Rest of 11/3

As I read through my first BLOG on the trip to NY, I find that it's pretty damn boring. I guess I just kinda whipped it up without editting content, which may explain for some of it. Rather than ramble on about the rest of my night, I'd like to experiment with a new format: a self interview. Bear with me.

Foothill Scrambler: So Mark, last time you had left a BLOG entry you were on your way to spamalot, leaving your readers hanging.

Mark: Yes, sorry about that. Time seemed to get away from me and suddenly I needed to high tail it to the Shubert Theater.

FS: You had mentioned that you were going to say something about the Metropolitan Art Mueseum. What prompted you to go there?

M: Good question. My original goal on this trip was to be able to hit the MOMA and the Guggenheim museum, but as I was working my way through Central Park ending up on a stretch called "Museum Way", I came across this other museum that I hadn't really thought of. My initial reaction to it was that I could add it to my list and possibly hit it on one of the mornings, but as I walked passed it, I noticed an ad it had put out for "Van Gogh: The Drawings". It slowed me in my tracks a bit and as I walked further I saw another big ad for it and decided that I had to see it.

FS: Are you a fan of Van Gogh?

M: I'm not sure what you characterize as being a fan of an artist. I do like a lot of his works. I enjoy the intensity that his paintings seem to posess. I typically don't like to go to museums just for the sake of going to museums. I felt that this was something that had caught my eye and interest and I didn't want to regret not checking it out. Good job to this museum for pulling this sucker in.

FS: Sucker? Did it end up being a waste of time?

M: Not at all. I'm just being funny. I really enjoyed the exhibit, seeing works that he had done prior to his more well known pieces. He was trying to get black and drawings down well before he moved to color. I learned quite a few things about him that I didn't know.

FS: Such as?

M: He had a brother named Theo who was a art dealer whom he exchanged many letters with as he was studying and working in France. They even had a few of these letters on display. He talked a bit about the difficulty of bringing colorless drawings to life. He was very interested in vitalizing the common people that he had captured on canvas and wished to bring that same life to the landscapes the he had painted. He felt that all life is intertwined and should be represented that way.

FS: What else did you learn?

M: A couple things come to mind. They showed several iterations of some of his sketches and paintings, some starting out as being very rough and he recognized that, saying so in his letters. You could see the process that he had go through, something you don't generally associate with great artists. I think we have this notion, or at least I do, that artists just suddenly produce this amazing art, just by making a few broad strokes onto their canvas. Obviously Van Gogh was a genius, but he struggled. He taught himself how to paint and went through plenty of growing pains. The other thing that comes to mind is that on one of the museum write ups it was stated that he died of a "self inflicted gunshot wound". It was funny to me how that was written. Like, isn't that suicide? Regardless, I knew that he had spent the end of his life in asylum and had lopped a good chunk of his ear off, but I didn't realize that he had caused his own demise.

FS: Did you try any of the other exhibits?

M: Yes I did. One thing I should say is that this museum is enormous to the point that you can get lost in it. It took me a while to find the exit and that was after people started heading for it at the close. They seem to have a little (or actually a lot) of everything. One minute I felt like I was back in an Italian museum, looking at renaissance art, which does seem to get a little boring after a while to me. How many times can I look at the virgin Mary, Jesus and John the Bapist?

FS: Probably gets a little old, huh.

M: yeah...but next the next minute I'm looking at South American gold crafts from pre-Columbian times. I mainly gravitated to the stuff I knew though. They have a nice Picasso collection that I spent a fair amount of time in. They also have this great exhibit on Santiago Calatrava, known primarily for his architecture, but they had a lot of cool sculptures from him. I know squat about archicture and sculpting. The only way I know his name is that he designed the Milwaukee Art Meseum( http://www.mam.org/thebuilding/index.htm) and it turns out he designed a lot of the sports facilities used in Athens for the olympic games. He has a very exciting style to take in. I was proud of myself...As I was walking out I noticed a sculpture that looked very much like the Burghers of Calais, which is what Stanford has a sculpture garden of. Sure enough, it was it, recast.

FS: Well done Sherlock. So you're looking kinda sleepy my friend. Is it bed time?

M: Yes, but I can probably talk a bit about spamalot before I sign off.

FS: Exellent. Do tell.

M: I very much enjoyed the show, in the Shubert Theater, an old-time theater just off Broadway on 44th Street. If you enjoy Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail, you'll enjoy this. They have many of the schticks from the movie, which are fun to relive, and this show also has a nice contemporary feel to it as well some self awarness that makes it fun. David Hyde Pearce and Tim Curry lead a very good cast, including a main actress Sara Ramirez, who I believe has won a Tony. She was terrific (great voice and very funny) and pretty easy on the eyes as well.

FS: So you would recommend this show?

M: Definitely, though I think you need to be a fan of this type of humor. There was a guy sitting next to me that didn't laugh one ounce during the whole show. Some people just don't really get british humor. If it's not your cup of tea, you may be better off finding another show.
Before I head off to bed, I should mention that I made a late night visit to serendipity 3, a dessert place that my girl friend had told me about and warned that I shouldn't go there without her. Naturually I paid a visit and have no regrets. They have this "frozen hot chocolate" that they're known for, so I went for one (peanut butter frozen hot chocolate, actually) and it's very tasty. Just imagine kind of a chocolate smoothie type of thing with whipped cream, cocoa sprinkles and peanut butter mixed in. mmmmmmmmmmmm...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

FS: Well, I think this interview is over. Thank you all for reading.