As I sip a very dark Italian roast bowl of coffee, so dark my usual dollops of cream barely break the taste of this roast, I think about my day so far. The second load of laundry is in finishing up and I even folded clothes. The kitchen is usable and there are only three cameras on my dining room table, a considerable improvement from earlier in the day. I even did some work! I have had 27 emails since Friday at 4:00, the last I checked, and I had to respond to seven or eight of them. Oh well. Either I do it now or do it tomorrow morning.
Yesterday I had history geek thing for National History Day so I spent some time at the Minnesota History Center. Even for those with a less historical bent than I have would enjoy that place. It really is impressive. Plus, that much brain power in one place pretty much powered and lit up the grid for the day. Maybe a few days
The best part of the day was spent at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The MIA is a gem in the Cities and a real reminder of why I should just spend more time down there. It's free, pretty easy to get to, it has a surprisingly good collection, and it is just good space in which to hang out. It has been a while since I have visited, probably for a lot of reasons. There were some ghosts to deal with but it was worth fighting through those. I had brunch in the cafe which serves the best food in a museum cafe that I have had. I spent four hours on one floor just looking around.
James J. Hill, an early and very prominent railroad tycoon, helped fill the museum's European galleries. Certainly he provided the volume if not the quality. I laughed when I noticed that most of his legacy was simply referred by the artist and then "part of the European paintings collected by Hill." I imagined him heading to Europe to by paintings by the boatload simply because the paintings were from there. There were a few gems, but a discriminating eye was not always evident. Others have left their legacies in care of the museum, too. The Dayton family, late of Target fame, have shared extensively. Their Chinese collection that they donated is impressive. The Mandarin scholars library, a period room that was not long ago disassembled in China and brought to the museum, is a place I would like to work. The crickets and their cages would have to go, though. Of course there are a few other names, like Pillsbury, that decorate donor tags.
I found new favorites. I loved a Kandinsky with bright colors. A Brett Weston photo of a Spanish village, though taken later, was every bit a Cubist wonder. There is a Monet of his Japanese bridge and pond that is just dark and stormy and of such a mood that you could stare at it for hours. It isn't that it is better than his other paintings but it is just so different that you wonder what was on his mind when he painted it. A Van Gogh of olive trees with the yellowish sky and the very yellow sun was fun, too.
What I had forgotten or didn't see before was the remarkable collection of furniture and other fixtures supporting a view of the Prairie School of architecture. Louis Sullivan, prominent among them, led the "school" of like minded artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright and the collection is pretty impressive. I have always loved that era and its design and feel, and I really enjoyed that part of the museum. Sad, though, were all the collection notes that stated again and again that the objects on display were remnants of now demolished buildings that once decorated the area.
Almost as enjoyable as all that was, the MIA is a great place to people watch. As I read later, it is one of the Twin Cities best places for a date, and for making out while on a date. Really. Hoping to reach that goal, a semi-organized 20s-something group of singles were testing the (shark-infested) waters of first dates on Saturday afternoon. There were lot of them--I suppose more than 40 couples that I could see--some of them may have been in the Greek and Roman sections but I didn't get to them. Most were in the decidedly awkward stage, and I overheard some great conversations. I swear I didn't make these up
One young man actually asked what the woman studied in college. She explained that her degree was in chemical engineering. He asked "so, you're sort of smart, then, huh?" After probably noting that he wasn't, she confirmed that "yes, I am sort of smart."
Another woman noted that she hadn't milked cows, but that she had grown up in Milwaukee in an apartment overlooking Lake Michigan. I get that, too. Just because I am from Wisconsin, I didn't grow up milking cows! Probably equally as frustrated, one woman who perhaps was of Asian descent pointedly said when asked if she spoke Chinese, "No, I am from Mounds View!"
I suspect that some of these were last dates as well, but the people watching/non-stalker-ish eavesdropping just added to the fun of the day for me. I need to take advantage of the nearness of these opportunities. I think I will!
