An elephant parade in Omaha

Not sure why, but there was an elephant parade in downtown Omaha!

Omaha

A new stadium, the TD Ameritrade Park, has been built in Omaha for the College World Series.  There has been much development on the riverfront, including new apartments and condos.  The Kerrey pedestrian bridge connects Nebraska and Iowa by spanning the Missouri.  The photos show the river being high because of snow melt runoff.  Omaha has created a riverfront park with many amenities.  On the Iowa side, the only provided are mud flats.  No water, no toilets- just mud.   Now, its a lost opportunity- maybe in the future it will be equally exciting as the Nebraska side.  

Durham Museum in Omaha

The Durham Museum is a beautifully restored art deco train station that is now a museum.  It has some fine detailing that shows deco at its finest.  There is a preserved soda fountain where banana splits and phosphates can be purchased.  The actual museum included photographs of modern-day cowboys in Montana and Nebraska.  The lower level of the museum includes fully restored and preserved Union Pacific Pullman cars.  These cars were tall and wide, with sleeper births in each.  The mechanisms of the bunks are sturdy and demonstrate how important steel was in railroad car construction.  Today the steel chain mechanisms would likely be replaced with some plastic pneumatic apparatus.  The rest of the museum has artifacts displayed in facades reflecting various periods in Omaha's history.  Its like walking through a small town.  Also on display were 150 Pulitzer Prize winning photographs.  All were powerful, some were very troubling.  I found most sad  the photo of two parents on a beach looking desperate and holding on to each other after their baby has been washed away by the ocean.  The Durham Museum is a wonderful museum and preserves a rich part of life when passenger trains still ruled.  

Holland Performing Arts Center, Omaha

The Holland Performing Arts Center was opened in 2005.  It is spare in design with little lobby decoration (where are the modern painting?).  Nevertheless, the auditorium is spectacular.  It is nearly perfect acoustically.  It has a noticeable reverberation with fairly long decay.  It does not muddy the sound and the various sections of the orchestra are easily identified.  This was particularly noticeable in Vaughn Williams "Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis", where the string quartet was sonically separate from the full string ensemble.  The Omaha Symphony sounded first class in this environment.  The music director of the orchestra is Thomas Wilkins, a tall, elegant man who actually wore a tuxedo to conduct.  He was impressive, both in the "Tallis Variations" and in the Mahler Seventh.  I was really impressed.  Oh that Atlanta could have such a wonderful concert hall.