Art, Fashion and Pizza

Here’s the thing. I REALLY wanted to love the Peabody Essex Museum. I was ready to fall madly in love with it. The entry hall was certainly promising as all get out. A soaring ceiling with mad amounts of light streaming in will grab me hard every damned time.

At 11 AM this past Saturday the joint was jumpin’. Tons of folks in line and milling about. Clearly, this place was gonna be spectacular.

Eh, not so much.

Warum?

I could def appreciate many of the paintings in the Impressionists on the Water exhibit but, rilly now, there’s only so many pics of sailboats that I can gaze on rapturously in one day.

Beyond Human: Artist–Animal Collaborations? Fun but geared toward the primary school set. Got a five year old? Take him/her here.

Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection Again with the ‘eh’ -- generally not my fav time period (1600s). They had a sweet little Bruegel the Elder BUT it didn’t knock my socks off and his work never fails to leave me sockless.

from here to ear

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot produces music in surprising and unexpected ways through large-scale acoustic environments. Boursier-Mougenot's immersive sonic installation, from here to ear, introduces a flock of 70 brightly plumed Zebra Finches to a gallery-turned-aviary to live among iconic Gibson Les Paul and Thunderbird bass guitars. At turns ambient and melodic, a constantly changing soundscape emerges as the finches explore their environment, eating, nesting and perching on the amplified instruments. This boundary-breaking exhibition asks us to consider the way we perceive, create and interact with music while challenging traditional notions of artistic collaboration.

This show looked like it’d be amazing and a half but:

1) LONG ass line to get in -- special tickets were needed.
2) Deaf here. Unless there’s a big percussive thing or a mess of funk going on, I’m not gonna feel the music.

Still, I truly wanted to go in and watch the birds on the Les Pauls (finch poo on expensive axes -- cool!). So, why didn’t we? See 1).

Of all the rooms, this is the one that I found most intriguing, fun and wild:
Future Beauty: Avant-Garde Japanese Fashion

an exhibition of nearly 100 dresses, skirts, gowns and suits that celebrate the ingenuity and innovation of contemporary Japanese fashion designers

There were some wickedly crazy get ups and gowns on display. Most of them were more sculpture than attire and that just lit up my brain with a bucketload of delight.

We didn’t go into the Chinese and East Asian Art halls. Next time. There’ll be a next time when it took an hour to drive there, the permanent collection and current shows didn’t, for the most part, thrill me and the entry fee, at 18 simoleons, was molto steep?

Yeah. Probably.
I’d like to see the Robert Weingarten show. Raven's Many Gifts: Native Art of the Pacific Northwest Coast looks interesting and Turner and the Sea -- oh please, I’m a total sucker for Joseph Mallord William Turner.

Next time, I’ll make Jen go with me and SHE can drive.

But, but.... there’s that pesky price tag. At $18, it’s the priciest small museum around.

The Portland Museum of Art in Maine, a similar sized joint with a far superior permanent collection, charges just $12.

The Fuller Craft Museum while small has a spectacular collection and with it’s eight dollar admission fee is a real steal.

The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center is also a tiny thing but their exhibits never, EVER disappoint. Another terrific deal at eight bucks.

The tremendous and wildly eclectic Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont charges $22 but that’s for a two day pass (and taking two days to explore their fabulous collections is a solid plan. That $22 fee is just during high season (May through October) though -- right now, January, a ten spot’ll get you in the door.

Granted, the Peabody/Essex bill is ten bucks after 5 PM  BUT they’re only open after five on one weeknight out of each month. Pffft.

Lunch, however, made the whole weird odyssey worthwhile. We went to the Flying Saucer Pizza Company and got the absolutely luscious Beldar.

EVOO and chopped garlic, Daiya vegan cheese, black olive, asparagus, roasted red pepper, red onion, green pepper

Vegan pizza that’s just dynamite AND they’ve a nice wine selection too. I had a lovely little Montepulciano, thanks.

And the decor -- christ almighty, the place is fun!
Hell, maybe Jen and I should take a trip up there some Saturday -- skip the museum and go directly to the restaurant. Yep, that is def gonna happen.