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taz_39**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.
This post covers Wednesday and Thursday.
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WEDNESDAY
I did decide to go to the fine arts museum today! Packed a lunch and rode the light rail over, ate lunch outside (it was thankfully nice enough for that) and then went exploring!! (Please remember that you can click on ANY picture to open in a new tab and then enlarge by clicking it again)
The museum is massive, taking up three buildings connected by an underground tunnel. I decided to walk to the farthest building first and work my way back, hopefully ensuring that I'd see as much as possible while working my way back toward the main entrance rather than away from it.
The connecting tunnel was very pretty! There were two parts, one was an optical illusion that made it seem like you were walking in a tight tunnel when actually it was open on either side (no footage because there were a lot of people in there) and the other part was simply vibrantly colorful and fun to walk through :)
(CLICK HERE to see my idiot face walking through this tunnel.)
The farthest building housed most of the modern/contemporary art. Though I didn't linger in EVERY gallery, I did walk through them all, pausing to read when something caught my eye or seemed interesting. Most people seemed to stick to the main building, so often I had whole galleries to myself for several minutes at a time.
There were a lot of interactive pieces here and that was a lot of fun. Some art you had to walk back and forth in front of to see correctly (optical illusion/spatial stuff), others needed you to push a button to activate or were motion activated. This one was immersive; it's a piece called “Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity” by Yayoi Kusama.
(DreamWidth people, CLICK HERE to see this art since I can't embed from facebook.)
Here was a piece within the Gyula Cocice Intergalactic exhibit. This particular one reminded me of pointillism illustrations in a book I had as a kid.
This was one of my favorites that I saw today. It's by a Latin American artist I believe, but I forgot to take pic of the description.
Walter Draesner, "A Danse Macabre." This was a book collection of 22 silhouette papercuts, opened to this page. I want to see them ALL!
A wall clock in a modern furniture section. The little cloud in the circle ticked the seconds while the lightning was the minute/hour hands. Absolutely adorable.
Ernie Barne's "The Sugar Shack," depicting people dancing at a juke joint. Loved the movement and energy, and having just seen the movie Sinners which takes place in a juke joint this had a stronger meaning.
The next building housed a lot of international collections. In the Islamic Countries gallery, this silver filigree diffuser. The detail was so intense. I could have stared for hours.
I always enjoy seeing ivory art/carvings. Loved this ivory powder horn with so many animals carved into it! And I love the little organic fractures and lines that you can see in the ivory.
This display was called "Power of Flight" and was in the Peruvian gallery. As a fan of raptors and flying things, I thought all of these were beautiful. There's even a little silver bat near the bottom right (I know it looks gold but in person it was silver.)
The Art of Africa section was very big and featured art and relics from many African nations. This elephant mask was a favorite.
A huge display describing the staves/staffs held by the linguists of Ghana, who were counselors to the chiefs and also relayed the word and law of the chief to the people. The ornate staves were a sign of authority, and the unique work at the top of each one was usually centered on a proverb or morals/values lessons that people were expected to remember and abide by. Zoom in on the picture to see the top of each staff, they are very interesting!
I had stopped to rest and sort photos once or twice, but otherwise after about two hours I'd walked nearly 3 miles and made it back to the main building. I could feel that I was running out of energy for looking at exquisite things, but this last building only had two floors. There were unfortunately some large and rowdy school groups in the galleries here, so I couldn't get close to a lot of the art and/or had to circle back a few times to see things I'd missed due to crowding. But that's ok, I still got to see a lot and it seemed like everyone was enjoying the museum :)
I also want to mention this, meant as a positive, um...advisal. There were two women who were clearly there for social media purposes. One was dressed beautifully, and the other followed her around with a camera, taking photos of her next to art or looking at art from a variety of angles. Although it was obvious what they were doing, they had paid admission, they were quiet and respectful, they didn't touch or damage anything, and they didn't get in anyone's way or spend any more time in front of the artwork than anyone else. The advisal is this: if people are doing an activity that is NOT disruptive, but YOU have a problem with it...the problem is YOU. Whether it's social media photoshoots or something else. We can CHOOSE to be annoyed by things that do not involve us, or we can CHOOSE to move on with our day unaffected.
Where's the linguist's staff depicting the moral of THAT story? Lol.
The ground floor had an "Art and Life in Imperial Rome" exhibit. Mostly statues, pottery, pillars...the stuff that we all associate with Roman and Greek culture. I liked this chunk of a frieze depicting an angel...the movement of the angel coupled with the interesting shape of the slab was aesthetically pleasing. And with the huge student groups filling up this gallery, it was one of few pieces I was able to get close enough to to photograph.
The second floor had Impressionist and Renaissance and churchy art, but also a “Louvre Couture” dresses exhibit. Thirty-six dresses/ensembles were designed by known fashion houses to complement the exhibits where they were placed. I saw most of the dresses/outfits, but these two were my favorite.
This one was I believe meant to be inspired by chain mail/armor. I'd wear it!!
There are a few more pictures and descriptions on my facebook.
I rode the light rail back feeling like my eyeballs were just full of color and form :) Even having walked 3 1/2 miles and spent 2 1/2 hours in there, I STILL had not seen everything! (For example I completely forgot about the sculpture garden!) I will have to go back someday. MFAH is absolutely wonderful, highly recommend to anyone visiting Houston (and don't forget the Natural Science Museum which is also incredible, I've visited that one three times!!)
Back home I grabbed a snack and some rest, then typed this up, ate dinner, and walked to the theater. Nothing new there, just a regular show with an announcement after the bows about Disney's Stage Connect, which is a FREE program allowing grade schools to put on Disney musicals FOR FREE, plus additional FREE teacher training and coaching to make it happen. With so many schools not even offering arts programs or considering them expendable in favor of, say, sports, I think this is an AWESOME program! Here's a chance that kids might not otherwise have, to experience the arts and what it's like to be a part of a stage show.
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THURSDAY
Up a bit early from traffic noise, and didn't have any plans. Breakfast, working on Fayetteville AR Foodie Finds, and probably spent two hours or so working on my masterclass powerpoint. In fact when Jameson texted to share how his day was going, I was surprised to see that it was already past noon! But I am nearly done making it. Even with AI help, shoving text and images and bullet points around feels so clunky. It looks "OK," but I am definitely a PPT amateur!
Lunch and getting my hands on some carbon fiber trombone mutes via an order through Schmitt Music. Yes I know, I just had 3D-printed mutes made for me this past year, but after buying a new bass trombone they don't fit properly in the new one's bell. After asking the maker several times (over the course of months) to send me resized corks--which can fit in a letter envelope and would take him 5 minutes to slap a stamp on and send--months later it's clear that he's not going to do it. So I'm calling it a loss and starting over. Maybe on the next layoff I can return his mutes to him for a partial refund.
Debated doing anything today, but I just don't have anything TO do that's not going to cost money. I just bought a trombone, am still paying off Christmas purchases, and will be buying a LOT of tickets for family in Philly. The museum was great, treating myself to the movies was great, and I'll do one Foodie Find on Friday, and that'll do me for Houston :)
The evening show was good, at least for me personally. It has taken NINE stinking days but I'm finally back in "tour mode."
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Friday: One evening show. Walking to a grocery to pick up some travel foods, and I found a random Vietnamese restaurant known for banh xeo (one of my favorites!) so that will be my Foodie Find!
Saturday and Sunday: Two-show days, no plans except to pack and prepare for Oklahoma City!
This post covers Wednesday and Thursday.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
WEDNESDAY
I did decide to go to the fine arts museum today! Packed a lunch and rode the light rail over, ate lunch outside (it was thankfully nice enough for that) and then went exploring!! (Please remember that you can click on ANY picture to open in a new tab and then enlarge by clicking it again)
The museum is massive, taking up three buildings connected by an underground tunnel. I decided to walk to the farthest building first and work my way back, hopefully ensuring that I'd see as much as possible while working my way back toward the main entrance rather than away from it.
The connecting tunnel was very pretty! There were two parts, one was an optical illusion that made it seem like you were walking in a tight tunnel when actually it was open on either side (no footage because there were a lot of people in there) and the other part was simply vibrantly colorful and fun to walk through :)
(CLICK HERE to see my idiot face walking through this tunnel.)
The farthest building housed most of the modern/contemporary art. Though I didn't linger in EVERY gallery, I did walk through them all, pausing to read when something caught my eye or seemed interesting. Most people seemed to stick to the main building, so often I had whole galleries to myself for several minutes at a time.
There were a lot of interactive pieces here and that was a lot of fun. Some art you had to walk back and forth in front of to see correctly (optical illusion/spatial stuff), others needed you to push a button to activate or were motion activated. This one was immersive; it's a piece called “Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity” by Yayoi Kusama.
(DreamWidth people, CLICK HERE to see this art since I can't embed from facebook.)
Here was a piece within the Gyula Cocice Intergalactic exhibit. This particular one reminded me of pointillism illustrations in a book I had as a kid.
This was one of my favorites that I saw today. It's by a Latin American artist I believe, but I forgot to take pic of the description.
Walter Draesner, "A Danse Macabre." This was a book collection of 22 silhouette papercuts, opened to this page. I want to see them ALL!
A wall clock in a modern furniture section. The little cloud in the circle ticked the seconds while the lightning was the minute/hour hands. Absolutely adorable.
Ernie Barne's "The Sugar Shack," depicting people dancing at a juke joint. Loved the movement and energy, and having just seen the movie Sinners which takes place in a juke joint this had a stronger meaning.
The next building housed a lot of international collections. In the Islamic Countries gallery, this silver filigree diffuser. The detail was so intense. I could have stared for hours.
I always enjoy seeing ivory art/carvings. Loved this ivory powder horn with so many animals carved into it! And I love the little organic fractures and lines that you can see in the ivory.
This display was called "Power of Flight" and was in the Peruvian gallery. As a fan of raptors and flying things, I thought all of these were beautiful. There's even a little silver bat near the bottom right (I know it looks gold but in person it was silver.)
The Art of Africa section was very big and featured art and relics from many African nations. This elephant mask was a favorite.
A huge display describing the staves/staffs held by the linguists of Ghana, who were counselors to the chiefs and also relayed the word and law of the chief to the people. The ornate staves were a sign of authority, and the unique work at the top of each one was usually centered on a proverb or morals/values lessons that people were expected to remember and abide by. Zoom in on the picture to see the top of each staff, they are very interesting!
I had stopped to rest and sort photos once or twice, but otherwise after about two hours I'd walked nearly 3 miles and made it back to the main building. I could feel that I was running out of energy for looking at exquisite things, but this last building only had two floors. There were unfortunately some large and rowdy school groups in the galleries here, so I couldn't get close to a lot of the art and/or had to circle back a few times to see things I'd missed due to crowding. But that's ok, I still got to see a lot and it seemed like everyone was enjoying the museum :)
I also want to mention this, meant as a positive, um...advisal. There were two women who were clearly there for social media purposes. One was dressed beautifully, and the other followed her around with a camera, taking photos of her next to art or looking at art from a variety of angles. Although it was obvious what they were doing, they had paid admission, they were quiet and respectful, they didn't touch or damage anything, and they didn't get in anyone's way or spend any more time in front of the artwork than anyone else. The advisal is this: if people are doing an activity that is NOT disruptive, but YOU have a problem with it...the problem is YOU. Whether it's social media photoshoots or something else. We can CHOOSE to be annoyed by things that do not involve us, or we can CHOOSE to move on with our day unaffected.
Where's the linguist's staff depicting the moral of THAT story? Lol.
The ground floor had an "Art and Life in Imperial Rome" exhibit. Mostly statues, pottery, pillars...the stuff that we all associate with Roman and Greek culture. I liked this chunk of a frieze depicting an angel...the movement of the angel coupled with the interesting shape of the slab was aesthetically pleasing. And with the huge student groups filling up this gallery, it was one of few pieces I was able to get close enough to to photograph.
The second floor had Impressionist and Renaissance and churchy art, but also a “Louvre Couture” dresses exhibit. Thirty-six dresses/ensembles were designed by known fashion houses to complement the exhibits where they were placed. I saw most of the dresses/outfits, but these two were my favorite.
This one was I believe meant to be inspired by chain mail/armor. I'd wear it!!
There are a few more pictures and descriptions on my facebook.
I rode the light rail back feeling like my eyeballs were just full of color and form :) Even having walked 3 1/2 miles and spent 2 1/2 hours in there, I STILL had not seen everything! (For example I completely forgot about the sculpture garden!) I will have to go back someday. MFAH is absolutely wonderful, highly recommend to anyone visiting Houston (and don't forget the Natural Science Museum which is also incredible, I've visited that one three times!!)
Back home I grabbed a snack and some rest, then typed this up, ate dinner, and walked to the theater. Nothing new there, just a regular show with an announcement after the bows about Disney's Stage Connect, which is a FREE program allowing grade schools to put on Disney musicals FOR FREE, plus additional FREE teacher training and coaching to make it happen. With so many schools not even offering arts programs or considering them expendable in favor of, say, sports, I think this is an AWESOME program! Here's a chance that kids might not otherwise have, to experience the arts and what it's like to be a part of a stage show.
------------------------------------------------------------------
THURSDAY
Up a bit early from traffic noise, and didn't have any plans. Breakfast, working on Fayetteville AR Foodie Finds, and probably spent two hours or so working on my masterclass powerpoint. In fact when Jameson texted to share how his day was going, I was surprised to see that it was already past noon! But I am nearly done making it. Even with AI help, shoving text and images and bullet points around feels so clunky. It looks "OK," but I am definitely a PPT amateur!
Lunch and getting my hands on some carbon fiber trombone mutes via an order through Schmitt Music. Yes I know, I just had 3D-printed mutes made for me this past year, but after buying a new bass trombone they don't fit properly in the new one's bell. After asking the maker several times (over the course of months) to send me resized corks--which can fit in a letter envelope and would take him 5 minutes to slap a stamp on and send--months later it's clear that he's not going to do it. So I'm calling it a loss and starting over. Maybe on the next layoff I can return his mutes to him for a partial refund.
Debated doing anything today, but I just don't have anything TO do that's not going to cost money. I just bought a trombone, am still paying off Christmas purchases, and will be buying a LOT of tickets for family in Philly. The museum was great, treating myself to the movies was great, and I'll do one Foodie Find on Friday, and that'll do me for Houston :)
The evening show was good, at least for me personally. It has taken NINE stinking days but I'm finally back in "tour mode."
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Friday: One evening show. Walking to a grocery to pick up some travel foods, and I found a random Vietnamese restaurant known for banh xeo (one of my favorites!) so that will be my Foodie Find!
Saturday and Sunday: Two-show days, no plans except to pack and prepare for Oklahoma City!
