Not too long ago, Chatty and her friend JSP had a nice afternoon at the Phoenix Art Museum.

    We decided to take the new Metro Rail, even though it entailed driving out of our way so that we could "park and ride" a few stops away from our destination. It would have been faster and easier just to drive to the Museum from JSP's house, but Chatty is all for the new experience!

    The station with the park and ride was very nice:

                

with pretty architectural details like the white "sails"...but both of us wondered a bit about the judgment here. These sails are attractive, to be sure, but in a city where the temperature hovers in the triple digits several months of the year, might more shade and less modernistic architecture have been a brighter idea?

    The train is rather futuristic looking, too, with two sets of "accordions" per car for negotiating the street corners, and two cars per train:

                

    Remember that old spoof of disaster movies that shows up on late-night TV occasionally - "The Big Bus"? That's pretty much what it reminds Chatty of...and, it travels along RIGHT NEXT TO the street - in a separate lane, but with virtually no demarcation between it and the cars unless you count the lame-o little "curb":

            

    Chatty cannot begin to tell you how weird it is to have one of these silent behemoths pull up next to you - gliding out of your "blind spot" and then looming over you while you are sitting in your car at a light!

    Once aboard, the train was clean, quiet and nicely air-conditioned (although Chatty wonders how cool it will be when the cars are full of passengers in July), but basically like any other train she has ever ridden. JSP agreed, and he has been on trains all over the world. Chatty has only been on trains going from from Chicago to Oklahoma, from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, and in England, Japan and France - but those last three trips were MANY years ago, when she was a mere stripling - and just as unobservant as striplings usually are...

    We got off at the stop nearest the Art Museum, and walked back a block. We met JSP's friend, who had two arrangements on display in the Ikebana exhibit, which was in the Asian Gallery.

    The exhibit was sponsored by Ikebana of Arizona, a group that formed back in 1973. Ikebana is over 500 years old, and literally translated means "the arrangement of living materials in water." Often described as "sculpting with flowers", there are currently over 3000 schools of Ikebana in Japan, three of which were represented in this exhibition: Ikenobo, Sogetsu, and Ohara. The oldest of these is Ikenobo, and it encompasses many different styles, from "Rikka" - the earliest known formal style of arrangement - to "avant garde" and "free style" - where pretty much anything goes. When Buddhism was introduced in Japan in 538 A.D., the monks began using flowers to decorate the temples.  Ikebana is a secular movement that was the eventual progression from those temple arrangements.

    The first two pictures below are JSP's friend's arrangements. The others, in no particular order, are Chatty's other favorites. They were beautifully displayed in and around the Oriental art, ceramics and sculptures in the Asian room, and the result was breathtaking!

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

    For some reason, that last one just makes Chatty smile every time she looks at it. Those little flowers look just like yellow ping pong balls!

    Afterwards, we went back to JSP's house, and The Wiz and our puppies joined us. JSP made a wonderful spaghetti dinner, and Cleo and Toot played with Winston (aka Chatty's favorite beagle), who is a champion spaghetti-hound:

                    

        A good time was had by all. And then we went home.