Today, I went with Billy, Anne-Marie, and Katie to see the Cezanne and American Modernism exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In honor of Five Apples, the only painting from the exhibit that came from Gertrude and Leo Stein's collection of Cezanne paintings, I'll recount for you the five memorable moments from my week.
1) Cezanne and American Modernism
Attending art exhibits usually just makes me feel insecure about how little I know about art and the artistic movements that coincide with the literary movements I know so well. I was hoping to learn something about the connections between artistic modernism and literary modernism, but I was still interested to see how American painters were influenced by Cezanne's work. It was exciting to see a painting that used to belong to Gertrude Stein and which used to hang in her house in Paris. Even if she did tell her brother she'd keep the Picasos and he could have all the Cezannes when they decided to part ways. Plus, it was fun to get lunch and have a chance to spend some time with Anne-Marie and Katie away from campus.
2) Navy/Hopkins Lacrosse Game
I've been to precisely two lacrosse games in my life-- both of them between high school teams-- but I'm glad Billy and I decided to check out this matchup yesterday. It turned out to be a nice day, and the game was really exciting! I always enjoy watching sports I don't understand. It's fun to try to figure out what's going on. Navy fell behind 0-5, but they ended up winning 9-8 in overtime, so that kept things interesting. Afterwards, the announcer said that Navy had previously lost to Johns Hopkins 30+ times in a row, so then it made a lot more sense that the players and fans stormed the field after Navy scored the sudden death goal. We got to the game a bit early for the "closeout sale" of Navy merchandise, so Billy got a few new items and also this cool picture of the empty stadium.
You can read Billy's recap of the game here.
3) Happy Birthday Nana!
On Wednesday, we went over to Nana and Mr. Dick's to celebrate Billy's grandmother's 79th birthday. She has been pretty sick lately, and spent a bit of time in the hospital, so it was good to see that she seemed to be feeling much better. We tried out some new pizza that I liked and Mr. Dick's lemon cake was as delicious as always!
4) Priscilla Wald Visits UMd
Our department is currently recruiting Duke University professor Priscilla Wald. She came to campus on Wednesday to give a lecture and talk to graduate students. I found her enthusiasm for her work and teaching really inspiring. Her current project works on the intersections between science and narrative, so I was pretty interested in her suggestions about why the sciences and the humanities need each other. I am hoping I get a chance to read her most recent book, Contagious, over the summer, even though it doesn't relate to my own work. And I am really hoping she decides to join our faculty!
5) O and the O's
Last night, after the Orioles lost another lead and fell to 2-16, Billy snapped this photo of Oscar's dejected expression.
Luckily, the Orioles finally won their third game today, so he is feeling like himself again. He's currently walking around the back of the couch as if he were a cat.
Oscar's moodiness is sort of endearing.
ReplyDelete