Museo Ralli – Uruguay

Posted on March 21, 2022 by vanbraman

Tonight I will share pictures from the Patio de Esculturas del Museo Ralli, or the Patio of Sculpture of the Ralli Museum.

The Museo Ralli is in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Punta del Este is a resort city along the Atlantic coast.

I am also thinking about the next stop on our tour which was the Crazy Bridge.

My sister and I visited the Museo Ralli during our cruise to Antarctica.

Museo Ralli, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Sculpture, Culture I like the fountain and pools in front of the museum. Especially the white and blue of the tiles.

I also like the museum building. The architecture is very South American and is very fitting for the area.

The museum is full of interesting art. Sculpture and paintings make up the majority of the collection.

Patio de Esculturas del Museo Ralli, John Robinson, Sculpture, Children at PlayHere is the Patio de Esculturas. The patio contains work by Salvador Dali, Mario Aguirre Roa, Heriberto Juarez and John Robinson.

Recorder Player, John Robinson, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Museo Ralli, SculptureMy favorite sculpture in the courtyard is the Recorder Player by John Robinson.

These two are part of a set of life size sculptures of children at play. In the picture of the entire patio there is a sculpture of a boy and his dog that is also part of the set.

John Robinson was a British sculptor and is known for his figurative sculptures of children and athletes.

Recorder Player, John Robinson, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Museo Ralli, SculptureI really like the expressiveness in this sculpture. You can almost hear the melody of the recorder as she plays.

Of course it helps if you are playing music at the same time. I can imagine her playing along with the Classical music (Wagner) I am listening to now.

Recorder Player, John Robinson, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Museo Ralli, SculptureThis is my favorite picture from the visit to the Museo Ralli.

The contrast of the black and white in this image is striking and I also like the reflections of light off the contours of the sculpture.

This also brings back memories of playing the Tonette when I was at Douma Grade School in Ottumwa, Iowa. Our whole music class had to learn how to play the Tonette and then play in the all city concert at the Evans gym.

Of course that set the stage for playing the Cello the next year. See my post: Playing Strings

OK, enough wandering thoughts at the end of this post.

Did you ever play a Tonette or recorder?

Steven

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2022 NCAA Second Round Numbers

Posted on March 20, 2022 by vanbraman

This year there have been some big upsets in the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.

But, how upsetting has it been compared to previous tournaments?

Each year, I keep track of two numbers during the tournament. The first is UF or Upset Factor. The second one is BP or Bracket Points.

UF (Upset Factor) is a number that is a sum of the seed differences when a lower seed knocks off a team with a higher seeding. For instance, when a 15 seed knocks off a 2 seed the UF is incremented by 13. If a 9 seed knocks off an 8 seed then the UF goes up by 1. If a 10 seed beats a 15 seed, there are no UF points since the higher seed was the winner.

BP (Bracket Points) is probably familiar to most sports fans. When scoring your bracket you get 1 point for a first round win, 2 points for the second round and then 4, 8, 16 and 32 for the following rounds. Basically, you fill out a bracket with the higher seeded team winning each game. If your bracket matches the reference bracket and they win, then you get points. For the Final Four, the points are given when a #1 seed wins.

Upset Factor, Most upsetting, Final 4, NCAA Basketball Tournament, Bracket pointsHere is what a perfect bracket would look like.

So, now for the big question after the 2nd round: How upsetting is this tournament?

2022 NCAA Basketball, Big dance, march madness, upsets, bracketsThe UF for the second round was 40 and the BP was 20.

2022 NCAA Basketball, Big dance, march madness, upsets, bracketsThe BP through the second round this year is fairly low.  There have only been ten years with a lower BP after the first two rounds.

2022 NCAA Basketball, Big dance, march madness, upsets, bracketsThe UF is a bit higher as some of the upsets have been big ones. This will also be reflected in the next category. There have only been three years with lower UF numbers after the second round.

2022 NCAA Basketball, Big dance, march madness, upsets, bracketsAnother stat I keep track of is the number of double digit seeds that advance to each round. The second round started with seven double digit seeds. In the second round four of the double digit seeds won and advanced to the Sweet 16. There is only one year where more seeds advanced.

You see that I have already placed a 1 in the Elite 8 column. This is because it is guaranteed the one will advance as two double digit seeds meet each other in the Sweet 16. Will there be more than one that will advance? We will find out this week.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the tournament turns out. Will this year remain near the bottom in BP and the top of the UF?

The records are 2011 with a BP of only 57 and 2021 with a UF of 128.

I don’t think there will be any records set this year unless the rest of the 1 seeds lose in the next round.

Steven

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