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The entry to this part of the 3rd floor of the Grand Rapids Public Museum is crowned with the thematic title that is surrounded by patchwork quilt squares that express some of the visual heritage of the various immigrant groups who have become part of the west Michigan cultural landscape.
The displays inside are filled with numerous donations and loans of personal materials and stories. Once the personal item is added to a showcase it becomes a pale illustration of an idea or serves as an example of some larger category. Only the original source of the donation or loan will know the personal meaning clinging to the item. The same depersonalizing process happens for all the cultural artifacts and natural specimens collected: instead of holding specific or personal meaning, they are relegated to 2-dimensional place holders that stand for the theme being presented.
The letter "K" at the photo's left side is part of an A to Z way to organize many topics throughout the museum. Maybe there is some irony in the "K' that stands near the immigrant exhibition: 'K is for knives and guns'. After all, the ignorance between newcomer and old-timer easily becomes fear, which readily results in "fight or flight" instincts. So the concern with weapons like knives and guns seems to fit with the museum's spotlight on immigration experiences.
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The idea of riding a massive rocket into Earth orbit does not seem outlandish or futuristic any more. But in the 1960s it was a spectacle involving huge scale, danger, ingenuity, and imagination. Those were the days when travel to the moon and back took place, too. Today that seems hard to believe, despite the photos, video, moon rocks, and traces left behind. Looking up at the moon and remembering that humans in massive life-suits walked and drove on the surface is a little startling. This picture shows one of the training devices, according to the text. Now it functions as a time capsule, as well as a weather-proof lawn ornament to spark curiosity in museum visitors and pedestrians passing by.
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This part of the permanent exhibition downtown at the Grand Rapids Public Museum has musical instruments divided between stringed instruments on the left and wind instruments on the right. Extensive text is there for the very most interested visitors, but for others the interest extends onto the the level of identifying the names for each instrument; some of them familiar and others never seen up close before.
As with other artifacts collected by the museum through donation or by deliberate acquisition, what once belonged to a private person now serves the function of illustrating the subject; all personal meaning and memory is discarded, except if the donor happens to pay a visit to their former property - bought, given, built, or inherited.
Like poetry or a fine feast or meaningful conversation, the making of music can be a powerful experience that exists as a physical phenomenon only as long as the sound waves vibrate in the air. If it is recorded, then the same pattern of sound waves can be reproduced at one's convenience, but if it is live instance, then whatever effect the melodies and harmonies may achieve for listener and maker is very short-lived and dynamic. A photograph of the occasion does freeze the moment, but it is mute and is just one beat in the performance as it drives forward.
Spotlighting the instruments as works of beauty in museum display has some value, but it is only in the use of them alone or in ensemble that the real subject matter comes alive. The equipment used by the musicians is necessary but not sufficient to make music. The full process includes composer, instrument (and its maker), musicians (and director for large groups), and audience, too. When all is ready then the result can stir the complete spectrum of emotions from darkest to brightest, from sleepiest to most sprightly.
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ftrc.blog/sternfahrt-berlin-2025/
Imagine Berlin, a city usually bustling with the familiar symphony of urban traffic, suddenly transformed into a better place. Picture its wide boulevards and even sections of its iconic Autobahn, not filled with cars but with a vibrant, moving sea of bicycles. This is the Sternfahrt Berlin, an annual cycling event organized by the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club (also known as the ADFC) that sees tens of thousands of participants reclaim the streets for a day.
It’s not just a bike ride; it’s a powerful demonstration of sustainable transportation and a celebration of pedal power. In the spring of 2025, I participated in it for the first time, and I loved the experience so much that I’m writing about it just a few hours after getting back home.
In the week before Halloween maybe 20-30% of the corgis and mixed breed corgi-ish dogs meeting up in the confines of the fenced baseball field at Riverside Park dressed up for the occasion. Some were costumed as superheroes; others seemed to be sporting oversized condiments - thus making them play the part of the sausage. Dogs and their humans seemed to get along all right for a few hours of mingling. Who would have imagined that social distancing and stay and home directives from Michigan's governor were only a few months away.
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