Tag: Museums

Culture Corner

Culture Corner – July 2014

Geoff W

2014 07-12 Hodges OverviewLast weekend I had an amazing weekend. I won’t go into details, it was sickeningly adorable, but suffice to say it was a great weekend. Thanks to my roommate I had two tickets to the ICA Boston that he got through work and gave to me and I finally found time to check it out again.

If you’re at all familiar with the blog, or with me, you’ll know I’m not usually impressed with the ICA. (You can read my rant about most museums here.) The building is architecturally fascinating, but the space usage leaves much to be desired. When you add in the super hipster and uppity staff (seriously, I get they love their jobs and more power to them, but you can love your job and interests without being obnoxious) and the over-staffing of the exhibits and the overpriced everything in their gift shop (really, who charges $2+ for postcards – no other museum I’ve ever been to). I even had a membership at one point, but after a couple of bad visits I cancelled it and I’m still glad I did, but this time I had a surprisingly pleasant visit.

Click here to continue reading.

Updates

June Recap 2014

Geoff W

I can’t believe we’ve already been in 2014 for six months and June is gone. It was another busy month. I crossed four things off my 30 x 30 list: spend a week in NYC with Tara, visit the de Cordova sculpture Park and Museum, spend a day at the beach and take a day hike. There was a fifth I really wanted to do, but I just couldn’t quite get to it, oh well I’m mostly on track, but will need to pick up the pace if I want to finish everything by December 21st!

Books and Bookish
2014 06-03 Quarterly Book RiotIt was a VERY bookish month. I got my very first Book Riot Quarterly (right). I was impressed with what all I got, but was a bit overwhelmed with the books. I’m not so sure the four books was necessary, but I loved the smaller book related gifts like the literary playing cards (below) and the library card pencil pouch! Mostly I was peeved that one of the books we received was the start of a series. I’m all for series, but don’t send one book in a series regardless of if the author provides it, it smacks of “buy the rest of my books,” and just irks me. If it ends up being a great book I’ll gladly eat my words. Regardless, as everyone else has previously noted I got much more than what I paid for in the box.

Click here to continue reading.

Culture Corner

Culture Corner – June 2014

Geoff W

2014 06-15 Finding Viviane MaierAlthough I skipped last month, this month’s culture explorations definitely make up for it. From my NYC trip which I wrote about last week and you’ll see a lot of pictures of below to my deCordova trip earlier this week and more I have planned over the next few days/weeks.

I’m not going to write much about the photo sets other than where they’re from and first impressions of the museums/experiences. I probably should’ve written this last week when it was all still fresh, but oh well. This first picture is of the postcard and ticket stub from the documentary Finding Vivian Maier. I’ve wanted to see this film for AGES and was very glad that the IFC was still showing it. It was worth every penny and made me even more excited about her as an artist. If you don’t know her story or her photographs I definitely recommend reading more about her above or at the Wikipedia page.

Click here to continue reading.

30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #23 – Visit the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum

Geoff W

2014 06-23 deCordova Guide and PostcardThis was the first day of my “staycation” and with this morning’s visit to the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum I’ve done six things on my list and I’ve got two or three more coming this week so get ready!

If you’ve read this blog at all over the past four years, you’re well aware that I love art. What you might not be aware of is that sculpture is one of my favorite art forms. I’m not sure How I first heard about this park, but when I did I knew I wanted to get out to see it and it was such a neat day trip, I will definitely go back out in the near future. I took advantage of my local library’s museum passes and only had to pay $5 instead of $14!

Click here to continue reading.

30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #26 – Spend a weekend in NYC w/ Tara

Geoff W

2014 06-13 Oh Hey Chrysler BuildingAfter a long and exhausting, but fantastically wonderful weekend in New York City with Tara I am now done with 20% of my list! I did so much that this is only going to be a basic overview of what we did with a few amazing pictures and then when I do my Culture Corner post for this month you’ll get the rest of it!

Tara and I have known each other since second year of undergrad, where she knew me as chlorine boy (I came directly from swim instructor training) and I knew her as one of the other two sophomores in an upper level random history class! She’s been in New York for almost four years and I haven’t been down to see her yet even though she’s been up to Boston twice to see me. So when I started making my 30 x 30 list I knew NYC and a Tara visit would be included, especially as she is moving to Portland, OR at the end of the summer.

Click here to continue reading.