Edward Tufte Open House

        A little while ago, I got the chance to visit the property that Edward Tufte lives on. Edward Tufte lives on very big piece of private property, that he has dedicated to putting up huge sculptures. Once a year, he opens his property to the public and people can come and admire the art that he created. The land was amazing! There was so much to see that you could never have the time in one day to admire all of the art.
    
       The first thing we got to see was a sculpture of a gigantic steel fish hanging from a small crane. This sat at the entrance to Edward Tufte's driveway. The driveway was on a seemingly endless hill. There are actually road signs that joke, by reading, "road never ends." When you reach the top of hill you are greeted to the land from Edward Tufte himself.

          After finding a place to park, we started to look around the property. We started off at another hanging metal fish, this one was not hanging down from a crane though; it was hanging from a tree. The hanging fish can be found scattered all around the grounds. After every few statues there is found a hanging fish. 
     Right after the fish, we walked along a rock wall. Each piece of stone along this wall is about ten feet tall, they lean against each other and form a long wall. Down the hill from that we found smaller stone walls that raise a couple feet off the ground. These form a small path way that people can walk along. just past that we were greeted by another hanging fish. After that, there was another stone wall. This wall was much smaller and seemed very delicate. Each piece of rock was put together in the way that it looked as though if you were even to just touch it it would fall apart. Then we came across yet another rock wall very similar to the first, yet this one was up to twice the size and formed its self in a circular pattern.

         On the other end of the property you will find the air streams. Tufte puts air stream camper vans on top of long poles that stick diagonally into the air, and he decorates them to look like rocket ships. Edward Tufte used some of the old parts from a nuclear power plant in some of his sculptures. One is a old piece from the power plant that is shaped like a C and you can push it and spins. There is a big lake on his property in front of his small house. In the lake, there is a paddle boat that is shaped like a big swan.

        He had so may great sculptures to see on his property. I had a great time and I highly suggest going next year. There is so much art to see and it is truly magnificent.

Meeting Monroe

  I was sitting in the audience at the Grand Ole Opry, just as Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys were ending their concert. I was going to find Monroe, to see if I could audition for his band. I slowly walked out of the Grand Ole Opry, to my car to pick up my instruments. at the back of the auditorium, stood Bill Monroe. A little bit nervous, I came up to him and asked if I could audition to be in his band. He said “sure come on in, backstage.” He had his bass player come and back me up. First, I pulled out my banjo and I played an instrumental he recorded called, Bluegrass Breakdown. Then I played a tune called, Back to the Old Home. After that I brought out my guitar and I sang, Uncle Pen and, Molly and Tenbrooks. He started to give me advice, and tell me what he thought of my playing. His answer as to whether or not he would have me play in his band, was still to be decided.

    I’d love to meet mandolin player, Bill Monroe. Bill Monroe is known as “Father of Bluegrass.” With Earl Scruggs, and his new three finger banjo style, Monroe took old time instruments and used them in his band. No one person stayed in his band for longer than just a few years. Bill Monroe didn't believe that the band should stay with the same members for long, that way it would keep things fresh. People would come up to Monroe after the shows and talk to him about auditioning to be a member in his band. He would give them feedback on what he thought of their style. I would chose to meet Bill Monroe, so I could audition on guitar/vocals and banjo to see what he thought of my playing. I’d be honored to hear what the Father of Bluegrass had to say.  

Workin' on a Building

This is me with my band the Still River Ramblers, and special guest, Roger Sprung on banjo.

Hand-made Clocks

For the past six years, I have made paper mache clocks, as a gift for my dad on Christmas. I start with cardboard shapes and glue paper around them. Then then they are painted, with whichever color and design I choose. A battery powered clock is installed last. The first clock was the candy clock on the far left. I am looking for good  ideas for the next clock, any suggestions?  

Book Review: Eye of the Storm by Kate Messner

        Kate Messner's novel, Eye of the Storm is for tween readers. Messner is known for writing to audiences of young children. Eye of the Storm is one of the few novels she has written for a middle school audience.  She had spent 15 years teaching middle school before going into writing. She has won many awards for her books.  

         Eye of the Storm, takes place in the future around the mid two-thousands. In that time global warming has caused storms to rage across the world. Huge tornadoes seem to devour the earth and people have to take shelter in underground storm safe rooms almost every week. The midwest has some of the worst storms and gigantic tornadoes.  

          A young girl named Jayden lives with her mother in Vermont. For one summer she goes to visit her father in a small town in Oklahoma called Placid Meadows. Placid Meadows is the one storm safe town in the world, where storms seem to magically surrender when they come close to the town. Jayden's father is the head of an organization that specializes in the study of trying to stop storms from increasing. The organization also runs a summer school for kids to learn about preventing storms. For the summer, Jayden attends that school.

         Her father gives her some data to enter into the storm simulator at the school that will hopefully decrease the amount of storm energy that comes through the simulator, but all it does is make the storm worse. Then one night, out of curiosity, Jayden sneaks into her Dad's office and logs onto his computer. She looks at the storm research and finds herself very confused. She doesn't understand much of the data, but she doesn't seem to find anything on decreasing storms and more on rebuilding old storms and making them stronger.

          Then Jayden hears footsteps, she knows her Dad is coming to the office. As fast as she can, she logs of his computer and hides underneath his desk. After looking on the computer a while he gets a phone call. He talks over the phone about how he used the storms to destroy farms and now they won't have any trouble trying to buy the farms for their own use. With this knowledge, Jayden gathers her friends and attempts to stop the biggest storm in all of history from making its way to placid meadows.

         Eye of the Storm, gives the reader such a thrill to find that someone the reader believed to be helpful becomes one of the hardest villains to defeat.  This story of good vs. evil, has many unexpected moments.  It has a lot of twists and turns.  I found it a fun read.

 

Heart Drawing

When I started to draw a diagram of the heart, arteries, and veins it fell into art work. I then felt like each little vein had to keep going instead of just randomly stopping, it then turned into a giant sea of overlapping veins and arteries.