Try Vacationing With The 'Real America'

While Michelle Obama hobknobs with Kings and Queens in Europe we're here in the heart of the USA vacationing with the "Real America."
And you can't get much more American than Branson, Missouri.
This holiday boom town nestled in the Ozarks is a big draw for typical American families who want to catch some fun times but don't have a lot of dough.
Branson boasts fresh, clean and economical lodging, natural attractions and tons of great shows featuring entertainment for the whole family.
Branson has more than 50 live performance theaters, three pristine lakes, 12 championship golf courses, an international award-winning theme park, dozens of attractions and museums, an historic downtown district, a whole new lakefront mecca, shopping galore and a full range of dining options.
And here's the best thing about the many live shows: Tickets range from about $20 to $50 per person and children are admitted free to many of the shows. Plus, if you have children, there is not a show in Branson that is inappropriate for them.
Last night we took in the Shoji Tabuchi Show and it was absolutely dazzling.
Shoji Tabuchi was born April 16, 1944 in Daishoji, Japan. When young Tabuchi turned 7 years of age, his mother encouraged him to learn how to play the violin under the Suzuki Method. Shoji Tabuchi always loved American country music and promised that one day he would make it to America.
When Roy Acuff, of the Grand Ole Opry, took his act to Japan, Tabuchi attended his concert then met him after the show. Acuff told Tabuchi that if he was ever in Nashville to look him up. Shoji eventually traveled to America with his violin and $500. After spending some time in San Francisco, Kansas City, and Louisiana for 11 years, he eventually made it to Nashville to meet Acuff. Acuff was true to his word and arranged an appearance for the young Japanese fiddler on the Grand Ole Opry radio variety show. Tabuchi later made numerous appearances on the Grand Ole Opry.
Around 1980 Tabuchi arrived in Branson, Missouri and after performing successfully for a few years he took a gamble and built one of the most elaborate theaters in Branson. Tabuchi has never produced a recording on a major label, but Japanese-born fiddler Shoji Tabuchi ranks as among the most popular musicians in the United States creating a multi-million dollar entertainment empire. He employs about 200 people at his elaborate 2,000 seat theater in Branson, Missouri, where he performs two shows daily during most of the year, often selling out the shows.
We're looking forward to enjoying lots more of Branson and environs this week and we'll be reporting to you as we move along.
So, let Barack and/or Michelle hop around Marbella, Mahhthahh's Vineyard, the chic side of Chicago and other so-called "swanky" spots.
We'll enjoy ourselves at a fraction of the cost and with no expense to the taxpayers.
BTW: Last night's show ended with a star-spangled salute to America, complete with pyrotechnics. Isn't that what summer is really all about?

Nearly A Century Later, The Great War Still Matters

Wars always seem to be fought in the name of peace.
World War I was no different.
And America's entry into the "war to end all wars" would be justified to "make the world safe for democracy."
World War I was such a momentous event that the history of the conflict and its continuing ramifications are likely to be studied forever. This was the first great industrial war. This was the war that redrew the map of Europe. This was the war that vanquished empires and monarchies. This was the war that gave birth to new revolutions and new political extremes. This was the war that failed to end ethnic rivalries. This was the war that forced America onto the world stage and helped make The US a great world power.
Very few people are alive today who even remember the great war.
That's why the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City provides such an invaluable and such an extraordinary experience.
This state-of-the-art Museum (which we visited yesterday) gives you the chance to explore and discover the nation’s most extensive assembly of artifacts, photography, art and narratives of the Great War ever presented in a single collection. The Museum introduces the war in unprecedented ways – through visual and audio sensory stimulation to mold an unforgettable experience in the minds of all visitors – young and old.
This is an all-encompassing experience that is overwhelming in its scope and depth.
The memorial and the museum inspire thought, dialogue, and learning to make the experiences of the World War I era meaningful and relevant for present and future generations.
The site for the Liberty Memorial was dedicated on November 1, 1921. On this day, the supreme Allied commanders spoke to a crowd of more than 100,000 people. It was the only time in history these leaders were together in one place. In attendance were Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium; General Armando Diaz of Italy; Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France; General John J. Pershing of the United States; and Admiral David Beatty of Great Britain.
After three years of construction, the Liberty Memorial was completed (except for the north frieze wall, dedicated in 1935). President Calvin Coolidge delivered the dedication speech to a crowd of 150,000 people.
Over time the physical structure of the Liberty Memorial deteriorated, and in 1994 it was closed due to safety concerns. In 1998 the public voiced its support for the Liberty Memorial once again by passing a half-cent sales tax for 18 months to support the restoration. While revitalizing the Liberty Memorial, plans took shape for expanding the site by building a museum in the space under the memorial.
It was an ambitious and audacious undertaking.
In 2004 the Museum was designated by Congress as the United States’ official World War I Museum, opening to the public on December 2, 2006, as the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial.
The result is nothing less than breathtaking.
The Museum presents a comprehensive interpretation of World War I (1914-1919) and its lasting consequences, providing a vivid and memorable experience for all.
This is surely one of the most worthwhile museum experiences of its type in the world.
Don't miss it!

The Lessons Of Harry Truman's Enduring Legacy

Truman home in Independence, Missouri, yesterday.

My mother often spoke of the day President Roosevelt died.
It was a day she never forgot.
She was hanging curtains with my aunt in a small row home in Camden, New Jersey when the news came over the radio that FDR has suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in Warms Springs, Georgia. My mother was on a stepstool and she had to steady herself.
"What are we gonna do, now?" she thought.
The man who was deified by many Americans was mortal after all.
And his death left a great void.
FDR was the Sun King. And many people thought the sun would never set.
The new President, Harry Truman was virtually unknown to the vast majority of Americans.
Truman was not a man of great stature. He wasn't particularly compelling. He wasn't a great speaker. And he certainly wasn't what we think of today when we talk about "charisma." In 1945 he had little or no public persona.
In the months immediately following FDR's death this one-time Missouri farmer and haberdasher who never attended college had to face some of the most momentous events of the 20th century and make some of the toughest decisions of any President ever.
Truman accepted the burden.
He never flinched.
He made the decisions; made the tough calls.
He didn't carp, he didn't complain, he didn't blame his problems on anyone else.
Truman was accustomed to being underestimated or dismissed by intellectuals or mocked by elites.
But he knew who he was.
He had the common sense of a farmer, the discretion of a good poker player, the shrewd, inquiring mind of a voracious reader, the instincts of a cat and the unquestioned love of country that characterizes a soldier who has seen war and terror, life and death close up.
Though he was only elected President once (in an upset in 1948) Truman effectively served two terms in office.
The fall of Hitler. The atomic bomb. The fall of Japan. The rebuilding of Europe. The Berlin airlift. The rise of Communism. Recognition of the State of Israel. The Cold War. McCarthyism. The emergence of America's new consumer economy. The development of NATO. The Korean War.
All these and more marked Truman's time in office.
The crises of the times and the burdens of the office took their toll.
When he left the Presidency in 1953 polls pegged Truman's popularity at less than 30 percent.
Succeeded in office by a charismatic, certified American hero, Truman quietly returned to his home in Independence, Missouri.
There, Harry and Bess Truman lived out the rest of their lives in a white clapboard house on the corner of a tree-lined street. Up the road, Truman maintained an office at the Truman Library and Museum where he often greeted visitors -- both famous and not-so-famous.
Today, historians routinely rank Harry Truman among our top five or ten Presidents.
Harry Truman's modest midwest upbringing pre-dated the Age of Ego. Nonetheless, Truman confided to friends that he worked hard not to let the trappings of Washington and the presidency go to his head.
He remained grounded in and guided by the small town values of Independence which he often called "the greatest town anywhere."
If he cared about his legacy or his ranking, Truman certainly didn't show it.
"All I want from history," he said "is the truth."
Photo copyright 2010 by Dan Cirucci.

Nelson Atkins Museum Of Art Is A Treasure!

One of our first stops in Kansas City was the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.
Recognized internationally as one of the finest general art museums in the United States, the Nelson-Atkins currently maintains collections of more than 33,500 works of art.
It's a great place to spend the day and it boasts a particularly strong American and contemporary art collection as well as African and European treasures. The Nelson Atkins also has the largest collections of paintings by Missouri's own Thomas Hart Benton and the largest collection of bronze sculptures by Henry Moore.
The Museum’s highly respected post-1945 collection is presented in the new Bloch Building (shown above).
Abstract Expressionist art, with its tragic, timeless and archetypal themes; Realist art, with its profoundly human desire to document the visible world; Pop Art, with its audacious elevation of popular culture to the realm of art; Minimalism, with its emphasis on systems and the materiality of the object; Conceptual Art, with its faith in the primacy of the idea; and a host of subsequent directions that ushered in a new pluralism and global scope are all represented here.
Major contemporary works by Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, David Smith, Richard Diebenkorn, Richard Estes, Duane Hanson, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Bridget Riley, Martin Puryear, Deborah Butterfield, Elizabeth Murray, Kerry James Marshall, Alexander Ross and Anish Kapoor are on view.
Seven sculptures by Isamu Noguchi are installed in the Noguchi Sculpture Court, a large, Zen-like space in the Bloch Building. Both the impact of the artist’s Japanese-American heritage and the influence of European Surrealism can be seen in this remarkable body of work. The Nelson-Atkins Museum exhibits the largest number of Noguchi sculptures in a public setting outside the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Museum in New York and Japan.
We enjoyed a wonderful day at this world class museum.
And here's the very best part: Admission is free!
But we suggest that you do leave a generous donation for this is surely a priceless gem.
Photo copyright 2010 by Dan Cirucci

Goin To Kansas City? You'll Be Delighted!

We've barely been in Kansas City for a day now and I can tell you I'm already impressed.
Yes, we've been to many American cities (most of the big ones) but this one somehow never made our list.
Well, it's never too late to be surprised and delighted by a clean, efficient, friendly and fasinating place like Kansas City.
We're staying in the Country Club Plaza area and if you looked out our windw you'd think you were in California or Florida or some Spanish/Moorish outpost. The Plaza area is filled with the type of rococco architecture that you see above. The ornate towers, lamposts, tiles, public art and streetscape work together to create a beguiling atmosphere.
The entire 15-block district, with more than 150 shops and dozens of fine restaurants, makes Country Club Plaza Kansas City's premier shopping, dining and entertainment destination.
It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile.
Established in 1923 by J. C. Nichols and designed architecturally after Seville, Spain, the Plaza also comprises offices. The neighborhoods surrounding the Plaza consist of apartment buildings and upscale houses.
Country Club Plaza is named in the Project for Public Spaces' list 60 of the World's Great Places.
Nichols began acquiring the land for the Plaza in 1907, in an area of Kansas City that was then known as Brush Creek Valley. When his plans were first announced, the project was dubbed 'Nichols' Folly' because of the then seemingly undesirable location; at the time, the only developed land in the valley belonged to the Country Day School (now the Pembroke Hill School), and the rest was known for pig farming.
Nichols employed architect Edward Buehler Delk to design the new shopping center. The Plaza opened in 1923 to immediate success, and it has lasted with little interruption since that year. New Urbanist land developer Andres Duany noted in Community Builder: The Life & Legacy of J.C. Nichols that the Country Club Plaza has had the longest life of any planned shopping center in the history of the world.
The basic design of Country Club Plaza reflects classic European influences, especially those of Seville, Spain, yet it curiously does not include a traditional open plaza. There are more than thirty statues, murals, and tile mosaics on display in the area, as well as major architectural reproductions, such as a half-sized Giralda Tower of Seville (the tallest building in the Plaza). The Plaza also includes precise light fixture reproductions of San Francisco's Path of Gold streetlights. Other works of art celebrate the classics, nature, and historical American themes such as westward expansion.
It's a pure delight to roam through the streets of The Plaza and enjoy its unque atmosphere.
Of course, the whole thing is also a testament to the enduring success of capitalism, the idea that one man can make a Big Difference and the tradition of rugged American individualism.
Photos copyright 2010 by Dan Cirucci

Beautiful: Dolphins Leaping At Hilton Head

Our thanks to the Hilton Head fan site at Facebook for this incredible video!

Late Renoir: Ravishing, Don't Miss It!

Ravishing.
That's the only word to describe Late Renoir, the exhibition currently on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
We had the chance to view this specially-assembled collection of Renoir's work over the weekend and we were duly impressed.
To be sure, any exhibition of the paintings of Pierre Auguste-Renoir is not-to-be-missed. The colors, textures, subjects and subtleties of Renoir's work are mesmerizing.
Late Renoir follows the renowned painter through the final—and most fertile and innovative—decades of his career.
At the height of his creative powers and looking toward posterity, Renoir created art that was timeless, enticing, and worthy of comparison to the greatest of the old masters, such as Raphael, Titian, and Rubens. He devoted himself to joyful subjects—frolicking bathers, domestic idylls, the drama of classical mythology, and the brilliance of Mediterranean landscape and sea.
His fluid brushstrokes and masterful use of color won the admiration of the emerging modernist avant-garde, who considered Renoir one of the greatest living artists.
Approximately eighty paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Renoir are being displayed alongside twenty works by younger artists—Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso among them—to illustrate, illuminate, and celebrate.
Organized by The Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Musée d'Orsay, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this exhibition continues through September 6.

Review: Joan Rivers - A Piece Of Work

All summer long we've been busy trying to track down the widely-heralded documentary, Joan Rivers - A Piece of Work.
We finally caught up with it over the weekend at a local movie house and all we can say is "Whew!"
Joan Rivers is exhausting. She never stands still. Never. Not for a moment
Honored at various film festivals and lauded by fans of cinema verite, Joan Rivers –A Piece Of Work claims to expose the private dramas of irreverent, legendary comedienne and pop icon as she "fights tooth and nail to remain the queen of comedy."
The film reveals a rare glimpse of the comedic process and the toxic mixture of self-doubt and anger that often fuels it. It is often raw and downright brutal, laced with profanity and blue humor.
In the course of the film, Joan Rivers "celebrates" her 75th birthday (she's now 77).
She's not happy about it. She doesn't like getting old. She hates watching the years go buy and she doesn't want to quit working or cede the spotlight. Not now and not ever, if she can help it.
The story is both a searingly funny personal journey and an starkly honest look at the ruthless entertainment industry.
Joan didn't want to be a comedienne. She wanted to be an actress.
But it is as a comedienne that she is able to support herself in live in the grand style to which she has become accustomed. So, a comedienne she is.
We see not only Rivers' elegant trappings of success but also the ultimate vulnerability of the life of a performer. Like most stand up comics, she's hopelessly insecure.
With unguarded access, the film cuts between intimate scenes of Joan’s personal life and her life on stage and in front of cameras and audiences.
Over the course of the year, Joan fights to reinvent herself and put herself back on top. She reveals in private that the years of exposure have taken a toll on her, leaving her raw and alone. In a dressing room before a show, she exposes a much-guarded vulnerability revealing all she has left is her performing.
And so we realize that it is possible to be hugely successful (Rivers is a smart businesswoman and a shrewd, demanding boss) and yet very much alone.
I didn't know very mush about Joan Rivers before I saw this film.
In fact, I had never seen her perform in person.
And I was left with mixed feelings about a woman who I've always admired.
You might call Joan Rivers a realist. You might even call her a pessimist. She knows that the entertainment business takes no prisoners. And she also knows that time is not on her side.
But you also wonder why she hasn't carved out other interests in her life.
Why is performing the only thing?
And why can't she turn the corner and open a new chapter?
After all, she still has a very successful jewelry business. But that's barely mentioned in this documentary.
And she also has her daughter Melissa and her grandson, both of whom she seems to genuinely love very much.
But in this film Joan Rivers often comes off as one-dimensional and almost ruthlessly driven: work, work, work; keep performing; keep entertaining; keep demanding big venues and full houses.
As you watch this, you wanna shout: "Hey Joan, nobody stays on top forever. Nobody."
And yet, few true artists ever seem to want to let go of their art.
In one of the final scenes of the film, Rivers jokes about how this documentary would be an instant hit if she expired right in front of the camera.
But you just know that's not about to happen.
Because Joan Rivers is too busy preserving and updating and burnishing every ounce of who she is.
For better or worse, this is a woman who will not go quietly into that good night.

Philadelphia's Inspiring Carpenters' Hall

As many times as we've been to America's most historic square mile in Philadelphia, we do not ever recall visiting Carpenters' Hall.
On Saturday, we didn't simply walk past this distinctive building once again. Instead, we went inside.
Carpenters' Hall hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774 and was home to Franklin's Library Company, The American Philosophical Society, and the First and Second Banks of the United States.
Today, Carpenters' Hall is open to the public and welcomes over 150,000 world-wide visitors to this wonderful Georgian building.
Set humbly back from Chestnut Street, the Hall has been continuously owned and operated by The Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, the oldest trade guild in America, since 1770. Today it is also part of Independence National Historical Park.
The Carpenters' Company and was established by the architects, engineers and builders who erected Independence Hall, Christ Church and Carpenters' Hall.
Some 150 men and women, all of them prominent architects, building contractors or structural engineers, carry on the 300-year tradition of the Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia — giving form to the future.
Benjamin Franklin frequently used Carpenters' Hall for both public and private meetings.
The Hall has a long history as an assembly place and has been the home to numerous tenants in the arts, sciences and commerce. The meeting hall served as a hospital for both British and American troops in the Revolutionary War, and other institutions in Philadelphia have held meetings in Carpenters' Hall, including Franklin's Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, the First and Second Banks of the United States.
Numerous dignitaries have visited Carpenters' Hall, including United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, President Václav Havel of the Czech Republic, President Guntis Ulmanis of Latvia, and Texas Governor (later U.S. President) George W. Bush with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.
The structure still serves the purpose for which it was built: a meeting place for the Carpenters' Company.

Schuylkill Banks: A Delightful City Treasure

If you haven't taken a stroll along Philadelphia's Schuylkill Banks, you're missing one of the great treasures of William Penn's Greene Country Towne.
They call the city's Schuylkill (pronounced School Kill) River the "hidden river" because most Philadelphians barely notice it as they drive over it or by it along the infamous Schuylkill Expressway or a variety of other roads. Even the scenic Boathouse Row obscures part of the river and the river drives (Kelly Drive and King Drive) often do not afford drivers the opportunity to slow down enough to really appreciate the River.
And that's just the part of the river that we're most familiar with.
For many years access to the lower river banks has been very limited.
But now, all that has changed.
Schuylkill Banks, Philadelphia’s newest riverfront destination is home to greenways, parks, docks, the nation’s leading educational institutions, award-winning residential developments and active industrial sites that are making way for livable spaces.
Schuylkill Banks is the 8 mile stretch of riverbank along the tidal Schuylkill River that runs through the heart of Philadelphia, south of the Fairmount Dam. The landscaped trail and greenway is located on the east (Center City) side of the Schuylkill River between Locust Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (below the Fairmount Water Works).
We walked along the full length of the landscaped area this weekend and we were delighted with the openness, the views, the summer breezes and the activity that we found along this stretch of the river. It reminded us of the river walk in Chicago and similar walks along the water's edge that we've found in other cities including Austin.
Schuylkill Banks offers a wide variety of programming during the summer and fall. From River and Kayak Tours to Movie Nights and Fish Fests, the area seems to have something for everyone.
For all of this, we can thank the Schuylkill River Development Corporation (SRDC).
SRDC is a public private partnership leading the development of Schuylkill Banks. With a proven track record in raising funds, promoting city assets, collaborating with a broad and diverse constituency, SRDC works with federal, state, city and private agencies to coordinate, plan and carry out economic, recreational, environmental and cultural improvements and tourism initiatives on the lower Schuylkill River between the Fairmount Dam and the Delaware River.
For all the information you need to enjoy the Schuylkill Banks, click here.