This is a test to see how mobile posting looks on this blog. This is only a test.

So many networks, sites, etc., so little time

For most of this trip I have been posting on my FaceBook account. You can find me by my user name, kingjean. All the photos are there.

I'll be updating this blog once I'm back home. Right now I'm at the tail end of my trip. I'm sitting around in un-air conditioned London typing this as I wait to print out my boarding passes for tomorrow's flight back to the states.

All in all it's been a good trip, drank from a water fall, went to a castle or two, toured a fjord, rode the vaporettos around Venezia, and went to art and museum shows everywhere I went. What more could I want except more time and cooler temperatures?

See you all soon back home in Texas.

Day 2: Milan

First view after exiting the Metro

I took the Metro down to the Duomo this morning.

After looking around the neighborhood of my hotel, which feels a great deal like Houston, flat, hot and humid, it was wonderful to come up from the underground to a setting that could be no place else but Italy.

The morning was cool enough to be enjoyable. I wandered around the area of the Duomo and the Galleria for several hours observing architecture and people.

I have no pictures of the interior of the Duomo. Apparently I am one of the only people taking the signs at the entrance seriously, for inside the Duomo is full of tourists blatantly violating the rules posted at the door. A series of signs using the international "No" sign show what not to do. No cell phones. No cameras. Inside the cool, dim interior is a light show of strobe flashes from the tourists' cameras. Several people walk about, cellphone to ear, seemingly unaware of their surroundings. In the midst of all the intrusions and confusion, over on one side of the church are several confessionals where several priests are listening to the various sins of their congregation. I have to wonder if any of them are confessing to taking photos and talking on their cellphones.

For 8 Euro, I took an elevator ride to the roof of the Duomo


Gargoyle on the roof of the Duomo


Bambini should be held by the hand. Do not dangle them by the feet or hold them by the throat or hair. Oh, yes, and no smoking by you or the kiddos.

Meanwhile, back down on the piazza.


I was wondering whether this boy's older brother was helping him out by turning him into a human bird feeder or if he was hoping the pigeons would either fly away with or devour him.


Bicycle rental on the piazza


In Milan even the fashionistas ride bicycles, in platform shoes yet. I loved this woman's attire and her well-groomed dog.


The Galleria, inspiration for the Galleria in Houston, Texas or so they say.


Inside the Galleria, in the same structure where you find Prada, you can find a lovely McDonalds.


A beggar just inside the Galleria. It was impossible to tell anything about this person. The scarf completely concealed their face and head. They shook and quivered, although I noticed that the hand with the basket for coins seemed steady enough.

I was reminded of Hieronymous Bosch's paintings. There was something incredibly disturbing about this person.

I took this last photo and wandered back outside. When I returned less than five minutes later there was no sign of the beggar anywhere. Your guess is as good as mine.

I wandered on.

I took a break in one of the stores, enjoyed a gelato and headed back to the hotel in time to take a nap before time for dinner.

Summer Approaches

The countdown is on. Only two weeks to go. Only 9 work days to go. Only 7 and a half days with kids to go. Now, subtract the 5th grade field trip on Tuesday and Field Day for the third through fifth grade on Friday, and you have 5 and a half days of teaching. Minus, of course, the class parties and awards ceremonies leaves what?

This summer there is very little travel in my plans. Instead, I will be taking time to do more here at home. There's so much to do and there just may be enough time!

There are two one-day mini conferences scheduled during the first two weeks of the summer by the Museum of Fine Arts and Area VI of the Texas Art Education Association at the museum and the Glassell School. CEDFA has it's usual summer session. A Community Bridge Program course is being held at the Glassell School during the end of the summer. The Holocaust Museum Houston has a Summer Institute.

I'll be setting up my studio which involves rearranging the entire house. I'll be spending some time in the studio for a change. I've been filling up on ideas and images for the past few years. Now to process them.

There's also all this new technology to play with and plans to be made. There are wikis and VoiceThreads, Twitter and FaceBook, not to mention Nings. There are presentations to be planned and lessons to be put together.

I've already started putting together the materials I need for Area VI of TAEA. Lots of new ideas there, too!

Finally, I'm working on a program for teaching knitting with parents and kids. I have a lot of work to do on that end. More about this project, Knit Together, later.

We need to do a lot around the house. Our deck and porch need to be redone. We need to get a new refrigerator and mattress. Lots of fun projects to come! You can follow along if you like.

For those who've gone before

Once again, I've managed to go months without posting.

Since last I posted I applied for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to attend a seminar in Assisi and Siena, Italy. I didn't get this one. I don't receive every grant I apply for, I'm simply hard headed enough or possibly determined enough to keep applying. Persistence pays off.

Barb and me

Right now I'm thinking about my friends who are no longer among us. My friend, Barb Jones, passed away of cancer on my sister's birthday back at the beginning of March. Virgil Grotfeldt, who I was acquainted with from my UH days, died on my daughter's birthday in February. No causal relationship between the birthdays and the deaths, just weird coincidence.

Barb's self portrait, painted not long before her death from uterine cancer

Both of them will be sadly missed. Two excellent artists gone. The world is a little less for the loss.

When I travel I carry a small leather photo album. Inside it are photos of friends and family, At the very back are photographs of friends who never got the opportunity to travel to the places that I've gone.

There's Allison Magee. She taught fifth grade at the same school as me here in Houston. She was an awesome teacher, creative, talented and loved by her students. She was talented and creative. She died July 4th, 2001, a month after Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston, another one of those coincidences. I miss her. She was fun to work with and we roomed together a couple of times at conferences. Her death was a tragic case of the state of the medical system here in the US. She was waiting on the insurance company to stop procrastinating and get her in for testing. It was a sad, unnecessary loss.

My friend Malcolm Smith is there, too. He was almost 45 years old when he died on October 27, 1996. He was a good musician and friend. He died in his sleep.

Roger Ruffcorn, Zeke Zuelke, Bruce Henry Davis, Bruce McIlheny, Townes van Zandt and Colleen Cade are all gone, but not forgotten. I still remember holding baby Colleen while her parents, Bill and Lucille Cade, performed at Anderson Fair. The longer I think and remember, the more friends come to mind.

When I travel I remember all of these friends. I carry them with me in my photo album, in my mind and in my heart. They inspire me to keep on going.

Well, gotta go. I'm trying to figure out where to go next. Will it be Yad Vashem in Israel? or a mosque in New Mexico? Who knows, but I'll be taking my friends with me where ever I go.