Spring? Cleaning/CULTURE

Finally a post about doing something here at Foxcroft. The girls and I have been on Spring Break this week. We have also had three days in a row above 50 degrees so a lot of our snow has melted. Never fear, the forecast for today and tomorrow has a mix of rain and snow. I'm not optimistic about getting any of our early garden (peas, lettuce, spinach) in by my usual target date of the end of March.

March is when we trim back the lilacs, which like everything else here, seems to have been growing unchecked since Bess died in 1970. I hacked out the last of the really overgrown stuff this week. Pete came over yesterday and we chainsawed out two volunteer hackberry trees. Laurel counted 28 rings on the bigger one, which is just about right with my estimation of when Helen let the yard "grow wild." As we were working I realized that March 20 was Helen's birthday, she would have been 97 this year. Lisa raked up the leaf litter we hadn't gotten last fall from around the flower beds in back, our cilla and a few other early things like snow drops, and crocuses are just peeking through.

Since the weather has been nice we got the bikes out of the garage, fortunately none of the tires were stuck in the two inches of ice that has frozen many other things to the floor inside the garage. We rode down to the University of Iowa Art Museum to see Robert Wilson's VOOM exhibit.

Coyright Robert Wilson

These are high definition video "portraits" that are video loops of varying length that seem to have no beginning or ending. All are displayed using HD video screens. There is also sound edited for each work. Literally EVERYTHING else has been taken out of the museum and with darkened lighting the viusal effect is dramatic. The still above is Steve Buscemi. The girls liked the hedgehog portrait the best. Brad Pitt standing in the rain shooting a water pistol is pretty good too.

To find out more about the exhibit go to:

University of Iowa Art Museum

Googling "Robert Wilson VOOM Portraits" gives a faint idea of what the exhibit is like too.