Science! Psuedo-science! Nature! Art! Nonsense!
November 12, 2025
art, museum, photography andy warhol, art, art collective, art museum, betty, gem, mattress factory, modern art, museum, pittsburgh, romey, warhol, yayoi kusama 1 Comment
We visited the Mattress Factory for the first time on our zillionth trip to Pittsburgh. This time we had our dear friend Betty along for the ride.
The upstairs rooms have some excellent stuff…they also have this.
But you can skip right over it and get to this.
Yayoi (without the wait)
These illusions were incredible. They have something to say about human perception.
Our surveillance monitor
September 23, 2025
art, museum, travel art, art museum, brazil, degas, magritte, MASP, São Paulo, van gogh Leave a comment
Since our first visit was interrupted by 50,000 protesters, we returned to see the original MASP wing on our last day in São Paulo.
There were cars in the street and commerce was proceeding apace. Late stage capitalism perks along with one or two corporations owning everything.
Curation was interesting in this wing. Hodge podge to be sure (with bad lighting), but some masterpieces on display.
The best stuff was not really from Brazi.
Van Gogh does eye
Magritte does eye
LGBTQ Jesus from the middle ages.
Degas dances in São Paulo as well.
Degas does eye
The brutalist architecture does its thing.
September 23, 2025
art, fashion, film, photography, politics, travel 1960s, art, art museum, brazil, gem, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, romey, São Paulo, travel Leave a comment
What do you do when you are in São Paulo on a thunderous rainy Monday (the day that much is closed)? Seek out the Pinacoteca, and experience some art. Visit both sides with a sprint between rainstorms.
The space is beautifully assembled of old and new in contrast. The curation follows this concept and lacks only professional lighting. Brazil could use some NY light people in all of its museums.
Two views.
The exhibits are spotty, but there are always jewels to be found.
Some of the sculpture is exquisite.
Romey in a pink box.
This is not art!
Channel Emily.
And then brave the rain, walking through the huge unfamiliar trees of Brazil.
Arriving at the Contemporary building just as the power flickers and the clouds unleash.
Enter the late ’60s and the dissolution of dictatorship. Yankees out of vietnam.
BLUM!
Then have a late lunch while you wait for the rain to abate. Banana milk punch for the win.
September 23, 2025
art, film, museum, photography art, art museum, brazil, bugs, fim, museum, São Paulo, travel, victoria cribb, video 2 Comments
Getting into the new building provided respite from the crowd of 50,000 protestors. But honestly the curation is somewhat uneven and lacking. Lots of “trying to hard” in our view.
The Moon.
The most interesting piece we saw was called Bugs and was animated by Victoria Crib. Incredible.
Watch the trailer (also on vimeo).
September 23, 2025
art, museum, politics brazil, crew, protest, punk band, São Paulo, street fair 1 Comment
Don’t expect upscale on Paulista, no matter what the guidebooks say. Instead, expect a street festival with crowsds, music, and the same kinds of vendors you will find in Liberdade.
Like punk bands.
And crews practicing for Rio.
Dress accordingly.
Do note that there may well be 50,000 people in the street protesting! Actually this is rare according to our local friends who say, “They are protesting against a law which would protect members of the parliament and senate against prosecution (to an even greater extent than they are already protected).”
In any case, getting into MASP was non-trivial. And then we were stuck in the new building since the rain caused the museum to shut down its doors and we could not switch buildings.
September 22, 2025
art, concert, travel audio, brazil, christian, concert, esperanza spalding, fabio, live music, romey, São Paulo, shotgun app, travel 1 Comment
When we were looking for a concert to attend Saturday night in the São Paulo Spring, we were surprised by the pickings. Not much going on even though the city is huge. A conversation in Brazil with a young show producer told the tale of why, the gist of it being that a post COVID explosion of creativity is drawing to a close and the performers are exhausted. But the constraints led us directly to an exceptional treat—Esperanza Spalding in Brazil.
Magical.
We did require some help from our new friend Christian (a USP fresh out Ph.D.) who was able to use the local shotgun app to get tickets. I tried that earlier from the US with no luck since the app required a Brazilian citizen ID number.
In a small world phenomenon, we ran into Fabio Kon and his wife while waiting in line to get into the venue.
It was nice to spend some time with the locals. LOL. Here are some pictures and videos of the show.
There was some waiting around to do from 8pm to 10pm, but it was all worth it.
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We were, in fact, in Brazil…as you can hear.
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A commentary in AI and jazz. Computer speed and human speed compared.
When we got back to the rosewood after the show, we had a late night snack at 1:30am.
August 22, 2025
art, music Adam Foster, Barbara O'Brien, classical music, concert, eighth blackbird, fine lines, flute, live music, Nathalie Joachim, piano, poulenc, recording, Riverside Parlor Series, Rodrigo Ojeda, sonata Leave a comment
How cool is this? Across the street in the middle of nowhere (in the main house of the 311 acre farm over there) there’s a new concert series budding. So incredible to have world class musicians perform just up the hill! Don’t tell anyone that we drove over both times since it was 94 degrees outside.
The Riverside Parlor Series is a dream of Barbara and Adam’s involving the beautifully renovated River House. The house has only had four owners since 1790.
We went to both performances, the first flute and piano and the second, two flutes.
The music was excellent.
Friday 8.15: Barbara O’Brien and Rodrigo Ojeda
Your host Adam Foster.
I particularly love the Poulenc. Here is an unretouched rough recording.
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The piano plays the Moonlight Sonata by itself.
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Sunday 8.17: Barbara O’Brien and Julie McGough
We are looking forward to the next Castleman Concert.
August 3, 2025
art, concert, music allan james, berryville, fiddle, gary mcgraw, guitar, music in the park, original music, rose hill park, violin 1 Comment
Allan James and I have played together a few times late night at a soltice party or during jam sessions at the cabin, but we had never performed together until this July 25th. On a steaming hot day, clocking in at 94 degrees in the shade, we played a couple of sets to an appreciative audience in the park at Rose Hill in Berryville.
We had a blast. Here’s how that went.
We played 20 original songs all written and performed by Allan. After just a handful of practice sessions, we were ready…
The music was just as hot as the evening. You can find many of the songs we performed on Allan’s CDs.
August 3, 2025
art, museum, photography art, danzig, dario robleto, hudson valley school, impressionists, leonardo, marie laurencin, national gallery, national gallery of art, richard danzig, van gogh Leave a comment
Catching up with Richard is always a pleasure, especially when it involves art. This iteration was devoted to the National Gallery.
We met at the only leonardo painting in north america.
No wait, that’s not it…
After some Italian and Dutch art (wait, whose national gallery is this?), we found a piece of stunning modern art.
We flitted past mercury to lunch.
Car rearangement led to architectural exposure on the South side.
And then some impressionism focused on paint globs.
On the way out, it was the Hudson valley school.
Look for the hidden canoe.
Romey posed for this painting in a previous life.
Did you know that Van Gogh was from the Hudson Valley?
August 3, 2025
art, concert, film, photography blue ridge, chicago, danny hobert, invisible cities, italo calvoni, magic, miniatures, social analysis, toy atlas theater 2 Comments
What a treat. A Chicago-level show in our tiny hamlet (in fact well outside the hamlet way up on the mountain). Danny Hobert and his partner in crime, performing as the Toy Atlas Theater, put on a magical captivating multi-media extravaganza—twice. (This entry combines photos and videos from both shows. To keep you on your toes, the interleaving is imperfect and a bit faded around the edges.)
Clark Hansbarger and I opened for the first show with a bit of Bitter Liberals music. Which of course requires actual Liberals.
The scene. A barn on the blue ridge converted into a portal to other dimensions.
The audience was captivated.
This kind of magical experience is all too rare in modern American adulthood. Calvino’s work is an excellent vehicle for considering the contradiction and confusion of modern life, exposing its inner absurdity from a view at the sharpest edge of a very small razor.
