milwalkee

woke up inexplicably early this morning, so i got more list stuff done before i left. i hoped right out of bed and turned on the oven, then baked the tofu that had been marinating all night. while that was baking, i sat down at the kitchen table (still naked, mind you) and pitted ALL THOSE CHERRIES. i was so glad i did it this morning, too, because i think if i waited until tonight, even, they would have been too far gone. there were 2 moldy ones. i kept thinking of that new ad on myspace- the security one that tells you NIFOC stands for naked in front of computer. ch changed it to NIFOCWIC recently- naked in front of computer with ice cream. so i was thinking about that as i was mindlessly squirting cherry juice everywhere. crazily mixed up the crisp topping and threw it in the oven, then got myself ready for the day and packed a lunch. (including a marinated tofu sandwich, which was what started this whole mess.) got downtown with no problems, megabus was right on time, and the trip was a breeze.

i hadn't printed out my ticket or maps or anything because my printer is broken. i made some notes of street names and my ticket number, but my first stop was to be the visitor center. i am a big believer in visitor centers. i learned how to use them in europe, and chicago's is so great, that i try to stop by everywhere if for nothing else than a map. i needed:
a. a street map
b. suggestions for activities after the museum closed
c. suggestions for a place to eat a vegetarian dinner.
well, the center near the train station was in a big buisnessy building- completely locked up on saturday. i walked around it for a while, but i didn't wanna waste too much of my foot power because i knew i'd be doing nothing but walking all day. so i headed east to the museum. i knew it was about a mile, but it seemed much shorter- there are the smallest blocks in downtown milwalkee. wisconsin street seems to be like jackson or adams downtown- lots of places for suits to go for lunch, abandoned looking on a saturday afternoon. but i knew i was heading in the right direction because i could see the lake through the trees. and pretty soon i could see the wings of the museum, too:
the architecture really was fabulous. it felt like walking in modern art. this is life inside the painting, or something.
the comics exhibition was great, defintately worth the trip. hopefully this will link to a movie. the problem was, of course, that i could only focus on the special exhibition. i felt the same way about the tate in london- i was so excited about the william blake exhibition that i didn't see any of their collection. there were 15 artists featured. the gallery was just packed, i guess i wasn't the only person who wanted to squeeze it in in the last weekend. i loved the newspaper comics from the begining of the century- i read everything they had by the first three artists- Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, Lyonel Feininger's The Kin-der-Kid and George Herriman's Krazy Kat. i started to skim when i got to E.C. Segar's Popeye. i stopped reading the stuff in the cases, i stuck to what was on the walls- i was too short to comfortably read in the cases, they were too high, and i knew i'd be yelled at if i leaned on the glass. i realized i really should keep moving when i got to the second room. i loved Frank King's Gasoline Alley- cause the characters age in real time! and Charle M Schultz's Peanuts i'd mostly read already in my grandma's living room. I pretty much skipped Chester Gould (Dick Tracy) and Will Eisner (The Spirit). i have absolutely no memory of Milton Caniff's work (and i feel like i should, with that great name!) next came Jack Kirby, who drew Captain America and Fantastic Four and Harvey Kurtzman, who did MAD magazine. i liked them both, though i'm more of a comic strip than comic book sorta gal. R. Crumb's work looked SO FAMILIAR to me= maybe something from the reader? but i couldn't figure out why. i wished i had time to read more of his. Art Spiegleman's work was from Maus, which i ADORED, and the shadow of no towers, which the reader printed for awhile and i could not get into. Chris Ware continues to baffle me- i'd read more of the ones exhibited than i'd expected, yet still i longed for more storyline, more plot, some sort of happy ending- or even a sad one- or even character development!- yet i can't stop reading them. the last was Gary Panter, a whole wall crammed, and it was too overwhelming, i'd been squinting too long, i went right for the gift shop. i'll put in the exhibition link in lieu of pictures- you know i love putting in pictures pulled from the internet, but comics don't really thumbnail well, and i couldnt' find images i liked.

so i had about half an hour left to hit the entire rest of the museum! i didn't quite make it, but i did see some modern art highlights. the award for "oh, i always wanted to see that" goes to andy warhol's brillo box and cambells soup cans.
the "modern art never ceases to facinate me" was probably the very realistic Janitor by duane hanson:
the "new favorite piece from an old favorite artist" is a water lillies by roy lichtenstein. i'd never seen it before, but it's great. i love "covers" i music and in art. and i like how he uses the steel instead of just painting all over it. you know i'm a sucker for something shiny. this isn't the same one, but it gives you the idea:
the piece that made me stop, and stare, and go "WOW. how have i studied art so long, been to so many museums, and missed this? this is amazing! this is beautiful!" was Jules Bastien-Lepage's The Wood Gatherer, 1881. it's in the room with the monets and other impressionists, and the wood gatherer and the kid are walking through this impressionistic forest, but their faces, and the sticks, are photorealistic. it's very disconcerting, like you can't focus on the forest, but i love it the way i love john singer sargent. i wish i could make such general strokes convey exactly the line, shape, color, object i want them to. it also reminded me of jerry uelsmann's darkroom mashups- it doesn't look collaged, but seamless from one style to the other in the same painting. i know the image will not do it justice, but here it is:
and the "oh, and old friend, even though i am far from home i feel comforted by having something familar just around the corner" goes to their gerhard richter. i KNOW i don't like abstract expressionism. but his are so beautiful, so textured and shiny. i don't know what it is about them they are the exception to that rule for me.

shoot! i have already typed way too long about my day, and i haven't left the museum yet! so the admissions desk had maps, so at 5 i collected my bag and went outside to watch the wings close and plan my next move. i saw the summerfest grounds were having the arab world festival, so i decided to walk down to that- then proceeded to walk back, because admission was $10. this is NOT grant park. there was this awesome musical sculpture garden, i tried to take a picture, but it's a better picture of the museum with it's wings closed: so the half circle things were covered in those lame dots from advertizing, and they made the softest calmest flapping sound in the wind. and the benches had mallets attached so you could play them like xylophones. and the gravel had this metal sculpture that you could pick up handfuls of the gravel and drop it in and it would plink down like wind chimes. it was really cool.

i wandered. my feet hurt, i had to pee, i was hungry, and i wasn't interested in eating my snacks because i'd already drank all the water out of my nalgene. it was bad. then i saw people. sitting at tables, outside bars. i went in the irish pub, found a nice appetizer, had a mike's hard lemonade, the muzak played annie lennox's sweet dreams, and life was good again. perhaps i lingered too long- i really had to rush to get back to the bus stop on time. i was worried, but then the bus was 20 min. late, so i had no problems. luckily there were 3 really drunk girls just off a brewery tour to keep me entertained while waiting. they were drunk dialing all sorts of boys. i bet they regret it tomorrow.

the trip back was fast, i finished knitting my socks, started on an ipod cover just for something to do. came home, turned on the computer, wrote to you. but now i'm done. and i'm going to reward myself with some of that cherry crisp.