Artists, Artists Everywhere!

Today I went to the most fascinating place: The Mississippi Crafts Center. It's a wonderful building filled with art by all types of Mississippi craftspeople. The outside lawn has many whimsical outdoor sculptures. The interior has a shop filled with incredibly beautiful handmade items. Think pottery, wood, furniture, jewelry, weaving, quilts, baskets, and decorative items. I'm a sucker for handmade, hand crafted and imaginative items. For instance, how about using all those empty wine and whiskey bottles?

One of the highlights of the day was getting to meet several of the artists who were doing demonstrations of their art. First, was Max Goodman of Ogre Forge who makes the most amazing handforged knifes. He takes a raw piece of metal and turns it into a large hunting knife with an exotic wood handle and a handwoven leather scabbard. He was in the outdoor area - like a big garage, but three of the walls were windows. He had a small forge there and all sorts of blacksmithing tools. He gave us an interesting talk about the chemistry of forging steel. It's quite complicated and the chemistry is very precise. Forging is not trial and error anymore. Mr. Goodman is a retired geologist.

Then, there was the German Baptist basket maker. At first, because of her clothing, I thought she was Amish, so I just asked and found out she was German Baptist - obviously, not a Southern Baptist. This community migrated to Mississippi sometime in the 19th century, and the traditions are still alive - witness her dress and the cap covering her hair. She's a basketmaker, and she actually finished this basket in the time that we were here. You can see the stainless steel staircase and glass walls of the Center behind her. This is a place to work and to teach. The Center, which is on the Natchez Trace just north of Jackson, runs summer programs and is a galley offering the works of 0ver 400 members of its Craftsmen Guild.

Without a doubt, the most cutting edge art we saw was an artist making clocks using material and ideas from the past four centuries. First, personal clocks date back from the 18th century. This is when it really became possible for ordinary people to own a clock as a decorative item in their home. Larry L. Smith, the artist, makes clocks using a compilation of materials. He begins with 19th century weathered wood in blocks or cut into 18" long pieces of 2x4. He mounts computer mother boards and disc drives as well as 20th century vacuum tubes from radios and televisions onto the wood. The 21st century computer detritus is what he mounts the clock works and hands on. He actually buys antique wood to use. He's branching out from weathered fence posts and barn wood and has just bought the wood interior of an old elevator from New York City. He has friends that are really happy to give him their old computers which he salvages for parts. In the gift shop, there is a killer grandfather clock he has created. He confided it was the grandfather clock that got him into the Craftsmen's Guild. I can see why; it's spectacular. He calls what he does PC Art. Imagine 18th century personal clock, 19th century wood, 20th century vacuum tubes, and 21st century computer disc drives and motherboards. I'm so sorry the picture didn't come out; technology, what can you say?

Another demonstator was making chainmail. Martha Scarborough has learned the medieval technique of making chainmail - the shirts knights wore to repel knives, swords, and pikes. (That's why the longbow was such an awesome weapon - fired from afar, it could pierce chain mail.) Nowadays, there's not too much call for chainmail armor, so she is using chainmail techniques with silver, copper and gold wire to create jewlry. There are formal patterns (turkish, celtic, etc.) that she uses to make her jewlry. I asked her how she got started, and she confided that she went to a craft school with some girlfriends, and the silver working class was full but the wire class was open! An artist was born.

I think overall each of the artists that I spoke with came to art late in life. They don't have fine arts degrees. They all have 'day jobs' - actually careers, and they pursue their art in their spare time as a passion they can not deny. I can identify with that drive to create which drives my embroidery work.

The drive to create can be all consuming, but most artists don't have the luxury to create on a full time basis. That's the real beauty of the Mississippi Crafts Center - it's a showcase for art that sometimes only finds a home at local craft fairs or church bazaars. The Center legitimizes this type of artwork. The venue is really great - spacious, full of cases, shelves, hanging space, and light. You wander from one beautiful item to another. Some are lyrical, some are whimsical, some are functional. All have that creative spark of artwork. Drake has faithfully promised that when we come back for the next ballet competition (yes, we are having that great of a time - you should have seen the contemporary stuff last night) that I can shop the Craft Center for decorative items to furnish our house when we re-settle. Now, because of our tight space and weight requirements, I only got a handmade ceramic magnolia magnet (my Mississsippi magnet), and SOMEONE who reads this blog got a gift from this wonderful place.

Coming to the end of Round I (or the 'two a days' as I like to call them), we will have seen 103 dancers perform. It's still a mystery how many competitors will get to move on to the second round - that number is a closely guarded secret, or more likely, a fixed number is not desirable because it hems in the judges. Without a fixed number moving onto Round II, they can be more flexible in including competitors they want to reward.



This next section of this blog will make much more sense and be much more fun if you read everything in quotations marks with a soft, dripping, southern accent. Be sure to end each quotation as if you've asked a question. Southern people's voices always go up in octave at the end of each conversational pod. It's a conversational technique that keeps things flowing.



I've heard so much artful small talk this week that it's a lesson in itself. Almost every encounter overheard includes a reference to the weather, to family, to the competition, all tinged with a bit of gossip - not malicious - more like, "Did you hear that Mary Lou may have to have her fingernails removed? Lord, I hope she will be Ok." Then there are formal goodbyes - along the line, of "It's been so good to see you all." (You all is singular or plural, remember). "We have to get together soon." with the alternative closing of: "You tell your sweet _________ hello for me." The blank is usually a family member in the same generation as the person who initiated the goodbye ritual. Younger people use Yes, Ma'm and "No Sir" routinely during these encounters. Little old ladies are particularly good at this exchange, but men also excell at it. I saw a group of three ladies stand directly in front of the interior door into the Ladies Room and carry on like this for at least 2 minutes. It never occurred to them they were blocking the door. No wonder people from elsewhere pull out their hair. These people have all the time in the world to practice the art of civility. Watching all of this makes me realize how isolationistic we heathens have become.



Much more interesting are the people we have been directly meeting. By far the most surprising are the country couple from Cleveland, Mississippi - "You, know, we live on the Delta" was how the woman introduced herself in the kind of an accent you could spoon over ice cream. She cooks lunch everyday (still) for six people including her husband, her children and some grandchildren. "They just like my cookin', and this way they don't eat that fast food." You would not pick this couple out of a line-up as people coming to every performance. I do find it amusing that they eat at the same restaurant between the performances every day. When I inquired why they didn't try new places, her reply was: "I just like it; it's the food I make, but with a twist." The restaurant they like is in the museum, and she confided that they are slowly making their way around the place, a little bit at a time.



They are also rating the dancers (as we are), and we have been having some lively discussions about what we like/don't like about what we see. I think we've been too lenien't in awarding our *'s - which indicates we think they will move forward. All our favorites are not going to make it to Round II. We have been having fun doing this, though. The group of us Mezzaniners who all visit among one another quip that we are going to be sending down our recommendations to the judges.



Our evening seatmates are a couple of native Jacksonians who have been generous with their restaurant recommendations as well as suggesting things we can do in the area. Alec in particular is very interesting. He's an English professor at the local junior college. He volunteers as a docent at the Eudora Welty house (yes, this is her home town), and from what he has let drop has his finger in many cultural activities in Jackson. His wife, Kay, is very friendly. I do get the feeling she still works full time, and this competition (coming every night to performances) is wearing her out. She left early last time pleading tiredness.



Many other people are now recognizing us and speaking to us when they see us. It's fascinating how people will form themselves into a group simply based on propinquity. You can see it happen everywhere - especially when people seat themselves in the same place over and over again. (Think church, classrooms, work cubicles, meetings and auditoriums!) By the time we leave here, I'll bet I will have added another few readers to this blog. I wonder how much more I will know about these individual people before I leave. That's interesting in itself. I'm sure this talent, curse, ability, whatever you can call it, will rear up and folks will start telling me all sorts of things.

Here's Jackson!

We've now seen one-half of the 112 dancers who are the competitors of the USA International Ballet Competition. It is an honor just to be a competitor since the selection is so rigorous. This experience was a 20 year dream, and I was initially worried that we would have built up such high anticipation that the actual competition would be a let-down. Happily, it's been just the opposite. So far this has been more fun than the anticipation. In addition to seeing wonderful dancers, we are developing a little mezzanine community of people who, like us, have the time and desire to come to ALL the performances including the 'two a days' we are doing now.

We go to see dance performance at 2 pm and 7 pm EVERY day. That doesn't leave a lot of time for anything else. We leave at 1 pm and get back to our home away from home (extended stay hotel) about 10 pm. We are eating in some really new interesting restaurants. One surprise is that there was a pretty substantial group of Lebanese who settled here, and you can see their stamp in the restaurants here. We ate at a terrific place (Aladdin's) yesterday. Today we went to the Mayflower Cafe - a downtown landmark for over 75 years. I think it opened in the 1920's.

Everyone (whether black or white) has been extremely friendly and welcoming as only the Deep South is. Good news is that there seems to be a lot less racial tension than there was 20 years ago. These people also have the most amazing accent. It's so thick at times that we have to pay really close attention to understand them! We are sitting right across from a couple form Cleveland, Mississippi - deep in the heart of the Delta - (exactly what they said!) They are taking a pause and going home on Thursday, so the husband can "check in on his recliner" - no lie, that's what she (the wife) said. The four of us are rating the dancers, and we keep joking that we'll be glad to send our consensus down to the judges. It will be interesting to see how well we do when the competitors are judged. The couple sitting next to us are native Jacksonians who rattled off 10 restaurants to try when we asked for recommendations.

This is really a lot of fun. We have seen some amazing young dancers from as far away as Mongolia! (The one competitor from Mongolia wore the same costume for both of his solos today. I got the feeling from his response to the audience that he's never performed before so many people before.) Overall, the Japanese competitors are extremely well trained and a joy to watch. There are also a large number of wonderful American dancers of all different ethnicities. Next week starts Round II which Drake estimates will be only 3/8ths of the total competitors. That's about 40 dancers that will move on.

On a sad note. Jackson is filled with wonderful architecture, and should be a delightful place to live. However, we went to the main downtown public library today, and it was really sad. Obviously, they are seriously underfunded. The Bastrop, Texas library was more up to date and better funded per capita than this library. For instance, their audio book collection is ALL beat up cassettes - almost no CD books, and no MP3 books. Their "new book" section was just pathetic. Apparently, race is still dictating. There's 'white flight' going on - moving out to the suburbs, leaving Jackson economically strapped - then along comes the recession. I've talked to several people, and everywhere else in the country people are moving back to their city - here, whites are still fleeing a wonderfully livable city because they might have to live by black people. On the positive note, there is some racial mixing that I never saw 20 years ago. So even Mississippi is changing.

The weather is dreadful. Just as hot, humid and miserable as I expected. Washington is going to feel great after this climate. Stay tuned for more dancing updates - I'm sure you'all just can't wait.

Now, for some Ballet - READ THIS YOU PHILISTINE!

We made it to Jackson. Today was the Opening Gala Performance of the USA International Ballet Competition. This was a half/half deal. The first half was a lot of speeches thanking everyone in Jackson who makes this possible. This competition comes to Jackson every 4 years. The moving force that made this happen was Thalia Mara - a famous ballet professional and teacher who was lured to Jackson from New York. She was the determined person who made this competition a United States presence in the ballet competition world. She made this competition happen in Jackson beginning in 1979 - and it's happened every 4 years since then. Most dancers consider the Jackson venue to be the premier dance competition in the world - similar to what Cliburn is for piano. Tonight was spent doing atta boys, and kowtowing to the sponsors who give bucks, plus they had a nice little quasi olympic type opening complete with flag procession of dancers and a torch being lit.

For anyone reading who doesn't know. Drake and I were in Jackson 20 years ago. Drake came up on a Saturday night to pick me up after I had spent a week with my brother at his first rehabilitation attempt. Looking for something to do, we discovered this 'ballet thing'. We just walked over to the theater, and scored a pair of 'will call' tickets that hadn't been picked up. We were blown away by the quality of the dance, and we promised ourselves that when we retired, we would return for the entire competition. I was beginning to have some doubts that we had done the right thing, until after the intermission tonight.........

The second half of tonight's "Gala" was actual dancing by an invited dance company called "The Bad Boys of Dance". They were an amazing company of 6 men and one woman. The artistic director (lead dancer) and his wife (the one woman), who is the choreographer/assistant artistic director both won gold medals in Jackson. (FYI - She's doing all this while also having had a baby - she brought out their 3 year old daughter during the final curtain call.)

The electrifing performance and innovative choreography was set to rock and roll/early hip hop music (think Queen). The men danced with power, grace, and athleticism, and the entire performance was an overwhelming assault to the eyes and the ears. Let's just say, I would pay really good money to see the "Bad Boys" perform again. I kept thinking that this is the performance I would choose to take someone to see who "doesn't like ballet".

After tonight, we get SERIOUS. Young dancers have sent audition tapes to a committee of selectors. The selectors cull the field down to 100 dancers from all over the world - well, 31 countries, and the 100 compete through 3 elimination rounds. Tomorrow, Round 1 begins. At 2 pm there will be 10 performances, an intermission, and 10 more performances. Same deal repeats at 7:30 pm tomorrow night. WOW. It's going to be amazing. Any kind of a medal here makes a dancer's career. Just being a competitor gets you exposure to artistic directors from ballet companies all over the world. They arrive in Jackson with blank dance contracts, and most of the competitors leave with their names on those contracts. That means for a young dancer that they get to make a living at what they love to do, and what they've trained many hours for from about age 5 on.

Other fun today - Martha Priska met us in McComb, Mississippi and we had lunch (really dinner) at The Dinner Bell - a boarding house style restaurant, complete with the giant table seating 15 people (as if this was a boarding house) with a turntable that revolves around the center area of the table. On the turntable is: fried chicken, ribs, sausage, fried eggplant, dumplings, corn, lima beans, green beans, mashed potatoes, squash casserole.......and MORE. Fun and FILLING. The food was excellent like good southern home cooking can be. We talked non-stop with Martha for 3 hours. We ended up at McDonald's - less crowded and more conducive to visiting where we tried McDonald's version of the Starbucks Frappucino - and FYI - they taste exactly the same for 1/2 the price. Thanks, Martha, for doing the heavy driving. She came almost 2 times farther than we had to drive.

We are settled in. The extended stay hotel is new. Beds are great, towels and shower are good. We've even made the run to the grocery store.

Stay tuned. We're still having fun. AND WE ARE PUMPED ABOUT THE BALLET!!

Here's Our Top Eleven!

THE TOP ELEVEN ENJOYMENTS OF CENTRAL TEXAS, SPRING 2010

OK, I know it's only supposed to be a top 10, but I don't like David Letterman particularly, so we don't have to follow his rules. Here's our TOP ELEVEN!

11. HIKING IN BASTROP STATE PARK

10. SHINER VISIT & BREWERY TOUR (FREE BEER!)

9. TEXAS GIRLS ROLLER DERBY OUTING

8. NEW BRAUNFELS RANCH DAY (THANKS, HELEN & FRANK!)

7. FAYETTEVILLE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL

6. OUR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY PARTY (A REALLY SPECIAL NIGHT)

5. SHOPPING FOR OUR NEW CAR (HELLO, GOLDIE)

4. PLAYING BRIDGE EVERY WEEK IN BASTROP

3. EATING IN UNIQUE RESTAURANTS

2. BUMPER CROP OF WILDFLOWERS ON OUR SCENIC DRIVES

1. FREQUENT VISITS WITH SARAH

We've really been having a good time. If you flip back through the blog posts, you can count lots of other wonderful things we did. (The only thing that should have made the list was Blue Bell Ice Cream, and I couldn't figure out how to squeeze it in.) It seemed like we went someplace almost every day we've been here. Finding Bastrop was also a wonderful unlooked for bonus of this trip. It was a lovely place to live with very friendly people. We've had a great introduction to apartment living. We've made some new friends. We're glad we came to central Texas and got to experience some of the best the state has to offer. We're also really excited about moving on, and I'm thrilled to escape the heat. Once I deal with the Mississippi sludge heat for 2 weeks, I'm really going to be ready for Washington. Stay tuned. Keep answering me back - remember, this is a dialogue. International Ballet Competition, Jackson, Mississippi, here we come.

Killa, Killa, Killa, FAST, FAST, FAST

We made it to the TEXAS ROLLERGIRLS - THE ROCK-N-ROLLER DERBY! (The tickets were my Mother's Day present - does Sarah know her mother or what?) What an experience. The title of this blog is the cheer for the Hotrod Honeys, the best team of the league. WOW! Were they fast slippery, and tough.

This 'sport', actually it was more of a 'happening' for those of you old enough to remember this term, was really fun to watch. It was fast, easy to follow, quick action - no down time - with the crashes of NASCAR, and the speed and quickness of short track speed skating. It also had the cheesecake of an old time pin-up magazine. There was lots of tits and ass - covered - but very outlined. The other constant was tattoos and bizarre names.

Interestingly, the roller derby girls don't use in-line skates, but rather the old fashioned 4 wheelers. A lot of the costumes look homemade. They reminded me of raunchy dance recital costumes. My favorite costumes belonged to the Hustlers - everybody on the team wore purple and silver. Spandex, lame', sequins, fishnet, bikini tops and/or bottoms, velour, wide silver belts, and so forth. Every girl's outfit was a different combination of the above materials. The Honkeytonk Heartbreakers had more of a standard uniform, as you can see from the picture. The Hell Marys each wore some variety of a red tartan plaid bottom, either skirt or boxer - as a send-up of a Catholic girl's school uniform.

My very favorite, favorite part of the hype were the names: Curvette 76, Pussy Velour, Vanna Whitetrash, Booty Queen XXX, Ruby Wring, RadioActive 91.7, Voodoo Doll 29, Peppermint Bratty, Slaughter Melon, and my #1 favorite name: The Killa' Sal Monella.

One of the things that surprised me about this event was that the people who attended and the people who competed were not nearly as sleazy or trashy as I had imagined they all would be. -There were lots of family attendees (like a dance recital.) All seats were general admission. You lined up to get in. It was very democratic: Get there early, stand outside in the sun, and when they open the doors, get good seats. You got free fans, and you could buy weirdly flavored popsicles to eat while waiting - you know like 'wheatberry'. The promoters controlled who got to drink beer pretty carefully. They had silly games of audience participation between the matches similar to what minor league baseball teams do between innings. At roller derby, they invited anyone in the audience to come out onto floor and do 'air guitar'. The sponsors then gave a small prize to the winner.

Some of the competing teams were like sororities (albeit with very, very visible large tattoos and clothes no housemother would have EVER tolerated) - just a group of girls having fun. Other teams were in earnest and really cared about the sport. Those teams were conditioned, in excellent physical shape, with game plans and exciting skaters who were fast and agile. Overall, it is fun to watch. You get to drink beer. They give away free stuff (got me 2 Texas Rollergirl coozies and a fan on a stick). They sell great T-shirts at reasonable prices. I'd go again in a heartbeat. Next time, though, I'm getting tattooed and wearing fishnet. Well, OK, temporary tattoos and my black Texas Rollergirl T-shirt with the glittery silver roller derby emblem.

Our other outing this week was to another iconic Texas landmark: The Little Creamery in Brenhamn - otherwise known as the home of Blue Bell Ice Cream. If you are non-Texan, this is THE ice cream everyone in Texas eats. Everyone I know has a favorite flavor. If you have access to it, because it isn't nationally distributed, try some. The tour of the plant was fun, interesting, and a much smaller operation that I imagined. (I did learn they have actually have four ice cream making plants - 2 in Brenham (the old one and the new one), one in Alabama and one in Oklahoma.) You can take your picture with both a cow and an ice cream truck, but best of all - you get a free dip of ice cream and you get to choose among 24 flavors of Blue Bell at the end of the tour. Interesting facts: It takes the daily output of 50,000 cows to make one day's batch of Blue Bell. Homemade Vanilla is their #1 seller, and Dutch Chocolate is #3. Coming in at #2 is..................Cookies and Cream. When they originally made this flavor, employees actually had to open packages of Oreo cookies by hand because Nabisco wouldn't sell them Oreos outside the traditional cellophane packaging.

One family still owns Blue Bell. They are in their third generation. As anyone can attest who has eaten their ice cream, all their flavors are wonderful. They didn't start to sell their ice cream outside of Brenham until the 1970's - using a booth at the State Fair as well as the novel technique of having employees deliver styrofoam containers with Blue Bell ice cream to all the media people in Dallas. Blue Bell exploded when a New York advertising executive started promoting it. He came up with the Blue Bell cow and girl (who still march around every carton of Blue Bell), and well as the talking Jersey cows selling the ice cream.

They've only had one product failure. Howard Krause, one of the owners, thought that a stick of frozen strawberry jello, surrounded by homemade vanilla ice cream and coated with chocolate would be a sure fire seller. Everyone in the company tried to talk him out of it, but he went ahead and made it. Let's just say that he, and only he, ate A LOT of the one time only run of that product.

Here are SOME of the Blue Bell flavors. The new summer flavor is Summer Berry (blackberries, strawberries in a citrus ice cream with swirls of blueberry and raspberry.) I tried it, and it was refreshing. My favorite is the Peaches and Vanilla - only made when fresh peaches are in season. Drake had Moolennium Crunch - the special flavor commemorating their 100 year anniversary. (Vanilla ice cream with 2 kinds of nuts, chocolate chunks and caramel swirl.) I discovered they make new flavors all the time - some based on employee suggestions. I also found out they 'retire' flavors regularly.

Finally, the fitting end to the Blue Bell experience is the company motto: "We eat all the Blue Bell we can and sell the rest."

We are almost done with Texas. We leave for the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi the 11th of June. Then, at the end of June, it's on to Washington state. Are you ready to go?

Some of Texas' Best

For those of you who have been following this blog, you know that I've decided to visit some of the best places in Texas. One of the joys of being able to spend time in the Hill County is that lots of the best Texas has to offer resides here. Settle back, have another cup of coffee (yes, you, Krishna), and read about where we've been going lately.

First, THE BOB - with it's welcoming 'big Texas star'. (THE BOB is what Sherri Purdy Wilson calls it.) For the non-Texans, this is the Bob Bullock Museum of Texas History. Bob Bullock was a major force in Texas politics for 30 years, so, I guess you could have worse things named in your memory. Actually, he's a good namesake because Bullock was known for the love of all things Texan. "The Bob" is a magnificent museum full of Texas granite, sweeping spaces, and interactive exhibits that tell the history of Texas from prehistoric times forward. This is shown over three floors in chronological order as the floors spiral up. There's an IMAX theater built into the museum, but I think the real tour de force is the inlaid mosaic on the ground floor. There's a campfire in the center surrounded by all the types of people and occupations that have impacted Texas throughout its history. This mosaic sits centered in the rotunda shaped lobby. It is lighted by the circular rotunda shaped sky light three stories up. As you leave the mosaic and move through the museum, you will find Indians, Spaniards, cowboys, cattle, horses, goats, cotton, corn, wheat, and naturally oil derricks. There is also space memorabilia, notable Texan vignettes, and small movie theaters scattered about that tell different stories about Texas such as the Spindletop oil boom or all the movies that have been made about Texas. This museum is a real visual treat that is selective about what it shows thus creating the sense of wide open spaces - which is also very Texan. This place is a 'must visit' for every Texan. You'll find it on the edge of downtown Austin.

When Texas was far, far away from any cultural offerings, the citizens of most towns decided to create their own. They built theaters, opera houses and concert halls. They not only performed their own plays and concerts, but also invited world class talent to come and perform in Texas. Last Saturday night we experienced this phenomenon in the minuscule town of Fayetteville, Texas - population 286. Fayetteville has a concert hall (sort of) in the tiny hotel in town. They put on a Chamber Music Festival each May. My first thought was: "It will be a nice chance to hear some classical music live - but it probably won't be stellar." WRONG. The musicians come from all over the WORLD. Having seen enough Cliburn piano players, and chamber music quartets, I've learned to spot the OK players, the good players, and the great players. Let me tell you, there were no OK musicians - they were all good, and a couple of them were great. The venue is a wooden room built in the 19th century. The audience is about 100 people,. The seats are general admission, so the earlier you arrive the better your seats. We sat 10 feet from the musicians.(The picture is taken from my seat.) If you've never had the opportunity to see really great musicians play up close and personal, you might want to motor over to Fayetteville next year. I swear you won't be disappointed even if this type of music is not your favorite. The festival consists of 3 concerts - Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night. They play Mozart, Chopin, Schubert, etc. As an added bonus, a professor from one of the Texas universities does an informal talk before the concert about the pieces you will be hearing. To top it all off, there are three good and interesting restaurants within a stone's throw of the concert venue. We chose "Joe's Place" based on the Saturday special of BBQ brisket or handmade sausage, with two sides, plus peach cobbler. They had a really old bar which stocked Shiner 101. We weren't disappointed.

The musicians stay with townspeople (just like the Cliburn piano contestants). For some of the musicians - those from Europe especially - this was their second year to come back to the festival. At first, I couldn't understand why world class musicians would play this tiny venue - but then, I realized that it would be like a vacation. They come for the entire week. They are wined and dined. But, most importantly, they get out of the cities that most of their tours take them to and get to come out to a quiet county setting. I know one of the organizers told me that two of the musicians love to come because they can get together and go fishing! Put it on your mental calendar: Fayetteville, Texas - May, 2011 - Chamber Music Festival.

Final entry today is very, very Texan. About 20 years ago, I discovered a small museum in New Braunfels, Texas called "The Texas Handmade Furniture Museum". This museum has grown with the years, and is now part of Heritage Village. Heritage Village is the result of a small group of Texans who are determined to preserve the architectural elements of the settlement of the hill country. (This is a fancy way of saying that they buy and restore any early building they can get their hands on.)

This conservation group is centered in New Braunfels, and thus, they are saving the early buildings of the German, Czech and Polish emigrants to the hill country. Heritage Village is a collection of pioneer homes and buildings from the 1850's. The museum is in the main house which was built by an immigrating German couple in the 1850's. It is filled with furniture made by the cabinetmakers which were recruited and brought to Texas as part of communities coming to Texas to claim land and settle.

New Braunfels, for instance, was founded by Prince Solm - a German nobleman - who found the land, returned to Germany, and recruited a German community which consisted of farmers and master craftsmen and people with other specific skills to help make the new community a profitable venture from the very first. (Ironically, after the Prince got his colonists settled in Texas, he returned to Germany for his bride. His plan was to get married and return to the new Texas colony. She refused to leave Germany! He never saw Texas again.)

From 1845 to 1850, the master cabinetmakers spent most of their time making windows and doors and laying floors for the houses that had to be built to shelter the new colonists. However, they quickly turned their talents to furniture making - and oh, what furniture they made. They were excited by the walnut in abundance to work with. Freed from the strictures of European dictates, they let their creativity flow into the wood. The result is Texas handmade furniture.

We were treated to a really informative tour by the director of the museum. A lot of school children were coming the day after we came, and there was a lot of living history exhibits and demonstrations planned for the children. All the docents had the day off before the big school event, so we got the most knowledgeable person imaginable. It was a great tour given by the director whose family is descended from one of the major cabinet makers. She and her husband still own family furniture made by Scholl - one of the early cabinetmakers. She was full of interesting stories about how the museum has grown in the past 20 years, and how they have struggled to be recognized as having unique pieces of art represented in this furniture.

That's it for this week. We're going to ROLLER DERBY on Sunday - Whoo Hooo! I'm thinking I need a tattoo to fit in. Plus, we have decided to go over to the Perdenales Falls since we've finally had plenty of rain, and I want to see it when it's actually flowing. Oh, and here we come Brenham - guess what we're going to tour!