All posts by Sarah G

Americas

Back in November Leyre, Amy, and I headed to the MFA to see the Avedon exhibit. It happened to be the opening weekend of the new Americas wing, but we passed on checking it out because it looked super crowded. I am a very lucky person because I can show my work ID and get into the museum for free, so I knew I could plan a day to come back and dedicate to exploring just the new wing…and it only took me four months to do it!

So the new wing…I started at the bottom and worked my way up. I also should have grabbed myself a map, because the new wing has a lot of nooks and crannies that make it easy to get turned around and skip over large chunks of the gallery without realizing you’re doing it. I’m much more interested in modern and contemporary art, so of course I rushed through the lower floors and then absolutely loved every second of the top floor. I’m pretty sure I’ll start at the top next time I’m there.

The new wing is, itself, a work of art. I love the contrast of the modern wing attached to the original building. They did an amazing job integrating the two buildings. I think some of my favorite parts of the new wing are the hallways along the exterior where you get peeks of the downtown skyline (and there are a few benches and couches where you can get comfy and enjoy those peeks) and peeks of the atrium-like spaces where the original building and the new wing meet.

The courtyard between the two spaces is also pretty awesome, and there was some pretty fun live music that the kiddos were loving. There is also a restaurant in the courtyard, and I would imagine that it’s a nice place to eat and soak up the energy in the heart of the museum. There was also a huge Chihuly piece installed in the courtyard (see above) – one of the first pieces of an upcoming exhibit to be installed. It happened to be in my second favorite color, so of course I enjoyed it!

After I made my way through the entire Americas wing, I had to visit my Buddhas. I get cranky when I head up there and find other people…but they usually leave before I’ve had my fill and I can get some peace and quiet in there. And when I had my fill of peace and quiet, I headed back home and snuggled with this guy:

1 Comment

by Sarah G on March 27, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in A List: Winter 2011, barley

Posted by Sarah G on March 27, 2011

https://mymonotonouslife.com/2011/03/27/americas/

The Great Nebula Orion

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted about my Winter To Do List…mostly because I’ve been a slacker about checking items off! The first day of spring really snuck up on me, so I decided to give myself a little grace period. New deadline: April 1st.

Lucky for me, I have a lot of free time and so-so weather this weekend, so I get to squeeze in a few last items. First up: Check out the Museum of Science Observatory. I honestly don’t know how I got this far in life without knowing that you could do this. For free, no less! It’s definitely worth doing, although you should probably wait until the temps are out of the 30s. And definitely either bring someone with you or bring your iPod so you can drown out the whiney little boys (and their fathers) who are too young to appreciate the observatory, too cold to deal with waiting in line for it, and have mothers that don’t care.

I made my way up to the top floor of the parking garage and saw the line for the observatory. And a pretty nice view of the Back Bay skyline across the Charles, too! There were a few different museum reps there, updating everyone in line about what we would be seeing, and where it was in the sky. First up for us was the Orion Nebula. Or as I like to call it, Baby Star Land. I had no idea what to expect, and it was pretty fun watching and hearing the reactions of the kids in line in front of me (and their parents!). I was kind of underwhelmed by the Orion Nebula – it was really just a few bright (baby!) stars and a cloud of dust and gas. And then I would realize that I was looking at something that was 20 light years away, and it was pretty cool.

After everyone already in line had seen the Great Orion Nebula, as the very enthusiastic museum rep would call it (in a booming carnival-esque voice), they moved the telescope to look at Saturn. See the first picture I posted? And see the teeny little dot just to the left of the top of the spire above the butterfly billboard? That’s Saturn. Cool, right? Well…not so much. Until you’re seeing it through the telescope, where it’s not even as big as a dime, but it’s one of the coolest freaking things I’ve ever seen. And I saw it’s moons! Well, okay, only two of them, because Saturn has a boat load of moons…but at least one of the the ones I saw was Titan. As one of the Museum reps pointed out, if you can see any of Saturn’s moons you can be sure one of them is Titan because it’s the biggest. Titan has it’s own atmosphere, which makes it very cool and amazing if you’re a ten year old boy. Or a museum rep with a booming carnival-esque voice.

You guys, seeing Saturn was awesome! After being underwhelmed by the Orion Nebula, I was prepared to not be so impressed with Saturn either, so it was a nice surprise when Saturn made my standing in the freezing cold totally worth while.

2 Comments

by Sarah G on March 26, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in A List: Winter 2011, boston

Posted by Sarah G on March 26, 2011

https://mymonotonouslife.com/2011/03/26/the-great-nebula-orion/

Madness!

Yup. We’ve been watching lots of basketball.

Aerial View

I came home from work and found Bar Bar like this. He’s spent most of the last few days either making the White Cloud Of Warmth into a nest or burrowing under it to sleep.

I’m blue da ba dee da ba di

I was getting changed to head home after the gym and realized I was dressed in four different shades of blue. I guess I’m really into teals and aquas right now!

My Monotonous Life