Yesterday, Pam and I took the Fung Wah bus from Boston to New York to take a look at The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s installation of 7,500 fabric-festooned archways along the pathways of Central Park. We had a great time, even with the 4 hour ride there and back (although the price was right; $15 each way!). Have a look at all the photos we took at Flickr.
I was struck by how such a simple thing - fabric and steel archways - changes the experience of the place. It was no longer a simple walk in the park. Suddenly, it’s as if the whole area were turned into an ant farm, with tunnels going each and every direction, converging, and encircling. Add to that, the color, which was like an orange shout on the gray February landscape. I wish that I could have sped through them on some sort of scooter or bicycle, passing through the pathways at top speed, experiencing the ever-arriving, ever-leaving at 30 or 40 mph. Still, even at a stroll’s pace, I enjoyed the trip and the installation. A pity that it will only be around for such a short time. But then, after it’s gone, the ghost of those gates will probably linger a little while, like the smell of saffron after the meal is over and the plates are put into the dishwasher.
written while listening to Brahms - String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op.111 (arranged for piano, 4 hands)- i. Allegro ma non troppo from the album “Brahms - Four Hand Piano Music, Vol. 12″ by Matthies, Kohn, Piano
We had to change our plans for today. We were planning on going to New York City for the day, leaving early in the morning on the Fung Wah or Lucky Star Bus to Chinatown. Well, we woke up 40 minutes too late because Pam had turned on the alarm, and I had unknowingly turned it right back off again (*tap-tap on, tap-tap off*). So our experience of ‘The Gates’ will have to wait for a few days. Good thing we hadn’t bought tickets already.
Took the opportunity to get some stuff done, since I was here a day I thought I wouldn’t be: Got advertisements for the piano posted at the Longy School of Music and the New England Conservatory (actually, at NEC you can only leave the flyer there, and hopefully someone will post them in a good place) I take some pride in that it was a beautifully designed and produced poster, complete with photos and schematic in full color. (Here’s a PDF).
Also sent a check (or rather, a cheque) to Cambridge University to pay for a sealed transcript. Another requirement of our immigration forms are sealed transcripts of every college I got a degree from. Which reminds me that I have to do the same with the University of Cincinnati. Originally the Cambridge person said I had to send a cheque in the amount of 7 pounds. Then I found out from my bank that there is a minimum $25 charge for cutting a check (or cheque) in any foreign currency. So that’s right; the roughly $13 in British pounds would have also incurred a charge roughly twice that amount! Fortunately I found out that Cambridge U. will accept US currency for these records (and I sent $15 rather than 13), but it’s becoming clear that we have to start doing something about heading off these foreign currency charges - which will hold true for cheques made out in Canadian dollars just as well as British pounds.
It was good to walk around Boston today. The sun was out and it wasn’t too cold for much of the day. It also gave me a chance to stretch my legs a little. In retrospect, if I had taken the bus to New York and walked around Central Park for 2-3 hours, I probably would be dead tired now; I’m really out of shape!
written while listening to Hindemith - Sonata for Harp - i. Mäßig schnell from the album “Harp Music by various composers ” by Andrea Steckermeier Thiele, Harp
OK. I want to get this out of the way before it hits tomorrow, but I strongly dislike Valentines Day. Note that I don’t say ‘hate’. Hate implies some unspoken issue that forces strong emotions to the surface. When a teen boy or girl says they ‘hate’ someone or something, it’s usually because they have a strong attraction to it (either negative or positive). That’s not the case here, as I don’t have violent reactions to February 14th, but rather am irritated by what people have made of it, and I prefer to not participate, thank you.
There are some obvious reasons for my antipathy, such as the fact that the holiday is more or less promoted entirely by the Greeting Card and other related industries (as well as Confectioners, Hotels, Restaurants, and Liquor Stores). I also don’t like the idea of ever following the herd, just on principle. But my biggest reason for disliking Valentine’s Day is that it’s an oxymoron. To me, the whole point of romantic love is is that it’s spontaneous. You don’t pick a date to be romantic; it just happens. An angle of the light, an opportunity to be naughty, a celebration that turns into something else, a good-bye that turns passionate; It’s not a planned event on the calendar: On February 14th plan to be romantic. That’s ridiculous. You might as well say On March 2nd get curious or On August 8th become bored.I also dislike the pressure by peers (or the newspapers or television) to be romantic: If you aren’t on acting romantic on Valentine’s Day, you are either to be pitied or lectured to. If you don’t go through the motions, they say, you’re only missing out on the fun. Your partner may say that he or she understands, but they’re really secretly disappointed in you, year in and year out. Or worst of all, you have deep emotional failings in the romance department if you can’t turn it on and off like a Viagra-powered light switch.
I may be exaggerating the whole pressure and expectations thing a bit; most of my friends and family (including my significant other) accept my Valentine Scrooge role as a charming foible, like those people who get upset about Thanksgiving or rail about the commercial excesses of our modern-day Christmas celebrations (which do indeed dwarf the promotion of flowers and chocolates that the world of commerce has imposed on this holiday). Come to think of it, Jews probably shouldn’t have to feel compelled to celebrate this holiday anyway; it’s a Saint, after all, who’s name is being invoked.
Who knows, maybe some Valentine’s Eve I’ll be visited by the three Dickensian ghosts of Valentine’s Day Past, Present and Future, and we’ll all have a great orgy (complete with lace, chocolate and showers of rose petals) that convinces me of the error of my ways and makes me vow to pursue the blessings of Valentine’s Day the whole year round.
I’m not betting on it.
Spent the day at home today, mostly just relaxing and answering email. One thing I did get done was have Pam take a new portrait of me. Why do this? Because it’s always handy to have a cleaned up, scalable head-shot for online services, avatar icons, login pictures, etc. My old picture was just too out of date. Here’s the new one:
Not bad, I hope. Well, at least it’s more honest about how old I look than the one I’ve had up everywhere. Have to work on updating my Comcast web page, which I’m hoping I can integrate with this blog.
“So little to do, so much time… Strike that, reverse it.” - Willy Wonka
I’m determined to do at least a couple of entries per week here. I know that I’ll have some more to write about early next week (planning a trip), but for now, it’ll have to be something mundane. We just finished dinner (lamb shanks, cooked in a nice braise of carrots, celery, onions, red wine, chicken broth and herbes de provence) and now I’m thinking about the movie I saw last night: Empire Records. It’s one of those movies that has two key features:
- It has a large, ensemble cast with people who turn up later in lots of movies. For instance, George Lucas’s American Graffiti had Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Kathleen Quinlan and even Suzanne Sommers (who will always be remembered as the mysterious Blonde in the T-Bird).
- It seems to mark a point in an an era that is absolutely a watermark. You can point to that movie and say, ‘yeah, that was absolutely 1999/2000, as is the case with 200 Cigarettes (which also had a lot of famous people in the cast, including Ben and Casey Affleck, Dave Chappelle, Janeane Garafalo, Kate Hudson, Jay Mohr, Martha Plimpton, and Christina Ricci (wow!). My all-time favorite move like this is Reality Bites (with Ben Stiller and Janeane Garafalo again, as well as Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Swoosie Kurtz, and Renée Zellweger), which technically should have been too late for me to identify with (history says I was 34 when it came out), but somehow it feels like the movie I can point to and say, ‘yeah, that was my era too’.
At any rate, Empire Records is another one of them (and it also stars Renée Zellweger, so I guess there could be a sort of Kevin Bacon game amongst these types of big ensemble movies). The big cast in Empire Records includes Ms. Zellweger, Liv Tyler (yowza!), Anthony LaPaglia, Robin Tunney, Debi Mazar and even Tobey Maguire (although his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor). And you can point to it and say ‘1995′, which is when it was shot and takes place. Absolutely 1995.
I wonder what the film that typifies the early 2000 decade will be? I don’t think it’s been made yet (although I suspect the movies the last few years will be known for will be Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11). We may or may not know the movie when we see it. I doubt if anybody realized that American Graffiti, Reality Bites, 200 Cigarettes or Empire Records were so emblematic of their time and that so many of the cast would be so busy afterward.
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