Met mish mash mosh

It has come to my attention that my last few posts have been fairly dreary affairs. Musings on my advanced age, suburban ennui, the ills of our gun-toting society and scars from my youth do not make for pleasant reading. (Although my comment section has been on fire, so perhaps that's what people prefer.)

Going forward, I'll leave that stuff to Jimmy Bastard. (May he return to us soon.) As penance, I offer this photo montage of our recent trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We visited specifically to see the annual summer rooftop sculpture extravaganza, but I'll leave that for another post. Here's the flotsam and jetsam that I found in my iPhone when I got back to New Jersey.

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In this accidental perspective, John Graham's Celia seems to be patting 6-Year Old on top of her head. Noguchi's Louros is her dance partner and Calder's Mobile stands in as the mirrored disco ball. I don't think she enjoyed the museum all that much. She seemed bored at times. But I think the exposure is important. When she's older, she'll have a level of familiarity and won't feel intimidated by broad-concept art.

I asked 10-Year Old why she was taking a photo of Monet's Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies and she said she needed a new screen saver for her iTouch. The apple never falls far from the tree. That's both good and bad news for her.

Mrs. Wife and I are big advocates of getting an early start in the morning. This especially comes in handy when visiting the city. Driving through an empty Lincoln Tunnel and having entire galleries in the Met all to yourself is worth the loss of sleep. Here, 6-Year Old works out Pollock's Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) and doesn't have to peer through a thicket of legs.

We look like a set of matryoshka dolls. This is Anish Kapoor's fantastic sculpture Untitled. It's a series of hexagon mirrors that curve out into a bowl shape. Mrs. Wife can't stand in front of it for too long because it makes her nauseous. I love his stuff although I'm on the fence about his ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower he constructed for the London Olympics.

In Morris Louis' Alpha-Pi, all roads lead to the center, so I though it'd make for an interesting shot to plant here there. It also establishes a perspective on size.

I've been reading a children's book about the story of Degas's little dancer to her for years. We must've read that damn thing dozens of times. She'd been constantly haranguing me about taking her in for a visit and this is her first look. As she gets older, wish fulfillment will become more complex.

Surrounded by The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog), Rouen Cathedral: The Portal and Haystacks (Effect of Snow and Sun), she is sandwiched between tens of millions of dollars worth of wood, paint and canvas by Monet. Change one letter and Monet becomes Money. If we had arrived one hour later, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere near these works because of the throngs of tourists. Early on is the way to go!