Let's Throw In A Little Culture.....Finally

Grand Rapids, Michigan

I get sort of confused where I am in the world sometimes. I wake up in the morning, wondering. I have a mantra that I try to do each day – what year is it, what month, what day, what day of the week and where the hell am I? Sometimes it takes me a bit to figure out all of these details. Grand Rapids was a little difficult for me because we have one in Minnesota- no, wait, I'm in Michigan.

Grand Rapids has the Gerald Ford Museum. I love presidential libraries – as I've said before – a presidential library makes even the most evil, controversial person seem like a nice person. I have to say that this museum did that for Gerald Ford although I have a sneaky idea that maybe he really was a nice guy. At least his reign was short enough that we didn't really find out the truth, but maybe we did. His most controversial action was the pardoning of Nixon, which at the time, I was horrified at. In hindsight, maybe he was right to pardon Nixon – yes, Nixon got away with it, but on the other hand, we, as a nation, could move on. It cost Ford his whole political future, and that says a lot about the man. He was willing to sacrifice his future to do what needed to be done to help us all heal.

All Oval Offices pretty much look the same

Each seat in the cabinet room had a name tag such as President, Vice President etc.  This school group all sat down and were loudly announcing their positions in the Cabinet

Most of the museum was about his early years as an Eagle Scout and fabulous football player. Both Green Bay and Detroit wanted to draft him, but he chose to go to Law School instead. I always enjoy the presidential museums when they talk about the First Ladies. Betty Ford was also a person of integrity. From being a fashion model to a spokesperson for recovering people everywhere to a breast cancer survivor. She was an amazing person.

The week I was in Grand Rapids was also Week Three of ArtPrize Nine – a juried art show. Art was scattered all over the city. It is a very walk able city and it was great fun to wander around looking at all the different art. There were 1300 different pieces of art and people are allowed to vote for their favorites. When I was there, the top forty out of the 1300 had been selected so I concentrated on looking for those forty. Funny enough, three of the forty were all horse related – just up my alley.

One of the top forty

Last Dance On A Hot Planet by Sally Duback  - I just liked this one

Art was everywhere - even in the river

Pretty intense orange guys

One of the finalists

It was made out of glass and steel and had a red glowing belly

There is a four story place called The B.O.B. that has many bars.  This was not any ArtPrize art - this was just on a wall - crushed beer cans - very cool

This was made of raised screws

Here are the raised screws that we could touch

I think this one was called Lincoln and was made totally of Lincoln pennies - couldn't get a picture without people in it

This one won one of the grand prizes of $200,000.