IA Day 3- Windmills, Wild Things, and Works of Art
Today I started out by leaving Des Moines to head back to Cedar Rapids where the night’s open mic would be. But I took a pretty roundabout, scenic route there. My first stop was the small town of Pella, most famously home to the tallest windmill in North America. The towering Vermeer Windmill was built in the Netherlands in the 1850s, disassembled, and shipped to Pella, where it was rebuilt in 2002. Beyond being a local landmark and a nod to the city’s history of Dutch immigrants, the windmill is also totally functional and the local bakeries use it to grind their grains which is super charming.
While in Pella, I strolled around and got my morning joe at the cozy and artsy Smokey Row Coffee. They had all kinds of fun and fancy coffee flavors, and the shop had a warm and friendly atmosphere that made it a really perfect local hang-out spot.
After getting my coffee, I couldn’t leave town without visiting an authentic Dutch bakery, so I made a stop at Vander Ploeg Bakery where I got an absolutely fantastic confection called a Dutch Letter which is an S-shaped pastry that’s soft on top and cookie-ish on the bottom with a sweet almond paste in the middle. It was amazing, and as far as morning pit stops go this one couldn’t have gone much better.
My next pit stop was a cute bit of nerdiness located behind an old barbershop in the small town of Riverside: The Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk, captain of the Starship Enterprise. It was revealed in Gene Roddenberry's book, Making of Star Trek, that Captain Kirk will be born in a small town in Iowa sometime in the 2200s (the exact year is a source of some very spirited and very geeky debate though the date March 22 is agreed upon and happens to be William Shatner’s actual birthday. ), and the mayor of Riverside thought, “Why couldn’t that town be Riverside?”. In 1985, the town council passed a motion to officially declare themselves the birthplace to be and erected a little plaque behind a barbershop the mayor owned. Since then, it’s become home to an annual Trekkie convention, and when the new Star Trek movie came out in 2009, they made it officially part of the canon that the town is indeed the birthplace. When it’s not convention time, there isn’t a ton to do other than see the little monument, but it’s a fun story and a nice way to break up a long drive.
My next stop for the day was the Figge Art Museum in Davenport. The museum is thought to be the first municipal art museum in the country, and its expansive 115,000 square feet contains the museum’s impressive permanent collection, the collection of the University of Iowa’s Art Museum (their gallery space flooded in 2008 and is still being renovated), and a number of traveling exhibits.
The first gallery I entered featured a special exhibition practically designed to delight me: a retrospective of works by the late, great children’s book writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak. Sendak was most famous for his books Where The Wild Things Are, Little Bear, and In the Night Kitchen among over 100 others (He was also a huge grump which I loved, and this interview he did on the old Colbert show always cracks me up: https://www.cc.com/video/gzi3ec/the-colbert-report-grim-colberty-tales-with-maurice-sendak-pt-1)! I love how his art blends the macabre and the whimsical in a way that captures childlike imagination without a hint of condescension. He was really a unique and wonderful talent, and getting to see so many original pieces in one place really showed off how versatile he was. Sadly I lost some of my photos when my phone crashed, but the ones I was able to save still do the exhibit justice:
In one corner of the gallery, there was a really lovable bit of curation in the form of a life size recreation of Max’s tent from Where the Wild Things Are with a sweetly sleeping wild thing curled up beside it. It was really well done, but the real treat was getting to see little kids visiting the museum get so excited to get to sit inside. If I heart, it’d be warmed.
My favorite part of the exhibit was a wall with quotes from fans of Sendak young and old. I didn’t get a photograph of my favorite quote which was from a mom who wrote Maurice a letter saying that she met him at a book signing and he did an original drawing for her and when she gave it to the boy “He loved it so much, he immediately ate it.” Maurice wrote her a letter back saying it was the greatest compliment he ever received. I loved every part of reading that, and it says so much about Sendak’s kinship with his biggest fans.
The next gallery featured works from the museum’s annual College Invitational in which young artists from colleges around the state compete for cash prizes from the museum’s scholarship fund.
My favorite pieces included: a dreamy oil painting by Elizabeth Braun called Neverland; a nautically Pop Art-y portrait of an octopus by Caitlin Coufee; an incredibly vivid pen and crayon diptych by Brianna Leon; and a truly nightmarish pastel drawing of a monstrous Ronald McDonald called McDemon by Amy Vellenga-Buban.
Accompanying these more two-dimensional artworks were some equally impressive sculptural pieces. My favorites of these included: an almost medieval-looking assemblage of sculpted wood and found objects called Entertaining Angels Unaware by Gail Ray; a beautifully minimalist steel, plaster, and concrete sculpture by Nicholas Callaway called The Space Between; a hilariously revolting ceramic sculpture called Froggy Trump by Eden Haas; an astoundingly lifelike ceramic sculpture of a crab covered in Hydrangea flowers by Taylor Jones; and a massive Claes Oldenburg-y ceramic Rosary Beads by Roberto Torres.
Next up were selection’s from the University of Iowa’s art collection, which featured a collection of 20th century American and European art, some contemporary pieces, and older works on paper.
My favorite pieces included: a surrealist still life by Fernand Léger; a insanely detailed landscape etching by Rembrandt; a dreamily warped city scene called the Disquieting Muses by Giorgio di Chirico; an emotional cubist portrait of a sleeping carpenter by André Masson; a surprisingly lighthearted impressionistic farm scene by Edvard Munch; an amusingly ethereal photograph of a looming blimp by the great Alfred Stieglitz; a humorous drawing of a tornado blowing through a musical score by Bill Lombardo called Concerto for Extreme Low Pressure; a lovably cartoony abstract cityscape by proto pop-artist Stuart Davis; and a hieroglyphic-esque painting of a fish by Joaquín Torres-García.
In the center of the gallery was one of my favorite pieces, a ceramic sculpture called Landscape Rider by Christine Federighi of an abstract figure straddling a landscape painted around a clay sculpture in the form of a house. It was both technically impressive and deeply silly (my favorite kind of art), plus it reminded me of Slim Pickens riding the bomb at the end of Dr. Strangelove which is a nice bonus.
Next up was the museum’s collection of Haitian Art. The museum’s collection of gorgeous paintings and metal sculptures from Haiti was one of the first such collections in the United States. Highlights for me included: an intricate metal sculpture called Children and Birds by Seresier Louis-Juste; a beautiful rendering of the Madonna and Child by Paul Claude Gardere; a landscape painting with a lion hilariously staring at the viewer and sticking out his tongue by Damien Paul; a heart painting of religious imagery by Jasmin Joseph; a very surreal and vibrantly colored scene called Eternal Flower by Yves Michel; and a painting of the goddess Mami Wata sitting in a surprisingly feminine tree by an artist whose name I didn’t get.
The next gallery was dedicated to Early 20th Century American art with a focus on different scene studies. It was pretty impressive smattering of great American painters, and my favorites included: a really lovely oil painting sketch by Grant Wood called Study for Fall Plowing; a dramatic scene of lightning really surprising a wild pony called Spring Storm by Thomas Hart Benton; a gentle but perfectly rendered still life of pears by Marvin Cone; a gauzy desert sunset called Landscape with Cloud by Marvin Cone; an impressionistic farm scene called Truck Garden by Grant Wood; a pointillist scene by John Bloom called Picking Weeds; a comically serious portrait of an artist who looks suspiciously like Grant Wood painting in front of barn while a crowd of people watch over his shoulder called Return from Bohemia by Grant wood; and an absolutely incredible piece Georgia O’Keeffe that was temporarily on loan to the museum called Flower Abstraction which was one of the paintings that really helped define her mature style and launch her to superstardom .
The next gallery continued the trend of Americana with works inspired by the American West. In general, from my travels through the southwest I was surprised by how much I liked this Western Art because I tend to be skeptical of glorifying the old west, but the visual storytelling and landscape scene in so many Western paintings are really stunning. Highlights for me included: an expansive view of the Grand Canyon by the great William Leigh; a pensive scene of a Colorado Ranger having a contemplative rest at the end of long journey by Frank Tenney Johnson; and another more action packed painting by Frank Tenney Johnson of a shootout on the Salt Lake Trail.
At the center of the gallery were some mighty impressive cowboy sculptures. On the left is a very mournful looking cowboy whose artist I didn’t record sadly and on the left are some joyous bronze rough riders by the iconic Frederic Remington.
After the Old West room, the next gallery I visited was entirely dedicated to the works of possibly America’s most famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The gallery included furniture designed by Wright, mock rooms arranged in the sort of layouts he would have chosen, original architectural sketches, art he had commissioned for various buildings, and of course some of his famous windows. Wright seemed like more than a bit of an ego-maniac, and he’d also be the first to admit that some of his furniture was not actually super comfortable to use, but it’s hard not to appreciate his unique eye as a visual artist and getting to see everything in one place like that really does make an incredible impression.
My favorite part of the gallery was this photo of an office building filled with young women all sitting at identical Frank Lloyd Wright designed desks. It looks like some sort of retro image of people thought the future would like in the early 20th century, like something out of the movie Brazil.
Up next was a gallery of 19th century European art wit a blend of romanticism and realism. My favorites here included: a emotionally powerful bronze sculpture called the Exiles by Mathurin Moreau; an impressionistic watercolor landscape by and artist who I didn’t write down; a strikingly dignified portrait of a cow by Rosa Bonheur; a richly detailed portrait of an upper class woman visiting a fortune tell by the Italian painter Achille Glisenti; a very fantastical sunset scene of weird look trees with a volcano in the background by William Haseltine; and a very cute painting by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer called The Pets of a young girl having a woodland picnic with a fawn.
Walking into the next gallery I passed by one of the museum’s most stunning pieces, an absolutely insane stained glass window called The River of Life by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The way the different pieces of glass interact and play with the light really creates a dazzling array of colors and the fact that Tiffany is then able to somehow assemble all of those pieces in a way that creates such a fully realized landscape is just unbelievable.
Up next was more 19th century art but this time from America with a focus on rugged terrains and warm portraits of everyday Americans. My favorites here included: a gently glowing portrait of a mischievous Fisherboy by Alexander Harrison; a stately dignified portrait of a woman by Winslow Homer called In the Wheat; an untitled study of snow capped mountains by the great landscape painter Albert Bierstadt; a hazy Adirondack scene by Asher Durand; a dramatic seascape by Thomas Moran called Welcome the Return of the Boat; and majestic mountain scene fittingly called the Majesty of the Mountains by Friedrich Christian Welsch.
My absolute favorite though was this remarkable shadowy night scene by an artist named Ralph Blakelock called Moonlight. I feel like capturing a landscape at all is beyond my own artistic abilities, so to be able to render so much detail while only using dark night colors is really mind blowing to me.
Next up was some older European Art and Mexican Colonial art, which was a very pretty collection of biblical scenes, still lifes, and portraiture. I’ve been to museums with friends and I know that this period of art is some people’s favorite, but for whatever reason it never quite grabs me in the way more modern pieces do.
At this point, I ended up circling back around to the University of Iowa Art collection where I came across some particularly great early 20th century pieces by some of my favorite modernists and a few names that were totally new to me. These included: the almost child-like whimsy of the The Blue Horse by Marc Chagall; a surprisingly photo-realist self-portrait by Thomas Hart Benton (who looks more like Dali than I would have guessed); a classic cubist still life by Pablo Picasso called Flower Vase on a Table; a slightly deranged but sort of charming cubist portrait of a Flute Soloist by Max Weiler; a really glamours Pop Art-y portrait of someone named Dolly Lewis by Alice Stallknecht; and wild abstract scene by Joan Miro with the fascinating title A Drop of Dew Falling From the Wing of a Bird Awakens Rosalie Asleep in the Shade of a Cobweb
I think my favorite painting was a piece by Lyonel Feininger called In a Village Near Paris, which was both super strange and really pretty with its vivid colors and elongated forms. It reminded me of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine cartoon and I wouldn’t be surprised if Feininger had been a big influence.
Next up was a special exhibition of works by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, whose unique blending of cubism, surrealism, and traditional pre-Columbian art made him one of the first Latin American modern artists to break through to international success. Tamayo worked in a number of mediums including painting, printing, etching, and a technique he helped develop called mixografia in which damp paper pulp is pressed onto an inked metal plate to create an almost sculptural layering of colors and textures. The figures in a lot Tamayo’s pieces are minimalist and simplified to their bare essentials but that only serves to highlight how rich and mesmerizing his use of color of is. The exhibition wasn’t very large, featuring in total only seven prints, but I really loved what I saw.
The next few special exhibits were on the upper floors, but even walking between floors was fun in the Figge since the stairwells were filled with really striking metal sculptures.
From the upper floors you even get a pretty amazing view out over the Mississippi River to the neighboring state of Illinois.
The next special exhibition was called Polychromatic Contemplations and it is dedicated to the monumental abstract grid sculptures of Austrian artist Alois Kronschlaeger. The grids are made of painted wooden sticks which are arranged to make different cubes. Each cube is unique and has its own colored patterns and formal anomalies with the inclusion of wire mesh and knitted yarn patterns that are arranged in more organic bulbous forms to juxtapose with the geometric rigidity of the cubes. Unfortunately the exhibit didn’t allow photographs, so I only have what’s on the paper hand out, but honestly it’s hard to do the pieces justice because the real magic is walking around and seeing how lines and colors create an optical illusion that makes each cube look like it’s constantly changing as you look at it from different angles. I think it’s best to see it yourself, but the artist’s website does a pretty good job capturing some of it’s charms: https://www.aloiskronschlaeger.com/projects/-polychromatic-contemplations
The next special exhibition was a showcase of humorous paintings and sculptures by Steve Banks entitled Pop Culture Palimpsest. A palimpsest was a type of medieval manuscript where the original writing is removed and replaced with new writing but in such a way as to reveal traces of what was there before. In a more modern context, the word has come to refer to any art that is altered in ways that reveal traces of each previous form the work took. Banks takes this concept to very silly extremes with multi-layered pieces that are made up of layers upon layers of interwoven cartoon characters and pop-cultural iconography to satirize the inescapability of mass media. Before entering the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a giant wood and papier-mache sculpture of Mr. Peanut, that looks almost like a decaying monolith from an ancient peanut-loving society. I knew right away I was going to like this gallery.
The pieces in Pop Culture Palimpsest were such a unique blend of painting, collage, and sculpture. In the true spirit of palimpsest, Burns made a number of the works by painting over existing pieces he had made when he was younger. On top of the multiple layers of painting, he added various wooden, clay, and metal elements that add even more depth and texture to the sprawling nonsensical scenes. While at first glance everything was sort of cartoony and unintentionally ramshackle, the intricacy of how Burns layered everything showed off his versatile skillset. Each piece was really quite engrossing and new things would pop out at you the more you looked at them. Burns said his goal was to really smash together high and low art in new and interesting ways, and I think he really succeeded in creating some lovably chaotic art for a sometimes terrifyingly chaotic world.
Amid all these palimpsests, there were also some larger sculptural pieces that looked sort of like various pieces of driftwood and cardboard somehow tried to assemble themselves into recognizable shapes. There was a windmill, a jousting knight, and Lady Liberty herself, and each sculpture was very impressive in the way that you could tell exactly what it was even though they looked like they might fall apart at any moment.
My favorite piece was called Processionalization: Power Lunch With The Tasaday in which a rust colored canvas features 3-D dimensional landscapes and machinery while on the floor is a smattering of colorful ceramic detritus. I liked it because it looked like all the colored bits just fell off the painting and landed on the floor, which is such a clever and silly way to play with the gallery space.
Last but not least was an exhibition of works by contemporary surrealist, Laurel Farrin, called No Particular Order. Unfortunately, my phone died before I could get pictures of the majority of the works. Many of them played with the very concept of what an art gallery generally is featuring large stretched-out canvases where the only thing painted on them were frames so the frames are the painting and the paintings have no frames. It was very silly and you can see photos from the exhibit on the artist’s website (https://www.laurelfarrin.com/no-particular-order). The one piece I did get a photo of was a video entitled Slapstick in which a big goofy sculpture shaped like a pair of long, gawky legs gets blown by a fan so that it starts to propel itself until it invariably falls over. It was like a puppet version of Sisyphus so I did get a good laugh every time it came crashing down in various locations (here on top of an old piano).
After all that art-ing around, I made my way back to Cedar Rapids where the night’s open mic would be. Before I could do any comedy though, I had worked up quite an appetite so I stopped at great local pub called The Irish Democrat. While I’ve always been more of an Irish Independent myself, the pub was excellent with a great blend of Irish and Midwestern cooking at almost insanely low prices. I went a bit more Mid-West than Irish and got a big plate of BBQ ribs and grilled chicken tenders which was somehow all just $13! The BBQ had a nice tang to it and the tenders were grilled to perfection.
While I was driving back to my Air BnB, I got enticed by an old-timey ice cream shop called Parlor City Ice Cream. Even though I’d just had a giant feast, I couldn’t say no to good ice cream. I was in luck too because Parlor City had one of the greatest inventions I’ve ever heard of called a Boston Shake. This concoction (which I’ve never once encountered in 25 years of living around Boston) is half of a milkshake in any flavor you like and then a soft-serve sundae is built up out of the shake to fill the rest of the cup. If you ever struggle to choose between getting a shake or an ice cream this is essentially the perfect middle ground as you can eat the sundae from the top and drink the shake up from the bottom. If you want, you can do it all in one flavor, but I chose to mix it up getting a cherry shake built up into a hot fudge sundae so the whole thing became a sort of glorious chocolate-covered cherry mess as it melted. Personally, I’ve always felt like soft-serve ice cream is at its best when it’s a little bit melty so having the shake-half there from the beginning gave me my preferred ice cream consistency right from the start.
Tonight’s open mic was at Cedar Rapids’ premier comedy club, Penguin’s Comedy Club. It was a great club, with a good stage, a well stocked bar, and a decent crowd even for a Wednesday Night Open Mic. Naturally though, my favorite part was that they had this cheeky sign in the bathroom stalls:
The open mic was great, there was a good energy in the room, and I got to see some of the comics I really liked from the mic in Iowa City so I was really happy. My favorite comic of the night was a guy named Austin Mooney who came out and did a brilliantly absurd bit of anti-comedy by using the first few minutes of his act to keep asking the crowd “What do you guys like blimps? Hot air balloons? Is this more of a blimp crowd or a hot air balloon crowd?”. He kept going like that getting more and more panicked like he really wasn’t sure if the crowd was more into blimps or hot air balloons and then he just broke the schtick and said with a great deadpan “Okay maybe I'm steering this a little” before finally doing his joke about blimps which I don’t even remember anymore because him saying the word “blimp” progressively more frantically had me laughing too hard.
Other highlights:
Jameson (didn’t catch his last name)- I saw a guy with a face tattoo that said no regrets but it only takes one letter to fix. Just add a u and it says uno regrets
Trenton Orris - Now that I'm out of a job I can just unfriend everyone from work I hated on social media. Melissa, I'm not gonna miss seeing live laugh love on your timeline three times a week
Travis Bailes- If Brad Pitt ever committed suicide can you imagine being the cat that gets to eat that face?
Cody Banks - My mom said that my dad is pre-diabetic. and I said that's okay it's post diabetes you have to worry about.
Nathan Timall- I heard someone say dress for the job you want not the job you have so I bought a batman t shirt but then I realized I don't want to be a superhero I just want someone to shoot my parents
Jessica Misra- Whenever couples aren't having sex they do much crazier things.
My own set was a little mixed because I got into my own head and thought that I shouldn’t do the same jokes the comedians who already saw me had heard before so I started doing some newer material that I hadn’t practiced as much. I still got a few big laughs so I was happy, but there were some pockets of dead air that definitely needed to be fleshed out a bit more.
All in all though, it was nice to just hang out for a few hours with some of fun and funny folks.
Favorite Random Sightings: Disaster Restoration Specialist (sounds sort of like he wants to make the disaster better); Christ's Family Church (I like the idea that they worship everyone around Christ but not Christ himself, too mainstream); a bakery for pets called Faux Paws Bakery (crazy concept, solid pun); a shop called Bud’s Custom Meat (a deeply alarming concept); a bar Shenanigans Pub advertising $1 drafts all day every day which is the most horrifying special I’ve ever heard; and a bakery with sign that said “Beignet Done That”
Regional Observations: I drove by the town of What Cheer, Iowa which is considered one of the oddest named towns in the country that nobody has an explanation for. There are a lot of different theories, but ultimately (and sort of hilariously) the guy who named the town never officially recorded his reasoning and it’s just one of those things lost to history.
Albums Listened To: I actually finished listening to every song on my iPod so this is the last of the random songs attributed to “unknown albums” on my iTunes. These included: “Ska Sucks” by Propagandhi (a very ironic song for my iPod); a collection of random Rancid songs my older siblings liked; “Under the Bridge” and “Scar Tissue” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers; “Brand New Song” by Reel Big Fish; “Who Would Have Thought” and “All the Time” by Rx Bandits; “Shoulder to the Wheel” by Saves the Day; “Washington Bullets” performed by the Snails; “Ball and Chain” and “I Was Wrong” by Social Distortion; “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” from the South Park movie; “1959” by Spring Heeled Jack; “Social” by Squirtgun; “East Coast Quake” by Steady Habits; “Alternative Ulster” by Stiff Little Fingers; random songs my siblings liked by Streetlight Manifesto; “Jacksonville” by Sufjan Stevens; “Break the Glass”, “Bleeding Heart”, and a cover of “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” by Suicide Machines; “Fifteenth and T” by the Swinging Utters; “The Long Road” by Tiger Army; “Obligation” by Tsunami Bomb; “The House on Lime” by UNRB; “Days Like This” by Van Morrison; “Rock and Roll” by the Velvet Underground; a live concert by Kepi Ghoulie and Vic Ruggiero in Amsterdam; “Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon; “Surfwax America” by Weezer; “Room to Breathe” and “The Runaround” by Westbound Train; “Monkey Ska” and “Love and Affection” by the Western Standard Time Ska Orchestra; “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by the Who; “Nuclear War (Volume 1)” by Yo La Tengo; “Rocket Rocket Rocketship” by the Arrogant Sons of Bitches; “Feeling this” by blink182; “Hey Suburbia” by Screaching Weasel; “How’s It Gonna Be” by Third Eye Blind; “I’m So Fresh You Can Suck My Nuts” by Soulja Boy; “I Do Not Hook Up” and “Tumbling Dice” covered by the Gaslight Anthem; “Married Girl” by the Slackers; “The Nose” by RWW; “Painting Away” improvised by my aunt Tina over a horrible beat by my cousins; “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie; “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2; “Where Have You Been” by Reel Big Fish (a fitting last song on the iPod)
It only too me most of a year
Random Joke of the Day: A new business was opening and one of the owner's friends wanted to send him flowers for the occasion. They arrived at the new business site and the owner read the card, which said: 'Rest in Peace.'
The owner was angry and called the florist to complain. After he had told the florist of the obvious mistake and how angry he was, the florist replied:
'Sir, I'm really sorry for the mistake, but rather than getting angry, you should imagine this - somewhere, there is a funeral taking place today, and they have flowers with a note saying: 'Congratulations on your new location!''
Songs of the Day:
a great 90s ska song about why the 90s ska revival sucks
prog ska
a good cover of my favorite Clash song
90s punks who clearly love Bruce Springsteen
a true work of genius
adorable
Nice to see John Cale really let loose and shred
i miss shows like this
I gleefully silly song if ever there was one
I don’t know how Sun Ra and Yo La Tengo ended up collaborating on a Hanukkah show, but it’s a fantastic performance