THE PHILADELPHIA JUNTO.: Wheels Down...

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Wheels Down...

...Over Fly-Over Country
By Harriet Eser Phillips
[WritersClearinghouse News Service]
Kansas City, Missouri

Listen up, you habitual "fly-over zone" travelers from the East to the West Coasts. It's time to have wheels-down in Kansas City. You are cheating yourselves out of a terrific time. There is life -- prosperity, entertainment, beauty, culture, yummy and varied eats, and, yes, general bonhomie Everywhere. This is The Heartland, folks. Where darn near everybody chats with you, smiles at you, and only infrequently does not hold a door open or stop the car to let you cross. How exciting an idea is this?

      The Greater Kansas City area consists of over two million souls, hardly a back-water. Founded in 1838 at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, where Lewis and his pal Clark stopped in 1804, deciding it's a perfect place for a fort. In 2012, Forbes Magazine declared Kansas City's downtown as one of America's finest. Did you know that? Of course not.

      Having slogged through museums, parks, town squares, zoos and bars in Europe, it's amazing to discover that KC ranks second only to Rome in the number of fountains in the city and second to Paris in the boulevard count contest. And it's so easy to access as the Kansas City Airport is modern, efficient, and only twenty minutes from downtown.
     A short synopsis of must-sees: The City Market, established in 1857, offers all that a farmer's market should and then some, restaurants, specialty foods, flowers.

* The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Kansas City Philharmonic under the direction of none other than Isaac Stern's son, Michael, is a glorious new building in the architectural vein of Frank Gehry. It opened in 2011.

* The Country Club Plaza, known as "The Plaza," is an upscale shopping and dining, entertainment area, designed in the Spanish style.It was the first "suburban shopping district" in a US city accessible by car.

* The amazing relics from the steamboat "Arabia" recovered in 1987 from a corn field under four stories of river mud after sinking in 1856. Found were thousands of perfectly preserved items destined to stock a general store on the prairie. A most amazing exhibit indeed.

* Kansas City Zoo, with that most adorable of exhibitionists, the polar bear cub, and all his other well-maintained animal friends.

* Crown Center, home of Hallmark Cards, with a museum of how it was before e-cards.

And, not to forget world-class art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, renowned for its Asian collection and the wonderful neo-classical architecture of the Bloch building. In 2007, Time magazine named it one of the ten most beautiful in the world. It also features a courtyard in the Italian palazzo style with a superb chef creating wonderful menus. Did I mention admission to the museum is free? But be sure to offer a donation.

Can't omit the IRS, in 1.4 million square feet of edifice to process paper tax returns, one of only two such facilities in the United States. And just when you were thinking Kansas City is perfect!

Just one more thing. Ft. Leavenworth. Beautifully located on the Missouri River, a short distance from Kansas City, with rolling hills, lovely old trees and historical buildings galore. The Fort has been an Army Post for 180 years. It is the home of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and Foreign Military Studies Office. Modern five star generals, George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and more, have passed through the college doors. Ft. Leavenworth is truly the "intellectual center" of the Army. Not to mention, of course, it is the site of the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison.

BROADSTREETREVIEW.COM INDEX

Articles by Richard Carreño
Diego Rivera's ghost in Detroit October 15 2013 The city of Detroit may be broke, but the Detroit Institute of Arts owns $2 billion worth of art works. Its most valued pieces, by the Communist Diego Rivera, portray heroic workers triumphing over stoic managers. In the best capitalist tradition, Rivera’s frescoes are now being held hostage by a pair of union-busting Republican politicians.

Dissecting West’s ‘Death of General Wolfe’ August 06 2013 Benjamin West’s Death of General Wolfe was once a hallowed symbol of British imperialism. Now it’s been hijacked by Canadians, whose supply of national icons is otherwise limited. National Gallery of Canada. 380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. www.gallery.ca/en.

Pittsburgh’s culture quest July 24 2012 The Mellons and the steel mills are gone, but Pittsburgh today boasts first-class museums, music, theaters and universities. The trouble is, they’re all in the wrong part of town.

Discovered: La Salle’s unsung art museum November 14 2011 An obscure museum in a North Philadelphia basement houses world-class treasures by masters like Tintoretto, Edouard Vuillard, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Rouault and Joseph Epstein. Most remarkable of all, admission is free. La Salle University Art Museum. Olney Hall, 1900 W. Olney Ave., lower level. (215) 951-1000 or www.lasalle.edu/museum.

Matisse and Barnes: A tale of two museums October 04 2011 Henri Matisse was one of the three great revolutionary artists (with Picaso and Duchamp) of the early 20th Century; Albert Barnes was a brilliant collector of revolutionary art. They made a great team until Barnes’s insufferable personality drove Matisse away, with consequences that still reverberate today.

‘Picasso and the Paris Avant-Garde’ at the Art Museum February 23 2010 Curator Michael Taylor has unveiled, for the first time in recent memory, the astonishing range, depth, and quality of the Art Museum’s Picasso holdings. But his show falls a few bricks short of an Anne d'Harnoncourt blockbuster. “Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris.” Through May 2, 2010 at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th St. (215) 763-8100 or http://www.philamuseum.org/.

Antiquity, looters and the Penn Museum November 10 2009 Who are the best stewards of ancient artifacts— enlightened Western curators whose museums stole the loot long ago, or dictators of Third World lands where the treasures were originally found? James Cuno of the Chicago Art Institute (who believes the former) confronts the Penn Museum (which favors the latter). "Iraq’s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur’s Royal Cemetery." Through Spring 2010 at University of Pennsylvania Museum, 3260 South St. (215) 898-4000 or www.penn.museum/sites/iraq.

‘American Stories' at the Met in New York October 18 2009 “American Stories,” currently at the Met in New York, reveals an indebtedness to Philadelphia's artistic patrimony. Almost the whole show could have been assembled from Philadelphia holdings or works by Philadelphia artists. So why is the Art Museum so modest about its contributions? “American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915.” Through January 24, 2009 at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd St., New York. 212-535-7710 or http://www.metmuseum.org/. Art

Museum’s admission hike June 29 2009 The Art Museum recently raised its admission fees, a fund-raising model that is strictly 20th-Century. Then it hired as its new director Timothy Rub, a successful advocate of the 21st-Century model: free admission. Does the Art Museum’s left hand know what its right hand is doing?

Venice: Nice place to visit, but…. March 31 2009 There’s no place like Venice to jump-start your romantic gene. But before you move there, remember: The plumbing stinks. And try schlepping groceries, or hauling a suitcase, or finding a doctor or a decent restaurant or a neighbor who’s under 50.

Newspapers and the Internet March 03 2009 In the Internet age, what will happen to fact-based journalism as daily newspapers fold? Contrary to what you hear from print journalists, the quality of coverage could improve. Which would you prefer: The Inquirer, or a Philadelphia edition of the New York Times?

Vidocq: Philadelphia's Sherlock Holmes December 20 2008 Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and Sam Spade are all legendary but fictitious private eyes. But Edgar Allan Poe and Victor Hugo were inspired by a real Philadelphia gumshoe of literary dimensions, as I discovered behind the door of the Vidocq Society in Center City. The Black Tower. By Louis Bayard. William Morrow, 352 pages; $24.95. http://www.louisbayard.com/

Sarah Palin and the ‘C’ word September 13 2008 Thanks to Sarah Palin, the 800-pound gorilla is out of the cage. The 'C' word— class— is the one word in the American lexicon that's even better hidden in polite public discourse than race. And it has little to do with money.

Alfred J. Munnings at Brandywine Museum July 29 2008 A remarkable new show at the Brandywine River museum is a tribute to the great sporting artist Alfred J. Munnings and also to the private collectors of Chester County who’ve accumulated his works without fanfare.“Alfred J. Munnings From Regional Collections.” Through Sept. 1, 2008 at Brandywine River Museum, off U.S. 1, Chadds Ford, Pa. (610) 388-2700 or http://www.brandywinemuseum.org./

The horror of globalization February 16 2008 What is a German discount food chain doing in Philadelphia, pampering its customers and employees alike and otherwise violating cherished local customs? Don’t these foreigners know what we Americans did to the Hessians the last time we got really angry?

George Stubbs paintings at Penn April 17 2007 The English painter George Stubbs is largely forgotten outside racing stables, geezer men’s clubs and faux clubby steakhouses. But he transformed the way artists depicted horses and sporting scenes. Equus Unbound: Fairman Rogers and the Age of the Horse. Through June 15, 2007, at Kamen Gallery, U. of Pennsylvania’s Van-Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 3420 Walnut St., first floor. Free and open to the public; photo ID required. (800) 390-1829.

Christie’s and ‘The Gross Clinic’ January 03 2007 As a leading art auction house, Christie’s well understands the role of a dummy bidder in jacking up the price of a work. In Jefferson University's recent sale of The Gross Clinic, Christie’s consultants apparently found an unwitting dummy in the Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton. Has Philadelphia’s art community learned anything from this $68 million lesson?

What price admission to the Barnes? August 12 2006 Hefty admisssion increases are the new order of the day at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum. Derek Gillman, new chief of the Barnes Foundation, may be tempted to follow suit. Here's one hard-nosed reason why he shouldn't.

Celebrating ....

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Wheels Down...