school days & holidays

It's the time of year when the kids are back in school and soon we will be as well.  And because we are in the school mentality we are also doing Holidays! We celebrated Thanksgiving with a visit from brother Larry (who came up from Miami) and our new neighbor and Phil's long time friend Jean who moved here in September.... Then we had a weekend of dining with Larry at favorites of his and ours... and we went to the beach and just relaxed. 

so here are some catch up photos since the last post-

We met up with CBGB at Mis En Place to celebrate Georgia's birthday! We had some really good wines and food but better conversation as we caught up with them after our summers up north (theirs in Michigan and ours in Chicago) two apps from that evening- pork belly and a tuna carpaccio with an empanada

the week of Thanksgiving had us at old favorite Columbia for tapas and cava sangria-

we also had some good food at Mediterraneo -

then on the night before Thanksgiving we stopped in at Kasa - our favorite sushi place -

and after Thanksgiving we did Star Fish and the beach and Blue Marlin on Friday and indigenous on Saturday  (below-  a view from our table followed by three beach scenes)

Larry's Thanksgiving flowers

our wines from indigenous-

The winter term catalogue has been delivered from our lifelong learning academy and we are looking at lecture dates and course description and if you have kids recently in college this sounds familiar we're sure...

And because we live in a community with many options for continuing education - especially in the arts - we also have classes at the Sarasota Arts Center (for what I would call "hands on production") and classes for all kinds of fine arts skills in media and film and animation etc. at the Ringling College of the Arts.

I have decided on two classes - one at the lifelong learning academy on Asian Art taught by the teacher I had last year for the Asian mysteries course and a second one at the Ringling College on architecture...

The Skyscraper from America to Asia
M/12:30-3:15 PM, 11 sessions  Christopher Wilson                                                                                         
This course surveys American architecture from the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871 (which is credited with giving birth to the skyscraper) to today.  The skyscraper, seen as a uniquely American architectural product even though it now appears throughout the world, will serve as the main point of reference.  Opposite views such as the "City Beautiful Movement," suburbanization, and recent "New Urbanism" will also be discussed.

and here is the description of the LLA course I will be taking

this upcoming week is a busy one with NTLive and the Asolo performance of Evita and the second ballet of the season (at the Opera House) plus we have the added delight (not) of buying a new toilet for one of our bathrooms - we have been having trouble since last summer and its innards finally failed over the holiday weekend...

so never a dull moment... I thought when I got our screening for the cage repaired last week we were done with home repairs for a while  but apparently I was wrong! More to follow- of course...

who knows?

who knows where the time goes? LOL - something Phil and I say to each other all the time... on so many levels- this week was interesting because we went to a lecture by a futurist named David Houle.  We had heard him speak last spring and enjoyed hearing his perspective. So when we saw he was speaking on the media and public trust we signed up to hear him again.

later that evening we went to one of our favorite places for dinner - the Blue Marlin on AMI - it's about 15 minutes from us and especially when we go (8 PM dinners aren't the most popular time here LOL) we generally have no traffic - of course parking in Bradenton Beach is always a challenge but this time of year it is less so. 

the menu of the day

the regular menu

the white and red we settled on- after one not so great older white which I thought was flawed but Phil thought was just not so good---- is there really a difference? LOL

then last night we made our first trip to AMOB and on Sunday night we had made our first trip to Cafe Baci and last week we hit both Captain Brian's and Starfish and Bella Mia - LOL so we are well into the "welcome back" tour of Florida faves.....  next week is reasonably quiet - some guys coming to give us estimates for repairs of screening in our cage over the courtyard (Hurricane Irma damage) and shopping for an preparing for Thanksgiving.  Brother Larry is coming from Miami and Jean has made us one of her two stops that day. Larry will spend the weekend which will be great since we really haven't spent any time with him since last Christmas... the Hurricane disrupted plans he had to come to Chicago in September.... so stay tuned for more fun and games...

a concert, a meal

Anything to distract at least me from the news cycle and the election! Anything!

Off we went to Fogartyville to hear a Celtic music group called Brock McGuire.  Three old guys and a lively skinny youth who danced and sang.  We love the intimate venue and the warm welcome from the local volunteers.  Arlene, the young woman who runs the Peace Center, and Francis, the Goodwill Ambassador who must be 85 if he's a day and is all of about 5 foot 5... he is so upbeat just seeing him makes you smile.

The group was good- all excellent musicians and as charming as only Irish men can be,  The tunes got repetitive to me but all were very listenable.  The songs were classic mournful songs of wanting to return home- with one exception- a lovely song about the fifteen year old Irish girl who was the first person who came through on Ellis Island when it opened in 1892.  The singer was Dave Curley and the band was made up of three guys- one being Brock (last name) and the other last name McGuire and the third guy on keyboards was a music teacher as well as a musician. I kept saying to Phil "I know that guy from somewhere" and he agreed that the young man looked very familiar.  So when I googled him I found out we had seen him on January 31st at the same venue- with the group RUNA.... post address below to copy into your browser- I had really liked his work that previous evening although not the female singer's rushed delivery of the lyrics- again I will look to find his recording of Black River...

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/02/runa.html

We wanted to get dinner after the concert since we had a  big lunch later in the day so we headed over to the Starlite Room where we knew the bar was open and serving food after 10 PM. This is not a late night town....LOL We had a nice meal there and arrived home around 11:30 now one more day of the election torn from our calendars like the old movies---- it can't come soon enough for probably 99% of Americans- but for sure for me....

for apps - Phil had the tuna and I had deviled eggs

we split a salad

then I had mussels and he had the grouper sandwich

we whiled away the evening and are headed out tonight to see our buddy Dan at Blue Marlin for a late dinner.... it is really now the first week back in the regular routine for Phil - off to see his trainer (no I haven't sent him to obedience school LOL) and his usual forays to the grocery/drug/banks/costco etc....  School registration starts this week and I think I will take one class and see how it goes. Our school has undergone some traumatic changes this summer as USF ditched us (we took up too much room in their facility) and we had to find a new home which we did - with the Ringling College but the new facility isn't ready yet so classes are scheduled all over the place... the "main campus" has moved to Temple Beth Sholom.... so we will see how this works out- it is about twice as far as we are used to going for classes and that could be an impediment.  So as always- stay tuned....

aesthetic arrest

This morning my Arts Class did the session on Palm Avenue - a gallery walk with our instructor, Judy Levine. As usual, it was an interesting morning and as usual, I learned something new.  so let's get into the information- what I learned today was the term "aesthetic arrest" which is apparently the name Joseph Campbell gave for that moment when we go along viewing art and suddenly are stopped by something that "speaks" to us. This concept is brilliant because, to me, it encapsulates the essence of why I will LOVE something absolutely LOVE it- MUST have it, and my husband will be either only neutral - or worse- dislike it.

Case in point- a painting I bought last year that I LOVE and he really doesn't like. (I feel somewhat vindicated by the fact that friends of ours reacted in the same way to the work that I did.)  It is large 43x 52 (Phil thinks it is too big) and bold- but the minute I saw it I knew it was mine...LOL - I felt it was perfect for city-dwellers like ourselves who live in a house on a city lot 25 feet wide...LOL everything in our lives is vertical...like the painting- so it hangs in the stairwell, a compromise location.... but I get to enjoy it each day we are in Chicago.

Cityscape by Stuart Yankell, 1988

so I learned that term this morning at one of the four galleries we visited - and I have to say I had my moments this morning - and had I not promised Phil I would stop collecting - well I may have come home with two things that "spoke" to me.  We met near the Dabbert Gallery and because I was early I had a few minutes to take a few photographs of Palm Avenue...

the last photo was some art on the side of a bank building and had no nearby plaque to identify it...

so Judy gave us an update on some of the events around the area and then the Gallery owner came to welcome us into his wonderful gallery...he spoke to us about pricing for art work- and commission structure and gallery space and representing artists... all very informative.  I really liked his selection of artists/works exhibited - and here are things we saw- 

 and another - whose work I really really really liked- LOL

and the above painting is one that called out to me- and I commented to classmates that it is hard to stop collecting once you start- and I laughed at myself - when I got home- yes of course I loved "Sentinel" (above) because it was reminiscent of a Keith Oehmig painting I bought called "OGUNQUIT BEACH"  The first Keith Oehmig (born in Tennessee, now residing in Brunswick, Maine) we purchased ten years ago on a visit to Maine.  Oehmig's works are infused with light and color, and his impressionistic style is well suited to capturing the natural landscape throughout Maine, as well as the Florida beaches and French and Italian countryside, all of which he paints. And when I saw this one (below) on the website of the gallery (which thoughtfully had kept up with me - LOL) I fell in love with it and called to ask about its availability. So here is my similar sized version of the blue sky white cloud beach painting - now hanging in our Florida living room...

so despite my desire to make Sentinel a part of my own collection- I kept my promise to Phil... at that gallery...

we went on to another - 

This gallery had amazing glass works and bronze sculptures and several very appealing artist working on canvas and aluminum.  Then we ventured on to the Allyn Gallup Gallery where I had a weak moment- and even went so far as to inquire about the Jean Blackburn paintings they held in their inventory...but pulled myself together LOL-Their current exhibit was of Lynn Davison.

 

 then on to Art Uptown- 

I escaped the gallery walk without breaking my promise to not buy anything- LOL but went home to some of my favorite works as a consolation LOL- two large format paintings- 

I learned the one below "MOMENTUM" by Diane Reiger has what they call gallery wrap - the canvas is painted on the side so as to hang it without framing - which I have done.  But the above one I did have framed with a gallery level framing - it is called "NEAR POINT CARMEL SURF"  the cresting California surf by Helen Gleiforst (1903-1997). Gleiforst is a listed California impressionist whose teachers included Nicolai Fechin, George Melcher, and John Hubbard Rich. Dedrick Stuber influenced her landscapes and Nell Walker Warner influenced her floral paintings.

another favorite- "EVENING, RIO DEL MAR BEACH, 2004" A substantial modernist oil coastal landscape showing a view of Northern California's Rio Del Mar beach softly illuminated by a lilac and cornflower-blue sunset. Signed lower right, "C.W." for Colin West (American, 20th century).

You may not have "aesthetic arrest" about these paintings- LOL but that is why art is in the eye of the beholder! And I hope you find some art that "speaks" to you at some point- whether in a gallery on Palm Avenue or a local museum or when traveling the world...  

Last year President Obama got into trouble for dissing the Art History majors in liberal arts education but both my husband and I were art history minors (and yes that is part of the reason we went to law school :-( ) and just last week we were discussing how much a knowledge of art has enriched our lives. We have a couple of trips planned for overseas destinations this year that are focused on art and museums we want to (re)visit.  It is a part of why we travel.  So visit a local museum or gallery and find your own "aesthetic arrest"....  for next week's class a visit to the Circus Arts Conservatory- now that should be super fun! 

And tonight we saw a kick-butt play at the Asolo "Good People" which I will tell you more about tomorrow.  And tomorrow, I am scheduled to see "Both Your Houses" (again at Asolo) which I saw last fall in a Chicago production...  So more - of course - always more.....