Weekend adventures

[fbhjr]

Saturday morning the squirrel was back on our balcony checking out our plants.


We decided to leave it alone and drive up to Clinton.

We walked around the center of town with its Pokestops and hardly defended gym.


It is a nice fountain.

Maybe they have a swimming problem…

We did not swim.


Then we went to the Russian Icon Museum that is right along the park.


It’s a small museum. Small enough the benches are on the outside.


They were having a special exhibit on Tiffany windows that we just missed when we were here last month.
As stained glass is one of my wife’s favorites and Tiffany one of the best, she really liked it.

They had one window for each of the cities mentioned in the book of Revelations.


Then we went to the mall for shoe shopping. On the way there we pondered the large mound of dirt they’ve raised in a field near there.


The mall has a weedle infestation. I did my best to rid them of it.


Today we went in to Worcester. We parked near where my wife and I met 33 years ago, but didn’t go right to the museum there.

(It is the Worcester Art Museum. They didn’t build a museum for where we met. I hadn’t thought about that before now…)

The Worcester Auditorium has been closed for many years. Although I’ve been by it hundreds of time, or more, I’ve never been in it.


But, today they were opening it for tours for the first time this decade. So, my wife and I walked the two blocks over from the Art Museum.


Anyone who remembers my elephant story, this is right where it happened.


There was already a line, even though we were 1/2 hour early.


They let us in early to mill around some.
It’s a big impressive place.


I can see where parts of the ceiling are not doing well.


But, overall, the building is in good shape.


It was built in 1933 for 2 million dollars in memory of the 335 people from Worcester that died in World War 1. In the great depression, that was a HUGE amount of money for the city of Worcester to spend. The president’s wife sent the city a letter thanking them for investing in jobs for all those people.

A LOT of people showed up for the tour.



They let people into the other sections of the place in groups of a couple of dozen. We were in the 4th group that got to go.


The main entrance way is a lot of stone.


I guess they’ve had it evaluated recently and it was deemed very solid. More solid than most new buildings.


You can see out to Lincoln square.


They have a big "live in peace" mural.

I guess some of the folks are based on folks who helped build the place, some were paid models.

I’m not sure about liberty protecting the soldiers of the US.

In 1933…


My wife liked the doors.


But, we went back downstairs.


And, we walked back to the art museum. It was a very nice day.


We could see a local tower and bell quite clearly.


Then, back to the art museum.


My wife loves the tapestry now on display.


It’s big.



I visited my favorite sword.


Here is a perfect photo. Art, benches and my wife at the museum.


They had some new stuff out too.


I like this version of John the Baptist. HE at least looks like he might have spent some time outside.

As opposed to some others.


If we do the deadly sins show again I’ll have to go back to study this one.


I’m sure this will soon be good.


They have a special exhibit on cats, including having real cats there for the exhibit.

But, my wife and I are both allergic, so we skipped it.

We did visit the practice long sword and instruction book from 400+ years ago.



They have an iPad game for sword fighting. I did well.

Since it was written with instructions from one of my old sword instructors based on the book I use most for reference, I guess that makes sense.

I did finally hit level 20 at Pokemon go.


I did it by evolving a Pidgy.

Ah well, it got me the points I needed.

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Allergic? Did they have live ones there?

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Yep. Live cats as part of the museum exhibit.
It's an interesting idea. But, not the thing for me.

[meathiel]

Why is the Auditorium closed? No more use for it or because of the damage?

Bob went to see the cats exhibition recently ... :D

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

About 35 years ago they opened a newer, bigger, center a couple of kilometers over in the city. That took most of the shows that used to go here. For about the next 15 years they had a few shows there, but less and less.
Finally about 20 years ago they just closed it as not enough folks used it.

The city paid to repair the roof so no more damage would happen, but they wouldn't pay to fix the inside if folks weren't using it. They opened it for these tours to try and get people interested in it. Maybe folks will pay to restore it.

But, I'm still not sure it could attract enough shows to stay open...

[chaquir.livejournal.com]

that's nice that you could visit it after being closed up for so long. Is it going to close again now?

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

For now it will remain closed. We'll see what happens in the future.

[anigo.livejournal.com]

Are they planning on keeping the Worcester Auditorium open? Or is this a one-time-only deal?

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

At this point, yes, it will close again.
They're hoping folks will become interested in getting it restored and open again. But, I don't know if that will really happen or not.

[anwyn-elfmaiden.livejournal.com]

lovely :)

[cissa.livejournal.com]

We saw "The Nutcracker" ballet there many, many years ago! It was fun because they let us in early, and we could watch the dancers warming up. (I think it was the Philadelphia Ballet.)

And then, once it started, the range of clothing was wide- everything from taffeta-and-velvet dresses on wee girls, to t-shirts and cargo shorts.

And in the intermission, they sold hot dogs and beer, like it was a basketball game. We were amused.

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

So happy you got to see the auditorium before it was closed again.

I hope they at least put up an allergy warning for the live cats in the exhibit.

The stained glass looked amazing. =)