MOMA 12.Jan.2012 Tag trois

More pix from the early 20th century rooms @ MOMA - including a Henri Rousseau, Kandinsky, Bonnard & Stepanova.

Lovely day out there if a bit chilly (40ºF). No Melrose rehearsal tonight. More tootling & some stitching on tap. Toddle taken.

Pierre Bonnard. Dining Room Overlooking the Garden
(The Breakfast Room). 1930-31

Figure (1921) Varvara Stepanova (Russian, 1894–1958)

MOMA day deux & Rilke

Pix today of some of my faves @ MOMA - Odilon Redon, Kurt Schwitters & Marcel Duchamp.

I also wanted to share some poetry from Rilke - but I find that I've already done that (see esp. the one about the ringing bell). I recommend that you take time if you haven't before to listen to that interview or read the transcript* of "A wild love for the world," conducted by Krista Tippett with "the philosopher of ecology Joanna Macy [and] a translator, of the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke," since Ms. Macy talks about the earth's being an extension of ourselves and the importance of its husbandry.

Wishing you happiness in all your days.

Schwitters Revolving 1919

Must be a Schwitters but can't find the reference - notice the kitties

Detail from the above - I think it's a lion

Odilon Redon. Butterflies - 1910

 * Though hearing Ms. Macy read the poetry is a real treat.

20.Jan.2012 MOMA day one

Shots taken from my early morning trip to MOMA - somehow didn't get the memo that the early opening members' hour was only for a single exhibition &, apparently because I looked like I worked there, was able to wander around the museum before being collard by a guard. Pix today of a replica of Luxembourg's "Gëlle Fra" (“Golden Lady”) war memorial (quoting the Times article "except that the original figure — the Greek goddess Nike — isn’t pregnant, and her pedestal is inscribed with quotations celebrating national war heroes," instead of "kultur, la justice, & bitch") by Croatian artist Sanja Ivekovic (yes, those are maintenance people cleaning up the gallery space), among other pieces that I managed to get the wall description to explain.

Bracing for a nor'easter that's due to come up the coast mid-week next week. Stay tuned.

Shades of Sandy

Here are a couple videos, taken when the worst of the wind was winding down late-afternoon, & a couple photos taken this AM showing the tree branches (fortunately no humungous ones) that came down. Our across-the-street neighbor kindly offered to let us store the car in her driveway - last wind storm we'd left it on the street in front of her house & it was towed - who knew it was street cleaning on that side of the street day that Wednesday?

Fortunately the Melrose rehearsal was rescheduled from last night to Thurs. - though that means driving up there three days in a row later this week for 2 dresses & the Sat. performance.

We were lucky - except for a few blips our power stayed on & none of the trees toppled onto the house. In the photos, all those things that look like bushes are actually branches. Time to get out the hand saw.

      From the guest room window

From the living room window      

19.Jan.2012 finale

In case a branch comes down on our cable to the internet @ the back of the house & we're without internet for days/weeks on end (typical of Verizon), the last pictures from my tour of the Met Museum & some shots from the Museum of the City of New York, including some from their Cecil Beaton show, and some amazing glass pieces by Thaddeus Wolfe (unfortunately way out of my price range) & The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan (A bit of New Yorker navel gazing, ask me, but some of the last section where they asked artists to come up with their predictions of the future of the grid were interesting, as was the layout of the exhibition hall, which mirrored (pun intended) the grid of avenues & streets.).

The Greatest (?) Grid (mirror included)

Bridge People

Pix today from 19.Jan.2012. The last from the small paintings gallery, a self-portrait of the Italian Futurist, Umberto Boccioni and the antiquities galleries as I headed toward the coat room.

I'm also including a link to today's On Being episode "Political Bridge People"- the final one of the Civil Conversations series, this one with Republican Pete Domenici & Democrat Alice Rivkin. They talk about their efforts to bridge the gap between Democrats & Republicans in this hyper-partisan age. Important reading/listening. I hope you'll take the time to give it a go.

See how low the ceiling was for these small paintings?

4000 BC? This could have been a Picasso

19.January.2012 Encore

More pix today from the Met Museum 20th century galleries, including a Spectrum by Ellsworth Kelly, of which the MFA has a similar one, and several Klees from a wonderful gallery of small paintings (with a nod, perhaps to the small French paintings @ the National Gallery?).

Off soon to a Polarity treatment, then back to tootle - and probably toddle since with Sandy making her way up the East coast, we may not have clement weather for the next few days.