American winter
Now that we are back in Beijing, I finally can carve out some time to get caught up on some blogging. We spent the last five weeks staying in other people's homes, where it might be rude for me to disappear for an hour or so to do something so self-centered as blogging, or in hotels, where I sometimes didn't even bother to have my computer with me. I did manage to meet a beijing kids deadline, fortunately, narrowly. I felt less guilty about that because I actually get paid for that.
While I was sporadically posting here, we had a fantastic American winter.
More after the jump
We weren't in the US for forty-eight hours when we found ourselves at a mid-morning showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It hadn't opened yet in China (and I think we have now missed the Chinese showings of this movie), so we were really excited to see it with my sister and her family.
It was everything we could want from the next movie in the Star Wars franchise, and then some. Brigid was quite taken with BB-8 and Rey, like many children (and especially girls) in America this winter. I wondered how many of last year's Halloween Elsas will be Reys in 2016. This thought crossed my mind as I was taking pictures Christmas morning, and Brigid was happily unwrapping Star Wars Lego sets in the Frozen pajamas she is close to out-growing. She even got a BB-8 necklace. Would I look back at this Christmas as when everything changed?
My favorite part of Christmas morning has become the moment Myles and Brigid exchange gifts with each other. So much planning and anticipation on their parts, just for each other. I just love it.
One habit Brigid has kept up since our European trips is lighting candles in every church we go to.
After we were done celebrating Christmases (plural--more than one) with our big and generous families, we made our rounds of some of our favorite Pittsburgh things to do around the winter holidays.
Like MessFest, the annual First of January event at the Carnegie Science Center where they bring out their messiest experiments and demonstrations.
(This is a video below)
Randy has been wanting to see one of Gov't Mule's special holiday concerts (like Halloween in Asheville, or New Year's Eve in New York) for a really long time. He was able to buy tickets to the January 2 Philadelphia show, so we went with his eldest son, one of his older daughters, and his teenaged grandson. The show was brilliant, nearly four hours (with an intermission) of Warren Haynes doing his Warren Haynes thing.
After that, Randy has some business trips he had to take, so the kids and I caught the last week of Christmas events at some of our favorite places in Pittsburgh.
Like the Phipps Conservatory, where they have an annual holiday light garden, and special night-time hours.
The Carnegie Museum still had on display their Christmas trees and Neapolitan Presepio.
The trees this year were all decorated with a Scotland theme.
The Carnegie Library's was exceptionally clever, decked with political cartoons depicting Andrew Carnegie as Santa Claus.
That the Carnegie continues to display their Presepio is amazing.
Both of these special holiday exhibitions are always installed in the Carnegie's Hall of Architecture, a room that houses the museum's collection of casts. I often consider this an exhibit of how museums used to be, because at one time it was considered better for a museum to display plaster casts of master works than hold less exemplary originals. This opinion has changed over the years, as museum goers are more interested in authenticity, and the act of making these casts can damage fragile originals. However, I still enjoy this look at how museums used to be.
As we were getting to ready to leave the trees and Presepio, Brigid looked at the doorway through which we were about to exit.
"Hey, I know that place! It's in France!" she exclaimed. She scanned the saints above the door. "Which one of these guys is pointing 'The Way?'"
Good memory, I told her. She was recalling this being the doorway for an important church in Bordeaux, but it was a cast of Saint Andre here in the Carnegie, not St. Pierre (I will get to this in more detail when I resume my Europe trip blogging).
She did remember, though, how she and her brother stood when I took the picture a month and a half before this.
After that we had to take a whirlwind walk through the Natural History and Fine Art sections to visit old friends.
"It should count as science class when Myles teaches me about dinosaurs. He knows more than most of my books."
"Tell me again about when we stayed where they found this fossil. Did I really think the fossils were phones?"
The kids roll their eyes when I call this the Dinosaur Footprint Hot Tub.
In the Museum of Art, we breezed through the permanent collection, stopping by the favorites.
Obligatory selfie with Sir William Orpen's selfie.
I told them I was hoping they could get a little sketching done, so they both (perhaps because they weren't feeling terribly ambitious) chose modern, geometric, low-color pieces.
We also squeezed in the Warhol for an afternoon.
I wanted to go there, too, before their "Warhol By the Book" closed. This was an interesting look at Warhol's various book projects, whether it be in mass market children's books before he was famous, or his own avant-garde limited-run books. It was really great to show the kids how even an icon like Andy Warhol had to start somewhere, and how even in his illustrations for the "Best Children's Stories," you could tell they were Warhol drawings. Unfortunately, pictures are prohibited in most of the exhibit areas of the museum.
The Factory is a special hit with both Myles and Brigid. They love working with the Warhol-esque materials, like silk screening.
Brigid was excited to master, at long last, blotted-line drawing, a rather involved technique Warhol used to create his famous splotchy outlines. It involves using ink, a fountain pen, tracing paper, and an original image.
I was really proud of her for sticking with it to completion.
Once Randy returned from one of his trips, we had a day to spend at the Heinz History Center, mostly to see "We Can Do It! World War II" before it closed. The exhibit focused on Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania's contributions to World War II, covering evertyhing from manufacturing to technology to the homefront efforts, to the human cost.
They had a Sherman tank parked outside. The tank had been built with parts that had been manufactured in Western Pennsylvania, including the turret which had been cast in Lawrenceville, not too far from where the Heinz History Center stands today.
Inside, the famous "Rosie the Riveter" image was heavily featured. Before she became known as this enduring icon, she was a motivational propaganda poster for in-house use at Westinghouse all over the country.
I liked being able to show Myles and Brigid how much the country was involved in supporting the war. Even companies that weren't military suppliers before retooled to become so. Heinz in Pittsburgh produced gliders, for instance.
Brigid was particularly excited to see Chinese words on something. Of course, there were Pennsylvanians involved in the South Asian campaign. This "blood chit" was worn by a pilot from Lawrenceville in case he was shot down over China, and the local Chinese would know that he was on their side in the war. For me it included an unfamiliar expression, 洋人 yángrén, that I have never heard before for "foreigner."
In addition to the soon-to-close World War II exhibit, I was hoping we would be able to see something that was newly installed in the special collections section of the History Center, the original sets from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
This was more exciting for me than the kids, though Myles does vaguely remember the Neighborhood of Make Believe from the old ride at Idlewild. Seeing these though, in person, was really something.
The following week, the kids and I spent a few days with my family back in Kane. After the very mild weather we experienced leading up to Christmas, Myles and Brigid were ecstatic to have snow, at long last.
Myles' toque made for some great action pictures.
And, of course, since we were in Pennsylvania, there were Steelers going on. It was a roller coaster season, followed by an improbable post-season. I really enjoy being in Pennsylvania for at least some of the football season. I simply love how over-the-top Steelers it gets in those parts.
Especially among my Christmas presents.
What a winter!
While I was sporadically posting here, we had a fantastic American winter.
More after the jump
We weren't in the US for forty-eight hours when we found ourselves at a mid-morning showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It hadn't opened yet in China (and I think we have now missed the Chinese showings of this movie), so we were really excited to see it with my sister and her family.
It was everything we could want from the next movie in the Star Wars franchise, and then some. Brigid was quite taken with BB-8 and Rey, like many children (and especially girls) in America this winter. I wondered how many of last year's Halloween Elsas will be Reys in 2016. This thought crossed my mind as I was taking pictures Christmas morning, and Brigid was happily unwrapping Star Wars Lego sets in the Frozen pajamas she is close to out-growing. She even got a BB-8 necklace. Would I look back at this Christmas as when everything changed?
My favorite part of Christmas morning has become the moment Myles and Brigid exchange gifts with each other. So much planning and anticipation on their parts, just for each other. I just love it.
One habit Brigid has kept up since our European trips is lighting candles in every church we go to.
After we were done celebrating Christmases (plural--more than one) with our big and generous families, we made our rounds of some of our favorite Pittsburgh things to do around the winter holidays.
Like MessFest, the annual First of January event at the Carnegie Science Center where they bring out their messiest experiments and demonstrations.
(This is a video below)
Randy has been wanting to see one of Gov't Mule's special holiday concerts (like Halloween in Asheville, or New Year's Eve in New York) for a really long time. He was able to buy tickets to the January 2 Philadelphia show, so we went with his eldest son, one of his older daughters, and his teenaged grandson. The show was brilliant, nearly four hours (with an intermission) of Warren Haynes doing his Warren Haynes thing.
After that, Randy has some business trips he had to take, so the kids and I caught the last week of Christmas events at some of our favorite places in Pittsburgh.
Like the Phipps Conservatory, where they have an annual holiday light garden, and special night-time hours.
The Carnegie Museum still had on display their Christmas trees and Neapolitan Presepio.
The trees this year were all decorated with a Scotland theme.
The Carnegie Library's was exceptionally clever, decked with political cartoons depicting Andrew Carnegie as Santa Claus.
That the Carnegie continues to display their Presepio is amazing.
Both of these special holiday exhibitions are always installed in the Carnegie's Hall of Architecture, a room that houses the museum's collection of casts. I often consider this an exhibit of how museums used to be, because at one time it was considered better for a museum to display plaster casts of master works than hold less exemplary originals. This opinion has changed over the years, as museum goers are more interested in authenticity, and the act of making these casts can damage fragile originals. However, I still enjoy this look at how museums used to be.
As we were getting to ready to leave the trees and Presepio, Brigid looked at the doorway through which we were about to exit.
"Hey, I know that place! It's in France!" she exclaimed. She scanned the saints above the door. "Which one of these guys is pointing 'The Way?'"
Good memory, I told her. She was recalling this being the doorway for an important church in Bordeaux, but it was a cast of Saint Andre here in the Carnegie, not St. Pierre (I will get to this in more detail when I resume my Europe trip blogging).
She did remember, though, how she and her brother stood when I took the picture a month and a half before this.
After that we had to take a whirlwind walk through the Natural History and Fine Art sections to visit old friends.
"It should count as science class when Myles teaches me about dinosaurs. He knows more than most of my books."
"Tell me again about when we stayed where they found this fossil. Did I really think the fossils were phones?"
The kids roll their eyes when I call this the Dinosaur Footprint Hot Tub.
In the Museum of Art, we breezed through the permanent collection, stopping by the favorites.
Obligatory selfie with Sir William Orpen's selfie.
I told them I was hoping they could get a little sketching done, so they both (perhaps because they weren't feeling terribly ambitious) chose modern, geometric, low-color pieces.
We also squeezed in the Warhol for an afternoon.
I wanted to go there, too, before their "Warhol By the Book" closed. This was an interesting look at Warhol's various book projects, whether it be in mass market children's books before he was famous, or his own avant-garde limited-run books. It was really great to show the kids how even an icon like Andy Warhol had to start somewhere, and how even in his illustrations for the "Best Children's Stories," you could tell they were Warhol drawings. Unfortunately, pictures are prohibited in most of the exhibit areas of the museum.
The Factory is a special hit with both Myles and Brigid. They love working with the Warhol-esque materials, like silk screening.
Brigid was excited to master, at long last, blotted-line drawing, a rather involved technique Warhol used to create his famous splotchy outlines. It involves using ink, a fountain pen, tracing paper, and an original image.
I was really proud of her for sticking with it to completion.
Once Randy returned from one of his trips, we had a day to spend at the Heinz History Center, mostly to see "We Can Do It! World War II" before it closed. The exhibit focused on Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania's contributions to World War II, covering evertyhing from manufacturing to technology to the homefront efforts, to the human cost.
They had a Sherman tank parked outside. The tank had been built with parts that had been manufactured in Western Pennsylvania, including the turret which had been cast in Lawrenceville, not too far from where the Heinz History Center stands today.
Inside, the famous "Rosie the Riveter" image was heavily featured. Before she became known as this enduring icon, she was a motivational propaganda poster for in-house use at Westinghouse all over the country.
I liked being able to show Myles and Brigid how much the country was involved in supporting the war. Even companies that weren't military suppliers before retooled to become so. Heinz in Pittsburgh produced gliders, for instance.
Brigid was particularly excited to see Chinese words on something. Of course, there were Pennsylvanians involved in the South Asian campaign. This "blood chit" was worn by a pilot from Lawrenceville in case he was shot down over China, and the local Chinese would know that he was on their side in the war. For me it included an unfamiliar expression, 洋人 yángrén, that I have never heard before for "foreigner."
In addition to the soon-to-close World War II exhibit, I was hoping we would be able to see something that was newly installed in the special collections section of the History Center, the original sets from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
This was more exciting for me than the kids, though Myles does vaguely remember the Neighborhood of Make Believe from the old ride at Idlewild. Seeing these though, in person, was really something.
The following week, the kids and I spent a few days with my family back in Kane. After the very mild weather we experienced leading up to Christmas, Myles and Brigid were ecstatic to have snow, at long last.
Myles' toque made for some great action pictures.
And, of course, since we were in Pennsylvania, there were Steelers going on. It was a roller coaster season, followed by an improbable post-season. I really enjoy being in Pennsylvania for at least some of the football season. I simply love how over-the-top Steelers it gets in those parts.
Especially among my Christmas presents.
What a winter!
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