An Art Show

Today we went to a street art show. Perhaps 5 or 6 weeks ago we were told about a place that has art shows of various kinds. We have since gone 3 or 4 times to see special exhibits that we read about or heard about. One of those was mentioned previously- it was a stone sculpture exhibit with generally high quality work. Others have been more craft oriented or textile. We recently went to hear a talk by a couple archeologists who also introduced a series of old photographs of the ruins at Hampi. We just happened to hear the talks which we didn't know were going on. We went to see the old photos. In any case, its an interesting place and at one of the previous visits were were told about an street art show there on Jan. 25. So, we decided we'd go if we had time.
This is a 3 day weekend here- Monday the 26th is "Republic Day", so we considered going up to Hampi, but since Jim got sick and Zoe was been ill we decided not to go. Thus, we were home and could go to the art show. We were told that the police close the whole street to vehicular traffic and people display theie work all along the street on both sides. We were also told that the quality would vary alot, as much of the work is by students. We went with some friends and walked and walked and looked and looked and, oh, what is that in the picture? My! It seems to be a car driving down the closed road! Well, we learned that the road was "mostly closed". The cars that passed through, presumably, had some business being there, like they lived on the road or a side road, and there is a hotel on the road too. However, there seemed to be a lot of motorbikes going too fast. In any case, we didn't see anyone hit. It was an interesting experience. A large amount of poor work, but most was at least mediocre and some was very nice. Our friends bought some very nice watercolors. Janet did not like much of what she saw and the few that one or the other of us really liked, seemed a little expensive so we didn't buy any. Hampi has been getting a lot of attention these days, so there were quite a few watercolors and oils of the ruins there. We realized that 150 years ago, such watercolors were precisely what the tourists would buy if they came to see ruins anywhere.
It was an interetsing show. Maybe next year!
A couple weeks ago Janet wanted to get a speaker system of some sort to connect to her computer in order to hear "Sunday Baroque" from the USA by Suzanne Bona. Our driver took us to the "electronics district". It is a group of several narrow streets- very narrow -with a lot of people and motorbikes on them. We went from shop to shop and finally found something that seemed acceptable for about $55. The shops are very small and the sellers have a narrow range of things they sell- very specialized. They don't really service anything they sell- they just show you how to use it and send you off with your bargain. You can get warranty service from bigger name companies, but you never are quite sure who is doing what to your electronics.
We bought a Canadian made air purifier sometime back and it stopped working soon after we got it, but we didn't realize it. With the help of our driver and about 4 phone calls we were able to find the tiny (one room) service center. We suspect they actually did the work in their home. However, we got the machine back about 5 days later in working order with no charge to us, except the phone calls and trips to the place. Ziggy and Zoe are pestering us to let them write now.

Boring, boring, boring! They should be playing with us more! We'll have to bring that dopey feather to them to get them to do something they seem to enjoy. It was a little too quiet here today, so we brought out some of our toys and theirs for them to enjoy!