Author: Robert Kimberly

The Italian Job: Blogging About The Big Trip

Florence, Italy.

T-minus 4 days and counting.

With a long month behind us and the promise of a great trip ahead, I’m counting the days until we are on a plane to Italy.  Like most trips, I have been scouring the internet for photos, stories and places to visit.  And in a unique twist, this research got me an invitation to guest-blog for ArtTrav.

“Arttrav is an art, travel, and Italian lifestyle magazine. My goal is to freely provide you not only with quality travel information about Italy, but also with a vicarious experience for the internet-based traveler.”

Which is perfect, since it has been a vicarious and internet-only experience so far with an actual visit coming soon. 

My first post, Traveling Strange: A Collector of Eccentric Attractions Comes to Florence was published earlier today.  I’m hoping for at least one more pre-trip post with a few while in the city. 

So, once again, the internet has thrown more unexpected opportunities my way, and I’ve been happy to capitalize on them as best I can.  Oh, internet, you and I were made for each other.

Florence, Italy: An Author's Impressions

Research regarding our latest trip unearthed the following:

In the late 1920’s (best guess) author Aldous Huxley described Florence, Italy as “a third-rate provincial town, colonized by English sodomites and middle-aged Lesbians.”

Never read that in the tourist guides.

The New Art in Houston: Temporary and Permanent

Last week was one of art installation.

That’s not me up on the genie lift, I was part of the ground crew. The artist is Aurora Robson, the piece is called “Lift”, it looks gorgeous, and you can find it here.

Local arts blogger Robert Boyd found some pre-installation pix from NYC blog C-Monster.

Also, helped with installing some of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft’s Iron: Forged, Tempered show. I’ll spare the adjectives, just go see it. Plan on enjoying the metal works, be pleasantly surprised by the other great exhibitions.

New Car? = New Possiblities, Texan Style

We’ve been a one car family for over a decade now. My last car was 1975 Olds Delta 88 convertible. 18 feet long, one working brake, a leaky canvas top that invited New Orleans rainstorms in, and damaged front struts that left a mechanic so shaken he told me to store the car as close to his shop as possible since I couldn’t afford the needed repairs.

I still miss that car.

Time passes, people get married, they fool around, give the grandparents a grandaughter to love. Obligations and a kid make the idea of another car sound nice. Recently, my pop made an offer of possibly giving us his used car. A big ass old-people Buick. It has no sexy in it what so ever. Something would be done, and I was daydreaming/searching on my iPhone on how to buy steer horns to mount on the front of this yet-unowned car. At dinner, I tell my wife these thoughts, that maybe the car would have horns on the outside, and a indians and cowboys diorama on the inside dash, illustrating Texas history in little scenes.

She says to me, if we have that car you should probably make an art car. And you should put a recreation of Caddilac Ranch in the rear window deck. Holy Great Ideas! I just got the green light for an art car. No discussion, just you should do it!

Where’s my sketchbook?… In the meantime Bumsteer seems to be the place for my cow-using car alterations.

So Public, So Misspelled: Fine Dining in North Texas

We just had to pull over, it had to be seen up close to believe. After the photo was taken, we snarked for miles about the sign and the general state of education in Texas.


Resturant – Marshall, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Let the End-of-Year Navel Gazing Begin + Visions of A Brave New Year

2009: The Year of Sloth

…at least that’s how it feels right now.  But isn’t this quiet time before the New Year just perfect for dwelling on all the failures and missed opportunities of the past year.  So easy to do so.

2010 Goals:

  1. Stop dwelling on all the failures and missed opportunities of the past year.  Not so easy to do.
  2. Find that inspirational New Year resolutions post I read online yesterday.  Read something good by a creative type (could swear it was Karen O!) about productive strategies and not sabotaging yourself in the process.  Now, I couldn’t find it to save my life.  Why is the Internet so big?
  3. Blog more.  This website (and Flickr) has put me touch with some good people and the occasional paying gig.  I like interesting people and $$$.  More of those, please!
  4. Write more.  National Novel Writing month had me busting out some decent writing on a long term book.  Since then nada.  Not feeling the Muse.  Find Muse.  Feel up Muse.
  5. Make more music.  Got a good start on some electronic noodling that I’m pretty pleased about.  But I’m reaching the limits of my musical skills and need to get some feedback.  Looking to find some Houston based peeps for help.  So, do that.
  6.  Be a better husband.  My missus is fantastic.  Be the husband she deserves.  ‘Nuff said.

 2009 is moving away in the rearview mirror, and I’ll be spending the new year with two great women of my life and a lot of opportunities that are only mine to screw up.

That’s not such a hard list.

Let the Cleaning Begin: Post-Christmas Review

Bullet Points:

  • Thank God it’s over.
  • A very Venture Bros. Christmas (4 DVDs for me and the soundtrack for the missus.)
  • Remarkable toy-buying restraint on the part of the grandparents.
  • Will need to work on serious grinch-like tendencies before Christmas ’10 when the sweet kid will be aware of such grumpiness.

    Once the appreciated-but-slightly-misguided surprise gift I got the missus is returned, my stress will all but go away.

    Wayne White Has Left the Rice University Art Gallery


    Wayne White Has Left the Building – Rice University Art Gallery – Houston, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

    The Wayne White show ended this evening. Hours later, this is how the gallery looked.

    The Weekend Snow Daze: Wonderwild and the Houston Museum of Natural Science

    Last weekend was all about snow (and for the sake of this entry, the weekend was Friday and Saturday.)

    Lovely, large, picturesque snowflakes fell from the sky on Friday. This foreign white stuff from the sky cleared the roads nicely. The remaining traffic was remarkably unstupid; proper distances were maintained, signal lights used, etc. It was on this snow day the we three finally got to visit Wonderwild. An indoor playground for kids (pre-walkers, walkers) and on that day a 39 year-old birthday boy.


    Zoe and Rob @ Wonderwild – Houston, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

    White, clean and cavernous, the playground was built in part of a commercial park not too far from the Heights neighborhood in Houston ( 707 N Shepherd Dr, Ste 500). Started by an Arts Institute instructor, the place has a modern aesthetic and artwork from Houston artists on the walls.

    For quite some time, we had the whole place to ourselves and it was nice. Eventually some other parents realized what we already had (that braving the snow meant fewer people to share the place with) and started filtering in. One little boy could be heard screaming in joy before he was even seen. He raced by all, with eyes solely on the multi-story climbing gym. Definitely a do over.

    Saturday was spent at the Houston Museum of Natural Science for Snow Flurry day. The museum imported 80,000 lbs of snow for the kids to play in. The morning was sunny and lovely, and our little girl enjoyed tromping around in the white stuff.


    Zoe – Houston Museum of Natural Science, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

    After she was done playing, we got free admission to the museum. All in all, a nice weekend out and about. A good start to the season.