had an orchestra that competed with another Viennese conductor, the young Johann Strauss, II. In 1853 Ludwig immigrated to St. Petersburg to be the conductor of the orchestra for Prince Nikolai Yusupov. He went on to serve as conductor and principal violinist in the orchestra of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre, and was then promoted to the prestigious position of Inspector of the Imperial Theatre Orchestras in Moscow. Below photo of Ludwig Minkus (1826-1917) taken between 1865-1870.
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Minkus was an excellent choice to compose the music for the Don Quixote ballet. He was a connoisseur of ballet craft. His music bubbling like Champagne invited artists to dance. Petipa and Ludwig worked well together to create cheerful music and dances in the Spanish and Gypsy styles. Ludwig Fyodorovich Minkus (also known as Leon Minkus) became known as one of the greatest ballet composers who co-created with Petipa some of the most famous of classical ballets including La Source (1866, composed jointly with Leo Delibes,) Don Quixote (1869) and La Bayadere (1877.) Today, Minkus' ballet music is still quite popular and performed in the traditional classical ballet repertory. Cervantes' novel had been adapted into a ballet several times: in Austria in 1740, in Vienna in 1780, in 1809 in St. Petersburg, in 1839 in Berlin and in 1843 in Turin, Italy. For this new production Minkus reworked and expanded the score and supplied music filled with a great variety of Spanish-styled flair. The premiere of Don Quixote on 26th December 1869 for the ballet of the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was a resounding success. Below painting of the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in 1939 by Alexandr Benois, Russian (1870-1960) followed by the current Bolshoi Theatre and interiors.
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The Don Quixote Ballet was so successful that Petipa and Minkus wrote a revival libretto in 1871 which was shown at the St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre and became a classic. It still enchants the public today and is presented in various productions by different companies all over the world. Petipa went on to create spectacular ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, the Nut Cracker, and many others. Petipa married and had 3 children. At the age of 76 he received Russian citizenship while permitted to keep his French citizenship. A year later he worked with Peter Tchaikovsky to stage the ballet Swan Lake. He is a legend, a lord of the dance, and came to be known as "the father of Russian ballet." His work is in the repertoire of most current companies. He retired in 1903 and spent his final years in Crimea where he died on 14 July 1910 at the age of 92. He is buried in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg. Below photos of the Mariinsky Theatre circa 1859, Petipa's grave, the Don Quixote's Dream Scene at the Mariinsky and the playbill.
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Don Quixote has been staged in many versions, with different music scores and choreography. In 1900 Alexander Gorsky staged a revival of the ballet with music from French composer Antoine Simon. A modern version in 1965 was created by American choreographer George Balanchine to the music of Nicolas Nabokov. In 1966 Rudolf Nureyev danced and choreographed the ballet for Vienna. In 1980 Mikhail Baryshnikov mounted his version of the ballet as well. I always loved watching Mikhail dancing (born in Latvia in 1948.) He truly is one of the greatest dancers of his generation with flawless technique and incredible high jumps. He seems to float across the stage. Misha is a superlative dancer combining balance, control and artistry. He is semi-retired for now as he opened in 2005 the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City, where he is active. Below are photos of Mikhail Baryshnikov in his younger years, dancing the Don Quixote ballet and receiving the prestigious <i>Royal Academy of Dance's Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award</i> at Buckingham Palace on November 16, 2022, presented by Camilla, the Queen Consort (her first solo reception since she assumed her new role.) Camilla, wearing a ballerina brooch on her coat, told him "<i>It's a great honor to be able to give you the award. Nobody deserves it more.</i>"
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Below is the YouTube clip of Mikhail that indicated to me last summer that I was looking for the Don Quixote ballet.
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Looking at the Atlanta playbill I was pleased to see that the choreographer Yuri Possokhov (born in Lugansk, Ukraine) and the artistic director Gennadi Nedvigin (born in Rostov, Russia) had based their Don Quixote production of March 17-19, 2023, after Petipa and Minkus.
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Saturday March 18, 2023 was a cool but sunny day in Atlanta. We arrived in plenty of time to walk around the foyer and take some pictures. As you can see from the photo of my grandaughter and me walking toward the orchestra seating of the theatre that she is about as tall as me at 9 years old (I am 5ft 3.) She takes after her mother who, in the photograph, is 6 ft tall with heels.
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Another lovely scene from the ballet is Kitri's Entrance in Act I. It is danced by the talented Manuela Nunez in the video below. She is an Argentine-British ballerina born in Buenos Aires on March 23, 1982 and now principal dancer at the Royal Ballet in London.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p3e0H4gtStw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Drawn from an episode in Part II of the Cervantes' novel this was a two hour but fast moving ballet. I enjoyed the vintage and cheerful Minkus music. The lavish and colorful costumes, the many male dancers (more than in other ballets.) the flamenco dancers, the cheeky humor and the comedy were delightful. Sancho Panza, the trusted sidekick and squire of Don Quixote, brought many laughs. The horse Rocinante, a puppet manned by two Atlanta Ballet students, was entertaining as well. Don Quixote by the Atlanta Ballet had been a fast-paced production with impressive dancing and amusing comedy. I was pleased to have found this enchanting ballet in Atlanta.
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Photos courtesy the Atlanta Ballet, Atlanta Constitution and Arts Atlanta as photos were not allowed in the theatre.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-58806846434538506222023-03-04T13:09:00.004-05:002023-03-04T13:10:41.932-05:00Orchids in Nashville, Tennessee<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBRDqGJYghOM6TNpyxzHMRZRIU1IOHJGOLgqp6N1A7E75Ux44VI0lQl3VCXUdd2HzuTyrnGHCbKKSJGDXiQxVp76cqBLmcrOTTj5peOg2qFWIBW21vxvVWeqYmOUjEzLWaaYVnTUoVDGLemCW44Tg1ImHaJrsAugNUEkg_GsTVpNYPSD-plt47tMS71w/s828/DSC_0199%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="517" data-original-width="828" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBRDqGJYghOM6TNpyxzHMRZRIU1IOHJGOLgqp6N1A7E75Ux44VI0lQl3VCXUdd2HzuTyrnGHCbKKSJGDXiQxVp76cqBLmcrOTTj5peOg2qFWIBW21vxvVWeqYmOUjEzLWaaYVnTUoVDGLemCW44Tg1ImHaJrsAugNUEkg_GsTVpNYPSD-plt47tMS71w/s600/DSC_0199%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
Lately I have been reading articles listing the advantages of walking. The health benefits are plentiful. With my monthly commutes between Nashville and Atlanta and the constant clearing of the two houses I have not been very active outdoors. Even though I live in a "walking area" of Nashville, the sidewalk is narrow and uneven. I have to constantly look at the ground to make sure I don't stumble. In addition many automobiles pass by and I am not keen to breathe motor exhaust pollution. Thinking of nicer surroundings for walking I remembered that when our younger daughter and family moved to Tennessee they took us to visit the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville. I looked them up and realized that Cheekwood is only 6 miles from my house or a short drive away. On February 10, 2023, I visited the gardens and became a member.
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This is what Cheekwood says about their gardens: "<i>Explore our Gardens - Cheekwood offers year-round beauty on an historic property with 55 acres of awe-inspiring gardens, expansive vistas and art. Visitors enjoy programming for all ages, exhibitions, family activities, and year-round festivals celebrating the four seasons. Within its thirteen distinct gardens and woodland sculpture trail, a wide variety of herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and trees combine with rotating seasonal displays to provide a place for reflection and inspiration.</i>" Of course being early February there were few flowers to admire. At a distance I saw a tree with what I thought were some blossoms. It was a Pussy Willow tree (<i>salix caprea</i>) and its catkins (long, thin cluster of tiny, petalles flowers growing on some trees) were shining in the sun.
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Next to it was a redbud tree already showing rosy pink blossoms. On the ground, some hellebores brought color among the fallen leaves.
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Walking further on I saw a sign advertizing "Orchids in the Mansion."
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I walked up the hill to the historic mansion to have a look. As you entered the mansion, the railing of the grand staircase in the foyer leading to the second floor was decorated with orchids.
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White orchids were arranged in a bowl in a center table.
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The 1930's Georgian-style mansion contains several rooms that have been restored with authentic furnishings. I'll visit them more thoroughly at a later date. This time my focus was directed to the orchids. Some of the historic rooms contained orchid arrangements.
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The orchids were mostly exhibited in what they called the "loggia." But since it was enclosed in the second floor I would call it a classical "orangery," a tropical and tall conservatory place. As you entered you were totally surrounded by orchids... you were immersed in clouds of white and purple.
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It was a harmony of orchids dripping down the ceiling,
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climbing the walls,
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resting on the ground, at eye level and everywhere in between... blooming orchids all around.
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The predominantly white orchids were framed with tropical plants offering a diversity of texture to the arrangements.
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But there were other shades of the Phalaenopsis or Moth orchids such as pink, light purple, yellow and striped coral or mixed with deep purple.
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Leaving the gardens I recognized some star magnolias. Unfortunately they were framed with dark cryptomeria trees that did not look healthy - very brown and dead looking. There are many brown shrubs and trees all around Nashville now because of this past harsh dry and hot summer followed by unusually freezing days this winter.
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After going back to Georgia for a couple of weeks I came back to Nashville this last week. Last Tuesday February 28, 2023, was very warm and sunny. It was close to 80 F (26.6 C) - a record breaker for Nashville, when in the west and north of the US they had and still have feet of snow and ice (although that is not good to have such warm weather as it is usually followed with storms and tornadoes; like yesterday, I lost power from early afternoon until this morning.) I went to have a last glimpse of the orchid exhibit before it closes tomorrow. The warm weather had made a difference in the gardens - it was a riot of spring flowers and trees in bloom everywhere. I went to the exhibit first and walked through the gallery to a couple more of the historic rooms.
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The orchids were still looking very fresh. I had brought another Nikon camera and took more photos. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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On the grounds below the mansion, fragrant blue hyacinths were at the base of pink saucer magnolia trees.
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Walking slowly toward the exit I encountered narcissus, flowering quinces, pink hyacinths and more pink magnolia trees in bloom. It was hard to believe we were in February and not already into spring.
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Here and there were pockets of daffodils. I understand that 100,000 more daffodil bulbs were planted last fall. They should be in full bloom soon.
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But already there was a small field of daffodils around the transparent, open stainless steel body sculpture by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa (born in 1955.) It is called <i>Silent Music II</i>, maybe as a nod to Nashville, the "<i>Music City</i>."
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Driving out of the gardens I passed by the sign announcing the upcoming "Cheekwood in Blooms" from March to April. I'll come back with my cameras and take more photos of lovely flowers. Now it was time to renew and refresh myself with a small meal at an old-fashioned lunch spot.
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Below is one last orchid, <i>Orchid and Hummingbird</i>, by Martin Johnson Head - American, 1819-1904.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-21196928989561961102023-02-03T17:15:00.002-05:002023-02-06T11:21:12.696-05:00What's in a name?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu0sAE5OqMrpUT4Wr2bQXzeZ_ZrL4_wwpaW8_2M2oKhXrbKSnoDsp3qUzHOHJkjvF9XJF6dhuwJ5i3n1_VdhVIz5yebgIOcovk78n0muXUsR1wduoj435_GK57NtIkhWjK5nKqo7Kay7_hBlb_aRyxhA07KZyJwAdxn3mf2zrgaEOafXQNfvt4_Fka9w/s818/DSC_0042%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu0sAE5OqMrpUT4Wr2bQXzeZ_ZrL4_wwpaW8_2M2oKhXrbKSnoDsp3qUzHOHJkjvF9XJF6dhuwJ5i3n1_VdhVIz5yebgIOcovk78n0muXUsR1wduoj435_GK57NtIkhWjK5nKqo7Kay7_hBlb_aRyxhA07KZyJwAdxn3mf2zrgaEOafXQNfvt4_Fka9w/s600/DSC_0042%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
In my last couple of trips to my Georgia house I concentrated on cleaning out the garage which was totally full. It's almost empty now. But thousands of books are still there. When I pass by a bookshelf, I'll pick one up at random. As I leafed through a book of quotations, I read the well known Shakespeare's quotation from Romeo and Juliet (Act II, Scene ii.) "<i>What's in a name</i>..."
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The 4 1/2 hour drive back to Nashville gave me time to ponder on this quote and all its meanings ... roses...I had a rose garden in Georgia... I grew more than 150 rose cultivars: hybrid teas, floribunda, polyantha, a climber, a rambler, old-fashioned or heirlooom roses and grandiflora. One of my favorite roses was a strong tall bush, a grandiflora named Queen Elizabeth, with glorious pink blooms (as shown below.) I could see it from my kitchen window. It was introduced in 1954 to mark the Queen's coronation in 1953.
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This royal rose was well named. My garden is long gone; now I just have a framed drawing of this regal rose. But maybe when I have more time I'll introduce this rose to my Nashville garden. I used to belong to the Deep South District of the Rose Society in Atlanta. At monthly meetings we would discuss roses and have a great time - I went there for years. Members were usually much older than me and came from every walk of life - we were united by our love of roses. It was a kind and fun crowd sharing rose information. I miss them. I still have the silver platter I won for 1st prize as a novice in the Atlanta Rose Show with my rose Mr. Lincoln.
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"<i>I don't know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice.</i>" (Roland A. Browne, American author.)
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The names of my roses escaped me but last week I found a list of my roses. Below are top left The Peace Rose next to Dortmund (a rambler,) below left is Chrysler Imperial next to The Cherokee Rose, which is Georgia's official state "floral emblem."
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In the Shakespeare's play, Juliet is telling Romeo that names are inconsequent and trivial. I take issue with this. Names are part of our identity, they influence us and how others perceive us. They can carry familial and cultural connections. Other people can make judgments or assumptions about us through our name. This reminds me that years ago, when I was expecting my first child, my husband told me that if the baby was a boy he liked the name Colin. The baby would be registered at the French Embassy as a French citizen through me, and then as a US citizen through my husband. The name of the child should sound fine in both languages and colin, in French, is a fish, a pollock, a cousin of the cod. The colin/pollock fish is popular with cooks because of its mild taste and flaky texture.
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My grandparents came often to eat with us on Sundays in Paris and my mother would usually start the meal with a cold "colin" mayonnaise, as shown below.
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I could not call my newborn a fish in French. Altough maybe with some French people who understand English, it might not sound so bad, but my French relatives did not speak English. Fortunately, our first baby was a girl (our second child was a girl as well.) In English, as well, names can be a problem, as I learnt at work. During my first ten years at Lockheed-Martin I was in charge of trainees coming to our plant to study our cargo aircraft the C-130 Hercules. My first duty when the trainees arrived was to draw a list of their names, birth dates, check their IDs or passports if they were from overseas so our Security Department could issue entrance badges to them. One time I made a list of Mexican trainees. I picked up the name of their country from their passports. As you can see from the picture below, it says "Estados Unidos Mexicanos" so I translated it as "United States of Mexico." Below map of Mexico overlaid on map of the USA.
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Oh my! I received a telephone call from an irate Security Officer telling me that I had made a grave error in my document. He told me that only the United States of America can use the term "United States" and certainly not Mexico. He was returning my document and wanted me to correct the country's name. I was not sure what to call it. One of the Mexican trainees was standing near me and explained that they are aware of how defensive and possessive the USA is about the term "united states" and refuses for any other country to use it. He added that they translate it in English as the United Mexican States, placing the "united" first and "states" last to avoid hurting sensibilities here. So this is what I did. You see, names are important and can cause problems. Whatever one wishes to call the country of Mexico, it does have many states - 32 I believe. A photo of Mexico overlaid over Europe shows that it is a large country. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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Some countries are very strict about baby names; they even have laws on it. Denmark provides a list of 7,000 pre-approved names for parents to pick. If parents have another name in mind that is not on the list they will have to get special permission that will be reviewed by government officials. In Germany the first name must show the gender of the child, so you cannot use last names. The name must also be approved by the Standesamt (German Civil registration office.) If the name is not approved, you can appeal; if you lose you can submit another name and pay a fee. In Iceland the name has to be accepted by the "naming committee." It must contain letters in the Iceland alphabet and fit with the language, must be gender specific and won't embarrass the child in the future. In Sweden the Tax Agency has to approve the name, and it will be rejected if deemed not suitable. Portugal has banned the shortened versions of names as official names, so you can name you son Frederic but not Fred, and they also have a 4,000 list of prohibited names. In France, Napoleon Bonaparte created a law in 1803 showing which names were acceptable. In 1993 this law was repealed but if the registrar believes the chosen name could be damaging to the child's interest, he or she can refuse to confirm the name; the court needs to provide further consideration. But there are still banned names in France.
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In 2015, a French couple wished to name their newborn girl "Nutella" afer the chocolate spread. (Photo above courtesy Imperial Sugar.) A judge denied their request stating that other children might mock her. The judge approved the name Ella instead (take it or not...) In France children cannot have the last name of a parent as a first name. Other names rejected were: Automne (fall in English) Joyeux (happy in English) Vanille (vanilla) Gentil (kind in English) Ravi (Indian name.) The name Manhattan was denied because it is the name of a known place. In the US I have heard people called after names of places, such as Lorraine (a French province) and its capital Nancy (a city) Rochelle (a French town by the sea) Chelsea (a London neighborhood) Paris (a capital) Africa (a continent) Asia, etc.
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Most countries will not approve names that could be "detrimental to the child's interests" and have ratified the legally-binding international agreement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) adopted in 1989. It acknowledges that children have basic fundamental rights. You can read it <a href="https://ipausa.org/advocacy/un-convention-on-the-rights-of-children/">here </a>. It is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history with 194 countries having done so. Only three countries have not ratified this human treaty: Somalia, South Sudan and the United States of America. The US says that it could interfere in the private lives of families, such as discipline. But then I found out that Former President Jimmy Carter signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on July 17, 1980, and this treaty has never been ratified by the United States of America either. Could it be the reverse then, that the US state <i>can</i> interfere in the private lives of women? This treaty has been ratified by 189 countries. The countries that have not are: Iran, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, Tonga and the USA. But people can name their babies anything they wish here in this country.
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Some US celebrities have given their poor children outrageous names - after cardinal points, seasons, colors, and more, such as Sage Moonblood, Audio Science, Bronx Mowgli, Denim and North. I found a list with appalling names given legally to US babies in 2022, such as Furious, Renegade, Billion, Luxury, Envy, Whiskey, Paradise, Exit, Handsome, Capone, Corleone (after the Godfather movie) Fairy, Rooster. How would you like to be named any of those? A name is powerful; it is an important part of our identity and should not be trivialized.
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The top red rose was my winning Mr. Lincoln rose. I think "rose" is a good name for the flower, it is the same in French and English and calls to mind a delicate plant with lovely blooms and fragrance. If we changed the name of the rose to "cockroach" or "dung beetle" it might still smell as sweet as Juliet said, but would its image be as evocative and meaningful? No, let's keep calling it a rose, shall we?
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-1765127676883036052023-01-18T16:22:00.002-05:002023-01-19T14:50:47.529-05:00Some French customs ... Noël and New Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykaZKlkfBIuZv-nWDF4k77q4XJ3DrvXAuapQXdvlEQbczp99oHVqNdlyjWtGBS-RQ7pZudJIXchTyRzHxLj7BhjV7sHZ3x68CV55-JpvFH9seS2-eag5VD-WJaNlROGYtTop-w4lc4cfyCfiSK4NnbzDl8NhStFVMAWNsIBQI_XNaNS99S4AAqAzH7g/s734/DSC04375%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="734" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykaZKlkfBIuZv-nWDF4k77q4XJ3DrvXAuapQXdvlEQbczp99oHVqNdlyjWtGBS-RQ7pZudJIXchTyRzHxLj7BhjV7sHZ3x68CV55-JpvFH9seS2-eag5VD-WJaNlROGYtTop-w4lc4cfyCfiSK4NnbzDl8NhStFVMAWNsIBQI_XNaNS99S4AAqAzH7g/s600/DSC04375%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
Already half of January is gone. I have to hurry up and send my good year wishes to my French family and friends before the end of the month. In France it is the custom to send cards of Bonne Année (New Year) meilleurs voeux (best wishes) during the month of January (not in December because that is considered bad luck.) The wishes have to be sent or given between the start of the New Year and January 31st. Along the years I have received many cards. I'll show some of them below. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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Very few Christmas cards are sent in France, it is not the tradition. They are very hard to find anyhow. Also I have never received cards from France with photographs of the senders like it is done here, more and more. Here I even received some from US businesses, such as from the man trimming my front yard grass (see below.)
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My Muslim friends have sent me New Year greeting cards, too.
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Usually most holiday stamps in France are just for a happy New Year and best wishes. Those stamps are not religious.
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The French post office also issues Chinese lunar New Year stamps.
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Another custom from the US which is not followed in France is the outdoor lightning and decorations on people's houses; however, most cities in France are decorarted during the holidays. (Photos below of Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg, Nimes and a town in Brittany.) Also in France you don't usually hear Christmas carols in the shops as you do here.
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As you can see in the photos above there are many Christmas trees. Actually in France there are Christmas trees everywhere - from the largest cities to the smalles villages, and in city halls, church steps, public spaces, train stations, and of course shops. Below are some large Paris department stores during the holidays. Top left is Le Printemps, next to La Samaritaine, below left is the Galeries Lafayette next to the Bon Marché. (France is one of the least religious countries in Europe, with only 6% attending church, at least once a month.)
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The reason is that Christmas trees are not considered religious in France. They are not called Christmas trees in French but arbres or sapins de Noël (trees or pine trees of Noël.) Noël is not a Christian word, but its origin is from the Gaulish language, even though the Catholic church tried hard to say it is from the Latin (!) You may not know too much about the Gaul Empire. In France, in my first grade elementary class, I learned that it was the origins of France.
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We were always taught about "nos ancêtres les Gaulois" (our ancestors, the Gauls.) That saying is quite popular in France. Below is a map of the ancient Gaul Empire and a Paris restaurant named after it.
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There are many books on that subject as well.
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The Gauls became so popular in France that a brand of cigarettes is called "Gauloises." They came in different flavor, dark, blonde, light and menthol. I knew them well because my father was a chain smoker of the strong dark ones (he died of lung cancer at 65 years old.) Now it is written on the pack: "Nuit gravement à la santé" /seriously damages health. They were manufactured in France but young people don't smoke as much now or prefer American tasting, sweeter cigarettes. Since 2017 they have been made in Poland; however, the "menthol" flavor has been banned since 2020. Cigarettes are only sold in tobacco stores in France. Malboro are the most popular and cost 10 Euros a pack of 20 cigarettes ($11.)
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The Gaulish warriors were fierce, tall and muscled. They excelled on the battlefield, terrifying their enemies with their famous "sacred fury." The Greek historian <i>Diodorus Siculus</i> (between 30 and 60 BC) described the Gaul warriors thus: "<i>The Gauls are tall of body, with skin moist and white. Their hair is blond not only by nature but also because they practice to increase artificially the peculiar nature of their coloring. Some of them shave off their beards, but others let them grow moderately. The nobles shave their cheeks, but let their mustaches grow freely so as to cover their mouths. They dress in astonishing clothes, tunics dyed in all colors </i>..." (Interesting to note that the Gauls/French already bleached their hair 600 years BC!.)
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Vercingetorix was the Gaulish chieftain that we knew so well when were were children. He is considered the first national hero of France for his defense of our land. It is said even his enemies greatly admired him and feared him. He was tall, handsome, a charismatic leader and an inspiring public speaker. Below are two paintings about Vercingetorix and two French stamps commemorating him.
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Napoleon III (1808-1873) a nephew of Napoleon I, greatly admired Vercingetorix. He paid with his own funds to have a statue of the warrior erected in central France, in Alesia, Burgundy (a site of a Gaulish battle.) The monument sculpted by Aimé Millet, erected in 1865, is in bronze and 22 feet tall. At its base is written: "<i>La Gaulle unie, formant une seule nation, animée d’un même esprit, peut défier l’univers.</i>" (Gaul united, forming a single nation, animated by a common spirit, can defy the universe.") There are other statues of Vercingetorix, one of him riding a horse and made by Frédéric Bartholdi (1834-1904) the French sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty, now in the USA.
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Napoleon III insisted that all schools curriculum should start with the history of Gaul. He was the first President of France from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870, also the last monarch to rule over France. The Gauls spoke the Gaulish language which became extinct by 1000 AD. Quite a large number of French words came from Gaulish, such as brave/bragos, brosse (brush)/bruskia, cheval (horse)/caballos, manteau (coat)/mantion, sapin (pine tree)/sappos. And we are back to our fir tree with Noël coming from the Gaulish "noio" (nouveau-new) and "hel" (soleil-sun.) More than a thousand years before the Christian era the Gauls had a pagan festival around our December 24, at the time of the winter solstice. It lasted for a week or so. The spruce, tree of birth and symbol of life, was linked to this festival to celebrate the rebirth of the Sun. It was then decorated with fruits, fllowers and wheat. This evergreen tree was a <i>picea abies</i>, or European spruce, shown below around a lake in France and on a botanical plate of 1885.
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In 336, under Emperor Constantine, the Church in Rome chose December 25 to celebrate the birth of Christ. It may have been a PR gesture for dethroning the centuries old solstice pagan festival which took place on Dec. 24/25 and replacing it with a Christian referent. It was also to take advantage of this well established pagan festival; people were given a Christian alternative to the pagan festivities. Eventually many of the pagan symbols and actions were re-interpreted in ways acceptable to Christian faith and practice, including the date and name of the festival. All countries switched to these Christian names but not Gaul/France. France kept the name of Noël from the ancient pagan festival and the name of its tree, the only country to do so. Till now they refer to it as Noël and le sapin de Noël (the pine tree of Noël.)
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Some old French tree of Noël traditions: in 1521, in Sélestat in Alsace (the town where my grandfather was born and raised and under the German Empire at that time,) a fir tree in the city square was decorated with paper flowers and sweets. Later they added candles (walnut shells filled with oil) chocolate and garlands. The city of Sélestat is celebrated as the capital of the arbre de Noël in France, tradition born there is 1521. In 1738, Marie Leszczynska (daughter of the King of Poland,) wife of Louis XV, King of France, had a Christmas tree installed in the Palace of Versailles, helping to spread the fashion for the decorated tree throughout France. (Photos below: Sélestat cradle of Noël, a stamp, Marie Queen of France, and Sélestat in summer.)
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But another country has a secular holiday fir tree - they call it <i>Yolka</i>. After the Russian Revolution, Christmas celebrations were banished in the Soviet Union. In 1935 they replaced it with a secular New Year holiday with a New Year fir tree called "yolka." There were celebrations and gift giving. The Kremlin gave a special New Year party for children with clowns, gifts, dances, songs and more (and I think they still do.)
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New Year with decorated yolka tree, gift exchanging, celebrations and singing have survived till now in Russia and former Soviet Union states. Large yolka fir trees can be found in many cities, such as Grozny the capital of Chechnya (mostly Muslim,) Kazan, Ulan-Ude in East Siberia and many more.
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So it is now that everyone in Russia and former USSR states celebrate New Year with a decorated fir tree, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, Sikhs, Hindus, etc. It is not considered a Christmas tree, just like in France, it is a universal tree of light, fun, goodwill and hope. During the Soviet years the Jews were not allowed to celebrate Passover, Hanukkah or any other religous holidays, but they could celebrate Novy God (New Year) with a decorated yulka tree - and they all did. After millions of Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union they continued their yolka tradition and passed it to their children. However, many Jews in Israel cannot accept the concept of a secular decorated fir tree and have been trying to stop that tradition. I even read in international newspapers that some towns in Israel a couple of weeks ago vandalized and or burnt yolka trees. It is quite sad to me that some people leaving their country to escape persecution are not fully accepted in their new country either. At least they can come to France and have a yolka tree (but as in the US, there is anti-Semitism in France, too, alas.)
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As I said above the concept of sending Christmas cards is not followed in France. Since living in the US I have changed my customs/traditions and I do send Christmas cards. I also send New Year cards to France (I feel one should not be rigid but flexible with traditions.) In France you should not say "Happy New Year" before the 1st of January - it is considered back luck. But after the first you may wish it to everyone you meet, write it on every email or text! Another French tradition started by General de Gaulle in 1960 is the New Year's Eve presidential message (like the Christmas message of the late UK Queen and new King.) On television, at 8 pm the President of the French Republic speaks to the nation from the official Elysée Palace and gives his "Presidential Greetings." This year President Macron in a 20-minute statement addressed the French people with "wishes for unity, boldness and collective ambition."
My wish for you is to have a great year. May the next 12 months be synonymous with joy, laughter and good health.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-64808605451231488122022-12-28T14:55:00.001-05:002022-12-28T14:55:22.916-05:00Downton Abbey in Atlanta, part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIfLmdEmS5SYeYBlLmS1mqZ9-OWQNmfikc4u0Yu3P6lwYOrm8TiVzABvVXqlYFprJyuq2hi3yB1USSvH1UrmpTKPJOjtUkgZNkCLBrmL-iAKTX7kL7m7o6sjgyTGexeBuEqGCZT1d2kMwP5a1zLzV790OeKTb9dhvRy9lSvXoyhzLF8_SBnlGdkrBQmw/s734/DSC03746%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="734" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIfLmdEmS5SYeYBlLmS1mqZ9-OWQNmfikc4u0Yu3P6lwYOrm8TiVzABvVXqlYFprJyuq2hi3yB1USSvH1UrmpTKPJOjtUkgZNkCLBrmL-iAKTX7kL7m7o6sjgyTGexeBuEqGCZT1d2kMwP5a1zLzV790OeKTb9dhvRy9lSvXoyhzLF8_SBnlGdkrBQmw/s600/DSC03746%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
In an older entry of the Harvard University's blog a post was titled <i>"No, it's not just you: why time "speeds up" as we get older.</i>" A short article then gives one of he reasons" "<i>...over time, the rate at which we process visual information slows down, and this is what makes time 'speed up' as we grow older...</i>" you can read the argument <a href="https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2019/no-not-just-time-speeds-get-older/">here</a>.
Could be one of the reasons time is speeding up for me. Year 2022 is almost at the finish point but I feel that we should only be halfway through it. It seems that the years quicken as my birthdays accumulate. Last December 2021 I wrote a post on an exhibition in Atlanta on Downton Abbey, part one, and before I could write part two, we were already in March, and too late for a holiday post. But since we are back in a month of December, and the clock is ticking quickly toward year end, below is part two. You may wish to go to part one to look back at some of the photos and explanations - click on "<a href="https://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2021/12/downton-abbey-in-atlanta-georgia-part-1.html">Downton Abbey in Atlanta, part 1</a>."
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For those not familiar with the television series Downton Abbey, it is a period drama that was shown during six seasons. It represented an English aristocratic family, the Crawleys who lived at the Downton Abbey estate. We followed their lives from 1912 through the 1920s. The show depicted historical events as well as how life was for the nobility and their servants during this rapidly changing time. Downton Abbey is fictitious but the estate where the series was filmed is in Hampshire, England. The real Highclere Castle, set on 5,000 acres of land, was built in 1679 and is the country seat of the Eighth Earl of Carnarvon, his family, staff and seven dogs. There are 300 rooms in Highclere Castle, the real Downton Abbey, 40 to 50 of them are bedrooms but none have showers - only full baths. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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The estate is open to the public for self-guided tours during the summer months and at Easter and Christmas. I certainly would like to visit it, but this would be the estate as it is now in the 2020's, not as in the post-Edwardian times shown in the series. Exterior shots of the abbey, the main hall, dining room and drawing room use Highclere Castle in the TV series, but the servants' quarters, kitchen and family bedrooms were sets created at the Ealing Studios. The Atlanta Downton exhibit showed those sets, such as the dining room, Mrs. Patmore's kitchen, Lady Mary's bedroom, Carson's pantry plus many artifacts from the show. At this exhibition you really felt like you were in the kitchen and in the servants' quarters. Actually you were, because they do not exist in the real Highclere Castle. There is no downstairs kitchen area there, that area is now devoted to an Egyptian exposition.
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I visited the Atlanta exhibition last year early one morning in mid-week. There were not many visitors and I found myself alone in the reconstructed servants' quarters. I took many pictures. It felt like the servants were just around the corner,
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and the bell board was going to summon the staff any minute.
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Then I entered the kitchen that was so very busy during the TV shows.
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Walking by the pantry of Mr. Carson, the butler in the show, I could visualize him writing at his desk.
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Back upstairs I entered a large room and sat in one of the chairs. The walls became alive with an immersive, multi-media image projection of several rooms of Downton. In this three-sided video you could see doors open with characters conversing. Then there were black and white scenes of World War 1 with explosions, soldiers running into tranches transporting you to the horrors of this war; more scenes followed and it ended with images of the staff of Downton Abbey.
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Moving on in front of Lady Mary's bedroom I could almost see her sitting by her dressing mirror, or reading newspapers in bed.
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I took several photos of the gorgeously appointed dining room, decorated for the Holidays.
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This was such an expansive exhibition with 50-plus costumes and a multitude of early 20th century artifacts. There were displays explaining the society, the culture and issues of those times; a great number of film clips and photos of the TV show were all around.
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A beautiful hat display made me sigh. I own several lovely hats that I never wear. Apart from sun hats for gardening there are not many occasions to wear fancy hats nowadays, at least in the United States.
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Several rooms contained actual outfits worn by the actors during the shows. They ranged from riding outfits to country tweeds and lavish evening gowns. There were faithful reproductions of the jewelry and garments aristocratic ladies and gentlemen might have worn in the 1910s through the 1920s in England, as well as their servants' outfits. Some of the dresses, or parts of the dresses, were authentic such as the extensive beadwork on some of the gowns. (Don't forget to click on the collage to enlarge and see better.)
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Lady Edith's wedding short sleeve dress was a vintage original garment, I understand. The lace was exquisite. For a 100+ years old lace it looked stunningly fresh, see the first 3 top photos in the collage below.
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Many of the gowns had intricate detail work, such as Lady Rose's presentation dress below. It is an adaptation of a vintage original, with a green applique ribbon. The costumes on the TV show were always elegant.
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I had come to the end of the exhibit. Mr. Carson, the butler, gave some parting words through a hologram ending with: "<i>Perhaps we'll meet again. You never know.</i>"
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It had been an enjoyable exhibition - this fully immersive,multi-media extravaganza made me feel like I had visited the Crawleys at Downton Abbey during the yearend holidays.
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The gift shop offered many souvenirs from the show, mugs, teas, books, etc.
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I already own several books on Downton Abbey including the Countess of Carnarvon's "Christmas at Highclere." It includes a narrative of traditions at the castle, recipes and details on the elaborate Christmas parties there.
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In her book, Lady Carnarvon gives a behind the scenes look at the rituals and routines of the castle throughout the Holidays. It tells of Highclere Christmases past and present including the raising of a 25-foot tree in the saloon, an opulent room designed for the 4th Earl in the 1860s. (This is one of 60 Christmas trees thoughout Highclere.) There are beautiful illustrations of the Castle grounds as well.
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Cold Christmas 2022 is gone now. I watched King Charles' first Christmas speech on the BBC via youTube. I'll quote some of his ending words: "<i>While Christmas is of course a Christian celebration, the power of light overcoming darkness is celebrated across the boundaries of faith and belief. So whatever faith you have, or whether you have none, it is in this life-giving light and with the true humility that lies in our service to others, that I believe we can find hope for the future. Let us therefore celebrate it together and cherish it always.</i>" These are noteworthy words, indeed.
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My final words are not that eloquent. I only wish you a Happy New Year and hope that 2023 will bring you joy, happiness and good health; stay well and stay warm,
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and ...
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-78077777848989302352022-11-12T20:18:00.003-05:002022-11-14T13:03:25.171-05:00Old Car City in White, Georgia<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEAZMtcBM_9kOrcIUiS001RsnEIThkfcy3y83rB2-w__buM_oCePSKii9qM1nzTQ4fdJIUwgZNelCyTVg-g5T9K56yWyw5bHtdTsI-SgYPpfzB3P_AC4C1Fwdqlj11Gm2UK3GPHyvXDF5jW9UZkCvlTqM6Wj4JOIxGkbyy0zqpE_ST48LhiJSt5mArA/s3000/oldie%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEAZMtcBM_9kOrcIUiS001RsnEIThkfcy3y83rB2-w__buM_oCePSKii9qM1nzTQ4fdJIUwgZNelCyTVg-g5T9K56yWyw5bHtdTsI-SgYPpfzB3P_AC4C1Fwdqlj11Gm2UK3GPHyvXDF5jW9UZkCvlTqM6Wj4JOIxGkbyy0zqpE_ST48LhiJSt5mArA/s600/oldie%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
On Sunday 6 November, 2022 I drove the 4 1/2 hours from Nashville to Greater Atlanta so I could vote in the mid-term elections on Tuesday Nov. 8. Before, I usually voted during advance voting at the main Cobb County polling place, but this time I could not. At about 10 am I drove to where I used to vote in my area. There were just a couple of cars in the parking lot; I thought they had moved the voting location but a sign showing "vote here" was in front of the door so I went in. I was first in line and it took me only ten minutes to vote. Of course I live in the extreme northwest of Cobb County, in the rural area where houses are far in between (my neighbor has 40 acres between us behind the lake, and the next one is a farm.)
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Thursday Nov. 10 was a bright and sunny fall day begging for me to stay oudoors, but where to go? In early 2020 I had planned to become a member of the Nashville Photo Club; then Covid happened and I did not. They met monthly and went on regular outings, near and far. They had been planning to drive to White in North Georgia to an old car junkyard-museum. I checked and realized it was only 26 miles from my Georgia house. If they were willing to drive 4+ hours to visit, I certainly could drive half an hour to take a look. So this is what I did that day. My house is not far from the Bartow county line. The red dot below, between Acworth and Kennesaw, is where my house is located.
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Arriving around 10:30 am there was just another car in the parking lot (from Pennsyvania.) Old Car City is on highway US-411 with just a small southern restaurant across the road. I went in and paid the entrance fee (cash only.) There was an eclectic assortment of memorabilia, vintage collectible, antique toys, Americana, an old piano, etc. in the interior area.
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I was shown a map then told the property had 6.5 miles of trails on the 34 acres (137,593.12 sq meters.) I walked by a sign with a short history of the business and a witch left over from Halloween when they offered a spooky "Haunted Trails." (Click on collage to enlarge and read better.)
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The parents of Dean Lewis, the current owner, started a general store in 1931 that sold various items from tires, gasoline, clothing and car parts. Because of the Great Depression steel was scarce so they changed their line to scrapping cars; by the late 1940s it had become a salvage yard. When Dean acquired the business in 1970 there were 40 cars on the lot. He had a passion for old cars and spent decades acquiring wrecked and junked vehicles from recycling yards, auctions and private parties. But Dean did not like to sell the old vehicles' parts, he wanted to preserve them. He kept collecting them, had to buy more land; he stopped counting when he had collected over 4000 rusting metal carcasses. People were stopping by to take a look or take pictures, so about 15 years ago Dean realized that the business could be better sustained as a museum charging admittance. I started walking on the grounds, passing more unusual items, rusting bicycles and tricycles.
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Then I entered the trail, looking in awe at all the decaying cars covered with pine needles and creeping vines. Some cars had trees growing through their bumpers or windshields and even lifted them. Some cars were on top of each other, maybe as they had been delivered. After more than 80 years the cars had been taken over by nature, they were part of it. This is why the slogan here is "Nature, Art, History and Cars." It was an amazing sight, but very quiet, with just the birds chirping, and no one else around.
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Stopping to take photos, walking, turning, I knew I was getting lost, but so what.
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Along the way there were random unique hand-painted signs, with optional spelling.
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It was in the high 70s (26 c) but under the pine canopy it felt cool. It was a forest, really, with some very large trees and a heavy carpet of pine straw on the ground and covering the cars.
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Actually with all the pine straw it was hard to read the make of the cars. I like vintage cars but I am not an enthusiast and unless I can read it I can't distinguish between all the different brands and certainly can't tell the models or years. Maybe after a good rain, if the straw moved it would be easier to read. I kept stopping and snapping - I had brought my Nikon D5200 and my small Sony DSC-HX90V plus took some with my Iphone. There was an embarrassment of choices - where to point?
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I read the oldest car there was a 1918 Buick, then a few from the 1920s, more from the 1930s and most vehicles from the 1940s to 1972. They included Packards, Desoto, Chevrolet, Studebakers, Hudsons, Fords, Edsels, Mercury, Buicks, Plymouths, Oldsmobiles, Dodges, Cadillacs, Chryslers, Pontiac, Lincoln, some buses, a 1941 Mack milk truck and a few foreign cars - I recognized some VWs. From a distance I thought I read "vagabond" on the back of a car. Getting closer, sure enough, it read "vagabond." I never knew such a model ever existed. Back at home I researched it. From 1946 to 1951 the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation made upper-medium price luxury automobiles; their Frazer Vagabond was a unique hatchback sedan. The Vagabond shown below (courtesy Wikipedia) has been restored to its prime glory. (I wish I could be restored...)
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There certainly was a plethora of rustic relics from days gone by and I understood why another of the Old Car City's slogans was "Photographer's Paradise." How to select the best angle to snap these decomposing dream cars?
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Some metal chairs were placed in some of the trails for a quick rest or meditation or reflection?
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Then I saw it - a car I knew. Flying to France in 2008 I watched on the flight the movie "Gran Torino" starring Clint Eastwood with his prized muscle car, a 1972 Ford Torino. Here was a poor sweet green Torino resting under the Georgia pines.
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It was already past 1:00 pm. I had been wandering in the forest among this chrome and rust cemetery for 2 1/2 hours. It was time to go back and cross the highway to the restaurant for lunch, but which way to get back? I kept going up and down trails, and they all looked alike. I did not reach the restaurant until close to 2:00 pm!
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I understand that locals gather there for lunch and it gets quite busy, but by then there were just a couple of patrons. Wes-Man Restaurant is a typical rural southern restaurant. They open 6:00 am to 3:00 pm. Inside it looked cozy and tiny with license plates covering the wall along old newspapers, old high school annuals, etc. The lunch menu has a large selection of classic southern comfort food with burgers, salads, blue plates (meat and 3) and more.
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There were bags of water hanging over the booths - to prevent flies they told me. I ordered the standard southern vegetable plate: fried okra, turnip greens, black eye peas, fried green tomatoes and corn bread. I'm pleased they served the vinegar pepper sauce for the greens, as they often don't in Tennessee. For dessert I had the blueberry cobbler. Everything was tasty especially the okra and fried green tomatoes.
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Now that I had re-fueled my body I was ready to cross the road back to the forest of disintegrating relics. Close to the front of the lot the cars and trucks were parked on cement or gravel, not under pine trees. Many had moss and grime from all the decades they had been stationed there.
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I wish I recognized some of those cars, like that long black one above. I did drive two vintage cars back in the days. My father, in the late 1940s, had bought a 1936 Simca-Fiat coupe, with stick shifts, for my mother so she would learn to drive. She always refused. The car spent years in storage in a French country warehouse until she gave it to me for my 18th birthday. I drove that old car all over Paris in the early 1960s and had so much fun. I also drove my boy-friend's 1939 Chevrolet coupe in Great Falls, Montana, a couple of times. The Chevrolet is in the bottom photo, below.
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Walking back to the forest trails I passed some vehicles that were under shelter and some above the shelter's roof.
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I kept on my little trek stopping here and there to snap hood ornaments, car remnants, ghosts of VW Beetles and vans, and crumbling school buses.
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At 3:30 pm I was ready to head back as they close at 4:00 pm. Getting back to the main building I stopped by a collectible automobile in great shape. It was the maroon 1977 Lincoln Mark V Elvis Presley bought in 1977, just months before he died.
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Later I read some negative comments about this unusual museum. Some said it was useless hoarding these pieces of junk. Other said the land would be better used in more money productive ways or that the owner Dean Lewis would profit more by selling the land than keeping that garbage around. I don't think Dean is interested in that. He says "<i>I don't know what I would do if I couldn't get up every morning and look at old cars.</i>"
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Since a little boy Dean had a passion for old cars. He was able to build a business around it and make a living. Eighty plus years later, Dean is still around his beloved old cars (he was born in 1937.) There is a lot to be said about this - life is not just measured in dollars. These vehicles had their day, their use and now can freeze in place and give pleasure to others. About 99% of them are unsalvageable. They have another use - a destination for families to walk in an uncommon forest. They are ideal as photo opportunities for professional photographers, ad agencies, media companies, videographers, photo clubs or just people like me who enjoy shooting unusual and unique pieces.
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Another comment was: "<i>A friend and I just traveled almost 1400 miles to photograph the incredible cars at Old Car City. We arrived at opening and stayed till closing for 3 days and didn't even come close to seeing/photographing it all!</i>" There have been visitors from Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, China, Russia, Canada and the UK in addition to domestic visitors. I truly enjoyed getting lost in this one-of-a-kind forest and snapping these lovingly neglected car remains fading away under the Georgia sun.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-36433398517538340002022-08-13T17:59:00.000-04:002022-08-13T17:59:39.778-04:00Farewell dear Naomi ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRhE6EAhzXpiGYaC7swLlGzzc236cIibPE4QdfGPGWNy4GRM34wJaQDujjQTC8t3vfZLexK10to6Ze7X4UnGFnbKZpVCw--gkXlEkzEblLRB9h5BjhF6M4LxkUVhaFrfLFoUK7C29zR7jXCowsmqKiOoDcHDsjfIJonll29CTJ8pHyKfTd5JGOyv58A/s723/HAWK%20.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="723" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRhE6EAhzXpiGYaC7swLlGzzc236cIibPE4QdfGPGWNy4GRM34wJaQDujjQTC8t3vfZLexK10to6Ze7X4UnGFnbKZpVCw--gkXlEkzEblLRB9h5BjhF6M4LxkUVhaFrfLFoUK7C29zR7jXCowsmqKiOoDcHDsjfIJonll29CTJ8pHyKfTd5JGOyv58A/s600/HAWK%20.jpg"/></a></div>
My friend Naomi has left us, she died on July 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Naomi Caryl Hirshhorn was 91 years old, born on June 27, 1931. I'm very sad but I'd like this post not to be somber, but to celebrate her life.
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Along the years I wrote several posts about my friend Naomi - you can click on "Naomi" on the right side of my blog and see them. I explained her childhood, family, career, art and more. I visited her childhood home in Great Neck, Long Island, New York and also her home in Los Angeles in the Hollywood Hills. There are several photos of them in my previous posts. Naomi was a very special person, talented, creative, generous, fun and lovable. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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Naomi accomplished a great deal during her long life. She was a composer and lyricist and sang on Broadway when she was young. She made records and she and her music were featured in a CBS television "special" and were nominated for an Emmy. Her talent covered many areas in art, music and entertainment.
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She appeared as an actress and singer on several television shows. She was also an artist, working in acrylic and pastel. Her art was exhibited in several large cities in the country. She told me she had made about 2000 drawings and 850 paintings - see example below.
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A famous artist friend of hers, Morris Broderson (1928-2011) even painted a standing portrait of her.
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For about ten years she had a blog where she would show photos of her succulent garden, her parties and more. Her posts were always interesting, informative and fun. She had a free spirit.
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Unfortunately when she was young she suffered a terrible illness of the lungs - bronchiectasis. With the years it worsened and she had to stay indoors most of the time. But even in her confinement she enjoyed nature around her. Her house was on the Hollywood Hill, hanging out cantilever style. From her balcony she could see the city below, with an incredible view that would not quit, seeing all the way to the sea on a clear day.
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She delighted in watching the birds flying to her outdoor balcony as well as the many wild animals walking in the hills below her house.
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Naomi was knowledgeable in all aspects of show business. She saw many new films at home on DVD's because of her affiliation with the Screen Actors Guild (and was on the Film Nominating Committee.) On her blog she would give good critiques of the films. Along her long career she had met many well known actors, such as Paul Newman, and would share anecdotes on them. She never married but had a large circle of friends. For years she doted on her beautiful white cat "Sweetie." I did pet him, and his fur was the softest ever.
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Naomi was very social and many friends and family came to her home for luncheons and parties. She would set up an attractive table with delicate china and her favorite blue crystal goblets.
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Loving nature, Naomi was fond of gardens but when she no longer could visit them she would surround herself with stunning flower arrangements.
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With the passing of years many of her old friends started falling ill or died. It caused her much grief. Her health deteriorated as well and she could no long type on her computer or move easily. Watching the formation of the clouds from her balcony and the colors of the sun was still a joy. She always had a great sense of humor and a sharp mind, but alas, an uncooperative body.
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In 2020 I was supposed to fly to California to visit my San Francisco friend George then go down to Los Angeles to visit Naomi - COVID in the US cancelled all my plans (and George died last year.) On her telephone, Naomi would not "speak" a call back message, she would sing it "<i>Speak to me ...and I will listen to you ...</i>" I shall miss our long telephone conversations; now I'll cherish their memories. Rest well, my dear Naomi.
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"<i>The song is ended, but the melody lingers on...</i>" - Irving Berlin (American composer, 1888-1989.)
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-20153140294809905942022-07-26T21:14:00.009-04:002022-07-27T23:40:10.213-04:00July 14 Paris celebration and some sights along the Tour de France 2022<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhELsgGcvvUg78lCpAXfobblzJmSR-9JqJaMMe7mpj_KB8QIyPebGs8Kyi3CQfglJYa317bxW3ZImVk0AfV3ZPacZJd5Cwuj_2Q8HtGiOG33TuR004TzwNwJxlo_GoaqBb9h8nxZVjRTUKvBP3N_RJIrpvMjsNnlvTqNk6H9pxRq-PS4k6d8w3iIozi0Q/s743/Patrouille%20de%20France%2014%20Juillet%20%20.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="743" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhELsgGcvvUg78lCpAXfobblzJmSR-9JqJaMMe7mpj_KB8QIyPebGs8Kyi3CQfglJYa317bxW3ZImVk0AfV3ZPacZJd5Cwuj_2Q8HtGiOG33TuR004TzwNwJxlo_GoaqBb9h8nxZVjRTUKvBP3N_RJIrpvMjsNnlvTqNk6H9pxRq-PS4k6d8w3iIozi0Q/s600/Patrouille%20de%20France%2014%20Juillet%20%20.jpg"/></a></div>
The Patrouille de France (French Acrobatic Patrol) of the French Air Force is shown above. It has been active since 1931 and is one of the oldest and considered one of the best in the world. It traditionally opens the military parade in Paris on the 14 of July /French National Holiday (also known as Bastille Day in anglophone areas.) Then about two weeks later, it flies over the Champs-Elysees Avenue at the close of the Tour de France. Nine pilots fly the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets with a team of 32 mechanics for support.
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A 14 of July military parade down the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris has been a tradition since 1880. The parade starts at 10:00 am and lasts two hours. This year's theme was "Sharing the Flame" - a reference to the flame of the Resistance, and to the Olympic flame of which France is now the custodian until the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Olympic and Paralympics' medalists were part of the procession. This year French President Macron wished to honor Eastern European nations and invited their troops to open the parade (photo shown below courtesy Ministère des Armées.) The units and flags of the Baltic States, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary opened the parade with troops on foot, followed by the soldiers of the French regiments engaged within the framework of NATO on the eastern flank of Europe, such as the alpine hunters deployed in Romania and Estonia. (France's Rafale fighter jets are also helping to protect the Polish sky.)
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The parade included 6,300 soldiers on foot, 71 aircraft, 25 helicopers, 221 vehicles and 200 horses of the Republican Guard. Louis, a 17 years old ship's boy and future ship's mate, was the youngest soldier in the parade. He is pictured below, courtesy Le Ministère des Armées.
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In the evening of July 14, Parisians, French people and foreign visitors were invited to gather near the Eiffel Tower to watch the fireworks at 11 pm, for about 30 minutes. The theme this year was "Carpe Diem" (seize the day - take advantage of life.) The fireworks paid tribute to Ukraine, projecting the Ukrainian flag on the Eiffel Tower, the blue and yellow rockets drawing hearts in the sky, on the song "Stefania" by the Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra, winner of the Eurovision contest. (Photo of the Ukraine colors in the first left photo below, courtesy Le Parisien.) This was followed by a public concert then popular dancing in various streets.
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Most large towns, small cities and villages in France display fireworks for the national holiday, the 14 of July. However, this year to minimize the risk of fire linked to the ambient dryness and extreme heat, some municipalities canceled their traditional fireworks. One of the cities still with great fireworks was Carcassonne, shown below, courtesy Aude Tourisme. The Tour de France stopped to rest in this town, but on July 18, 2022.
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The Tour de France 2022 started on July 1st and ended on July 24, 2022, including two rest days. It covered a total distance of 3,328 kms/2081.4 miles, about the same distance as Helsinki, Finland to Lisbon, Portugal or Washington, D.C. to Las Vegas, Arizona. There were 176 international riders from twenty-two teams (8 riders in each team.) The 21 stages covered 6 flat stages, 7 hilly stages, 6 mountain stages and 2 individual time trial stages. Apart from France the Tour visited 3 foreign countries, Denmark, Belgium and Switzerland. The cyclists rode into 39 stage towns. The Tour attracted 12 million spectators and was broadcasted into 190 countries. Founded in 1903, the Tour de France is the most prestigious bike race on the planet. Below is the 2022 route.
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If you click on the Tour de France link on the right side of my blog you will see 21 entries. Along the years I have given the Tour's history, explained the stages, the colors of the jerseys and more. Please check any of these posts. It is quite fitting that the Tour started in Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen is the world's most bicycle friendly city where the number of bicycles outnumbers the number of cars. If the US is known for having more guns than people, Copenhagen is known for having more bikes than people - 745,000 bikes for 602,000 people, and just 120,000 cars; the number of SUV vehicles, unlike in the US, is at a minimum. The first time we were in Copenhagen we stayed in a central hotel. I was so surprised to see more bikes during rush hour than cars, with business people in suits and some women in dresses and heels.
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Accordingly, the Climate Change Performance Index's for 2022 shows Denmark as the top-ranking country in the world for global climate policy. Out of rankings of 60 countries and the EU, the US trailed the pack in 55th place. It could be the US's obsession with SUV vehicles. On average, SUVs use about a quarter more energy to move than a standard-sized family car, because they are larger, heavier and create more drag. A quarter might not sound like much, but between 2010 and 2018, the proliferation of SUVs on the road resulted in an increase of 3.3 million barrels of gasoline used per day. This created an uptick of 0.55 gigatons of CO2 over one decade, to 544 million tons of CO2, making SUVs "the second-largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions since 2010 after the power sector." To put it another way, it means SUVs are producing more emissions than the entire aviation industry. The IEA forecasts that if conventional SUV purchases continue at the same pace, by 2040 they will have offset the emissions savings of close to 150 million electric cars. But, in the US, SUV sales continue to grow regardless. In Denmark there are twelve freeways just for bicycles.
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The Grand Depart started in Copenhagen and stayed three days in the country. Fans came out to cheer the Tour in incredible numbers - thousands in every town. The Tour is truly international. One of the reasons I really enjoy it is because fans cheer the racers regardless of their nationalities. Of course I am happy if a French or American racer wins a stage but I am as happy to see a deserving racer win from another country. It was so sad at the Atlanta Olympic Games when most of the public left the indoor bike racing event when there were no US bikers left but just racers from the UK, Australia and Italy. Only a handful of people watched the winners get their medals - truly a shame.
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If I could, I'd fly back home to France every July to watch the Tour. But since I can't, watching this most famous race live on TV is a highlight of my summers here. I love the high drama of the race so physically challenging as well as the passion of the riders. Watching the hundreds of thousands of spectators from many countries is also fun. Of course, the scenery along the route or from the helicopters and drones over all the cities, towns, villages and hamlets is a joy; many castles are shown. I visited two of the castles below - the castle of Chillon in Switzerland (in center of collage) when I went twice to Lausanne and the castle of the Malmaison (bottom left) which is only 15 kms from Paris (about 9 miles) and visited it several times with my mother.
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Since 1905 the Malmaison Castle has been a French National Napoleonic museum. Bonaparte had bought it for his wife, Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814) in April 1799. Napoleon lived in it several years and Josephine died there in 1814. The interior of the castle is one of the few places in France to exhibit a homogeneous set of furniture from the Napoleonic Consulate and First Empire. My mother and I loved to visit the rose garden there. One of their old antique Bourbon roses is called "Souvenir de la Malmaison." Originally it had been called "Queen of Beauty and Fragrance" but when one the Grand Dukes of Russia obtained a specimen from the Malmaison gardens for the Imperial Garden in St. Petersburg it was renamed "Souvenir de la Malmaison" as a remembrance for him. It produces light pink color blooms with a delightful fragrance; it is a climbing rose. I grew one in my garden in Georgia, shown below.
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I even drew one of my Souvenir de la Malmaison roses.
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The Tour racers drove by numerous lovely and historic towns. To mention and show even some of them would take pages and pages. Stage 13 ended on July 15 at Saint-Etienne. It is the only French city designated Creative City of Design by UNESCO. In 2020, Saint-Etienne also received its second UNESCO label as an "Inclusive City of Design." Saint-Etienne with all its museums and buildings is a permanent design experience, in architecture as well as in every day life. In 1915 the mayor of the city ordered a replica of the Statue of Liberty. Stage 19 ended in the town of Cahors. This city is famed for its wine and gastronomy and holds the label "French Town of Art and History." The famous medieval Valentre Bridge here is part of the pilgrimage path to Santiago de Campostela. The 14th century bridge took 70 years to complete, from 1308 to 1378 (in center of collage below.) Two new cities on the Tour were Lacapelle-Marival with its blue lake (bottom left) and Rocamadour (top left below.) From the Middle Ages on Rocamadour has been visited by pilgrims as it is also on the route of El Camino de Santiago. The population of 600 rises to 1.5 million tourists in summer.
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The 21 stage ended in Paris as usual. The winner of the Tour this year was the Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard. He is the first Danish rider to win this race since 1996. At the start of the race in Copenhagen, 35,000 paying fans had packed into the Tivoli Gardens to greet the riders. They must have been deliriously happy to have one of their own win this grueling race. The 25-years old Vingegaard showed an impressive display of strength. He is below with his little daughter Frida.
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Another thrilling Tour de France has ended. Now we have to wait for the 2023 rendez-vous in Bilbao, the Basque country of Spain, for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France 2023.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-47956984986564670062022-06-03T19:38:00.002-04:002022-06-06T14:55:45.410-04:00Fading roses in the Roselawn garden ... and the Nashville Connection<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6VsIFKsDcG5roJ1ekUP8YXm21JabvkbK4OYvKQ3X5MbicOSOxslvA_nsgDo21Wtm3Ci7Y17cFTyt7GWTKcUq_6y3cALcfZKzR94Z6omnovMFxvV_Tkh8IEpxs6tn6SdFR4fyZpj0FunsxPLbDKPQKCd8a1C8SLCsFM77vedyxfruullB7FSOekEs9Q/s842/DSC_0594%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6VsIFKsDcG5roJ1ekUP8YXm21JabvkbK4OYvKQ3X5MbicOSOxslvA_nsgDo21Wtm3Ci7Y17cFTyt7GWTKcUq_6y3cALcfZKzR94Z6omnovMFxvV_Tkh8IEpxs6tn6SdFR4fyZpj0FunsxPLbDKPQKCd8a1C8SLCsFM77vedyxfruullB7FSOekEs9Q/s600/DSC_0594%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
In my last post I recounted how I drove from Nashville to my house in Georgia in late April 2022 so I could vote in the French presidential elections on April 23, 2022. I explained how the vote was done at the French Consulate in Atlanta. Then on May 19, 2022, I drove again from Nashville to Georgia so I could vote this time in the US General Primary Elections. On Friday May 20th I voted at the Cobb County main office in Marietta, GA - this was the last day for "early voting." The general election day was Tuesday May 24th.
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This is the way voting was done in Cobb County: after your name and a form of identification is checked you go to a booth and click on the candidates' name you select on a screen. When you are finished, your selections appear again and you have to certify them. Then a printed document comes out of the machine. You have to read it and certify it again, and sign it. Then you take this paper to an official who asks you if this document shows your vote accurately. You affirm it. He places the document in a huge electronic reading machine and all your selections are recorded. He indicates that your vote has been entered and gives you the sticker "I'm a Georgia voter." I don't know if voting is done the same way in all the US states.
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Both the French elections and the Georgia elections garnered much interest in the country and made the first pages of the main newspapers. Former president Trump who had actively tried to overturn the results of the 2020 Georgia elections came to Atlanta to campaign against the current Republican Governor Brian Kemp, but Kemp won the Republican 2022 primary anyway. Stacey Abrams is the Democratic primary winner for 2022; she ran in 2018 and narrowly lost to Kemp. Below are pictures of Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams (Courtesy Atlanta Magazine.)
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On Tuesday May 24 since I had voted already I decided to go visit a garden. The weather was pleasant and mild, in the low 80s F (27 C.) I had never been to the Rose Lawn House Museum in Cartersville, GA. It is 19 miles away fom my house (30 km) and took less than 30 minutes to reach. I just knew this was an historical Victorian mansion with a rose garden. I was not aware that it had been the residence of a famous evangelist in the long ago. I arrived at 10 am and entered the house for a tour. Two other visitors joined me presently.
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In the 1860s the house had one story with an attic. The owner, a local merchant, Nelson Gilreath, converted the attic into bedrooms. Samuel Porter Jones, the nationally renowned evangelist, purchased the house in the 1880s and added two stories in the back of the house. In 1895 he enlarged the original structure by raising the house with hand jacks and mules so a new larger ground floor could be inserted, with a basement underneath. He lived there with his wife and children until his death in 1906. His widow, Laura McElwain Jones, continued to reside in the 18 room mansion until the 1920s. The house was purchased by another owner in the 1930s but became vacant in the 1960s. In 1978 Bartow County acquired the property and converted it into a museum to house the memorabilia and writings of Sam Jones and Rebecca Latimer Felton, another resident of Cartersville. The museum is open 3 days a week and hosts weddings and special events on weekends as well as arts and crafts fairs during the year. It contains furnishings of the period and of the Jones family, with many photographs, including of their six grown children. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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The docent gave excellent historical information on the house and many anecdotes on the Jones family. The newer ground floor was formal with large rooms.
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Several windows had lovely stained glass inserts.
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There were large portraits of Sam Jones and his wife Laura as well as notable paintings on the walls.
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On the second floor, which had been the original ground floor, we saw the original entry door (on left in collage below.) A small room and a bathroom had been made into a bride's boudoir.
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A couple of rooms were more dedicated to Rev. Sam Jones and his family. Samuel Porter Jones (1847-1906) became an attorney in 1868 and married Laura McElwain. After the loss of a child he became an alcoholic and left his law practice. As his father lay dying he promised him he would stop drinking and start preaching. At first he began preaching locally but because of his compelling delivery, style and wit he attracted a national congregation. He was on the road preaching more than at Rose Lawn in Cartersville. He preached to crowds of up to 50,000 in cities like Boston, MA; Cincinnati, OH; Los Angeles, CA; Toronto, Canada and more. In five weeks in Chicago, IL, he preached to a quarter of a million people. He also had his sermons and several books published.
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For twenty years in the summer months Rev. Jones preached from a wooden pulpit in an open air pavilion that could hold 5000 attendees. People would come from long distance to hear him. They came in specially chartered trains from Atlanta and Chattanooga and more came on horseback and buggy. In 1886 he had the <i>Sam Jones Union Tabernacle</i> built in Cartersville (photo below) where he preached, together with several other well-known ministers, to a crowd of 6000+. The revival would last 10 days. The tour guide said he was the "Billy Graham" of the 19th century - the evangelist rock star of the age.
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An area in a room was reserved for "the Nashville connection" as our tour guide called it. Rev. Jones went to preach often in Nashville and drew large crowds in tent meetings. In 1885 he drew the attention of Captain Tom Ryman who operated 35 steam boats on the Cumberland River for passengers, freight, bars and gambling. After he listened to Rev. Jones Captain Ryman "got religion." Upon leaving the crowded tent and seeing people outside who could not get inside he promised to build a large tabernacle in Nashville where Jones could preach to all. By 1890 Ryman had the <i>Union Gospel Tabernacle</i> built. Ryman had asked Rev. Jones to move to Nashville but Jones refused. The exhibit in the room showed the original Bible that Jones used in Nashville.
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Rev. Jones went often to Nashville to hold revivals where he would preach in the center of the tabernacle (that only had one floor at the time.) He often complained of being crowded. In 1897 the Confederate Veterans wished to hold their biggest convention there. They contributed to have a second floor gallery built. After Captain Ryman died on December 23, 1904, Rev. Jones held a funeral service for him on Christmas day and asked the packed tabernacle if they agreed to have it renamed <i>The Ryman Tabernacle</i>. The audience of 4,000 rose and said "yes." In later years the building became the <i>Ryman Auditorium</i> home of the original "Grand Ole Opry" where country music was born and gave Nashville its "Music City" nickname.
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A room was dedicated to Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton (1835-1930) who was also from Cartersville, GA in Bartow County. Her husband William Felton (1823-1909) was a member of the United States House of Representative and she ran his campaigns. She was a prominent woman in Georgia: a writer, lecturer, feminist, an advocate for prison reform, for women's suffrage and educational modernization, but unfortunately had also been a slave owner and a white supremacist. When a Georgia senator suddenly died before the general election in 1922 the GA Governor who was a candidate for that election chose Felton to serve as senator. Only 27 months after the 19th Amendment (giving women the right to vote) on November 21, 1922 Senator R. Felton was sworn in as the first female US Senator then served for one day. She was the first female senator for GA. (The second woman senator to represent Georgia in the US Senate came in January 2020 when Governor Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler to fill the seat left vacant when the current senator became ill. However when Republican Loeffler ran for the Senate in November 2020 she was defeated by democrate Raphael Warnock.) The room contained Mrs. Felton furnishings, memorabilia, books and her guitar.
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Some of her dresses were also exhibited. One of them, a black dress, is protected in a glass case. A sign above it states that around 1900 <i>"Mrs. Felton was asked to make one of her numerous speeches in Atlanta. In desperation of what to wear and not having time for a trip to Atlanta, she took her curtains from the window and dyed them black. She then made the dress, added lace ribbons and fringed tassels ... and wore it with a taffeta petticoat.</i>" It also says that when Margaret Mitchell wrote "Gone with the Wind" she remembered her friend Rebecca Felton's dress and used it as an inspiration for Scarlet O'Hara's curtain dress in the book.
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The rest of the rooms were bedrooms with some more bedrooms on the third floor.
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The tour was now over. The two visitors returned to their camping on Lake Allatoona and the docent went to lunch. She invited me to stay and visit the grounds as long as I wished. The 3 1/2 acre property also includes a carriage house (that is used for weddings and parties,) a one-room school and a smokehouse. I left the house and walked around to the school house and carriage house. Please click on the collage so you can read the information panels.
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There was no one around now and it was lovely walking under the huge magnolia trees with fragrant blooms. Some of those trees had grown so high over the decades that they would not fit into my photos.
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Finally I was able to check all the roses in the garden - the reason really why I had driven to this house. Rev. Jones' wife Laura had planted a beautiful garden with 225 rose bushes (thus the name Rose Lawn.) Over the years and with neglect the roses were gone when Bartow County purchased the house and grounds. The GA Master Gardener Extension Volunteers (MGEV) helped to restore the garden with the return of 200 rose bushes. Because of the MGEVs work the Rose Lawn garden is considered a historical demonstration garden. The rose bushes are planted around the lawn with information panels. Most of the roses are "heirloom" roses, also known as "old garden" or "old-fashioned" or "heritage" or "historic" or "antique" roses - they belong to a class of old roses that existed before the introduction of the first Modern Rose "La France." (French rosarian Jean-Baptiste Guillot (1827-1893) introduced the pink rose cultivar "La France" in 1867. It is considered the first hybrid tea rose.) The heirloom roses bloom in early May. Most of the blooms were fading or already faded by the time I visited the garden in late May. I still took over 65 photos while trying to find some roses in bloom. This is the way the roses were indicated on small panels, for example the rose Safrano below (introduced in 1839.)
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The old roses have such memorable names. Some in the garden are: Reine des Violettes (1860) on top in the photo below, and Melle. Franziska Kruger (1880.)
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Others in the garden were: Monsieur Tillier (1881,) Mademoiselle de Sombreuil (1850,) Baronne Prevost (1842,) Bourbon (1800,) Perle d'Or (1884,) Etoile de Lyon (1876,) Reve d'Or (1869,) Maman Cochet (1893,) Mlle. la Comtesse de Leusse (1878,) General Schablikine (1878,) Duchesse de Brabant (1857) which was President Teddy Roosevelt's favorite rose - he wore it on his lapel.
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When I drove back to Nashville last Sunday May 29, 2022, a nice surprise was awaiting - the lonely rose bush that had been planted by the side of my house had a bloom, and it was fragrant!
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-14682896147921204892022-05-03T20:45:00.006-04:002022-05-04T16:10:29.277-04:00Spring in Nashville and Atlanta ... and the French elections<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYkKBPQ527bfnPTDCJWu0g03BgyZzQv5a-XI5Y7pd84jpLbjAFqDRfp5-25_m1EGfVvTZjE0O5Yhy7hWyMnr-Uw5b39_0vnt3prekCZhoslAQey7qRu6Hvggjbs0QXbwN2HLdS1koZYLJqrtQtVPNLIWrq7g2yDSMCYzIuMUldH_X6PsDoyk-OQ2yjQ/s3000/nashat%20b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYkKBPQ527bfnPTDCJWu0g03BgyZzQv5a-XI5Y7pd84jpLbjAFqDRfp5-25_m1EGfVvTZjE0O5Yhy7hWyMnr-Uw5b39_0vnt3prekCZhoslAQey7qRu6Hvggjbs0QXbwN2HLdS1koZYLJqrtQtVPNLIWrq7g2yDSMCYzIuMUldH_X6PsDoyk-OQ2yjQ/s600/nashat%20b.jpg"/></a></div>
With the weather so erratic, we had warm days in winter and freezing days in spring. Last January, soon after the Holidays, it snowed in Nashville. I was supposed to drive to Georgia, but waited. A week or so later, it snowed again - which is pretty unusual for Nashville. Below are pictures of the snow from my front porch, on the left, and back porch.
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But then in early February it warmed up so much that my three year old's Saucer Magnolia (magnoliaxsoulangeana) in Nashville bloomed nicely.
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Meanwhile when I returned to Georgia it looked like winter and was very foggy. The woods around the house looked ominous.
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Then a couple of days later it was sunny and daffodils could be seen in many Georgian gardens.
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Returning to Nashville, spring was gone and it snowed again.
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A week later the warmth came back. Trees and shrubs were in bloom such as my Yoshino Cherry Tree and flowering quince shrub.
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In Mid-April I returned to Georgia for a couple of weeks as I had to vote at the French Consulate in Atlanta. I could not vote in Nashville as there is no French Consulate there. The blooms on my azaleas were almost gone.
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Several years ago my late husband and I found a tiny maple tree, about one foot tall, in our Georgia front yard. We transplanted it to a better area. I was surprised last week to see the tree was now taller than me.
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The second tour of the French presidential election was on Sunday April 24, 2022, but because of the time difference the French overseas or living abroad had to vote on Saturday April 23, 2022. The Consulate General of France in Atlanta has jurisdiction over the U.S. Southeast for the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and Tennessee. I already drove the 9 hours round-trip to Atlanta to vote for the US presidential election since I am a dual citizen (and my main home is still in Georgia,) so did it again for the French elections. The Consulate is located in the Buckhead area of Atlanta near the upscale Lenox Mall in a tower adjacent to the Mariott Hotel.
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Early on Saturday April 23 I drove to Buckhead Atlanta (a 45 minutes drive.) Already there was a long line of voters waiting in the lobby of the tower. French IDs or passports were verified then small groups of voters were led to an elevator. Once on the 11th floor there was another line. Two small pieces of paper were given, one reading <i>Macron</i> and the other <i>Le Pen</i>. You proceeded into a small booth and placed your choice into an envelope. Then you inserted your envelope in a large clear box. Your name was crossed off the list of registered voters. Voila! Easy peasy. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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I had not seen so many French people in a long time. The French Consulate showed how many French people living abroad are registered to vote. The highest number is in Switzerland - 174,820, a small country the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. In the whole USA there are only 136,533 registered French voters - a small number considering that almost 200,000 US citizens live in France, which is smaller than the state of Texas.
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This is the first time since I have been in the US that I have heard so much about a French election in the US news and media. I guess it was because of Marine Le Pen, the extreme far-right candidate. Here is a sampling of her platform: No more Muslim headscarves in public, to be sanctioned by the Police. All schoolchildren to be in uniforms. Catholic nativity scenes to be shown in all public places and only Catholic Holy Days to be allowed. Generous social services unavailable to foreigners unless they've held a job for five years and if not, they are to be returned to their home countries (bye bye long time Brit and US residents.) Limit French nationality to French born from French born parents only.
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Le Pen would pull France out of NATO's military command, leave the Euro zone and reinstate the Franc, weaken the Western military alliance, get out of the EU, make a strategic rapprochement with Russia (oppose sanctions against Moscow) and "<i>away from the US sphere of influence</i>." An admirer of former President Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen copied his MAGA (make American great again) into "<i>make France sovereign again</i>." Her political brochures had showed her with Vladimir Putin; she obtained millions in loan from Russia for her campaign. She told the BBC: "<i>The main lines that I defend are those defended by Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin.</i>" Below are some cartoons on Marine Le Pen. (Courtesy Franc-Tireur, Timeslive za, Charlie Hebdo and Irish Trinity News.)
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The French Embassy in Washington, DC, showed the French election results per each French Consulate in this country. In Atlanta the results were Macron 87% le Pen 12%. The highest were in Boston, Macron 95.48% Le Pen 4.52% and the lowest in Miami, Macron 75% Le Pen 24%. It was a nice election spring day in Atlanta.
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The Miami, Florida, results go with the territory where that state has one of the most extreme right wing government. My friends overseas may not know that lately Ron DeSantis, the Florida Governor, had a law passed, House Bill 1467, which allows books and textbooks to be banned in schools and school libraries. Anyone or a librarian providing "prohibited" material to a student could be charged with one felony per book. So far 200+ books, including classic or a book like "Who is Barack Obama?," have been banned in Florida and 74 math textbooks. When books are banned, students are curious and seek them out. Tennessee banned the Holocaust novel "Maus" from the classrooms and its sales went way up. Last Wednesday, Tennessee Representative Jerry Sexton said he would burn books that were considred inappropriate for school libraries. In 2021 more than 1,500 books were banned in the US. I have not heard of any library book killing a child, but since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 more than 300,000 students have experienced gun violence in schools. In 2021 alone 34,000 students were exposed to gun violence = so, why are guns not censored instead of children books?
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There are no answers to such nonsense. But it is springtime, flowers are blooming again, days are getting longer, grass and plants are vibrant once more, birds are abundant, and trees are turning different shades of green. After two weeks clearing the Georgia house I would have liked to visit a public garden - maybe next time. Trees and weeds have grown so much in the backyard in Marietta since I partly moved to Nashville that you can barely see the lake in the backgrouond - see photo on left.
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Pine trees have been a symbol of strength, steadiness, resilience and wisdom. Maybe to share such benefit I often sat in my backyard in the sun watching nature taking over the land and smelling the southern pine trees.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-16456406355366946822022-03-12T21:56:00.001-05:002022-03-12T21:56:10.967-05:00The sunflower, a symbol of hope and solidarity<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5A_kVClfIId6B-8cgQrUqVcXiQPhKNlVOEYhlsRUzaVlsu3RywC1rtBWK9Qq24lCY-1GQgTKybtgJGIKmFgNckeblSw2cbaKgPjR9rnRdzUIZiXRzu72RF1mBgs_LVwaWyUloF43s2JeISFhDgcimUHWKg_jjGPfsZ6zi6eootj-O7LEF7KXR5yce2g=s636" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="636" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5A_kVClfIId6B-8cgQrUqVcXiQPhKNlVOEYhlsRUzaVlsu3RywC1rtBWK9Qq24lCY-1GQgTKybtgJGIKmFgNckeblSw2cbaKgPjR9rnRdzUIZiXRzu72RF1mBgs_LVwaWyUloF43s2JeISFhDgcimUHWKg_jjGPfsZ6zi6eootj-O7LEF7KXR5yce2g=s600"/></a></div>
Downton Abbey part two was supposed to be my next post, but time went by, bad weather and mostly with the current events I just could not write it - it is delayed. These are sad times. Trying to be a bit optimistic I decided to write on the sunflower after reading how this flower has become a worldwide symbol of solidarity for Ukraine and its citizens since the Russian invasion. The sunflower is also a symbol of loyalty, hope, happiness, strength, good fortune and peace.
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The Latin name of the sunflower is <i>Helianthus Annuus</i> which is a combination of the Greek word <i>helios</i> meaning sun and <i>anthos</i> meaning flower. Evidence suggests that around 3000 BC the plant was cultivated by American Indians in what are present day New Mexico and Arizona. They used it in ceremonies and many other ways. Explorers brought the sunflower to Europe in the 16th century. Commercialization of the plant began in Russia. Ukraine started growing the crops in the 1700s and is now the world's major supplier of sunflower oil. Below are vintage postcards of sunflowers.
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When writing my Tour de France posts I like to include photos of the racers biking along sunflower fields.
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This striking and beautiful plant is admired by many. Famous painters have used it as an inspiration in their art. The Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) painted a series of sunflowers starting in 1887 then again in Arles in the south of France.
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Van Gogh's friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903,) visited Vincent in Arles and painted sunflowers as well, as shown below.
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Two other famous French artists, Matisse and Monet painted the lovely "tournesol" as it is known in French. It comes from the Latin <i>tornare</i> and <i>sol</i>, or turning toward the sun.
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Current famous people have been seen with the sunflower. First US Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, wore a face mask embroidered with Ukraine's national flower to show support for the brave people of Ukraine. Prince Charles of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, placed sunflowers on March 2, 2022, at the altar of the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral and praised the Ukrainian bravery amid the Russian aggression. (Courtesy People.com and New York Post.)
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If only these strong flowers could help save Ukraine. It does not look good right now. Russia is intensifying their airstrikes on civilian buildings, hospitals, schools, mosques and churches. So far hundreds of civilians including children have been killed as well as 1300 Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian refugees have fled to neighboring countries - more than 1.5 million to Poland so far, many to Hungary, Romania and other places. If the Russian public could witness this terrible tragedy they would be horrified, but it is as if the iron curtain has fallen again with its propaganda. The Russian public is totally in the dark and fed constant disinformation, blaming the victim.
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The free press and independent media have been shut down; if someone tells the truth they risk years in jail. It is becoming like North Korea with unreal news and total isolation. Now the rest of the world is worried of the risk caused by Russian forces occupying Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia, two of Ukraine's nuclear plants. A third plant, Yuzhnoukrainsk, is also at risk with Russian troops only 20 miles away. The planet could be in peril. The stems and leaves of the sunflower plant absorb radiation but it would take zillion of them if incidents happen in these nuclear plants. It is difficult to stay optimistic and keep looking to the sun.
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Several years ago my late husband and I visited the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, the 250-room chateau that George Vanderbilt completed in 1898. We spent a week-end there and had time to walk through the gardens and grounds. It was in August and the sunflower fields were in full blooms. I was able to get close to the flowers.
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The sunflowers have shown to absorb toxic elements and radiation, they clean up the environment. In 1996 at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation former US Secretary of Defense William Perry said: "<i>Sunflowers instead of missiles in the soil will ensure peace for future generations.</i>" Alas, I don't think his words were heard by all the nations.
<i>Slava Ukraini!<b></b></i>
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-9327705901339496042021-12-23T20:00:00.001-05:002021-12-23T20:26:21.310-05:00Downton Abbey in Atlanta, Georgia, part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjS1EoDz2eUg4yAK_yUXO0AY_-MVtfdIFWwfFJiVxs8_UjoY6JZQYXikABF1sPDs4Sh2Hq1ESYXBAl96Fd9R25QrzVZcc3QtzoRm4YIQXIkRGTOHvQG3dXPdyomO9MeEaLPgzkce7TkVdrpuHjpt5HaNTZSJf3VqAx7scsO06uLwHmY4ZcF-3DasI9gCg=s588" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="588" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjS1EoDz2eUg4yAK_yUXO0AY_-MVtfdIFWwfFJiVxs8_UjoY6JZQYXikABF1sPDs4Sh2Hq1ESYXBAl96Fd9R25QrzVZcc3QtzoRm4YIQXIkRGTOHvQG3dXPdyomO9MeEaLPgzkce7TkVdrpuHjpt5HaNTZSJf3VqAx7scsO06uLwHmY4ZcF-3DasI9gCg=s600"/></a></div>
The first time I went to England was during the school Christmas holidays. A Paris company organized trips to England for teenagers. First you selected a pen pal who was of your age and more or less matched your interests. Then after corresponding for several months the French teenager would visit her/his pen pal family in the UK and in turn, the British pen pal would visit the French family during the Easter school holidays. My grandfather, wishing to improve my English language, enrolled me with this group very late, in November, so I never had a chance to select or write to my pen pal. I was just given a name - Yvonne, address and a photo. I still have the photo; see below - Yvonne in her school uniform. She was a year older than me, and quite tall. She lived in Greater London, on the District Line of the Tube. I was 13 1/2 years old then and had never been overseas by myself. On the right she is with her mother and younger sister while giving me a tour of London. Below is a picture of me on the left and Yvonne at Easter in Paris. This was end of year 1953 (there were still buildings bombed from the war in London) and spring 1954 in Paris.
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The family was very friendly. I could barely speak English and my pen pal could speak no French, but I had a great Christmas there. Actually they invited me every year after that and I crossed the Channel to spend Christmas with them for many years - until I was 20 years old. Christmas in England was so much more fun than in Paris for me. I still remember when they took me to the famous London Fortnum and Mason for afternoon tea, and pastries - so delicious. That is when I started drinking tea in the afternoon. I also spent several summer holidays there and attended college for one year. My English language improved tremendously but Yvonne never wished to speak French, she never learned.
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Even after I moved to San Francisco, I would often stop in London at Christmas time on my way to visit my parents in Paris. I had planned to travel to London and Paris this year but with the Covid restrictions, this was not going to happen. Last week I was in my Georgia house and saw an ad for an exhibition on Downton Abbey, an exhibition happening right now. So I went. It was in Sandy Springs, north of Atlanta, and only about 15 miles from my house using the back roads. They stated: "<i>Downton Abbey: The Exhibition, based on the beloved television show, transports you to post-Edwardian England, where the characters and the iconic house come to life. You'll be immersed in the fascinating social history, culture, and some of the most memorable moments from the show's six-season run. Experience the History - The Fashion - The House.</i>" If I could not travel to London for Christmas, going to Downton Abbey in Atlanta was a perfect alternative.
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All staff and visitors were required to wear masks inside the venue. Tickets had to be purchased in advance for a specific time slot. I went at 11 am on Thursday 16 December, 2021, and spent 3 1/2 hours there but could have stayed longer as there was so much to see, listen to and read. The Atlanta exhibit opens Thursday through Mondays and ends on January 17, 2022.
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For those who may not have watched Downton Abbey on television - it is a period drama set on a fictional English estate, called Downton Abbey, in Yorkshire. It lasted 6 seasons, following the fictional aristocratic Grantham family, their friends and servants from the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 through 1926. It was very popular, a world-wide phenomena actually, and won many awards. During the series we witnessed the way of life of Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, his American-born wife, Cora, and their three daughters - Mary, Edith and Sybil, as well as the domestic staff. As you enter the exhibit you watch a short video where Mr. Carson, the butler, welcomes you as if you are a guest of the Crawley family.
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Most of the rooms were dark. I used my small Sony camera and my cell phone, so the quality of the photos is not the best. As soon as you enter the first of the 11 rooms you are transported into post-Edwardian England. There are actual props, outfits that were used in the show and recreations of the sets - in mirrors as well along the wall, life size. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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It seems as if you are looking at them through a patio door - very realistic.
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There is a display for each character in the show with some facts about that person as well as personal effects from the show. For example the display may include handwritten letters, invoices, photos and more. Some of the displays have drawers that have additional information on the era. The photos of the characters from the show may come alive and speak from one of the scenes of the show. Some stations had speakers and you could listen to a short video to completely immerse you in the fascinating culture of that time and its social history.
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Even if a person had never heard of the Downton Abbey series they would be interested in learning about British society, fashion and culture from that post-Edwardian period with its fast changes from World War 1 to the Roaring Twenties. There was great attention to details. The display on Mrs. Patmore, the cook of Downton Abbey, explained her day in the kitchen and the cookbook she used. Next to her was a display on Daisy, her assistant cook.
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Some of the items displayed (that had been used in the tv series,) were real antiques.
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As you walked in some room, video snippets of the show would appear on the walls to transport you there and witness the event.
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Violet Crawley, the fictional Dowager Countess of Grantham (born in 1842) the widow of the 6th Earl of Grantham, matriarch of the family in the series had a whole display wall devoted to her.
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There were information panels on her dresses and a television set playing some of her best quotes - such as "<i>Don't be defeatest, dear. It's very middle class.</i>" And "<i>Switzerland has everything to offer, except perhaps conversation. And one can learn to live without that.</i>"
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There are more photos to show you but it will have to wait to my next blog post for part two. Now I have to wrap some presents and bake some cookies. I brought my Christmas and holiday decorations from Georgia last week but they are in boxes still. I thought I would just use my little metal tree that holds greeting cards but, alas, I just received a couple this year. It seems that with social media most people don't send greetings cards anymore. Of course, it is much easier to type some general Christmas greetings on the computer on Facebook, Instagram, etc., and click "send" no time spent in writing individual cards with a special thought, no stamp, no mail, easy does it. But opening a greeting in the in-box is not the same as in the mailbox, and you can't use an e-greeting as a decoration in your house, or years later read cards from family and friends who have died. Social media greetings are not very personal and for those like me who do not read Facebook and don't know what Instagram is, then I don't get many greetings - it is sad, another tradition gone. So since I received only a couple of Christmas cards (not cards actually, but photos of the families who sent them) I used my vintage postcards on my metal tree.
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Let's hope that this holiday season will be the last that keeps us isolated. Cheers to a better 2022!
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-91860422150439435322021-12-01T12:17:00.002-05:002021-12-01T12:20:14.710-05:00A stay in Bangor, Maine<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCgDiEzf3KQlQL5I1TAA1N87FdnErc0XmJ3BmG9fzeDnJOSFf59gOdF3SFbmNFRLHNkrKovPhM0hZUnZJdZ6wpsBIPC3gr4aIcyXOQZqFjxcrxZ2OiupBbAIrezrtTwS5QoXXbrzSHJHbE/s583/DSC03133+b.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="583" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCgDiEzf3KQlQL5I1TAA1N87FdnErc0XmJ3BmG9fzeDnJOSFf59gOdF3SFbmNFRLHNkrKovPhM0hZUnZJdZ6wpsBIPC3gr4aIcyXOQZqFjxcrxZ2OiupBbAIrezrtTwS5QoXXbrzSHJHbE/s600/DSC03133+b.jpg"/></a></div>
In mid-November I was back in Greater Atlanta, Georgia. I intended to take pictures in a park nearby for a fall blog post. Time went by too quickly and instead I just took a couple of photos of the leaves in the backyard.
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In lieu of this fall blog post I'll relate my summer stay in Bangor, Maine. In early June my daughter asked me if I would like to drive with her, my son-in-law and the kids to Bangor, Maine. I replied, no thank you - it is too far. I had only planned to drive the two hours north to Paducah, Kentucky. Nashville, Tennessee to Bangor, Maine is about 1,330 miles (2,140 km) about the same distance as Brussels, Belgium to Budapest, Hungary - it's quite far as I said.
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She explained that three of the four grandchildren were going to attend several weeks of Chinese language immersion summer school in Bangor. She only could stay with them part of the time but then had to get back. As an enticement she offered to have me fly there and then she would come back when the Chinese school ended. She said we could drive down the coast of Maine and on the way stop a day in Kennebunkport, Maine, then New Hampshire and also in Newport, Rhode Island where I had always wished to go, and then stay in Boston a couple of days and I could fly back from Boston. So I went. Because Bangor is close to Acadia National Park summer lodgings are difficult to find. My daughter could only find a small farm to rent. The owners lived in another house adjacent to the original farm. The owners, the wife, drove a Prius, a Toyota hybrid (instead of one of those big SUV vehicles) and the husband, a pick-up truck. Actually, compared to Nashville and Atlanta, there were a lot less SUVs in Maine (where winters are rigorous and they could say they need them, not like in Deep South downtowns ... but in Maine they are more mindful of the environment.)
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The farm was built in 1900. Chickens were free to roam and would come to the front door. They would run to greet us as soon as we drove into the farm. Horses were in the back near a wildlife trail. (Click on collage to enlarge.)
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I took some photos of the interior but found some better ones on the owners' site (theirs were taken in winter.) The farm has 3 bedrooms, a large bathroom, a kitchen with eating area and two front rooms with a piano. I stayed in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
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My daughter and her family drove to Maine a week prior to the start of the Chinese summer school so they could visit the area and Acadia National Park. This park is about 41 miles from Bangor. It is located on Mount Desert Island and Isle au Haut. The highest mountain on the Atlantic Coast of the US, Cadillac Mountain, is in this park.
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In its 49,075 acres (76.7 sq mi or 198.6 km2) the park contains wetlands, forests, meadows, mountains, lakes, streams, beaches and a large diversity of animal and plant life. Millions of visitors come to the park and I believe reservations are required now to enter it, at least in the summer months, because of the congestion. In 1929 the name of the park was changed from Marquis de Lafayette Park to Acadia National Park in honor of the former French colony of Acadia that used to include Maine. The center photo is of my son-in-law - he had to fly back to Nashville after a week in Maine.
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My daughter flew back to Nashville after her 3 weeks and left the big van in Bangor. They use this large van to transport the 4 kids, 3 adults (including the au pair) and two dogs (no SUVs for member of my family.) For commuting to work they just have two small passenger vehicles. But the van is quite high and long - I was afraid to drive it. Fortunately the au pair stayed during my time there and he drove. He is an Italian of Moroccan ancestry and his family lives in France now, so he speaks Italian, Moroccan Arabic, French and English. We ate most evenings in local restaurants and pubs, apart from the day the Italian soccer team won the European Soccer Championship, its first time since 1968. Our au pair was so overjoyed that he treated us to a pizza dinner. That week was also my youngest grandson's 10 years old birthday. He requested a chocolate cream pie. I found a bakery in Bangor that was able to bake one especially for him. Below is the van, the bakery, the pie, the au pair with the Italian flag wrapped around his shoulders and my grandchildren. The grandson in the center is letting his hair grow to donate to a group helping young cancer patients who lost their hair.
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The first Sunday after I arrived I was pleased to meet one of my blogging friends for lunch in Bangor. I had been reading her blog for years until she eventually stopped blogging. Ruth's original blog was named "synch-ro-ni-zing" and her last blog, ended in 2017, was called Birds of the Air quilts where she showed the quilts she made. Ruth and her husband retired and moved to a small coastal town in Maine, not far from Bangor. It was so much fun meeting her after having read her blogs for over a decade. We met at the Mason Brewing Co. Restaurant along the Penobscot River. We ate outdoors as it was a warm day and also because of Covid.
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I was surprised by the long list of beers and ciders. Ruth told me that there are a great many pubs and restaurants in the area featuring local artisanal beers and ciders. Later I read that behind Vermont, Maine has the second highest number of breweries per 100,000 residents in the USA. The 100 or so local breweries produce New England IPAs, English ales, stouts, porters, sours, Belgian, farmhouse, lagers and more. They have the largest variety of hard cider that I have seen outside of France and Belgium. Most restaurants and pubs will offer "sample beers" of your choice in 4 small glasses. I did not try them since I am more partial to cider.
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Definitely a city to visit in summer, in July like I did. At least for us southerners ...
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8796960161183320830.post-64433271152856703102021-09-08T16:27:00.003-04:002021-09-11T11:35:38.535-04:00New York City, Sep-Oct 2001 and later<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZwTMsXzC6IBZVl2bkRBfwyXS39hlqpFzS6SlaqNUZMWCH-NhV4OYG4DBRaLnH5lgBM8cA3IRcXUdUnP-b2xjE1eowsOZU1Y6wS8VYBb-PMjzD_pA9Sk_h5F0m3Ihzk9239BV_VUFrbiC/s566/Cooper%252C+Colin+Campbell+-+The+Ferries%252C+1905%252C+New+York%252C+American+1856-1937.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="566" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZwTMsXzC6IBZVl2bkRBfwyXS39hlqpFzS6SlaqNUZMWCH-NhV4OYG4DBRaLnH5lgBM8cA3IRcXUdUnP-b2xjE1eowsOZU1Y6wS8VYBb-PMjzD_pA9Sk_h5F0m3Ihzk9239BV_VUFrbiC/s600/Cooper%252C+Colin+Campbell+-+The+Ferries%252C+1905%252C+New+York%252C+American+1856-1937.jpg"/></a></div>
After my father died in the mid-1970s I started to visit my mother in Paris, France, more often. (He had been badly injured in a head-on collision with a drunk driver.) I usually would travel in March and September for a couple of weeks during the off-peak seasons because Paris, being a very touristy city, the airfares were expensive and the low fares difficult to obtain in summer. Going home was to keep company to my mother who had Parkinson's disease and to help with the purchases that she needed. But while I ran errands in Paris I could still visit the big department stores, eat in a favorite small restaurant, catch a new exhibition in a museum or find some books in second-hand bookstores or at the "bouquinistes" along the river Seine.
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My husband would rarely come with me because my mother did not speak English and I spent most of my time with her. Instead his vacations were often in the fall for ducks and Canada geese hunting. He would drive non-stop from Atlanta to either North Dakota or Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, with his cousin. But my late husband and I would take small vacations, no longer than a week or so, in various southern cities such as Savannah, GA, Charleston, SC, and Key West, Florida, or to my favorite cities New Orleans and New York.
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While in New York we would buy books at The Strand Bookstore and other second-hand bookstores. We would try to see an opera or a show, visit a museum and walk in Central Park. One year, I believe it was in January 2000, it was so cold that I was happy to find a furry hat in a flea market and was warm walking in Central Park in the snow. I had my film camera then so the photos are average.
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We went to the World Trade Center a couple of times but did not go up to the top observation deck as there were too many people waiting in line to go up. We thought we would do it next time we were in the city. We just walked into the lobby and gift shop and I would buy postcards, of course - I have some from the late 1970s to 2000 and beyond. In the 1980s I even bought a 6 postcard set ot the Twin Towers.(Click to enlarge.)
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For my September 2001 trip to Paris my late husband was going to accompany me because we were going to stop in London and do some traveling. We were to fly out on Wednesday September 12, 2001. I was going to leave the office at noon on September 11 to go home and finish packing. But of course we never left on our trip. I wrote about it in my post of September 10,2011 "A cancelled trip" - you can read or reread it <a href="http://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2011/09/cancelled-trip.html">here</a>.
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Paintings in heading is <i>The Ferries, 1905</i>, by Colin Campbell Cooper, American, 1856-1937. Below is <i>The Flatiron Building in 1919</i>, New York, by Samuel Halpert, American born in Bialystok Russia, 1884-1930, followed by <i>Central Park, 1940</i>, by Frank Moratz, American born in Germany, 1912-1990.
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No one will forget watching the horrifying tragedy of the destruction of the WTC Twin Towers that day on TV. After the Government encouraged us to travel to New York to show support, stay a few days, go to a show, eat in restaurants - I did just that. I flew to New York on October 26, 2001. I still remember the dust around Ground Zero - I had a cough all the time I was in the city. Near the site, also referred to as "The Pile," people were watching silently as the large trucks moved steel beams away. I could see Ground Zero from a street close by. A worker came and sat near me, he was exhausted.
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Looking at the pictures of the missing pasted on the walls was heart wrenching. There were still flowers and mementos on walls and in front of fire stations. A chaplain, two paramedics and 341 New York City firefighters lost their lives on 9/11 as well as 72 emergency workers from the city - there were 2977 victims in all. Now up to 75% of those who worked among the toxic Ground Zero rubble have some type of long-term illness. The NYC firefighters and first responders saved 20,000 people from the Twin Towers that day.
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We went almost every year to New York City after that until 2014. In October 2011, ten years after the attack, we visited the 9/11 Memorial when it opened. It was not quite finished then. I wrote a report on it in my post "New York - visiting the 9/11 Memorial" - you can read or reread it <a href="http://avagabonde.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-york-visiting-911-memorial.html">here</a>. I had a new digital camera by then.
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The 9/11 Memorial reflecting pools are located in the exact footprints of the Twin Towers. The memorial has been sensitively designed. It is a somber experience to see and read the names of the victims inscribed in bronze on the railings of the memorial pools and hear water cascading down into the recessing pools; it brings peace and reflection. (They are the largest man-made waterfalls in the United States.) September 11, 2001, was a particularly tragic day for the United States. This understated memorial is a fitting tribute honoring the victims who perished on this day.
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My late husband and I usually visited New York City in September and after 2001 we would see the "Tribute of Light" - two blue beams of light projected over the city each year from sunset on September 11 to dawn on the 12th. These twin lights represent the original Twin Towers and echo the orientation and shape of those towers.
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In the new WTC complex the 104 floor tower also known as One World Trade, One WTC and Freedom Tower was completed in 2013 when the spire installed on the top gave the tower a total height of 1,776 feet (541 m) in reference to the US Declaration of Independence in 1776. It is the main building in the rebuilt WTC complex and is the tallest building in the US. The One World Observatory opened in May 2015. We had planned to go that year and for sure wait in line to ascend to this observation deck. Unfortunately my husband's Alzheimer's disease had progressed and we could no longer travel. (Photo courtesy One WTC.)
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In September 2020, my eldest daughter and I had planned to go to New York to celebrate her September birthday but had to cancel because of COVID-19, instead we thought we'd go in September 2021. Now, because of the Delta variant we have decided not to travel there again. I read about the rebuilt World Trade Center complex on the Internet. The 9/11 Memorial museum has been finished. The Oculus building was opened in 2016 as a shopping mall and as the WTC transportation hub in Lower Manhattan providing access to commuter trains and subway lines. It was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to symbolize a dove released from a child's hand. The 335 foot long skylight allows light to shine overhead and the sun to move across its axis exactly on Septembr 11. (Photo courtesy CBS.)
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The New World Trade Center has several more buildings being built. It will be complete when the 900-feet (270 m) tall 5 World Trade Center skyscraper is finished in 2028. I hope we can travel back to New York next year, maybe. I still have my little souvenir keychain that I bought there (benefitting the NYC Firefighters) and the little WTC Memorial magnet.
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I see both daily, one on my refrigerator door and the other to hold my garden gate key. But as everyone, I don't need these mementos to remember. The harrowing pictures of 9/11 cannot be erased. The new World Trade Center complex with its graceful and strong buildings reaching towards the sky, the sun and the light renews our hope. I also hope it renews a national purpose for unity within our diverse society and a purpose to stay committed to our common good.
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Vagabondehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10774109692564954568noreply@blogger.com31