Sightseeing in the Mindfields
Parks and Deprecation: Philadelphia, April 2025
June 09, 2025
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The Civil War in the equally misnamed United States may have ended officially in 1864, but, in this writer's opinion, it will never be over. I needed no reminder of the country's pathological racial attitudes when I noticed the All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors, one of Logan Square's monuments. No one has yet to substitute a less de...
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Squaring the Circle: Philadelphia, April 2025
April 28, 2025
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When HL and I flew to Philadelphia in April to visit our friends, we arrived just in time for a reprise of Winter. We had expected the cold, wet weather, though knowledge of the forecast did nothing to improve it. It was not until we checked into our hotel in Center City that the day seemed to brighten: we were given a room on the topmost floor, de...
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La Chingona: Frida Does Dallas, Part 2, October 2024
February 04, 2025
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Kahlo painted this oil on canvas, Autorretrato en un Traje de Terciopelo/Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress, in 1926, when she was nineteen years old.
I had been curious to see which aspects of Frida Kahlo would emerge in the DMA's show. Fascinating though even the least histrionic Kahlo biography may be, I have always been most interested in the a...
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La Chingona: Frida Does Dallas, Part 1, October 2024
January 26, 2025
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Frida: Beyond the Myth/ Mas Alla del Mito went on exhibit at the Dalllas Museum of Art in August 2024.
During her lifetime, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo was best known as the idiosyncratic, perennially maltreated spouse of the muralist Diego Rivera. In the intervening decades, Kahlo has been resurrected as a feminist totem. Her fame has eclip...
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14. A Colorful Conclusion, 27 July 2024
January 15, 2025
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The tour that we took usually ended in Nice, on the Côte d’Azur. Ours was changed to terminate in Toulouse in order to avoid the throngs in Nice for the Tour de France bicycle race. The substitution was fortuitous, as Toulouse had a wealth of unique attractions. One of these was the Bemberg Foundation. I credit HL with having done the research that...
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13. The Rose Pink City of Toulouse, 26 July 2024
January 06, 2025
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After Arles, the tour continued by coach, as our director called the bus. Elodie’s French-accented vocabulary made the lumbering vehicle seem more glamorous, as it did everything else that she said. I realize that is a cliché; nonetheless, I allowed myself to be charmed.
Toulouse had numerous fountains. Some, like this one, were topped with Cl...
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In the South of France, 12: Arles, in Sunshine and Starlight, 25 July 2024
December 26, 2024
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Arles was the final port on our river cruise. South of Arles, The Rhône is not navigable, as it divides into several smaller rivers before reaching the Mediterranean Sea. Arles had been a major city for centuries by the time that it was incorporated into the Roman Empire as a provincial capital. It has never lost its importance, nor its charm. Its...
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In the South of France, 11: Bull Runners of the Camargue, 25 July 2024
December 19, 2024
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Enamored of the white Camargue horses though I was, I was intrigued by the black bulls as well. They are close relatives of the aurochs, a prehistoric cattle breed that became extinct in the 17th Century. Like the horses, the wild bulls adapted to the Rhône delta’s marshlands. Today, almost all of the bulls belong to manadiers, that is, bull ranche...
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In the South of France, 10: From Arles into The Camargue, 25 July 2024
December 12, 2024
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I might have missed one of the most extraordinary experiences of our trip because I was misled by the way that it was listed on the group’s itinerary. On our first morning after docking in Arles, we were scheduled to go to a bull ranch. I was less than enthusiastic about getting on a bus at 8:30 AM for a 40-minute ride into the countryside, just to...
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In the South of France, 9: An Abbreviated Exploration of Avignon, 24 July 2024
December 05, 2024
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Avignon was one of the cities on our itinerary that interested me most. Originally, the ship was supposed to dock there for two nights. For some reason, the M/S Chanson lost its berth. I could extract no satisfactory explanation for that from anyone in the crew. On that Tuesday night, we had to dock north of Avignon at Chateauneuf du Pape, a villag...
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© Star Arts by Tamar