Tag: Drums

Tucson – February 2023 – African Art Show

Art, Festival

As mentioned in an earlier posting the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows are far more than just gems and minerals. One of the more colorful, and larger shows, is the African Art Show.

There were rows and rows of vendors with all sorts of colorful items.

First up – a Ghana Djembe.

A Benin bronze statue.

A grouping of wooden giraffes.

A Bembe carving from the Congo.

Many of the booths had walls of masks.

Senegalese woven grass baskets.

A collection of masks from the Congo.

According to the all knowing Google Images these small carvings are most likely from the Ivory Coast. Once again proving I should take better notes.

This bust has a great mix of carving and bead work.

The same booth had these amazing full bead work sculptures.

They also had these colorful baskets.

The artist nailed this one.

The mystery ladies.

Vicente Lopez, Argentina – February 2020 – Carnaval

Art, Festival

Everyone knows that Carnaval ends on Fat Tuesday. For whatever reason the good people of Vicente Lopez, a huge Buenos Aires suburb, don’t seem to care that date has passed. They had their Carnaval 5 days later!

This worked perfectly for me as I was on an airplane coming back from North America for the large parade downtown. Completely disappointed I missed my chance, I was elated that I was given a second chance in Vicente Lopez.

The parade was long enough it started in the hot sun of the day and ran into the night. And it was everything you could hope for from an Argentina Carnaval Parade – Murgas (drum crews), dancers, elaborate costumes, and general fun.

Enough fun this posting is 44 photos long!



















































































































































































After what seemed like the final group came through and we left we ran into one more group who was clearly late to the parade!

What a parade it was. While it obviously isn’t Rio, it was far better than we could’ve hoped for, and an experience that will live with us for a long time.









Cleveland – February 2020 – Instruments of the Rock Hall of Fame

Art, History, Museum

Cleveland Rocks – at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!




While they normally have a nice selection of the instruments that made all those classic songs, for a limited time they have pulled out many more and have them on display throughout the entire museum.

Johnny Otis wrote numerous songs, including contributing to the writing of Hound Dog.





Legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker’s guitar.




There is a section of the museum dedicated to the music of various cities – including Memphis.





A section celebrating the 25 years of Vans Warped Tours.





A number of guitars have unique shapes.





Chuck Berry – Keith Richards once said if they needed another name for Rock and Roll they should use Chuck Berry.





Elvis Presley’s Guitar – who knew he could even play a guitar.





Jerry Garcia’s Guitar.





Eric Clapton’s Strat.





Along with David Gilmour’s.





The collection continues through numerous rooms.









Jeff Beck’s worn out guitar.





As is Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Strat.






The bass guitar of Dee Dee Ramone.





The guitar god collection continues.





Paul McCartney’s rhythm guitar on the right.





Pete Townshend’s guitar – intact! Upstairs was another that he had destroyed.





Z Z Top guitars looking like they came from a Mad Max movie. The collection was excellent – too bad I only had a point and click camera with me!