The Day of the Three Museums.

I don't want to walk anymore today. I'll go find some lo mein somewhere tonight for dinner, but other than that, my legs have checked out.

Instead of going to Central Park this morning for a run, I slept in until 9am. Deciding against just dicking around until I could go to the Rec at noon, I chose instead to get breakfast and head out to the Cooper-Hewitt. I got there just before 11am and spent probably no more than 20min. inside; it sucked. Art is not design, so why the entire second floor was devoted to landscape paintings is still beyond me. There was only one display I liked, and that was modern utensil design. But they did have a nice selection of typography books in the shop.

Leaving there, I walked down to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as it's along 5th Avenue and it's free for Columbia students. I took a good hour and a half in the exhibits and probably covered, at most, an eighth of the Met; it's hyooge. And that was by walking at a brisk pace through most of that. At first I thought it would be a bore, with all of the classical and ancient stuff; that kind of stuff has just never interested me. But then I got to the Modern Art, and boy was that fun. Picasso makes me so happy. I heart Stuart Davis. de Kooning and Rothko are simply wonders to behold. Miró freaks me out. Modigliani is probably my new favorite painter. And Peter Bonnard, a Frenchman I had never heard of before, can suck it. Seriously, I got to the point where I could recognize his style before I even saw his name, and every time I just felt this intense loathing bubbling up inside me to where I wanted to scream 'Goddamn it, I just want to burn you, you son of a bitch!' Art rocks.

Seeking to capitalize on this experience, I walked the rest of the way down 5th to Midtown to go back to MoMA, as I found out yesterday from a classmate that with our Columbia cards we can get in there for free too. Nearly hunched over, exhausted and with a sore lower back from traversing half of Manhattan by foot, I nonetheless made my way through the floors and exhibits I didn't make it to last week. The paintings were very nice, but I'm still not getting the sculpture. The Dada special exhibit was somewhat interesting, but I don't think a movement that was meant to showcase the absurdity of humanity can be properly presented in a manner that is itself not absurd. For example, they could've had the exhibit exactly set up like it is, but with all of the lights out, so that you couldn't see it. That would be Dada at its finest. There was also a special project from Herzog & de Mueron, architects who were given free reign to collect and comment on the Museum's works. The centerpiece was an auditorium of wooden benches in the middle of a darkened room, with slots in the walls on three sides so you could look in at mid-20th century products like chairs and such. The benches, though, existed to help you watch the 16 flat screen TVs mounted on the ceiling; I counted one showing Goodfellas, one with Deer Hunter, two showing Apocalypse Now at different points in the movie, and at least half were showing porn films of varying age, quality and subject matter. Hmm, I guess that's modern?

So maybe I don't really get art. Which is why I'm a designer at heart; I like things to have purpose and reason for existence. There is a problem, and through proper application of taste, creativity and logic, the problem is solved. Though the gallery that showed the evolution of Cubism by Picasso was sweet, and I think Rothko made a pretty good decision to leave behind the whole portrait thing.

One last thing: for any young homeless people who happen to be reading this blog, please please please do not walk up and down a subway car, begging for money while carrying a Starbucks cup. I don't care if it is just water inside, it's just not a good visual. Again, the designer's mindset is kicking in here. Have a great day, all.