Weekend Update - MFA
Friday night on the way home from work I popped into the mall. The humidifier in my bedroom, which used to empty the reservoir every 8 hours, has recently been taking two days, and then three, and then four before it needed a refill. I go through humidifiers (there’s something in my water that ends up crusting up the interiors and killing them after a year or two) and the motor on this one was starting to make those death rattle noises. Since I’ve decided that 2012 is the year I stop shopping at Wal-Mart, I headed to Sears for a new humidifier.
I found the dehumidifiers upstairs in the appliances department. You’d think that humidifiers would be right next to them right? But nooo, they’re downstairs, in hardware, next to the paint for crying out loud. But the good news is, I found out that Vornado (who makes the best fans on the planet) also makes humidifiers. And the one I bought came with a five year warranty. So, hopefully I’ll get more than two years out of this one. I was happy to see when I got home tonight that the new humidifier had put out a gallon and a half of water today. Yay!
Saturday I was off to the MFA. The last time I went to the MFA we’d run out of time before we really got to see the Aphrodite exhibit. Since it closes on the 20th, and I’d already decided that I needed to get out of the house this weekend, Saturday I headed into Boston.
With virtually no notice, ravena_kade and I made plans to meet up. We headed straight into the Aphrodite exhibit, which was really interesting. I already knew that Aphrodite was the goddess of love, was married to Hephaestus and had a variety of affairs that spawned a number of children, including Eros, Hermaphrodite and Priapus. I didn’t know that she she was prayed to for a whole range of other things. She was the patron of brides (I always thought that was Hera was the goddess of marriage, but it makes sense to also pray to the goddess of love, pleasure, and procreation if you’re a new bride), seafarers (I always thought that Poseidon was the god of the seas, but I guess being born from sea foam might give you some power to ride safely over the waves), and warriors (I always thought that Athena or Ares would handle warfare, but I guess anyone who can coax the god of war into their bed might be assumed to have some influence over him…).
The room that the exhibit was in was a bit on the small side, and even more so because a lot of art students showed up on Saturday. By the time we finished our tour of the room I think there might have been as many as seven or eight people with huge sketch pads and folding chairs set up around the room sketching, which made it quite crowded. Made me glad we got there early, before it got so crowded.
We also toured the Beauty as Duty exhibit again. Where we had our first encounter of the day with annoying guards. Unfortunately annoying guards was the theme of the day. Despite the fact that I took photos when we saw this exhibit back in November, this time I had a guard come up and tell me I couldn’t take photos. I told her that I was a reenactor, and that if there was a book for the exhibit I would have happily bought it. So I’d come back to take pictures. She told me that no photos allowed in the special exhibits.
Now, I’ve been going to the MFA for years. And taking pictures of special exhibits for years. I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever been told not to take photos before, except for those few instances where I forgot to turn off the flash. I don’t think anyone has ever told me I couldn’t take pictures of a special exhibit before (I will note it is mentioned on their FAQs on the Web site, not that I’ve ever read them before). I took pictures of the Avedon and Scaasi exhibits. I photographed the Durer exhibit twice. Clearly this is not a policy they’re very good about enforcing.
The part that pissed me off was that she left, then came back with a list of all the special exhibits, to tell me that I couldn’t take pictures of any of them. That felt really unnecessary.
Bad guard encounter #2 happened in the new Americas wing. We were examining this statue of Columbus. The sculptor made teeny tiny little marks on his legs (knit hose!) and there were stitches on the soles of his shoes. There was also another couple admiring the statue, when a pair of guards walked past us and rather rudely shouted “Don’t touch!” at us, then kept right on walking and talking. It was a drive-by scolding. Now, I didn’t see if the other couple might have been touching anything, but Jennifer and I definitely know the difference between pointing and touching.
Bad Guard encounter #3 was in the grand gallery. Jennifer was examining the brushstrokes on a portrait when this bent over little old lady with a cane came up and told her she had to be at least arms length away from the art. What? I’ve been going to the MFA for over 20 years, and I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard that. I mean, they have plenty of those sensors that beep if you get to close to the art. I kinda assume that if nothing beeps, I can get right up close to look at things.
When I said, “Really?” (not trying to be rude, but I’d never heard this before) She came back with “When I was in museums in Europe, there were two guards with me at all times.” I didn’t say anything, but in my head I was like “Well, clearly they thought you were a suspicious character!” And later I thought, “Well, it’s nice that all those museums have the budget to assign two guards to every visitor.”
Then she pointed out that there were some sort of diagrams spread out all over one of the seats. And said that she didn’t want anyone to damage it. Um, yeah, saw that five minutes ago. Thanks. I’m really not in danger of sitting on something like that.
Afterwards, when we had a chance to gripe about her horrible attitude, Jennifer and I discovered that we’ve both touched the Rosetta Stone. NOT because we make a habit of touching objects in museums! We know better than that! But I know when I saw it, there was a whole crowd of children around it, and it was soooo hard to resist. So since nobody was telling the kids to back off, I gave it a quick poke with a finger, just so I could say that I’d touched it.
We wandered around a bit, stopping every now and then to chat (my feet were not happy with the shoes I’d picked to wear). We saw the Jewels, Gems, and Treasures exhibit, which was full of ooooh, shiny! In the middle of the room was a large chest with amber all over it. The amber was practically glowing. Later, when we were collecting our coats from the coat check, they’d already turned off the lights, and it was still glowing. So definitely lit from within! Hee!
We also viewed the Watercolor exhibit, which had some incredibly detailed work. You see so much “smudgy” watercolor, that it was really cool to see how much detail you can get with the medium.
Before we knew it, it was almost closing time. So we made a quick dash to the gift shop (I picked up the book for the Aphrodite exhibit and a couple of postcards), then collected our coats and headed home.
Sunday I got up to watch CBS Sunday Morning to see what they’d say about the tragic death of Whitney Houston. I’m almost certain that they’ll find that drugs killed her. If not directly (overdose, drug interaction), then her past history of abuse must have weakened her heart or in some other way led to her death.
Then I watched the tail end of The Rock to catch a glimpse of Jim Caviezel. Because you know when your character is listed as “Rear F-18 pilot” you know it’s going to be a bit part. And we did get just a glimpse of him in the cockpit before he put on his helmet. And another glimpse of those pretty eyes a bit later. It was another chance to get to see him in uniform. Hollywood seems to really like casting his as soldiers.
The rest of the day was a little housework (laundry, dishes) and a lot of sloth disguised as “writing” and “research.”
I found the dehumidifiers upstairs in the appliances department. You’d think that humidifiers would be right next to them right? But nooo, they’re downstairs, in hardware, next to the paint for crying out loud. But the good news is, I found out that Vornado (who makes the best fans on the planet) also makes humidifiers. And the one I bought came with a five year warranty. So, hopefully I’ll get more than two years out of this one. I was happy to see when I got home tonight that the new humidifier had put out a gallon and a half of water today. Yay!
Saturday I was off to the MFA. The last time I went to the MFA we’d run out of time before we really got to see the Aphrodite exhibit. Since it closes on the 20th, and I’d already decided that I needed to get out of the house this weekend, Saturday I headed into Boston.
With virtually no notice, ravena_kade and I made plans to meet up. We headed straight into the Aphrodite exhibit, which was really interesting. I already knew that Aphrodite was the goddess of love, was married to Hephaestus and had a variety of affairs that spawned a number of children, including Eros, Hermaphrodite and Priapus. I didn’t know that she she was prayed to for a whole range of other things. She was the patron of brides (I always thought that was Hera was the goddess of marriage, but it makes sense to also pray to the goddess of love, pleasure, and procreation if you’re a new bride), seafarers (I always thought that Poseidon was the god of the seas, but I guess being born from sea foam might give you some power to ride safely over the waves), and warriors (I always thought that Athena or Ares would handle warfare, but I guess anyone who can coax the god of war into their bed might be assumed to have some influence over him…).
The room that the exhibit was in was a bit on the small side, and even more so because a lot of art students showed up on Saturday. By the time we finished our tour of the room I think there might have been as many as seven or eight people with huge sketch pads and folding chairs set up around the room sketching, which made it quite crowded. Made me glad we got there early, before it got so crowded.
We also toured the Beauty as Duty exhibit again. Where we had our first encounter of the day with annoying guards. Unfortunately annoying guards was the theme of the day. Despite the fact that I took photos when we saw this exhibit back in November, this time I had a guard come up and tell me I couldn’t take photos. I told her that I was a reenactor, and that if there was a book for the exhibit I would have happily bought it. So I’d come back to take pictures. She told me that no photos allowed in the special exhibits.
Now, I’ve been going to the MFA for years. And taking pictures of special exhibits for years. I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever been told not to take photos before, except for those few instances where I forgot to turn off the flash. I don’t think anyone has ever told me I couldn’t take pictures of a special exhibit before (I will note it is mentioned on their FAQs on the Web site, not that I’ve ever read them before). I took pictures of the Avedon and Scaasi exhibits. I photographed the Durer exhibit twice. Clearly this is not a policy they’re very good about enforcing.
The part that pissed me off was that she left, then came back with a list of all the special exhibits, to tell me that I couldn’t take pictures of any of them. That felt really unnecessary.
Bad guard encounter #2 happened in the new Americas wing. We were examining this statue of Columbus. The sculptor made teeny tiny little marks on his legs (knit hose!) and there were stitches on the soles of his shoes. There was also another couple admiring the statue, when a pair of guards walked past us and rather rudely shouted “Don’t touch!” at us, then kept right on walking and talking. It was a drive-by scolding. Now, I didn’t see if the other couple might have been touching anything, but Jennifer and I definitely know the difference between pointing and touching.
Bad Guard encounter #3 was in the grand gallery. Jennifer was examining the brushstrokes on a portrait when this bent over little old lady with a cane came up and told her she had to be at least arms length away from the art. What? I’ve been going to the MFA for over 20 years, and I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard that. I mean, they have plenty of those sensors that beep if you get to close to the art. I kinda assume that if nothing beeps, I can get right up close to look at things.
When I said, “Really?” (not trying to be rude, but I’d never heard this before) She came back with “When I was in museums in Europe, there were two guards with me at all times.” I didn’t say anything, but in my head I was like “Well, clearly they thought you were a suspicious character!” And later I thought, “Well, it’s nice that all those museums have the budget to assign two guards to every visitor.”
Then she pointed out that there were some sort of diagrams spread out all over one of the seats. And said that she didn’t want anyone to damage it. Um, yeah, saw that five minutes ago. Thanks. I’m really not in danger of sitting on something like that.
Afterwards, when we had a chance to gripe about her horrible attitude, Jennifer and I discovered that we’ve both touched the Rosetta Stone. NOT because we make a habit of touching objects in museums! We know better than that! But I know when I saw it, there was a whole crowd of children around it, and it was soooo hard to resist. So since nobody was telling the kids to back off, I gave it a quick poke with a finger, just so I could say that I’d touched it.
We wandered around a bit, stopping every now and then to chat (my feet were not happy with the shoes I’d picked to wear). We saw the Jewels, Gems, and Treasures exhibit, which was full of ooooh, shiny! In the middle of the room was a large chest with amber all over it. The amber was practically glowing. Later, when we were collecting our coats from the coat check, they’d already turned off the lights, and it was still glowing. So definitely lit from within! Hee!
We also viewed the Watercolor exhibit, which had some incredibly detailed work. You see so much “smudgy” watercolor, that it was really cool to see how much detail you can get with the medium.
Before we knew it, it was almost closing time. So we made a quick dash to the gift shop (I picked up the book for the Aphrodite exhibit and a couple of postcards), then collected our coats and headed home.
Sunday I got up to watch CBS Sunday Morning to see what they’d say about the tragic death of Whitney Houston. I’m almost certain that they’ll find that drugs killed her. If not directly (overdose, drug interaction), then her past history of abuse must have weakened her heart or in some other way led to her death.
Then I watched the tail end of The Rock to catch a glimpse of Jim Caviezel. Because you know when your character is listed as “Rear F-18 pilot” you know it’s going to be a bit part. And we did get just a glimpse of him in the cockpit before he put on his helmet. And another glimpse of those pretty eyes a bit later. It was another chance to get to see him in uniform. Hollywood seems to really like casting his as soldiers.
The rest of the day was a little housework (laundry, dishes) and a lot of sloth disguised as “writing” and “research.”