fauxklore | Entries tagged with art

The other thing I had scheduled for last weekend was seeing a show called One Small Step at the Kennedy Center. This was part of their On the Fringe: Eye on Edinburgh program, which brought in several shows from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This particular show, produced by the Oxford Playhouse, involved two men (Robin Hemmings and Oliver Millingham) playing 40+ roles to tell the story of the space race, from Sputnik through the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. It was really geared to children and I suspect the optimum age for seeing it is on the order of 8-10.

Overall, the show was disappointing, The downscale props and costumes (e.g. a pillow rearranged to form the hat of a Russian scientist, an open file cabinet serving as the ladder from the lunar module to the surface) were imaginative enough, though I'm not sure if a generation reared on special effects appreciated them. The pacing was somewhat too frenetic for my tastes. Perhaps that works well with the children, but I found it distracting. More of an issue was that I not only didn't learn anything from the show, but I didn't feel much magic. By contrast, at Edinburgh Fringe in 1998, I had seen a 20 minute reenactment of the lunar landing done by two actors using just their hands which I found thoroughly enthralling.

While at the Kennedy Center, I took advantage of the opportunity to see a Fringe exhibit, Of All the People In All the World. This involved 300 million grains of rice, i.e. one grain for each person in the U.S., subdivided into piles to represent various population statistics. Some of it is political, so there are large piles that have to do with people killed in various conflicts or with statistics about hunger. But there are also more whimsical groupings. One area had things about astronauts, including the number of people who had walked on the moon. Next to that was a single grain of rice labeled "Michael Jackson." An even funnier use of a single grain was the one for "Condoleeza Rice." All in all, I found this to be a fascinating exhibit and recommend you check out the rice show if you get a chance. I also plan to look for other productions by Stan's Cafe, the group of artists who were responsible for this.

As I mentioned, I took a red-eye home from Seattle Friday night. That's one of the things I always swear I am not going to do and end up doing because I overcommit myself. It wasn't too bad actually. Between getting upgraded to first (admittedly 757 First which, annoyingly, lacks leg rests) and being exhausted, I got a few hours of surprisingly sound sleep. We got to Dulles on time and I retrieved my car and made it home quickly enough.

I had a few hours which I could have used to sleep. Instead, I caught up with various odds and ends, though they ran more to playing Sporcle than to actually doing housework. Just about noon, I set off to Lorton for the Virginia Storytelling Alliance Saturday Series. I got down there early enough that I could look at some of the studios at the Workhouse Arts Center. The coolest thing I saw was a vending machine that sells art. (There are tokens you can buy and various artists have items in little boxes roughly the size of a cigarette pack.)

Anyway, I went first to Linda Fang's workshop on suspense. She had us mime a few situations to demonstrate how our actions can reflect suspense. Then we worked in pairs on creating suspenseful stories using trigger sentences we were told to incorporate. My partner and I came up with a stalker scenario, in which a missing shoe triggered panic over what might have happened the night before. In the end, the victim's dog walks in, shoe in mouth. All in all, the workshop was both unusual and interesting.

I stayed around for the "Business and Story Swap." The business discussion was a mixture of complaints about how people in Virginia don't understand storytelling along with some practical tips on marketing. In short, there wasn't anything I hadn't heard before. I will fully admit that I don't do a lot of marketing because I am: a) busy with a lot of other things, including my day job and b) lazy. I like to think I am realistic enough not to kvetch about not getting jobs I didn't apply for. (In fact, the Saturday series is a good example. I had thought about submitting a workshop proposal, but was not sure if I'd be able to clear my calendar for it. Given my crazy scheduling, that is just as well.) There was time for a brief swap. I wasn't going to tell anything, but the shaggy dog story that Katie and Otto told provided a suitable lead in for "Lyle and the Ghost."

As well as the formal events, a lot of the point of going to these things is hanging out with other storytellers and it was, as usual, good to see some of the folks who live in other parts of the state. I'd have liked to stay for the evening concert (and dinner in Occoquan beforehand) but I had other commitments. Some day I will actually double or triple check my calendar when I plan things, but that day hasn't come yet.

I'll write about Conpac separately. This entry is about all the other stuff I did while out in Seattle.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, I drove down to Olympia to do the capital volksmarch there. I stayed down that way overnight, the only notable part of which was my difficulty in finding the hotel since their directions omitted a crucial turn. On Wednesday, I drove up to Tacoma and explored the Museum of Glass. The architecture of the museum is interesting. as are the outdoor installations around it. The most famous of those is the Chihuly Bridge of Glass. The bridge connects the museum with downtown Tacoma (which has a few cool old buildings, notably Union Station, and is lined with niches filled with Dale Chilhuly's work.

The exhibits inside the museum were organized into three gallery spaces, plus the hot shop where you can see glass artists at work. Having seen glassblowing many times (and taken a glass blowing class myself), I didn't stay long in the hot shop. Instead I moved on to the galleries, which had three exhibits. The first of those was a mid-career retrospective of Preston Singletary's work, which is focused on translating traditional Tlingit designs into glass. I particularly liked some of the sand carved glass pieces. I also thought that some of his work, e.g. a figure of raven stealing the sun, did a fine job of highlighting glass art as sculpture.

The second exhibit was of pieces from the museum's permanent collection. As one would expect, this covered a wide range, though all of the art is contemporary. The final exhibit was my favorite. The museum has children design creatures (in crayon) and then selects one each month for their in-house artists to make. The designs are, not surprisingly, often colorful and whimsical. They are also particularly challenging for the artists since the children aren't constrained by expectations of what glass is supposed to look like. By the way, the artists make a second copy for the child's family. Aside from this being fun, I think it has interesting things to say about the creative process.

I returned the car and took the (newish) light rail to downtown Seattle for the con, which worked well. There was time on Thursday to do a downtown Seattle volksmarch, which covered most of the obvious things to see in the central part of the city. The route wound through Seattle Center before going to waterfront and I detoured through Olympic Sculpture Park (part of the Seattle Art Museum) along the way. That was somewhat disappointing as I am not particularly fond of modern sculpture. There's the typical Calder stabile and the obligatory odd object by Claes Oldenburg (in this case, a typewriter eraser), but too any of the pieces look like somebody randomly threw large blocks of metal on the ground. I was particularly annoyed by an untitled Roy McMakin piece that consists of a concrete bench next to a "plastic" armchair and a "cardboard" file box (rendered in metal and enamel). I'm not about to start the "what is art?" debate here, but that piece is definitely not my sort of thing.

I was also disappointed in the aquarium. (The walk passed by it, so I stopped in.) The best exhibit is their giant octopus and the outdoor area has things like puffins and otters (both sea otters and river otters). I usually favor the colorful coral reef displays and, of course, seahorses. There were just a few of the latter (and none of my beloved leafy sea dragons) and, while the coral reef tanks were fine, the area was filled with screaming children. I'd probably have liked the whole thing better had I been there when it was less crowded.

From the waterfront, the route continued up to Pioneer Square (with a checkpoint at the Klondike Gold Museum), through the International District, and back to downtown. Overall, it was a good way to fill a few hours and walking made me particularly appreciate the Pacific Northwest weather.

Most of the other things I did were con-related, though I did also fit in an excursion to Archie McPhee. And. after the con,

miz_hatbox was kind enough to invite me to hang out with her and her family. I will tell you that should she ever invite you to dinner, you should definitely accept, as she is an excellent cook as well as a fine conversationalist. Our conversation ranged from a parlor game involving bad combinations of conventions (e.g. allergists and cat fanciers) to potential uses of stainless steel wool to the idea of people wasting their talents to, well, pretty much everything. By the way, we had made an excursion to the supermarket and I was able to buy lapsang souchong tea! My colleagues will once again have to endure that fine smell of burning rubber tires in the morning.

As for the trip home, United failed to upgrade me, but I did have an exit row aisle. When I discovered that the reading light didn't work, the flight attendant refused to give me a skykit (United's compensation mechanism) because the middle seat next to me was empty and had a functioning light. (That it also had a large man sprawling into it was of no interest to the FA. I will check with the Flyertalk crowd before dashng off an email to customer service to ask for compensation.) At any rate, the flight was otherwise as fine as a redeye can be (i.e. barely tolerable). Due to the holiday schedule, I had a long wait at Dulles for the first Washington Flyer bus, which I used to get breakfast. And then I had a 20+ minute wait at West Falls Church for the train. So I was especially exhausted by the time I got home and immediately took a nap.

Now it's time for grocery shopping and unpacking and possibly another nap.

I've spent the past few days up in Hartford, Connecticut for Stitches East. I'd been to Hartford before, but long long ago, so I allowed myself some time for playing tourist. Taking just one class per day was actually a pretty smart move, as there is only so much I can absorb at a time. I'll write a second entry discussing Stitches and focus on the tourism part here.

I spent Thursday morning doing a Volksmarch. The walk went through Bushnell park, around downtown (past the Ancient Burying Ground and Center Church), over the Connecticut River to East Hartford, and around the State Capitol. The latter is the only Victorian Gothic state house in the country, so is interesting in that respect. I thought I was going to be doing a 10 km walk, but I apparently took the wrong set of instructions inadvertently and ended up doing only 5 km. It was still a good tour of the city. I should also mention that being a compulsive reader of historic signs paid off with the tidbit that the first pay phone in the U.S. was installed at the corner of Main Street and Central Row.

I walked over to the Mark Twain House on Friday afternoon (about a mile west of the Homewood Suites). This was, apparently, his favorite home and he wrote many of his most famous books in the billiards room on the third floor. The house tour is a bit pricy but was reasonably entertaining and the visitor center has fairly good exhibits on Twain's life. I can't say I learned anything much new, but that is largely because I'd been to the Mark Twain Shrine in Florida, Missouri (his birthplace) as well as to Hannibal a few years ago.

Finally, I went to the Wadsworth Atheneum on Saturday afternoon. This is the oldest public art museum in the U.S. and is worth a couple of hours. I was rather disappointed in their special exhibit on lace. One of their major collections is of paintings by the Hudson River School, which are not really to my taste. But they do have a good selection of American paintings and I particularly liked works by George Morinko, Giorgio Chirico, Max Ernst, and Peter Blum. I should also note that they have a large number of pieces by Alexander Calder, though the more notable Calder work in Hartford is his Stegasaurus next door.

On the final travel related note, the fire alarm went off at the hotel about 9 o'clock on Thursday night. It's a pain in the neck when that happens, but I always do follow the instructions to evacuate since dying in a hotel fire is really low on my list of things to do. It turned out that a water main on the 6th floor had broken and the low water pressure was detected by the sprinkler system, triggering the alarm. We were allowed back into the lobby after about 45 mintues or so, but it was a while longer before we could go back to our rooms. The hotel staff served drinks (beer, wine, water, soft drinks) while we were waiting. I was on the 5th floor and, when I got back up there, I saw that the ceiling in the vending room had collapsed and the carpet in that hallway was soaked. That made me glad for the labyrinthine design of the hotel, which put my room a ways from there.

Also, speaking of annoying things, I got an emailed fraud alert regarding a credit card. When I called, it turned out really to be fraudulent this time. (The previous time that had happened - just a few weeks ago - was for a plane ticket I'd tried to buy on-line.) At least from Hartford, I could call them easily. I'm concerned about something like this happening when I'm in Peru and might not be easily able to deal with it. (You can deal with the security department on-line, but I'm not comfortable doing that from an internet cafe or hotel.) Modern life is a bit complex at times.

I did finally get around to taking pictures of the glass I made in my class a few weeks ago.

First, the caterpillar / paperweight thing-a-ma-jig:

and then the "cylinder" (i.e. drinking glass / tumbler). It didn't quite come out cylindrical, so I will just assert that gives it, um, character:

We got dismissed from work a little early on Thursday, so I decided I would check out this year's Artomatic before it closed. The location this year was a new building right on top of the Navy Yard metro station. That meant for some quite spectacular views, especially from the upper floors. From one side, you could see the ballpark; from the opposite side, the Capitol.

But it was the art I was there for - eight stories of it (plus a stage on the ground floor). Unjuried art shows can, of course, be hit or miss. There is, inevitably, somebody who thinks it is amusing to pull out their 3rd grade finger paintings and claim that displaying them is an antidote to the pretenses of the art world. Fortunately, there is a also a lot of talent out there.

I won't attempt to list everything I liked, but here are a few links for your enjoyment:

Caitlin Phillips - handbags made out of Nancy Drew (and other) books.

Emily Locke - photography

Forrest McCluer's computer viruses (representations of human viruses made from computer parts

Tim Tate - glass reliquaries, some with video in them

Eileen Williams - fabric art incorporating faces of women

Lisa Osgood-Dano - glass panels with intriguing textures

Mishka Jaeger - representations of musical scores with found objects and collage

Of course, not every artist I liked has a useful (or any) web site. For example, Anne Benolken, of Montgomery College had wonderful pictures of the Indian goddess Kali dealing with the irritations of everyday life. And David Alfuth's intricate three-dimensional etchings in a vaguely Gorey-esque style were intriguing.

There are times when I wish I had a huge house just so I could fill it with art.

A colleague passed along info she'd gotten from another friend announcing a gallery showing of Robin Roy's Synagogue Project. The show is at the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Art Gallery in the Gordon Center in Owings Mill, Maryland. This sounded like something I'd like to see, particularly since I have photographed a lot of synagogues myself.

The Gordon Center's website said the show runs from March 24 through June 24, 2009. I thought I might actually have time to go this weekend. Since the website didn't say what the gallery hours are, I called to find out.

It turns out that the gallery is not actually open to the public. It is only there for people who go to see performances in their theatre. And the last performance of their season was on March 29th. They did, apparently, have some public events, but they don't have any more planned.

I hope they are paying Ms. Roy well for hiding her photographs.

I'm down in Hampton at the Art and Soul retreat. Yesterday, I took two classes - one on altered coaster books and one on herringbone book binding with a mica cover. I am way too pleased with my results.

I'm doing a "5 books in one day" workshop today. Also, I ran into a couple of friends who I didn't know would be here, one of whom will be in the same class today. Someone else I know is allegedly around, too.

I'll leave early tomorrow morning and head to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Real update tomorrow evening, once I get home and am not using a business center computer with a wonky keyboard.

I printed out supply lists for the book binding classes I'm taking at an art retreat in early May, mostly because I needed a mental break between meetings. Most of what I need, I already have, though I may have to do some digging to figure out where my cutting mat, awl and bone folders are. (I should probably explain that a bone folder is made of bone and used to smooth folds in paper. It is not capable of folding bones.) I am assuming that "small cutting matte" is a typo.

But I am really looking forward to going over to my local art supply store and buying "liquid nails in tube (clear)." "fluid chalk inks," and a "crop-a-dile." I could, of course, google any of these to find out what they are, but I have a real art supply store close by and the clerks there actually seem to like being helpful.

I also realized that I could conceivably leave Hampton early enough on Sunday morning to catch part of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

I had an insanely busy day yesterday, running back and forth between Crystal City and the Pentagon, as well as doing the usual Monday summary for our seniors. So I was glad when the last meeting ended late enough that I could feel justified in not going back to Crystal City. I had some time before the Shakespeare Theatre tour I'd signed up for and used it to go through a bit of the National Portrait Gallery. I liked the photo exhibit on the first floor, especially the works by Alec Soth. The exhibit on Lincoln's Inaugural Ball, however, wasn't particularly interesting. The portraits of the Presidents have a few surprises. There's an extremely odd, modernistic one of JFK, for example. And McKinley was a surprisingly good-looking man which, somehow, I'd never have guessed. To prove how shallow I can be, I found myself thinking as much about changes in styles for men's facial hair as much as about executive capability.

Anyway, the Shakespeare Theatre event started out with Michael Kahn's talk. Rather than him giving a lecture, he was interviewed by Trey Graham of The City Paper. Kahn tended to digress from the questions and the result was a very unfocused talk. I did, however, like what he had to say (in response to an audience question) about balancing their repertory.

The tour of the actual theatre was more interesting. The flexibility in how the stage is arranged and the ability to adjust the theatre acoustics are both pretty cool. And the views from the lobby, which stretch to Rosslyn in one direction and Union Station in the other, are impressive.

The reception which followed was pleasant, with good food and some interesting conversation (mostly MIT focused). My tastes in theatre are not quite so high brow, however, for me to expect to spend much time at Sidney Harmon Hall in the future.

Those of you who watch The Amazing Race may recall that the one of the tasks the racers had this past season was to find the Chamber of Echoes in Angkor Wat and thump their chest there 3 times. Some of them did not have an easy time finding it.

As it turns out, the chamber of echoes is actually very easy and is more or less next to the entrance to the 3rd enclosing wall. The catch is that it's in the opposite direction from the one in which people normally tour the temple. So I didn't go straight there, but saved it for next to last on that level.

What I hadn't realize because all the photos I had ever seen were of the outside of Angkor Wat (and all the Amazing Race stuff had to do with the Chamber of Echoes) is that the walls are completely covered with amazing bas reliefs. I'm not a big fan of Asian art, actually. (In general, the only Hindu god I can consistently recognize is Ganesha, with his elephant head. The rest are just a jumble of guys with too many arms.) But the stonework at Angkor Wat is incredibly beautiful. The upper level (aka the second enclosure) with its apsara dancers in every corner is amazing. I ended up spending nearly 3 hours there.

I continued on to the South Gate of Angkor Thom, which is also striking. The Bayon was a bit less so, largely because the upper levels are too dark and not yet restored. And I was entirely unable to find a few of the bas reliefs I was looking for.

The rest of the central part of Angkor Thom was just okay. Leaving there, I had a lot of trouble finding my tuk-tuk driver. (I had apparently misunderstood where he was going to wait for me. Very frustrating.) At that point, it was close to 3 and I was too tired to absorb more, so opted to go back to the guest house and rest. I have a three day ticket so will continue tomorrow.

Everybody's doing it. I think the results are only partially accurate, but what can you expect from a meme?

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Traditional, Vibrant, and Tasteful

10 Islamic, -7 Impressionist, 2 Ukiyo-e, 4 Cubist, -1 Abstract and -12 Renaissance!

Islamic art is developed from many sources: Roman, Early Christian, and Byzantine styles were taken over in early Islamic architecture; the architecture and decorative art of pre-Islamic Persia was of paramount significance; Central Asian styles were brought in with various nomadic incursions; and Chinese influences . Islamic art uses many geometical floral or vegetable designs in a repetitive pattern known as arabesque. It is used to symbolize the transcendent, indivisible and infinite nature of Allah.

People that like Islamic art tend to be more traditional people that appreciate keeping patterns that they learned and experienced from their past. It is not to say that they are not innovative personalities, they just do not like to let go of their roots. They like to put new ideas into details and make certain that they will work before sharing them with others. Failure is not something they like to think about because they are more interested in being successful and appreciated for their intelligence. These people can also be or like elaborate things in their life as long as they are tasteful. They tend to prefer geometric patterns and vibrant colors.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

Don't forget that my online Encore game is running all week. But, just in case you need a break from racking your brains for song lyrics, I did get out and about today.

( Portraiture )
( MacHomer )

In a moment of madness on Tuesday, it occurred to me that there really wasn't any reason I couldn't go to watch the Red Sox play the Orioles at Camden Yards. Yes, the Sunday afternoon game (which would normally be my first choice) was not feasible due to a storytelling gig, but I didn't actually have anything planned for Saturday night.

In a slightly more rational moment on Friday, I realized that if I was going to drive to Baltimore to go to a ball game, I could also do a few other things in Baltimore. I also checked the weather forecast, which was frightening (scattered strong storms) but I figured that I usualy have good weather karma when it comes to baseball. And, indeed it was so.

The weather driving to Baltimore was scary with very heavy rain along a significant stretch of I-95. It let up when I got onto the Baltimore Beltway, which I took around to Charles Street. That's not actually the most direct way to get to The Book Thing but it has the significant advantage getting me there without getting lost. I dropped off my donation (25 books and several magazines) and managed to keep myself to taking only 4 books. Part of that was because I'd gotten a later start on the day than I'd planned to and I wanted to make sure I had enough time for my other daytime endeavor.

It was pouring again as I drove over to The Walters Art Museum. I'd been meaning to get over to their special exhibit on maps for some time and this was a good opportunity, especially as it is closing next week. The exhibit is definitely worth seeing, with an astonishing array of maps from around the world, including ones made by Leonardo da Vinci, Mercator, Thomas Jefferson, and Ambrose Bierce. I had not actually known that Bierce worked as a cartographer for the Union Army during the Civil War, so I found the comments on that one particularly interesting. The exhibits ranged from carved wooden maps used by Inuit in Greenland to a map of the Arpanet in 1982 to a video showing the progress of the Civil War in 4 minutes. Two other areas in the museum had related exhibits (not requiring the special exhibit fee). One showed images from the Hubble Space Telescope, while the other focused on maps of Baltimore neighborhoods produced by local residents. All in all, it was worth a couple of hours. (By the way, the museum's permanent collection is also well worth a look. But I've been there a couple of times before.)

The weather had improved considerably by the time I left and drove to the Inner Harbor. I parked the car and headed over to Camden Yards. My seat was on the first base line, in the club level (i.e. one tier up from the field). It would have been perfect had there not been a tall person sitting in front of me. Anyway, the game was one of the most exciting ones I've ever been to. The score was up and down, but what really made things explode was Manny Ramirez hitting his 500th home run in the top of the 7th. It's a real accomplishment, as he is only the 24th person in Major League Baseball to reach 500 homers (and only the third to do so wearing a Red Sox uniform, the other two being Jimmy Foxx and Ted Williams). Everyone was on their feet, shouting and clapping for ages, through the rest of the top of the inning and all of the 7th inning stretch. The Orioles never play "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" but, even if they had, it would have been drowned out by the screaming. They did play a bit of "Sweet Caroline" and flashed "a special treat for our Red Sox fans" on the jumbotron, but cut it off and displayed a big "NOT."

And, oh, yes, the Sox did win (6-3).

The drive back wasn't too terrible. It was, as usual, slow getting over to I-95, but there were no issues once I was on the highway. Just before getting on the highway, I passed Old Otterbein Methodist Church, where the message board read, "G-d bless the O's and maybe even the Sox, but not the Yanks. Lord, forgive us our thoughts." That's paraphrased as I didn't have a camera with me, I can't write while driving, and my memory is imperfect, but I can't be off by more than a few words. It was an appropriate sentiment to end an excellent evening.

Last night when I left the office, I noticed a couple of sculptures of airplanes had suddenly appeared on my way to the metro. There was one at the corner of 18th and Bell Street and another right outside the Crystal City metro station.

This morning, I had a couple of errands to run, including a stop at the post office, as well as a meeting at a building a couple of blocks from my office. There were more airplanes along Crystal Drive. I looked closely enough to discover that this is apparently part of a public art project called Crystal Flights. I haven't found anything yet to tell me where they all are, but there are a lot of them. There are at least 4 in the park on the other side of Crystal Drive, for example. I haven't walked around enough to find all of them since I was pretty tied up in meetings today. And, frankly, they aren't good enough to be worth finding.

I believe it was Chicago that started this whole trend with their Cows on Parade. Several cities have followed with various iconic sculptures - angels in Los Angeles, guitars in Phoenix, and pandas in D.C. are among the ones I've seen. (Actually, before there were pandas, there were party animals - both donkeys and elephants. At least that provided a cute name for the project.) There are often a couple of variant forms to the sculpture and local artists and organizations paint them.

The problem is that they are usually not starting with particularly good sculptures. And the decoration is, in general, not all that interesting. Of the planes I have seen so far, most are too cutesy, with lots of bright colors, reminiscent of the mobiles parents bought before they were told that infants can't see colors well anyway. The one by the metro has an Uncle Sam added on, sort of as a pilot, and isn't too bad. There's also one by Olsson's Books which is covered with silver tile that isn't too bad. But most of them are not worth a look.

It isn't entirely clear why airplanes. For those unfamiliar with Crystal City, it is an entirely soulless section of Arlington, Virginia. The major distinction of the area is that the buildings are connected by underground walkways, which is convenient in bad weather but also allows one to feel like a complete mole person. (At my office, we refer to the underground paths as "the gerbil trails.") Apartments and condos there are, however, fairly expensive since it is convenient. There are some decent shops (though no actual supermarket) and a few good restaurants. I suppose it is the nearest residential area to DCA. And I suppose that one can't really create sculptures of the most common animal I associate with Crystal City, namely the slow-moving clueless tourist. (There are also a lot of hotels of the ilk favored by arrangers of junior high class trips. It is no coincidence that the words "tourist" and "tortoise" sound similar.)

Good public art is possible, albeit uncommon. "The Awakening" is an example, although its relocation to National Harbor from Haine's Point is distressing. The Claes Oldenburg clothespin in Philadelphia is also a fine work. My favorite piece of public art in the giant hand with paper airplane sculpture outside the Green Line station in El Segundo, California, across from the old Hughes Aircraft plant. It's both witty and site relevant.

The Chicago cows have a lot to answer for.

So I went to Madrid. Going to Europe for a long weekend is insane, but there was this really good fare and I'd never been to mainland Spain before and I've still been operating on the idea that it is worth going somewhere if you can spend three times as much time there as the travel time. I'm now leaning towards a four times rule for places I haven't been before, but I break travel rules as much as I make them.

Flying on Thanksgiving Day still works well in terms of being relatively uncrowded. I had a window seat with an empty seat next to me, so was able to doze a bit on the plane over. The formalities took no time at all. Madrid may be the only airport in Europe in which it is easier to find an ATM than it is to find an exchange booth, by the way. (American Express is on the departures level, but there is no exchange on the arrivals level). The Madrid metro proved to be easy, clean, and efficient, even though I had to change trains twice to get to my hotel. And at 2 euros, it is a real bargain. (It's 1 euro within the city, but there's a supplement for the airport.) The hotel room was actually ready even though it was just about 9 a.m., so I was able to shower and feel a bit more human before setting out to the Prado.

I have a new theory about European museums. See, it costs 8 euros to get into the Prado and I spent just about 4 hours there. The next day, I spent 6 euros to go to the Reina Sofia and spent 3 hours there. So, obviously, art costs 2 euros per hour. The Reina Sofia is more to my taste, overall, though the Prado does have some impressive classical (Greek and Roman) sculpture and a lot of "important" works, e.g. Bosch's "Garden of Earthy Delights." While I was looking at that, three men came in dressed in what I can only describe as comic opera palace guard uniforms, with red sashes and little stuffed tigers pinned to them. I didn't have the nerve to ask them what that meant. As for the Reina Sofia, the most famous work there is, of course, Picasso's "Geurnica," but my personal taste runs more to Manuel Valdes. There were no stuffed tigers involved there.

The other sightseeing I did was divided between one of those hop-on hop-off bus tours (Madrid Vision) and just general meandering around. There is some impressive architecture, particularly in the area referred to as "Madrid of the Austrias" (i.e. the stuff the Hapsburgs were responsible for). The modern sections are fairly awful, though. The Torre Picasso, for example, which was designed by the same Japanese architect who was responsible for the Twin Towers, is just a white block. More or less what I think of as the Lego school of architecture.

The other notable thing I did was find my way to Chocolateria de San Gines. If you are walking down Calle Arenal, there's a little passageway you can go down, near Iglesia de San Gines, next to the Joy nightclub. I am not sure who San Gines is (St. Augustine, maybe?) but based on the cafe there, he must be the patron saint of hot chocolate. They may sell other things (and, actually, I did see somebody having a beer) but everybody gets hot chocolate with churros. Neither the chocolate nor the churros are particularly sweet and dunking a bit of fried dough into thick chocolate is just amazing. I heard a lot of moans of pleasure, not the least my own. It makes for a great late afternoon break on a chilly day and if you should happen to be in the general vicinity a second day in a row, well, how often is one in Madrid?

I could have used a couple of more days since I didn't see the inside of the Palacio Real and didn't meander as much as I'd have liked through a few neighborhoods. But it was still worth the trip, despite all the unpacking that didn't get done at home as a result.