snippity

Monet's London

On Sunday, 16-Jan-2005, I and 7 other members of my family went to see the Monet's London exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. This was my first time to that city and museum.

First, the good: Monet's works are brilliant. The exhibit allowed three or four works that reflect the same subject to be hung side-by-side, clearly illustrating how fully the artist manipulates mood through color and brush. Seeing three views of the same scene side-by-side is absolutely worth the price of admission.

Now, the unavoidable bad: The show is slim on Monet. There may be a dozen of his works in the first room, then there are three more exhibit rooms with works of his contemporaries. Though the works in these rooms are often good, none approach Monet's brilliance. It's useful to show how he transcended his peers, it's good to see the artists who inspired him, but these rooms are a complete emotional disappointment after the opening act.

The rooms, especially the third with old photographs and woodcuts, are too dimly lit. I am very sympathetic to the fact that light damages art. In this case, however, I had to lean close to a work to get any idea of its details, at which point the over-vigilant guards asked me to "keep a one foot distance" from the (under glass!) woodcut. Even the museum employees were talking amongst themselves about how dim it was in these rooms.

Disorganization at the museum hampered our efforts trying to plan this trip. As we were going to be in Tampa the weekend the show opened, I was worried about tickets being unavailable. The week leading up to the show, I tried to call the museum several times, to be answered by 1) nothing 2) a fax machine 3) a non-English speaker. Deciding to go ahead to the museum, I arrived and attempted to buy tickets for the remaining 7 family members who were coming down in separate vehicle. The guard outdoors told me I had to wait for them to arrive. Most of my confusion arose from my mistaken impression that I was buying a ticket for a particular show time, when, in fact, I was simply buying admission to the museum, which included the Monet exhibit. The museum's web site has since been updated to reflect that advance tickets are not available, but this wasn't clear when we were planning our trip.

Finally, the museum could've gotten more money from me! Often these special exhibits rent headphones with recorded commentary on the works displayed. I usually buy these and enjoy what I learn. The museum sold no such thing, and although they had the traditional three paragraphs about Monet's life and times on the wall at the entrance to the exhibit, I would've liked more information on the artists and works.

The exhibit is worth the cost of admission for the brilliance of Monet. Poor facilities and organization from the museum hampered my enjoyment, but the effect of the works on display overcome that.

Typo Led to Indianapolis Water Boil Advisory

The Indianapolis Star is reporting "[a] typo is to blame for the
water utility meltdown that led to a recent advisory for more than a
million residents in and around Indianapolis to boil tap water."

Officials say "a plant operator plugged the wrong value into a
computer, which sparked a series of events that ultimately lowered
water quality. They also acknowledged that no safeguards were in
effect to flag the mistake, which led the utility to issue a boil
advisory Jan. 6.

"The advisory ended the next day, but not before classes were
canceled for 40,000 students, hospitals and other businesses
switched to bottled water, and officials scrambled to ensure the
system contained enough water pressure to fight fires."

The employee was fired and some input validation (gasp!) was put in
place.

Joanna Newsom

She sings folk songs while playing the harp.

Here's a video.

You can here her here, starting at about 2 hours and 7 minutes into the archive. You can here almost the entire album at 56k here, beginning at about 68 minutes into the archive.

I enjoy the songs, but her voice is quite jarring at first.

Wa-oh Pear Betty

Anne's folks sent us a box of fantastic pears. Last night
I made what my mom calls 'Pear Betty' (after 'Apple Betty',
which I'd also never heard of).

I took one pear, sliced it thinly, and put it in a casserole
dish. I covered it with a mixture of butter, brown sugar,
cinnamon, and oats. I baked it at 350 for 20 minutes. It was
really good.

Were I to do it again, I would probably peel the pear.

http://mmsw.org/photos/PearBetty2005/PearBetty2005.html