Juxtaposition

I am listening to "On the Road" on audiobook. I am not good at reading books since it requires sitting and not doing other things for long stretches of time. If I'm reading a great book during my train commute time it kills me to have to stop when it's time to get off the train. If I'm listening to a book, I can listen during my bus ride, during my train ride (whether there's room to hold a book or not), during the walk to the office. This audiobook is read by Matt Dillon, who has a great voice but doesn't do as much as he could with it. He could be like the hot boyfriend reading to you in bed, but he's not and it's OK because I bet Kerouac had a voice like this-- lots to say and not lots of expression. Anyway, so I had some time today to listen but I also needed to find a place to listen. The problem with listening to an audiobook is I can do it while walking or going somewhere but not while reading something else or working at my job. Also, if you're holding a book and reading you've got something to look at. I'm not comfortable just sitting on a bench somewhere and listening to an audiobook-- it's kind of like one of those lunatic people on the bus wearing an earplug cellphone and yacking away to someone who's not even there while looking at other people.

So, I had this time, but had to be out & about while Sidekick was otherwise occupied. I couldn't just sit on a bench, and didn't want to sit alone in a coffee shop staring at nothing or other people while On the Road. I had a couple of errands to do so I spent a half hour walking, listening and buying the only pens I like to write with. Then I went back to the Museum of Fine Arts to spend the rest of my two hours of alone time. I went into the big front doors for the first time ever-- back when I used to go more frequently I don't think the front doors were ever open. The museum was just opening so there was a line and lots of people coming in. I took the first left after passing the cute ticket guy and found myself in the old stuff; Greek, Egyptian, Etruscan antiquities. Still listening to On the Road. Sal was in Bakersfield with his Mexican girlfriend while I was checking out the sexy carvings and eyes off of coffins that rotted away long ago.

Then I tried to find the rest of the antiquities, took a wrong turn and found the hordes of tourists looking at paintings. Back the other way, crossed behind cute ticket guy again and found the Indian art. But there was a big exhibit of modern Japanese textiles and clay in the same space.

The last time I was there, last week, I looked at the Sargents and other paintings because I had just finished reading a book about Sargent and Madame X. (An actual paper book!) I wanted to avoid paintings as much as possible today.

I also wanted to sit and draw some of the Egyptian wall carvings because I like the flatness and use of space and patterns. I don't know the MFA's policy on drawing materials (I know that the Harvard museums allow only pens) and I didn't want to have to make the guards work any harder than they already work (hee). Also, I was listening to the book and like I said before it's hard to listen and read. I had to pause every time I wanted to read the story of a particular work, and I wanted to read a lot of the stories behind a lot of the work. I figured I would have to shut down OTR entirely if I was going to draw.

Then I got tired, headed to the bookstore and looked at a couple of books while sitting at the weird desk that the art freaks use to study obscure details of stuff in massive, expensive books. I found a good book for Sidekick entitled "Angry Little Girls." Sidekick and books are like opposite ends of magnets so I try everything I can to find a book to shatter those laws of physics. (Sidekick actually likes this book.) The reason I mention it is because I got back to Sidekick's locale with a half hour to spare, and was still listening to OTR, and in order not to look like I was sitting on a bench ogling people and possibly making eye contact and inviting conversation (shudder!) I pretended to read "Angry Little Girls." Then found I was reading it for real and had to keep rolling back OTR to catch what I had missed. I was sitting under a wall clock that seemed to be moving really slowly. After about 20 minutes I figured out that it was stopped.

Jack is now back on the east coast and finally met up with Dean again so I think we're back into the action.

I bought a guidebook to the museum (another paper book!) so I could look at stuff, draw stuff and read stories about stuff at my leisure.

Then I got mad because I shouldn't be spending money since I am going on vacation in 2 weeks.

On the long walk between our next errands I took this picture:



I really like that Sidekick's class is drawing us back into Boston on a regular basis.