I have always enjoyed crowd watching, especially in museums. There are so many rules of behavior in a museum and when the museum is crowded these rules collide with a general desire to scream, toss someone out the window, push the others away. With all those people around you can’t stand in awe in front of the canonized work of art, admire it at length, bend to take a closer look, discuss it with your companions. And sometimes the crowds at the Louvre, National Gallery or Prado are so massive that you just resign and walk past with a distant look towards the Mona Lisa or Las Meninas. And sometimes that resignation feels great because you managed to be all nonchalant about it.
Well. This week’s photo is from the newly reopened Neues Museum in Berlin where the famous portrait of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti has now taken up her permanent residence. As any celebrity art work she has her very own setting – a circular room with dimmed lights and a guard shouting at people who get too near.
I think this picture has all the elements of art worshipping. People gazing admiringly and two people taking pictures (me included) even though you could buy a much better postcard version in the bookshop – you just need to document your presence.
And by the way – as with all of those canonized works it does matter to see Nefertiti in the flesh. I don’t agree with those who say they are always disappointed at the sight of some famous painting or sculpture. I never was. Not even with the Mona Lisa. My nonchalance will never go that far and I think it has less to do with worshipping than with actually beholding the delicate details that make up a masterpiece. Details, shadings and gradings that a reproduction will never catch, and even more so with sculpture where you will need to experience the form in space in order to understand it. So that’s why I keep going to museums.
Some days ago I stumbled upon some new films with Simon’s cat. Gotta love them – and as a cat owner it is even funnier. ’cause it’s true. The psychology of a cat, the sounds, the movements. To the point.
And no, it’s not unrealistic that some one could sleep through that. I do it all the time. Since Puss does stuff like this all the time.
Today November showed itself from the bleakest, wettest, and darkest side but yesterday was a beautiful and sunny day that ended in the most Turneresque dusk with a Cheshire cat moon above and all the quietude you could dream of. I saw it with my mum and aunt from the grounds around the small manor house of Christinehof in Sweden, at one of the lakes where they have built a wonderfully winded bridge.
We didn’t know this paradise when my parents bought the Swedish house but we soon discovered it -and it’s all just a short walk from our place. Great with a bit of splendid nature every now and then, especially when it just takes a quick decision and a pair of walking shoes.
The last couple of days I have been drinking a lot of tea in the great company of a good friend living in Potsdam outside Berlin. That’s where Frederick the Great’s castle Sanssouci is located and the gardens are wonderful for a walk not least because of the quirky houses and statues you keep stumbling upon – it’s like a very old theme park. The Chinese house for example… Very rococo, and what’s not to love when it comes to rococo?
Turns out November can be alright as long as you remember doing nice things. All the time.
This week’s photo is from Madrid. Not that I went but my brother did and as on most of his travels he took his walrus Valle. Here he is contemplating the view from the hotel.
Valle has been to many places and this photo reminds me of how Amelie’s dad’s garden gnome went to all those exotic places as well.
I hope Valle will get to go to Russia also. Then maybe I’ll come too. Instead this coming week it’s Berlin for me visiting two great friends, one of whom just gave birth to a daughter. Looking forward to seeing them all and drinking hot chocolate in obscene amounts while listening to baroque music.
After having just given a paper at a conference I enjoy the freedom of having my evenings off. I keep thinking I should be doing something and then I realise that, no, I don’t have to do anything but watch House M.D. and episode after episode of it. And then I did a little YouTube search on Hugh Laurie and it all came together… here is what I found and mind you this is exactly the way people speak at conferences – at least at the humanities kind of conferences. You would be utterly amazed. This is not a sketch. This is truth.
And please re-watch. I know it gets better every time I watch it. By now all I have to do is having it as background noise while doing the dishes and it’s a party.
First day of my least favorite month. Ugh. November. And of course today was grey, windy and cold. But I got to eat brunch with a great friend and that’s what one should do. Eat.
I have been looking for a good picture… and all I found was this sort of Altdorfer’ish thing from Sweden. But it illustrates November quite well I think. So there.
I just came upon a very, very funny youtube clip. Funny because it’s sad. Oh, so very sad and phoney.
One of my favourite singers, mezzo soprano Tuva Semmingsen, seems to have been in some dire economic need or possibly just out of her freakin’ mind. She actually joined the Danish version of Dancing with the Stars – and that would be sort of OK were she actually dancing, but no, no she had to join the orchestra in doing the most kitschy version of Giuseppe Verdi’s Libiamo ne’ lieti calici from La Traviata I have ever heard.
OMG the drummer who just takes the Verdian-oom-pah-pah to a whole new level – I mean, this duet can only take that much tackiness and it will just turn to the dark side – the drummer is not helping here. And OMG Tuva’s companion (who happens to be her husband), and OMG the whole, awful set-up.
I mean Tuva does a great job. But why even be there with all that bad dancing, faux elegance, and the vulgar Las Vegas lights?
I am crying here. A little bit of laughter and a lot because this is how Verdi outta sound:
At the moment I seem to be spending most of my time at my desk at home and at my desk at work – having a lot to do on the job and with a paper I’m going to give next week. So Puss and I are sort of seeing a lot of each other, the cat being the only funny thing around – I sure am not…
So here are some photos of Puss approaching the stale flower water – just as she prefers it. Fresh water, not thanks! And I will not tell what she just did in the bathroom. Ok… she drank out of the toilet, darn beast!
It always starts with the posing. With the flowers.
Then the sniffing.
And then she forgets all pretense and just goes for it. Stale and all.
That was as good as it got this week… Oh and I saw two great films: Looking for Ericwith Eric Cantona and by Ken Loach. And A Serious Man by the Coen Brothers. GO. SEE. BOTH.
