I raided the archives to find this sunset photo to post today since today is the longest day of the year. Here in Arizona we will get a little over 14 hours of sunshine. For those of you further north, you will be getting almost 2 hours more sunshine than we get. I'm sure there will be solstice celebrations all over the world. I know there will be a big one at Stonehenge.
I took a little trip to Emerald City last Sunday evening. It think it might have been my third time to see "Wicked" and it was well worth another visit.
I love the music in this show and there were some good voices in this production. So I've seen this play at least three times but so far I haven't seen the new movie. Have any of you seen it? It it worth watching?
Last Sunday and Monday I posted two photos I had taken from the airplane window as the plane was approaching the airport and flying low over Tempe Arizona. Well this photo is taken from Tempe looking up at one of those plane nearing the airport. I wonder if anyone inside that Southwest Airlines flight is snapping photos out the window as they pass over the city. It's a good, clear day so it's perfect for photos. I can't be the only one who does that.
When I pulled out the "bridges" photo from yesterday's post, I saw this one taken just seconds before the one with the bridges. This one was taken as we passed over the State Farm Headquarters office complex. I posted several photographs form this spot back in 2019. It's a great place to take photos because those buildings are all glass so they have great reflective quality along with a few interesting architectural details. You can see one of those posts here. The buildings don't have the same pizazz from above as they do on the ground.
By the way, you can also see the Arizona State University football stadium just above the State Farm office complex. Also, way at the top of the photo and slightly to the right you can see the round Gammage Auditorium. That's the famous Frank Lloyd Wright designed building that I last featured here.
With the exception of the State Farm buildings in the foreground, most of the rest of the buildings in this photo belong to the university. It's a BIG campus.
The City Daily Photo Bloggers theme for the first of September is "Bridges". I took this photo several months ago when I was returning from that short trip to Oklahoma City. If the airplane lands in Phoenix from the east, it gently glides over the city of Tempe and the Tempe Town Lake. As you can see, there are three bridges that cross the lake at this point. The one all the way to the right is a railroad bridge and the other two carry traffic in and out of downtown Tempe. If the landing is on a clear day, I can get very good photos over Tempe as we make our landing approach. You can see another one here.
To see other "bridges" from around the globe, click here.
On Sunday evening, I attended a performance of "Hamilton". It was my third time to see this wonderful play and my friends and I all agree, this was the best performance yet. It was so good, I hated to see it end. Every actor did an incredible job playing their parts.
Looking at the program, I discovered that the three leading characters were all played by the understudies in this performance. I'd say they are all ready for starring roles. They are great performers.
This is one musical I could see over and over again. Les Miserables and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat are two more.
I have another one of my assortments of odd photos taken over the past few weeks and all snapped with my iPhone.
I happened to stop at a very upscale supermarket in Scottsdale a few weeks ago. I was totally impressed by the very neatly arranged produce section.
On March 28th, I posted a photo of a flower from my friend Glenda's garden. I learned that the flower is called a Lady Banks Rose. I snapped this photo of my champagne glass with those roses behind it.
I had dinner with friends two weeks ago at a tiny little restaurant. We needed to wait a bit for our table but since the place is so small, they've made an arrangement with a bar next door to handle the people waiting for tables. It was a great place with all kinds of games lining the bar and I loved this "no dogs" sign.
This photo was taken from a moving car and through a window. That explains the light glares. I wanted to capture these great looking light fixtures on this street in Tempe. I'm not sure when I'll get back there to take some better photos so this will do for now.
I told you these were going to be ODD shots! 😳
Last Sunday night I attended one of my Valley Broadway Series shows at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe. This time it was "MJ", the musical about Michael Jackson. I wasn't sure what to expect but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I snapped this photo of the stage just after arriving at my seat.
My friend Julie snapped these two shots during the standing ovation. All of the actors were excellent, the dance moves were amazing and the staging was brilliant. All in all, a good show.
Here is another utility box from downtown Tempe. This one was painted by Aaron Allen Marner and it's called "Let's Take a Walk".
It depicts people who appear to be happy to be outdoors with nature all around and the outline of the city behind them.
I can understand that happiness. I for one, love being outdoors.
Taking part in Monday Murals!
Here is another mural on a utility box that I found in Tempe 2 weeks ago. I'm not quite sure if the ladies are meant to look scary or if they are just melting away.
The artist is Tara Sharpe and judging from the works on her website, she paints a lot of portraits that appear to melt away.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
I took this photo way back in 2016 and it's been sitting in my files ever since because I couldn't find any information on it.
When I went to Tempe two weeks ago for that Tempe Blooms event, I had a plan to find the artist's name for this sculpture.
The sculpture was still there and I circled my way around it looking for something to tell me the name of the artist and I couldn't find anything. Then I noticed the strange sculpture just past this one.
Still, there was not sign to tell about the piece. So when I got home I did some more internet digging and finally I found the information. The reason this was so hard to find is that the cowboy sculpture isn't a stand alone piece. This sculpture is a combination of 5 elements and this one with the wheels is number 3, the cowboy is number 2. The piece is called The Progression of Transportation and it was created by David Brant. Now I need to go back to Tempe sometime and find the rest of the pieces. It starts with "walking"and then "horseback riding" and then "biking" (those wheels) and then "driving" and lastly "air flight". You can see photos of all five pieces here.
I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today. Spies and politicians haunt this area.
The February theme for City Daily Photo Bloggers is "Street Corners" and as it happens I took a few street corner shots while I was in Tempe last Sunday.
Now that I think about it, these street corner shots in Tempe are better than any I have in Phoenix because of all the people out while I was in Tempe. There were certainly a lot more pedestrians out in Tempe on Sunday than I ever see in Phoenix.
These were all taken along Mill Avenue, Tempe's main thoroughfare though downtown.
To see other "street corner" photos from around the world, click here.
Here are a few more flowers from the Tempe Blooms event that I wrote about yesterday. I especially liked that tree all decorated with flowers.
I also discovered this sculpture that pays tribute to a former Mayor of Tempe, Harry Mitchell. It's called "Above the Crowd" and the artist is John R. Nelson.
That is one VERY TALL sculpture.
The city of Tempe had a brand new event this last weekend called Tempe Blooms. They filled the downtown area with a variety of floral arrangements and lots of live music. If this event was designed to draw people to downtown Tempe, it was a huge success. There were so many people out it was hard navigate the sidewalks.
This sunflower covered saguaro arrangement was the first one I photographed and I didn't notice the "No Loitering" sign on the wall behind it until I down loaded the photo.
The flowers were beautiful but the huge crowds of people made it difficult to photograph them all.
I took the light rail out to Tempe because parking in the city is a challenge and with an event going on it would be impossible. I haven't been on the light rail for several years now so that was a bit of an adventure in itself.
This last weekend was a very busy one for me. On Friday night I attended the opening at Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale that I posted about on Sunday. Above is one of the displays of a book the artist used to do experiment with painting ideas.
After the museum, my friend and I had dinner at the restaurant Sel where I admired this beautiful bouquet of peach-colored gladiolas. We don't see many gladiolas here in the desert southwest so they always catch my eye.
On Saturday night I joined my friends David and Riley for an evening at the Symphony where we enjoyed Selections of Brahms and Dvorak.
I snapped this photo of one of the many chandeliers that hang in the lobby of symphony hall.
On Sunday night I attended a performance of the Broadway production of "Tina", the Tina Turner Musical. This was my second time seeing this production. I saw in in New York back in 2021. Tina overcame so many negative obstacles to win her well deserved acclaim. The ending of this show will have you wanting to dance in the aisles.
I don't often have so many events all at once but this last weekend they all seemed to converge.
It was back to the theatre Sunday evening this time for the Broadway production of "Frozen". We parked the car next to one of the fountains so that gave me an opportunity to get a nice reflection shot of Grady Gammage auditorium, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces.
I wasn't sure what to expect of "Frozen". I had never seen the movie so the story was going to be new to me. I must admit I loved it. The music was great and the special effects were amazing. When Elsa's green gown turns into a sparkling ice gown right before our eyes, I was blown away. I tried to search the internet to find out how they were able to do that but no luck. Disney is keeping that trick a secret.
I took this one several years ago when I met friends at a brew pub to grab a bite to eat. This is how close our table was to those huge tanks. I don't care for most beer but the food was good.
There is a restaurant in downtown Tempe called House of Tricks that has been there for over 30 years. It's a special place that is often used for special occasions, birthdays, graduations and engagements. The restaurant is housed in two old houses with seating spilling over into the front garden surrounded by tall trees. The owner, Robin Trick announced last fall the the restaurant would be closing at the end of June.
When I first started dining there, downtown Tempe was full of old houses that had been turned into small businesses. The city had that small, college town vibe. Over the years, the city has changed drastically. Tempe is surrounded on all sides by other cities so it can't grow outward.
Instead, it has grown upward. This group of buildings is directly across the street. When I first started going to House of Tricks, this street had a few old houses and a large parking lot. No set plans have been announced for the restaurant property but I'm willing to bet that sometime in the near future, it will look just like this. With the incredible growth of Arizona State University, the city of Tempe is in a constant state of change.
Now that the restaurant is closing, getting a reservation is pretty tricky but my friends and I managed a reservation last Tuesday evening. For my last meal at this favorite spot, I chose the Vera Cruz style grilled salmon. It was delicious. House of Tricks you will be missed.
I've posted photos from the Arizona State University Art Museum before but I was in the neighborhood recently and stopped to snap a couple more photos. This is the front as seen from Mill Avenue and it was the sight of this modern building that enticed me to stop.
Get up a little closer and the fountain and planters vie for attention. It certainly lives up to the outstanding architectural reputation that ASU has developed.
My Art Challenge group met Sunday afternoon to review our latest challenge which was "View From Above". Our little group had not met for almost 3 months because of busy schedules so it was great to see everyone once again. The pieces I did for this challenge were three prints all taken from the window of an airplane. I had them mounted and printed to 8 by 10 and I called the series "Why I Like the Window Seat". The one above was taken while landing in Phoenix and the plane was over Grady Gammage Auditorium on the campus of Arizona State University.
And, this last one is of Venice Italy. I took it right after take off from the Venice Airport. It was a rare, clear day and I was able to get a great shot of Venice. Good enough to pick out St. Mark's Square and the train station.
Our little group has been meeting for over 10 years now. It's hard to believe we've been challenging each other that long. I might post a few of my pieces from past challenges in the future. Many of them I never displayed here on the blog.
