Friday, May 28, 2004

 
Well, ok. I didn't go anywhere. A quick check of the cash flow situation soon put paid to that notion. I had intended to go to Cologne today, but had a bit of a morning catastrophe... I was suddenly wide awake at 4:30am, and no amount of fighting with the covers was going to get me back to sleep. In fact, by the time I even vaguely felt like sleeping again, it was 9:30, and not only did I fall asleep, I completely crashed. I only woke up about half an hour ago, which pretty much laid to rest any idea I had of taking a three-hour train ride to Cologne and then getting back here by this evening.

Also, I have a crushing headache. Which is sad, because I sure didn't drink enough to have a hangover this morning.

On the plus side, this gives me a chance to blog a couple of things that happened in Madrid.

Dorsa and I have a history that involves travelling and art disasters. A few years ago, we went to New York. The general intention was to have a good time, which we did, but Dorsa had two specific goals in mind. The first was to see the Van Eyck in the Metropolitan Museum, and the second was to see the Rothkos at the MoMA.

The disaster: Both the Met and the MoMA had taken down these paintings, the Van Eycks to be cleaned, and the Rothkos in preparation for an exhibition on Pollock (whom Dorsa loathes).

I returned to New York a while later, and went to the Met specifically to take a picture of the Van Eycks for Dorsa. I got my picture, but I obviously didn't use a flash and the picture was irretrievably blurry. Dorsa returned to New York a while later as well, and went to the MoMA only to discover that the whole museum had been moved to the Bronx, in anticipation of building renovations.

So, Madrid, boasting not one, but two of the greatest collections of Western painting in the world, had a couple of Van Eycks, and a Rothko to boot. In the same museum no less, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. One fine morning in Madrid, we decided to go there, guidebooks in hand, Dorsa all nervous and worried that something was going to go horribly wrong.

Well, long story short, nothing did. The Van Eyck was right where it was supposed to be, something that we discovered right after Dorsa skipped half the museum in an effort to get to it. She sat in front of it for a very long time, cursing every stupid tourist who dared to pretend an interest in an artist they clearly knew nothing about.

The Rothko was two floors down in the modern section. Dorsa skipped the whole of Cubism, Futurism, and every other kind of pretentious early 20th century type of art designed to revolutionise the way we see to get to it. She walked past a Dali like it wasn't even there; didn't even stop to turn her nose up at the Picassos.

Finally, she got to it. Green on Brown is a pretty literal name, as with all Rothkos. The painting is pretty big, sort of at the head of a room full of Rothko's contemporaries. Dorsa sat down in front of it, and had a moment.

In fact, she sat in front of it for something approaching 20 minutes, getting more and more emotional the whole time. I left her alone to have a bit of a look around, and then eventually came back. And had the realisation that the guard was not there.

To preface this, the last time I was in Madrid, I went to this same museum and stood in front of this painting. At the time, I had a similar realisation, that the guard had taken a walk, and that the painting was at such an angle that the guard wouldn't be able to see it anyway. So, in a moment of tribute to Dorsa, I reached out and touched the painting.

So, this time, Dorsa being right there, I had the same thought. We went up to the painting to look at it up close.

"Dorsa," I hissed. "The guard's gone."

"What?"

We had a bit of an exchange here, involving ringing alarms and millions of guards with automatic rifles that were going to appear to take us away to Spanish jail. I put an end to it by reaching out and tapping the painting with my museum map, to no noticable reaction from anyone.

Long story short, Dorsa touched a Rothko.

Ps. I'm selling stuff on ebay. Anyone need some clothes? Go look.
posted by All at 12:41:00 p.m.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

 
I have a very long weekend coming up... Monday is a holiday, and I have Thursday and Friday off. If I don't go somewhere, it'll be a complete waste.

So... where should I go?
posted by All at 8:57:00 a.m.

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