Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: United States

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art and Artwork by Titus Kaphar)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art and Artwork by Titus Kaphar)

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    This is certainly different, it’s an artwork by Titus Kaphar from 2016 entitled ‘Unfit Frame’. The purpose of the artwork is to make the viewer think about how eighteenth century British art told the story of the time from the perspective of the wealthy landowners and business magnates. As the description by the artwork notes:

    “The story of English art in the 1700s as told by the works in this gallery is lopsided. It masks an important aspect of British history by not referencing its colonies and its deep involvement in the human trafficking of enslaved people. In many instances, this created the wealth that allowed the people portrayed here to commission those works in the first place”.

    This is inevitably true, only the wealthy could afford portraits to be painted and they were hardly likely to want to send artists to slave colonies somewhere else in the world. I’m probably quite woke, but I don’t see that as a bad thing, as I think that galleries have an obligation to try and tell a story and they shouldn’t be scared of that. Equally, I’m not sure that the idea some galleries have of trying to hide artworks is always entirely useful, it’s almost worse to tell no story at all as it’s not clear what that achieves. This artwork is prominently placed, it’s eye-catching and it comes with a clear and positive message. As an art gallery I was immensely impressed what they were doing in a general sense, so I wasn’t surprised to see them tackle this with equal competence.

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    The imagery is of Elihu Yale (1649-1721) who the museum names as a British slave trader. I’m not knowledgeable enough about this, but this precise claim doesn’t appear to be the view of historians that I’ve read, although his wealth was linked to the slave trade so there is a very clear connection in that regard. Either way, I think it’s an interesting debate and encouraging people to discover more about how the slave trade worked and how it created wealth, along creating misery, is an important part of the story. Yale University is today named after him as he financed one of the early buildings that was part of the college.

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    The broom in the artwork is meant to suggest how matters can be swept under the rug, with the books relating to Elihu Yale, slavery, empire and privilege. It’s one of those artworks which works on a number of levels, it’s interesting just to look at it, it has a depth of messaging to it and also I think inspires those who engage with it to find out more.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art and Artwork by Canaletto)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art and Artwork by Canaletto)

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    This is part of my running theme of trying to see as many of Canaletto’s artworks as possible, made rather more difficult by the scattering of his works around so many museums and galleries around the world. There is of course the immense depth of detail in his works and how they have captured a snapshot of Venice in time. But there’s something more exciting that they were often collected by those on their European Grand Tour, a chance for the upper classes to tour the continent in a bid to learn more about other countries and cultures.

    What is attractive to me about this concept of the European Grand Tour is not just that it remains an interesting excursion and adventure today, but that it must have been something of a culture shock to the travellers at the time. I understand that the participants on these expensive tours were often wealthy and not exactly sheltered to culture, but there was no Lonely Planet guide or tourist services to advise on what museums to go to. These countries might have been used to travellers, but it was still rare enough not to be common and so there was little compromise on food, language or culture. That means these Grand Tours would have been a true adventure and I can see why it was something that many travellers looked back on with fondness throughout their lives. The travellers often had guides, or cicerones, to help them, but it would still have felt very different to what they were used to.

    This is what would have certainly set the classes apart in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as those fortunate enough to go travelling were expected to report back on their experiences. To anyone from the middle or working classes, they would have just had to listen and dream of doing similar. I’m sure many would have felt no connection or interest in travelling to countries such as Italy, but many must have equally felt quite jealous and wished they could see all of these things that were discussed. Unfortunately for them, there were no £9.99 fares available to Italy at the time with Ryanair.

    But, I’ve digressed along another flight of fancy of mine. The painting, as I’ve mentioned, is by Canaletto (1697-1768) and was painted in the late 1720s, likely for someone on a Grand Tour to take home. The painting is another gift from the Samuel H Kress Foundation, something that I’ve already made reference to. The museum was given the artwork in 1961, but it had been in the hands of a private collection in England until 1931 and it had likely always been there since it was originally purchased. I don’t know, but perhaps it was handed down the generations following the original traveller and then they had to sell the painting as part of the great sell off of country houses and contents in the early twentieth century.

    Regardless of its history though, it’s another wonderful painting that is as near to a photograph of eighteenth century Venice as we’re likely to get and I’m glad that Alabama has this in their state.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art and Artwork by Lorenzo Veneziano)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art and Artwork by Lorenzo Veneziano)

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    I remember standing in Birmingham thinking it felt quite odd for this Italian painting from around 1370 to have ended up in a room in a quiet museum in Alabama. The more recent part of this story is that it’s the legacy of Samuel H. Kress (1863-1955) who built up an immense collection of Italian paintings and then gave many of them away to museums up and down the United States in a bid to help educate and inform visitors. This museum received 34 paintings, 2 sculptures, 13 pieces of decorative furniture and 4 pieces of decorative art.

    The formidable Birmingham Museum of Art has carefully placed its entire collection on-line, which makes it much easier to get an understanding of each of the artworks. This piece was on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC between 1939 and 1952 before being returned to Kress who gifted it to the museum here in 1961. Prior to 1930 it was owned by Riccardo Gualino (1879-1964) of Monferrato who was an Italian business magnate and art collector. Where it had been since it was painted by Lorenzo Veneziano, a Venetian, in around 1370 the museum doesn’t know.

    I don’t have sufficient knowledge of medieval art to be able to add much, although Bonhams recently sold a work of his for not far short of £2 million and they noted:

    “A remarkably inventive artist of extraordinary talent, Lorenzo Veneziano was indisputably the leading Venetian painter of the second half of the 14th century and his impact on later Venetian painting was both profound and widespread. He was instrumental in instigating the significant move in Venetian art towards the Gothic style, turning away from those old fashioned Byzantine models that had previously dominated”.

    What I have seen before, something I learned in Florence, is the blue colour used by Italian artists of this period and it’s derived from lapis lazuli. It was expensive to acquire and frequently used with the clothing worn by the Virgin Mary. To my untrained eye this is executed well and the face of the Virgin Mary has a depth of character to it. I get swept away with history too often when looking at artworks like this, I can’t help wondering where it has been for the last 700 years. I assume it was originally for a church or even for a private chapel, looked at for generations. Then a new audience would have been intrigued by it when it came to the United States and went on display in Washington DC.

    There’s plenty more about this painting at https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/3546.

  • 2022 US Trip – Is this a Las Vegas scam on Fremont Street or did I miss something?

    2022 US Trip – Is this a Las Vegas scam on Fremont Street or did I miss something?

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    I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this little arrangement on Fremont Street and I have no idea whether it was something of a scam or not, although others at the location were claiming it was and I’ve seen some on-line reports saying the same thing happens. It’s a little odd as there seems to be quite a lot of regulation and organisation of pitches along Fremont Street, so I’m moderately surprised if there was anything that was seen as constantly damaging to tourism. And Las Vegas doesn’t like damage to tourism.

    Essentially there was the announcement that “something big starts soon” and then nothing really did. There was a lot of calling for monetary donations, of which some people did, then a number of people were called from the crowd to stand in a line. They then were told to hold notes up which seemed to be taken away quite promptly and this was all part of the build-up to the main event. Indeed, even I was getting quite excited as to what decadent showmanship was taking place in front of me. But then two people from the line walked away, one quite angrily, and then the audience started to move away. This all took around ten minutes, so there was some considerable anticipation to the event. There had been some minor acrobatic performance, which received little crowd acknowledgement, but I thought that was some warm-up element. However, with the audience drifting away the event was then clearly over and there wasn’t much effort made to bring them back. But, maybe we all missed what would have been a spectacular event and maybe there was no scam at all.

    I had forgotten about this until I read that there’s a problem with people doing exactly this in Times Square in New York, so perhaps I hadn’t just missed the point of the whole thing, perhaps the entire aim was to just build up anticipation and then never quite deliver anything. But, if there was something impressive that took place, others in the audience also missed it and a number shouted different degrees of abuse at the performers. It was all very strange. I hadn’t donated anything to this effort though, so I left feeling it was all quite interesting, albeit didn’t make any sense to me. I’d better add as well that I’m claiming the arrangement to be a scam, just that it did rather give the impression of not being very direct entertainment for the immediate enjoyment of the viewers. And maybe I misunderstood it all, that wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve got muddled up.

  • 2022 US Trip – October 2022 Tragic Murders in Las Vegas

    2022 US Trip – October 2022 Tragic Murders in Las Vegas

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    On 6 October 2022, another tragedy hit the city of Las Vegas when two people were stabbed to death and six others were injured outside of Wynn casino. There’s a separate Wikipedia page about the incident for anyone who wants to read about the background of this attack. The incident took place at 11.40 and I had walked by here at around 11.10, so I wasn’t far off in terms of the time. Although the attacker was targeting two show girls he also went on to attack nearby tourists, so I was fortunate not to have been nearby. Others, just by chance, were less lucky.

    I hadn’t realised that something had happened until I tried to leave the Venetian later on during the afternoon to get back to the hotel. The exits were all closed off with staff directing people back to the main entrance, which was quite tricky to find in a large casino with bits shut off. The entire stretch of sidewalk between the Venetian and the Wynn was closed off whilst the police were investigating. It took me around 20 minutes to walk around the closed area as an indication of how much of the sidewalk had been barriered off. I took this photo at the junction which had by now reopened, but there are plenty of police still visible in the late afternoon.

    A 32 year old man, Yoni Christian Barrios, was arrested at the scene for the crimes committed. In early December 2022, the Nevada courts decided that he was unfit for trial and he is now at a state psychiatric facility. I was talking to someone on a bus (it’s very hard not to get involved in conversations on buses in the United States) later that day when I went to downtown Las Vegas for the evening and he was the first die hard Donald Trump supporter that I’ve met in the United States. He was an interesting chap and I met him again by chance on another bus the next day and since our bus was heavily delayed by another police incident we had quite a long conversation about politics. I’ve related this conversation to friends and I might well come back to it on this blog, but for the moment the element that interested me was he claimed he could have been there and he wanted to carry a gun to defend himself from being stabbed.

    Rolling back slightly, one of the elements that I dislike the most about the United States is the level of gun crime and general violence. It’s not really sustainable for a developed country with the astounding number of deaths from guns that take place every year, not least hundreds of children. However, it was very difficult on libertarian grounds to argue against the assertion that an individual should be allowed to have a gun to defend themselves in cases such as this. It seems in this case though that the attacker would have caused a greater loss of life if he also had access to a gun, so it is perhaps fortunate that he doesn’t appear to have done. It’s all not long since Stephen Paddock killed 60 other people when firing at them from his Las Vegas hotel windows.

    Anyway, politics aside, it was Las Vegas that was the city that I felt safest in during my trip so I hadn’t really expected to hear of an incident during my time there. It was New Orleans that the danger was evident where the police have lost control and are in retreat as the city now has the highest murder rate in the United States and where I had my own little incident I’ll write about in due course. God bless though to all those involved in this horrific incident.

  • 2022 US Trip – Dirt Dog at Grand Bazaar Shops in Las Vegas

    2022 US Trip – Dirt Dog at Grand Bazaar Shops in Las Vegas

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    I had a plan to get a hot dog from the highly rated Dirt Dog and their bar, but I realised that the set-up is a little more complex insomuch that the food outlet is separate from the bar area. They’re neighbouring but at the time I could see no evidence either at the venue or on Untappd that the Dirt Dog bar actually sold decent craft beer and so I just got the hot dog. I wasn’t going to have a decadent hot dog and discover that I would have to choose between Bud Light and Miller Lite or something to go with it. Standards and all that. When I visited the bar element had only just opened which was why I couldn’t find out the drinks selection, but I’m pleased to note that there’s evidence now on Untappd that there are decent beers.

    Anyway, I digress, the hot dogs were reasonably priced given the strip location and I liked the options available on the menu. If my friend Nathan had been there, I might have accidentally got the X-Grade extras for him as he likes hot food and surprises. And I mention this as it neatly segues onto my writing that the hot dogs used are Nathan’s Famous beef dogs, perhaps some of the best in the United States. Clever link there I thought.

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    That’s some of the best packaging that I’ve seen for a takeaway hot dog, none of this rubbish of trying to serve it in paper. Very classy, although there was a lot of packaging waste to be fair, although it meant that the toppings were pretty much unimpacted. I had gone for the house dog with onions, bell peppers, house sauce, mayo, mustard, ketchup and bacon bits, with the whole arrangement being delicious and suitably meaty. It was a larger dog that the photo might suggest and so was as filling as I required for a quick lunch stop. I also had a delicious drink of Dr Pepper Cream soda to enjoy with it that I had picked up at Walgreens. And my friend Richard was so excited to read about this drink in my previous blog post that he’s ordered some cans to be delivered to him, I’m sure that he’ll be delighted at them.

    I’d happily recommend this location and would probably go to the bar next time, as the staff at the food section were friendly and engaging. It was quite busy, but the service was prompt and everyone was given a number so they knew when their hot dog was ready and I think mine took around five minutes. Lots of choice on toppings, but the main part of the show – namely the hot dog – was entirely appetising so I imagine that all the menu items are delicious.

  • 2022 US Trip – Tipsy Robot in Las Vegas

    2022 US Trip – Tipsy Robot in Las Vegas

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    I’ll confess that I didn’t get one of the cocktails at this location at the Miracle Mile located within Planet Hollywood resort and casino, but I was suitably intrigued. It has been there for a few years and it’s a cocktail bar where the drinks are poured by robots which take bottles from hundreds that are hanging down from the ceiling (robots and bottles are visible at the rear of the photo). Customers order drinks from tablets located around the bar and then they are updated via the screen how their drink is progressing. I suspect that there might be more of these operations in the future, not for their novelty factor but instead to try and save on staff wages. Cocktails appear to be around $18 each which seems expensive to me, but is in keeping for prices on the main strip.

    The venue is well reviewed, although there are the occasional ridiculous reviews such as one saying their were appalled that they were asked to leave as they had brought a small baby in. Nevada state laws are quite clear and I’m not sure that the licensing authorities accept an argument of “it’s OK as they’re too young to possibly be drinking” as I can see what will go wrong there. A few reviews say that they drinks were mispoured or not served and oddly customers have to wait 24 hours to 7 days to be refunded, if they’re refunded at all. There’s a lot to be said for human servers as if they malfunction midway through the drink the situation is usually recoverable to some degree.

  • 2022 US Trip – Tenaya Creek Brewery in Las Vegas

    2022 US Trip – Tenaya Creek Brewery in Las Vegas

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    Las Vegas isn’t packed with craft beer breweries and I think that a couple of the best are here and Banger Brewing. I had my bus pass (which I accept makes me sound like a pensioner) so I got a bus there, but then I realised it was only a ten minute walk from downtown Las Vegas so I just walked back. In the searing heat.

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    I arrived around ten minutes before Happy Hour so had a beer that wasn’t included in that offer whilst the server happily came back as soon as the cheaper prices kicked in. The menu on the board (which is incidentally available on webcam at https://www.tenayacreek.com/whats-on-tap/, which is a brilliantly smooth way of displaying up-to-date information such as this) is a little complex to understand at first look, but the server talked me through it.

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    Some of the beers produced by the brewery, with everything much more reasonably priced than in Las Vegas itself. It’s worth a meander to get here and I think everyone at the bar (other than me obviously) was local.

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    The Hazy Phantom Bride from Belching Beaver Brewery and I think that I’ve been to their brewery in California when my friends Alexis and Jose took me, but I might have got muddled up as it was a few years ago and pre-blog. As I’ve mentioned before, most of the reason for this blog existing is to remind me where I’ve been, as I have a tendency to forget things.

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    The Chocolate Stout Nitro from Rogue Ales, which as its name suggests was packed with chocolate and suitably smooth. This comes from Newport in Oregon, one of the numerous places that I want to visit when I finally get to visit the state. I had a lot of tap water whilst I was at the bar given the extreme heat outside, or at least, what I call extreme heat.

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    And to finish, the Pinch Hitter Pale from Tenaya Creek brewery themselves. A credible IPA which has plenty of peach flavour to it, something I think works in a beer, although the server said that customers were rather more divided on that. I’m not into US sports, or indeed any sports really, but whatever it was on the screens was exciting most of those seated at the bar.

    This was a friendly operation and although they don’t do food themselves there are often food trucks parked up outside. The venue started in 1999 as a restaurant and brewery, but they decided to focus on the beer side in 2008 and they moved to these premises in 2015. I liked the laid-back and inviting atmosphere, with the server being personable and engaging. I perhaps didn’t try as many of the brewery’s own beers as I could have done, but the one I had was very agreeable. For anyone who doesn’t want to walk from downtown, a bus doesn’t take long and leaves from the end of Fremont Street.

  • 2022 US Trip – Chick-Fil-A in Las Vegas (Golden Corral)

    2022 US Trip – Chick-Fil-A in Las Vegas (Golden Corral)

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    In my never-ending quest to check the quality of fast food outlets in the United States, I was reminded that I don’t think I’ve ever been to Chick-Fil-A. This is their outlet within the Golden Corral casino in downtown Las Vegas, all clean and tidy with quite a significant queue.

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    I didn’t feel the need to have a drink given I’d just been given a free beer, not was I tempted by the kale crunch.

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    Service was fast and efficient despite the long line, with the staff member merrily calling customers forwards and making time to build up something of a rapport with them. It’s not easy trying to ask everyone a question such as “how has your day been?” or “anything planned for the rest of the day?” whilst trying to sound interested and also not faff around so the queue lengthens. I thought that they all did very well as young Mr Grace might say in Are You Being Served?

    The service at the till was prompt, although the wait for the meal was a bit excessive for a fast food venue. I think I, and someone else who I was talking to (well, complaining with), waited for 12 minutes for these Chick-fil-A Chick-n-Strips. We weren’t the only ones muttering, the server shouted through to the kitchen on numerous occasions that they were taking far too long with these. But, that meant they were freshly cooked and I wasn’t in a rush. I must have received about six apologies from the staff member about the wait, so I felt it was impossible to be annoyed since they were doing their best.

    There were a couple of free tables, so I seated myself ready to see if I’d be surprised and delighted. And, I was. Tender and moist chicken, with a crunchy exterior with the strips being cooked in peanut oil. The dip provided was the Polynesian Sauce, which I had to Google and it’s made up for this chain, but it’s something like a cross between BBQ sauce and sweet & sour sauce. It was as decadent as the chicken, this is of a quality that I’m not sure KFC has ever reached.

    The reviews for this outlet are relatively high, although I found it odd that they’re not using contactless payments. Every customer was having to sign a printed receipt and I’m not sure whether this is location specific or just the brand standard. Anyway, it could be said this is an excessive blog post for four chicken strips, but they were suitably divine. I can see why this chain is becoming so popular in the United States and I’m sure that I might be popping back to have a little examination of another part of their menu.

  • 2022 US Trip – Banger Brewing Tour in Las Vegas

    2022 US Trip – Banger Brewing Tour in Las Vegas

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    I’ve been to Banger Brewing several times over the last few years, but this was the first time that I paid to go on the tour of their brewery set-up. I can’t remember the dates now, but the guide and I worked out that I likely first visited within a year of their 2013 opening. I thought for a while about just how much of a permanent fixture that they had become on Fremont Street, but that was in October 2022 and a few weeks later it was announced that the business was up for sale.

    I’m not really in the market for a craft beer bar in Las Vegas, but I must admit that it would be quite something to own and operate. The turnover is less than I had expected at $536,000 per year, especially given that their rent is $125,000 per year, but their footfall is enormous because of the location. It worries me slightly that this bar, which has always seems well run, isn’t doing better, I hope it’s not a reflection on the craft beer market and is more down to the levels of competition that they face. Hopefully though someone will take on this bar and continue to run it in something like the same manner. The leasehold business is for sale at $250,000 and I imagine someone creative who can perhaps push food more might be able to make something out of this. Although there’s a high footfall down this street, it’s also challenging in terms of people who can be disruptive or have more criminal intent, so it’s not clear that extending the hours later would be a sensible way forwards.

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    Anyway, I’ve digressed, I was meant to be writing about my brewery tour. This is the main bar with the Untappd screen located above the back bar.

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    A table was laid out for all the people going on the tour. They didn’t need to pick such a large table as it transpired that it was just me on the tour.

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    Some of the former wine barrels which will be used to add flavour to the beer after its been brewed.

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    I enjoyed the tour, especially as the guide had an interest in European history which is a noble subject to be engaged with. Another reason is that I’m better able to understand smaller set-ups and I was also able to ask for the difference between craft beer and real ale to be explained in practical terms. The guide was able to do that and point out the different processes involved, which is in fact nearly identical in most parts, although I’ll let professional brewing web-sites discuss that matter in more detail. But I did find the tour easy to understand in terms of the brewing process and the guide was always personable and friendly. He was willing to let me take photos, but added that one visitor had once recorded his entire one hour tour on a phone just inches away from his face. He didn’t find that ideal and I must say, I’m not sure that I would have done either.

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    The brewing equipment is in a relatively compact space in one large room, with some smaller rooms coming off from it. I do wonder whether a future owner might just take all this element out to increase the amount of table space, but there’s something authentic about a pub brewing its own beer. Everything was clean and tidy, the set-up wasn’t large enough for them to waste any space, so it seemed organised and efficient.

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    I liked the branding for their water dispenser. I think it’s something of an in-joke, but it’s one I like because Bud Light does annoy me. And yes, that’s judgemental.

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    There were four beer tasters included in the tour, the Morning Joe, the El Heffe, the Perfect 10 and the Juicy Lucy.

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    Neatly lined up in the order displayed on the card. The one on the left was particularly interesting and although I’ve been known to mutter about the quality of German beer compared to the much better Polish beer, the Kölsch that Banger produced was really quite decadent as these things go. I will admit that Banger have added caramel and hazelnuts to the mix, but they’ve also added coffee and that gave it plenty of depth whilst also remaining light and smooth. Second from the left is the El Heffe, a wheat beer with jalapenos and habanero, a reminder that chillies go well with beer and chocolate.

    The second from the right is the Perfect 10, a dry hopped American ale with a taste of caramel to it, which I thought was pleasant although not particularly stand-out. But the best in my view was the last one, on the right of the photo and a New England IPA packed with tropical and fruity flavours. A very suitable way to finish proceedings.

    I would merrily recommend Banger Brewing and the tour, but since the location is either about to close or change hands, it’s unclear what the future holds. I hope it continues in a similar form, I’ve enjoyed my visits here over the years and at least I got to see their brewing set-up before it was too late.