inside the Symphony Hall

…but I have a confession to make – I actually did not know the full story of the Pied Piper, only knew bits and pieces.  So I didn’t know what to expect. But it was great! The conductor began the show by describing the plot, then having the orchestra play music representative of the different characters in the story so that we’d know when the characters were involved during the musical performance. I think our favorite “character” was the music for the rats; it was very appropriate.  On top of that, they had a performance group on stage acting out the story and the conductor continued to provide explanation.  I think all the kids and adults alike enjoyed it – I know our family did!

Kaleya poses outside after the show is over

After the symphony, we then headed out to Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. This was my second visit there, my first one having been back in September.  This time, our visit was free as Kaleya’s school was having a Family Fun Day and we could enter at no charge.

When I went in the fall, it was Kaleya and I, so I’d been wanting to take the boys to visit – this was the perfect opportunity.  We arrived at about 1:30 and spent the next couple of hours walking the grounds, playing around the ponds, and going through the museum.

by the pond

turtle peeks his head out

Miles and Jihad exploring the pond

the kids in front of the house

Miles did not really drink the water!

The exhibits in the museum changed since my last visit and one I particularly enjoyed was the Red Grooms exhibit. We have some of his artwork displayed in the library where I work – the Eskind Biomedical Library at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. My favorite piece was cool, and I didn’t even get the name of it. You can see it at about 1:20 into the video below about Red Grooms and his wife.  Red is a Nashville native so I really should make more of an effort to learn about his artwork.

In all, we had a great day today! Tomorrow, I look forward to staying in and relaxing though.

The nachos were ridiculous!

They had a guy on stilts interacting with the crowd

and making balloon hats for the kids (and some adults)

Kaleya gets a flower hat

We may be investigating having Kalonji’s birthday party here this summer. Good food, great music, and great fun.

Kaleya holds her new latch hook kits

working the latch hook

more hook work

She got a little bored with it, but hopefully, as we make it an activity we do together, she will become more interested.

Kaleya's first WIP picture.

Great job Kaleya!

Dr. Muhammad’s talk was titled ”Partners in Crime: Statistics and The Logic of Post-racialism” and was educational and interesting. His discussion started with the 1890 census, so you know my genealogical ears perked right on up! There were so many aspects to his talk that I couldn’t begin to do him justice here, but he has a book published “The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America” so we plan to pick that up so we can read more.

Generally speaking, Dr. Muhammad talked from a sociological-historical perspective on how statistics have been used to argue viewpoints on crime statistics of blacks and how it is important to look beyond the numbers in search of the background context. After the lecture, we had a chance to speak to Dr. Muhammad and even Jihad got a picture!

Now, despite having been at Vanderbilt for close to 12 years now, I’ve never been over to the Black Cultural Center. Guess there’s a first for everything. It is a nice building and I enjoyed the current art displays – art was by Tamara Madden.

We had an overall great night! Thanks Dr. Muhammad for the talk. Oh, did I mention that he is also a great-grandson of Elijah Muhammad? Kalonji got the biggest kick out of that!

Krazyie, Kelli & Wish

BTNH T-Shirt w/ Krazyie & Wish signatures

To hear Kelli tell it, it was great music and great fun! I sent a Tweet to Krayzie to let him know she’d enjoyed it, and then Krazyie tweeted me back! How cool is that???

and he tweeted me back

Maybe next time they come through I’ll be able to go.

What an amazing day we had on our day trip to Chattanooga today.  In 13 years of living in Nashville, we have done little to explore our surrounding areas. I’m determined to change that and today we started with Chattanooga; I’ve been wanting to go to Lookout Mountain for awhile.  So go we did.

I took many pictures, but here are some highlights.

Lookout Mountain – was our first destination. It is literally a small town up there, with churches, schools, and more. We drove up to the top to Point Park to look around.  We went to the Eastern Overlook and looked out upon Chattanooga. It was really chilly up there so we didn’t stay long; didn’t even go over to Umbrella Rock, but next time. The National Park Service’s Visitor Center has a nice mural depicting the “Battle of the Clouds” that happened there, so it was informational.

a sign to go up the mountain

kids in front of Point Park gate

view from the Eastern Overlook

Lunchtime at Hill City Pizza – it was time for lunch by the time we finished looking around Point Park, so we found our way over to Hill Street Pizza. Lunch was GOOD!!!

Hill City Pizza

my lunch - burger and baked potato salad

Covenant College – I’d done some reading prior to our visit and learned of this campus on the mountain, so I wanted to drive and see it. So glad we did. It was absolutely idyllic.  I could only imagine going to school in a setting like this – literally, perched on the mountaintop and tucked away.  It is the beginning of Spring Break so there was hardly anyone on campus.  The chapel was beautiful and the views amazing. What was really neat was that the main hall can be seen from the interstate below.  Go to the picture album (link below) to see.

Carter Hall at Covenant College

the boys wave

beautiful scenery at the college

Covenant College chapel

Hunter Museum of American Art - after Covenant College, we descended the mountain. Since the weather was chilly, we thought it best to save Rock City & Ruby Falls for another day.  The Incline Railway isn’t open for the season yet, so we couldn’t do that either. So down the mountain we went.

We were making our way to the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge and saw the museum was right next door. Free admission the 1st Sunday of each month meant we were going! It was 4:20 when we got there, so we only had about 30 minutes, but we made the most of it! The art we did see was nice; they had a great kids book for Kaleya, and I was even impressed by her interpretation of a piece of art (Elizabeth Murray’s “Rollin’ Stone” – while not what the artist says it is, I could see Kaleya’s point in that she thought it had something to do with the heart and the human body.)

the glass bridge

Kaleya's museum book

i don't think they wanted to take this picture

Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge – longest pedestrian bridge in the world. We walked across it and enjoyed the views. Afterwards, we had ice cream at a shop next to it, the Ice Cream Show.  They offered more than 17,000 flavors of ice cream – what?!? I had the Winter Wonderland – vanilla with oreos and peppermint.

view from the pedestrian bridge

on the pedestrian bridge

view from bridge of Lookout Mountain

Then, we made our way back home. Incredible day!! I checked in so many times on FourSquare that I became #1 of all my FourSquare friends – a first for me!

my FourSquare status - oh yeah!

All of the pictures are online here, but here is a slideshow.

4:43pm - 1st round gone, but 2nd wave coming.

4:33pm – back upstairs from the basement. Shuttles were all parked in the circle at work.

4:05 pm — the weather Was right on top of us. Am in the basement at work.

3:50pm – well, here’s a bright spot to my afternoon – Kaleya’s monkey from a school project.  Still waiting to go to the basement at work. Sirens going off at work.

3:38pm – the job just announced we are in “Standby” for the tornado.

3:30pm.  – This movie is part of the reason why I am scared of tornadoes.

3:15 pm

3pm – Okay – so, I am a bit freaked out right now. We have tornado activity (or very possible tornado activity) headed towards Nashville right now. Thought I would live blog it as I am tracking all that is going on.

• cells on the other side of Memphis are what is coming our way; activity southwest of us in Lincoln County has hook echoes and at least one report of a funnel touchdown
• The Weather Channel has reporters in town now prepping for the coverage. Not cool. Check out their spot - they can see downtown Nashville.
• Kelli says this reminders her of the earthquakes
• oh! brand new tornado warning to the west of Nashville – storms travelling 70mph

At the park we first went to the Nature Center to see what they had. It was fun! Stuffed animals, dead snake skins, a geological exhibit, a “tree-trunk” interactive area, and more awaited us in there.

We then went outside to walk around the trails some.  We didn’t stay long since it was more than a little chilly, but we’ll be back out there soon.

After the park we then went to the bookstore. Picked up a movie for Kaleya, and books for everyone else.

At the store there was a great book about comic-cons. Many, many pictures of the cosplay and one that had girls all dressed up like princesses.

Then, we picked up a fabulous book of New York Times newspaper covers spanning 1851-2009. The book itself has selected covers, but the DVDs that come with it have the full-text of ALL covers and the front page articles. This will make excellent educational fodder for the kiddos.

What a great day we had!