A Long Awaited Trip to New England: The Boston Photos

Well folks, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and the ghost tours are getting larger.

But finally, a moment to update you with my goings-on!

Boston was nice. I had imagined it to be very clean, and very new. Very nicely maintained. And it was all of those things, but in a sort of creepy way.

I only really spent two days in the city itself, and one of them rained all over my hopes of truly exploring the city. But I think I saw a pretty good chunk of it, all things considered.
I went to the MFA
Saw one of my favorite Matisses
And once again spotted an Alfred Emile Stevens!

Was surprised to find a Sarah Bernhardt sculpture.
A lot of Sargents!

And I went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where I couldn't take any photographs.

This photograph of the atrium at the ISGM was just now stolen off the internet. I felt that a lot of the paintings on display in the building were poorly lit and difficult to see. But the building made up for what was disappointing in the paintings. Absolutely stunning, and inspiring. I'd like to see an artist residency built around this idea of environment and community.

Anna came to visit on Friday, and we went to the MIT museum, and saw the Robots exhibit!

That night we were joined by Anna's boyfriend as well as Julie, and we went to the Contemporary Art Museum, and then to see In the Next Room, or, The Vibrator Play. It was amazing. I'd recommend it to everyone. Yes, especially everyone.

Saturday Julie took me to Salem! Ahh!



It really just reminded me how much I loved The Crucible.
And there's not much else like hokey, historic tourism!

Sunday we stopped by Kerouac's grave. It was really moving, how many people leave things for him every day. We met two people visiting him, and we were there for maybe 20 minutes. People sure do love you, Jack.

Our next stop was Concord. We did tours of the Old Manse, Orchard House, and then stopped by Waldon Pond.

We didn't have enough time to actually see where Thoreau built his little house, but the recreation of it by the parking lot was good enough for me.



Then I caught a train to Providence. But I think that's best entered in a separate post, yes?

...And Providence!

Providence was nice too! Unfortunately it was entirely too rainy, and one day, we didn't even leave the apartment. But there was lots to do there, including Settlers of Catan, and lots of food to be baked, cooked, and ...souped?






I really, REALLY, don't know what I would have done if I had gone to RISD. Some of these hills are really dangerous! I imagined slipping down the hill with a big wet painting... no. no. Never.

The Rolypig made me SO happy!


Julie even came in one day to go to a TED talk at RISD with me. Well, not actually a TED talk, but rather a talk with the guy who started TED: Richard Saul Wurman. Julie wasn't feeling it, but I stayed the whole time. I find listening to interesting people incredibly enjoyable, even when they're just rambling (and sometimes, especially then).

I went to the RISD museum with Patrick, Noah's boyfriend. It was WAY more extensive than I had expected, and I really enjoyed it.

I even, once again, found a Stevens painting! (Twice in one trip! Imagine my delight!)

Patrick and I also went to the Culinary Museum at Johnson&Wales. It was actually a ton of fun. The museum itself was pretty small, but just packed with awesome old cooking stuff! The labels were well-written, even some of the individual exhibits were incredibly impressive. But, we had worked up such an appetite that we were prepared to pay top dollar for J&W cooked food, but apparently they have no such place on their own campus? Appalling.

The last night I was there, we went to an awesome Poetry Slam sort of thing. It really made me miss writing.
Kitty.

But I had to come home eventually: Hansie missed me soooo much!

And More and More and More!

Well this week was my last week volunteering at Project Basho. I met a lot of people that I will continue to see, and I discovered some awesome resources that I will probably continue to not use. Except that I did finally get my film processed from NYC/Brooklyn, and the images did come out, so I'll make a point to use Basho's Negatives Scanner in the near future. My camera being in working order also means that I can take it with me to Boston&Providence next week!! I can even fit it in my beautiful new hiking backpack (ordered off Ebay for cheap, but it totally serves my purposes!).

And when I return from far-away-lands, I will have yet another volunteer job awaiting me: yes, that's right folks, I am officially the new volunteer at the UPenn Archaeology&Anthropology Museum's Archives Department!

I will be working there Thursday mornings (meaning I'll have to get up early on my day off, BUT, I'll be home by early afternoon and hopefully will go right to the studio for some daytime painting of Leslie's kitchen (on the 4x5 canvas I stretched weeks ago. It's coming along quite nicely!) And I even have plans to audit my friend Erika's Architecture class at UPenn on Wednesday mornings. (And I won't even mention the new yoga studio by my house, because then I won't regret talking about it when I end up not going with Celia like we are promising each other we will).

So there's a lot going on! Including, of course, food: the CSA continues to be delicious (lots of squash: squash pasta, squash soup!) and even local honey this week! Last week Mom and Nanny came for dinner at Alma de Cuba (we are really making our Stephen Starr rounds) and Mom liked her birthday earrings (purchased at my favorite local jewelry store Tselaine) and Nanny had a box mailed to me because it was SO heavy, but it included lots of cookies and an asparagus cooker (in which I fully intend to cook pasta and other goodies), but because one tiny box is hardly enough to fill every nook and cranny of my apartment with food and other potentially necessary objects, she brought some boxes with her too.

And lastly, Christiane and Jessica have been graduated from Phase One of Jen Brown Fishtown Integration Orientation 101: they were introduced to, and approved of by the one and only Celia Caust-Ellenbogen. I am looking forward to a beautiful autumn of pretty ladies, knitting (finally) Amelia's poncho, squash, archives, studio, and maybe even some damned yoga. But first it must all begin with a trip to Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Julie, Lowell, Kerouac's grave, Providence, Noah, and more and more and more!

*Apologies that all of my images this post were savagely stolen from the interweb.

Escarole, Worms, and The Horse's Mouth

Wanted to get so much done today, but instead only ended up getting a little bit of work done in the studio on my hair art (soon to be finished and posted!, round one of them anyway)

But then I came home and made some escarole to go with some of Nannie's chicken I found buried in the freezer, and some leftover sweet potatoes. If I'm still hungry, I can eat some bread with the pesto I made today out of CSA spinach and some basil from the garden and other delicious pesto-making ingredients.

And the crumbs can go to the worms!
I got the worms in, and they are currently residing in my kitchen. I just get so worried about them! Soon I'll move some into the big bin outside, but to be honest, I plan on keeping enough of them in my own bin, just in case the outside bin fails again. This is my last effort on the communal worm bin, after that: they're all mine!

Now for dinner and The Horse's Mouth, a really funny movie that one of the docents at the Mutter Museum recommended to me. Every week he asks if I've seen it yet, and to be honest, I just can't take another week of saying no! (twenty minutes into it, and it's good already!)

Scarves and Apples

Well, I wore a scarf today. Just a small one. But it happened. I am so not looking forward to the winter. As a matter of fact, knowing that autumn only leads to winter, makes me dislike autumn. But that's not fair, because I really do love autumn. I just love summer the most.

A Fistful of Flowers was an awesome show by the Baltimore Annex Theatre! There weren't too many people there, but it was small and intimate and thoroughly enjoyable. Afterward we all hung out for a while, part of which took place in the playground across from the warehouse.

I took some long exposures with my digital camera.

This week has been very busy with moving Celia into her new apartment!She has some furniture from when she was a kid. We're making it work.

Did I mention she's keeping Marie-Claire? (The cat she's been cat-sitting at the house she was house-sitting)

Before&After

So, you can see even after two days how much better it looks! We still have some work to do, but all in all, its been a great Rosh Hashanah. I even ate a tiny delicious apple from the CSA on my walk home today. So much delicious food! Always!
Look at this freaking broccoli!