An Even Less Ambitious Day

(unless you are Lynn and Dave)

 

It's about as far from Pawtucket to Lowell as it was from New London to Pawtucket, but I planned (and accomplished!) even less.  Detouring from I-95 to Brookline, I took short tours of the Museum of Bad Art and the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site.

Later I caught a delightful nap and a game between the Lowell Spinners and the Aberdeen Ironbirds, where an on-field wedding was the most memorable part of the evening.


Gray Cubist Woman (not full frame)

The Museum of Bad Art is more collection than museum, with its motley assortment of paintings (surely a compliment, under the circumstances) hung in three locations.  I visited the gallery in the basement of the Somerville Theater in April 2011, buying a movie ticket I didn't want so I could do so.  One of the main reasons for stopping at the studios of Brookline Access Television was to average down the price of admission.

"Using monochrome neocubist technique, the artist presents us with a portrait of a sophisticated feminine beauty who manages somehow to simultaneously resemble a young Lauren Bacall and Dolly the Sheep," states the wall label for the painting above.  Although it might well belong in the collection, the painting below is one of the more awkward "murals" at McCoy Stadium, in Pawtucket.  Fidrych, himself, is partly to blame.

Mark Fidrych (not full frame)

Frederick Law Olmsted is the father of landscape architecture.  Having a degree in the stuff, I have long wanted to visit "Fairsted," his home and studio in Brookline, a national historic site managed by the National Park Service.  I could not do so last year because the site was closed for renovations that took six years to complete, twice as long as originally planned.

Tours are on the hour and take about as long.  I was disappointed not so much by the brevity of the tour as the paucity of information.  For every comment by the park ranger, I probably had three of my own, but I minded my manners.

At LaLacheur Park that evening, it was mostly small ball for the first half of the game; singles, walks, stolen bases.  In the top of the fourth, Torsten Boss hit a solo shot for Aberdeen that tied the game at two apiece.

Then, as if trying to finish off their opponents before a forecasted storm arrived, the Spinners smacked the ball around in the fifth.  Jake Davies, the big (220? Really? At only six-foot, maybe.) first baseman, led-off with a double.  Five singles and a wild pitch later, the home team was ahead 6-2, the final score when it poured down rain in the eighth.
Box Score

But who cares about all that?  The highlight of the evening was the wedding of Lynn and Dave Iverson.  Married on the field before play began (top), Lynn tossed her bouquet into the stands in the middle of the game (above) and the newlyweds had their first dance as man and wife after leading us in a round of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

Not every gal's dream wedding, but Dave and Lynn seemed very happy.  I teared up a bit; I always do, and the only moment I found weird was when the couple joined Revolutionary War re-enactors for the national anthem, complete with four-gun salute.