Highlights

Pardon the neck bends. I thought I'd fixed them all last night. Facebook won't let me post anymore, so here is a digest version of the last two days.
Christmas is here and the windows are amazing!
This clocktower is sort of a giant cuckoo clock reenacting scenes from Munich's history
The is the Theatenkirche. I didn't get to see inside, but the outside is lovely.
This pillar was raised to praise God for delivering the city from invaders and the plague.
Here's where I ate my lunch.
Giant scuplture supporting authority and right doing and all that jazz. It sits just outside a tunnel entrance into the Residenz, the home of the Bavarian royalty.
At the other end of the tunnel sit two fawns, human scale and ready to play.
This is the Antiquarium. Sculpture from the Greek and Roman period as well as pieces inspired by that time are amassed in an overwhelming display of the right to rule. Each niche represents the territory loyal to the Bavarian crown and the effect can be a tad overwhelming.
At this point I'd been through a good chunk of the house and I realized that very costly decorations were everywhere. This is ornamentation on a scale I can't quite process.
This is the Frauenkirche. It is the seat of the Archbishop. I dropped in for Mass, which was an amazing multicultural experience. Some kneeled, some bowed, some curtseyed, some genuflected, and it was all good.
The devil's footprint. He was angry because the architect had built a church without windows. It's an illusion most clearly visible at this point.
Yesterday I devoted to the Neue Pinakothek. I skipped most the art that dated from the same period as the Resdenz as I was still a bit overwhelmed.
This was painting of Christ that has me intrigued. I may have found a new painter I'd like to study. My notes are buried in my bag, or I'd add the details.

A Strange and Sinister Business

The Pinakothek der Modern is the newest museum in Munich. The building's design has all the beautiful practicality that is expected. There are also touches of whimsey that allow the museum to take risks and grow. At the moment one of the big risks is the basement full of every day objects whose design elevates them to art. Currently this area is underfunded and almost all items on display have been donated second-hand.
This is my only real criticism. This museum still has plenty of time to stretch and grow, and there is already so much to love. I marched around until I had seen everything, and I'm glad I did. The biggest lesson I learned is that art is growing project. Over and over I met artist's at early and later moments in their lives and it was not just how they grown, but it was also what they had decided to say that inspired me to keep going. I may not be turning out prose worthy of the canon, but I'm learning and growing and deciding just what it is I need to say. I highly recommend a visit to the Pinakothek der Moderne.

Karl Schmidt Rottluff's self portrait grabbed me. He is determined to paint what he sees no matter what the fall out. I like that kind of courage and understand that kind of fear. The museum has a sizeable collection of Franz Marc. I do not love him as I ought, but I do love his use of color it is always strong, but in a harmonious way.
Humor is important for me in art. It's the fart that makes us all human. George Grosz tickled my funny bone with his perspective on married life. Men. What can you do with them? What can you do without them?This painting by Karl Hofer (Grosser Karneval) didn't interest me at first, but the longer I stayed in the room the more I was drawn to it. I still feel like a student of this painting, but perhaps you are a faster study.The collection has a good amount of Max Beckmann and I found studying the paintings chronologically interesting. At first he's like any other beginner, he's trying to find his voice and his subject, but then the dates are for dark and perilous times and his painting feels more out of control. It almost screams.
I could go on, but other things need doing. The collection is in many ways conservative, and I'll admit to a fondness for figures. Some of the experimental video exhibits were fun. There was a display of two pink strings strung from floor to ceiling entitiled Pink Flamingo--I loved it. There was some de Kooning that I liked though I liked it best when he kept the colors all distinct instead of adding a mixed blob. My favorite sculpture was made out of flourescent light tubes. It takes an ordinary object and turns it into a powerful symbol of mourning.

Magic!

Yesterday was a full day. I tackled the S-bahn/U-bahn on my own. It's not that difficult I'm just a tad slow with those things. The Alte Pinakothek is still a two block walk after the subway ride and I nearly ran it. The folks at the front desk could not have been nicer. One took my monkey picture for the kids and then explained that I'd need to leave my backpack in a locker while I toured the galleries. The locker required a 2 Euro coin, but gave it right back when I picked my things up.
They have a handy little device like most museums that takes you on an audio tour. It featured a broad sampling of the paintings that was cleverly chosen to give you a sense of each artist and period you were looking at even if they didn't refer to the particular painting that interested you. I only saw one gallery, but I will definitely go back.

Highlight paintings for me: Francis Boucher's Madame de Pompadour. I've not been a big fan of Boucher. He's a bit of an ass man, but this is charming. I could see it as inspiration for redecorating my office. It doesn't hurt that Madame was featured in one of my favorite Dr. Who episodes.Rembrandt's Sacrafice of Isaac. This one is in my parent's family Bible. The day I committed my life to Christ I was looking at this picture. It was startling to see how powerful the old masters had been in my life. My community rejected modern art as meaningless, so ye old masters were what was available. I guess it's like Shakespeare and Sophocles. Time had blunted the edges. They weren't controversial any more. Instead they'd been embraced. Ruben's Last Judgement. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but this one was floating about on the web. The whole gallery was laid out around this painting. I wanted you to get a feeling for the size. The apocolpyse has always worried me. I watched the news for signs of the times and I spent a good chunk of daydreaming time trying to figure out how to stop it. I approached the apocolyptic paintings with caution. Various travel shows and art shows were quick to hint that the paintings were meant to terrify, but to me they were comforting. Good is always triumphing in spades. The power and the energy make the end of the world a terrific subject, and as long as good is winning what is there to fear?Titian's Adam and Eve and Ruben's copy of Adam and Eve. This was part of the Ruben's exhibit and I was so impressed. Here is the undisputed master Titian giving us his perspective on the rather important story of the Fall. Then here comes Ruben copying all the life of the original and then making it his own. I would say he improved it but the Titian is still so strong that even hanging next to Ruben's lively version it holds its own. They had two other pairs in the exhibit with equally impressive results. Maybe I should try rewriting War and Peace and giving it my own flavor--just kidding. :)















I'm having a grand time, and I wish you all were here. Auf Wiedersehen

Mom and Dad's Excellent Adventure

The monkey hats are back. Last summer we simplified everything in order to enjoy our new baby. This summer I thought the hats were gone for good until...I thought about taking pictures for the kids in our monkey hats. We're still working out the routine, but I hope to have a slew of pictures featuring our signature look.

Weight Gain

Before

and After
I really hate typing. I was backed up by 70-80 pages. This represents a rough draft for 3/10 of my novel. I didn' t want to haul that all over the place. Now I have room for blank paper. Harriet is an awful lot of work.