New York jaunt

I went to New York last weekend to get out of this snowbound city (NOTHING was plowed or even shoveled by the time I got back, and we're now about 11 days since the snow fell) and had a lot of fun! I stayed in Greenwich Village this time with my friend Danielle. As I wandered around the neighborhood, I noticed that people only wore low-heeled slouchy boots. So I bought some. :) They would be très chic if I didn't have calves the size of Brooklyn, but big girls need love too, so I'm wearing them anyway.

I also went to the Museum of Modern Art on Sunday with Christina and Christoph, especially to see the Tim Burton exhibit. It was AWESOME. That man's brain is something to behold. The stuff he produces is so intricate and irreverent and creepy and funny and detailed, it was just amazing to see. Some stuff on display: old stop-motion movies he filmed, some as far back as the 70s; figurines used in movies like The Corpse Bride; costumes for Edward Scissorhands, Batman, and others; paintings of fanciful characters; short stories and poems with illustrations written on notebook paper - all just really cool displays. If you are anywhere near it, go take a tour. Try to go on a non-holiday, though, because it gets really crowded and stuffy in that exhibit space.

I was pretty unimpressed with the artist Gabriel Orozco, though, and his exhibition space was way bigger than Tim Burton's. I can tell he's one of those super eccentric people who thinks everything he conceives is art, simply by virtue of being conceived by his "brilliant" brain. Some stuff on his display: toothpaste he spit onto graph paper and let dry; an empty shoebox; five yogurt caps pinned to the wall - ugh. Admittedly, some displays were neat, like his chess board and the Citroën he cut the middle out of and welded back together, but on the whole - I was unmoved.

Call me shallow, but I like stuff that really makes me feel something (besides annoyance). Is it so much to ask to feel wonder, delight, despair, joy, or even just rightness when you look at a true piece of art? Or, in order to be cultured, do we all have to pretend yogurt caps and toothpaste spit are art?