2018 Life Logs, Day 346: RISD Tour and Elementary Chorus Concert
Date: Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Weather: Overnight Dusting of Snow, Then Sunny; High 38, Low 22 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today’s tour of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum was a lot of fun. I organized this tour for a small group of Newcomers retired teachers. Good teachers are life long learners and and it is always exciting to watch learning in action.
The RISD runs the gambit of Modern and Contemporary New Media to Ancient Greek and Roman. They have the largest Buddha in the United states, Buddha Mahavairocana, circa 1150-1200.
And another stunning piece of art was a blown glass chandelier by Dale Chihuly.
Chihuly got his MFA at RISD in 1968 and returned to teach there. His blown glass designs are considered to be some of the best in the world and this chandelier was a great example of his work.
Something new I learned today was CE and BCE. These abbreviations are used in exactly the same way as AD and BC. Because AD and BC have religious connotations, many these days prefer to use the more modern CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era). I was unaware of this change and glad to learn that new bit of info. After our tour, we had lunch at Hemenway’s, a Providence restaurant known for fresh local seafood. It is just down the street from the Museum and the lunch there was superb—classy, yet casual with good food, great service, and a convenient location.
Tonight I went to the Falmouth Elementary Chorus Concert at Falmouth High School. Next door neighbor, Joey, gave Ollie a sports jacket that he had outgrown, and Sam helped Ollie get dressed to the hilt for the concert tonight. What a handsome young man!
This concert is a special event where the chorus students from all of the elementary schools come together. They arrive an hour before the concert begins to practice together for the first time. During the concert, they then they sing a couple of songs together.
Then each school sings another two songs on their own. Jonah is in the East Falmouth Elementary School chorus.
East Falmouth is the smallest elementary school in Falmouth, but they have the best representation of students. Their teacher, Mr. Charles, challenges them with singing songs in two parts and they did a great job tonight. It was fun to see Jonah singing next to neighbor Molly during one song
and next to Molly’s brother Joey in the other.
