Art or Mutilation?

This is taken from a book of tattoos, containing a bewildering variety of tattoos on real people.  By far the most intricate and elaborate pieces originate from Japan.  This book is part of a coffee table collection at the hotel; it sits among other esoteric books that amuse, provoke and shock the reader. 

Ravages of Autumn

This is the view of the campus as I emerge from the garage (American term for car park) early morning.  The crisp autumn mornings (top picture) have given way to a pervasive greyness of the approaching winter (lower picture).  The clocks go back on Saturday 1st November.  Maybe that will bring some brightness back to the mornings.

These two pictures were taken at the same spot on the way to the office building.  The trees are bare now, and the building is exposed.

Country Club Plaza

Country Club Plaza at Kansas City, Missouri.  This is an upscale shopping, dining and entertainment area, with prices to match.  Burberry and Swaroski are eye wateringly expensive, compared to the UK.  These pictures were taken in September, when the temperature was still in the 70s (F), hence the shoppers in summer attire. 

This season's shoes with this season's clothes

The hotel has changed the paintings at the lobby.  The blobs of poppies are no longer there; instead there are this season's muted colours of autumn - lime green and purple.  Right on the money.

Dallas

This is a spacious, modern, well laid out working environment.  It's to die for.  This piece of real estate is located at Legacy Drive, Plano, Texas, a prestigious address. 

Dallas is much more than South Fork and J R Ewing.  It is a thriving, thrusting metropolis.  Being the 8th biggest city in the USA, with a population of 1.2m, it makes Kansas looks like the backyard.  

Dallas Forth Worth airport is huge.  No wonder; it ranks as the 6th largest in the world.  It has 5 terminals, each probably with about 40 gates, linked to each other by Skylink. If you are being picked up or dropped off, check which gate or else you will have a long walk.

Today, American Airlines was late.  Of the 6 trips that I had made with AA, 2 of them were late.  There was a last minute change of departure gate, and a mad scrambling to the new one.  People knew what they were doing, so these gate changes seem like everyday occurrences.  When flights are full, hand luggage space becomes a premium and the last passengers on board have to surrender their hand luggage to the hold.  The boarding sequence was strictly hierarchical - first class, platinum, gold, silver, ruby, emerald, sapphire, etc.  Actually I am joking because the gems have not seen day light yet.  After the metals, it was priority access, followed by zoo class.  Even the zoo class is categorised into groups, depending on whether it is front, middle or rear cabin.

In the Fading Lights of Autumn

The leaves are fast falling now, and the campus will look bare when all the leaves are gone.   

I enjoy this poem by Margaret Postgate Cole, written in 1915:-

Today, as I rode by,

I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree

In a still afternoon,

When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky,

But thickly, silently,

They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon;

And wandered slowly thence

For thinking of a gallant multitude

Which now all withering lay,

Slain by no wind of age or pestilence,

But in their beauty strewed

Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay. 

Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

  

The original neo classical structure of the main building, completed in 1933. It is situated in 22 acres of ground in Kansas City, Missouri.

The shuttlecocks are found at the front of the building and on the lawn to the front of building.  They are striking.

The totem pole by two North American Indians.  The raven holds the symbol of Kansas City in its claws.

The majestic central hall rising to 40 feet high, with skylights bathing the interior with natural day light.

The Bloch Building that opened in 2007.  Its sleek lines add a contemporary feel to the museum complex. 

Autumn fading into winter

These photos were taken in the Leawood area.  The painting is by an artist who displays his work in the hotel where I am staying.  The colours remind me of the autumn colours outdoos.

Shapes, Colours and Textures

Visually, the shops here are a riot of colour.  This makes my black on black attire that I packed for this trip too severe and sombre.  I was at Oakland Park today, a shopping mall on W. 95th Street, Kansas.  In the solitude of my own company, the visual acuity is sharper, clearer, and much more alive!

Mellow Yellow

The golden colour of autumn, at early evening. 

Rodeo Show

Went to the American Royal Pro Rodeo Show at the Kemper Arena at Downtown Kansas.  Plenty of cowboys, stetsons, and product placements.  The show included bareback riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, barrel racing, bull riding, team roping, and saddle bronc riding.  For the "aah" factor, there were little boys doing their junior "rodeo" on the back of a sheep, called mutton bustin'.  The cute factor came from the beautiful Clydesdale horses, pulling and turning in unison a cartload of beer. 

For me, the two more interesting shows were team roping and tie-down roping. 

Team roping features a steer and two mounted cowboys; the first ropes the front of the steer, usually around the horns; the second ropes the steer by its hind feet.  Tie-down roping starts in the box.  The calf is released and the cowboy must rope it as quickly as possible.  As soon as a catch is made, the cowboy dismounts, sprints to the calf and tosses it on its side.  With a small rope, the cowboy ties any three of the calf's legs securely, then he saunters back to his horse.

This was a family event.  Even young girls were decked out in stetsons, some of them in pretty pink.  And some of them can emit the loudest screams, to show their support for the cowboys.

Before the show, we went to one of the popular BBQ restaurants along Metcalf Avenue and tasted the most delicious and succulent BBQ meats.  No wonder the Americans are so proud of their BBQ tradition.  This dish is called Jack's best, a collection of BBQ meat.  There was enough food for two,or even four, if you are a size zero gal.

Medical Medleys

This has been a medical week, and it brought me into contact with the medical profession in Kansas City.  The first encounter was with a very charming dentist at Overland Park, Kansas.  Actually, before that, I had to make an emergency treatment appointment. And boy, was the receptionist not friendly. It was a treat.  She later called to advance my appointment by half an hour due to a cancellation, after learning that I was savaged by pain.  Now, the layout of this dental practice is completely different to that in the UK.  All the patients are treated in cubicles opening to a walkway.  So, if your hearing is intact, you can hear the drills next door....  The dental nurse met and greeted me with a huge smile, took an X ray and then summoned the dentist.  In the UK, my experience of a dentist is someone providing a professional service. Here in the US, the dentist who treated me was someone providing a friendly professional service.  I was his patient and he was there to look after me.  He took time to explain to me the options and the treatment plan.  The cost?  $91 for a X Ray and a consultation.  The treatment plan?  $2,100 for root canal and a crown.  Then I went to a pharmacist to get my prescription, and was asked for an ID! Proof of ID just to get some prescription.

My next encounter was with a collection centre where I had to submit a urine sample for drug testing. Here in the US, some employers request employees to undergo a drug test as a pre-employment screening.  So even though I am only here short term, I have to go through the same procedure. The urine sample was collected in a specially designed secure cup and sealed with a tamper resistant tape.  What impressed me most was the one woman operation at this place; she was handling two clients while talking to her manager on the dect phone about her holiday entitlement.  She was particularly relieved to see me because I called her twice to get direction after the satellite navigation system directed me to some distance from the building.  I felt a bit sheepish adding to her workload...

And now, back to flaming autumn.  The trees are beginning to shed their leaves, and the barren look of winter is fast approaching.  I thought I should capture those glorious red leaves before they disappear.

George Segal's Rush Hour

One of the sculptures at the Kansas City Sculpture Park, next to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. It found resonance with me because on the days I commuted to and from Reading on my own, I was just like one of these individuals, in a crowd but utterly alone. And of course there were the occasional showers to keep me company.

Read more about George Segal at http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S25/35/43A85/index.xml?section=featured

 

Favourite Pieces

Three of my favourite pieces from the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art at Kansas City, Missouri. The painting is Carravagio's St John the Baptist in the Wilderness.

Passing Through Chicago

I passed through Chicago O'Hare airport on the day the IOC decided to award the hosting of the 2016 Olympic Games to Brazil. So I took a picture of the Olympics posters for posterity. When I was waiting for the flight from Kansas City International Airport to Chicago, a fellow traveller who chatted to me consoled herself that the Brazilians sure know how to throw a party.

Talking about this airport, it has etched in my memory as a place of memorable incidents. To name a few: mishandled luggage and the trials and tribulations of dealing with the luggage tracking service in the UK (my suitcase went hiding for more than 48 hours); flight delay and massive immigration queues reducing a two-hour transit time to minus 30 minutes; waiting for the last passenger not to turn up in order to grab the last seat because BA at Heathrow omitted to issue my colleague with a boarding pass on the flight from Chicago to Kansas . Hey, my colleague said, "Look on the bright side of life!" Remember that scene from Monty Python's The Life of Brian? Check it out on You Tube.

And the Heart is Red

What a beautiful autumn. The crimsons, the scarlets, the reds and the oranges are eveywhere, they hit you in the eyes, in the head, and in the heart. A local told me that come November, the leaves will be gone and the trees and shrubs will be bare. Until then, I want to record every glorious moment of this deep deep red space.

Autumn Fantasia

In the course of a weekend, the autumn colours have become, as if by magic, much stronger, much deeper, and much more spectacular. These brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow, set upon acres of open ground, was utterly spellbouding. The autumn scenery here is truly and simply stunningly beautiful. I think of the heavy frost back in the UK which can greatly reduce the brilliance of autumn leaf colour by killing or severely injuring the leaves before the pigments reach their maximum development. Nor does it help with too many rainy or cloudy days without much light occuring near the time of peak colouration, which decreases the intensity of autumn colours by limiting photosynthesis.

Another joy is to watch the the morning and evening sky, something that does not feature in the daily routine of a suburban commuter in South East England.

 

What are you drinking?

The first thing that a newcomer to USA notices when entering a bar in Kansas is the size of the plasma TVs, and the numbers of them. There are literally an endless bank of TV screens showing all kinds of sports. Strangely though, in the evening, very few people seem to be watching them.

New and Funky

This time I have put my temporary roots down at Aloft at Leawood, next to the Park Place development. This hotel is so new that you can almost smell the newly-dried paint. The public areas have an eclectic collection of furniture and furnishings, best described as retro blended with modern. What attracts me to this hotel is its proximity to work, and a reasonably sized indoor swimming pool for a hotel. The challenge swimming here is that there are no changing rooms....

Right next door is the multi-screen AMC cinema, very convenient if you want to catch the latest movies.