Classical Art at The Clark

At the end of the day, I am still more of a classical art person. While at The Clark museum I saw a gorgeous piano that was ornately decorated. No single picture could really do it justice since every single panel of it was beautifully crafted and detailed.

The panel right above the keys is a full panorama painting of its own.  Each leg of the piano has detailing like I've never seen. I could have spent a good hour just taking detailed pics of this piano but figured there were some other more famous pieces I should probably see as well.

One such piece is Monet's Cathedral Rouen.  I actually have a print of one of the versions he did since middle school.

This is the first time I saw an original of Monet's Cathedral Rouen, and I learned that Monet had stayed in an apartment across the way from the cathedral, which is where he had this perspective.

He actually painted around 20 versions of the Cathedral Rouen, at different times of the day to get different lighting effects, at different crops to see which composition worked the best.

Knowing so much work went into creating his vision is what makes Monet one of the great impressionist masters, and it makes me appreciate his art even more.

And Monet is not alone in this. I've seen exhibits before on Degas where he sketched the same subject over and over in charcoal first to get just the right composition and just the right perspective. When the final painting is finished, dozens of versions have already been tried out with different color combinations and perspectives. The patience!

Last but not least in the famous department, is the Little Dancer by Degas.

I've actually seen this sculpture multiple times and was always wondering if there were more than one floating around. It turns out there's several indeed, and none of them are of the true original.

It turns out, Degas had created the original out of wax, and used real hair.  It had gone on exhibit just once toward the end of Degas' career and life.

The audience had reacted very negatively to the sculpture due to its life-likeness, and Degas never exhibited it again.

At some point a cast was made of the original wax sculpture, and these bronze ones were made from it. And since there were no photos of the original floating around, I guess no one alive today will be able to say they've seen what Degas originally created. This actually explains why I've seen color differences of the bow on the little dancer's hair each time I've seen it. They were all different copies! The things you learn!

Watch Out for That Piano!

Since I'm taking classes again, I have to coordinate my vacation with spring break. I got a chance to head out to MASS MoCA out in western Mass.

First up is an art installation with a falling piano. It's really amazing to see everything positioned in such as a way that it represents the explosion of impact, yet everything is completely still.

Next is giant wall paintings of Sol LeWitt.  His style is to give instructions and sometimes sketches accompanying his instructions, and have someone else actually do the installation and painting. This is done in such a way that the art can be repeatedly created, which is certainly a very different way of thinking about art.

I attempted take a panorama of one of the LeWitt art walls because it was so large and could not be captured in a single (or 3) shots).  But as proven from the previous time I tried to use the panorama feature, it creates this fish eye perspective that distorts the actual view quite a bit. Nonetheless, it gives a good sense of the scale of the installation while capturing all the details. 

One of the art walls happened to have a light source above and center.  I almost look prophetic. :)

Modern art might not be something I naturally gravitate toward, but I think MASS MoCA has enough variety that even the noobs like me can still appreciate it.

Linsanity

Although I'm not much of a sports fan in general, I wouldn't pass up a chance to see a pro game in person.  It just happened to be I got a pair of company tickets to go see the Celtics play the Knicks at TD Garden.

Linsanity has been the talk of the town for the past month so I most definitely had to go see what Jeremy Lin is all about.

It was pretty crazy to see him make some amazing shots. He was practically falling over on some of them.  But at the same time, he turned over many simple plays, almost tripping over his own feet a few times. At the end, my conclusion is he's fairly inconsistent, so he's got some ways to go before he can be counted on to really carry any team.

Outside of the game (which was pretty exciting considering the Celtics looked like they were about to lose, and then in the last few minutes, managed to tie it up to go into overtime, and then winning it at the end) the company seats were pretty nice.

It was at the same level as other company boxes, but not as extravagant. It's at a "sports deck", and had tall bar height leather swivel seats, and a bar counter for food and drinks. Definitely way more comfortable than the regular seats beneath.

This also gave me a chance to test out the panorama features on my Galaxy Nexus. My first attempt at using it, and it turned out pretty nice.  It's pretty clear that any panorama shot is going to have a weird perspective due to the positioning / origin of the photo and how it all gets stitched together. But it does a pretty nice job of showcasing the space I was in.

All in all, a pretty positive experience, both via the game, and with my smart phone. :) I just need more opportunities to try out more of its features so I can write about them.

Falling Water

So I had the chance to visit the famous Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright in Pennsylvania. I've always heard about this great architectural feat, but didn't think I would be in the area to ever see it.  Good thing my best friend got a job at the University of West Virginia recently, and I had the excuse to go visit.

Unfortunately, since it's winter, the inside was closed from tours.  The grounds are open, however. So I got a chance to check out the outside.

The story goes, the Kaufmann's asked Wright to build them a summer cottage back in the 1930's. The Kaufmann's were the local grocery store chain owners, and were obviously well off enough, that this enormous place could be commissioned for construction by a famous architect, and still be called a "summer cottage".  Much like those mansions in Lenox out the Berkshires. But that's another story.

It is very beautiful to see. Though the interaction designer in me shuttered at various things. 

For one, though it's "neat" to build a home "on top" of running water (the original request was simply to have a view of the creek), it just seems to position itself for future problems.

In this particular case, the idea of being able to walk straight down into the creek is certainly nice, but there's no where to go. It's not deep enough for someone to bring a boat around. The bottom isn't smooth enough to sit in. So I guess you can wade it to calf deep water, and then wade out. Perhaps dangle your feet over the edge into the water at the bottom of those steps. But that seems to be it. Seems like a lot of effort for not that much enjoyment.

Another major issue is that apparently Wright didn't believe in drainage. That's right, drainage. Seems kind of important. So the builders somehow negotiated these gutters so that some drainage can happen.

The net results is there's giant icicles waiting to impale passers by.  It's rather alarming really, that an architect can simply "not believe in drainage", therefore not design in any, and then the builders had to negotiate them in. 

Makes me think of how sometimes things look really good from a high level power point presentation, but when you get to the details, some pretty important elements are missing. And often times executives are totally bought in to the high level concept animated out in power point, but fail to understand more detailed work is necessary before you can really call it a complete design. 

Otherwise, you would just end up in situations like this, where the design failed to account for drainage, and the builders had to work it in some other way. And ultimately, I can't imagine this is desirable. If Wright had actually designed with drainage in mind, I'm sure there would have been ways to deal with it where it doesn't form dangerous daggers over head of passersby.

Enter Smart Phone

After some peer pressure I caved and upgraded my little 3 year old flip phone to the latest and greatest release of Android devices, the Galaxy Nexus.

And I just figured out how to take a screen shot.

That's my current home screen, complete with 3D clock and weather. I have lots of thoughts but not the time yet to thoroughly review, so I'll just start by saying I'm still faster typing t9 at the moment since Swype doesn't exist yet on Ice Cream Sandwich. But speech to text is a pretty good substitute when I'm in a quiet environment. I miss having arrows to move around the screen or to correct text typed incorrectly, but the wealth of apps and connection speed, at least on 4G, is pretty sweet.

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Safety Features

apparently my laptop bag and purse together weighs enough to be a small child according to my car. it detected enough weight to think there's a child seat in place and as safety it auto deactivates the passenger air bag.

183610 miles

I said good bye to my old car just now. It's been a long road and a good 17 years. It went to the Make-a-Wish Foundation's Wheels-for-Wishes program. Maybe someone will buy it at auction and fix it up and drive it another few years. I'll miss you.