A quick hit to NY was just the right opportunity to spend a few hours steeped in high fashion. The MOMA’s Karl Lagerfeld show is excellent. Well curated, interesting, and aware of its own ridiculous nature. Go see for yourself.
First, your hosts all snazzed up. (One eagle eyed NY fashion geek recognized Romey’s vintage skirt.)
Without further commentary, some bits for the bit pile, led off by sparkle. We proceed backwards in time.
We pause now for station identification.
This interlude brought to you by Romey’s eye for high fashion.
Who even knew that Dallas had a world class art collection? I mean, I should have known since all that oil money has been sloshing around since the ’70s. An unexpected stay in the city (stranded much)?) had a silver lining. Here is some of what I saw at the DMA.
If you get stranded in Dallas, make sure to visit.
On a windy but very clear crisp Spring day, we visited the Kreeger—a small but excellent collection in an interesting architectural space. Chagall, Monet, Picasso, Kandinsky (though the wrong periods), and some very interesting Mondrian are among the finds. What a stunning place to have lived. Must be nice to be an insurance plutocrat!
Ghost Romey in the jungle.
Romey’s favorite, this Picasso woman.
The architecture is 1960’s modern, but still very tasteful and beautiful.
The light on Piet.
Outside was chilly but likewise very well structured.
A series of “wrong” Kandinsky. Late and early, but no just right. Where is Goldilocks when you need her?
The Strings exhibit at VMFA is devoted to the guitar. If you like guitars, guitar history, and historical curation you need to see this. We’ll ignore the fact that the most important strings are usually on a violin for now (LOL).
Romey and I learned about this exhibit by watching a video shot to promote and expand on the show with some live music featuring my friend Charles. Both Stephen and Charles are way better guitar players than I will ever be! Check out their session here.
Here are some pictures and commentary about the exhibit.
Charles as guitar.
In one of the rooms, there were a couple of guitars. So we just had to play them. They were squishy and hard to play.
The master goofs off.
Proof that I should stick to the violin.
Bill got into the act too.
Guitar versus violin. What turns you into a geezer faster? Guitar of course!
The dog is named Fay Ray. We knew another one of those once.
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Fond memories of a session? Charles in front of the recording studio.
Eli (the resident artist at my house) and I went to the brand new Rubell Museum in DC on the solstice. It was excellent: well curated, beautifully displayed, provocative, and socially relevant. Go visit for yourself.
The sexual revolution will be YouTubed
Over the Rainbow
Goat in a pot. This one is hilarious and very surprizing.
The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is an institution and is worth a quick visit. But if you have been looking at Picasso for years, you won’t find much in the way of major works. In any case, Barcelona is proud of what it has come to think of as its home town boy. Lots of early work.
Lots. Like an entire wall’s worth.
Set in four connected villas, the museum has amassed a very deep (but not very wide) collection.
This blue.
Avant guard in Paris with the Russian ballet. Picasso was blending fine art, music, and dance in 1909. (And here we thought we were onto something with Into the Unknown.)
There is lots of politics pervading the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía which if you think about it is somewhat ironic. I mean, the place itself is named after a queen. And lots of anti-imperial politics pervades (including some well-deserved anti-Americanism). But a queen? What kind of democracy has a monarch? Or still reveres a monarch? Seriously. Those days need to be behind us as a species.
Anyway, the ill-begotten gains of monarchy are at least being spent on art and not on oppression. Or is art just an opiate slightly stronger than religion? These are difficult issues to plumb.
And are they old fashioned or what? No pictures of some of the pictures? Trapped in the past they are. The guernica room is a shrine that should be full of life, not a mausoleum. Spain still seems to have a Franco hangover.
The stadium in Campiglia Cervo is scaled to match the interstate highway system that blazes through the center of town. We packed the stadium to the gills with what I am told was 65 people, including the vice mayor who introduced us, but not including the mayor himself who had more important things to do like look at himself in the mirror. Just so you know, this was a much bigger show than the show Metallica put on at the same stadium!
The show was actually very good. Intimate. Interesting. Tight. During the rest of our time in Rialmosso we ran into lots of people who either attended or heard through the grapevine about our performance. That was both really cool and very gratifying.
The road crew set the stage after arriving the day before to check electricity levels and make sure all of the seating was available. We have nothing but admiration for our intrepid road crew. They work so hard so we can do what we do.
The show consisted of three parts as shown on the billboard above.
Here is a stage floor view of the set list for those of you collecting bootlegs.
And a view of the nosebleed seating in the back before anyone was in the house. You can see the dancing props professionally built by our dedicated construction crew.
Publicity was run by our crack PR team who were able to put up a poster with the last of the tape.
Fortunately that poster was all it took to fill the space to the gills. When we started (only 5 minutes late), people were standing because the seating was gone. Even the reserved section for mastiffs and toddlers was full.
We sincerely appreciate the willingness of the locals in the area to support our art with enthusiasm and love!
The stage is set. The weather is perfect.
And we’re off. Sogol and Matt play Bach together.
Dancing to Vivaldi Concerto in G major for Two Mandolins, Strings and Continuo, RV 532 (re-re-arranged for violin, guitar and piano).
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