SUNDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE

It occurred to me that some of you faithful readers may have thought my last blog post (STELLA WHO?) may have been a bit "girly".  So let me set you straight.

I have just returned from Chase Field in downtown Phoenix.

The baseball bats should tip you that this is the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team.  If they don't do it, this should.

The shirts were worn by a couple perhaps about my age.  They were among many worn by over twenty-thousand fans leaving the park after today's game.

"Our" Diamondbacks won, incidentally, completing a sweep of the Colorado Rockies. In three games the Diamondbacks out-scored the Rockies 22 to 2 and presently reside in first place in the National League West with a 4-1/2 game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who will begin a three-game visit to Phoenix tomorrow.

It was a pleasant afternoon in an air-conditioned stadium with my friend and benefactor, Steve.  

A manly sort of afternoon.

STELLA WHO?

One of the exhibitions in the Phoenix Art Museum currently is titled Digital Print Fashion, showing in the Ellman Fashion Design Gallery. It demonstrates how advances in digital technology allow designers to place digital images on clothing.

There are some 40 different garments by designers such as Alexander McQueen on display.

One of the garments is this digital printed silk coat by a young British designer.

In the event you don't recognize the designer's name, here's a picture of her with her dad.

Talent apparently runs in the family.

(By the way, if you're in Phoenix and want to see the exhibition, it will only be there until July 14th.)

SUMMER DRINKS

We ain't in the tropics and our trip to a place billed as a Tiki Bar proved it this week.  'Course it may have been because we were there in broad daylight and the huge windows were open to a lot of light.  But SWMBO described the place as tacky and I had to agree.  It wasn't Don the Beachcomber's or Trader Vic's by any stretch of the imagination.  But the drinks were tasty on a hot day in Phoenix.

Mine (on the left) was described as a Blood Orange Martini and was concocted of vodka, blood orange liqueur, orange juice and cranberry.  SWMBO went for a drink of let's say many years ago, the Zombie, comprising cruzan rum, passion fruit, pineapple and lime juice, and dark rum.

One each was enough for we dodderers.

CRIMINY! MORE BUTTERFLYS!

After my post from the Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale recently, I began to think the butterflies were tracking me down.  We visited and joined the Phoenix Art Museum Wednesday and what was the first thing we saw upon entering?

You guessed it.  A wall covered with black butterflies!

Well actually they are paper and meant to represent black MOTHS.

It's an exhibit titled Black Cloud created by a Mexican artist, Carlos Amorales.

There are 25,000 of them scattered through the museum.  It feels a little creepy at times but at least one museumgoer didn't let them get in the way of her enjoyment of the other art.

I thought once we passed into other galleries of the museum that we had escaped the butterflies at last.  Until we encountered this Chinese scroll from the 18th century.

The scroll was done by the artist Pan Xuefeng and is titled Dreaming in the Xiaoxin Pavilion.  The artwork's description says butterflies were seen by Chinese artists as the soul separating from the human body at death.

The Phoenix Art Museum is huge (as my sore feet could tell you) and is the home of some excellent art works from many different eras and schools.  It also encourages photography as long as flashes are not part of it so I have many more photos to show you in the days ahead.

HAPPY 4TH OF SOMETHING OR OTHER

SWMBO and I visited and joined the Phoenix Art Museum yesterday.  While there we saw a Gilbert Stuart painting of our first President, George Washington.  So Happy Birthday, George!

Wait a minute.  You say July 4th isn't your birthday?  O.K.  Forget it.

Oh, that's right.  July 4th is the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. Happy Independence Day, Americans!

Wait a minute.  You say we got that wrong, too? 

It was July 2nd, 1776 that the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution of independence from Great Britain.  The next day John Adams wrote to his wife telling her that July 2nd would be celebrated in the new country for years and years, marked with parades and fireworks and watermelon.  Well, okay, he didn't mention watermelon.

Turns out he was off by two days as it wasn't until July 4th that the Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress. Happy 4th of July, everybody.

But wait.  It turns out that most historians believe the Declaration wasn't signed until August 2nd!  Happy August 2nd!

Oh, man, this is getting as complicated as some of my recent Diamondbacks baseball games.

Well here's some things we know for sure about July 4th.  Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died within hours of each other: on July 4th, 1826.  And another of our presidents, James Monroe, died on July 4th, 1831.  The only president that we know of that was BORN on July 4th was Calvin Coolidge, in 1872.

So, what are we celebrating today?

Oh, one other thing.  Remember George Washington?  History says that in 1778, he marked July 4th by issuing a double ration of rum for his troops.  Happy July 4th, George!

THE CYNIC'S CORNER

REMEMBRANCE

In memory of the 19 Prescott, Arizona firefighters who lost their lives in the Yarnell fire yesterday.