Mom, Dad, and I descended like locust on
Raleigh, invading my younger sister's
world, ready to devour whatever
culture and
food the area had to offer. M4 got us tickets to the Monet exhibit. It was a classic, chronological retrospective of his work complemented by a good audio tour and nice sampling of his work. The real gems were when they were able to acquire three or so of his painting on the same subject yet the contrasting styles and results of the paint on canvas were
truly remarkable and intriguing. The audio guide was relatively informative but not overly verbose or long. They included several 200 series audio commentaries describing things in more personal terms which was often refreshing compared to the academic approach to the 100 series comments. One interesting commentary clash regarding his church & trees canvas of early years: the art critic discussed how he balanced light & architecture with larger canvas consideration given to nature and the trees nearby showing his love of this balance and contrast of worlds; the other commentary narrated a letter of Monet's written later in life stating how he "should have taken out the trees."
Funny little moment. While the show was well curated,
more space or better crowd control was needed. Too many people were packed in and the entry guard managed them in giant plug-flow style. This resulted in a salmon-swimming-up-stream effect. Dad and I decided to just go backwards and avoid this cluster-f mentality. We're such rebels.
The rest of the time spent in Raleigh was focused around eating and hanging out with M4, very preggers, and her family. There was some good food from P.F. Chang's and some great Italian, on different nights in case you were worried about the gluttony that typically coincides with the holidays. In fact, most of the holidays sins - heavy drinking, swearing, smashing up the rental car - were all avoided this year.
What was that about? Dad did confess, however, to not paying attention to the speed of the treadmill in the Fairfield Inn gym. Yep, he fell right off the damn thing! Cracked me up just thinking about it. Reminds me of a David Lynch Dumbland episode I can't link here due to its immature nature. Dropped Dad off at the airport, spent the last night toasting (or igniting, depending on your technique) marshmallows with M4 and the kids. Mom stuck around waiting for the iggy to pop from M4's belly like some alien life form. Gawd, I don't know how my sisters do it? I have problems with passing a bad burrito without being tempted to use painkillers.
Mom, Dad, and I descended like locust on Raleigh, invading my younger sister's world, ready to devour whatever culture and food the area had to offer. M4 got us tickets to the Monet exhibit. It was a classic, chronological retrospective of his work complemented by a good audio tour and nice sampling of his work. The real gems were when they were able to acquire three or so of his painting on the same subject yet the contrasting styles and results of the paint on canvas were truly remarkable and intriguing. The audio guide was relatively informative but not overly verbose or long. They included several 200 series audio commentaries describing things in more personal terms which was often refreshing compared to the academic approach to the 100 series comments. One interesting commentary clash regarding his church & trees canvas of early years: the art critic discussed how he balanced light & architecture with larger canvas consideration given to nature and the trees nearby showing his love of this balance and contrast of worlds; the other commentary narrated a letter of Monet's written later in life stating how he "should have taken out the trees." Funny little moment. While the show was well curated, more space or better crowd control was needed. Too many people were packed in and the entry guard managed them in giant plug-flow style. This resulted in a salmon-swimming-up-stream effect. Dad and I decided to just go backwards and avoid this cluster-f mentality. We're such rebels.
The rest of the time spent in Raleigh was focused around eating and hanging out with M4, very preggers, and her family. There was some good food from P.F. Chang's and some great Italian, on different nights in case you were worried about the gluttony that typically coincides with the holidays. In fact, most of the holidays sins - heavy drinking, swearing, smashing up the rental car - were all avoided this year. What was that about? Dad did confess, however, to not paying attention to the speed of the treadmill in the Fairfield Inn gym. Yep, he fell right off the damn thing! Cracked me up just thinking about it. Reminds me of a David Lynch Dumbland episode I can't link here due to its immature nature. Dropped Dad off at the airport, spent the last night toasting (or igniting, depending on your technique) marshmallows with M4 and the kids. Mom stuck around waiting for the iggy to pop from M4's belly like some alien life form. Gawd, I don't know how my sisters do it? I have problems with passing a bad burrito without being tempted to use painkillers.
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