This is it, folks. Historic event. The fabled hundredth page. Over two years, but it's finally here. If this doesn't legitimize TEO as a serious webcomic once and for all, I don't know what will. Plus: Big turning point in the story– Walt finally has enough people to go on the offensive against the Seelie Court. Will he triumph? Keep tuning in to find out…
News this week… right. Continuing on the artsy movie-and-NY-trip combo from last week: The movie, Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, was weird, but I enjoyed it (although, during the show, I crinkled a Skittles wrapper, left to go to the bathroom, and forgot to turn my cell phone off– a hat trick of movie theater faux pas). If you're interested in whaling, or Japanese stuff, or obscure symbolism, or Vaseline, or people slowly slicing each other up with knives in a manner that is guaranteed to make your stomach churn, check it out. Plus the unexpected plot twist near the end will surprise you. (Hint: Snape kills Dumbledore.)
As for New York… it was fun. The Guggenheim was under exterior renovations, so its signature profile was obscured under rows and rows of scaffolding and plastic tarpaulins (the architecture wonk in me wept at this). Inside, there wasn't much to see– a bunch of young artists were putting in a new installation inside ("Shapes in Space"– possibly the vaguest name for an exhibition ever), and the top two floors were under renovations, so only about three exhibits were open. They had some OK stuff there, though– some Impressionist and Cubist stuff, a bunch of Rodin sculptures, and a short, dialogue-less film about a plastic-wrap factory that won some chick named Tacita the Hugo Boss Artists' Prize in 2006. However, I walked away feeling slightly let-down.
After lunch at a tiny pizza place and a quick walk around the Great Lawn in Central Park (I gave a dollar to some guy playing "Aquela Do Brasil" on the sax under a bridge, because I haven't heard the song in a while, and the guy looked cool), we entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some advice for visitors: Do not go to the Met if you have already been standing up for most of the day. We saw pretty much everything there but the Asian Art section (which I regret), the Musical Instruments room (which I regret a lot) and a large quantity of the European Painting galleries (which I don't regret, honestly– while some 17th through 19th-century paintings can be striking and wonderful, most of it bores the snot out of me), and by the end, our legs were throbbing. Still, the Met is a wonderful art gallery, with lots of cool stuff to see even for people who don't consider themselves "into" art (including a Spanish courtyard, a reassembled Egyptian temple [with graffiti from the 1820s!], and an entire living room yanked from a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house). Plus they have "George Washington Crossing The Delaware", which, though I thought it would be the size of a bath towel, turned out to be as big as a friggin' tennis court. Also I liked the Modern Art wing, though I got the feeling our chaperon (who was of the "this looks like my five year old did it" persuasion where modern art is concerned) wasn't amazingly impressed. Overall, though, a good time was had by all, and I would definitely go back again.
HOWEVER! One final caveat (and Met officals, if you're reading, take note): Last time I went to the Met I had the most awesome reuben sandwich in their cafeteria. This time around, we revisited the cafeteria for dinner, and the chicken sandwich I got (they didn't even have the reuben on the menu) was limp and lukewarm, the fries like cardboard, the tomato actually grey. The place has gone downhill, and I learned something I should have known all along: It's never wise to trust museum food.
In other news, I got two new CDs. One, Amy Winehouse's "Back To Black", is funky and retro-soulful. The other, Andrew Bird's "Armchair Apocrypha", is beautifully spacey. Both I recommend heartily.
Comments
Please login to comment.
Login or Register${ comment.author }} at
${ comment.author }} at