Put your back into it lads!
Ok, so this almost represented the first day to pass without comment, which seemed unfair since it isn't that I didn't do anything. I mean firstly John Paul, hereafter refered to as JP, arrived. Then we had dinner with his sister Vivian as well as Sophia and Stephen and then we looked at pictures of sulfites. And hookers, but mostly sulfites. JP is a working man now doing nickel exploration ("Bah gold, gold is for losers!") as a geologist so he had a ton of photos from Duluth (Yay Duluth, he had not nearly as much fun there as we did though, and certainly never emasculated anyone with a pool noodle...nor heard Mark say "Luuuuna" in that way of his) and Sudbury and then St Petersburg. So mostly the photos of Russia were cool. JP, being JP, is now seeing some russian girl (not one of the hookers who "weren't even mine" and might not have been hookers) so he is cheerfully learning Russian since she doesn't speak English. In other news Vivian has lost her South African citizenship since she neglected to fill out some forms in the proper order when she got her British (or maybe Swiss, I'm not sure) thus leaving her two passports away from being without a country.
As far as my day went, I got up late and lounged (with appropriate hand motions, thank you Rob) until around 12, then went into town for some more face time with the National Gallery. I was going to keep that for me, but a few key things happened that I feel compelled to mention.
"Is this where I find the Virgin On The Rocks?"
This is rapidly becoming my favorite quote from the trip so far and I may make it my tagline in my emails. I alternately get this vision of an awesome layered cocktail, or a really uncomfortable nun. What the person in question was actually looking for
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/largeImage?workNumber=NG1093&collectionPublisherSection=work
Note, if you will, that the angel is possible the hottest woman not to exist as far as I'm concerned. She also reminds me of someone, although I have yet to place whom it is. This is the first full on painting of Da Vinci's I've ever seen by the way. I qualify that since there is a charcoal sketch there as well which Sophia loves, but I don't recall the name of at this moment. Anyway, I think that a "virgin on the rocks", much like a "screaming viking" will not likely be a popular beverage.
In other news I also discouvered a real appreciation for other artists whose names I didn't know before.
Caravaggio http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/caravaggio/ who, according to Sophia who is an amazing museum guide, was the best perspective painter of his era (he paints arms pointing out of the painting without screwing them up. It sounds kind of dumb, but it's actually really impressive to see). I'm planning to try to work seeing more of his work into my trip.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG5472 This piece is why I know I'm going to hell. I can't look at it without mentally adding a speech bubble to the angel going "Kapow, kapow, you're pregnant".
Also the work of Andrea Mantegna, including this piece http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/philolog/2006/02/andrea_mantegnas_samson_and_de.html
which is much better in real life since I don't remember it being that orange...
I also saw a little sculpture http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=L1022 which, and you can probably make a recording of this, is much better in person.
I also saw some work by Raphael which just leaves Michaelangelo (I'm pretty sure he's in there somewhere but I get lost) and I'll have seen all the turtles.
I'm still pretty much completely in love with Rembrandt's work, particularly the "Woman taken in Adultery" which I spent a happy 15 minutes in front of. It's interesting to me that, unlike so much of pop culture, the famour names in art are also the best. I mean Da Vinci's faces, Rembrandt's use of shadow, even Renoir and the impressionists and the way they used paint itself (again thank you Sophia, who explained impressionism to me. I will never again call it "kind of blendy and dull") the best known names did the best work. Although there are lesser known names that do amazing things as well.
In other news, JP and I are going to the Globe someday (my poor planning has cost us today) and I still don't have my eutrain ticket (I didn't have my passport on me at the place). And I really should go entertain him before he sets the building on fire (he's muttering something in the other room anyway).
Not exactly action packed I know, but I think it's interesting.
As far as my day went, I got up late and lounged (with appropriate hand motions, thank you Rob) until around 12, then went into town for some more face time with the National Gallery. I was going to keep that for me, but a few key things happened that I feel compelled to mention.
"Is this where I find the Virgin On The Rocks?"
This is rapidly becoming my favorite quote from the trip so far and I may make it my tagline in my emails. I alternately get this vision of an awesome layered cocktail, or a really uncomfortable nun. What the person in question was actually looking for
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/largeImage?workNumber=NG1093&collectionPublisherSection=work
Note, if you will, that the angel is possible the hottest woman not to exist as far as I'm concerned. She also reminds me of someone, although I have yet to place whom it is. This is the first full on painting of Da Vinci's I've ever seen by the way. I qualify that since there is a charcoal sketch there as well which Sophia loves, but I don't recall the name of at this moment. Anyway, I think that a "virgin on the rocks", much like a "screaming viking" will not likely be a popular beverage.
In other news I also discouvered a real appreciation for other artists whose names I didn't know before.
Caravaggio http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/caravaggio/ who, according to Sophia who is an amazing museum guide, was the best perspective painter of his era (he paints arms pointing out of the painting without screwing them up. It sounds kind of dumb, but it's actually really impressive to see). I'm planning to try to work seeing more of his work into my trip.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG5472 This piece is why I know I'm going to hell. I can't look at it without mentally adding a speech bubble to the angel going "Kapow, kapow, you're pregnant".
Also the work of Andrea Mantegna, including this piece http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/philolog/2006/02/andrea_mantegnas_samson_and_de.html
which is much better in real life since I don't remember it being that orange...
I also saw a little sculpture http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=L1022 which, and you can probably make a recording of this, is much better in person.
I also saw some work by Raphael which just leaves Michaelangelo (I'm pretty sure he's in there somewhere but I get lost) and I'll have seen all the turtles.
I'm still pretty much completely in love with Rembrandt's work, particularly the "Woman taken in Adultery" which I spent a happy 15 minutes in front of. It's interesting to me that, unlike so much of pop culture, the famour names in art are also the best. I mean Da Vinci's faces, Rembrandt's use of shadow, even Renoir and the impressionists and the way they used paint itself (again thank you Sophia, who explained impressionism to me. I will never again call it "kind of blendy and dull") the best known names did the best work. Although there are lesser known names that do amazing things as well.
In other news, JP and I are going to the Globe someday (my poor planning has cost us today) and I still don't have my eutrain ticket (I didn't have my passport on me at the place). And I really should go entertain him before he sets the building on fire (he's muttering something in the other room anyway).
Not exactly action packed I know, but I think it's interesting.
posted by Bne | 3:48 AM
2 Comments:
I have art envy.
But I will sublimate it by giving you a crash course in HTML.
You don't have to put those huge long links that go off the page in your actual post.
1) Copy the URL (the text that begins with "http:"... I assume you did manage to figure out how to do this.) :)
2) Write your post and select the words that you want to be links. For example, you could say "I really liked this picture" and decide that the word "picture" would be a good link.
3) In the Blogger composer, highlight the word you want to be the link by clicking in front of it and dragging the cursor (just like you would if you were cutting and pasting)
4) Click on the little icon in the editor header that looks like a chain over a green globe (it's to the immediate right of the "T-with-a-multicolour-rectangle" icon). A popup window should appear with a text field where you can enter your URL.
5) Paste your URL into the text field and click OK
6) The text you selected should be a different colour and underlined. Now when people click it, they will go to that URL but your blog post will look a lot nicer.
7) Tell me if you can tell that I've been writing users' manuals for the past week.
Woot, I was going to ask how to do what Amy has lectured on, but she is, in fact, The Awesome!
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