Nicole’s got a library blog (again)

So I was intending on joinging the YALSA gaming discussion group in New Orleans on Sunday afternoon. Not physically of course but over Skype, which the organizers had promoted as a good way to get on the discussion. After evaluating Skype, I downloaded it and eagerly awaited the time to join in. I got myself set up: Creme Brulee French Toast from Ants Pants and Coffee, a nice rainy afternoon, and the significant other happily watching the Sopranos Season One (we are way behind in certain things) downstairs. While I didn’t have a microphone to use, it didn’t matter much since gaming is sort of new to me and I’d rather be silenced and kept to listening only.

Well, to make a long story short: I converted the time incorecrtly and logged in early (boo!) and once I was there in the Skype chat with some others at the appointed time, the organizers couldn’t get logged in because of the problems with the conference room not having wireless (uh….duh). So, the feed that I did receieve was kind of cool since it sounded like a phone receiver being held in the toilet (really!). I exchanged some regrets with some of the other Skypers and then gave up. I was dissapointed. But oh well.

Today’s YALSA blog has some notes on the session.

The day was not a bust however! (clickity for more, including my trip to the Wyeth exhibit!)I went to see the wonderful Andrew Wyeth exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Wyeth is an artist who works from nearby Chester County Pennsylvania. My aesthetic tends to be more towards very realistic and quite frankly, low-brow art. This is probably because I  resist most art. I’m also partially glossing over quite a few facts here because I’ve enjoyed every special exhibit I’ve ever seen at the Phila Museum, (ok, except for the Cezanne, but thats fairly predictable for me). I’m clearly not using my aesthetic to in any way undermine Wyeth’s art because I wouldn’t want to do that, especially since I found the exhibit to be perfect.

    I’ll take anything that has an audio tour, especially the Museum’s special exhibit audio tours, which are always like listening to a really great radio program for me. The work is arranged in such a way that it is both thematic and chronological. The first room introduces Wyeth biographically and also presents his work in pairs. An earlier work is paired beside a later work. I really appreciated his use of vessels as containers of humans. Often the people are missing in Wyeth’s paintings but vessels remain. One’s imagination can place people in connection to these objects. As a person who feels very tied to place and sometimes objects, I connected to this imagery.

Groundhog Day
1959
Andrew Wyeth (American, born 1917)
Tempera on Masonite
31 3/8 x 32 1/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Henry F. du Pont and Mrs. John Wintersteen, 1959 © Andrew Wyeth