T-Rex in the sun

Lately, I have found that listening to T-Rex while driving in the summer-like sun has a magical effect. The music is SO appropriate for some reason.

Somehow I found myself listening a lot from the "first" T-Rex album (T-Rex/Electric Warrior) plus some singles. This is the basic play list for driving around in the sun:

• 20th Century Boy
• Ride a White Swan (see clip below)
• Hot Love
• Raw Ramp/Electric Boogie
• Jeepster
• T-Rex/Electric Warrior album

My affair with T-Rex goes back quite a while. Not sure how it started. Probably Ringo Starr's interest in "T-Rexstasy" and his filming the "Born to Boogie" documentary film as well as Ringo's photo credit for the cover of the 2nd T-Rex album, "The Slider."

If you looked at my record collection (as in vinyl LPs) from back in the days (now stored in boxes), you'd be surprised at the number of T-Rex albums.

Wings & Wheels Sunday

Today was an "eventful day." Started with Richard's roller hockey: Championship game at 9 a.m. His team won 9-5. This was the first of the best of three games for the Spring Season Championship.  Richard has been on several teams that came close to winning the Championship but never got there. Maybe this time....

After the game, Richard and I went to the Plainville "Wings and Wheels" show at the nearby Robertson Airport. We went last year and had a pretty good time. So we decided to return. This year the layout was different and the cars were parked more out in the open than last year. Many of the cars were leaving as we arrived. We saw a lot of the cars as we walked past the line waiting to get out of the lot.  I imagine many left due to the heat (hot last year too).  Since the weather was sunny, hot & humid, we did not last long either.

 This year's food selection was another disappointment: basically only one food stand which served hot dogs, burgers, & fries.  We picked up some hot dogs and water for fuel at the start.  They also were selling plane and helicopter rides and had some exhibits.

Like last year, after the show we ended up having lunch in an air conditioned Burger King.

Icons at KOCM

Today was a rainy and cold, more Fall-ish than Spring (Summer is just around the corner). Richard is battling a cold or something and just wanted to watch the Tribe on the tube.

So the conditions were ripe for me to go to the Knights of Columbus Museum to catch a lecture on "The Iconography of the Mother of God." It was part of the museum's latest exhibit, Windows into Heaven: Russian Icons and Treasures.  Richard and I visited it a couple of weeks ago, which is how I knew about the lecture.

St. Luke Writes the First Icon of the Mother of God

The lecture was given by Marek Czarnecki, a local iconographer from Meriden, CT. This lecture was an examination of the most popular subject in iconography: Mary, the Mother of God (Greek: Theotokos). The lecture began with a detailed description of the icon (above) "St. Luke Writes the First Icon of the Mother of God." Note the angel (at the left) "helping" St. Luke do the icon. Because there was no Russian verb for painting, they termed it "writing" an icon.

He talked about how the early church councils decided it was proper to call Mary, the Mother of God rather than the Mother of Christ or the Mother of Jesus.  He then went through various slides of icons and other artwork from the earliest legends about Mary, the non-canonical The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary through the Biblical events of her life (Immaculate Conception, Annunciation, Birth of Jesus, Presentation of Jesus, Finding Jesus in the Temple, the Wedding Feast at Cana, Jesus' Crucifixion, Pentecost, and the Assumption). He then showed various Mary icons associated with different themes and places.

Our Lady of the Signs.

Our Lady of Kazan.

The lecture lasted more than an hour. Afterwards, I went to the exhibit and read some of info boards that I skipped the first time.  Then I looked more carefully at the section of the exhibit dedicated to the iconography of Mary. There is so much to see, so many icons (225+).

The next lecture (3rd of 3) is scheduled to be held June 29th. Hope I can be there. Fortunately, the exhibit continues into 2014 (see poster above). And I like that it is free and has free parking.