Sometimes you see something in passing that you just can't help but document.
If you have a few hours to kill in western Michigan, this is a place to visit. It’s a botanic garden with a twist: sculpture, lots of sculpture! This summer they also have a special exhibit of all of Degas’ sculptures. Today the weather was terrible, on and off rainstorms and sticky humidity otherwise) and I’m walking (limping) around with a broken toe, but I’m glad I came.
A centerpiece of the sculpture garden is 24 foot “American Horse,” by Nina Akamu (1955), which pays homage to Leonardo Da Vinci’s 24 horse model which was never cast in bronze.
A lot of the other stuff is really modern and inexplicable to me, but I did like the head with a book tied to it: “Listening to History,” by Bill Woodrow (1995), I think the title sells it. I also like “I, you, she, or he…” (right) by Jaume Plensa (2006), but I'm not sure what it means - if you can't see from the picture (click on it to enlarge) the figures are made up of metal letters.
I judge Gerald Ford’s grave site as the most depressing. Usually presidential memorials are in pastoral settings or cemeteries that are peaceful and respectful. Ford’s is located in a small park area just off the main expressway going through Grand Rapids. It is next to his museum, and doesn’t look like a place that a person would actually be buried. I visited Ford’s memorial and museum on a summer Saturday, I got there probably around 9:30, and there were only two other cars in the parking lot. The park area around the museum was empty of people except for two individuals sitting alone at different picnic benches along the Grand River.
The museum is interesting. Interesting because Ford was president for less than three years and took over from one of the most hated presidents in history. Presidential museums always stress the positive so fun factoids like Ford “served as former president longer than anyone except Herbert Hoover” are presented. There is a gallery that consists of just a collection of 60’s memorabilia.
I did learn something disturbing though. No matter the controversies and scandals that happen during a presidency, the power behind the throne, the power elite of Washington, never go away. Supporting Ford during his administration were Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense; Allan Greenspan, Council of Economic Advisors; George H.W. Bush, Director of the CIA; and Dick Cheney, Assistant to the President. Any of those names sound familiar?
I should read more about Nixon, during a film about the Watergate incident they showed a news anchor saying: “the president now says the facts are various to what he had previously stated.” I have heard the “I am not a crook,” bit (because it’s constantly parodied) but I now wonder how many other ways the guy tried to weasel out of the truth, with fun new ways to not explain what he did or how much he knew.
This museum presents less about the Fords outside the presidency than others I've visited. Although her fight with breast cancer is mentioned her alcoholism and the Betty Ford clinic is not.
When newcomers visit Chicago for the first time they are often surprised at how little big industry - those that created Chicago - can be seen from downtown. That's because it's all to the south of town on the Illinois/Indiana border. This trip brought me right through the heart of it.
plates, and one in four had bicycles attached to the back. The deeper into the state I drove I eventually lost the bike carriers, and the further away from Lake Michigan I got as I got into the heart of Michigan the fewer and fewer Illinois plates I saw. My only conclusion is that 1) there was a bike rally somewhere near Detroit (my route caused me to split off from the main highway toward Detroit about 60 miles into the state); and 2) Chicagoans like to weekend during the summer on the opposite side of the lake from the city.
Chicago has its big 4th of July fireworks display on the 3rd, and it
coincides with the last weekend of the annual "Taste of Chicago" festival, one of the most popular in the city. I don't attend the "Taste" because the idea of eating standing up in huge crowds of people on a hot July day just doesn't appeal to me for some reason. I do like fireworks, though.
People are encouraged not to drive on days of big gatherings downtown, especially the third (this year a million and a half people gathered at the lakefront). Chicago has a decent public transportation system with a great suburban rail network, there is no reason to have to drive downtown most days and on summer days with large events it is almost impossible to find a place to park if you do.
The evening for me was mostly a chance to play with my camera - one thing I did learn, it's hard to get a good representative picture of a million and a half people at night while being jostled in the crowd (for the fireworks I used a tripod, but for all the other shots it wasn't really feasible).
There are planters on the sidewalks of Chicago (I'm not sure how ubiquitous they are, I haven't conducted a formal survey) that look like they are carved with indentations around the sides. Interested in this detail on such a mundane and easily vandalized thing, one day I took a closer look. Come to find out, the three dimensional looking indentations are painted on. I tried to get shots from various angles so it would be obvious, but they are done so well, it's very hard to tell without touching them. A very interesting detail that few notice, I'm sure. And yes, Chicago is almost obsessive about having flowers all over the place.
