Lost Art

Have you ever been to the Art Institute of Chicago? Its now the home of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Grant Woods' American Gothic, Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, and Van Gogh's Self-Portrait. I was pretty excited to go myself but instead of describing the genius and beauty of art, I'd like to bitch about how the layout of that museum is a rat maze. My attention span in any kind of museum is like a ticking time bomb. When one hour is up, I immediately become unable to observe, absorb or enjoy any knowledge or beauty. So I always need to prioritize and for today, the priority was to see the above four paintings. I did literal circles around Early European Art, and came this close to missing the closet of a hallway that lead to the Impressionists. Then, I had to ask directions to try to find the other two. The directions included going down a flight of stairs, making my way through two galleries, going through a gift shop and then back up a flight of stairs.

I ran into my mom after receiving my convoluted directions to the American Modern Art gallery and she was as flummoxed as I was. She told me she got to have a glimpse of what life must be like for me -- not knowing where one is, how one got there, or how to get where one wants to go. When I finally got to see Nighthawks, I was done. The whole set up reminded me of a grocery store that puts the milk in the back of the store so that you have to pass all types of tempting wares just to get to it. But that kind of makes sense because they want to make more money. But, as my mom put it, they already got their pound of flesh in the form of $18 whether you see one painting or one hundred. I think they do it for sadistic kicks. If you ever end up there, I suggest taking bread crumbs, demanding the first person you see that works there to personally escort you to where you need to go and then follow your bread crumbs back.

On a lighter note, we also did the required tourist activities: a boat tour (while we wore matching boat-line sponsored baseball caps; it was classic) and went to the top of the Willis (used to be Sears) Tower. Pictures:

Today is my last day in Chicago. The upper peninsula of Michigan is calling my name. My mom will fly back to Pittsburgh and I'll hit the road. I'm trying to talk her into joining me again when I get to Seattle.

Oh, and if you have any recommendations for books that are set in the west or the Pacific Northwest, please leave a comment.

What I've listened to in the last couple of days:

"Takk..." by Sigur Ros (thought of you, Los)

"The Very Best of Nina Simone; Volumes 1 and 2" by Nina Simone

"Uh Huh Her" by PJ Harvey

"Un Dia" by Juana Molina

"Tanglewood Numbers" by Silver Jews

Audio book: Discs 6 - 9 of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Podcast: "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" (08-07-2010)

Podcast: NPR Fresh Air (08-23-2010)

Podcast: This American Life (Rest Stop)