HERE IN MY CAR!!! Competitive Painting at the Keyhole Gallery

Watch live video from stevosvoboda on Justin.tv

Daytripping Lee's Summit Missouri

Lee's Summit Missouri

Ken and I set out for the next suburb in line as you head east on 350 Highway out of Raytown and Knobtown -- Lee's Summit.

  While Lee's Summit is a sprawling/growing part of the Kansas
City metro area, it has the kernel of a small town that the sprawl is growing out of, with a nice alive downtown area.

     Ken and I started at the old MoPac depot where we parked.  Amtrak had come in while we were there.


Today I actually got to do some of my other hobby -- railfanning.  Yes, I am a foamer, and I plan to include more train vids and pix in this blog.  In addition to the livestream, I caught three other trains passing through Lee's Summit -- a UP mixed manifest, a Missouri and North Arkansas mixed (which is the first time I've ever documented something from this line) and another Amtrak train.
   Ken and I then embarked on this warming afternoon on exploring downtown.  We have had a recent respite from the heat, but this afternoon was the beginning of a re warming trend.  Ken and I went to the block of buildings across from the station first.  There seems to be a lot of bars and restaurants downtown, which is nice for a non-college town.

The first gallery we perused was the Hidden Gallery.  The featured artist is Bob Byerly.
  
In addition to bars and restaurants, there are a lot of galleries and boutique shops downtown. We made our way to yet another gallery on this hot afternoon.  Tima could not come in unfortunately...

GOT art, or Gallery on Third, is a place started by a married couple who wanted to see more art downtown.

They are in between shows, with a call for artists for a new one coming out soon.

We hit another boutique shop/gallery with an interesting past...



Anytime I see an old neon sign, I'm interested.  Apparently, according to the person at the store, this was once a hotel, and the old Lee's Summit hospital before that.

Around the corner, we found a facade that left us scratching our heads.  It looked like newer construction, but the streamline modern style seemed much older.  We walked past several artifacts from a different era...

www.thefillingstationbbq.com
When we made it around the block,  we finally came to the answer to the mystery of the streamline modern theatre building we found.  No, it is not a historic building -- it actually is a reproduction of a theatre that used to be there at one time....

The whole block is part of downtown redevelopment in Lee's Summit.  Ken and I noticed that downtown Lee's Summit has invested a fortune in sidewalks and lighting and beautification.  I think the fact that downtown seems to be alive is a reflection of the pride that this town has shown in it's urban core.


Our next stop was right around the corner for ice cream.

The heat of the afternoon was finally breaking.  We walked on and explored a thrift shop and we headed west to the chinese restaurant that is in a former Griffs Burger Bar, with the distinctive A Frame design by Valentine Diners of Wichita Kansas.


We stopped in and ordered some a la carte and lemonade, but underestimated the serving sizes.  What was meant to be a snack turned out to be a bit more.  It was good, though.  For more information on Griffs than you'd ever want to or need to know, go here....
http://www.agilitynut.com/eateries/aframegriffs.html

Also, Valentine Diners, of which there are several in the area, can be found here...
http://www.kshs.org/diners/index.htm
http://www.kshs.org/diners/identify.htm#aframe

We took a few more pix at dusk, then headed back.

Fringe Festival with Cat by Ken

On Wednesday 28th July 2010, I went down to see a show at the Fringe Festival.  I usually don't attend Fringe events.   I have gone to two or three shows in the past and they were really bad performances, so my experiences with them haven't been good.  I went this time because Cat Johnson, a friend of mine, was choreographing a show, and I wanted to support her.  My previous experiences with Fringe were tempering my expectations.  I walked over to the Crosstown Station where the show was being held.  I feel it is a terrible place for a dance show.  It might be okay for a vocal or small musical group.  The show was scheduled for 9:30, and pretty much started on time.  Cat left the dancing to three women and one man.   I saw it to be modern dance with a lot of elements of ballet in it.  The women each had a different color dress -- red, blue and gold.  The gentleman was wearing a dark suit.  I was very pleasantly surprised with this performance.  The choreography was the type of thing that I really liked.  Each dancer was dancing seperately most of the time but at the same time there was an overall theme they all seemed to fit into.

 
     It was a very high energy show with much more to see that I could at one time.  The dancers worked well together and used some of the props/scenery as part of the routine.  Cat did some narration part of the time while they were dancing.

     I only regret I couldn't get some pictures but I was afraid to snap any for fear of the flash destroying the enjoyment of the performance by others.
 

     I know that George Balanchine was the great guru of choreography.  But to my way of looking at it, this was done much better than the guru.  Great job to Cat and her dancers.  The best fringe show I have ever seen.


In other Fringe News...


Long lines... sold out performances... people being turned away.... extra added shows ... sounds like a dream come true for some venues. Well, one of those venues was the Fishtank Performance Studio. Sunday evening, all those things were happening for the performance of "Thrill Me." Read all about it and watch a video of the photo shoot on the link. I got some snapshots of the line waiting to get into the show on Sunday afternoon....