group dynamics: June 2007 Archives

Going to the Sunwheel turned out well. The sky was fussy all day: raining some, staying cloudy, clearing temporarily, then turning back to grey. When the sun broke through, right in the middle of an astronomy graduate student's lecture, the rays literally beamed down upon us, setting off fantastic contrast in the fluttering green leaves and freshly mown grasses. Who could possibly complain about that double rainbow, either?

Ok ok, sure, I know it wasn't just for me,

:-) but come on, you've gotta admit the whole event was rather spectacular!

I learned a few new things, particularly about the Lunar Cycle (which has been - and continues - at it's own "lunar standstill" for over a year) and that the Astronomy Department has been able to place two more stones that mark the stars Aldebaran and Sirius (what do you know about the sothic rising?) The last one was approximately 400 years ago, and the next one will be around 3050. I think the implication is that stars do move, but not at a rate which we measly, short-lived human beings can observe.)

Did Will (the presenter) say Aldebaran is the "eye" of the Constellation Taurus? Meanwhile, George just had to tease me about being "into this solstice thing." Yeah! And what of it?! I think patterns matter. The trick question is, which ones? :-) I found this interesting blogpost (by an Iranian? Chinese? Who knows?!) when I was looking for a playful astrology link: not because I give astrologers the same reliability as astronomers (heaven forbid!), but I think the fact of other knowledges based on different frames of reference is something we (humanity, I'm thinking big) have got to do a better job of understanding.

Anyway, I am looking forward to Koushik

keeping his end of the deal and providing more impromptu physics lessons. I have a clearer understanding of "frame of reference" now than I ever had before. (Things are different from the inside of an accelerating system than from the outside of it.) Tail asks (and I am still muddling through the explanations of the twin paradox): "WHY does movement make one's time flow slower?

Is the biology answer different than the physics answer? Because everyone except the rock star waited a long time for Maya-Mediterranean Chocolate Rice Pudding from The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural & Natural History of Cacao. I picked up the book at the , which Ila took me to in December of 2005.

Ruth's hummus and spinach dips got us started along with a special (surprise!) quiche (all to rave reviews) and then it was all Better Homes and Gardens, thus invoking Katelyn and her family in memory. :-) Her sister Giovanna inscribed my first cookbook, "use in good health." We most certainly did! The spinach and garbanzo bean salad was the most popularly requested item for takehome, the chutney-fruit rice salad was described as "a hit." The sesame asparagus was pretty quickly gobbled up, and the creamed peas and new potatoes were also devoured. There was (by the way) enough food and we did not start before everyone was here!

The evening was perfect except for a few moments of amateur cook/host stress (how much help can one person handle at the exact same time?!) but (fortunately, since I really needed it) folks figured out how to manage me. :-/ (And they didn't even know that my mom used to put my college friends "in charge of the kitchen" instead of me!)

That's right, on a couple of counts. Rich said this listening to Chaka Khan last night at the 2007 Gay Pride Festival at the Liberty Memorial Park in Kansas City last night.

[fyi, you cannot reach the official website from KCI airport: "http://www.kansascitygaypride.org/ has been categorized as Pornography. It has been blocked per your organization's Internet Usage Policy for group Public."]

We were utterly surrounded by twenty thousand or more totally normal (!) queers directly under the Big Dipper on an absolutely perfect night. Rich commented that it is “rare to see the stars from downtown.”

The playbill was perfect too, with one top hit following after another. Rich and Kelly competed to "name that tune" and hit the timing of the chorus just right. :-) There were MANY people who knew these tunes, when the mic was turned out to the audience you could easily hear us bellowing along.

Since we knew we were gonna be out late, we lazed through the entire day. Yeah, a rough life, tell me about it! En route to the big show, we stopped off at a particular nephew's sixteenth birthday party, where I told Zoe she is a purty cat and Lynn accepted graciously.

Eight of the thirteen teenagers present played XBox (and lost) to a team of six from The Netherlands. When we returned after the concert they were playing a version of hide-and-seek involving base camp (safety) at the trampoline. We were thankful no one called the cops on the rowdies.

Museum Day

Rich and I took in the abstract art at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

We were severely underdressed, as it was Opening Night for Phantasmania and the Members showed up in full fashion force. We only got in trouble twice although we garnered several disapproving (or at least puzzled) looks. We only had iced tea and diet coke in the Café (our waiter was psyched for massive tips, although he did recover after the initial obvious disappointment). The above photo I took in the Special Exhibit Hall (no pictures allowed of the art, I complied! Still, I was chastised. Oy.) Our favorite was Dan Attoe: Accretion 38 (This has been coming…) (one selected comment apparently by an owl, “a bunch of shit nobody cares about”), and Accretion 34 (Be at peace with what you’ve done), with a line that sparked a chuckle from Rich: “Hank Williams died on New Year’s Eve.” Attoe's work is described as “oil on canvas on paper” but those are just the physical materials and does no justice to the juxtaposition of visual images and (tiny) text.

Robyn O’Neil’s graphite on paper sketches were also interesting, Being Together, Standing Below This Eternal Covenant, (both pictured at Matthews The Younger's blog and Their Fear Blurred and They Were Still. It was fun to move from her monochromatic perspective to “Blind Faith and Tunnel Vision” by Jules de Balincourt (pictured at Your Daily Awesome). His “Insiders and Outsiders” (scroll down) is probably the most transparent of the art we saw but powerful nonetheless: one cannot miss the potential implications of current historical trajectories.

Pictures are allowed in the permanent collections, so I snapped several. I very much liked the painted wood by Louise Nevelson; it was cool to then see a portrait of her by Dan Budnik (couldn’t eliminate reflections, bummer). The colors and chaos of Rising Sun (Hans Hoffman) caught me,

and the birds in this oil on canvas work by Joseph Stella drew me past the soft pastel first impression: Dance of Spring (Song of Birds).

It looks as if *I* captured Roy Lichenstein at work,

but really this is another portrait by Budnik. I almost always like color, such as James Pollen’s 13 Bands (fused silk with painted other stuff - the camera failed :-/).

All of the selections from the permanent collection were chosen by museum patrons “Putting the U back in Curator.” Lei Ilima is not my taste at first glance but the circle drew me closer. I’m not sure this piece by John Buck “suits my temperament” but I can imagine its appeal could grow over time. All three selections from Seven Poses by Hung Liu are pleasing.

The Kemper was the second museum of the day. First?

Jazz is . . . life.

The introductory film is fantastic, featuring just about everybody who was anybody, with several clips of original performances and classic interviews. The first phrase that caught me was from (I think) a member of Shirley Horn’s band, talking about performing jazz meaning you are on stage “nerve naked.” Rich had me listen to several of his favorites, including John Coltrane (Alabama), a tribute to the four African-American children killed in a church bombing in 1963. Its tempo is based on a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. (I wish they told us which speech...an article in The Southern Review by Sasha Feinstein reports that it was the "eulogy for the girls)." The biographical text described Trane's ambition “to use his music as ‘a force for good.’” Rich described Coltrane as the “#1 innovater for the saxophone,” and Miles Davis (we listened to So What) as number one innovator “for the trumpet.” (Listen - and watch! - Davis perform this with John Coltrane courtesy of youtube.) We also heard Water for Debby by Bill Evans, who wrote some scores for the Charlie Brown specials (but not as many as Vince "Doctor Funk" Guaraldi). :-) A particularly neat moment was listening to Jimmy Smith (The Champ), and Rich being reminded of Don Lewis. Gosh, I still miss that guy! Many fond memories. :-)

Jazz is . . . art.

Frank Marshall Davis described the accomplishments of Louis Armstrong as “distilling the meaning of black in sharps and flats.”

Did I mention that bro can play? :-)

Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) says, about jazz: “. . . I prefer to regard (rhythm) as that force that keeps the whole universe together.”

Here's bro jamming to Pat Metheny, The Road To You.

Jazz is . . . love.

Rich explained some of the history of the 18th and Vine District. All WWI soldiers came through Kansas City to get their uniforms. (I had no idea the garment industry was huge here, through WWII about half the soldiers still came through KC for their uniforms.) Live music poured out of this District, and the alignment of 18th Street is such that the midsummer sun (July-August) sets dead center at 9 or 10 pm, just as the place would really start hopping. A few years ago, Kansas City hosted a cow-painting event. 18th and Bovine is a beaut!