Finally on vacation
Jul. 26th, 2008 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nolawitch58Air travel nowadays sucks eighteen kinds of ass. During the security screening on either end of the New York trip, I resisted the urge to moo even though we were being herded like cattle to the abbatoir. There are screens now in the back of every seat that display the aircraft's progress as well as annoying Direct TV rubbish. New York is stull huge and noisy. I had a great time at the Museum of Modern Art with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
voxwoman.
MOMA had the Salvador Dali exhibit. That guy was an amazing artist. Some of the pieces were remarkably small and others were huge. The smaller pieces comprised his early work when he couldn't affort much canvas or paint. His brush work was precise and tiny on those. He was obsessed with genitalia. There were vaginas and penises in almost every one of his works. We learned a great many little-known facts about Dali. He befriended the Marx Brothers and was partial to Harpo. He sent a gift of a harp strung with barbed wire to Harpo; Harpo sent Dali a photograph of bandaged fingers in return. I'm sure they had many a good laugh for a long time from that.voxwoman fell in love with the lobster phone.
The photo doesn't do it justice as a piece of absurdly functional art. Dali's work always had a cinematic scope even before he collaborated with Luis Bunuel. There were a bunch of movies, including Le Chien Andalou, that looped on several screens throughout the exhibit. I admit I like the sequence from Hitchcock's Spellbound the best. The last film, which was a collaboration with Disney, lost some of the Dali bite in the Disnification of the concept. Of course, that may have been due to the fact that it was completed years after Dali had died.
We meandered downstairs to look at other art. We saw Picassos and a metric fuckload of other art. When we got to Monet's three-panel behemoth called Reflections of Clouds on a Water-Lily Pond, it took my breath away. I was done for the day. Each panel is over six feet high and fourteen feet wide. The work dominated one side of the room. We sat down for a while after that and then left to find the gift shop.
The train coming into the city was packed. Apparently, there was a mustn't-be-missed baseball game that day. Going back was a much pleasanter experience.voxwoman's house is fabulous. Her husband possesses a high amusement value and cooking skills. Her daughter isn't bad for a normal fourteen-year-old girl. She's pretty high on both the amusement and erudition scale. It's a treat to converse with someone that gets most of your cultural references. And her craft skills are uncanny. Those quilts are works of meticulous genius and no photograph can do them justice in the color department. If you're craftsy, the purple fabric she found would make you green with envy.
The week was a whirlwind of non-stop busy. Monday was catch up on all the shit that hit the fan at work day, followed immediately by Monday night writers' group meeting. Tuesday, I caught up on all my LJ reading and the trazillion emails in my inbox. Wednesday was the monthly writers' group meeting.
Some fuckwitted asshole tugboat operator hit a barge filled with oil on the river. Thursday evening, I went out withsunfell to dinner and to stroll around the Quarter. We went to the Moonwalk to look at the mess. It stinks really bad the closer you get to it and the rocks on the riverbank are blackened with oil. The river remains closed to most traffic today, with only a few exceptions. The oil slick is as far downriver as Venice and the cleanup isn't going all that fast. Of all the fucked up things, we do not need anymore to happen here in the city.
It took me a lot longer to get out the door from work yesterday since I had to get some of my end of month stuff done early. Plus, we had code to move and it didn't go as smoothly as we expected. At least we got it done and all my reports are on my boss' desk when she comes in on Monday.
This morning, I swooped and snaggedsunfell for the disaster tour of the city. I drove her through the French Quarter to the Marigny to show her the baseline. Then we drove through the Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and Lakeview. I took her by the cemeteries at the head of Canal Street. We drove around Greenwood then back down Canal so that I could show her the Garden District and Uptown. Went past Anne Rice's old house on First Street. Then down Magazine past Audubon Park and the Zoo. We then went out to Anja's shop in Metairie before I deposited her at the airport to catch her flight this afternoon. She's probably getting into her airport very soon since it's not a long flight from here to Little Rock.
I've got a meeting at Vel's in a little while and a lot of rest and relaxation planned for after that. This coming week, I'll be seeing the new X Files movie with my sister-in-law. I'll be going to a Zephyrs game with the family. I'll be heading up to Shreveport on Friday for their PPD.
I'm going to try to get a lot done this week. I'm going to have another chapter to bring to the group Monday night. I'm going to get a couple of computers together for DH's nephews' girlfriends. I'm going to clear out extraneous paper from the office and get all the important stuff regathered to one box in case we need to bug out. I'm going to clean the office really well and do a ritual to Thoth and Sehkmet to help me write more prolifically. I also want to reevaluate my bill paying strategy to see where I can slice some expenses. The price of everything is so much higher, I don't have much of a cushion anymore. The raise I got was below the rate of inflation. We need to dump the Republicans out of office so the economy can improve again.
That's about all I have energy to type right now. The meeting starts in about half an hour. When I get back, maybe I'll watch a couple of House episodes to relax.
voxwoman.MOMA had the Salvador Dali exhibit. That guy was an amazing artist. Some of the pieces were remarkably small and others were huge. The smaller pieces comprised his early work when he couldn't affort much canvas or paint. His brush work was precise and tiny on those. He was obsessed with genitalia. There were vaginas and penises in almost every one of his works. We learned a great many little-known facts about Dali. He befriended the Marx Brothers and was partial to Harpo. He sent a gift of a harp strung with barbed wire to Harpo; Harpo sent Dali a photograph of bandaged fingers in return. I'm sure they had many a good laugh for a long time from that.
voxwoman fell in love with the lobster phone.The photo doesn't do it justice as a piece of absurdly functional art. Dali's work always had a cinematic scope even before he collaborated with Luis Bunuel. There were a bunch of movies, including Le Chien Andalou, that looped on several screens throughout the exhibit. I admit I like the sequence from Hitchcock's Spellbound the best. The last film, which was a collaboration with Disney, lost some of the Dali bite in the Disnification of the concept. Of course, that may have been due to the fact that it was completed years after Dali had died.
We meandered downstairs to look at other art. We saw Picassos and a metric fuckload of other art. When we got to Monet's three-panel behemoth called Reflections of Clouds on a Water-Lily Pond, it took my breath away. I was done for the day. Each panel is over six feet high and fourteen feet wide. The work dominated one side of the room. We sat down for a while after that and then left to find the gift shop.
The train coming into the city was packed. Apparently, there was a mustn't-be-missed baseball game that day. Going back was a much pleasanter experience.
voxwoman's house is fabulous. Her husband possesses a high amusement value and cooking skills. Her daughter isn't bad for a normal fourteen-year-old girl. She's pretty high on both the amusement and erudition scale. It's a treat to converse with someone that gets most of your cultural references. And her craft skills are uncanny. Those quilts are works of meticulous genius and no photograph can do them justice in the color department. If you're craftsy, the purple fabric she found would make you green with envy.The week was a whirlwind of non-stop busy. Monday was catch up on all the shit that hit the fan at work day, followed immediately by Monday night writers' group meeting. Tuesday, I caught up on all my LJ reading and the trazillion emails in my inbox. Wednesday was the monthly writers' group meeting.
Some fuckwitted asshole tugboat operator hit a barge filled with oil on the river. Thursday evening, I went out with
sunfell to dinner and to stroll around the Quarter. We went to the Moonwalk to look at the mess. It stinks really bad the closer you get to it and the rocks on the riverbank are blackened with oil. The river remains closed to most traffic today, with only a few exceptions. The oil slick is as far downriver as Venice and the cleanup isn't going all that fast. Of all the fucked up things, we do not need anymore to happen here in the city.It took me a lot longer to get out the door from work yesterday since I had to get some of my end of month stuff done early. Plus, we had code to move and it didn't go as smoothly as we expected. At least we got it done and all my reports are on my boss' desk when she comes in on Monday.
This morning, I swooped and snagged
sunfell for the disaster tour of the city. I drove her through the French Quarter to the Marigny to show her the baseline. Then we drove through the Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and Lakeview. I took her by the cemeteries at the head of Canal Street. We drove around Greenwood then back down Canal so that I could show her the Garden District and Uptown. Went past Anne Rice's old house on First Street. Then down Magazine past Audubon Park and the Zoo. We then went out to Anja's shop in Metairie before I deposited her at the airport to catch her flight this afternoon. She's probably getting into her airport very soon since it's not a long flight from here to Little Rock.I've got a meeting at Vel's in a little while and a lot of rest and relaxation planned for after that. This coming week, I'll be seeing the new X Files movie with my sister-in-law. I'll be going to a Zephyrs game with the family. I'll be heading up to Shreveport on Friday for their PPD.
I'm going to try to get a lot done this week. I'm going to have another chapter to bring to the group Monday night. I'm going to get a couple of computers together for DH's nephews' girlfriends. I'm going to clear out extraneous paper from the office and get all the important stuff regathered to one box in case we need to bug out. I'm going to clean the office really well and do a ritual to Thoth and Sehkmet to help me write more prolifically. I also want to reevaluate my bill paying strategy to see where I can slice some expenses. The price of everything is so much higher, I don't have much of a cushion anymore. The raise I got was below the rate of inflation. We need to dump the Republicans out of office so the economy can improve again.
That's about all I have energy to type right now. The meeting starts in about half an hour. When I get back, maybe I'll watch a couple of House episodes to relax.
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question ...
Date: 2008-07-27 12:08 am (UTC)And how are places like the Ninth Ward doing?
Re: question ...
Date: 2008-07-27 12:30 am (UTC)The Ninth Ward is coming back much more slowly than other areas. Most of the residents there were poor and didn't have flood insurance. Those that had homeowners insurance were underinsured since they were probably rated on the actual value of the home and not the replacement value.
As we drove around today, there were properties in various states of completion, some with FEMA trailers still in front. There were also many properties that were obviously abandoned. And the most dismaying of all were the empty lots that used to contain homes and families. The effects of the storm will linger for a decade or more. Recovery is never easy and when you have so many companies, agencies and politicians conspiring against progress, it's even harder.
Thanks so much for asking. This country has catastrophe fatigue. We've had so many fires, floods, tornadoes, the Bush malAdministration, etc., there's scarcely a region that doesn't have problems of its own.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-27 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-27 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 12:56 pm (UTC)Well, it might help if the other side nominated people the vast racist and socially backward majority would vote for. :-P
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 03:19 pm (UTC)That's never going to happen. Anyone who wants to control this country is just going to have to accept the fact that they're going to need to appear to be what those yahoos like. Race is really the only thing you can't lie about. I'd love to see someone pander to the great unwashed, with a secret progressive agenda.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-27 02:55 pm (UTC)That was a wonderful tour, and I really enjoyed visiting with you. I hope to do so again sometime.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 02:14 pm (UTC)What'd you think of the new X-Files?
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 04:03 pm (UTC)I should have mooed, but the first flight was so early in the morning, I hadn't had any coffee. I'm not very funny when I'm not awake. I'm glad others moo. The whole absurd do-si-do of it doesn't really make us safer. The process seems more designed to get us accustomed to being herded without complaint. I hate fascism.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 05:44 pm (UTC)You're right about the do-si-do - it's all perception. When it first started, the question was always "Do you feel safer?". Agreed on the fascism.