Charlie Chaplin in "City Lights," with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra

Charlie Chaplin and Virginia Cherrill in City Lights, 1931

Last night we all climbed into the TARDIS (which is bigger on the inside) and traveled back in time to 1931 to watch City Lights, a silent Charlie Chaplin film on the silver screen, accompanied by a live orchestra and a live audience roaring with laughter (because silent films were not, in fact, silent at all).  All of which is totally and completely true, except for the part about the TARDIS (we've been watching a lot of Dr. Who reruns as well). 

Actually, the film was screened at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in 2014 with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra performing the original score to the silent film, just as original audiences would have experienced the film back in 1931 when it was a new release.  Jacomo Rafael Bairos, the energetic young conductor whom our sons remember from his tenure with the CSO Lollipops family concert series when they were much younger, led the orchestra in a rousing rendition of Chaplin's original score.  It was absolutely fantastic.  We loved it, the kids loved it, and I wish this wasn't just a one-time thing. 

Also, I had not known that Charlie Chaplin not only starred in his films, but also wrote the films, directed the films, AND composed his own musical scores.  Note to self: Find a Charlie Chaplin biography next time I'm at the book store.

That's all you get -- a quilt is calling me from across the room!

And Then There Was MORE Snow

View From My Kitchen Window

So, after an early school dismissal on Tuesday, we had no school yesterday and again today because of this Pax Storm or whatever they're calling it.  As you can see, I am finally able to enjoy a wintry scene from my window just like people in other parts of the country have been enjoying this winter.  Unlike thousands of Charlotteans, our neighborhood has not lost power (ice + tree limbs = downed power lines, unplowed streets = no repair crews restoring power).  It's toasty warm in our house, and we are well stocked with essentials such as food, milk, coffee, and dog food.

I have discovered that, once the snow gets thick enough,  the dogs can play in it without getting muddy!  If anything, they come in a little cleaner than they were when I let them out, and just need the snowflakes toweled off their furry coats so it doesn't melt when they come indoors.  This is a substantial improvement over the rainy winter days we usually experience in lieu of snow.



My Cul-de-Sac This Morning, Before the Snow Started Again

It sure is pretty, this white stuff!  The reason a moderate amount of snow is such a big deal in the South is that there are no snow plows or salt trucks to get it off the road.  It snowed all day yesterday, then sleet and freezing rain overnight, followed by more snow, and it's all still on the road, like a snow sandwich with a 1/2" thick ice burger in the middle.  Also no one knows how to drive in snow and no one has snow tires.  My kids can't even play in the snow, because we don't own sleds or appropriate snow clothing.  Anders just went out and tried to make a snowman and he lasted about 10 minutes.  He wore his winter coat, but he has no boots, no snow pants, and no GLOVES, so making one small snowball with his bare hands was enough for him.  He looks so disappointed.  :-(

I had signed up to bake cookies for Anders' Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow, and I'm wondering whether they will even have school.  The snow is supposed to turn into rain soon and then stop around 4 PM, with no more precipitation expected overnight, but temperatures won't warm enough to melt any of this and, as I mentioned before, there won't be any plows or salt trucks moving it off the roads.  It won't go away until it melts in the sun, and the back roads that are shaded by overhanging trees could still have icy patches into the weekend even if most of it melts away on Saturday.

Meanwhile, we'll just have to hunker down and enjoy it.  There have been a lot of winters in Charlotte without any snow at all, and usually even if we do have an inch or so of snow, it melts away within hours.  It's really neat to see how the snow transforms the indoors as well as outdoors -- there's a different quality to the light when it's reflected off the snow.  Everything looks different in my house.

Well, I think I'm going to plan for school in the morning, which means baking cookies and packing lunches.  It's better to be unnecessarily prepared than unprepared and scrambling in the kitchen at 6 AM.

Happy snow day, everyone!

Ride a Yellow School Bus to the Art Museum!

One of the chief attractions of being my own boss is setting my own schedule.  The downside of that is more late night and/or weekend work sessions, but it also means I don't need anyone's permission to take the afternoon off so I can chaperone a second-grade field trip to the art museum like I did yesterday.

Anders' class was one of the first student groups to tour the Mint Museum Uptown, which just opened in Charlotte, North Carolina in October of 2010.  We were confined to the fourth floor on our hour-long tour but we still felt rushed.  The students and adults alike could have spent a whole day at the museum without running out of things to see.

One of my favorite exhibits was this early 20th century wool bathing costume, complete with suede-bottomed, cotton sateen bathing shoes.  The Mint Museum displays this getup adjacent to an Impressionist beach painting from the same era depicting people wearing bathing suits very similar to this one. 

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE this bathing suit?!  Maybe not in wool, but the black is very slimming, and no more bikini waxing and no more situps necessary for a beach-ready body.  This suit was considered very daring at the time due to the low neckline and bare arms.  Oh, how times have changed...



Philip the Fair by Kehinde Wiley, 2006, Oil & Enamel on Canvas

 This painting was another of my favorites.  It's on loan from a private collection and it had a sign that read, "No Photography Except for Rebecca" (I swear!).  The artist is Kehinde Wiley and although I'd never heard of him before yesterday, I looked him up online and I really love his work.  He uses the technique, scale, and composition of traditional Western European portaiture, but instead of powerful white men in powdered wigs, his subjects are minority men in everyday urban street garb.  These portraits are intended to invite discussions about power and powerlessness, race, and cultural inheritances, but they are also just plain fun.  I love how the man in Philip the Fair seems to be coming out of the floral wallpaper, plucking a dainty little flower.

I'm about as far from an urban minority man as you can get, but I'd love it if someday Wiley could paint my portrait.  I'd like it to be a spoof of Jacques-Louis David's portrait of Madame Récamier, except that I'd be wearing my husband's sweatpants and thermal T-shirt, I'd have a messy ponytail instead of an elegant hairdo, and I'd be holding a big Starbucks coffee cup. 

Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David, 1800

I took the picture of that David painting when I was at the Louvre in Paris last year -- Now, back to the Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina!


Einstein, 1988, by Judy Fox, Terra Cotta & Casein Paint

 This sculpture was Anders' favorite exhibit.  The artist is Judy Fox, who creates life-size ceramic portraits of historically significant people, but depicts them as small children.  According to the wall plaque, this baby Einstein sculpture is meant to convey the childlike "innocence and fearless curiosity" of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein.  

Still, it's more than a little alarming to come around the corner in the museum and see a life-size, very realistic looking naked baby apparently sailing through the air!

Another exhibit that the students particularly enjoyed was this huge sculpture by Danny Lane incorporating different types of glass, steel, mirror, poplar burl wood, and LED lights. 



Threshold, 2010, by Danny Lane



Side View of Threshold



Anders checks out Pacific Rose 1997, an included glass sculpture by John Kuhn



Realm of Dream 2007, by Binh Pho, Turned & Carved Box Elder, Paint, Gold Leaf & Dye

 The peacock feather motifs on this vase by

Binh Pho reminded me of my friend, interior designer, author, & fabric designer Jackie Von Tobel. 

If you live in the Charlotte area, I strongly recommend you check out the Mint Museum Uptown.  If not, go explore the museums in your neck of the woods.  I wasn't expecting much from our art museum since Charlotte is such a small city, but I was pleasantly surprised.  And if you live in a big city like New York or Chicago and you have never visited your art museum, shame on you!