Praying for Rain at the Scottish Rite Temple. 1st and Topeka. Wichita.

Sep 30 2011

Praying for Rain at the Scottish Rite Temple. 1st and Topeka. Wichita.

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Doing a Rain Sketch

I know that I should be sketching more in Kansas. It is meditative. I sketched my way through France and it rained everyday; the Loire Valley, Morzine, Paris, Bourges, it didn’t matter, it rained.

I’ve only sketched twice now in Wichita and both days it has rained while I was drawing which we sorely need. Big, juicy drops that puddled the felt tip lines and created their own thunderclouds on my drawing. I love this, it’s like felt tip watercolors.

So, something compelled me to turn right at the Orpheum Theater on Broadway at First Street. When I saw the curved wood & iron balcony on the turreted corner, there was no choice but to get out, photograph, draw.

I want to stand up there so bad, so I guess I will draw and imagine...

The sky was a dark blue grey, so the subtle colors of the leaded windows were vivid.

The colors aren't vivid in this photo but think aubergine, aubergine, Grueby green, milky cornflower....Louis Comfort Tiffany when he was alive.

And just as I was getting close to winding it up, the Rain Came! And I realized that I was at the Scottish Rite Temple.

Paula's felt tip, prismacolor and charcoal of the Scottish Rite Temple. Wichita.

This is all I can say about the numerous google pages I have read about Scottish Rite and Freemasonry and it’s not even my words.

There are “three obligations” which include:

the candidate promises to act in a manner befitting a member of civilised society,
promises to obey the law of his Supreme Being,
promises to obey the law of his sovereign state,
promises to attend his lodge if he is able, promises not to wrong, cheat nor defraud the Lodge or the brethren, and
promises aid or charity to a member of the human family, brethren and their families in times of need if it can be done without causing financial harm to himself or his dependents.

This seems like five, so maybe you only have to do three. Other than that, it was so esoteric that it eluded me, so I’ll offer no more.

I do think they always have the coolest lodges or “temples.”

Temple definition: a building devoted to the worship, or regarded as the dwelling place of a god or gods or other objects of religious reverence.

But, after seeing the above stated values, I guess God and Jesus (who probably never thought in terms of temples anyway) must not have a problem with this being a temple so who was I to fear it as cultish? It probably came from the DaVinci Code or some movie anyway.

I'm sorry, but I still see bats and think it could be a great backdrop for Damien IV.

I can imagine that God might feel, as I do, that the design of these buildings gives beauty back to the street and to the cities in which they were so painstakingly designed and constructed. Thank you Order of the Freemasons, for doing your part.

Scottish Rite Masonic Center (Temple), First and Topeka. National Register of Historic Places. One of the six designated Historic Landmarks of Wichita.

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Sep 20 2011

If I had the money…if I had the energy…if I had the time…

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The Lord's Diner and the Commodore Apartment Building, Broadway & 5th, Wichita.

The Staff of Life and Food.

The Lord’s Diner is Wichita’s soup kitchen located at Broadway, just north of Central. It is a faith-based charity serving over 400 meals a day from 5:30 to 7:30, 365 days of the year, 7 days a week. It is manned by a small paid staff assisted by 5,500 volunteers of many faiths who prepare a hot, nutritious meal “in a spirit of compassion, respect, and loving service.” It is a debt-free facility built by many including 175 local companies and countless individuals who donated labor and materials.

And, if I had the money…

I would approach the Tulsa developer and local Wichitan who will be restoring this building to a hotel with a proposal. Let’s buy a few floors to keep back for the locals who dine at the Lord’s Diner in the evening.

Schafer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture, just down the block, would work out the schematics. These are the guys for whom I worked from 2004-2006 when my daughter attended high school in Wichita.

The Ground Floor

This is the floor where people, anyone, could come when life has taken them to their knees. There would be many others there who have been in this place and so need these newcomers to remind them of powerlessness. People would share, new and old alike, what brought them there. Others might share all the challenges, pain, and positives that lay beyond the adventures of the past. And, to share a gratitude for having the opportunity in life to finally reach the basement and experience the sub-grade of birth. There is a lot of work to be done on this floor, but it’s only twelve risers and the door is always open.

The Arts Floor

This is a personal floor for me because the beauty is and always has been there. In the sweet manure, in the fluttering trash sack of the junkpile, in that favorite old piece of clothing hidden by new sacks of sh!t. It might be beauty to your ears, to your taste, to your eyes, to your smell, or in a smile. But, (s)he was always there with you. And, now we get to take the time to look, to really feel the depths of the happiness and pain and beauty. But this time, unclouded and still.

There will be the wildly imaginative persons who need the contemplative to get the project done. And, the reverse, and everything in-between. But what is created will be taken out into the world and shared with everyone.

The Work-it Work-out Floor.

This wouldn’t have been necessary for so many when we all came to this country. But everything’s a muscle, the mind and the body. And we are midwesterners, so it is in our genes. It takes energy to make energy and for those with too much, too trapped inside their head, it must be stoked in some form, to finally get the coals back to the right temperature for proper cooking. Those who toil physically in their daily work get a reprieve. And those who are mothers have daycare. The kiddies would workout with their peers while mom gets to reclaim her mind and body.

And then, there is the dance floor.

Because fun is part of life. Sometimes it’s work to plan the fun, sometimes it’s fun to plan the work. But fun is a great motivator. And, in honor of Lionel Ritchie and the building, the first selection should be “Brick House” followed by “Easy like Sunday Morning.” And, everyone has to dance, alone or together, because it is important to dance while you can. Life is short.

And last, there is our past.

For this, the diners must turn left instead of right on Broadway.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Central and Broadway. Wichita.

And this is an add-on tour, optional, but the point should still be made. Without knowing our history, we are destined to repeat it. So, no matter how painful it is to experience our own, it is a learning that is the hope for a new future. And there is a comfort in our children and our world that nothing stays the same. And all we can do is live our lives and do our work and be kind and give in a way that we have great hope for the future. Not perfectly, not with the answers, not that we’ll do it right and the screwups might actually be sweet, but thinking, pausing, and trying each day for joy, freedom, and gratitude to be alive and for whatever comes next.

Here are some pictures that can tell stories to everyone, literate or not, as they have done since the Middle Ages. They are of pain and here, of people of conviction. They should be passed along. Our stories should be passed along, whether in a moment during a walk with a child or in a painting or a recipe.

Bronze Doors of Immaculate Conception. Wichita.

S. army chaplain who who died in the Korean War.

And sometimes a reminder of earlier stories, told in the same way, that also shaped who we are and that we are responsible…

The Fall of Man: The Bronze Doors of Bishop Bernward, Hildesheim, 1025. Lower Saxony, Germany.

But, I don’t have the money….and I don’t have the energy…and the light is turning yellow…

So, I took the pictures. And I wrote a story.

Turning left and heading east, Central and Topeka.

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Sep 19 2011

le sketch du jour: le musée des arts décoratifs and the senses of place.

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107 rue de Rivoli, my school summer of '80

This is the Museum of Decorative Arts. This is where I studied the history of bone china, boulle cabinets, tapestries, French armchairs, silver, and every functional yet decorative piece imaginable with which we trap ourselves today :).

I learned about

things and stuff and who used what and why

and how all the low influenced the high. And vice versa.

It is the north wing of the Louvre and is entered from Rue de Rivoli. The Rue de Rivoli is a famous shopping street running through Paris that was cut into the city by Napoleon and was named after his early victory against the Austrian army, the battle of Rivoli, fought in 1797.

It cut into the area on the north side of the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens, but a bit of history on these two places that everyone visits on vacation.

The Louvre

The Louvre’s beginnings were as a fortress to Philip II in the 12th century. It became a palace during the Middle Ages serving numerous Kings, but it was François Premier who decided the Louvre would house his art collection. All the while, the Louvre continued to grow in size as a palace. It is only after Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, that constructions on the palace slowed. But this move to the country then allowed the Louvre to be used to house artists. Later the academy of painting and sculpture resided in the Louvre where salons were held to exhibit works and they would remain there for a hundred years.

In 174,7 there was a call for display of the Royal Collection and proposals for a public gallery. And under Louis XVI, le Roi du Soleil, the Royal Museum Concept officially became policy.

Thus, private art for the public domain began in France.

The Tuileries

The Tuileries Gardens were part of the Tuileries Palace that was named for the former tileworks that resided on this land in Paris just west of the Louvre. As will sometimes happen, after the death of Henry II of France in 1559, his widow Catherine de’Medici planned a new palace. Her architect was Philibert de l’Orme but André le Nôtre did not begin the formal gardens and parterres until the reign on Louis XIV in 1664. As he and later Louis’s soon departed, this left the lovely palace abandoned, to be used only as a theater, and the gardens because a fashionable spot for Parisians.

So full circle, when Napoleon cut this swath through the city with the rue de Rivoli, it was a transitional compromise between an urbanism of prestige monuments and aristocratic squares and the forms of modern town planning by official regulation. This included the arcaded shopping streets of the rue de Rivoli, retail ground floor always and ideally covered.

And, before Haussmann and all the later work by Parisian urban planners to make Paris the city of avenues, public monuments, squares, cafés, churches, shops, and vistas in every direction, this place began as a lookout spot.

It was a new center of Paris for the Middle Ages, built above and close to its earlier history of Roman catacombs and before that tribes of Gauls and before that…

It began with a fortress and a field. And it brought together, if not the King and his subjects, his art and his beauty to share and mix with the beauty and culture of the real people.

And, I think this was a pretty good idea. The building, evolving and partial planning of a city that bring a true feeling of ownership to all who are lucky enough to have this experience which can be anywhere.

We all have it when we see it, taste it, smell it, touch it; the senses of place.

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Sep 5 2011

Plurality: Little Love, women have many husbands.Not Dan Rockhill. He has a quote.

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Dan RockhillDan Rockhill

Why would anyone want more than one wife? Dan the Man, KU circa 1991. see Marvin Hall

Well, I would suggest multiple husbands. And, living on a ranch and being pretty isolated, I always thought that Big Love sounded like a blast for the women. It seems like a nightmare for Bill Paxton. I have a sneaking suspicion that many happy people are really only connecting with their spouses in whatever way, dinner, deep talks, budget discussions, logistics, social a few times a week, if even that. Here are my current.

The philosophical Mennonite contractor, I’ll fix the wood slider doors on the closet one time, Ken.
The handyman Delbert Cash who can explain everything I didn’t learn or understand in my dumbed down for architects KU engineering classes and doesn’t even turn off the electricity when changing plates from cream to white, tough guy.
The honeydo, Thomas Cash, who follows every intricate thought process of getting lights on at Christmas. Also detects micromanagement, “didn’t John want some sandwiches for the horse shoer” during cord placement

Delbert and Thomas Cash in Paula's 1960 bathroom, reducing the carbon footprint XIT style

The flat tire fixers, at Don’s Farm Tire, Plains Co-op, Clingan’s, Weaver’s, and stray men along 54 hwy.
The shared cowboys: Corey Rickard, Dustin Ellis, Cooper, H.G. (these are really shared cowboy sons) and Kell Adams

Dustin & Corey unloading a bench at guest house

Dustin & Corey unloading a bench at the guest house

"Tanner Rollins, H.G. and Cooper Adams, Nat'l Geographic Dec 07, p. 122

Tanner Rollins, H.G. and Cooper Adams, Nat'l Geogrpahic Dec 07, p. 122

Paula and Kell Adams, early in their relationship when they were both a little uptight

And of course, the sweet smile and companion husband, the boss man.

John waving

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Aug 29 2011

le sketch du jour: June 4, 1980. le Grand Palais. Paris, France.

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drawing, le Grand Palais. Right bank of Seine. Paris, France. by Paula Graves

Le Grand Palais is located on the right bank of the Seine as seen in this map of my running route in Paris. It is across the way and east a bit of the Eiffel Tower, and just west of the Place de la Concorde, the Tuileries, and the Louvre. This was the west leg of my no-brainer running route (where I would not get lost) when I lived at the Hotel Cayré on Boulevard Raspail.

Paula's running route with Grand Palais to left of Tuileries Gardens in light green.

Here's the aerial. right to left: Petit Palais, Grand Palais, Pont d'Alexandre spanning Seine.

It was constructed in 1897 of iron and steel with a glass barrel-vault and was one of the last buildings of this type inspired by the Crystal Palace in London, for the Exposition of 1851. These glass and steel structures were necessary for large gatherings of people before the age of electricity.

Crystal Palace, London. 185l.

History

The left wing has been a science museum since 1937, the south wing is occupied by the University of Paris IV, and there is a planetarium which is one of the first of its kind.

The construction of le Grand Palais began in 1897, following the demo of the Palace of Industry, in preparation for the Universal Exposition of 1900. This project also included an adjacent building, le Petit Palais, and le Pont d’Alexandre III which many consider to be the most beautiful and is definitely the most opulent bridge in Paris. But I won’t digress into bridges…

It is a Beaux Arts building with a formal floor plan but used contemporary innovations of the glass vault, iron and light steel framing, and reinforced concrete.

Its original purpose was to house the great artistic events of the city of Paris. I think it is interesting that this project was awarded to four architects, Henri Deglane, Albert Louvet, Albert Thomas and Charles Girault each with a separate are of responsibility. Not big famous names that are particularly memorable to the masses, comme moi, but a great display of teamwork in design, often a feat in itself.

There are a number of allegorical statue groups including work by sculptors Paul Gasq, Camille Lefèvre, Alfred Boucher, Alphonse-Amédée Cordonnier and Raoul Verlet. The two statue groupings on the pylons are the Champs-Élysées side depicting Immortality prevailing over Time and the one on the Seine side of Harmony triumphing over Discord. [I can’t find big enough images and I get them mixed up, but one is a woman in gown and another has a penis and they are both standing over fallen figures. So, I’m pretty sure the Immortality is the man and the Harmony is the woman].

Statue groupings surrounding le Grand Palais.

Later Function

After the Exposition, the palace was the site of different kinds of shows in addition to the intended art exhibitions from a riding competition (1901 to 1957) but were mainly dedicated to innovation and modernity: the automobile, aviation, household appliances…think “home show” until 1947. The first major Matisse retrospective after his death was held at the Grand Palais in 1970 and was an incredible success.

Problems, or should we say in the field, issues and challenges to address.

The structure itself was problematic from the start, mainly as a result of subsidence caused by a drop in the water table. The builders attempted to compensate for this subsidence by sinking supporting posts down to firmer soil so as not to delay construction, but measures were only partially successful. A show about locomotives and horseshow runoff also took their toll on the space. Differential rates of expansion and contraction between cast iron and steel allowed water to enter and corrode until a glass ceiling panel fell in 1993, and it was not fully reopened until 2007.

I think it’s interesting that the Grand Palais has a major police station in the basement which helps protect the exhibits on show in the Galeries National and the “salons” (picture spaces) of la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, Salon d’Automne, and Salon Comparaisons. I mean, hey, the Nelson has guards and the Duane Hanson Guard which I found equally frightening in my younger days, but not a real cops headquarters for art.

Trivia

For the fashionistas, Chanel hosts many of its fashion shows here.

For the sabreurs, it was host of the 2010 Fencing Championships.

And for the WWI & II aficionados…

The Palais served as a military hospital during World War I, employing local artists that had not deployed to the front to decorate hospital rooms or to make moulds for prosthetic limbs.

The Nazis used the Palais as a truck depot and for two Nazi propaganda exhibitions. The Parisian resistance used as headquarters during the Liberation of Paris. On August 23, 1944, a peace officer fired on the advancing Germans from a window and the Germans responded with a tank attack on the Palais which ignited hay set up for a circus show and two days of black smoke severely damaged the building [those Frenchman…always keep the circus going while you’re resisting the Germans…:)].

Et, c’est tout! C’est merveilleuse. At least, run by!

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Aug 6 2011

le sketch du jour but no sketches: July 1 and 2, 1980

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This is only one that architectural historians and decorative arts people (antiques dealers) might find interesting. Unfortunately my books including pictures of most of these buildings is in the attic at the XIT Ranch, so there are only a few visuals. I don’t know why anyone cares, but I have included everything from the journal so far, so I am compelled. I was an Art History teacher and focused quite a bit on architecture from 1983-1989 so I’m trying to hold back from sharing….we’ll see if it works…

A synopsis:

July 1, 1980: raining and cold. [I have to include this to show you that it rained pretty much every day in Paris that summer. And I was still happy as a clam.]

AM Architecture, Les Halles area: S. Eustache. Fontaine des Innocents-Goujon

Fontaine des Innocents. Goujon.

Lescot wing of Louvre

Lescot Wing of Louvre.

NOON-TWO (it is quite the long lunch hour in France). Restaurant Chinois north of Louvre (19 Francs).

PM Decorative Arts Lecture: Louis XIII & Louis XIV. Going crazy-can’t understand

UNFAMILIAR TOTALLY!

Travel Agency-Rue des Capucines by Opera.

Métro home: I CAN DO IT!!

groceries- 13F, dinner: sandwich-5F

letter, read, bed.

July 2, 1980

Raining. Ran 3 miles around Tuileries and Louvre. Met a street cleaner & talked to him for a while.

AM ARCHITECTURE

La Maignon: (first use of colossal order in Paris). Baptiste Cerceau.

Place des Vosges:

Place des Vosges, Marais District. Paris, France

1st departure point for Paris as a planned city. Henry IV wanted a practical, middle-cost, quality housing area.

First example of city planning in a large public space. Private and away from traffice but with commerce integrated. Influenced development of the wealthy Marais District which in turn affected all of Paris.

Contract still in effect for building in this square which dictates uniform façades, red brick with details in white stone, gallery arcade on ground floor (covered to induce commerce).

Hotel Sully: 1634 Jean du Cerceau, son of Baptiste above (l’hôtel is the word for city house, not a hotel).

Standard for a City Villa: courtyard with main living behind courtyard and garden behind the house. Begin to see Baroque

Hotel Carnavalet: 1548 (by master mason)

One of the fist examples of a City Villa similar to Sully but before.

Temple St. Marie: François Mansart, 1632. (Gothic Interior)

clear articulation of Masses (structure evident)

restrained sculptural decoration

NOON-TWO Bought needlepoint at shop near college where we had a lecture at noon. (cost $40.00)

PM DECORATIVE ARTS

Louis XIV Lecture & Germanic Glassware visit

Chicken and artichoke for dinner.

July 3, 1980: ran 3.5 miles down to l’île-de-la-cité

St. Gervais-Solomon de Brosse (grandson of Jacques Cerceau). First classical church in Paris where correctly used orders. Had to have tall façade.

Hotel Beauvais-1652.

Church of St. Paul St. Louis-Jesuits

overstated details

superimposed monumental corinthian order

dome is surprise (not seen from exterior)

Hotel Salé-Jean Boullier-1656

caryatids used in interior space

superimposed monumental corinthian order

dome is surprise (not seen from exterior)

Hôtel Guenegaud-1648 Mansart

sober

balance (pavilions)

proportion of glass to wall is greater than in other housing

architectural mask

PEOPLE

Went to lunch with Mark (Chicago, sort of macho-type on trip. Lives in condo on Lake Shore Drive and works in father’s advertising agency) and Allison.

Had salade niçoise-goofed around all afternoon. Met boy when I was buying fruit from UCLA who wanted to know the word for peanut butter, obviously a backpacker. Went to hotel to needlepoint.

Had dinner with Allison at Café St. Germain across from hotel! Pizza and ice cream. It was very good, though. It had warmed up so we sat on the street and watched all the peple walk up and down St. Germain-des-Près. Home at 10:00 to needlepoint and looked through travel books about Spain and Portugal. Bed.

Charlie had come in at 5:00 am, called a boy, went back out & is not home yet (9:45 AM). Exciting!! 🙂

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Aug 4 2011

Robin Macy, the original Dixie Chickie, Kansas Treasure, soil and soul sister of Mother Earth at The Bartlett Arboretum, Inspiration.

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I have to begin the concerts at The Bartlett Arboretum with Robin Macy.

Robin Macy & Paula Adams. Jimmy LaFave 17 July 11. The Bartlett Arboretum, Belle Plaine, Kansas.

The First Encounter

I first met Robin at some kind of architectural function where musicians were playing (maybe architect musicians?). Robin was attending because Mike Siewart, her architect for her home and co-creator at The Bartlett Arboretum, was there and I think was maybe playing. I didn’t know anyone and was new to Wichita, newly working for SJCF Architecture and my daughter Lacy just beginning her 3 year jaunt at Wichita Collegiate.

There was wine. And Robin refused it saying, “I have to speak to the parents at Wichita Collegiate about the Honor Code and it probably wouldn’t be good for me to be slurring my words.” She had this wild blond platinum curly hair that reveals her soul piled high and some knockout attire that completed the picture, but in no way detracted or distracted from the spirit within. And, a few days later I met her at Parent’s Night. I learned that she was head of the “Go girls” (can’t remember name…kind of a find your light and let it shine in whatever context or era women are born in) group. And, blessed, the next year she was Lacy’s geometry teacher.

The Angel Professeur at Wichita Collegiate Graduation, May 2006. Wichita, Kansas.

So I better get to the basics since I don’t know if anyone really reads this stuff anyway which are the following:

The Bartlett Arboretum, links to Robin’s site, description of Lacy and Paula’s first visit, pictures.
The XIT Ranch, Robin and Kenny’s visit.
Robin’s beautiful poem to Lace at Sr. Graduation.
A recent pic from Jimmy LaFave concert at the Bartlett Arboretum. These concerts from her summer series and music will be in separate posts.

okay one

The website has most about The Arboretum as Robin doesn’t talk much about herself, but if you ever see the video on early Dixie Chicks, she is in that and here’s the wikipedia link to Robin.

This is Robin singing[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UicERus50Ig[/youtube] 1992. She is the lead singer and guitar, voice like honey.

SYNOPSIS of HISTORY OF BARTLETT ARBORETUM AND ROBIN.

Go here for the site’s history of The Bartlett Arboretum, the 100+ year old 15 acre planned landscape started by Dr. Walter Bartlett as an avocation in the city of Belle Plaine.
He also contributed to the community in the form of ballparks and public spaces in part motivated with his fatherly interests in son Glenn’s pursuits.
The next generation carried on with his son Glenn becoming a professional landscape architect and horticulturist. He took it to the next level with his introduction to French gardens and landscapes as Company Commander in the 1st Division in France during World War I.
As life would have it for those with Kansas roots, while completing post-graduate work at Columbia in NY, Glenn encountered Belle Plaine native Margaret Meyers. She was an artist, fashion designer for magaines, a university instructor, flower arranger and garden-club organizer. So Kansas was blessed for them to return, bringing everything they had gathered while away back with them to share with Kansas and Kansas to share with them.
Their daughters, Glenna and Mary along with Mary’s husband Bob Gourlay carried on until 1995 when they finally decided to sell to Robin “this cute little blond elf…[who] came knocking at the door. …we gained another daughter.”So Robin’s work began.
The site has all the rest, the soil sisters, all the people who make it happen, concerts, etcetera. She says it best.

The Buildings

But, one last word about design. I can’t talk much about the landscape, out of my element. And a picture is worth hundreds of letters I use, so I hope to add more photographs later and edit a little here.

I’ve seen Vaux le-Vicomte, Versailles, Green Animals and lots of other stuff, but this little jewel in Kansas is most special because it is ours: a product of Kansas midwestern work ethic and lots of planning and perspiration.

The house: Mike Siewart’s design (Wilson Darnell Mann, Wichita) built a second level upon the simple several room brick dwelling that was originally on the property.

Robin Macy and Emmanuel Magisson with classic expressions. Pictured to actually show the original house lower level in the background.

The Kitchen: This joint creation of Mike and Robin’s has wonderful stained white concrete counters with weathered patina in the tiny L-shaped workspace. There are only the cabinets that one person needs (husband Kenny has a separate house…the perfect setup), with several doors of antique glass spool cabinets. These were memorable to me as I have a few of these in which I use as drafting tabourets.

The Upstairs: It is kind of a loft space, so the steps are the grand ascent to her bedroom with footed tub and sink.

The Closet: should be in a period museum and is a painting in itself of boots, petticoats, urban, rural, high, low, cowgirl, play area that is how I imagine a movie costume room to be for a Merchant Ivory Movie except it would be a different movie, maybe Wade’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues meets Daisy, Mattie Ross, and Coco Chanel. But, never a costume on Robin. She always looks like someone who just transcends time.

The Guest House: this is where Robin offered for Lace to live her Sr. year. I lived in Wichita for two years, but went home the third. I think it was the old chicken coop. It was really too far for her to commute with activities, but Robin was such a supporter of our family to make this loving offer. It takes many mothers…or maybe she was Lacy’s sister since Lace didn’t have one. Anyway, Robin helped raise the Adams family.

Robin's guest house and some kind of former outbuilding.

Hmmm..only on two? I’ll make this one brief.

The kids and I were gone from the ranch that day, but Robin and her then boyfriend now husband Kenny were on a road trip one day and said, “I think Miss Lace lives around here.” They whirled up in a cloud of dust at the XIT Ranch on the Cimarron River in this dashing convertible to drop in and say “hey” to John Adams. This is always, always appreciated. Kenny is the guy mentioned above who is a musician among other things and lives with his son in the other house on the property at The Bartlett Arboretum. He is darling with curly curly hair, too.

Here’s the cute pic, I’m so proud of John or whomever took it since the usual photo lady not there. Thank you Robin I’d say.

Robin and Kenny in front of XIT Ranch Headquarters where the John Adams family all raised themselves together: John, Paula, Lacy, Jack.

Three: Robin’s poem toasting Lacy at the Sr. Graduation Dinner at Wichita Collegiate School.

Comin’ outta shoot No. 2, weighing in at 101, no stranger to a saddlehorn or a pair of running sneakers, we now toast our Curly Girl.

Miss Lacy Amelia Adams journeyed the furthest to be with us tonight.

Born and reared on the histori working XIT cattle ranch in Meade County, Kansas (Daddy, John, met me at the cattle cross last year wearing spurts and sweat) this fourth generation cowgirl has much to yodel about.

Our Lacy rode a school bus 60 jies to attend a rural elementary school before her parents decided to send their Little Girl to the Big City for some AP-style “edumacation.”

She has been a very courageous woman, living without her family all year in order to make this dream-come-true.

Lacy was born smiling, from wrist to wrist. She calls ’em like she sees’em and knows all the words to Back in the Saddle Again. Mathematics did not always coe easy for Lacy but she was true to her upbringing: tenacious and disciplined.

Qualities she surely learned while mending fence or building feed bunks in the summertime- alongside her beloved ranch hand and constant companion, brother Jack.

She was a mainstay in my classroom after schol during her Geometry tenure and I am grateful for those times together.

Always a style-setter this fun-loving madrigal singing trackster nevr said an unkind word about anyone.

No wonder Lacy is loved and adored by her classmates and teachers.

Like her hair, Mrs. Stokley says her vivid writing and note taking is wild and magical.

Lacy heads off to the University of Kansas in the fall where I’m certain she’ll continue to be wearing her sweaters backward and with her infectious laughter, continue to be the life of the party and proving to all who are lucky enough to know her that some of the best cowboys are, indeed, cowgirls.

You can see, life will never be long enough for Robin to refill the pitchers she pours for us all, sharing so many gifts that she taps into from one moment to another. Her focus on the big picture, caretaker and co-creator of a beautiful landscape, leaves Kansas with her footprint and those of so many others. So, she lives on and will always, putting her energy back into the soils of the earth in one way or another, always with Robin’s soundtrack as backup.

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Aug 1 2011

le sketch du jour: 30 June 1980. SMOOCH à la français.

by admin

[I did not include June 29, the day of arrival. I arrived before everyone from NYC with the Parsons Group. They gave me a free breakfast, a croissant and café au lait. In France, they bring a croissant in a basket or usually a plate and a big coffee cup or most often, it is already at the table. Then, they come to table to pour the two pots of coffee and steamed milk simultaneously into your cup. The steamed milk always tastes very sweet. It is all on lots of thick, very white ceramic tableware, but the carafes are stainless.

The other notes were mention of my roommate Charlie from Toledo, a small town in Texas. She is kind of a bit bigger girl, smiley eyes, short dark hair, and proved to be a bit promiscuous with the men from Marseilles, but she had a kind heart. The other girls were soon to be very good friends that I met that day. They were a Tri Delt (Allison from Tuscaloosa) and Kappa Delta (Lisa from Memphis) from the University of Alabama and had southern accents. This was my first contact with southern women and they were very very nice, not unlike my KC/KU girlfriends, but more attune to feminine things it seemed. I hung with them much later in the summer as I realized I was alone so much with Charlie out all hours of the evening with dark men. ]

30 June 1980.

Paula ravished by Frenchman in a SMOOCH! au coin de Boul Saint Germain-des-Près et Boul Saint-Michel.

Woke 7:00. Ran 3 miles. A man kissed me twice when I was asking directions!!! What do you say?! On the forehead-actually took my face in his hands!

[Can you tell I loved it? This has only happened to me one other time upon first meeting someone, though it was actually upon re-meeting someone I had only known a little bit from my past.]

Breakfast: croissant & thé at hotel. We met at le Musée (des arts décoratifs which is the north wing of the Louvre and where we would study and meet in the mornings for our lecture). It is closed to everyone but Parsons students at the present due to renovation.

Orientation: Michael is my lecturer-young, dark beard, long jesus-y hair, nice. Charlotte Lacaze gave a lecture on the History of Paris City Planning & then we bought our subway cards (carte d’orange). I bought some cold chicken & carrot salad which I ate in the Tuileries $(4.50). Then, I walked around ’til two when class began again.

[This is the start of my pleasure in doing things by myself which I still enjoy. It was not by choice in Paris most of the time. But to this day, I love to eat, go to movies, and travel by myself. I sometimes am lonely, but not very often when I am alone. If so, I just go out. I love watching people and meeting new people and I don’t feel compelled to talk so much and can listen and ask questions and learn.]

Map of Paris Stomping Grounds, Day One. from (still very old) 14th edition antique bookstore copy of Karl Baedeker's "Paris and Environs : Handbook for Travelers", published 1900.

This is the first of many maps from my antique 14th edition of Baedeker’s classic field guide to Paris, found and given to me by my mother Ginny Graves. What I love best about this book is his blessing to the reader…

‘Go, little book, God send thee good passage,

And specially let this be thy prayers

Unto them all that thee will read or hear,

Where thou art wrong, after their help to call,

Thee to correct in any part or all!’

-Says everything a writer hopes for.

At 2:00 we had a Decorative Arts lecture au Musée and then we visited the 14th, 15th, & 16th c. pieces.

Walked on Rue St.-Honoré to find American bookstore & needlepoint shop. But needlepoint store was closed. It was very expensive, too.

Very tired so bought dinner in a charcuterie-a little quiche & some kind of spinach/vegetable salad.

Big Day! Lots of walking!

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Jun 17 2011

Joyland Park, est. 1949. Wichita, Kansas. noon Friday, 17 June 2011.

by admin

I started my day at Blackhawk Crossfit in the Get Fit class. After our abs, I noticed Kim’s shirt.

Kim in her Joyland shirt.

Always interested in historic places in Wichita, I asked about her shirt and the place. Joyland was an Amusement Park built in Wichita in 1949, a Wichita institution. Joyland was home of the Skycoaster, the oldest wooden roller coaster still standing in America. Kim’s shirt says, “Last warning, do not stand up.” This sign sat at the peak of the first hill on the ride. A sound warning in a day before we were physically barred in.

Joyland Wooden Roller Coaster, painted white.

I mostly want to just share the pictures. But, Kim said that the wood is a special wood from Florida that is very hard and does not weather. The structure is still sound, with some tweaking for function, of course. It was painted white prior the the Park’s closing as the psychology of the weathered wood wasn’t understood by riders. The thought was that the white paint refreshed its look and instilled confidence.

Closeup underneath the tracks.

Underneath view of Skycoaster cable system.

Bringin' it home with the skids.

They are in the process of raising funds for a renovation of the Park which has been closed for over 10 years and fallen into decay.

Entry to Joyland and pink amphitheatre steps.

The scale seemed small in comparison to World’s of Fun. But, upon walking the grounds, it was still Amusement Park scale and spread out over several intertwining areas on a lot sitting back from Pawnee. I’m sure it was fairly rural at that time.

Old stand with toy.

It was fascinating, a point in time that had been suddenly abandoned. No cleanup, no storage, the last night’s toys perched on the ledge.

Motor room.

This was some kind of center of electrical operations, amazingly small.

Visitors.

The panel says, “Rednecks were here.” But, it had been largely left alone. We noted that it would be a great shelter for the men without a mortgage (homeless). But, in Wichita they congregate in a more urban spot under the River bridges by downtown Delano. This would be pretty rural, and there are no McDonald’s around for warmth.

Games below, offices above.

This building with four or five bays had competitive games below, but administrative offices were above.

Old typewriter.

I wonder how the typewriter was removed from offices and landed below?

Shoot for the Stars.

I had to put this in because we had a common background with guns. I lived on the XIT Ranch for 28 years. Kim is a marketer and distributor of replica antique guns, Replica Armory, especially cowboy guns. They are used in re-enactments and films and purchased by collectors. She has customers all over the world, Brazil, France, Canada. The French are big into historic Cowboy stuff. Some countries have regulations regarding shipping guns even with they are replicas. The are housed in a warehouse and Kim is the liaison between storage facility and end-user. This is her blog.

Roller skate.

There was also a place to roller skate and we found this shoe with orange bumper on the toe. It would be like Mission Roller Skating Rink off Johnson Drive and the French Market off Metcalf, all rolled into one. But,before anything in Johnson County ever existed.

Bugs Bunny Easter Egg Drawing.

This sat in an arcade over by all the kiddie rides. The easter eggs were still scattered and shattered all over the floor.

Heli-shooter.

I’ll call this picture above and those below: Homage to Randy Knotts and our evening at ESPN Zone. If I’d only known the historic character of these games, I’d have suffered less from ADD this night in Chicago with our families.

Submarine.

This was some kind of submarine underwater game.

Ticket booth to Ferris Wheel.

Men's urinals.

The restrooms had suffered a fire but they had been very attractive. White subway tile with black tile trim. I have never seen such sustantial men’s urinals, not that I’ve seen many.

The Old Woman who lived in a shoe.

This was pretty tiny, only big enough for a small person or two.

Perfect size purple door.

Wacky Shack.

Cut off hand.

We are in Wichita, and I lived here when they caught Dennis Rader, the BTK killer. So, a hand like this in an area that would be rather spooky and sinister at night gave me a moment’s pause.

Kim and her after sale cop car.

This is Kim’s car. She said she was merging one time a bit above the speed limit to avert a wreck and was stopped. I would think this would be terrifying. The officer commented on her driving which she defended on safety. And, he said, “your car does attract quite a bit of attention.” I can imagine they aren’t really pleased. I had actually thought someone in our crossfit group was a police officer. But I thought perhaps this officer had fallen on hard times. It’s stripped and with a bit of hail damange.

Tall enough to ride!

Joyland sign. Skycoaster in rearview.

It was a lovely morning. So glad I asked about the shirt and we headed out to look right after our class. A new friend and an old hangout. That might become a new gathering spot. So I love seeing this Skycoaster in its 60s with some age and interest. And capturing a place in time which could go shiny or decay, but will nonetheless never be the same as it was today.

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Jun 4 2011

le sketch du jour: Château de Chenonceu. June 20, 1980.

by admin

Chenonceau. Mistress booted and the party begins.

I’ll start here which is where I began in my sketchbook.

Upon the death of François I in 1547, Henry II offered the chåteau as a gift to his mistress Diane de Poitiers. She constructed the arched bridge, connecting the chåteau to the opposite bank. The view of the bridge is the most famous and worth looking up.

These are my notes:

“Mistress of Henry II [Diane de Poitiers] lived with Catherine de Medici and Henry II in chåteau. She was thrown out at [the] death of her husband. She added on to Chenonceau (lived there w/ son) and they had wild parties there. Catherine was very masculine & domineering, her son was homosexual. Parties were wild orgies with topless women in boats, etc.”

Garden laid out geometrically. (typically French-nature conquered by reason & man).

“Va faire cuire on œuf.”= up yours

We picniced again for lunch and headed to Loches. There was a chateau there, but we didn’t go in as a group and I just sketched. Two little girls came up to me later and (on the street) asked if they could see my drawing. They giggled alot (they were French-about high school age) and asked me lots of questions. They were really cute. “

I don’t know how the French profanity happened to slip into the notes.

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