Thwarted by a Little Old Man in a Suit
On Sunday this past weekend, we traveled to the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio to hear my son and his girlfriend play with the Toledo Youth Orchestra. There is a lovely theater within the museum known as the Peristyle where they play. My husband’s mother and stepfather joined us there for the concert.
Before the concert started, we had some time to spare, so we wandered around the museum to look at some of the exhibits. No signs were posted saying that taking photographs was prohibited. I know some museums don’t allow this while others have no rules against it. I thought I’d take a few pictures and see if anyone tried to stop me. (Sometimes it is easier to just apologize later rather than to ask permission beforehand.) :-D
I took three or four pictures of some pieces that I particularly liked, then we came to this painting which is one of my husband’s favorites at the museum.
It is huge. It covers a whole wall, and you need to stand a good distance away from it to be able to really appreciate the portrait. Up close, it just looks like a mish mash of circles and dots and lines. Anyway, because it is my husband’s favorite, I wanted to take a picture of it, and I did.
Then a little old man in a suit, one of the museum guards, came and told me that taking pictures was not allowed in the museum and that I had to stop. I put my camera away, because I was afraid he might confiscate it if I didn’t!!
I don’t know the name of this painting or the artist who created it. I was going to go up and look at the sign next to it to find out, but the little old man scowled at me as I headed in that direction, so I decided it would be best if I move along instead.
I don’t really understand why they have that no photography rule, anyway. Experiencing the art in person is nothing like seeing a photo of it, in my opinion. If you search the images on the internet for the museum, you will find lots of others who have taken pictures of the artwork there besides me. The museum’s website also has numerous photos of the art on display there.
Oh well, back to the concert. I WAS allowed to use my camera to make videos of the musical performance, at least. (Well, no one stopped me from doing it, in any case!).
The students did a wonderful job. The music was lovely and was played very well. You can listen to "Danse Bacchanale" below if you like classical music and you’d like to hear how the concert went.
They played four pieces, and I made videos of three of them. You can listen to them play "Die Meistersinger" and "Barber of Seville Overture" on Youtube, if you wish.
My son is playing the bass on the right side as you look at the stage, but he’s in the back and hard to see. His girlfriend who plays violin is clear over on the far left side corner in front, so you can see her if you look for her (although not very clearly due to the poor quality of both my camera and my lack of skills with the camera). Her parents came to the concert and sat with us too, along with my in-laws.
After the concert, my son, my husband, my in-laws, and I went out to eat. On the ride between the concert and the restaurant, I thought the sky looked pretty, so I snapped a picture.
We went to a sports bar restaurant called Ralphie’s. I was amused by what my son ordered from the menu. Sometimes he is a bottomless pit, and it amazes me how much he can eat.
My mother would have said, “Let him eat. He’s a growing boy.” This is indeed true. He seems taller nearly every day that I look at him.
He had a big plate of ribs that came with a huge serving of French fries and baked beans on the side. Then while the rest of us were full from the dinner and declined ordering dessert, he ordered up the biggest ice cream dessert I had seen for quite a while. It had layers of crushed Oreo cookies, vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce and whipped cream with a cherry on top. It was a real masterpiece.
On the car ride home, my son stretched out in the back seat of the van and said, “I worked up quite an appetite doing all that performing. Now, I’m just going to sit back here and do some digesting.” I guess he must have finally felt full!
