Experiment

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Mini-Vacation, Part II

Dale already summarized the concert portion of our mini-vacation, so he asked me to fill in the rest. He didn’t mention that we stopped in Wiederkehr Village on our way down to Little Rock on Saturday. I had checked out a book from the library—“Off the Beaten Path: Arkansas”—before the trip, and its description of the Swiss Alpine-style village that’s on the National Register intrigued us. We stopped there for lunch—had a yummy beef stroganoff meal followed by an apple dumpling ala mode for dessert. (We split both, so we didn’t overdo it on the calories!) Note: There are no pictures of Widerkehr Village to be found anywhere on its site or any other travel site, except for some of the wine cellars and a couple of the entrance to the Weinkeller Restaurant, so here it is below:

On Sunday we were looking for things to do and see in Little Rock. Richie Poe and my guidebook both recommended the River Market area downtown, which the book described as “an amazing renovation” and “booming.” Well, we found it to be neither. Maybe a cold, drizzly March day is not the time to be there. We split a gyro sandwich at the food court and did a little walking to see if there was anything worth seeing. There wasn’t and I was cold and miserable, so we got in the car and drove around. Here's a photo (not ours) of the interior of the River Market food court:

We found the Capitol building. It’s a beautiful white marble building with the requisite columns and dome. Along the curved drive leading up to it, the pink tulip trees were in spectacular bloom. Inside, we were kind of surprised that there was no security. We just walked in and wandered all over the building. We could have been terrorists planting bombs for all they knew! Of course, they were probably watching our every move with cameras. Anyway, we weren’t terrorists, and we had a swell time looking at the splendor of the interior and reading the historical displays. Some photos follow, first of an angle of the exterior, reminiscent of the capitol in Washington; then of the center front, showing the three large polished brass doors, no longer used for entries; then a detail of the middle door; then the interior of the dome, with 16-light chandelier suspended.

After that, we drove around in the Quapaw Quarter, where there are lots of lovely old buildings and houses, Victorian through Craftsman era, mostly. We saw the Governor’s Mansion—at least the massive grounds, as it’s all surrounded by a tall iron fence. I was disappointed—it didn’t look majestic like the Missouri Governor’s Mansion. Just rambling and ostentatious. Looked like maybe a 1920s Colonial Revival that had been added on to many times with no concern for appropriateness. The landscaping was overdone and tacky-looking. But that’s just MY humble opinion!

We also went to MacArthur Park—too cold to walk around outside, so we toured the Arkansas Arts Center. Saw some less-important works by some of the world’s greatest artists. There was a display of art by area high school students that was quite impressive. Those kids are talented!

Our guidebook mentioned the Decorative Arts Museum that is housed in the Pike-Fletcher-Terry Mansion, built in 1839. It was free, so we went to check it out. Not very impressive. I guess the house had lost most of its original features throughout its many incarnations: a house, its occupation by Federal troops during the Civil War, its use as a women’s college, and now a museum. Just empty rooms and a surly docent who talked on her cell phone the whole time we were there.

By then, we were all historical-buildinged out, so we went to our Best Western (took FOREVER to find it). Dale mostly napped while I watched “Key Largo.” He woke up in time to cheerfully watch the bad guys get their due from Bogie.

Of course, we can’t go to Arkansas without looking for the best catfish around. After doing some research, we decided to try Grampa’s Catfish house. That was a good choice. It was delicious. We ordered 2 “senior” plates, thinking that would be smaller portions. Nope. Huge portions and we didn’t want to waste any of it, so we pigged out.

Monday morning we headed home. But we decided to look for an Indian restaurant we’d eaten at once before. Dale thought it was in Fayetteville, but I remembered it as being either Rogers or Bentonville. Dale asked Agatha, our British GPS lady. Eureka! He found Star of India listed in Springdale, so he set the GPS to take us there. We arrived—no Star of India, but a Thai restaurant. He checked the GPS again and found there was another in Bentonville. Eureka! So he set the GPS to take us there, but when we got there, no Star of India. Then I spotted Acropolis, a Greek/Middle Eastern place, so we zipped in there. It was good. Dale had another gyro and I had falafel.

After that, we drove back to Joplin, full and happy, and trying to beat the rain storms that the weatherman had predicted. I went on to the library to work a few hours. My vacation is over, but Dale is on spring break. I will be taking next week off. Kelly and the boys (minus Mike) are planning to come. She is going to help me figure out how to landscape our new backyard.

Mini-Vacation to Little Rock, Part I: The Concert

We took a mini-vacation to Little Rock to see the Newsboys in concert one more time, this being the weekend before my spring break and all. It was also fitting that we see the GO concert again, on the exact day that a year ago we saw our first Newsboys concert in Chicago. The concert was at beautiful Alltel Arena in North Little Rock (above).

This time Newsboys brought with them 3 groups: Article One (pretty good), Newworldson (awesome), and Rush of Fools (less interesting). Article One has a really good violinist who dances around the stage, playing the violin between his legs and behind his back. Rush of Fools, the featured supporing act, though they have songs on the CCM charts, weren't nearly so interesting as Article One. But Newworldson--wow--it's hard to describe their music. They play styles from blues to reggae to funk to soul to "speakeasy." All with Christian lyrics, but their musicianship alone deserves a wider audience. Here's a link to some of their concert videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/newworldson. You should click on "Beat Boxing" and "Salvation Station" to hear a couple of the things we heard at the concert. Here's a picture of them during their set:

After Rush of Fools and a brief plea made by Paul Colman of the Newsboys, the 'boys came out as they are accustomed to, first silhouetted behind the screens and then out to open with "Shine," complete with confetti cannons, as you see below:

Below is a picture of the screens and LED's, constantly changing during the concert. The set includes a 60-foot catwalk out to a round satellite stage, where the guys sing a verse or two from some old Newsboys songs. This is the best picture of them I took all night. We were in row 10, seats 1 & 2 on the floor. If we had been in 19 & 20, we would have been next to the catwalk. The members of the band are Paul Colman on the left, Jeff Frankenstein with his back to you (keyboard & bass), Peter Furler (lead singer), and Duncan Phillips (drummer).

After intermission, the band comes back and plays some more, including the "drum battle," between Peter, who used to be the drummer, and Duncan. Peter's round satellite stage is on a hydraulic lift, which raises him 20 feet in the air. They play back and forth, but Duncan always wins, especially when his drum kit rises aobut 15 feet in the air, tilts forward 90 degrees, and spins for 30 seconds while he plays. Naturally, Duncan always wins.

Peter high in the air. Duncan spinning.

At times during the concert, Peter and Paul come out on the catwalk and perform. Here's another of the better pictures I took.

One more picture showing the LED's and the video screens.

After their last big number, all the guys came down and bowed to the crowd, as below:

And so it was over with, our 3rd Newsboys concert in a year. We thought this was the best performance of the three from the Newsboys, but we were also introduced to the music of Newworldson. The concert started at 7 and was over around 10:20 or so. Good thing I booked our hotel just 3 blocks away from Alltel Arena. We walked over and back.

More on the mini-vacation in Part II, to follow.

Tanglefooters Spring Dance, 2008

Well, the Tanglefooters Spring Dance weekend, Feb. 29-Mar. 2, 2008, has come and gone. We went into the weekend with some apprehension, as we broke with a 20-year tradition and chose another clinician to teach and cue our dance. Not only that, but we had to move the dance up one weekend because of circumstances. Neither of these issues do I want to go into here, but I do want to report that it turned out largely positive. Our numbers were down from the usual 50-55 couples. We might have had 40 couples, or 80 people this year. We await the final tally. Our cuer/clinicians, Debby & Tim Vogt, of Las Vegas, were excellent instructors who ran a tight ship. We danced more than the Friday and Saturday night programs because Debby didn't give us but about two breaks, and they were 5 minutes max. So she added dances both nights. We certainly got our money's worth there.

Here they are above, dancing a demonstration dance for us.

Here's Deb, cuing the dance for us.

Debby & Tim taught two Phase IV+2 dances in the morning, a foxtrot and a jive; and two in the afternoon, a Phase III waltz and a Phase III cha cha. Or was it cha in the morning and jive in the afternoon? I have forgotten. All four were excellent dances, and they are top-notch instructors.

Some of the dancers

In all, we danced 12 hours in barely over two days over the weekend, including two hours Sunday morning. Not surprisingly, we were dead tired afterwards!

Now that the weekend is over, I have already started planning for next year!

By the way, I will post pictures from the dance later.