Terra Cotta Warriors

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art about the Chinese terra cotta warriors.
 

This is something many of us have heard about through TV or the Internet; we absorb it. But I realized I didn't know much about the context of these figures. I also didn't know why the particular emperor who commissioned this tomb is called the First Emperor of China.

 This emperor is credited with uniting China into a nation -- that's why he is called the First Emperor. But what is more mind-boggling -- he became emperor when he was 13 years old and died around the age of 40. Another informative display reminded us that the Chinese nation/culture is the only one that has survived from antiquity into the modern day. Others such as the Roman or Persian empires are gone.

The particular emperor is credited with bringing Chinese art into realism. That may be why we like these figures so very much. When one looks at the faces of warriors, each is an individual. The horse above looks like a photograph of a horse, not like a piece of clay.

The exhibit was quite crowded despite controlled admission by ticket. There were a lot of school kids, behaving very well -- all is not lost with the next generation despite what some people say! I was very difficult to take pictures without violating the privacy of other visitors. I overheard a docent say, "If you think this is crowded, you should go to  China."

I could catch a photo of the birds below without bothering anyone.

I also chose the birds because I've never before seen birds associated with the terra cotta figures.

Leaving the exhibit I saw a chariot silhouetted in the sun.

 The Minneapolis Institute of Art has long held a collection of Chinese art. One of my favorite pieces is Jade Mountain.

The figure is about 1 meter wide and 2/3 meter tall.

In the same area I saw this:

This figure is about 2/3 meter tall, and is about 1000 years "newer" than the terra cotta warriors. This figure, however, helped me understand what is meant by the warriors being painted. The paint is gone on the terra cotta warriors due to the moisture of the earth. This figure was always protected, so the paint remains.

This is a great exhibit. You can read more about it and also more about Chinese culture as related to these figures by clicking on the link at the beginning of this post.

November Views

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! For example, I stopped at a supermarket to use the ATM and noticed the holiday wreaths are already up! Since it was 6 PM and now dark as a sack, it was rather nice to see these lights.

But I interrupt the "holiday season" to show November views.

I have been noticing how lovely is the pond right by the drive where we leave this housing area. So this afternoon, when it suddenly felt like a summer day, I walked out there.

Here is what I saw.

I really enjoy how the angle of the sun in autumn provides the chance for these wonderful reflection photos.

I have also admired the sign on the pillar marking the entrance to our housing area. Here it is:

 Continued walking back to the river.

I was surprised to see a green barge.

Barges are usually a nondescript gray or brown.

But the color doesn't intimidate this one duck cruising around the barges.

Learning about Django Reinhart

Tonight I took my daughter with me to the Highland Library for a concert about Gypsy Music featuring the work of Django Reinhart. I'm embarrassed to say I've not heard about this musician before. This concert was provided by the Friends of the St. Paul Library with support of Minnesota Arts.

The auditorium was totally full, and many were people who love Gypsy Jazz. I learned that are many clubs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul that have this music. 

Here's a sample:

The music was provided by the Clearwater Hot Club with commentary by Michael Dregni. I thoughtI had not heard right when Dregni said that Reinhart was born in Belgium. I didn't know that Belgium also had Roma/Gypsy people too. However the family lived primarily outside of Paris. Reinhart was a professional at age 14. When he was 18 he was offered a position with a traveling band from the U.K, a huge jump in his career. Sadly, that night his caravan had a fire and he was disabled for 18 months. As the result of his fire injuries his left hand was deformed and he had the use of only 2 fingers.

If you click on the link above for Django, you will find he still found a way to play a guitar and became a great, great musician.

I just took a look at the flyer about the concert and learned the St. Paul Library has an exhibit about Gypsy Jazz. This will not be the last post about Gypsy Jazz! Watch this space.

I Voted !

I Voted ! I thought perhaps others might like to know how we do this in Minnesota. I decided to go around 9 AM. I thought this would put me after the early morning rush time.

For those out of the country, this isn't simply a presidential election. We also vote for this year for one federal Senator, every two years we elect a member to the federal House of Representatives, and this year, because of redistricting after the 2010, we elect all members of the state legislature. Thus one needs a ballot for the right geographical location. One can vote absentee in Minnesota with a VALID excuse such as that's the day I'm having surgery. Otherwise we are not an early voting state.

CNN has a nice page today about election riddles and I learned there that the first Tuesday of November is a chosen date, for reasons we somewhat no longer need. Tuesday was picked because one could worship on Sunday and then use Monday to travel to the election location by horseback or horse carriage. November was picked because the agricultural harvest season is over, and the weather is not usually troublesome and brutal in early November. 

My voting place is the Salvation Army building on West Seventh Street in Saint Paul. I've been voting there since I moved to my location along the Mississippi River, but this is the first presidential election. Always before the voting location was a small classroom. This year the voting place is the gymnasium (for those of you in Europe, think of a place one would play basketball, not a type of school).

I waited in a line of 6-7 people to get my name checked on the registration list. Then I waited in a line of about the same size to get a ballot.

In Minnesota we use a paper ballot. It has circles in front of the candidates' names. One uses a special pen to fill in the circle. When done, one takes the ballot to a scantron machine and insert it yourself. Thus we don't have the Florida problem of "handing chads" nor the problem in some states where it is alleged that one of Romney's kids owns the company providing the voting machines. The machine counts the votes, but there is always a paper copy that can be counted and examined if a recount is necessary. (And I surely can't fault the forefathers for not anticipating that kind of problem when the Constitution and Bill of Rights was prepared!)

A polling place is staffed with election judges. These are volunteers representing various political parties, but of course, they don't disclose their political preference when working. The variety is maintained to reduce allegations of inappropriate pressure on voters. All simply wore a name badge with their first name and a title, Election Official.

Because of the number of people wishing to vote, I was offered the option of going into the bleacher seating area with my ballot, clipboard and pen if I felt comfortable. That was fine with me. Had more privacy there than in the closely placed voting booths. I marked my ballot and then walked over and inserted it in the machine. I turned to return the clipboard and pen to the table where I received them, but was interrupted by another election official who said he would trade me the I Vote sticker for the clipboard and pen. He handed me the sticker and then dropped the clipboard and it shattered on the floor into about six pieces. So if for nothing else I'll remember this election for the shattered clipboard. Truly that's never happened before when I voted!

Mill City Museum Adventure

My classes are silent, students working on projects and so Friday, November 3 turned out to be a good day to have an adventure. The weather is cooling and there is a north wind blowing, so not a good day for a long walk. I decided instead to go to the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis. This is a museum sponsored by the Minnesota History Center. It is located on the south bank of the Mississippi in Minneapolis, although in river parlance it's called the west bank. Here the river runs west to east, but always when going downstream the right hand side of the river is called west.

An excursion on the web revealed that parking around the museum was a bit expensive. So I took myself out for breakfast, left my car in the restaurant lot, and hopped a bus to the 46th Street Station of the light rail.

Boy, was I surprised! I haven't been there in over a year and in that time a huge apartment complex has been built in the station area.

The buses now approach the station area by coming through the arch way. It has a very European feel to it.

Soon I was away on a train to the Metrodome stop.

From the stop it was a 4 block walk to the museum. It is located in the Washburn-Crosby mill.

A bit of background. Minneapolis was the world capital of flour milling for over 50 years, starting from the 1870s and ending with the economic changes of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Wheat came from Minnesota and the Dakotas primarily.

The building in which the museum is housed today was built in the late 1870s. It replaced one destroyed by a great explosion. This is how it looked when completed.

The 

Photo of a museum sign

 When I arrived at the museum, I was asked if this was my first visit. Yes, so it was suggested that I first do the Flour Tower presentation. For this one enters a small tiered area, arranged as if one is going to view a video. In fact, this is an elevator. The elevator when up and down showing us historical scenes from the building and the milling industry.

The elevator would stop and the doors would open to a display.

Below is a video of one of the scenes.

When we finished the tour we were up on the eighth story of the building. Here the museum displays four pieces of original machinery from the mill.

 The above machine somehow gathered flour dust out the air, and then the flour was somehow incorporated back in the milling process. Flour milling was a very dusty business; this is what led to the explosion that destroyed the first mill in this area. Workers also got "miller's lung," a type of occupational asthma.

On the eighth floor we were also on a level for observation deck.

We had a good view of St. Anthony Falls, the only waterfall on the Mississippi River. It was the power of the water that brought the mills into this area. The waterfall looks quite tamed now, nothing like its original state.

Through the library web site for the Minnesota History Center I obtained a copy of Bierstadt's painting of St. Anthony Falls. I felt badly about what we had done to this area. Then later in my visit I learned why it looks like it does today.

Turns out it was quite common to attempt to tunnel under the river. One tunnel collapsed and nearly destroyed the waterfall. What we see today is in fact an attempt to maintain it as much as possible.

From the observation deck I noticed the sign across the river for the Pillsbury Mill.

Nearby is the sign for Gold Medal.

Please see the next post. When I was writing this one, Blogger refused to take more content. So I wrote a second post about more of this experience.

Mill City Museum Adventure -- Part 2

Perhaps in the previous post I hit the limit of what one can put into a post or else Blogger is not behaving today.

Let's continue.

This poster shows Joan Crawford, an advertisement explaining that while she is a wonderful movie actress, she is also a great cook. The sample menu printed on the lower left hand side of the page shows two items for a dinner party made with Bisquick!

And here is an article about the first Pillsbury Bake-Off in 1949.

One thing I've never seen before is a huge mill stone.

Had a great time at the Museum. Recommend it for a visit when you come to the Twin Cities.

Dia de los Muertos at the University

Today I slipped into a Dia de los Muertos observance at my university. This observance is particularly associated with Mexican culture. Ofrendas are created remembering friends or family members who have died. The ofrenda includes photos as well as sugar skulls, food and beverages.

One ofrenda was quite traditional.

A couple explained the photo of the man is the grandfather of the man in the partnership, and the woman is a mother of the woman. They went on to explain the use of color and food in an ofrenda.

One created by university members honors those who have died/been killed because they were gay.

A third ofrenda honored Minnesotans who have died in the Iraq/Afghanistan war.

This holiday always takes me back to 1987. When I adopted my second daughter from Colombia, I enrolled her in the newly developed Spanish Immersion School. This school had native speakers of Spanish, supplemented by Amity Scholars. The Amity Scholars were young adults, university graduates, who were also native Spanish speakers. When November 1 approached one taught the children about Dia de los Muertos, a holiday observance of great important to her.

We were stunned when later that month one parent came to the PTA meeting to complain about teaching children about this Mexican holiday. This parent characterized this as "Satanic." We were all so stunned that our jaws literally dropped, the Amity Scholar was devastated to have something so meaningful to her characterized in this manner. Finally someone gathered a thought together to tell that parent that if she didn't want to have her child learn about cultures from other countries she had enrolled her child in the wrong school.