Greenville – Page 5 – Random Connections

She Blinded Me with Science

March 22, 2012 Tom 1 Comment

Thomas Dolby

Last night Laura and I went to see Thomas Dolby at The Handlebar. It was the first band we had seen in a long, long time – a great show, and a throwback to our college days.

Dolby is currently touring the country in his “Time Capsule Tour.” The show features lots of steam-punk kitsch, and a mocked up “time capsule” in which visitors can leave a “30 second message for the future” (basically a webcam uploading to YouTube.) The time capsule is a mini camper tricked out with steam-punk accoutrements.

TD Time Capsule

Sacred Music for a Sacred Space

February 20, 2012 Tom No Comments

Music, Photography

Sunday afternoon the Greenville Chorale Chamber Ensemble presented its annual concert at St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The concert was entitled “Sacred Music for a Sacred Space” and featured sacred music by contemporary composers. The pairing of music with venue was well-planned, and somewhat modeled the liturgy that might be followed in a traditional service.

Saturday morning we had our dress rehearsal in the cathedral, and I brought along my camera to get a few shots of the interior. I started with exterior shots…

…then moved to the interior to photograph the stunning mosaics above the altar.

Rugby Caching

January 29, 2012 Tom No Comments

Entertainment, Geocaching and Maps

Several months ago John Kaup asked if I would do a geocaching workshop for Paris Mountain State Park’s Fourth Saturday program. The appointed Saturday came around, so I headed up to the park with all of my GPSs, laptops, etc, in tow for the workshop.

I planned to do a repeat of the workshop I’d done for the park back in 2009. We had secured eight Garmin eTrex GPSs for the participants to use, and I had set up ten dummy geocaches within sight of the building where we were holding the workshop. The plan was to go over the basics and show them the website, then send the participants out to find the dummy caches. I had the coordinates for the caches in my netbook, and had several different types of cables for different models of GPSs, in case someone had brought their own and wanted to participate.

Last time I did this I only had two participants. This time I did more advertising. I posted on the Upstate Geocacher’s Facebook page, and I also got it added as an event cache on geocaching.com. That way, anyone who attended to add the workshop itself as one of their finds. Ranger Cathy Taylor also posted announcements in the Greenville News.

It worked. We had nearly 20 participants. Also attending were experienced geocachers Patrick Peden and his wife, who have over 6000 finds (compared to my measly 135). Patrick took the photos here, since for just about the first time ever I got so wrapped up in the program that I forgot to take ANY photographs. What I really like were that there were families with lots of kids there. It was almost like teaching fourth grade again.

Table 301

January 8, 2012 Tom 1 Comment

Restaurants

…or, “I watch way too much food television…” Laura and I had delayed our anniversary dinner. Our actual anniversary is right after Christmas, and this year we were traveling. So, this year we decided to go out for a nice meal at a more convenient time. We had been to The Lazy Goat several times … Read More “Table 301” »

Spirits of Springwood

October 24, 2011 Tom 3 Comments

History and Genealogy, Local, Photography

This past Sunday Laura and went on the Spirits of Springwood Tour sponsored by the Upcountry History Museum. Springwood Cemetery features many historic graves and lots of interesting headstones and carvings. I’ve visited many times on photo walks, but thought it would be interesting to get an “official” tour.

There were two tours scheduled – one starting at 5:00 pm and one at 6:45 pm. I initially wanted to do the 5:00 pm tour because the lighting would be so much better for photography. However, Laura convinced me that the 6:45 tour with flashlights would be fun, and that this wasn’t really a photography tour.

Photography tour or not, I came prepared. I had my DSLR with a 50mm f/1.8 lens, my trusty Nikon S70 sidearm, and the little infrared point-and-shoot I’d used on our Blue Ghost excursion. I knew a tripod wouldn’t be appropriate for a tour, so I brought cameras that would work well (mostly) in low-light situations.

As usual, we arrived early. I took advantage of the waning afternoon light to take a few photos.

Read More “Spirits of Springwood” »

A Night at the Children’s Museum

October 13, 2011 Tom No Comments

Entertainment, Local

NOTE: It’s been a crazy week, and I’m just now getting around to posting this from last Friday’ nights outing.

Last night [Friday, October 7] the Children’s Museum of the Upstate held an Adult’s Only night. I had been wanting to visit the museum, so Laura and I and some of her colleagues from Furman bought tickets and headed on over.

The museum is located in the former home of the Greenville County Library. It’s an interesting space, with sweeping circular ramps leading from one level to the next, and perfect for some sort of museum or exhibit. I was very pleased that TCMU was able to move into that space with the library moved into its new building. It’s been open since 2009, but we haven’t been able to visit. Apparently they have a strict rule that you can’t visit if you don’t have a child with you. Kind of makes it hard for educators without children to check out what’s going on there.

We arrived right at 7:30 to see a line forming outside of the museum. Most of those in line were young adults in their 20s and early 30s – those without kids. It was very much a younger demographic. As we were in line, several of Laura’ colleagues from Furman (also in their 20s and early 30s) joined us. The line moved quickly, and soon we were wrist-banded and handed two tickets – one for an adult beverage, and one for a wine tasting.

The Trappe Door

September 9, 2011 Tom 2 Comments

Restaurants

Friday evening Laura and I were in the mood to try something new downtown. Our friend and former neighbor, Josh Beeby, is the owner of Barley’s Tap Room, and several months ago he had opened a new venue called The Trappe Door. We decided to give it a try. Background Josh is from Australia. According … Read More “The Trappe Door” »

Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant

August 18, 2011 Tom No Comments

Restaurants

While on our photo trek Ed gave me grief about not doing any restaurant reviews lately. And he’s right – I haven’t. It seems that we’ve been either traveling too much, eating at home because we’re tired of traveling, or hitting our tried and true places because we’re too tired to cook but also tired … Read More “Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant” »

Busy Spring Weekend

May 15, 2011 Tom 1 Comment

Family, Miscellaneous

It seems like every weekend this spring has been a busy one, with kayaking, family visits, festivals, and performances. This one was no different. In addition to our outing Friday night to Northampton Wines, this was the weekend for Artisphere and Chip’s Big Pig Gig. I started Saturday morning by heading downtown. My first stop … Read More “Busy Spring Weekend” »

Wine Tasting 101

May 14, 2011 Tom 1 Comment

Restaurants

Laura and I were ready for a date night. We had both been so busy that we needed an evening off to ourselves. Unfortunately, this was also the weekend of Artisphere, so we were pretty certain that most of our favorite downtown restaurants would be inaccessible.

I got home at my usual time Friday afternoon, and we still didn’t have a plan. Laura had noted that Northampton Wines was having their “How to Taste” wine tasting this evening, and that would have been fun if we’d had reservations. We’ve tried going to that tasting before, but even calling early in the week we would find that it was full. I didn’t hold out much hope for a spur-of-the-moment trip, but I called anyway.

Turns out that our timing was perfect. Everyone was at Artisphere, so there was room for us. They had already set the table for the tasting, but said that they could re-arrange to add to more.

The Tasting

We knew that dinner wasn’t included with the tasting – only wine and cheese. We had a few appetizers at home so that we wouldn’t be drinking on empty stomachs, then headed over for our 6:30 tasting. We were the first to arrive, and were ushered into the back tasting room, which was lined with bins and bottles. As we waited, six glasses were filled with enough to taste the sample vintages for the evening.

The rest of the guests arrived, bringing the total to 17. Our speaker was Richard deBondt, and this evening would focus on the wines of France. He began by talking about sparkling wines and the proper way to open a bottle. We were then served a taste, and were instructed on the proper way to toast.