Today's Sermon

A Supermarket in California

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the
streets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.

In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit
supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles
full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! --- and you,
Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?
I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the
meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price
bananas? Are you my Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you, and
followed in my imagination by the store detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting
artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.
Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does
your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to
shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in
driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you
have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and
stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?

~ Allen Ginsberg, 1926 - 1997

What I'm Watching #269

"Howl" is a quirky little independent film with a lot of wonderful performances. It's a nicely woven cord of three strands: The Poem, The Court Trial, The moment in American History. Using only the words of the poem, the transcript from the trial and a recorded interview with Allen Ginsberg made at the time of the trial, the movie brings all three to life. Tossed in for fun are a series of animated vignettes. Like the poem, the content is probably not for children, but that would be my only caveat in recommending this film. And for any fan of Ginsberg, it's a must see.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

I must admit, I have always felt spoiled by having the Smithson- ian Museum of Natural History in my backyard. And it's a pheno- menal place to explore, and even though in scope the Carnegie Museum of Natural History is smaller, in its small way it kind of blew me away. The things that is has are very well done.


After exploring the geological history of the region, you encounter your first diorama; the Carboniferous swamp. Of course, you have to have your dioramas!

The next room was more like a foyer with the paleolab full of specimens and a couple of graduate students peering through micro- scopes and digging at bits of fossils. There were two paths to take from here. One led to the gems and minerals and the other to the dinosaurs.


Gems and minerals are fine....


....but dinosaurs are where the real action is! And I was not disappointed.


This picture only captures half of this room which features a second and just as impressive sauropod to the right; twin inhabitants of some Jurassic forest. The windows in the back are the Carnegie University Library. Talk about an inspired learning environment...

To the left a divider made of huge squares of glass enclosed like an aquarium the bones of four prehistoric fish--the predator bringing up the rear










The next room features a pair of dueling Tyrannosaurus Rex, sparing over the remains of some unlucky hadrosaur.





The skeleton of an "unnamed" oviraptor watched nearby.


From fossils of dinosaurs to fossils of ancient mammals. This Irish Deer is very impressive.

And then the models of animals that still exist today and the dioramas! I love dioramas! Am I repeating myself?




This last one must have been inspire by a painting by Delacroix!

Not as big as some Natural History museums, but every bit as wonderful!

What I'm Reading #35

This is the memoir of a friendship. Ann Patchett opens her heart and invites us to experience a special relationship with a wonderful candor. It is a journey worth taking where the destination is known up front and does not distract from the landscape along the way.

Written in her tender and lyrical style, I found myself inhabiting one then the other, then both then neither as my heart became entwined by theirs. Great books change us; I am different and grateful.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: The Dioramas!

The first time I encountered a museum quality diorama depicted an three dimensional snapshot of an ecosystem was in 1968 when my grandfather died. In an effort to distract us kids, from the heaviness all around us, we were shuttled off to Washington, D.C. to spend a couple of days with cousins we'd never met before and they took us to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It was love at first site.

Over the years the charms of those exhibits, now basically, gone have worn off. The Smithsonian has taken to focusing on different aspects of its collection and the mammal dioramas are adequate, but not as amazing as the dinosaurs, and marine life areas of the museum.


So what a delight to discover at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History the halls of North American and African mammals. Not only beautifully and meticulously designed to express the animate essence of the models, they actually at times spill out of their glass enclosures to allow you to step right into their imaginary worlds. Enjoy!

Carnegie Museum of Art: Special Exhibition

The Carnegie Museum of Art has come a long way from its original concept of an art gallery afterthought in the original design of the Library back in 1886. Having first opened to the public in 1895, it seems to have never stopped growing. It's most recent renovations opening to the public in 1993 with such a forward thinking design as to feel utterly contemporary nearly 20 years later. I counted what I believe to be 42 gallery spaces within the Museum of Art, and there's ample room around the exterior for sculptures from garden to monumental is size.


One of the nicest spaces associated with the museum is the courtyard seen here through the impressive glass walls of the newest addition.


And the tone of this museum is very positive. You see a lot of good things happening around you as you visit. There were groups of children and young adults creating and discussing art, as well as, the occasional clutch of adults. The one time I had a question all I could manage to find was a gallery guard who didn't look as old as the shoes I was wearing. But that was just my bad luck in that moment. Unanswered questions lead to ponderings that only increase one's grey matter, so it was not without its long-term benefits, too!


I wish you could join me as I ascend the grand staircase to take you on a tour of some of the highlights of my visit. Unfortunately I wouldn't know were to stop so you might as well make plans to visit for yourself! I will share two works briefly with my brief thoughts to whet your appetite.

Sailing, 1911;
oil on canvas
Edward Hopper, 1882 - 1967, American

Simple, clean, direct--a touch of red in just the right spot.

Having Fun/Good Life, Symptoms, 1985;
fabricated neon
Bruce Nauman, 1941 - , American

Ideas become more obvious as we become less literate. I don't think this was his point, but it's what I got out of it.

Whatever affection I felt toward the Carnegie Museum of Art from my previous visit has only been amplified. What a truly great place to spend a day surrounded by beauty.

Carnegie Museum of Art: Special Exhibition

"Andrey Avinoff: In Pursuit of Beauty"

There were six special exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art this past week. I managed to visit four of them. The most important of which was probably the Pittsburgh Biennial. Biennial exhibits are designed to showcase new artists, which by definition no matter how old their works means contemporary and usually avant garde. The avant gardier the better. It's as much about being noticed as it is about being good. A mon avis Pittsburgh's Biennial offers nothing that the world can't live without.

The most interesting special exhibition was that of the works of Andrey Avinoff titled "In Pursuit of Beauty."

Andrey Avinoff, c. 1905 -1915 (age 24?)

Avinoff was an immigrant from the Ukraine of Russian heritage, amateur botanist, entomologist by degree, believer in mysticism, lover of men (a close friend of Alfred Kinsey to whom he confided and to whom was given much of his homoerotic art), a keen watercolorist/professional illustrator, and, as fate would have it, the director of the Carnegie Museum from 1926 to 1946.

The exhibit came with a warning to those with children of it's adult content, which quickly became apparent as I entered the exhibit from the end which was resplendent with male nudity and in a couple of cases homoerotic imagery. Other themes included botanical and lepidopterological images, mystic religious ideas, and landscapes and interiors. No child warning needed here with these simple yet exquisite examples.

Tibet: Camp Scene in the Karakoram at the Foot of the Mountain, 1912
graphite and watercolor on paper

Self-Portrait with Butterfly Eye, c. 1945
graphite on fragment of envelope

The National Aviary

When you stop and think about the title alone you have to wonder. The NATIONAL Aviary? In Pittsburgh? Like, I know where the National Zoo is, and the National Mall, the National Arboretum, the National Conservatory, and the National Philharmonic, why even the Nationals baseball team. They're in Washington, D.C. So why is the National Aviary in Pittsburgh? And it's not that I'm unwilling to share, it's just an unexpected place to find it. Perhaps this nagging question colored my visit.


No matter what you make of this floor plan, it's not a large place. It's located off of a lovely park not far from the B&B I stayed in during my previous visit in a decidedly older and less gentrified part of the city known as Allegheny. When parking in the parking lot, you enter via the West Entrance that is located in the bottom center of the map. $13.00 later, I began my tour by walking up the first corridor you see on the map. To my right was a large courtyard divided into three open areas. The first one was empty.


The second contained a pair of Bald Eagles, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, and they were simply magnificent. There just isn't a more regal raptor on earth. To see them in person and up close really was worth the price of admission, even if everything at the National Aviary was not as it was advertised on their website. There is no way to over-hype a Bald Eagle.

The third portion of the courtyard was home to a really wonderfully designed penguin habitat. One that was visible from two sides if you chose to walk into the courtyard, and from one wall of glass on one side from within the aviary. It even featured a sort of children's playhouse area where younger kids could go and watch the swimming birds from a bubble-glass natatorium accessed also from inside the aviary.


The little African Penguins, Spheniscus demersus, like Sidney here, were just delightful to watch and eager to interact with their audience.

At this point, you have three other places to visit. I know that the map looks more involved than that, but that's it. There are three other habitats where birds can be observed. They are: 1) the Tropical Rainforest, with its adjacent large cage of parakeets, or Lories as stated on the map, 2) the Wetlands, and 3) the Grasslands.

The Tropical Rainforest was a very muggy large greenhouse like room with tropical vegetation and a flowing water feature. To enter it, you passed through a little foyer where you encounter a lone Laughing Kookaburra, Dacelo novaeguineae, in a large birdcage and completely separate from the Tropical Rainforest. The main walkway is elevated to allow both the flowing water and the flightless birds the ability to run around freely on the floor the space. A list of birds with their photos is posted for your convenience, and I was disappointed that a couple of the species promised didn't appear to be present.


However, there were others to enjoy, like this pair of White-crested Laughing Thrush, garrulax leucolophus.


The Wetlands was a more open re-creation along a similar vein with an elevated walkway from which to observe, and when it came to this Inca Tern, Larosterna inca, BE observed!


I also happened to arrive at the just the time when the pair of Brown Pelicans, Pelecanus occidentalis, was being fed. Greedy little buggers! You can see where the one had his lover bill snapped. His rescue was his ticket to the National Aviary and a prolonged life. The attendant explained how in the wild the injury so changed the dynamic of his beak-poach as to allow fish to escape thus sentencing him to a fate of certain starvation. Lucky little bugger, too.

This room seemed to have more specimens and more varied species of birds than the first.


Here an odd couple made up of a Roseate Spoonbill, Ajaja ajaja, and a Scarlet Ibis, Eudocimus ruber, exchange a glance after taking in my presence.

Area #3, the Grasslands was little more than a long room with some birds trapped inside. There were no windows, no skylights, not even consistent artificial lighting. Perhaps the greatest aspect of false advertising was due to this lack of light, there was no grass. In fact, there weren't any organic plants at all. There were silk plants and plastic plants, but no real plants. The space altogether was doubtfully much larger than my basement. The birds were quite beautiful, and being birds they seemed to be doing their best to manage their little world. I was fairly well whipped by the time I arrived here, and so my own subsequent outrage, was just too tired to make it fully into my conscience mind, until later in the evening.


The hands down stars of the room were the two Scarlet-headed Blackbirds, Amblyramphus holosericus. They totally upstaged the hand full of finches and warblers that were kept in the space with them.


And I was just about to leave when this little Golden Plover, Pluvialis dominica, caught my eye.

As a concept, the National Aviary is not fully realized. Some of its spaces are adequate, even nice. Had its depiction on its website been more accurate, I doubt I would have made the effort to visit. And I don't regret my visit or the price of admission, if only some portion of it could go to building a decent Grassland habitat. On the website, 139 species of birds are listed. There is no way in hell I saw that many different kinds of birds, my best guess would be 40. Again, why do places that house and display animals exaggerate? OR where do they hide away the majority of their collections, and why? This is a truth in advertising issue.

The Andy Warhol Museum

The Andy Warhol Museum sits unassumingly on a street corner about 2 blocks north of the PNC Pittsburgh Pirate's Baseball stadium. The last time I was in Pittsburgh for a visit, that area was a barren wasteland with the historic Three-Rivers Stadium having just been imploded. I think that's why visiting the Andy Warhol museum then wasn't a priority. In any event, I got to it this time and spent a pleasant couple of hours exploring its offerings.

The visit is designed to begin on the ground floor in a space that gives you a brief overview of the artist's life and artistic endeavors. Afterwards there's no question why this effete international icon should find his final homage in the Steel City.

From there you ride the elevator to the 7th floor and work your way down. There are exhibits of Andy Warhol's art, about Andy Warhol's art, Inspired by Andy Warhol's art and the minutiae of the art's life that he collected and stored and just ended up leaving behind.



One thing I learned more about was his archive of film legacy. I knew that he made a few iconic films, but I didn't realize that he had his own sort of mini-cable TV interview show. One room on the 6th floor contained a couple dozen monitors suspended from the ceiling each playing a different episode. I briefly listened in on his conversation with fellow artist Larry Rivers where he spent most of the time flirting with Rivers, while Rivers offered up that Andy was too thin, and being fat was inherited and couldn't be helped for some people.

Across from this was a larger area where another dozen or so of this longer films and documentaries were playing on a maze of large screens simultaneously. I should imagine that the introduction of a hallucinogenic drug into one's system might have made the experience transcendent in an artistic manner consistent with some of Warhol's own life experience, but as it was, it was just curious and mostly unintelligible.

There were four exhibitions featured at the time of my visit and my favorite consisted of an oversized deck of tarot cards each created by a different artist in homage to Warhol. It was entitled, "Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project".


Of Warhol's actual works on display, there was a gallery featuring a variety of his double portraits of famous people. Another was devoted to his series of images of Mohamed Ali. And a third larger room contained a series of larger paintings of the human skull. Other works could be found in various places throughout the museum. Examples of his sculptures were also on display.

Apparently, Warhol was also something of a collector of memorabilia about himself and his life. A variety of collages and glass cases containing a smidgen of these things could be found on a couple of the floors, as well as a taxidermy Great Dane! He seems to have been very practical when it came to pets.

Warhol with fellow artists Basquiat and Francesco Clemente

Other themes throughout the museum were his quotes and his relationships with and to other artists and those who patronized his work and sought association with his life.

I liked the museum and the other patrons were all of a certain type....adults, which after a morning spent at the zoo was the perfect anecdote.