Geburtstag 2013

Yesterday was my 44th birthday, so Andy and I took the day off to celebrate.

We started out with the traditional beer lunch at the Winchester, one of our favorite places to eat (and drink beer) in Grand Rapids.  We prefer going for lunch, rather than dinner, because it gets very busy and loud in the evenings.  We're too old now to enjoy squinting at a menu in the dark and yelling conversation at each other, so we go there for lunch instead.  If you go, make sure you have the green chili.  This is something I haven't eaten since visiting New Mexico (way back when I lived in Colorado), and it is so good!

Mr. Handsome.

The woman who was our waitress at dinner said my hair reminded me of her grandma.  Another person might take offense at that, but not me!  I'm all about the grannies.

Last year we started the day at the Winchester, too, and then we went to the zoo and watched the capybaras swimming in their pool.  Last year it was 85 degrees on my birthday.  This year it was 20 degrees and snowing.  Ah, March in the midwest--how it laughs at us!  (I truly do prefer the winter weather to the summer weather in March; it makes more sense in Michigan.  Last year's early heat wave helped kill off all the local fruit crops.  It was a disaster.)

Topgraphical map of Michigan.

This year we headed to the Grand Rapids Public Museum to check out the Titanic exhibit, which was pretty nifty.  It told the story of the Titanic mostly through artifacts that have been excavated from the wreck.  I was surprised to see how many items had been retrieved.  The exhibit was quite well done, with ship sound effects adding to the overall effect, and quotes and stories from various passengers.  Mine and Andy's only quibble were that there were a couple clothing props used that were clearly--to us anyway--not of the era.  (One was a striped 1970s JC Penney's shirt with the tag still on it, masquerading as a shirt in an Edwardian era third class passenger's suitcase.  Yeah, kinda silly detail and it probably only bothered us due to the nature of our work...but they could at least have taken the JC Penney label off.)

Oh, and when we were about 2/3 through the exhibit, a school group came in.  The kids weren't bad or anything, but suddenly this lovely, quiet experience was chaos and noise.  I probably wouldn't have minded so much if we hadn't paid $17.00 each to see it.  (Signs of aging: grumbling about the kids, prices, noise, and lack of authenticity in a museum exhibit.  Bring on the Geritol!  I am a curmudgeon!)

This is Andy pointing out Lake Freska on the topographical map of Kent County.

We couldn't leave the museum without a stop in my favorite room, this Victorian era specimens room, which is filled with displays of rocks, minerals, coral, skulls, and poor, creepy taxidermied animals.

It was an excellent birthday!

xo

K

michigan--land of riches, part 2

Yeah, yeah, I already made a post about the Michigan--Land of Riches exhibit. Well, here's another one, but it will be the last one, because the exhibit (housed in and showcasing the old Grand Rapids Public Museum) has closed. We went to the closing night party to give it one last look.

It was a lovely evening, and far more successful than Thursday night's outing to the new "1970s punk rock" bar, which serves bottled beer in paper bags. Yep.

I wore a thrifted vintage skirt, vintage sweater, Target belt, and shoes by Report.

Andy looked very sharp in his "new" vintage plaid shirt.

I was not able to verify this, but I want to believe that the big chunk of architecture here in front of the beaver is a piece of my dearly departed Schnitzelbank, (gone now because god knows what Grand Rapids needs is another stinking parking lot). I have no memory of such an architectural detail at the Schnitz--my brain is stuck in a memory haze of their amazing sauerbraten and spaetzel, and their special dark beer--but I took a photo, wanting to believe it was a chunk of the Schnitz.

The DJ, spinning over the museum entrance.

Ghostly fabric representation of the life-size whale that used to be suspended over the museum's main hall.

We met up with our friends Roberta and Mark; it was their first time seeing the exhibit.

I'm so glad we got to view it again. I really hope they'll be able to keep the space open somehow. I think it would be great for concerts, art exhibits, bazaars. It's nice to see something old in this city be revived, rather than bulldozed for a parking lot or TGI Fridays.

xo

K

michigan--land of riches

Yesterday afternoon Andy and I went to the amazing Michigan--Land of Riches exhibition at the former location of the Grand Rapids Public Museum. I fell in love with the Deco exterior of the museum when I moved here, but since it had closed in 1994, I had never been inside. When the museum shut down, the exhibits were already in a state of decay. But now artist and curator Paul Amenta, along with students from Kendall College of Art and Design and other local schools, have re-opened and re-energized the old museum.

Many of the exhibits were left as they were, with paint peeling and display lettering missing. They have a ghostly, poignant quality.

I could have spent all day looking at the stacks and stacks of taxidermied animals. In fact, I might have to go back again to do just that.

Artists added to the extant displays, or created their own "exhibits," that were often hilariously funny, and sometimes made thoughtful statements.

A lot of what we saw was just whimsical, enchanting, fun.

I particularly liked the way the artists made interesting use of the old spaces in the museum, creating rooms and vignettes full of atmosphere.

The experience for me--someone totally new to the museum--was strange and wonderful enough. There's a whole other level of nostalgia for Andy and other Grand Rapids natives who grew up visiting the museum many times as children. Andy was alternately tickled and a little freaked out by the experience. (We both found the heavy emphasis the museum seemed to have had on women's anatomy and baby-making a wee bit odd.)

If you're in Grand Rapids or nearby, I highly recommend you visit the exhibition. It's like nothing I've ever seen before, and it's only going to run through mid-May. After that, what will happen to the old Public Museum is up in the air, but I really hope a way will be found to keep the space open to the public somehow.

Oh, and of course I wore vintage to the museum! This 1960s floral print dress.

Afterwards, Andy and I enjoyed our first Outdoor Beer of the season on the Meanwhile's back patio beer garden.

Cheers!

xo

K