Falcon Spotting in Royal Oak
I spotted this guy in the park behind our house this morning. The internets tell me it’s probably a Peregrine falcon. I know I’ve seen them before, I just didn’t realize they were so damn big.
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De/vision and Seabound at Small’s in Hamtramck – 1/11/2009
So I just wanted to share a couple pics from the De/vision and Seabound show this weekend at Small’s in Hamtramck. I definitely enjoyed De/vision, I have been wanting to see them perform for a long time and they did not disappoint. The only problem I had was that the set was way too short. Ah well, perhaps they will make it by again. Seabound I have never been that into, and I ended up leaving after a few songs.
After I left, I decided to talk a walk around Hamtramck and see if I could fun photo opportunities. I walked around to a couple cool spots including Our Lady Queen of Apostles church, which is an imposing structure any time of day, but was extra creepy looking after midnight with a full moon behind it.
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Detroit Institute of Arts Chess Exhibit
Yesterday we decided to brave a terrible snowstorm in order to go out to Detroit and have an adventure. I had heard on WDET that there was an exhibit of chess pieces over at the DIA. Being the dork that I am, I thought that sounded pretty awesome, so the family and I went out to Detroit to check out Dr George and Vivian Dean’s Master Pieces collection.
The DIA is pretty open about photography, allowing basically any photos of objects and galleries in the museums collection and this is one of the reasons I love it so. Unfortunately the special exhibits generally don’t allow photos, as was the case with this particular display. So I don’t have any pictures of the chess pieces, beautiful though they were. The sets ranged from simple to ostentatious and were dated from the 16th century on to the 20th. There were sets from all over, from India to Persia to Europe and America showing off a great variety of forms. There were the abstract forms of a Persian set made of jade and marble as well as many different types of human and animal figure represented. Definitely the most notable and weird set was one designed by Salvador Dalí, the pieces being cast from his fingers with the king and queen crowned by a cast of one of his teeth. I dearly wish I could have snuck a picture of that one for sure.
In summary, this modest display may not be the flashiest but it is definitely worth the price of admission.
