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| Not in Toledo. |
Q: What's the difference between a newspaper column and a blog post?
A: You can miss a newspaper column.
At least in my case. I took off all last week while my wife and I drove to Cooperstown for Thanksgiving. More about that later. And while page two in the Sun-Times was filled with ... umm ... stuff other than me — at least I hope so; hope they didn't just leave it blank — the blog post, true to its "Every goddamn day" name, kept chugging along.
Such was the case Sunday, when I pivoted off Shermann Dilla Thomas' new video. I've long been a Thomas fan, and enjoyed his YouTube program sufficiently that I thought sharing it would be something readers appreciated.
I wrote the post Friday night, in DuBois, Pennsylvania. The plan was to drive to Toledo, check in somewhere, hit the Toledo Art Museum, which is open until 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays — to capitalize on the singles crowd, I imagine — then cruise home Sunday morning.
But we had been gone almost a week. All the hotels in Toledo charge an extra $75 for a dog, putting them above $200. Or ... we could just keep driving, save the money, skip the museum, and get home by 7 p.m. Saturday. That sounded like a plan.
So Sunday I woke up at home, gave the Dilla post a quick read — you want to reread things in the morning, when you're fresh, and catch errors. I thought ... you know .... this is pretty good. It could go in the paper. I was still technically on vacation, and didn't have to turn anything in. But though I make a point of taking my vacation, I also sometimes say that if you aren't in the newspaper, you might as well be dead. The post was 600 words long. It was a few minutes' work to puff it to 750 and put it into BrightSpot. Beside, the additional reach of the newspaper would be good for Dilla's "You Don't Know Chi" debut.
So that's what's in the paper Monday, a longer version of Sunday's blog post. You can read it here. It seemed repetitive to post the newspaper version here, so I thought ... something else. But what? I was curious what we missed by skipping Toledo. Hmmm — the Toledo Museum of Art has an orange Calder sculpture quite like Chicago's orange Calder sculpture, only smaller. And ...
You know what? I'm not doing this. Not sneering at a museum I haven't visited. That's a drawback of having a world class asset like The Art Institute right here. It can make one cocky. Other city museums seem small affairs, crowded with second rate paintings from known names and anonymous genre artists. I'm sure the Toledo Art Museum has many fine qualities. The National Review called it "a treasure trove of the best" while admitting that Toledo "is not near anything." When the day comes that I have reason to pause in Toledo, well, I'll be sure to check it out and tell you all about it.
A: You can miss a newspaper column.
At least in my case. I took off all last week while my wife and I drove to Cooperstown for Thanksgiving. More about that later. And while page two in the Sun-Times was filled with ... umm ... stuff other than me — at least I hope so; hope they didn't just leave it blank — the blog post, true to its "Every goddamn day" name, kept chugging along.
Such was the case Sunday, when I pivoted off Shermann Dilla Thomas' new video. I've long been a Thomas fan, and enjoyed his YouTube program sufficiently that I thought sharing it would be something readers appreciated.
I wrote the post Friday night, in DuBois, Pennsylvania. The plan was to drive to Toledo, check in somewhere, hit the Toledo Art Museum, which is open until 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays — to capitalize on the singles crowd, I imagine — then cruise home Sunday morning.
But we had been gone almost a week. All the hotels in Toledo charge an extra $75 for a dog, putting them above $200. Or ... we could just keep driving, save the money, skip the museum, and get home by 7 p.m. Saturday. That sounded like a plan.
So Sunday I woke up at home, gave the Dilla post a quick read — you want to reread things in the morning, when you're fresh, and catch errors. I thought ... you know .... this is pretty good. It could go in the paper. I was still technically on vacation, and didn't have to turn anything in. But though I make a point of taking my vacation, I also sometimes say that if you aren't in the newspaper, you might as well be dead. The post was 600 words long. It was a few minutes' work to puff it to 750 and put it into BrightSpot. Beside, the additional reach of the newspaper would be good for Dilla's "You Don't Know Chi" debut.
So that's what's in the paper Monday, a longer version of Sunday's blog post. You can read it here. It seemed repetitive to post the newspaper version here, so I thought ... something else. But what? I was curious what we missed by skipping Toledo. Hmmm — the Toledo Museum of Art has an orange Calder sculpture quite like Chicago's orange Calder sculpture, only smaller. And ...
You know what? I'm not doing this. Not sneering at a museum I haven't visited. That's a drawback of having a world class asset like The Art Institute right here. It can make one cocky. Other city museums seem small affairs, crowded with second rate paintings from known names and anonymous genre artists. I'm sure the Toledo Art Museum has many fine qualities. The National Review called it "a treasure trove of the best" while admitting that Toledo "is not near anything." When the day comes that I have reason to pause in Toledo, well, I'll be sure to check it out and tell you all about it.
Until then... well, it's good to be back home. Now time to find my rhythm and get back to newspapering.
I actually visited that museum once. Not exactly by choice - it was part of a press tour organized by some chamber of commerce. As I recall, I came away fairly impressed. (By the museum, not the chamber of commerce.)
ReplyDeleteWait a minute. Were you in Florida (Coopertown), Tennessee ((Coopertown) or New York (Cooperstown). Just curious.
ReplyDeleteNew York Cooperstown. The one with the baseball museum.
DeleteDid you go to that museum?
Deleteand the Glimmerglass Festival
Deletewelcome home! Hope the drive was relatively snow-free. I tend to have quirky associations to some of your blog posts. Reading this one brought back old song lyrics written by Randy Sparks, and sung by John Denver in the song, "Saturday Night in Toledo Ohio". It's basically about how you're not missing much in Toledo. But this line of redemption was what I thought of first: "Ah, but let’s not forget that the folks of Toledo unselfishly gave us the scale. No springs, honest weight, that’s the promise they made, so smile and be thankful next time you get weighed."
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go read the expanded version of the Dilla Thomas column now. I'm glad you gave him more exposure by putting him in the Sun Times, too.
The real test. How many days of the week is the museum open? Oh, I love AIC, but that's not a fair question.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the Toledo Museum has late hours on the weekend, while the Art Institute is still CLOSED on Tuesday and Wednesday. I agree that regional museums often have second rate paintings by major artists, but often really wonderful works by lesser-known artists. We visit these museums whenever we can, invariably finding lovely surprises.
ReplyDeleteDilla's show is terrific! Could compete quickly with Geoffrey Baer's feature length tours on Wttw for breath of city knowledge. Thanks for introducing.
ReplyDeleteThe next time you folks find yourselves in the Toledo metro area you might swing by the Spangler candy factory in Bryan and take the tour. Maybe you can't place the name Spangler, but I'll bet a shiny penny you know at least one of the products. Circus Peanuts! You see bags of Circus Peanuts on the rack at the Menards check-out counter. Spangler is an old family owned company. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.
ReplyDeleteNeil: Semi-total subject change.
ReplyDeleteIt is fairly we’ll known that in 1930, Grant Wood’s American Gothic won 3rd prize in a competition at the School of the Art Institute. It has done better since, of course.
My modest research has been unsuccessful in determining who/what won 1st and 2nd prize. Any reporterial curiosity in finding out?
Sorry for the misspellings. On phone. Going too fast.
DeleteThis past spring,I I visited the art museum in New Orleans. Found it truly wonderful, with a stunning sculpture garden. Just an observation...
ReplyDeleteRead it here yesterday and in the paper today. Enjoyed it both times.
ReplyDelete