Icccceeeeee

Monday was filled with rumor of the impending snow storm and lots of sliding on the layer of ice that coated the area throughout Sunday night and all day Monday. Despite having to drive in the ice, seeing lots of car accidents, and slipping as I walked around, it was quite beautiful to spot this pine tree with a coating of ice.

Read me!

I should have posted this a week ago, but below is a screen shot of my latest publication, a review of the Alicia Kelly and Andrew Huffman show at Invisible Hand Gallery (which you can read online here) in Review Magazine. Yay!

The local brew

Not too far from our house is the fantastic 75th Street Brewery, where we shared dinner with family on Saturday evening, as well as a relaxing late evening beverage. How fortunate we are to live in a place that is walkable and that values local food and beverage to corporate establishments.

Lunar New Year

The Year of the Rabbit doesn't actually begin until February 3, but on Friday we went to the evening celebration at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to see the various performances and exhibits, such as the fantastic Lion Dance pictured below. We also hit up the opening of Pattern ID at the Kemper, so it was a busy arty evening in Midtown KC.

Fraser Hall

Walking through campus on a chilly Thursday, the view of Fraser Hall.

Commute by bus

Wednesday's schedule allowed me the better option- commuting by bus. The K-10 bus is definitely not as convenient as public transportation in other cities or countries, but it saves me a lot of gas money and a lot of drive time. Also, the bus has free wifi, allowing passengers time to work rather than just sit and stare at the road.

Commute by car

Tuesday's schedule left me commuting by car across the snowy sunny landscape of eastern Kansas.

Tea

Loose leaf rose-scented green tea to soothe my sore throat on a Monday.

Brew Tour

On Sunday we took the Boulevard Brewery Tour with a group of ten friends. An amazing time was had by all.

Grocery Shopping

I know that many people think that grocery shopping is a mundane chore, but it is one of my favorite routine tasks. I had a fantastic history professor in undergrad, the late Dr. Marvin Rosen, who referred to the modern grocery store as the Museum of Food. Dr. Rosen, in his engaging and entertaining lectures on European history and Marxism, would crack jokes and jump around the room, creating a memorable narrative of 16th century England, among other topics. In one of his lectures on the development of early capitalist systems, he commented on how amazing it is that we can cruise the aisles of the grocery store and pick up everything from tumeric to quinoa, coconut to couscous, all relatively affordable to the middle classes- the Museum of Food. For me, a trip to Whole Foods and our local Indian market on a Saturday is definitely a reminder of the amazing system of global capitalism (for better or worse), and how crazy it is that I can create a menu for the week that includes Indian Spiced Seitan, made with such exotic spices as tumeric, mustard seeds, and cumin, while not so long ago people kept sugar in locked cabinets and trading spices was a driving force in many regional economies.

Waitin' for the bus...

...on a cold and gray Friday, but the view of the KU Natural History Museum is nice.

Snow day

As over seven inches of snow fell from late Wednesday into early Thursday the road conditions weren't very good by Thursday's commute, so I took a snow day. Despite the fact that it snows here every year, the Kansas City-Lawrence area isn't very prepared for snow removal and it can take a day or two for driving conditions to be decent. It was nice to work from home and gaze out at the snow covered world, including the shadows from the trees on the white front yard.

Winter

On a cold and snowy day like last Wednesday, our cats fight for the prime spot on the kitchen floor in front of the heat vent, taking turns at warming themselves up.

Sick day

Not much to say for Tuesday.

Representation

As I'm getting into the swing of the daily photo posts, I realize that the true essence of each day can not always be captured in a photo. Monday is a great example of this. If I were to select a single mental image of the day it would be going to Waldo Pizza with our dear friend Beth and her daughter, yet I don't have a digital photo of this because first, I was in the moment, not thinking about the daily photo challenge and second, because I don't like to post photos of other people's kiddos to the internet. So, I'll go with my first mental image of Monday, the curtains that I made late on Sunday. I love the crisp design of this fabric, and was so happy when I got the last of the bolt at the fabric store.

Plaza Lights

Sunday left us feeling the need for some fresh air, and as not everyone in the neighborhood has shoveled their sidewalks with enough clearance for a stroller, we headed down to the Plaza to cruise the streets and gaze at the window displays. For those not familiar with Kansas City, the Plaza was built in the 1920s as the nation's first planned shopping district, an outdoor mall of sorts, that takes up an area about four by five blocks and has all varieties of chain and local shops, restaurants, and theaters built in a Spanish architectural style. We had thought that the shops would be open until 6 or 7 so we could pop in from time to time to warm up, but found that most of the stores close at 5 on Sunday. This meant that our walk was a bit shorter than we had originally intended, but it was still nice to be outside in the city. Sunday was also the last day for the Plaza holiday lights, which are quite lovely.

Plastic

Two things on Saturday had me thinking about plastic.

First off, we bought new bowls for the baby. The selection was gendered- blue and green dinosaurs and cars or pink and purple butterflies and flowers. Joe joked about the connection between the dinosaur and the car, that the dino is what makes the fossil-fuel consuming car possible. Ugh. Sadly, the bowls are also part of this unsustainable chain, but hopefully they will be used and re-used enough to make their non-breakable nature worth the environmental impact.

The other incident was at the grocery store where a young girl was helping her dad select some carrots. She went to put the veggies in their cart and he loudly told her she needed to use a plastic bag, making eye contact with me, rolling his eyes and laughing. I told her, no you don't need a bag and smiled at the girls good environmental instincts. The dad then laughed again saying he would use one anyway, which disgusted me enough that I looked him in the eye and sharply stated, no need to waste is there?

Come ON people. It's bad enough that I see more than half the shoppers at the store without reuseable shopping bags. Why do you need a plastic bag for your carrots?!? First off, any germs that the carrot will encounter in your cart, at checkout, or in your grocery bag are miniscule compared to those that they encountered in the dirt, during the harvesting process, in shipping, and sitting in the produce section. Second, you will (or should) wash your vegetables upon use and with the carrot you will likely peel it. Do you really need to use up some non-renewable fossil fuels for this process? No, you don't. Please put a second of thought into your choices. I understand the use of veggie bags for greens as they are wet and easily tear in the cart, but there is no reason to waste a bag on other fruits or veggies. I was pleased to see though that his other daughter placed their cucumber in the cart sans bag. Perhaps there is some hope for the future.

City Hall

Official business took us to downtown KC on Friday. This image of Kansas City's City Hall is so Gotham-esque to me, particularly on an overcast and dark winter day. I love the 1930s style of the building and the Jackson County Courthouse, which sits just to the south. The area conjures up images of streetcars, martinis and men in hats, and generally a false nostalgia for a time when people didn't wear sweatpants in public.

Seven Days in the Art World

I finished reading Seven Days in the Art World on Thursday. While not groundbreaking, it provided a succinct introduction to the world of contemporary art and would make a nice read for someone with a casual curiosity in the subject, or for an introductory course. The book was divided into seven sections- The Auction, The Crit, The Fair, The Prize, The Magazine, The Studio Visit, and The Biennale. Thornton spins the book as an ethnography of the art world, and in this respect she introduces an interesting cast of characters and breaks down art systems in an organized, approachable fashion. A recommended reading for those with an interest or fascination with contemporary art.

Brrrr....

The cold continued on Wednesday so that by the time I took the dog for her evening walk it was about 5F (-15C). Even she didn't want to be out for very long. These are the nights meant for hot chocolate, a blanket and a good book.