I love New York

What a cliche! But its true and I couldn’t find a better way of expressing my three day adventure into another realm.  I spent three days in museums (2 at the Met and 1 at the Frick – although, really the Frick only took a couple of hours – its a small collection but a great one).  I also was privileged to see a wonderful piece of theater – Waiting for Godot with Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman and John Glover.   And I got to visit the old neighborhood – Jackson Heights!  I will go into further details in future posts.  I just want to share a quick painting whose composition made me laugh.  Its the Ascension of Christ by Hans Suess von Kulmbach at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  My photo isn’t as nice as the one at the link.  Take a look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fact that all we see of Christ are his feet as he ascends struck me as odd.  Frankly, it made me guffaw (I’m not sure if guffawing is acceptable behavior in the European Painting section of the Met, but guffaw I did).  The angle that the onlookers get on the whole Ascension adds even a bit more humor to the dangling feet above them.  Its such a claustrophobic compositon of something that is usually portrayed in a grandiose manner.  And then I discovered that this painter was an apprentice of Durer’s and Durer had a similar composition in a woodcut.  Click here.  The fact that Durer had composed this image first gave it a little more “respectability” I suppose (to be fair, Durer’s was a woodcut and the composition works a little better within the constrictions of that medium) but it still makes me laugh.  It has a rather Monty Pythonish feel about the whole thing, don’t you think? 

I promise to update soon with more “insightful” posts about what I saw in the big city.   I know you (whoever “you” are who reads this) can hardly wait.

And by the way – you’ll notice the dearth of Harry Potterish things strewn about the blog.  In order not to ruin the movie for myself and others I have put a blog moratorium on all things Half Blood Prince – it was getting so I was beginning to feel I had seen about half of the film from trailers and stills and posters and interviews and what-nots.  I am really looking forward to seeing it this week though and will of course update here eventually.

and its for a great cause…

Its a win/win thing.  What am I talking about you ask?  Has the heat withered your already addled brain? (No I got the air fixed so its not the heat – see previous post if confused).  A new recording is being released entitled Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales.  A portion of the proceeds from sales of this CD will go to helping South African children who have been orphaned and/or impacted by HIV/AIDS.  The CD features narrations of these folktales by artists such as Gillian Anderson, Hugh Jackman, Helen Mirren, Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackson and Alan Rickman.  Here go to this site African Folktales to listen to excerpts of these narrations.  This only serves as further proof that Mr. Rickman should be doing more audio work – i.e., a CD of poems – John Donne in particular his poem, Song (you know… Go and Catch a Falling Star…  here I refer you to my previous post about that. The whole poem is there for your perusal.

Oh, and I saw this and got the link form the Alan Rickman Download Haven

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

Let me preface all this by saying that soon I will be doing something completely frivolous and downright foolish.  I’m going to New York City to see Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin perform Waiting for Godot on Broadway – and I’m staying at the Algonquin to boot!  We’ll prove once and for all that men don’t make passes at girls who were glasses, Ms. Parker.   How am I paying for all of this you ask?  Well on my credit card of course!  This is my splurge for the year.  I’m only going for a few days and I got some excellent deals.  Now I tell you this not to make you jealous, not so you can tsk, tsk my foolish ways but to set the scene of what happened today.  My air conditioning which has worked marvelously for five years has out of the blue stopped working.  It weakly blows tepid air.  Not a big deal if you live in oh say, Seattle.  But in the Arizona desert, in late June, when the monsoons are gathering steam but have not quite landed (which means its not a dry heat anymore and 100 degrees feels like 120 degrees) its a problem.  As I sit here with sweat dripping into my eyes, I can see the humor of the situation.  It’ll get the air repaired eventually but first I’ll go to NYC.  In the meantime as I sat sweltering tonight, I remembered the Ancient Egyptians.  No, the heat has not completely addled my brain.  The Ancient Egyptians would put fragranced cones of fat on their heads so that as the heat from the bodies rose, the cones would melt and I imagine, cool them off while providing perfume to mask the other odors that arise with body heat.  I modified the idea (didn’t have a cone of fragranced fat laying about).  I grabbed an ice cube and put in on my head to melt while I watched Iron Chef America.  Not quite the same as having perfumed fat dripping down your head but all in all rather refreshing….

Makes sense to me….

Since I have nothing clever to say I’ll differ to comments made by Mr. E:

6/26/2009- E ON MJ:
EELS leader Mark Oliver Everett aka E reflects on Michael Jackson’s artistic legacy at AOL Music today. Read it HERE. Furthermore, E tells EELStheband.com: “Michael Jackson was the King of Pop, Bruce Springsteen is The Boss, and I could not be The Assistant Night Manager of Rock without them.”

A small opinion

The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,

Hmm, I’m thinking that in this time in history, that is not necessarily true Mr. Shakespeare.  We live in an age where faults, evils and mistakes hound those in the media’s grip while they are alive.  And upon the poor soul’s passing, the media takes full possession of their lives and deify that same person whose every personal issue was the base of derision and contempt, bemoan their passing as a loss to humanity, forgiving their transgressions and setting them up as a mini-deity for the populace to fixate upon.  Insert name of any and all recently passed celebrities here.

Mad you say?

Mad as a hatter perhaps…

I am very much looking forward to Tim Burton’s next cinematic outing – Alice in Wonderland.  These pictures have been all over the net since yesterday and I post them here so I may enjoy them (and you can have a look if you’d like too).  I just love the details, the hat pins, fabric textures used for the hat, the over-the-top use of color.  Its almost as if you took Edward Scissorhands and colored him using the palette Burton used for the suburbanites in that movie.   Click on the foto to go to Johnny-Depp.org if you want more Johnny Depp info.  The illustration below is just so gorgeous – it makes me wish I had the talent to produce work like this:

Go here to USA Today for a upclose, interactive, hi-res version to get the full effect.

Vampire Baseball

Let me preface this by saying I have never read Twilight, have no intention of reading Twilight and have not seen the movie.  The subject matter just holds no appeal for me.  The only reason I might be convinced to read the book is because of this wonderful hand-painted t-shirt from the shop of SugarandSpiceTees over at Etsy.   Just click on the images to be transported over there to have a look see.

Its such a great image.  She has it available in t-shirt and tank top style – both in medium for kids (but I’m sure she’d make you one in your size if you ask).  I’m waiting for the ACEO of the image (clears throat – did you hear that Sugarandspicetees? I’m waiting…..)

And if you are very much into the whole Twilight thing – here are some gorgeous looking book beads inspired by Twilight over at Boofolobeads.

Letterman and Eels!

Mark your calendars!  From the EELS Oficial Website:

6/15/2009- EELS ON LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN:
EELS will make their fourth appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS this Wednesday, June 17th, at 11:30pm Eastern/Pacific.

Wonder what they’ll present – Fresh Blood or Tremendous Dynamite might be too scary for Letterman.  I’m guessing its going to be That Look You Gave That Guy.  Altho’ it might be fun to see E howling on stage….

UPDATE:  Just saw Eels on Letterman –  In My Dreams was the song E chose to perform.  Is it me or did he have this kind of Joachim Phoenix look to him. 

You know I have a birthday coming up….

This is it!  I’ve found the perfect companion for my 6 foot stand up cutout of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn (don’t judge me okay? )  Look at what’s new at the WBShop…If it weren’t for the fact that its out of stock at the moment, I would have ordered myself one by now.  Click here to go to the WBStore.  They have a lot Potter paraphenalia.  I found out about it through the Leaky Cauldron here (they also have a link to more HP stuff at Hot Topic).  

But seriously, I NEED this – he’d look great  sandwiched between Viggo and Captain Jack Sparrow full size stand up cutouts  (they were gifts OKAY – I didn’t buy them for myself …. really …. gifts …. what kind of a loonybird do you think I am…. don’t answer that…)

Hooray Its Almost June 12th!

Tomorrow when I wake up I’ll think, thank God, thank God its over!  No longer will I have to listen to the same message broadcast on every television station over and over again, in English, in Spanish, sign languate, live action, animated and/or CGI’s for cripes sake!  We know! We know already.  Analog television is over, we’re moving on to digital, yada, yada, box converter, yada, yada, coupon, yada, yada, June 12th!  Yipppee!