It was only a matter of time.

I discovered the Nashville farmers' market! I've been going to the weekly east Nashville neighborhood market, but yesterday I finally hit the motherload:

Yes, it's pepper season in Tennessee.

I'm still looking for a good source of milk for cheese-making, but I have a few good leads. I'll keep you posted.

Intro to N-ville.

Since Bryan left a week ago, my days in Nashville have been jam-packed.

I've been spending a lot of time here:














A 4-day orientation took up most of last week and classes started yesterday. It looks like I'll be spending more and more time at the Divinity School.





Organizing the house/my room in the house has taken some time, but here are some of the results:




















Charming, yes? The house is settling so none of the lines are even - sometimes looking around makes you feel fun-house dizzy.













Getting to know my roommates (and the friends of my roommates) has taken up a good bit of time:

And thanks to furry gloves someone left in the closet, we've discovered that everyone has the right to bear hands.







 




I even made like a Tennessean and took advantage of a complimentary ticket to see the Titans:







When in Rome, right? It turns out that I have to bike right past the stadium on my way to Vanderbilt (like through the parking lot) so I figured it was a good chance to see what I'll otherwise be missing. 

 

And of course, there's always* time for a little dancin':















(*For now, anyway. See comment above about impending hours at school.)

So far so good.

Noogie!

So after my fear subsided of the "bulls with bangs" I opted for option #2: the noogie. Check.

I mean, you just have to love Philly, right?

(First off, Sharon just posted photos of Nashville, so scroll down when you are done here, or go there now and scroll up.)

So, after dropping off the rental truck, I went next door and bought a cranberry juice cocktail drink and while enjoying my tart beverage I spotted this:




So, why oh why Philly are these three things like this? I offer two potential reasons. 1. There is an alternate space time paradox world where birds like a little nip of the "sauce" especially after a difficult flat tire. This flat tire was so bad the poor bird took his/her own life. Sad. 2. John Q. Philly said "Hey, I just finished my potato gun, go find things this long by this wide and line them up here so I can shoot them over I-95".

So, they are the only two possible scenarios. (period). Feel free to offer your own, but know that these two are the only I want to accept.

I loves me some Philly.

Nashville or bust

So long, city of brotherly love...

hello, music city!

A day late so we're not a dollar short.

Read on for an advocacy alert from yesterday...and then click through to take action! 

The U.S. House of Representatives returned from summer recess today to pass a bill to provide aid to the states. The bill is expected to pass. Pennsylvania will receive approximately $600 million from the bill, which is $250 million short of what was included in the General Fund budget that was passed at the end of June.

Governor Rendell and legislative leaders are expected to begin discussions tomorrow on where to reduce the state budget to bring it into balance. We don't want the arts to be on the chopping block again so we need your help!

Please visit our Legislative Action Center to access your legislators' contact information. Call them and ask them to talk to their leadership about keeping arts funding intact at the $8.5 million level. Pennsylvania arts funding has been reduced by 43% over the past two years and could be reduced further without your help.

Please make that call today!

Thanks,

Jenny

Jenny L. Hershour

Managing Director

Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania

The bull with bangs.

We had to measure trees today and this was on the other side of an electric fence:

We weren't sure if we should be scared or give it a noogie, we chose scared.

Insight, anyone?

Here is a photo from daily life here in Philly. It makes absolutely no sense but it caught my eye. Is this a gang? new church plant? new dinosaur part?

The day job.

I know – you’re sick and tired of looking at that bepollened bee! Why haven’t we been posting on this blog, you ask? For one thing, it turns out that actual 40-hour-per-week jobs take up a lot of time. Then there’s commuting, and spending time with friends, and chores, and…

Faithful readers will remember that I am working this summer at Art-Reach, a nonprofit dedicated to making the arts accessible for people with disabilities or economic disadvantages. Aside from the fact that I am on the phone more than I ever thought I would be, it’s been a great job so far. Not only does Art-Reach advocate on behalf of people in need to get reduced-rate admissions to a couple hundred cultural venues throughout the area, they also organize pretty great community events. A couple weeks ago Art-Reach collaborated with the Walnut Street Theater to present a fully-accessible performance of Fiddler on the Roof, complete with audio description, ASL interpretation, and a sensory tour before the performance.

Since there were a few extra headsets, I checked out the audio description during the play. The speaker described what was happening on stage (“curtain rises;” “they shake hands”), although I found that he provided more details as the show progressed (“the dancers are moving faster now, left legs extended, bottles balanced on their heads”).

The pre-show sensory tour allowed patrons with visual impairments to check out props before the show started. Two actors presented their costumes and then passed around the wig used in the show’s dream sequence, several hats, and of course a fiddle. I loved that the male actor also presented his beard as an element of his costume, although people were cracking up at feeling his face:

And a few weeks before that event, Art-Reach partnered with the Philadelphia Museum of Art to present audio-described tours in the collections and touchable tours in a gallery of work by artists who have visual impairments. Sighted patrons were given the option to don blindfolds as well (I couldn’t because I had to take flashless photos, sigh).

A docent described two paintings in the early American gallery, but I sort of preferred the work of the contemporary artists with visual impairments:

 

The bright colors, geometric shapes, and incorporation of found objects reminded me a lot of Haitian art, so it was fun to see. I’m not sure how much longer this exhibit will be up, so if you’re in Philadelphia definitely head over and check it out.