Musings
At the National Gallery this morning, we saw a buncha lovely paintings by Johannes Reijniersz Vermeer and those by (roughly) contemporaries/friends/competitors of his of similar subjects—very interesting comparative material from long ago in the mid- to late-1600s, also known as the Dutch Golden Age. One thing I found interesting: the painting titles did not generally name the person or persons portrayed (and they are usually unknown now), which seems to have been the original custom. I also learned that these painters sometimes used a tinted glaze over paint to achieve certain colors, and now that glaze has lost its ability to make that color shift; thus, a green parrot is now a nice grey-blue, beautiful, but quite different from a brilliant tropical green.
Moving on, we saw several paintings of famous dead white American men. Gilbert Stuart painted this famous 1821 portrait of George Washington from an earlier portrait he did when George was still alive. Washington paintings were a big business for Stuart—he painted over one hundred of them, most modeled on his 1796 original.
I had a textured print on cardboard copy of this painting in my room when I was growing up. I rested my foot (elevated) while gazing at this Renoir.
Totally different subject: Delacroix takes on tiger-and-snake relations (spats?).
In another room, Constant painted a Mediterranean babe.
Over at Air and Space, we saw this original Enterprise model, freshly updated with LEDs, which are turned on for ten minutes only three times each day…. It’s in a prized location in the lobby…
…next to a giant space mural, of which this is a small, yet impressive corner.
Over at NMAI we saw a special exhibit on the Inca. This is a silver alloy jar for chicha, a fermented drink (“beer”) usually made from maize, with lovely corncob-legs and a human face. Maybe it makes the rather thick chicha more palatable?
Of course, the Inca were masters of fibers, making rope bridges across sizable chasms…
…and creating delicate knotted cords to register transactions and generate administrative records.
Posted at 5:35 PM |
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At our Iron Horse themed dinner stop, I found several remaining bits of rotten snow, clear indication that we are in a different world.
Following an otherwise unplumbed urge, I tried a pewter blue cocktail. A bit citrus-y. Okay. No need to do it again, however.
Continuing the theme, man catches Amtrak—maybe not the way you’re thinking, however…. Love the signal-shadow.
Posted at 10:05 PM |
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I went out today and discovered I was overdressed. So pleasant! I managed to tough it out 😎. I went up a little-used, unpaved alley and got this peek into a backyard. Very jealous of the painted ball and enjoyed the serenity of the staging.
Posted at 7:23 PM |
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At the sto’ to get milk, we wandered into the wine section, and I discovered some fruity-bubbly leftovers from New Year’s. I guess even the flavored-vodka set couldn’t get into these flavors of champagne-like toasting liquid.
And we passed up both versions, too. Hah!
Posted at 7:45 PM |
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Lotsa events talk around here…pick a sport or entertainer, and so many have an Atlanta association….
BTW, the snow-bears have the odds in this group 3:2:2:1. Go bears!
Posted at 8:21 PM |
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On our wander today, we made it to the BeltLine for a short block or so, then back, a simple loop that was really an elongated rectangle. Somewhere along the way I spotted a twisty-trunked tree festooned with mistletoe that nobody harvested last month. It was a really tall tree, which would make downing the mistletoe difficult, but I bet the real reason there’s so much there is that no one harvested much mistletoe here in the city.
Posted at 7:57 PM |
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Found this on my counter late this afternoon…. We’ve had several padded mailing envelopes arrive in the last few days, apparently bringing this chip and other techno-bits. I’m told this doo-jiggie reports temperature (in F), humidity, barometric pressure. All for well under $20 (I’m told).
Yeah, we keep our house pretty chilly.
Posted at 8:23 PM |
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It certainly is strange weather when Tallahassee and Savannah and Charleston get snow, and we in ATL get cold, yes, and wind, yes, but no white stuff.
Posted at 9:30 PM |
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We had a movie date today. Star Wars, of course. Loud. Violent. A few good…lines and moments of acting. The red-uniformed troops were new to me; where do they go, though, when white and black are taken? And scruffy.
Posted at 8:04 PM |
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The Guru went out with me to gain our vitamin D. The foot was feeling pretty good, so we went farther afield, and found this tree, which has outgrown the space allotted to it during the last landscaping, some time back. Trees are powerful!
Farther along, we discovered that someone forgot to turn off their sprinklers.
And another homeowner kept the fish-pond oxygenating, creating ice balls and other glazed shapes.
Posted at 5:42 PM |
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