It's only a couple blocks of neon lights and blues clubs, but Beale Street turned out to be an interesting place to unwind in the off-hours during a busy library conference. Co-librarian Bill was intrigued by the sites mentioned in the Joni Mitchell song, "Furry Sings the Blues". Co-librarian Brian was anxious to visit the Gibson guitar factory. I was just "looking up and down Beale Street" for cool stuff to photograph and good barbeque.
"Furry Sings the Blues" is the Joni Mitchell song from the 1976 album Hejira about the demise of Beale Street. She wrote most of the songs on this album while on a solo journey across the country. (Hejira means journey in Arabic.) During her sojourn in Memphis she noticed the statue of W.C. Handy,
[W.C.] "Handy's cast in bronze"
the old Daisy Theater which to us indeed seemed abandoned except for a sign encouraging us to have our next big event there,
The old Daisy
and the New Daisy which during our visit was offering live music including a band called "I Wrestled a Bear Once." If I'm ever in a band, I want them to help me name it.
The New Daisy, across the street from the old
The Gibson Guitar Factory is just off Beale Street, and we managed to spend some time at their store before conference registration opened on Wednesday. Bill and I watched Brian try out some guitars, trying to predict if he would actually purchase one and have it shipped home, and snapping photographs and videos of him and the shop. The factory tour is only an hour, but we just couldn't fit it into our schedule, darn it.
Brian trying out an Epiphone Zakk Wylde Bullseye Les Paul
Beale Street had more to offer us during our future visits including raw rock & roll gift shops,
the opportunity to tour downtown Memphis in a Cinderella-style buggy (most were staffed by one human and one canine),
and our Beale Street grand finale, dinner and live blues at BB King's famous club.
This was a last-minute dinner selection on our last night in Memphis. The place was packed, but miraculously, we got a table right near the stage. The Will Tucker Band was performing--four pieces led by the young Will Tucker who looked like Justin Bieber but was a guitar VIRTUOSO! He plays at B.B. King's Blues Club every Friday and Saturday, but...but....not the following (Saturday) night because he would be attending his senior prom. Lucky we were there to see him on Friday night. This kid was fantastic, better than fantastic, and my jaw dropped to the floor (figuratively) when I read about his prom and high school graduation on his blog: http://willtuckermusic.com/fr_bio.cfm. (And he has some free music on there, please look.) In any event, we stayed for two sets and maybe more because this band was so good. What a treat!
B.B. King's Blues Club had another treat for us, too. Hung high on the wall behind Bill were four portraits of blues musicians, one bearing the name of Furry Lewis. I wasn't sure if I should know this already, but was this the same Furry from the Joni Mitchell song? If I pointed it out to Bill, would he say, "Duh, of course there is a portrait of Furry Lewis in B.B. King's Blues Club, duh." I decided to take a chance since Bill is usually polite when I say stupid stuff. Well, evidently it is not common knowledge that the song is about a real old-time blues guy named Furry. Bill seemed glad to learn that.
Anyway, here's more of that young Will Tucker and his band, technically in B.B. King's Nashville club, but it's a good-quality video:
Elvis's house is smaller than I thought it would be. It was even kind of humble underneath the garish 1970s decor. Even the garish decor was not all that garish...for the 1970s. We got to tour the main floor of the mansion, the trophy room, the racquetball court now filled with costumes and gold records, and the Meditation Garden where Elvis, his parents, and paternal grandmother are buried. You can't deny this man oozed charisma, but after this tour I felt like I would have really liked him.
Elvis's Rec Room--Note Margaret and Bill, Photographers
Elvis bought this house in 1957 for $100,000 when he was just 22. He was making good on a promise to his parents, Vernon and Gladys, that he would someday give them a comfortable place to live. That he did. The name Graceland came with the house--Elvis bought it from a doctor who had named it after his favorite Aunt Grace.
Wanna see some photos?
Living Room
The ridiculously difficult-to-photograph and famous Jungle Room
Elvis could watch the three major networks at the same time in his TV Room.
Elvis, his parents Vernon and Gladys, and his paternal grandmother Minnie Mae, are buried in the Meditation Garden beside the pool beside the house.
The Duckmaster feeds the ducks at the Peabody fountain.
People know about the Peabody ducks. I was headed to Memphis for the Distance Library Services Conference taking place at the Peabody Hotel. "Oh! Is that the place with the ducks?!" Why, yes it is! You have to get in place about an hour before the ducks walk in order to see them on their red carpet. They live in a penthouse on the hotel's roof and ride the elevatior down to the red carpet leading to their lobby fountain everyday at 11:00am, and they return to their posh digs at 5:00pm.
The five Peabody Ducks live in a posh penthouse which features a replica Peabody duck bedroom.
The Duckmaster (only the fifth to hold the title since the duck tradition started in 1940) greets the crowd and tells the history of the ducks: after a hunting trip in 1940, the hotel manager and his friend put their decoy ducks in the fountain, and the ducks stayed there all night. Seventy-plus years ago, hotel guests thought the ducks were really cool, and by the looks of this crowd, they still do!
There's the current Duckmaster addressing the huge crowed assembled to watch the ducks.
Here come the ducks!
The Peabody Hotel has become my favorite-ever hotel. It's fancy but comfortable and welcoming, and I'm not just saying that because my bathroom had a TV. Since our whole conference happened in this hotel, we were always running into friendly Distance Learning librarians to chat with about learning modlues, assessment, and the best restaurants. The lobby with its beautiful fountain, comfy furniture, constant piano music, and the DUCKS was a wonderful place to meet with friends and colleagues. The Peabody is still a center for Memphis nightlife--you should have seen the outfits (and SHOES) standing in line to go up to the weekly roof party on Thursday night! We got to go up there in more sensible shoes for our conference's opening reception just in time for sunset on Wednesday evening.
The Peabody sign atop the Peabody roof.
Everywhere we looked we saw artifacts of the Peabody Hotel's enchanting history.
"One ringy-dingy..."
Bill and Brian place some private calls...collect!
Today I took a mental health day and went to New York City to shop for fabric and trims. I was headed to Mood, the fabric store featured on the TV show Project Runway, plus a couple of other shops nearby that sell trims and ribbons. These stores and many more sources of fabric, buttons, ribbons, and beads are in New York's famous Midtown Garment District concentrated on 37th and 38th Streets between 6th and 7th. The actual Garment District is bigger than that; Parsons School of Design and scores of sample shops that sell to retail stores are here, too. Delicious, fashion-forward window shopping.
The huge M&J Trimming on 6th Avenue
I focused on selecting some supplies for a crazy quilt--you know, those heavily embroidered Victorian silk and velvet quilts. The Tinsel Trading Company on 37th Street is full of ribbon, tassels, buttons, beads, fringe, beaded fringe, beaded appliques and generally cool stuff. Tinsel Trading has an interesting history specializing in metallic trims and threads. I scored a bag full of various metallic trim remnants. My other stop today was Hyman Hendler and Sons, a 38th Street shop full of exquisite imported ribbons. I kept to my list here as the ribbons are quite expensive.
I've been sewing since the Nixon administration, and I made most of my own clothes from difficult Vogue patterns when I started working full-time during the Reagan administration. During Bush II and Obama I have sewn sporadically, but I have always found the activity of attaching fabric parts with tiny machine or hand stitches an effective way to relax. One thing I've learned in all my years of sewing is that I must have a shopping list when I enter a fabric store or else I tend to lose control a little. My list for Mood, my main destination, was carefully composed the night before. Plan A was to find some heavyweight red silk for a skirt, but I had Plans B, C, D, and E ready.
Fabric at Mood is stored on
cardboard rolls.
Each roll has a tag like this
stuffed in the end showing price
and fabric content.
Finding Mood was an adventure. I had the address, 225 West 37th Street, but there was no sign. You have to know where the store is, and you have to know to enter what looks like an office building lobby. Then, you have to know to venture up the stairs with the fire extinguishers at the base, and climb up to the third floor. Thousands of fabric rolls wait inside, grouped by fabric content and fabric type. I was after silks, remember, but so were a lot of other shoppers. I took this opportunity to explore the rest of the store, three floors of high-end designer fabrics, buttons, trims, and the famous Swatch the Dog. I enjoyed pretending to consider $50-per-yard designer silks and brocades, and ultimately found a nice piece of red silk/wool blend for a skirt. The salespeople were friendly and helpful, and as I waited in line, Swatch the dog, frequently seen on Project Runway, came right over to me to make friends.
Swatch
After about four hours in the Garment District, I had gathered enough supplies, ideas, and inspiration to keep me going for awhile, and I window-shopped my way back to an express train boarding on Track 7. It was a good day of city-walking, train-reading, and fabric-shopping. I needed that!
A few years ago, at an intensive workshop that had to do with teaching and libraries and stuff, we participants were asked to write a few sentences on our favorite teacher of all time. I was so moved by this experience that I expanded the tiny essay into a larger one for a contest. I tied for first place! I use this ice breaker exercise in my own workshops, (a new one starts on Monday), and I thought you might like to read my expanded essay about Dr. Carrow:
I sat at a table with seven other mid-career college librarians. Our exercise was to write a short essay about our favorite teacher ever and then share with the group. Ultimately we were to discover what made these teachers successful and incorporate those techniques into our own teaching.
Dr. Carrow in the 1980s
I wrote about Dr. Stimson Carrow, a Music Theory professor with whom I studied as an undergraduate and graduate student at Temple University. He was everyone’s favorite, really, after they got over the shock of having to come to class prepared. He was tough on us undergraduates, drilling us on scales, chords and key signatures (the language of Music Theory) until as he said, we’d be able to recite all of the key signatures “in the middle of the night at the point of a gun.” He addressed us by Mr., Miss or Mrs. And our last name. No other professors did that. He took the time to learn all of our names and the correct pronunciation.
In graduate school he relaxed a bit and frequently took us on wild tangents that put his passion for music in context and helped us understand Dr. Carrow as a real person. He told us about the time he “borrowed” an army Jeep in Germany so he could go visit J.S. Bach’s grave in Leipzig. When I visited Leipzig on a recent tour of Germany, Dr. Carrow was as much on my mind as J.S. Bach. He also told us about the time he was locked up (I don’t remember why) and taught the other prisoners in his cell Music Theory. No one doubted that story. Dr. Carrow also taught the eye-opening Aesthetics course which somehow helped us appreciate music, art, literature and history and tied them all together. That course changed the way I think about arts and culture, so important in my life.
As I read my essay years later at the librarians’ conference, I began to weep. My neighbor had to finish reading for me. The other people at the table were touched and shed tears, too. How odd. No one was more surprised by this than me. It was at this moment that I realized all the things I do when teaching that are unconsciously modeled on Dr. Carrow. My stories aren’t as interesting as Dr. Carrow’s, but I try to put the students at ease: everyone is new to the library at some time or another. I’ve learned to respect each and every student because I’ll never know their whole story or what makes them tick. And whenever I’m speaking, whether it’s to students, faculty, conference participants or whoever, I strive to make my content interesting and relevant. I imagine them asking, “What’s in it for me?’ and then I tell them. It works: I’m even invited to speak about library topics now.
Dr. Carrow has been gone for some time now, so I’ll never be able to tell him how much his Music Theory and Aesthetics classes made me a better librarian. If I had thought to ask, “What’s in it for me?” back in Dr. Carrow’s classes, the answer would have gone something like this: a thorough knowledge of Music Theory, a new appreciation for all of the arts, and an ability to put listeners at ease and even make them laugh. Dr. Carrow was a man of faith and dreamed of sitting beside J.S. Bach on the organ bench in heaven to turn his music pages. Maybe I’ll catch up with him there, although I’m not sure J.S. Bach needs printed music!
From my Temple University Alumni Magazine: Dr. Carrow in 1962
Welcome to my blog, and welcome to Philadelphia if you are visiting. With this "guide" post I hope to give you some links to my Philadelphia-themed posts so that you don't have to slog through the blog to find them efficiently. I write about places mostly, so please explore my blog for my take on the places I visit. I try to tell the story of my experience in each, with lots of pictures and some history.
If you haven't been to Philadelphia before, you MUST visit some historical spots! There are so many you might not know where to start, but I suggest you start by reading my blog on the topic for ideas. Ben Franklin must be Philadelphia's all-time favorite son so you might want to focus on his life. Check out his legacy here.
One of the most fascinating places I've even been in Philadelphia is Eastern State Penitentiary. It's about four blocks north of the Art Museum and easily within walking distance from the Convention Center.
For a quiet, meditative space, visit Washington Square, just east of Center City and south of the Convention Center.
For something completely unique, head to South Street (tons of restaurants and bars) where you'll find Philadelphia's Magic Gardens. Bring thy camera.
The Convention Center blooms every year with the famous Philadelphia Flower Show. I blogged about it in 2010 and in 2009 (part one and part two). The famous flowers will be blooming while the Innovations 2012 conference is going on...just in case you haven't heard.
Here is my take on the ships of Philadelphia's waterfront, Penn's Landing.
I lived in and explored this city in the 1980s as a graduate student in Music. One day, 25 or so years later, I set out to retrace my steps and visit my old haunts.
You may be interested in accompanying me to Bucks County:
Have you heard of Smash books? Most people I talk to have not. I hadn't until I saw them at a craft store displayed with all of their snazzy accessories. At first I wrote them off as a trend that would soon evaporate, meant for teens and 'tweens. I continued to consider the concept. The official Smash books (that's a brand-name with a capital 'S') are spiral-bound books similar to a scrapbook . Most of the pages are already decorated with colors, patterns, or drawings on a theme such as flowers, doodles, travels, etc. The Smash book creator is encouraged to add notes and drawings of their own with the pen that comes with the book, and to glue-in photos and other memorabilia with the glue stick at the opposite side of the pen. The Smash book creator is also encouraged to be messy and just get the ideas into the book any old way.
It was this last sentence that stuck in my mind, and I came to see the smash book idea (that's the concept with a small 's') as a great way to organize thoughts. So, low on cash, I decided to make my own smash book with a hard-cover spiral notebook. Evening after evening, I sat with my smash-notebook and jotted down notes about places I would like to go or return to. I clipped photos from old travel catalogs, and maps (some showing tours like the Christmas cruise on the Danube below), and I raided my scrapbooking supplies for stickers and papers.
Wouldn't you love to cruise the Danube at Christmastime, stopping at Christmas markets in Europe's great cities?
I was determined not to make my smash book fussy and fancy like my scrapbooks are supposed to be--those showcase my photos of places I've been. This smash book is supposed to be messy, capturing the dreams and imaginations I hold in my head about these places. The pages came out looking like a teen or 'tween had created them, but that's what I wanted. How often do we adults exercise our unbridled imagination in such a way? I may never visit all of these places, but if the opportunity arises, I will be ready. I included some pages on desired travel gear, too. As I explored the popular site Pinterest, I found more ideas for Smash or smash books. I created my own Pinterest smash book idea board .
My smash book no longer closes, but it's going to get thicker.
If I had stopped right there, this still would have been a fun exercise, but I began to think of people who had visited these places already. Why not ask them what they remember most fondly and keep those memories with my notes? So I asked friends about Italy and India, and included notes from a colleague's talk about a trip to Greece and Turkey. My smash book pages were getting full, so I had to insert these on folded bits of paper like a pop-up book.
My Greece spread with sites to see, notes, pictures, stickers, movie titles, and impressions from another traveler on a yellow pop-up
This is a great way to organize ideas. I finally sprung for a brand-name Smash book and decided to devote 2-page spreads to ideas for future articles. I already have recorded possible sources, drawings, ideas for interviews, quotes, and possible angles and organization strategies for the actual writing. This little 'tween/teen activity has become a great visual organizing tool! Got a notebook? Try it.
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