'Cue and Carravaggio

I just got back from Kansas City. I love that place. It has a little bit of everything. It's a great sports town , no matter how bad the Royals or Chiefs are playing. There are great museums and it's adjacent to wonderful Church history sites. Independence is just East of KC. Both are in Jackson County, Missouri.

My two favorite spots in Kansas City are Arthur Bryant's and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I will admit that Arthur Bryant's isn't for everyone. There's a lot of great BBQ to be had in Kansas City and around the country. But for me, there is nothing like the taste of Mr. Bryant's barbecue sauce.

I prefer the original location on 1727 Brooklyn, just down from the 18th and Vine historical section of KC. I think part of the appeal is the abrupt way customers are treated by those who are preparing the 'cue. It's very "Soup Nazi-esque". You stand in line and approach a small window. When you get to the window, bend down and give them your order. Don't ask questions, don't ask for half sizes, know what you want and order quickly. If you're not quick enough, they will let you know. The ribs and sandwiches are well worth the discourtesy. Don't worry about the hygiene aspects either. I'm pretty sure the sauce has some sort of antibacterial properties to it.

The Nelson-Atkins is wonderful. It has a very impressive collection and admission and audio tours are free. In addition to a large sculpture park, there are African, American, American Indian, Ancient (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Assyrian etc.), European and Asian art collections. There is a wonderful painting of St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness by Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio. If I lived in Italy, I think I would have been known as James Royal, called Jimmy or Jim Shalabim. Mick (that's Michelangelo's close friends called him) didn't follow the standard depiction of John the Baptist. No beard, no halo, no hairy robe. Just a contemplative young man with dirty feet. He's almost brooding. I'm partial to the surly.

Let me tell you, there's nothing like viewing centuries-old art while working on a piece of short end pork ribs stuck between your molars.

Book Club?

Mark Twain

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in starting a book club through this blog? We could all give suggestions as to what is read and then take a vote. Let me know what you all think. For my suggestions I would like to explore the literature of Mark Twain. Maybe The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. We could even dig up more obscure books like his travel literature, Rough It, Old Times on the Mississippi, The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrams' Progress. I personally have not read any of his travel literature. Let me know what you all think.

Brady Bunch Mysteries

This is for Donette, because I don't want her losing sleep over the important questions in life. I seem to remember that they show Alice's room in the last season. She's in a robe with cream on her face. Her boyfriend, Sam the butcher, is in the episode.
...Greg ultimately decides not be become a rock star because he realizes that his identity would be swallowed up in the false facade that is Johnny Bravo. Much like What's-His-Name (Barry Williams) being entirely eclipsed by the character of Greg Brady.
Next Week:
Find out what happened to Carol and Mike's first spouses.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell...

I don't mean to get all churchy and spiritual, but I was thinking last night of my favorite ever General Conference talk, it was truly a fine thing. I was serving in Taylor, TX during the October 2001 conference. Elder Maxwell was always one of my favorites. I enjoyed his spirit, his eloquence in speaking, and that he challenged me to listen.

Well the talk was entitled "The Seventh Commandment: A Shield." I printed it off last to night to see if it was really as good as I remember. I thought it was even better! Even if we don't have issues with chastity, this talk still applies. It is elegant and filled with the spirit. I recommend each of you take the time to click on the link I've provided and read it for yourself, even share it with someone you love. I feel so uplifted from reading this talk last night.

This is really stretching us . . . But as I read the other entries I found it really cool - you all write so well - I will never compare - but here goes. First of all, I have to say what a great time I had chaperoning Alec's friends on his Sr. Trip. We rented a beach house on Balboa Island - a reclaimed island between the mainland and the Newport peninsula in California. Other than making a trip to the grocery store, you can park your car for a week and walk or as I did . . . buy a cool beach cruiser bike, with a basket of course, and you have total freedom and feel like you are ten years old again. There are great little places to eat, shop and of course there is the beach. The beach is accessed via a ferry and unfortunately the price has gone up to $1 ; $1.25 if you have a bike. We are going again with another family in August and I can't wait!! The kids take their long boards and ride them everywhere - we trade off when they want to ride my cool bike. Summer at its best.

As far as reading goes, I have recently read a memoir titled, The Last Lecture. It is a short read of a father about my age dying of pancreatic cancer who wants his children to know who he really was. Originally given as a lecture it was posted on utube before it was written and published. I am now reading a great historical fiction; The Pure Land. It is an account of the Scottish merchant, Thomas Glover, who as a young man sought his fortune in Japan in the 1860's. In addition to his fortune, he was instrumental in overthrowing the Shogun and also lived a life that inspired the opera Madame Butterfly. Mark has just finished reading the Bourne Identity for the second time and is now reading his favorite author of all, Clive Cussler. Yes, fortunately for Mark he is still writing.

Bountiful Sunset on 6/25/2008

By Jon Marrelli

Tonight in Bountiful we had a really fun sunset. I was out with my Cannon G9, and stopped on the street to snap some photos. The haze in the air made the sun very red as it set over the lake. It did not turn out as red in the photo as it really was, but that is probably my failing as a photographer. I took these photos in fully manual mode on my camera; controlling the focus, shutter speed and other variables.

As the sun set, it went behind a group of clouds. It threw a golden light up, and a red light down.

Then as the sun came back out from behind the clouds, it seemed to sink right into the lake.

I have set up two locations to show my photos, if people are interested in them.

jonmarrelli.photoshop.com

and

flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/marrelli/

I would really appreciate any feedback on my photos that people would care to give, as I am actively trying to become a better photographer. Right now photography is my main hobby, as work does not leave me much extra time.

Jon

Local Art Piece Review

This is a self portrait done last year by my wonderful and talented husband, Baron. I am kind of biased but I love this piece. He created it from a black and white photograph of himself taken about seven years ago then altered it in photoshop. Baron is currently working to get his graphic design website up, poorlydrawnpineapple.com. I will let everyone know when that is up and running. In the mean time I am proud of his talent and artistic abilities.

Museum of Idaho...

For those of you who read this on my blog, I'm sorry to be redundant. A few weeks ago Chris and I were in Jackson, WY and we drove through Idaho Falls and found that the Museum of Idaho was doing an exhibit "World of the Pharaohs." Ancient Egypt has always fascinated me. I am curious of the cities they build underground for mummies; why did they build such elaborate tombs, and why did they place pots and such near the bodies? Also, why did they put the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines of the deceased in pots?

We were able to learn of these mysteries and view many of the items recovered from these underground cities. It was very informative. Now I want to learn more.

I'm sorry I don't have photos of the displays, cameras were not allowed as the light could damage these ancient artifacts, but I would highly recommend making the trip to Idaho Falls to view this incredible exhibit. It will be there until November, when it goes back to Boston.

Philadelphea Museum of Art

I recently took a trip to Philly with the family, and while I was there I took almost 1,000 photos. I am going through them (slowly) to find the good ones. Once I get them organized I will be posting them to a photo site, so that everyone can see them.

I am also considering trimming the photos down to a small enough number to print in a photo book. Maybe I can find a way for the family to vote on which ones should be included. I will update on this once I have a better idea of what I want to do.

One photo I took at the Philly Museum of Art is this:



It is called "Jungle Orchid." I had never seen it before, but I really like it. It is an oil on canvas, which gives it that interesting textured effect.

I also visited the Rodan Museum while I was there and really enjoyed myself. I have found that I like good sculpture more than I like paintings or photographs. As I process images I will be posting a number of photos from there.

The first thing you see when you approach the Rodan Museum is the famous Thinker



Rodan used him to symbolize all creative force, and I now have a print of him hanging on my cube wall.

If anyone is interested, the camera I used to take these pictures is the Cannon Powershot G9. It has a large number of features, and takes 12.1 megapixel photos. I have been very happy with it so far.

More Philly stories to come, and an official image gallery where they will not be compressed (if they look bury on your monitor in this post, its cause they got compressed)

Jon

Welcome to Jaydine's Finer Things

Here we are. A repository for all things Jaydine. I've enjoyed the email posts, and perhaps that may be the best venue for sharing. I've sent each of you (and you know who you are) an invitation to be an author with the ability to post directly to this blog. If that is too much of a hassle for you, feel free to simply email me, and I will post for you. However, if you accept the "author" invitation, it will make it easier for you to post comments to this blog. And that's what we really want to see. Dialogue and lots of it.

I've started with some basic links. If you are aware of others web links you'd like displayed. Please let me know. Please take a moment to vote for your favourite family cookie.

Finally, here are some recent emails I thought I would add to our inaugural post.

From Scott:
"I would also like to put in a vote for Jaydine's Finer Things. As far as the finer things in my life, well after two years I'm finally coming to the conclusion of Homer's Iliad. It is surprisingly graphic in it's descriptions of death, and surprisingly detailed in it's genealogy of all the characters. And to think, it all started as an oral story before there was writing and the necessity of literacy. Literacy is so overrated.

As far as music, since I stopped "borrowing" music from the library a few months ago I am not as obsessed with the stuff, however one of the last CD's that I "borrowed" was "Whipped Cream and Other Delights: Rewhipped", the classic Herb Albert album remixed. If anyone would like a copy let me know.

I watched four episodes of Leave it to Beaver last night and three things stood out: Wally is really annoying, Seth kind of has a resemblance to Eddie Haskill, and Ward and June were awful parents. (They left "The Beaver" home alone so they could chaperon Wally at a dance. Beaver was 9 years old! He spent the time alone crushing things with a vice in his dad's garage. Also who would consciously decide to call their kid Beaver or The Beaver.)"

From Blaine:
"Hay Gang,

I recently watched "The Revengers Tragedy" a film based on the 1606 play written by Thomas Middleton, a contemporary of Shakespeare. The film starred some of my favorite British actors: Christopher Eccleston, Eddie Izzard, and Marc Warren. Unfortunately it was not very good. Cant recommend it. A conceptual nightmare really. They tried to make it science fiction of all things. It was like watching an old episode of Max Headroom with iambic pentameter.

As for Literature, I have more of a guilty pleasure than a finer thing to share. I have been reading a Doc Savage. "The Lost Oasis" and "The Sargasso Ogre" are two short stories originally printed in 1933. They contain ghost Zeppelins, lost diamond mines, deadly Egyptian assassins, and desperate amazon women. This stuff will rot your brain. Doc Savage is a super scientist and athlete that fights crime along with his five heroic buddies. They are kind of like the Village People only in the 30's and not openly gay. Doc is considered an early version of the superhero. The stories are fast paced ripping yarns and I cant see several elements later borrowed for Superman, The Fantastic Four, and even Johnny Quest. I must admit, I still think Superman is cooler. I have more pulp heroes of the 30's lined up for reading. I will be reading The Shadow next."

From Donette:

"Hello All,

I think this 'Finer Things' club is a great idea. Maybe it will force me to participate in, read, etc. things other than Parenting magazine or watching PBS kids. I am racking what's left of my oatmeal brain trying to think of the last time I read something worth mentioning. I read a lot of books but most of them are guilty pleasures that can be devoured in a couple of hours (murder mystery's). I guess about six months ago I got into reading books by Pearl S. Buck. Of course everyone has heard of and read "The Good Earth". I read "Sons" and "The Three Daughters of Madame Liang". "Sons" was written in 1933 and it is an amazing story of three sons and what they decide to do with their late fathers inheritance. Each are so different in what they believe and how they live their lives. The fascinating thing to me was the culture. Everything depended on the look of wealth and women were less than nothing in China at that time. It was an amazing book and I liked it better than "The Good Earth". "The Three Daughters of Madame Liang" was a shorter book and more modern. It was written in 1969 about a mother who sends her daughters to America for a better life. The government is failing and the people are loosing their wealth. Chinese-Americans are being called home to China to help the country to progress in science for the benefit of nuclear weapons. Through very calculated ways Madame Liang tries to communicate with her daughters to stay in America but all of her letters are intercepted and read. This book held my interest but is my least favorite of the others. Pearl S. Buck has written a zillion books and I am excited to read more of her work. I don't want to get Buck overload so I read my lame murder mystery's in between the heavier stuff.

I haven't watching anything cultural on tv unless you count retro pop culture. I noticed Scott mentioned "Leave it to Beaver". I do tend to catch rerun episodes of "The Brady Bunch". Have to say I am a big fan and am saving my pennies to buy the complete seasons on DVD (It comes in a green shag carpet DVD box set!) Anyway there are many mystery's to 'The Bunch' like where does Alice sleep? What happened to the ex spouses? Why did Greg not want to be 'Johnny Bravo"? It is all very complex and keeps me up at night, hehe. Alright I'm done. Good night."

From Jan (of Honeysuckle Cottage):

"Family,

My vote is for "Jaydine's Finer Things." Although the Plain City "Shaggy Dog" was a close second. I have just finished watching PBS Masterpiece Theater's "The Complete Jane Austin." Man, I'm using lots of quotations!! Anyway, it was a fine thing being part of the Regency Period for several weeks. (Nothing like a man in boots and breeches). Now that it is summer and there is nothing on TV worth watching I highly recommend watching these shows. They are available on Netflix for those of you who use that service. Alan and I are going to San Francisco for a few days and that is a very fine thing! I hope you are all doing well."