Warm & Fuzzy
Friday, August 21, 2009
I don't remember exactly when I decided to buy vintage chenille bedspreads for Grace Corner's guest rooms. I know it was early in the planning process because I ended up choosing paint, wallpaper, and accessories to match the spreads rather than buying spreads to match the decor. It was quite a learning experience, mostly accomplished through eBay, where I eventually came to recognize the common chenille manufacturers and designs from different decades. I also learned -- the hard way -- to buy only from eBay stores that specialize in vintage chenille because those sellers are more scrupulous about examining and describing their spreads. I had to return at least three spreads to miscellaneous sellers because they were not in "excellent condition" as promised but had significant stains, tears, or missing chenille. One even turned out to be a curtain instead of a twin size spread.
My favorite spread is the one I bought for the Renoir Room. Its colors and design are unique to the 1940s, and I love the way it conveys warmth to the room without being sweet or frilly. (I try very hard not to put off male guests with foo foo decor.) The colors were tricky to match -- dusty salmon and pale brick -- because they don't even seem like they should go together. Yet ... somehow ... they do. They are surprisingly compatible with certain shades of burgundy. But only certain shades. I forget how many pillows and curtains I had to return to the store because they looked too purple next to the spread. (And don't tell anyone, but at certain times of day, the light in the room makes the current curtain valance look all wrong. Fortunately it is several feet distant from the spread and you can't really look closely at both at the same time.)
Not long ago it occured to me that perhaps I should seek out some extra bedspreads to have on hand in case of accidental rips or stains. I guess I should have been careful of what I wished, because within just a few days a "new" vintage chenille spread literally showed up on my doorstep:
Isn't it a beauty? It's the same 1940s colors and looks fantastic with the burgundy decor. I can't bear to store it away as an "extra," so I've chosen to alternate it with the leafy spread as the mood strikes me. (If you really want the other one when you come to stay, it will take me all of 3 minutes to switch them.)
What's really special about this spread is the way that it came to me. Back in July when Lawton-Bronson High School held its annual all-school reunion, I was privileged to host two women who lived with their grandparents in this house in the 1940s. I loved listening to Karen, Janet, and their husbands share stories and memories, giving me a much fuller understanding of the house and its history (which is, after all, really the history of its occupants). I was especially pleased that they seemed to still feel at home here despite the many changes that have been made over the years, and I hoped that they would enjoy more visits in the future. However, I didn't expect Karen and her husband to return only 3 weeks later, bearing an armload of old chenille bedspreads that they had purchased for a dollar at an uncle's estate auction in the area. One of the spreads is solid bright pink and will indeed serve only as an emergency back-up; but the other one -- well, you can see what a treasure it is.
Receiving the new bedspread has given me a stronger sense of connection with this house. It's like a bridge from the past to the present, and especially because it came from Karen and Dean, I now feel as if I've been officially welcomed into my own phase of the house's history. It's a nice, warm feeling ... kind of like chenille.
Geocaching
Saturday, June 13, 2009
When people ask me what there is to do in Northwest Iowa, I'm quick to point them toward all the places and events on my Special Attractions page; but one of my guests recently alerted me to yet another great way to have fun while staying at Grace Corner. My guest was a geocacher.
If you don't know what geocaching is, don't feel bad -- neither did Pat, our Lawton City Clerk, who saw my guest snooping around the city park across from her office and immediately called to alert me to his strange behavior. (This is why small towns have low crime rates. Even if you feel a criminal impulse, you know you'll get caught before your mischief is half done.)
Well, Pat soon learned that geocaching is a high-tech form of treasure hunting. People hide containers of trinkets (called caches) and enter the GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) for the locations on a special geocaching website. Geocachers go to the website, enter the zip code of the area where they'd like to search, and voilà! A long list of cache locations appears on the screen. The GPS coordinates can be downloaded directly into a handheld GPS receiver unit, and the hunt is on! If you're really lucky, maybe you'll find a cache that no one else has discovered yet and can score a coveted "First to Find" (FTF) when you go back to Geocaching.com to log your experience. (Check out the log for the "Vet's Memorial" cache in Grace Corner's 51030 zip code, and you'll see that Pat gets mentioned in more than one geocacher's log!)
Geocaching is kind of like Easter egg hunting: people of all ages can enjoy it. (You may say you hide those eggs for the kids, but you know you love it too!) Plenty of individuals like my guest enjoy going solo, but couples, families with children, or any group of friends can also geocache together. The GPS coordinates will only bring you within a few feet of the cache, and then you've got to search for its hiding place. It won't be in plain sight (in case of "muggles" like Pat: non-cachers who might take or move the cache without realizing its significance) and it won't be buried in the ground, but anything in between is fair game. My guest told me that some of our local caches were even attached to tree limbs -- the first time he'd needed to look up to find a cache! Some caches are teeny tiny ("microcaches"), but others are more the size of a block of tofu. (Does that help?) Some have nice little prizes inside (especially for the lucky FTF) but geocaching etiquette requires you to leave a trinket of your own if you take one from the cache. (In addition to conversations with my guest and visits to Geocaching.com, this website helped me learn a lot of these details.)
In case you're wondering, you can't use the GPS navigator in your car to go geocaching. It's not the same animal as a hand held unit, and you may be walking a long way from where you parked your car anyway. So unless you already happen to have a smart phone with a built-in GPS receiver, it's going to cost a bit to get yourself equipped -- somewhere between $100 and $250 for a decent new unit, I gather, based on a quick look around Amazon.com. If you use it a lot, that investment probably pales in comparison to a season of golfing or bowling, especially if you enjoy doing such things as a couple or family. And for many geocachers, the hiking and scenic enjoyment are important added bonuses.
But how's this for a great deal: If you would like to give geocaching a try while you're staying at Grace Corner, I will buy the GPS receiver. You can't keep it, of course, but you can use it while you're here. (I'll keep your eldest child as a deposit until you give it back ... and if that doesn't give you pause, just remember that I do have your credit card number on file.) Just let me know that you're interested in geocaching when you place your reservation, and I'll make sure I've got what you need when you arrive. Happy hunting!
I think it was the 4th of July….
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
One of Sioux City's biggest and best events is coming up on Fourth of July weekend. It's called Saturday in the Park -- an annual music festival at Grandview Park that is totally free and totally packed with entertainment. Traditionally billed as a blues event, SITP always includes diverse musicians, as evidenced by this year's headliners, Counting Crows, and featured artists Shemekia Copeland, Mike Doughty, Lenka, Occidental Brothers Dance Band Int'l., and Midwest Dilemma.
And that's just the Main Stage. There's a Second Stage as well that showcases local and regional bands. The music starts at noon and doesn't end until the fireworks at 10:30 p.m. When's the last time you were given 10 1/2 hours of music for free?
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If you aim to do SITP on the cheap, be forewarned that coolers aren't allowed; so any food you pack needs to be heat-resistant. If you've got cash in your pocket, on the other hand, there are lots of onsite food vendors and a beer garden.
For many, SITP is a family tradition, which is why there's also a Kids' Zone with drama, music, stories, and martial arts. And for those who enjoy creativity of the non-musical variety, Arts Alley features vendors of handmade crafts.
It's easy to make a long weekend of it. Saturday in the Park is always preceded by the Sioux City Mardi Gras, with a gala on Thursday evening at the Sioux City Convention Center (think: incredible costumes and New Orleans cuisine), and a Mardi Gras parade on Friday, followed by live Cajun music and fireworks. (Contrary to the SITP website, the parade is not on the riverfront this year, but will be downtown, traveling from the Tyson Event Center to the Convention Center parking lot.)
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What, you've never heard of Mardi Gras in July? Well, it's because Sioux City is a "sister city" with Lake Charles, Louisiana. In February, Sioux Cityans go south for the real Mardi Gras, and in July, folks from Lake Charles come north for Saturday in the Park, bringing all their Mardi Gras know-how and finery with them. We just hope they never figure out that we Iowans are getting the most fun with the least effort in this exchange!
At the time of this writing, there are still 3 Grace Corner guest rooms available for SITP weekend. I'm not offering rate specials for such a high demand weekend, but I'd be glad to augment your reservation with a SITP picnic package. Click the reservation button on any page to book your room now!
posted by Sue Radosti on 05/27 at 12:26 AM | (0) Comments | Permalink
Better bloggers than I
Thursday, May 07, 2009
It's obvious, isn't it? I'm not much of a blogger. I have the best of intentions, but when I sit down at the computer, I would always rather read a blog than write one. I've decided it's because I am a litrovert. Just as extroverts draw energy from other people and introverts draw energy from solitude, litroverts draw energy from stories -- and because I invented the term, I get to specify that the energy comes from reading the stories, not creating them. So other people's blogs are endlessly fascinating to me, but even the thought of writing one leaves me hopelessly depleted.
The remedy, it seems to me, is to point you toward blogs that I don't have to write. Although my web developer is probably spilling coffee all over her computer while she splutters, "Nooooooo, tell me you're not going to send people away from your web site...," I will cleverly open these links in separate windows so that when you're finished reading and close the tabs, you'll still find yourself here at Grace Corner.
So here they are, some of my favorite blogs, in no particular order:
A Glass Darkly is the blog of Critique editor Denis Haack, co-founder of Ransom Fellowship. Denis's reflections, book reviews, movie critiques, and other cultural commentary always reveal a very thoughtful, sensitive Christian perspective. More than once I have choked up from the sheer joy of finding a Christian commentator who truly enjoys the arts and respects the talents of those who create them. Denis is very, very good at recognizing the underlying questions and longings that our society expresses through its art, and his responses are refreshingly insightful. Highly recommended!
Margie Haack is co-founder (with her husband Denis, above) of Ransom Fellowship, a Christian ministry that emphasizes cultural engagement and discernment. While Denis tends to take on the big issues and big movements in American culture, Margie's gift is recognizing and naming the interplay of grace and sin in the ordinary flow of daily life. The wry sense of humor she exhibits at her blog, Toads Drink Coffee, always delights me, and I'm relieved by her honest portrayal of the absurdities of her own life. (It's always good to know I'm not the only one whose life sometimes resembles a skit on the Carol Burnett Show.)
Be forewarned. Reading the Jesus Creed blog can become a part-time job. Blogger Scot McKnight is a professor of religious studies at North Park University in Chicago, one of the more scholarly leaders in the emergent church movement, and a prolific writer. He seems to be interested in everything under the sun. Accordingly, his blog regularly includes a daily Bible study, a book discussion (often with a guest commentator/discussion leader), and bajillions of not-quite-random questions, links, and invitations to dialogue. There is a big community of faithful Jesus Creed commenters -- Scot is all about community -- and plenty of humorous banter as well. I've discovered lots of great Web resources (and I even got Rickrolled once) at Jesus Creed. It's a good place to hang out if your own church community is light on meaty discussion. You'll find plenty to chew on.
I know almost nothing about Edward Gilbreath. It appears that he is an African-American Christian writer living in Chicago, and I suspect that I found his Reconciliation Blog on one of the many links I have followed from Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed blog (above). All I know is that his urban African-American perspective often provides a helpful, broadening balance to the rural white culture in which I am embedded. Ed is thoughtful, honest, and articulate. And bless his heart, he doesn't post every day. I like him for it.
Last fall my daughter attended a reading by Neil Gaiman at a suburban Chicago bookstore and afterward emailed me a Web link where I could watch the reading myself. Purely as a mother-daughter bonding gesture, I clicked ... and was hooked within minutes, both on the story (The Graveyard Book, which has since won the 2009 Newbery medal) and on the storyteller. Although I have mixed feelings about the full range of Gaiman's repertoire (which includes comic books, movie scripts, song lyrics, short stories, poetry, and novels for adults as well as children), he is one of the most gracious people I've ever encountered. He is the only person I follow on Twitter (on the Web, not on my phone), and in both his tweets and his blog posts, he is not merely civil but unfailingly kind to his motley reading public. I'll admit it -- I read his blog more regularly than any other, for the sheer pleasure of his wit and his way with words. If you don't actually go to his blog, at least take a look at the first chapter of The Graveyard Book. And trust me. It really is funny (and exciting and touching and life-affirming) when you get past the murders and actually enter the graveyard.
So now you have plenty to read when you find that I've gone a month (or two, or three, or four) between posts. I will try to do better, but ... remember, you can't count on a litrovert to be a good blogger.
Fa la la la la….
Monday, December 15, 2008
So now it IS the holiday season, and for me, that means the holiday music season. I love Christmas music ... but not just ordinary Christmas music. Why listen to yet another version of "Silent Night" if there's nothing uniquely creative about it, you know? My taste seems to get a little quirkier every year as I search out refreshing new recordings of songs to celebrate the season, but I hope my short list of favorites is worth considering.
This 2008 holiday collection by Béla Fleck & the Flecktones is hard to describe. Fleck has called himself "a folk musician that got a little out of control," which explains why his CDs may be filed under classical, jazz, and bluegrass. That's a wild range for a banjo player, and his versatility is exactly what intrigues me. This album features all those genres with some world music to boot. It ain't your grandma's Christmas music ... unless Grandma loves both Bach and Tuvan throat singing. (Listen to sample track #9 at Amazon.) The whimsical "12 Days of Christmas" always makes me laugh (how many times can you change keys in one song?) and by the end of the album, I'm convinced that "Sleigh Ride," "Linus and Lucy," and "Danse of the Sugar Plum Fairies" were surely written with the banjo in mind. This music probably isn't for everyone, but for sheer variety and artistic excellence, it's hard to top.
For me, the late Dan Fogelberg's talent is best summed up in this one album. Mixing original and traditional tunes, Dan's goal was to musically capture the atmosphere of a medieval holiday celebration, and I think he succeeded admirably. I love his lively opening composition, "At Christmas Time," so much that I've been known to set the stereo on repeat until the kids shout down the 6th or 7th repetition of the song. But the real strength of the album is not the individual songs but its overall acoustic unity and simplicity. There are no instruments that couldn't be played in your living room. The rollicking festive tunes and the gentle ballads are smoothly woven together with rich instrumental interludes, creating a satisfying flow that can't really be experienced in the 30-second samples at Amazon. This is just a very fine concept album that plays exceptionally well by a blazing fire on a winter evening.
There's a newer Manhattan Transfer holiday album that I haven't heard, but I'm content to endorse this backlist classic. Although I don't regularly listen to jazz vocal groups, I do love the unexpected twists that jazz arrangements can bring to otherwise familiar Christmas tunes. Two such moments on this album are the perfect musical expression of "frightful" weather in "Let It Snow," and the great Bobby Darrin-style finale to the Santa medley. (You'll laugh. I did too.) There's a nice mingling of hymns, carols, and pop tunes, book-ended by lush arrangements of two rather surprising inclusions: the old Claude Thornhill composition, "Snowfall," and the Beatles' song, "Good Night." I found out the hard way that the Flecktones' album (above) is not a good choice to play for a holiday open house, but Manhattan Transfer was a perfectly subtle melodic presence without ever becoming mere musical wallpaper.
Yeah, I know, I'm supposed to recommend the PBS-favored live Christmas concert by Tonic Sol-fa. You won't catch me bad-mouthing it by any means, and it admittedly has a lot more songs, but ... I just like the particular track listing on this earlier holiday compilation. (And it makes more sense to me to get the live show on DVD. It's more ... um, "live" that way.) If you've never heard of them, Tonic Sol-fa (named for the technical term for the do-re-mi scale) is a four-man a cappella group. (If you've never heard that term either, it just means that they sing without any instruments.) Their Christmas arrangements are exactly what I value in holiday music: unique treatments of typically predictable songs. I love their jazzy version of "Joy to the World" and bass singer Jared Dove's rare lead vocals on "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen." Can't wait for their concert at the Orpheum in Sioux City this weekend!
This is both an old and a new album, and to be honest, I only have an old copy from the days when it was available solely as a Japanese import. The new remastered edition is getting mixed reviews at Amazon, so I've hesitated, especially when I saw that the bonus tracks have been scattered throughout the album, interrupting the segue between its original tracks ... but if that was the only way I could hear this music, I would still snatch it up in a heartbeat. Anderson (who is best known as the on-again, off-again lead singer of the progressive rock group Yes) is my all-time hero of Christmas music. His choir-supported duet with gospel singer Sandra Crouch on "O Holy Night" -- worth the price of the CD just for the contrast between Anderson's crystalline tenor and Crouch's deep, rich alto -- is a superb example of the creative energy that drives this album. Sometimes that energy is as light as Anderson's ethereal lyrics ("the Joyous of the Infinite is born this very morn") and sometimes it is as insistently passionate as the climactic original tune, "How It Hits You." I've given up trying to understand the mish-mash spirituality that Anderson seems bent on pursuing in his personal life, but if only for the duration of this album he celebrates the Incarnation with more creativity and eloquence than many a traditional Christian musician. Three Ships, in any form I could get it, would definitely be my desert island Christmas album.
The weather outside truly has been frightful here as the thermometer dips to numbing lows, but I'm staying toasty by the fire, enjoying the glow of Christmas tree lights, warm mugs of tea, and good music on the stereo. It's impossible to take these simple blessings for granted when there is deadly cold just on the other side of the door. I pray that God is similarly sustaining you this season with simple reminders of the "peace on earth and goodwill" that He desires for His creation. Merry Christmas.
At Grace Corner every day is Sabbath - time to rest, to reflect, to relish the blessings of life.
