SNAG, Pt. 3
Friday morning, I decided during the break from 10:30 am & 11:15, I'd try to catch the morning duck march. Having heard there was quite a crowd for it, I went up to the mezzanine on the second floor so I could see (being short & all). *Very* good idea on my part. There was a duck master, who explained the history of the ducks & called a couple of kids out of the crowd to be his "assistants" who rode up with him on the elevator to bring the ducks down from the Duck Palace on the roof. They got out a red carpet & played a Sousa march & low & behold, the ducks did indeed come waddling up up the carpet & hop into the fountain.
Check them out:
And then they swim around the fountain all day. The story goes that back in the 20's (?), the general manager & his buddy were out duck hunting. Back then, duck hunters used live ducks for decoys rather than the fake ones they use now. And it was late & they'd been keeping themselves warm with the usual sipping whiskey, so they decided that rather than walk all the way back to the farm to drop the ducks off, they'd leave them in the fountain for the night & then take them back in the morning. So the next day they get up & not only were the ducks still hanging out in the fountain, there was a crowd of people watching them. So that's how there came to be ducks in the Peabody fountain.
The flower arrangement on top of the fountain is all fresh flowers, too. I love the spiky red things, whatever they are.
Then I checked out the presentation on Art Knives, which was pretty slick, as was the exhibit they had of them in the vendor room. Amazing work. Had my granola bar for lunch & wandered the vendor area. Even when I can't buy, I love to look at things. I picked out a circle punch I want to buy when I have money again & some other things.
The I met up with T & E & J's Kansas crew for the Felieke van der Leest lecture. She's *hilarious*. She's as zany & off-the-wall as her art pieces. And if you look at her pieces, you can imagine that she was also pretty excited about being at the hotel with the ducks.:-) After that, Mary Ann Scherr was awarded the lifetime achievement award. The poor woman could barely talk! She had a sore throat or a cold or something.
Then it was downstairs to the vendor room for Mary Lee Hu's demo on wire weaving techniques. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of her handouts to go around but I did get her e-mail address so I can get it from her later. More ways to make chains! Yay! :-)
Then it turned out that they guy who was to do the granulation demo didn't make it, so T, E & I decided to check out the famous Beale Street, which was just two blocks away from the hotel. It's a fun, funky little area. Lots of blues clubs & odd little shops & bars where you could get a "Big Ass Beer". Also a really cool voodoo/hoodoo shop that I enjoyed poking around in- Tater Red's If I'd had money for souvenirs, I would have come home with some odd stuff, including "alleged" dove's blood ink. (All the weird stuff was "alleged"). As it was, I did splurge on a $2 button that had a drawing of a 50's housewife that said, "Jewelry- screw the flowers" that both E & I thought was hilarious.
Then it was back to the hotel for the evening duck march, in which the ducks leave the fountain & take the elevator back upstairs to the Duck Palace. There they go!
Aren't they cute?
We went & had some snacks in the vendor room but they weren't very filling. Meanwhile, my stomach was making it known that I need to make a meal of something other than granola bars & I was getting seriously grumpy. So I decided that dinner was worth over-drawing my checking account & we headed back to Beale street for a real dinner. When we'd been wandering that afternoon, a girl had handed us a menu for The Pig- Pork With Attitude so we opted to go there for some real Memphis Bar-B-Q. It was delicious! Sooo yummy! I tried to be healthy by getting the chicken, but that kinda backfired on me. It turned out to be a whole half a chicken, skin & all, with fries & corn on the cob. All of which I ate gleefully. AFterward, T went to join up with J & the Kansas crew at one of the blues clubs while E & I headed back to the hotel. E got carded going in (she's a couple months shy of her 21st) & I didn't want to pay the cover. When we got back the the hotel, E made me a deal that she'd pay for us both to get a mudslide if I went up & got them. So that's what we did. And eventually I convinced her that we should join some of the other metals folks that were hanging out in the lobby bar. We had a good time hanging out & chatting with folks & talking about our work. Eventually T came back & we went through the usual "You can't have 4 teenagers!" discussion with her. T's like me- she looks younger than she is plus she's very slim & beautiful so it's always a surprise to people that she's her age & has had kids. Poor woman almost never gets to talk about her artwork.
One thing about wandering around with T & E is that with both of them being as slim & beautiful as they are, guys don't generally notice me or look at me. It's kinda like when I used to hang out with Lex & Katie at the bar- I'm the overweight best friend who makes all the wisecracks.
Anyways, we were up really late hanging out & talking with folks, which was fun. Although I really ought to have thought to bring my night med out with me because by the time I got up to the room to take it, I couldn't fall asleep & then slept in late the next morning, which meant I missed the 9 am lecture- "Contemporary Automata: the Art of Animated Figures", which I'd really wanted to see. Ah, well. And that's enough for today. Tomorrow- Day 4. :-)
Check them out:
And then they swim around the fountain all day. The story goes that back in the 20's (?), the general manager & his buddy were out duck hunting. Back then, duck hunters used live ducks for decoys rather than the fake ones they use now. And it was late & they'd been keeping themselves warm with the usual sipping whiskey, so they decided that rather than walk all the way back to the farm to drop the ducks off, they'd leave them in the fountain for the night & then take them back in the morning. So the next day they get up & not only were the ducks still hanging out in the fountain, there was a crowd of people watching them. So that's how there came to be ducks in the Peabody fountain.
The flower arrangement on top of the fountain is all fresh flowers, too. I love the spiky red things, whatever they are.
Then I checked out the presentation on Art Knives, which was pretty slick, as was the exhibit they had of them in the vendor room. Amazing work. Had my granola bar for lunch & wandered the vendor area. Even when I can't buy, I love to look at things. I picked out a circle punch I want to buy when I have money again & some other things.
The I met up with T & E & J's Kansas crew for the Felieke van der Leest lecture. She's *hilarious*. She's as zany & off-the-wall as her art pieces. And if you look at her pieces, you can imagine that she was also pretty excited about being at the hotel with the ducks.:-) After that, Mary Ann Scherr was awarded the lifetime achievement award. The poor woman could barely talk! She had a sore throat or a cold or something.
Then it was downstairs to the vendor room for Mary Lee Hu's demo on wire weaving techniques. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of her handouts to go around but I did get her e-mail address so I can get it from her later. More ways to make chains! Yay! :-)
Then it turned out that they guy who was to do the granulation demo didn't make it, so T, E & I decided to check out the famous Beale Street, which was just two blocks away from the hotel. It's a fun, funky little area. Lots of blues clubs & odd little shops & bars where you could get a "Big Ass Beer". Also a really cool voodoo/hoodoo shop that I enjoyed poking around in- Tater Red's If I'd had money for souvenirs, I would have come home with some odd stuff, including "alleged" dove's blood ink. (All the weird stuff was "alleged"). As it was, I did splurge on a $2 button that had a drawing of a 50's housewife that said, "Jewelry- screw the flowers" that both E & I thought was hilarious.
Then it was back to the hotel for the evening duck march, in which the ducks leave the fountain & take the elevator back upstairs to the Duck Palace. There they go!
Aren't they cute?
We went & had some snacks in the vendor room but they weren't very filling. Meanwhile, my stomach was making it known that I need to make a meal of something other than granola bars & I was getting seriously grumpy. So I decided that dinner was worth over-drawing my checking account & we headed back to Beale street for a real dinner. When we'd been wandering that afternoon, a girl had handed us a menu for The Pig- Pork With Attitude so we opted to go there for some real Memphis Bar-B-Q. It was delicious! Sooo yummy! I tried to be healthy by getting the chicken, but that kinda backfired on me. It turned out to be a whole half a chicken, skin & all, with fries & corn on the cob. All of which I ate gleefully. AFterward, T went to join up with J & the Kansas crew at one of the blues clubs while E & I headed back to the hotel. E got carded going in (she's a couple months shy of her 21st) & I didn't want to pay the cover. When we got back the the hotel, E made me a deal that she'd pay for us both to get a mudslide if I went up & got them. So that's what we did. And eventually I convinced her that we should join some of the other metals folks that were hanging out in the lobby bar. We had a good time hanging out & chatting with folks & talking about our work. Eventually T came back & we went through the usual "You can't have 4 teenagers!" discussion with her. T's like me- she looks younger than she is plus she's very slim & beautiful so it's always a surprise to people that she's her age & has had kids. Poor woman almost never gets to talk about her artwork.
One thing about wandering around with T & E is that with both of them being as slim & beautiful as they are, guys don't generally notice me or look at me. It's kinda like when I used to hang out with Lex & Katie at the bar- I'm the overweight best friend who makes all the wisecracks.
Anyways, we were up really late hanging out & talking with folks, which was fun. Although I really ought to have thought to bring my night med out with me because by the time I got up to the room to take it, I couldn't fall asleep & then slept in late the next morning, which meant I missed the 9 am lecture- "Contemporary Automata: the Art of Animated Figures", which I'd really wanted to see. Ah, well. And that's enough for today. Tomorrow- Day 4. :-)