Size Doesn't Matter at Savoy Automobile Museum

Residents and road trippers through northwest Georgia have a gem of a new museum to explore as the Savoy Automobile Museum celebrates one year of operation in early December. 

From a peek at their holiday exhibition schedule, at Savoy, size doesn't matter, for there's everything from micro- and muscle cars to monster brass machines of the early 1900s under the museum's hood, er, roof a few miles west of I-75 in Cartersville, Ga. 

On my first return visit to the museum since attending the Dec. 6 media day last year, earlier this month I enjoyed revisiting vehicles in the impressive permanent Savoy Collection while also exploring four temporary exhibitions:

• 
  Fast Brass featuring snazzy (and enormous) race cars from 1907 to 1915, including a Marmon Speedster and a Stutz Bearcat on view through Jan. 29

• Big Blocks -- as in muscle car engines -- including a '67 Corvette convertible and a shimmering red Mustang Shelby revving up through Dec. 4

• Microcar Marvels, which showcases 14 of the smallest cars ever engineered, on loan from the Lane Motor Museum through Feb. 26, and
  

• Savoy Customs, presenting five "incredible custom resto-mod vehicles ... modified with modern parts and tech" while maintaining their "classic look" on view until Jan. 8.

There was also a teaser for an upcoming exhibition opening Dec. 6 titled Fabulous Fins featuring 10 U.S. vehicles of the 1950s and 60s (think Cadillac, Lincoln and the classic Chevy Bel Air). 

At its grand opening, the Savoy impressed me for many thoughtful details. For instance, some of the showrooms feature original auto-themed artwork, with many commissioned canvases for the destination. The paintings and posters span the history of automobiles thanks to a mix of unknown international artists and contemporary favorites including Billy Schenck, Allan Gorman and Steve Penley.

The largest indoor work looms over the ticket counter and a window display promoting sister museums in Cartersville, including the excellent Booth Western Art Museum also operated by Georgia Museums Inc. 

The Savoy's grandest work of art, however, is outdoors and impossible to miss. 

The monumental stainless-steel sculpture -- measuring 40.5 x 8.5 x 9.5 feet -- is artist Linda Brunker's five-ton take on streamline hood ornament design titled "Spirit of Speed." 

Also on view outdoors is the rusted hull of a 1954 Plymouth Savoy, the museum's namesake after its discovery while crews cleared the site for construction. 

On a smaller scale, a floor-to-ceiling showcase features an array of car collectibles, including die-cast cars of many colors and sizes. In this enviable and growing assemblage, I spotted the Savoy's lone Olympic tether as one of the displayed toys features Atlanta Olympic branding in miniature. 

Anyone can peek at future exhibitions and special events including car shows, lectures, "hoods up" days or other featured gatherings via the museum event calendar. 

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

Rock & Roll Ruhmeshalle Ruminations

Ruhmeshalle -- the world's original hall of fame circa 1853 -- was not at all on my radar during 2009, 2018 and twice in 2022 travels to Munich. 

According to online sources, the structure near the city's center endured terrible damage during WWII, with a multi-year restoration completed in time for the 1972 Olympics. 

At a glance I love the busts of individuals immortalized for their achievements and contributions to society and the world. There's also proximity to the Oktoberfest grounds to explore. 

Learning this history only since returning from Germany in September, Ruhmeshalle now tops the personal "must-see" list for the next Bavarian visit.

A more contemporary hall of renown was often on my mind this summer as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland announced its 2022 induction class. 

One glance at the honorees list (see below) instantaneously elevated ticketing research from "interested" to "must attend" status. 

Quite simply, they had me at Eurythmics. 

The journey to confirm a seat at the Nov. 5 ceremony proved surprisingly simple, easily achieved from the home office:

1. Buy a Rock & Roll HOF membership (bargain-priced at $50)
2. Await induction event deets and member online presale (encircled on calendar with red Sharpie)
3. Endure nail-biting on sale hour eventually picking up a single balcony ticket ($250+ fees), a preamble of sorts to what Taylor Swift ticket seekers apparently endured earlier this week
4. Book travel to LA noting the local destination: Microsoft Theater at LA Live

Here's a peek at walking into the venue about 15 minutes before showtime:

The in-person experience -- over 5.5 hours of music and speeches -- proved to be well worth the effort and expense, which also included a bargain-priced Hotels.com reservation at the downtown Biltmore and pre-show/poolside Tuscan feast at Sparrow. 

It shall be interesting to learn what show elements make the cut when HBO premieres the edited event broadcast Nov. 19. 

Will it be a two or three hour showcase? We shall see. 

No matter, now 13 days since the big night, I am still processing many aspects of the experience. 

Inductees, my personal fandom notes, and live ceremony highlights to watch for on HBO include:

• Eurythmics, whose album "Touch" was my very first music purchase for a penny, thanks to a fellow fifth grader answering a music club newspaper ad. The Edge from U2 introduced the duo with a rousing and aptly activism-charged speech before Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart brought down the house with "Would I Lie to You?" then "Missionary Man" and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Finally experiencing the band live was indeed sweet. 

• Duran Duran, another British pop group that captivated me as much in the 1990s as their earlier hits "A View to a Kill" and "Rio," appealed greatly. Hearing their "Save A Prayer" during a Torino 2006 Olympic workday in Italy rekindled interest and they've been a favorite since. Their induction by Robert Downey Jr. and performance of "Girls on Film" (which had an audio false start) with "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Ordinary World" built upon high energy experienced while attending their recent tour stop at Madison Square Garden. They punctuated their acceptance speech reading an open letter from absent bandmate Andy Taylor, who disclosed four years of treatment for prostate cancer. 

• Dolly Parton, whom I had seen perform live at two client events and one concert, lightened the evening as she had at previous events. When provided the opportunity to ask her Olympic interests in 2009, for instance, she smiled and admitted to none while cheerfully telling me, "It was sweet of you to ask!" I found it heartwarming that Brandy Carlile and P!nk performed "Coat of Many Colors" while Parton changed outfits to debut a new song and close out the evening with most of the other inductees. 

• 
  Lionel Richie, who performed in Atlanta at a client venue in the early 2000s where my boss opted to work that evening, so I missed the meet and greet and ever since have truly wanted to ask him about performing "All Night Long" at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic closing ceremony, which was referenced a time or two in his HOF induction video. On Nov. 5, he performed this hit as well as "Hello" and "Easy" which left me wondering why a duet rendition of "Endlesslove" with one of the female inductees went unsung. 

• Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, who was building a massive Lake Minnetonka mansion west of the Twin Cities when I visited a Minnesota friend in 1991. I walked through the construction site including a tour bus garage (on Google Maps it's on Hardscrabble Circle in Mound, Minn.). Loved LOVED that Janet Jackson welcomed these collaborators into the HOF with one of the best speeches of the evening. 

• Carly Simon, another James Bond soundtrack singer ("Nobody Does It Better"), unfortunately did not attend nor perform following the recent loss of two sisters. However, reliable crowd-pleaser Olivia Rodrigo sang "You're So Vain" in her absence. 

• 
  Eminem, a.k.a. The Real Slim Shady, a.k.a. another huge performer yet to be experienced live, rocked one of the longest sets including new-to-my-ears "Rap God" followed by "Stan" with Ed Sheeran subbing for Dido then a commanding performance of "Forever" with Dr. Dre, his mentor-turned-HOF inductor. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Mathers described an overdose that nearly killed him, later listing with appreciation dozens if not hundreds of acts who inspired him. 

• Pat Benatar and her husband Neil Giraldo, yet another iconic act from my earliest radio days, performing "Love is a Battlefield" bookended with "All Fired Up" and "Heartbreaker"

• Harry Belafonte, now 95, still another musical legend and longtime favorite, did not appear but was heralded for early achievements in the history of rock'n'roll. I also learned a bit of history from the producer and lawyer inductees in this year's class. 

Perhaps the biggest overall surprise for me was how much I enjoyed the presentations and performance by Judas Priest, a band with which there was little past connection. 

Alice Cooper emerging for the speech, combined with the digital flames engulfing the stage during "Breaking the Law" got me fist pumping and dancing.  

Would I attend another induction? Maybe, depending on the right mix of musicians and the extent to which they resonate personally. Would I return to Cleveland to see the new 2022 inductee display? Absolutely! And anyone in or heading to Ohio may also enjoy the lakeside experience beneath the I.M. Pei pyramid. 

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver except Lionel Richie 1984 photo via Associated Press and Eminem photo via Getty Images for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which also is the credit for the Judas Priest/Alice Cooper and Janet Jackson images.

Paris 2024 Mascot = Chapeau du Papa Smurf

With about 620 days, seven hours and 53 minutes until the next opening ceremony, Paris 2024 officials today unveiled the upcoming Games mascots, and they are Smurf hats!

Named "The Phryges" (free-ges), the mascots for the current Olympiad are red conical caps with a bit of history and eyes/eyelashes reminiscent of ribboned-pins or Games medals. 

Just after 5 a.m. ET, organizing committee President Tony Estanguet joined athletes and assembled media to unveil Les Phryges, the Olympic and Paralympic mascots named for the historic hats donned throughout many centuries. 

Like Cobi for the Barcelona Games of 1992, it already appears Les Phryges are ready to hit the town "like any other citizen" (words used by Javier Mariscal to describe the earlier European mascot). 

In the moments describing the inspiration for the mascots, designers illustrated their work while displaying the famous personification of liberty Marianne (artfully depicted as the Paris 2024 logo) in the famous Eugene Delacroix painting "Liberty Leading the People" on view in the Louvre. 

According to the mascot press kit, "At Paris 2024, we wanted mascots that would embody our vision and be able to share it with the French people and around the world -- rather than an animal, our mascots represent an ideal [that] also represents French identity and spirit."

"A huge tribe of little Phrygian caps called THE PHRYGES is arriving!" with "Their mission: To lead a revolution through sport."

The reveal showcased a pair of Phryges, each with human-like legs and feet, with one representing Olympians and the other, donning a prosthetic blade leg, Paralympians. Please scroll to the fresh video posted by France 24 at the base of this post. The mascot duo marks a five-ringed first in that, like the logo for Paris 2024, the mascots are now the same and somewhat interchangeable for both Paralympic and Olympic use. 

During the press conference Q&A, I asked how many team members contributed to the design and the duration (in months or years) of their work. 

Though not one word of their French reply made sense to this writer, according to press materials the team spent more than a year in conversation and concept development. 

Scribing the experience here, I have to admit the design is appealing to me and the creative team scores an A+ for their thoughtful explanation, which should also resonate with children. Going into the announcement it seemed possible a human mascot might return, given the sneaker-clad feet showcased with teaser videos and GIFs. A youthful founder Pierre de Coubertin or "Coubie" (another nod to Barcelona '92) crossed my mind as an option. A friend suggested a "baguette named Pierre" was a concerning prospect. 

For this writer, the potential for the red hats and their French takeover seems sans fin. 

The mascots' detailed back-story is impressive. They've already published as a youth coloring book and within an hour of today's announcement Paris 2024 introduced an array of merchandise including pins (see image below) revealed in-step with the overall concept rollout. Anyone may already purchase mascot swag online. 

With that stated, in the instant of the reveal my brain did go to Papa Smurf, the patriarch of the cartoon characters who wore the only rouge cap of the bunch. 

What does the mascot mean to you? What do you loathe or like most about it? Please comment and share. 

Images via Paris 2024, the Louvre and Fandom's Smurgs Anon page

Rodin at the High = French Wissing in the USA

To wis is to know, and visitors to Atlanta's High Museum of Art may enjoy getting to know French sculptor Auguste Rodin through the fresh exhibition of 70 works in "Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern" on view through Jan. 15. 

When a banner for the exhibition recently went up locally, lyrics to Debbie Harry's seldom-heard passionate smooching song played in my head and inspired the rhyming headline to this post. 

In anticipation of the recent exhibition media preview, I dusted off memories of my first Rodin encounters, both in 1996, also at the High. 

Visiting the museum a week after moving to Georgia, the artist's solemn work "The Shade" -- the centerpiece of a memorial to 106 Atlantans lost in the Orly air disaster of 60 years ago -- greeted me on the approach to Richard Meier's award-winning building on Peachtree Street.

Later that year, of course, the exhibition "Rings: Five Passions in World Art" (photo below) was a cornerstone of the Cultural Olympiad in which Rodin's six-foot marble masterpiece "The Kiss" was a showstopping loan from the Rodin Museum in Paris. 

The new exhibition also features "The Kiss" though this time in bronze borrowed from the Baltimore Museum of Art, where I previously enjoyed this version during a New Jersey to Georgia road trip pit stop of summer 2018 (yes, I brake/break for museums). 

Here are five other Rodin works that caught my eye now on view at the High:

The marble "Christ and Mary Magdalene" -- for which Rodin supervised carving rather than himself chiseling, according to the exhibition wall text -- bookends silky smooth lines of the Biblical characters with rough, unfinished stone pockmarked by somewhat symmetrical knife-poked divots. Taking inspiration from the themes of Slow Art Day, I spent nearly 10 quiet minutes studying this work from all sides and it is extraordinary. This work is loaned by another Meier-designed masterpiece museum, The Getty in Los Angeles. 

"Female Torso with a Slavic Woman's Head" (photo below), which I vaguely recalled from an early 2000s Rodin exhibition at its Legion of Honor home in San Francisco, is an armless plaster figure whose downward gaze perhaps inspired Quintin Tarantino's French-Japanese character Sophie Fatale. As some may recall, she was the interpreter rolled down the snowy hill to a Tokyo emergency room in "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." But what woman will you see and be inspired to revisit via Rodin's work?

Speaking of Japan, for the drawing "Hanako" Rodin sketched his only Japanese model, a touring actress named Hisa Ota (or is it Ota Hisa?). I loved viewing the pen and ink later colored with crayon. While writing this post, a more detailed back story of the actress' intro to Rodin came to light via this site and their eventual artist:spouse:model collaboration is fascinating. 

According to wall texts, "The Prodigal Son" bronze (photo below) was cast for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. This was another Legion of Honor work seen previously and it proved as moving now as ever. 

If this exhibition's iconic showpiece is "The Thinker" then its feminine counterpart conversation starter may be "Iris, Messenger of the Gods" on holiday from the Smithsonian/Hirshhorn Museum in D.C. Rodin left little to the imagination rendering the bronze "unexhibitable" for prudish American museums. The model was definitely more provocateur less demure.

The exhibition also includes an informative timeline for Rodin's career highs and lows, mistresses and marriage. 

I asked the guest curator, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, the extent to which "The Kiss" loan of 1996 or the forthcoming Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad were on her radar ("non" is her paraphrased response). 

She does have great expertise and information about Rodin to share, which may be viewed on YouTube via her summer presentation at the Clark Institute when the exhibition opened there. 

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver except the cover image of "Rings: Five Passions in World Art" catalog cover photo by Bruno Jaret. 

Tommie Smith's Life and Olympic Feats Get Graphic Novel Treatment in Page-Turner "Victory. Stand!"

On Oct.16, 1968, in Mexico City, three Olympians became global icons. 

In the decades since, the medals won by Team USA's Tommie Smith and John Carlos, with Australia's Peter Norman -- and their actions during the ceremony while officials hoisted the "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- were revisited and replayed countless times through film, broadcast specials, print media and, eventually, online. 

Now for the first time, Smith's life and gold medal feat have gotten a graphic novel treatment on the pages of "Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice" co-created with best-selling author Derrick Barnes and award-winning comic artist Dawud Anyabwile. 

Just days following its Sept. 27 release, the book earned a contender spot as finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for young people's literature, with other accolades via The New York Times Book Review and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Much like Smith's on-track surge to set a 200m world record, "Victory. Stand!" and its compelling messages are likely to capture gold. 

The 208-page glossy volume opens at the starting blocks of the Olympic track but quickly pivots to Smith's hardscrabble childhood with 11 siblings in rural Texas. 

Readers learn Smith's memories of stern and faithful parents, who eventually relocated the family to California as part of the Great Migration. Through the first two chapters (about 100 pages) the narrative toggles from youthful observations back to the on-track action, relating childhood milestones as context for Mexico City's play-by-play. 

At a book signing event in an activities room of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church last week, about 50 attendees listened as Anyabwile, Barnes and Smith share details of their creative process, which commenced in 2018, in step with a High Museum of Art exhibition honoring 50 years since Mexico City. 

Barnes, who previously wrote over 10 youth books including "The King of Kindergarten" and "Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut," described Smith's "excited conversations like an uncle telling a great story" at Smith's home, later inspiring Barnes to engage an illustrator selection process. 

Anyabwile was a natural No. 1 choice given his Cartoon Network and other Turner Studios accolades as well as previous artistic expertise on another Olympian-centric graphic novel in 2020, "Becoming Muhammad Ali." 

Both the illustrator and writer said they grew up with photos or posters of Smith as "a fixture without context" and the collaboration "added context to [Smith's] family life and upbringing."

During the signing portion of last week's event, I asked Anyabwile the most challenging aspect of the project to illustrate, and he turned to Chapter Two's double truck opener portraying horrors of racism from hooded KKK members with torches igniting a cross to a lynched father, an indication this book for young readers does not sugarcoat the many struggles for Blacks before, during and since the Civil Rights Movement. Should this book include a "parental guidance" suggestion, I wondered, as several pages portray adult decisions. 

But part of the point to the book, Barnes stated, is to inspire family conversations. And "Victory. Stand!" does encourage thoughtful discussion of history, racism, faith, focus and when, where and how to take a meaningful stand for what's right. 

Later study of Anyabwile's beautiful images also yielded a full-page celebration of Queta Basilio, the Team Mexico Olympic hurdler chosen as the first woman to ignite the Olympic cauldron. Other Olympians including Bob Beamon and LeBron James also enjoy Anyabwile's excellent artistry, which he explained is drawn electronically. 

For this blogger the most compelling section of "Victory. Stand!" is Chapter Three's "Metamorphosis" of Smith from small town athlete to Olympic and world record contender while studying at San Jose State University. Though I met Smith hours after his 2016 White House visit and later interviewed him at the High, later watching documentaries or reading more about his silent protest, these previous interactions did not fill in the blanks as to his becoming Tommie Smith. 

Reading "Victory. Stand!" also added context to the Olympic Project for Human Rights of which Smith was a key participant. The book draws attention to the International Olympic Committee's hardline stance against protests and comes full circle with contemporary athlete protests inspired by Smith's stand. 

Unavoidable-for-me Nick-, er, nitpicking, did yield minor errors I think occurred only by accident in the illustration process, or via honest copy editor mistakes. One page highlighting the 1968 Olympic Trials includes the jumbo screen installed at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1984 but no Olympic cauldron of 1932, the latter perhaps omitted for the scene to fit the page. 

Also, Basilio's torch and cauldron moment have no flames, and the medal stand on which Smith and Carlos raised their gloved fists is drawn with erroneous Olympic rings that are "smushed" or "crowded" horizontally linking what would be blue-black-red and/or yellow-green rows. The rings appear correctly in other two- or three-dimensional images throughout the book.

Readers will likely savor the variety of comic techniques from intricately drawn "ink" splatters to fine lines and detailed Ben Day dots. I am eager to read other works by the trio of authors. 

As the audience Q&A wrapped, I asked Smith when he thought a turning point occurred in the public's perception of his human rights salute. His response did not acknowledge a specific time nor date range, but he said that at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee's recently installed leadership "women turned it" and from his vantage the IOC still has not. 

"Still battling. A continual battle," Smith said. 

Image credits: Book cover via W.W. Norton & Co. Other images by Dawud Anyabwile inside "Victory. Stand!" Book event photos by Nicholas Wolaver except the group photo below snapped, with Wolaver's thanks, by Delois Jordan Smith.