See as a Google Calendar (click on Agenda tab in upper right)

Upcoming Stuff To Do


- Already going -

New York: God of Carnage, Bela, Orozco at MOMA

MFA First Fridays, SoWa First Fridays

JP Contra, Gays for Patsy

Wherever they are
Pilobolus
Mummenschantz
Prairie Home Companion
Cirque du Soleil
Basel Twist

Places I want to go
Galapagos
Great Barrier Reef
Cloud/rain forest
African savannah
Berlin
Rome, Venice
Zermatt

Boston stuff to do
ArtsBoston.org

Museums around Boston
Gardner Museum - Third Thursday "Gardner After Hours"
Museum of Fine Arts - MFA First Fridays
Institute for Contemporary Arts
RISD Museum
DeCordova
USS Constitution
Harvard
MIT
Somerville Museum of Mosaics
Museum of Bad Taste (? in basement of Somerville Theater)

Boston performing and presenting organizations
Boston Symphony Orchestra - $9 rush Fri 10am, Tu+Th 5pm; talks at 6:45 and 12:15; cafe 5:30, "after 7"pm, 11am lunch
Boston Philharmonic
Boston Classical Orchestra
Boston Chamber Music Society
Boston Conservatory
New England Conservatory
Longy
Boston University School of the Arts
Boston Cabaret
Regattabar

Boston opera organizations
Boston Lyric Opera
Opera Boston
Boston Opera Collaborative
Guerilla Opera
OperhaHub
Longwood Opera
Intermezzo
Juventas! New Music Ensemble

Went to the BSO's Ravel, Berlioz, Carter concert.

I was a little discouraged when I arrived to see the conductor, James Levine, getting out of a black Cadillac and looking awkward and weak as he was helped across a patch of ice to the stage door of Symphony Hall. I know he's been recovering from back trouble, and I worried about how he'd lead the orchestra.

I don't understand the appeal of the Carter Dialogues. It sounded like an orchestral setting of a BS session at a bar or stoop or extended family meal table. I couldn't pick out an arc or a story or development. It seemed to me just one thing after another, with an occasional echo or embellishment. I don't get it.

I was expecting to like the Berlioz Harold in Italy. I was impressed at the delicacy and quietness of some of the passages (how can so many people playing together sound that sweet and ethereal?), but overall it didn't move me. It sounded to me like accompaniment to something else, and I missed the something else.

I really enjoyed the Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. Engaging melodies, rhythms ( I did hear a lot of Bolero bubbling through), orchestral colors, energy, contrasts. Lovely.

Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe Suite 2 was a bit of a let-down after the Piano Concerto. It got much louder, but it didn't bring me in or along past the first couple minutes. Oh well. The Piano Concerto made the whole thing worthwhile.

Saw All My Sons at the Huntington and it was well done, though the lead women outshone the lead men by a lot, and the son, in particular, seemed flat. And it reminded me that Arthur Miller is not subtle. Unfortunately, it was marred, even in the last wordless (on stage) scene by two people talking behind me. Bah.

Went to the Damian Ortega exhibit at the ICA. Cool walking through the "exploded view" of the VW bug in particular. Also enjoyed the "Nine Types of Terrain" movies. Coke bottles, spinning oil drums, spinning oil and camera etc. were engaging, but didn't grab me as much.

Also enjoyed the Quaytman silk screened works with interesting fine scale moire or interference patterns, particularly "Exhibition Guide, Chapter 15 [diagonal pink]".

Went to the Met again and was drawn to three exhibits:

American Stories, Paintings of Everyday Life. I didn't take the time to follow all the stories or read all the labels, but was impressed by how quickly drawn into the, well, story, of each painting I was. A reminder of how compelling and immediately human visual storytelling in a single image can be. I wonder, too, how much of it was because of the American content, and how much of it was universal... Would it strike Europeans (or Asians or anyone else) as curious as an outsider or compelling as human or both?

American Landscapes in the Lehman Wing. Generally Hudson River School grand landscapes, including some of my favorites. These always get to me...

Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art. Japanese art tends to get to me, too. So much elegance, simplicity, balance, vigor. I've become more interested recently in screens, and the Sansetsu Old Plum was particularly appealing.

Went to the Saarinen modernism exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. Fascinating to see more about his overall work, particularly the TWA terminal, including modeling and construction photos and drawings. I was also impressed again at the Yale rink, surprised to see his Miller House in Columbus, curious about his corporate campuses (Deere, IBM), and surprised at the number of chairs he designed (and that he collaborated with Eames). It was a bigger and more interesting exhibit than I'd hoped for.

And the grand old building is quite handsome.

Went to the Frick Collection in NY for the first time. What a refined and impressive palace-as-gallery. Three Vermeers, and lots of other famous paintings. I was particularly struck by and drawn back to the Turner Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Garden.

I went for the Exuberant Grotesques exhibit, which, though small, was a delight. I'm so drawn to the seemingly endless menagerie of fanciful creatures tied together with swashes on plain backgrounds... Mesmerizing...

Rode the No Pants 2010 subway ride in Boston. Mellow fun. Lots of legs. Goosebumps, too. And fun to see the sequential train results -- some people taking off pants, some people getting on pantsless on the second train.

Met Suzanne of http://talk2meont.blogspot.com/ . It was kind of interesting to talk with her about her social experiment to understand and encourage talking to people on the the T.