– Yesterday was a pretty great day. The only down moment was that I’ve been having bad dreams pretty much every night this week. However, work went well, and afterwards I took the train up to the Bronx to procure tickets for Tigers v. Yankees. I was successful. Having never spent much time in the Bronx (and running out of time in which to do so) I decided to do some exploring.
Finally, I sat down in a Burger King in a beautiful, one story building on Grand Concourse and spent most of the evening there reading through the end of the sixth chapter of The Visual Arts: A History by Hugh Honour and John Fleming. While I know as little about visual art as anything, this is one of my favorite textbooks of all time. The best thing about it are the number of photos and illustrations, and the authors really have a gift for making careful, nuanced observations about visual effect that never would occur to me examining something alone. So far I’ve read the first 260 pages, which is a bit of an accomplishment, since the book is huge and the text is tiny. This has surveyed art from Paleolithic times through the worldwide migration disturbances of 500-1000 A.D., which should put me in a good place today, when I’ll hit the Met for the first time.
At about seven, I got on the B train, and made it home by about eight. I had a nice evening at home with my wife and Mr. Monk.
– ALMANAC SAYS –
Fine weather on St. Lawrence Day indicates a good autumn.
– COUNTRY OF THE WEEK –
The Gambia.
– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
So tell me what you want what you really really want.