An Interesting Day....
Today was a very nice day. I spent a bit of time actually being social with someone I have met here. This is possibly the last time this will happen before I return to the United States. Because she ended up having to babysit tonight, all we really did was spend a bit of time wandering around the Parc de la Villette and noticing that almost everything was closed due to winter. It was still nice though to actual see someone for once. She is flying back to the United States next week and I wonder if I will ever see her again, outside of facebook that is...
After she had to leave, I went to one of the coolest museums I have been to so far in Paris, the Musée de la Musique in the Cité de la Musique. I have wanted to go since November but like so many things it kept getting pushed back and since I was in the Parc de la Villette, where it is located, anyway and had a few hours I decided to step inside. After buying my ticket, I was first directed to the temporary exhibit which was as I had known from seeing lots of advertising around town an exhibit commemorating the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death. It was very very cool much more well done than I had thought it would be for some reason. I guess in general I've been sort of down on museums lately....well, not really museum's in general, but I guess I have just been disappointed lately by a few exhibits that I had before going to see them been really excited about (e.g. the Dada exhibit at the Centre Pompidou and the Greenland exhibit at the Musée de l'Homme). I think I have a lot higher standards for museums than most people do though. Anyway, the John Lennon exhibit was incredibly well put together. I was totally impressed and I actually learned a whole lot from it. I especially liked the way that they melanged all different art forms: visual arts, video, audio, etc. (thereby appealing to multiple senses as well) with the sort of random memorabilia you would expect to find in an exhibit of this type. And it also helped that the random memorabilia was of really high quality: lots of Lennon's guitars, some of his old school report cards from middle school and high school, assorted Beatlemania kitsch from all around the world [I think my personal favorite thing in this section was the set of Beatles nesting dolls from Russia], a full set of recording studio equipment like the kind that the Beatles used, an impressive number of scraps of paper that Lennon jotted down song lyrics on... just all kinds of neat stuff to look at. Also, I really liked the use of color in the exhibit...or I guess the use of color vs. the use of all white depending on what section of the exhibit you were in and what sort of mood they were trying to set. The exhibit had a lot of different examples of Yoko Ono's art which was pretty interesting to me since it wasn't something that I already knew a lot about. I know I am not really explaining very well what the exhibit was like, but you are just going to have to trust me that it was really interesting, but more than being interesting, it was the first museum exhibit that I have seen in awhile that actually engaged me and made me think and led me through a series of emotions and so I was really pleased with it.
Once I was done exploring the world of John Lennon, I was given a set of headphones and escorted into the section of the building housing the museum's permanent collection. WOW! SO AWESOME! Unfortunately, because I had spent so much time with John and Yoko (the Lennon exhibit was really huge in addition to being cool), I only had 45 minutes until the museum closed to check out the permanent collection. All I can say is whoever designed this museum is brilliant. If the subject matter of the museum wasn't cool enough (they have over 900 musical instruments from around the world and the music museum allows you to work through time and learn about musical instruments from the 16th century to the present) the way the exhibit actually functions is amazing. So, the headphones they give you aren't just ordinary boring headphones that yammer on about random stuff that you don't care about while you walk through the museum (which is what I was afraid they were when they were originally handed to me and before the process was explained). Instead they contain sensors in them that connect with all different other sensors around the museum so as you are walking along and looking at and reading about different instruments, they headphones (although they do usually give you a sentence or two of introduction to explain what you are about to hear) play music that contains the instruments that you are looking at. So, that way you get to see what all of the cool old instruments sound like which makes something that would have been sort of boring (to people like me who don't really know that much about instruments or the history of Western Classical music) really fun (to people like me and almost everyone else I know who love listening to music). So, once again,,,,really neat. I am really sad that I pretty much had to run through the last two rooms with the security guard on my heels and didn't really get to listen to much. I will have to come back there again next time I am in Paris. I probably won't have time this month since there are still so many things I haven't seen once yet here.
In addition to my fun museum trip, I also saw a really good movie tonight. I think it was the best American movie that I have seen in awhile...probably the most well-done American movie I have seen in France (though I don't actually know how much of a statement that is since I don't see many American movies here). In any case, the move was called Good Night, and Good Luck and was about Edward R. Murrow's stand against McCarthy in the 1950s...all in black and white with lot of original footage although it wasn't a documentary. I was totally and completely engrossed and was shocked to discover at the end that it was already over. It was out in the US back in October, although the internet tells me it was only in limited release so I'm not sure that it ever made it to Florida at all. In any case, it exceeded my expectations. When I was in this movie though, for some reason, I started thinking about dating and I realized that this was exactly the sort of movie that I would really love to see and discuss with a boy. As then as soon as I realized this, I thought about a moment that had happened earlier in the evening when, while descending into the tunnel for the metro closest to the music museum, I saw a poster for that Jennifer Aniston movie Rumor Has It which is arriving here next week (I'm guessing it is already out in the US?) and thought, "That is such a stereotypical American date movie." And then when I thought about the dissonance between these two thoughts it became clear to me once again why I have so much trouble with romantic relationships. I'm not sure if this is as clear to anyone else as it to me. I guess all I am trying to say is that I was reminded that I feel at least, whether it is true or not, that I don't want the same things out of a significant other that most people do. And furthermore I find that when I do actually find myself getting involved with someone it almost always turns out that I am unable or unwilling to provide them with what they want out of me or out of a girlfriend in general. And I'm not referring at all to sexual interactions just in case anyone is thinking that while reading. The physical aspect itself is almost never any sort of problem for me. The trouble is always either everything else that is supposed to go along with that or the issue of linking the sexual aspect to the companionship aspect and then balancing the two. I'm not mentioning all of this to be whiny though. In fact lately I've been illogically optimistic about my love life. I have a really good feeling about this coming semester. If nothing else, I'm really excited about being surrounded once again by intelligent boys who share my native language. Even if nothing works out, as usual, I'm sure it will be a lot more interesting than my love life now, which consists primarily of fantasizing about random boys I see on the metro.
(Also, before I forget, Brokeback Mountain comes out here on January 18th. Shayna will you please go with me to see it or at least let me go see it almost as soon as it comes out since you will be visiting? I checked imdb and it doesn't come out in Israel until the 19th, so I know you won't have already seen it).
Oh yeah, and another thing that I am going to miss a lot about Paris once I am home is how much more respect people have here for the movie-going experience. You never ever hear cellphones go off in movie theater. I think I have only heard someone talk maybe once while a movie was going on (and I have been to a lot of movies here). And best of all, lots of people here actually watch the credits and the movie theater stays dark during them and everything.
After she had to leave, I went to one of the coolest museums I have been to so far in Paris, the Musée de la Musique in the Cité de la Musique. I have wanted to go since November but like so many things it kept getting pushed back and since I was in the Parc de la Villette, where it is located, anyway and had a few hours I decided to step inside. After buying my ticket, I was first directed to the temporary exhibit which was as I had known from seeing lots of advertising around town an exhibit commemorating the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death. It was very very cool much more well done than I had thought it would be for some reason. I guess in general I've been sort of down on museums lately....well, not really museum's in general, but I guess I have just been disappointed lately by a few exhibits that I had before going to see them been really excited about (e.g. the Dada exhibit at the Centre Pompidou and the Greenland exhibit at the Musée de l'Homme). I think I have a lot higher standards for museums than most people do though. Anyway, the John Lennon exhibit was incredibly well put together. I was totally impressed and I actually learned a whole lot from it. I especially liked the way that they melanged all different art forms: visual arts, video, audio, etc. (thereby appealing to multiple senses as well) with the sort of random memorabilia you would expect to find in an exhibit of this type. And it also helped that the random memorabilia was of really high quality: lots of Lennon's guitars, some of his old school report cards from middle school and high school, assorted Beatlemania kitsch from all around the world [I think my personal favorite thing in this section was the set of Beatles nesting dolls from Russia], a full set of recording studio equipment like the kind that the Beatles used, an impressive number of scraps of paper that Lennon jotted down song lyrics on... just all kinds of neat stuff to look at. Also, I really liked the use of color in the exhibit...or I guess the use of color vs. the use of all white depending on what section of the exhibit you were in and what sort of mood they were trying to set. The exhibit had a lot of different examples of Yoko Ono's art which was pretty interesting to me since it wasn't something that I already knew a lot about. I know I am not really explaining very well what the exhibit was like, but you are just going to have to trust me that it was really interesting, but more than being interesting, it was the first museum exhibit that I have seen in awhile that actually engaged me and made me think and led me through a series of emotions and so I was really pleased with it.
Once I was done exploring the world of John Lennon, I was given a set of headphones and escorted into the section of the building housing the museum's permanent collection. WOW! SO AWESOME! Unfortunately, because I had spent so much time with John and Yoko (the Lennon exhibit was really huge in addition to being cool), I only had 45 minutes until the museum closed to check out the permanent collection. All I can say is whoever designed this museum is brilliant. If the subject matter of the museum wasn't cool enough (they have over 900 musical instruments from around the world and the music museum allows you to work through time and learn about musical instruments from the 16th century to the present) the way the exhibit actually functions is amazing. So, the headphones they give you aren't just ordinary boring headphones that yammer on about random stuff that you don't care about while you walk through the museum (which is what I was afraid they were when they were originally handed to me and before the process was explained). Instead they contain sensors in them that connect with all different other sensors around the museum so as you are walking along and looking at and reading about different instruments, they headphones (although they do usually give you a sentence or two of introduction to explain what you are about to hear) play music that contains the instruments that you are looking at. So, that way you get to see what all of the cool old instruments sound like which makes something that would have been sort of boring (to people like me who don't really know that much about instruments or the history of Western Classical music) really fun (to people like me and almost everyone else I know who love listening to music). So, once again,,,,really neat. I am really sad that I pretty much had to run through the last two rooms with the security guard on my heels and didn't really get to listen to much. I will have to come back there again next time I am in Paris. I probably won't have time this month since there are still so many things I haven't seen once yet here.
In addition to my fun museum trip, I also saw a really good movie tonight. I think it was the best American movie that I have seen in awhile...probably the most well-done American movie I have seen in France (though I don't actually know how much of a statement that is since I don't see many American movies here). In any case, the move was called Good Night, and Good Luck and was about Edward R. Murrow's stand against McCarthy in the 1950s...all in black and white with lot of original footage although it wasn't a documentary. I was totally and completely engrossed and was shocked to discover at the end that it was already over. It was out in the US back in October, although the internet tells me it was only in limited release so I'm not sure that it ever made it to Florida at all. In any case, it exceeded my expectations. When I was in this movie though, for some reason, I started thinking about dating and I realized that this was exactly the sort of movie that I would really love to see and discuss with a boy. As then as soon as I realized this, I thought about a moment that had happened earlier in the evening when, while descending into the tunnel for the metro closest to the music museum, I saw a poster for that Jennifer Aniston movie Rumor Has It which is arriving here next week (I'm guessing it is already out in the US?) and thought, "That is such a stereotypical American date movie." And then when I thought about the dissonance between these two thoughts it became clear to me once again why I have so much trouble with romantic relationships. I'm not sure if this is as clear to anyone else as it to me. I guess all I am trying to say is that I was reminded that I feel at least, whether it is true or not, that I don't want the same things out of a significant other that most people do. And furthermore I find that when I do actually find myself getting involved with someone it almost always turns out that I am unable or unwilling to provide them with what they want out of me or out of a girlfriend in general. And I'm not referring at all to sexual interactions just in case anyone is thinking that while reading. The physical aspect itself is almost never any sort of problem for me. The trouble is always either everything else that is supposed to go along with that or the issue of linking the sexual aspect to the companionship aspect and then balancing the two. I'm not mentioning all of this to be whiny though. In fact lately I've been illogically optimistic about my love life. I have a really good feeling about this coming semester. If nothing else, I'm really excited about being surrounded once again by intelligent boys who share my native language. Even if nothing works out, as usual, I'm sure it will be a lot more interesting than my love life now, which consists primarily of fantasizing about random boys I see on the metro.
(Also, before I forget, Brokeback Mountain comes out here on January 18th. Shayna will you please go with me to see it or at least let me go see it almost as soon as it comes out since you will be visiting? I checked imdb and it doesn't come out in Israel until the 19th, so I know you won't have already seen it).
Oh yeah, and another thing that I am going to miss a lot about Paris once I am home is how much more respect people have here for the movie-going experience. You never ever hear cellphones go off in movie theater. I think I have only heard someone talk maybe once while a movie was going on (and I have been to a lot of movies here). And best of all, lots of people here actually watch the credits and the movie theater stays dark during them and everything.