She Love’s My Automobile

 

My dear dear friend, Jeremy, visited the great nation of Texas (for the first time!) over the holidays, which I took as an opportunity to try out for the first time the “Joseph Roberts: This Is Houston, This Is My City, and This Is Why It’s Fabulous (And If You Disagree Then Get The Hell Out And Move To Dallas Already) Greater Metropolitan Tour Extravaganza!”*  In other words… experiences quintessentially Houston and Houston alone.

In reality it was merely an excuse to visit a myriad of locales around the city I for which I haven’t made the time, all wrapped up in the guise of “Southern Hospitality.” That’s the secret about us Southerners— we’re just as selfish as everyone else, it’s just harder to detect because of our accents lull you into a false sense of security.  Regardless, the first stop on our “Joseph Roberts: This is Houston, This is […] Tour Extravaganza!” was none other than longtime Houston institution …

The Art Car Museum!

 

The Art Car Museum, or “Garage Mahal” as many know it, opened in February 1998. […] The Museum has its conceptual origins in the 1984 Collision show curated by Ann Harithas at the Lawndale Art Center. Collision unveiled Larry Fuente’s “Mad Cad” art car which has since been featured in museums and cultural institutions across the country. The Collision exhibition provided enthusiastic fuel for the art car movement in Houston and eventually precipitated the Art Car Parade and the international Art Car movement. – Via the museum’s website

 

Due to the sheer number of art cars in the collection, the museum tends to rotate different specimens in and out of the museum gallery. As such, here are some of their most current pieces.

 

 

There’s even a Luke-sized option!!

 

For a real taste of what these things look like on the road, here’s a compilation of one of the more recent events:

 

Artist: Willie Nelson / Album: Live and Kickin’

Piano Man

 

Last weekend I had the chance to meet up with my dear friend Jeremy (he was getting his doctorate under Martin Katz while I was at U of M) and help him drive across country and set up his new apartment in Bloomington, Indiana, where he is just beginning a post-doctoral fellowship and teaching classes at Indiana University.  He’s basically one of the smartest and most talented people I know so it’s no surprise one of the largest and best music schools in the country caught on as well.

After flying into Hartford, Connecticut I was picked up by Jeremy, who had just finished up working at a camp in Lenox, Massachusetts and we were off to Buffalo, New York to go to his parents house, have a quick dinner and get a bit of a nap in before the 13 hour overnight drive.  As nothing particularly interesting occurred during the trip there really isn’t that much to report on.  Towards the last four hours of the drive we would switch off sleeping and driving and arrived in Bloomington relatively refreshed. 

Luckily for Jeremy (and by proxy myself and my back) his parents had gone down earlier in the month to accept and unload the Pod that had been packed in Minneapolis before Jeremy was gone for the Summer.  Prior to tackling the re-arranging and decorating, however, we grabbed breakfast at one of Bloomington’s most well known eateries—the Runcible Spoon!  I think I can comfortably say that breakfast is mine and Jeremy’s favorite type of food

“They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon…” ~ The Owls and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear

 

After breakfast it was back to the apartment for a quick nap then off to shop for the necessaries!  For the next couple of days we slowly pieced the place together, with Jeremy taking care of his responsibilities (faculty ID, class schedule, etc) in the mornings and coming back in the early afternoon.  I basically would wake up and think to myself: “Okay, if this were my place how would I decorate it?”… and then I would just do it.  Luckily he didn’t take too much issue with my work so it worked well for both sides!

Jeremy, lording himself over his new dominion in true Lady Strauss mode. (Umm, by the way, that coat rack was only $12!)

 

While in Bloomington I also had the chance to meet up with another fellow U of M friend and have lunch.  Lenora and I both did our Masters degrees together and it has been a while since I have seen her!

SOUTHERNERS UNITE!!!!!

 

I also had a chance to check out Jeremy’s new office (he has a grand piano!) and on my way to the music building I noticed that, though he had only been there for a scant few days, they had already erected a statue in his honor:

They even got the coat right!!

 

I leave you finally with the “advertisement” Jeremy made for his class, in which he will talk about different styles of singing, the singers who were great at it, why they made the musical decisions they did, and what is appropriate to do in our day and age.  Sounds a little dry, right?  Well… as this video is proof, it will be nothing of the sort.

I kiiiiinda wanna apply to Indiana University just so I can take this class.  (Though, I suppose I could just call him up and ask any pertinent questions if I really needed to.)

 

Artist: Billy Joel/ Album: Piano Man

I Say a Little Prayer

 

Before heading back to the glorious United States of America we had a full free day in Germany and our host sister, Sarah and her boyfriend, Andreas, took Carole and I to the city of Augsburg!  Andreas is actually from the city and his mother (with impeccable English) was our tour guide for the day!!

Our first stop was the world’s oldest—and still operational, mind you—social housing complex in the world, the Fuggerei.  According to Wikipedia’s page on the subject:

The rent was and is still one Rheinischer Gulden per year (equivalent to 0.88 euros), as well as three daily prayers for the current owners of the Fuggerei - the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and the Nicene Creed. The conditions to live there remain the same as they were 480 years ago: one must have lived at least two years in Augsburg, be of the Catholic faith and have become indigent without debt. The five gates are still locked every day at 10 PM.  The doorbells have elaborate shapes, each being unique, dating back to before the installation of streetlights when residents could identify their unit by feeling the handle in the dark.

 

 

One of the community’s most notable residents was that of Franz Mozart, grandfather of Wolfy and father of Leopold, another resident of Augsburg for a spell.  The Fuggerei has left his old place much like it would have been in his day as a part of the museum.

Andreas and Sarah in front of #14!

 

 

Kitchen (duh)

 

Living room… don’t forget to pray for Herr Fugger or you’ll be EVICTED!!!

 

 

Bedroom and entry way.  Why is ALL of Europe too small for me!?!?!

 

And now for some other buildings that are important but I can’t exactly remember what they are for:

 

Those cow skull motifs are right out of the Texas national architecture playbook!!! That’s right I said national!

 

Besides being home to some of ol’ Mozart’s relatives, Augsburg is also the birthplace of poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht. 

Name not necessarily ringing a bell?  He collaborated with Kurt Weill on The Three Penny Opera, which provided the world with the song “Mack The Knife.”  And now my favorite version, dedicated to my friend Jeremy!!

It’s a surprise hit!!

 

Artist: Aretha Franklin/ Album: 30 Greatest Hits

Put Your Records On

 

This last Saturday across our great land was “Record Store Day,” celebrated by hipsters and audiophiles alike in musty smelling shoebox sized buildings masquerading as retail establishments. 

Cactus Music even got into the spirit with live music!

 

One of my prized possessions is a record player I got several Christmases ago.  When I informed my parents it was what I wanted they seemed perplexed.  “You mean… … … like vinyl?”

It’s like the iPod version of a record player

 

One of the best things about this one is that it is completely portable and can work off batteries if needed.  It has it’s own speaker so in a pinch you don’t have to plug into anything else to listen.  I have many great memories on the screened-in porch at the Broadway house in Ann Arbor with this lil’ biscuit providing the entertainment. PLUS, I can hook it up to my computer and digitally transfer the record into mp3’s which is buh-mazing because a lot of the records I have aren’t available on CD at all.

Very appropriate, I might add, seeing as how all my friend’s Facebook wall’s in Michigan have been lighting up because of the recent snowfall there this week!

 

I’ve amassed a nice little collection since then and take any opportunity to at least peruse stores when in another city. Ann Arbor had a really great store, Encore Records, and when visiting Jeremy, Clinton, Nate or Jamison I always reserved at least three hours for Cheapo Records.   Luckily, Houston has a handful of them and I spent several hours just hopping across the city and looking at their choices. 

There are some albums that I will ALWAYS buy, and on the top of that list is anything that Martin Katz has played on.  For those of you not in the know—Martin Professor Maestro Katz, called “the gold standard of accompanists” by the New York Times, is the professor of collaborative piano at the University of Michigan.  Oh, and he’s played with basically every great opera singer of the last thirty years, written a book, and is basically a musical genius (and I’m not just throwing that word around willy-nilly). In the four years I was a student at Michigan I had the privilege of taking every one of his song classes and being conducted by him in two operas (Puccini’s La boheme and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin).  Needless to say, any chance I see one of his records I snnnnnnatch it up, and on this most recent trip I got TWO!

  

                  It’s the return of Flicka!!!!!                             Martin Katz + Stephen Sondheim= BUH-LISS!!

 

One of the other reasons I really wanted to get out on this day was that Adele was releasing a special edition remix of some songs from her album just for “Record Store Day.”  I’ve extolled my love for her before (here and here) so it should be no surprise that I was on the hunt for the disc! The first three places I visited had sold out and it was at the last stop that I was able find one—and it was their last copy!!! 

 

And, if anyone out there is making a list—though to be fair, I am still waiting on that watch—if you ever run across Astor Piazzolla records puh-lease get it for me and I’ll pay you back.  The guy who owned Encore in Ann Arbor was a big fan and would always hoard them away for himself whenever someone brought one in!

 

Artist: Corinne Bailey Rae/ Album: Corinne Bailey Rae

De fleurs

 

One of the perks of working at the John Cleary Gallery is that I have free reign to explore drawer after drawer of the gallery’s collection.  I have mentioned in a previous post my love of Maggie Taylor’s work and when I came across “The Patient Gardener” I was reminded of a song from Claude Debussy’s Proses Lyriques entitled “De fleurs” (The Flowers).

Maggie Taylor: The Patient Gardener

 

Debussy’s lyrics, which he wrote himself, are as follows.  (Translation by Faith J. Cormier via The Lied, Art Song, and choral Texts Page)

In the desolate green boredom of pain's hothouse, flowers surround my heart with their nasty stems. When will the dear hands return to delicately untangle them from round my head? The tall purple Iris cruelly violated your eyes by seeming to reflect them. They were the pools of reverie into which my dreams softly dove, absorbed by their colour. And the lilies, white jets of water with perfumed pistils, have lost their white grace and are but poor invalids who do not know the sun. Sun! Friend of evil flowers, dream-killer, illusion-killer, holy bread of miserable souls! Come! Come! Saving hands! Smash the windows of lies, smash the windows of evil spells, my soul is dying from too much sun! Mirages! Joy will never flower again in my eyes and my hands are tired of praying, my eyes tired of crying! In an eternal crazed noise, the black petals of boredom drip constantly on my head in pain's green hothouse!

But really… why reference a Debussy song and post the poetry without also putting up a stunning performance?  My friend Janai, whom I have mentioned here before, sang the set on her master’s recital at the University of Michigan a couple of years ago and her performance of this song in particular has managed to stay buried in my sub-conscience.  Pianist (and dear friend) Jeremy Reger also brings the requisite foggy lushness to Debussy’s accompaniment.

And as always I’ll add my caveat that the image above is only a representation of what it really looks like up close.  So come in the gallery and check out this piece or any others in our collection!

Artist: Janai Brugger-Orman, Jeremy Reger

Dancing Queen

 

Due to last week’s opening at the gallery I completely failed to get up a post last Friday.  Don’t worry, though, I haven’t forgotten that…

IT’S

DANCE PARTY

FRIDAY!!!!

 

I came across these pictures while doing a bit of blog trolling on the way to work yesterday morning (Houston traffic is rife with opportunities to get off a quick text or sneak a peak at websites like Fark, where this comes from).  Terry Border’s Bent Objects is a collection of complex vignettes made from everyday items that range from humorous to dark, parody to social commentary and quite frankly I LOVE THEM. 

(For a different look at the artist, check out my completely different blog post appropriately entitled “Gentlemen Prefer Buttercreams” at the John Cleary Gallery blog!)

“Dancing Queens”

 

For Jeremy:

  

             “So Many Books, So Little Time”                     “How to Get Ahead Without Even Trying, or ‘Salome’ “

 

“Literary Interpretations”

 

   

“Fruit with Life Experience”                                                   “Adverse Side Effects”

 

For Will, our blog’s resident entomologist (sorry, Luke, but he actually has a master in bug-ology [seriously]):

“Office Supplies in the Jungle”

Artist: ABBA/ Album: Greatest Hits

Keep on Truckin’

 

Christmas this year seemed to mimic last year’s stuck-in-a-blizzard-while-driving-to-west-Texas (the stories I could have told if I had my blog back then) theme of awfulness as far as the transportation aspect of it all was concerned.  I got home at 12:30am on Christmas morning from the second of two Christmas Eve services and was up until about 2:00 finishing up packing and wrapping presents. Awake at 5:00 and off by 5:45, thinking: “Allright! I’ve got my coffee, I’ve made some CD’s for the trip, and the General is runnin’ great!!!”

Cut to about three and a half hours later when the old warhorse gets wounded in battle and the transmission blows in Ennis, TX.  Luckily dad came to the rescue (as dad’s so often tend to do) and picked me up so I could make the festivities at Matt and Joanie’s!!

We were all lucky enough to be joined by my aunt Brynda, uncle John, cousins John and Katy, as well as my granddaddy Dan for the holiday.

   

 

Me looking on from the peanut gallery as Joanie put it

 

Even Daisy got to come up and celebrate… much to Scout’s chagrin.

  

“I promise I’ll behave!”                                                        “Heh heh heh”

 

One of the joys of going up to Richardson was getting to spend time with my nephew, Luke.  Not that everyone else wasn’t interesting, but there was really no competing with the most adorable 2 year old EVAR.

As I mentioned previously, I got him a couple of books (Even Monsters Need Haircuts and a German-language version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar I got while on tour this last summer) as well as a giant, stuffed Memo Nemo.  I think it was a hit!!

 

   

My meager attempt at artistry! Also, the reason I was up until 2:00am

 

Daisy looking on and mother apparently floating whispily about

 

It’s exhaaaaauuuuusting opening all those presents

 

One of the biggest hits of the weekend was the Play-Doh set up in the play room.  There were many hours spent molding animals on those tiny tiny tiiiiiny chairs.

Joanie, who is about a week away from welcoming Mr. Roberts No. 2; Luke, our master sculptor; and myself

 

      

             I LOVE this picture!!!!                                     Playin’ it cool with a snake right in front of him

 

When talking about Play-Doh creations I can’t help but think about one that my friends Jeremy, Chris and I made one weekend out of boredom in Ann Arbor.  This time it isn’t so much of a snake as it is a worm taking a vacation at the beach with a cocktail, paisley umbrella, bow tie and sunglasses. Forgive the poor picture quality, it’s from my old phone.

 

That would be a box of orange tic-tacs on the right hand side, in case anyone was interested.  WE COLORED OUTSIDE THE LINES!

 

Monday, Matt was nice enough to drive me back to Ennis to get my car checked out at the local Ford dealership where we met a gentleman in the service department with a certain penchant for abbreviations.  “Okay gents, gimme just a second and we’ll get a diag started and see if we can figure out what’s wrong with your tranny,” which quickly prompted this text conversation with my friend, Will:

Me: Looks like I’m going to have to get a new “tranny” as the Ford guy puts it.

Will: So what’s a new tranny cost these days?

Me: I dunno, about $2,700 and a new tube of lipstick?

I ended up just driving back to Crockett at 35mph (those cars behind me were NOT having it) so that I could get it checked with someone we actually knew.  Unfortunately the General did end up having to get an organ transmission transplant but some very generous family friends of ours were kind enough to loan me a car, of which I have decided to temporarily name the Colonel, so that I could get back to Houston and, more importantly, back to work.

Even with all of the travel travesties I am so thankful for such a wonderful group of family and friends.  The holidays can be a stressful and even sad time for everyone involved, but at the end of the day all you can do is value the time you have together.

So thanks to everyone for the presents and the food and the festivities and the roadside assistance!!!

 

Artist: The Temptations  / Album: The Temptation Collection