June 25, 2017 at 4:16 pm (Artists and Writers, Conversations, Food and Drink, Links, postaday, Sundays)
Tags: art, exhibits, museum, postaday, postaweek, San Francisco, summer, Wordpress
Went for the Edvard Munch exhibit. Stayed to view the permanent collection. Forgot about Gay Pride and got stuck in the hugest traffic jam. At least, got to see the mayhem starting.
While taking a coffee break at SFMOMA, she shared her little table with a young woman from Japan named Yoshie Yam. It turned out we both love traveling. Love, love, love traveling. So, self chooses to begin her second post on The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge, TRANSIENT, with this, our little table at the SFMOMA Coffeeshop:
Coffee break at SFMOMA, after seeing the Edvard Munch exhibit
On the second floor of the SFMOMA is this huge black-and-white photo. Not quite sure about the decade. 1960s? Which reminds self, it is the 50th anniversary of San Francisco’s Summer of Love! There’s an exhibit commemorating the anniversary at the de Young. Self wanted to go today, but was put off by the traffic that always surrounds Gay Pride Day:
Finally, the Munch exhibit, the one that self drove all the way to San Francisco to see. The paintings are striking, powerful, disorienting. The one below is one of the largest. It’s called “The Dance of Life.” The men are already turning into ghouls:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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June 11, 2017 at 4:58 pm (destinations, Places, postaday, Recommended, Sundays, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: art, Bath, discoveries, England, history, museums, postaday, postaweek, praise, Roman Empire, Wordpress
And self does mean magnificent.
The Royal Crescent in Bath takes her breath away. Even after seeing it for the third or fourth time.
The shape is an ellipsis cut in half. Who thought of this curved shape? So perfect. It’s almost mystical.
The architect (whose name self immediately forgot) was inspired, according to the guide on the walking tour, by the Roman Coliseum (which is itself elliptical. Really? Self never knew!)
Royal Crescent
Royal Crescent No. 1 (Royal Crescent Museum): Self is so happy that this woman came out of the entrance just as self was getting ready to take this shot.
Self had been on the Grand Parade, many times. But she never looked over the bridge to the river below. She finally did, yesterday, and — GAH! Rapids! Who would have thought?
Only after looking at the river for several moments did she realize that the gulls were walking on the edge of the top rapids. Grand illusion! And there are kayaks over there!
The River Avon from the Grand Parade
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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June 8, 2017 at 8:23 am (Artists and Writers, destinations, Explorers, Links, Places, postaday, Traveling)
Tags: art, England, iconic, London, museums, Paris, postaday, postaweek, Wordpress
This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is ORDER:
Sure, it’s fun to celebrate chaos every once in a while. But it’s others’ visions of order and harmony, from colonnades to geometric patterns on tiles, that most often intrigue me . . .
— Ben Huberman, The Daily Post
Architecture has to have a sense of order. Otherwise, things just don’t get built.
Here are three beautiful examples of architecture self recently encountered on her travels:
The London Eye, 7 June 2017
Apartment Windows, the Marais, Paris: 2 June 2017
The Collection of Islamic Art at the Louvre, 1 June 2017
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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June 7, 2017 at 5:42 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Flowers, Places, postaday, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: art, flower photography, Gardens, inspiration, museum, Paris, postaday, postaweek, praise, Wordpress
ORDER: “Neat, tidy objects and spaces.”
Monet’s garden at Giverny has a profusion of flowers but it’s the individual blossoms that really show you nature’s genius for order.
Giverney: May 2017
The flower is ready for its close-up:
Finally, I. M. Pei’s magnificent pyramid at the Louvre:
Fabulous: I. M. Pei’s audacity
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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June 4, 2017 at 6:09 am (destinations, Lists, Places, postaday, Sundays)
Tags: art, California, Capitola, Golden Gate Park, memories, museum, postaday, postaweek, San Francisco, Wordpress
The Beach at Capitola
101 North
Missing home and friends and familiar places:
- The beach at Capitola
- Highway 101 on the northbound approach to San Francisco
- The sculpture garden in the de Young Museum
- More Capitola beaches
Stay tuned.
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June 1, 2017 at 7:20 pm (Artists and Writers, Flowers, Links, postaday, Traveling)
Tags: art, flower photography, Gardens, inspiration, postaday, postaweek, Wordpress
Two days ago, self had the opportunity to visit Giverney for the first time. She got so lost in the gardens, she didn’t even bother going inside Monet’s house. Go figure! She’s always loved flowers. They are her friends, always. Which is perfect, since this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is FRIENDS:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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May 24, 2017 at 9:10 pm (Artists and Writers, Eavesdropping, Links, Places, postaday, Traveling)
Tags: art, memories, museums, Paris, postaday, postaweek, Wordpress
This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is EVANESCENT.
What is fleeting, what is most evanescent.
Look at the pictures she chose to take at the Musee de l’Orangerie. Instead of waiting for people to clear out of her photograph, they became part of the moment. And that was even before she found out what this week’s Photo Challenge was.
Moments. That’s all she was interested in capturing this afternoon. Apparently.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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May 22, 2017 at 1:46 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Food and Drink, Places, postaday, Traveling)
Tags: art, happiness, Mondays, museums, Paris, postaday, postaweek, Wordpress
It was a gorgeous day!
Self strolled down the Champs-Elysees. She saw a shrine on the sidewalk, draped with French flags and flowers. Oh. So that’s where the policeman was shot.
She bought a salad from a brasserie and decided to eat in the Tuileries, right in front of the Musee L’Orangerie (where the Monets are) but she did not bother lining up for a ticket. She hates lines.
Instead, she sat outside, watching people:
The Tuileries, Monday Afternoon: Is that a Brancusi? Or a Picasso? Or a Henry Moore?
The wide avenues were alive with strollers, and the trees were so green:
And guess what she saw, over on the other side of the Place de la Concorde:
Iconic: 22 May 2017
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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May 14, 2017 at 3:01 pm (Food and Drink, Links, Places, postaday, Recommended, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: art, dance, discoveries, England, London, postaday, postaweek, restaurants, Saturday, Wordpress
The Daily Post Photo Challenge this week is REFLECTING.
Can self just say she arrived sick and barely able to keep upright. But damn — the Royal Opera House!
Seeing it for the first time was — awesome.
Plus, the adjoining bar/restaurant: All that glass! All that light!
Perfect for this week’s Photo Challenge!
Before the start of the ballet, self dashed to the bar to order some hot tea. She wound up sharing a table with an American woman, a ballet aficionado who has season tickets to the New York City Ballet and watches “thirty ballets a year. At least.” Self confided that she wasn’t feeling well and might leave during one of the intermissions.
And the womans said: The pas de deaux in Act III are spectacular. Don’t leave.
The Bar at the Royal Opera House, 8 p.m. Saturday, May 13
And then, the interior of the Royal Opera House itself:
Waiting for the beginning of Kenneth Macmillan’s beautiful, stunning ballet, “Mayerling”: Saturday, May 13
More of the Royal Opera House Bar. At intermission, self went up an escalator to the “Bridge” over the bar, from which she got a jaw-dropping view of Covent Garden, at 8 p.m.:
Center Top, the “Bridge”: A side escalator takes you to it, and from there you can see all of Covent Garden. SPECTACULAR. Especially at sunset.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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May 12, 2017 at 12:22 pm (Artists and Writers, Links, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: art, England, exhibits, Fridays, inspiration, London, museum, poetry
It is Friday. The British Museum is open late. Right now, it’s full of schoolchildren. They slouch all over the galleries in their jeans and backpacks. Some are French. One French schoolgirl calls an elevator by pressing one sneakered foot against the down button. Remind self never to touch a button in the British Museum. Ever. Another sits on the floor of a gallery, just staring in a kind of daze. Two of her friends come sit next to her. They don’t ask her if anything’s wrong.
The Hockney sketches are in a room right next to the British Watercolors, 1850-1950. Self walked all through the watercolor exhibit yesterday. It was so amazing.
She went back today for the Hockneys.
She loves Cavafy. So does Hockney.
Hockney’s sketches of men are simple pencil, or pen and ink. They are so evocative. Two men lie naked in bed together. There’s one simply entitled “Peter, 1966.”
How beautifully he captures the form of these men in repose! Some of the schoolboys in the gallery were giggly, though not to the point of disrespectfulness.
There’s also a sketch of a shopkeeper standing at the door to his business. Beneath that sketch is a Cavafy poem, “In the Dull Village”:
In the dull village where he works —
as a clerk in a shop;
very young — and where he waits
for two or three months to go by
another two or three months till business slows down,
to go then to the town and throw himself immediately
into its life and entertainment,
In the dull village where he waits —
he went to bed love-sick tonight,
his whole youth afire with fleshly passion,
beautiful youth beautiful in intensity.
And pleasure came to him in sleep; he sees
and has the body he desires in his sleep.
— C. P. Cavafy
Further background on the exhibit is here.
It runs through this Sunday, May 14.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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