Enjoy an Art Museum, Docent Tour, and Lunch in a Day Trip

It is an excuse for a tasty lunch. We justify the true goal of the day, trying a new (to us) restaurant, with the appearance of culture. Living in the suburbs of Dallas, it is not a huge ordeal to trek into the city and enjoy the resources available to us. Even better, we will share a simple stress free outing with you.

Sleep in on a Saturday morning, since the Dallas Museum of Art does not open until eleven. Knowing a decent lunch awaits, we curtail our breakfast bounty and read the paper curled around a bowl of cereal. It is a gorgeous clear, sunny day with a hint of fall in the air. Dressed in sturdy walking shoes and casual wear, we drive the twenty miles into the city. Downtown Dallas on a Saturday morning is not teeming with life. The Arts District off of Pearl Street is just waking up and we easily find a meter to plunk in a few quarters. It is silly to pay the full day parking lot rate, when we plan to browse and then bolt for lunch.

There are some families and students waiting for the doors to open and we join the group to pay the ten dollars admission fee. We find our name on the docent tour list and end up with a private tour. Now, the docent tour was a bit of a bonus. My friend had won a silent auction bid a year ago and the tour was expiring. Even with a month's notice, friends and family were too busy to join in the festivities. Hence, it was the two of us. The docent tours can be arranged privately or there is a free public tour at two o'clock daily.

The tour is a pleasant surprise and gives us a new perspective of the museum. Rather than a seemingly random hodge-podge of art, there is a flow to the building and the docent guides us to a starting point upstairs. As we walk up the steps we enjoy the glass sculpture in the window of the art café. Flowers or sea creature creations, the bright glass glistens and allows the imagination to wander. An added bonus from the second floor is a view into the Nasher Sculpture Center next door. This is a year old cultural coup for the city of Dallas. Raymond Nasher donated his collection to the city, as well as actively participating in the building and presentation of his sculptures. The Nasher Center is a possible side trip depending on your art ambition for a day.

Our docent begins in the early American galleries and proceeds to stop and discuss various favorites and newly acquired pieces. As we proceed, we get a mixture of opinion, art history, and technique. With a different view and some lively discussion, we enjoy our stroll through the Dallas art galleries. We sit in front of Frederick Church's The Iceberg to rest our feet. The Dallas Museum of Art has a wide-ranging collection from American to African art, from classical to modern. A few hours here can enlighten young minds or invigorate the old. Constantly changing and rearranging the art on the walls, the museum wants you to return to see old favorites in new settings or to enjoy new works. It is easy to take the museum for granted, but an occasional visit is refreshing.

After two hours, we thank our guide and proceed to lunch. A short drive from the arts district, McKinney Avenue offers a variety of funky stores, trendy clubs, and fabulous eateries. We head to Cretia's on McKinney , a bistro and bakery. At one in the afternoon it has a decent crowd, and with the gorgeous weather, the patio seating is full of patrons. The menu does not disappoint with choice of lunch or weekend brunch items. We chose the chicken croissant sandwich and the hot roast beef sandwich. The lunches come with salad choices, fries, or fruits. Save room for dessert because the bakery section of this establishment is wonderful. We savored carrot cake with real cream cheese frosting and a red velvet cheesecake that was melt- in- the mouth delicious. Cretia's proves to be an enjoyable reward for our dose of art culture.

To burn off a few calories, we finish the afternoon with a stroll up McKinney to the Knox shopping area. Unique specialty shops and popular stores such as Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel line the streets. Shop, people watch, or plan the next outing complete with a restaurant choice on McKinney. This is one little section of Dallas and the Dallas Museum of Art is only one of many museums to see. Take the time to enjoy some art and lunch.

Dallas Museum of Art Arts District
Cretia's 4438 McKinney Ave Dallas Texas 75205

The Must See British Independent Film <i>Sixteen Years of Alcohol</i>

Sixteen Years of Alcohol is a British Film depicting an alcoholic's struggle to come to terms with the two conflicting sides of himself:  the violent addict and the passionate idealist.  It’s shot in Edinburgh, Scottland with absolutely beautiful cinematography and begins with the middle Aged Frankie Mac (Kevin McKidd) being beaten and kicked in an alley.  The rest of the movie takes places in a dream like state with Frankie looking back on his life.  The Director/Writer Richard Jobson based this movie off him and his brother’s real lives.  This gives the poetry and story a really personal realism that I think is it’s richest attraction.

Kevin McKidd ,who plays Frankie Mac, does an outstanding job and the movie as a whole is not very predictable, which is very refreshing.  The non-chronological unfolding of the story in the retrospective (looking back) point of view helps increase this effect.  The beginning is a little slow, but will keep you interested as you will instantly be able to empathize with the young childhood Frankie. There are three main stages of the film which consist of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. 

I don’t want to spoil the plot line for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, but in short an idealistic boy is exposed to the hard reality of his father’s true character.  This disillusionment continues into adolescent where Frankie becomes a violent gang leading alcoholic.  He finds love and tries to come out of his past, but his self destructive tendencies keep pulling him back. 

Frankie’s narration is bit simply and repetitive, but the shear charisma and dualism of the main character as he struggles with the two different sides of himself make him an extremely interesting multi-dimensional character.  The main attraction to this piece is the strong character driven development of the relationships Frankie Mac has and how they change throughout the different parts of his life. 

It’s extremely microscopic, or concerning the inner struggles of the main character.  Although, he is physically beaten up a few times, the real conflict is within himself and the POV never leaves Frankie.  I love movies in this perspective.  Most Hollywood films involve a third person point of view and mainly macroscopic or outward plots.

A few critics have said that it plays into the standard self destruction drug addict loathing formula, but I would highly disagree.  The concepts have been played out before and it’s true that some of the violence seems invented and lacks realism, but the movie pulls it off beautiful in a more poetic and thought provoking way then other films of this nature.  The alcoholism is a little too much on the tame side.  In the portrayal of a self destructive violent alcoholic, I expected to see him wake up and take a drink, or black out and wake up in his own vomit or some other signs of extreme drinking.  Instead you are simply given a few stumbling home scenes, but nothing very shocking

A couple of scenes are purposefully remnant of A Clockwork Orange, which is externalized referenced in the movie itself by Frankie’s bedroom poster of A Clockwork Orange.  Unfortunately some of the violent A Clockwork Orange flash backs lack direction, so they come off a bit confusing.  The transitions and the overload of symbols and metaphors were a little too much at times and made you ask yourself is this a dream sequence or really happening or what?  This created some confusion and took away a little from the films effect. 

This movie has been released on DVD and you can currently find it at any major video store or rental chain.  I definitely recommended this film to anyone who enjoys a serious non-predictable movie with beautiful cinematography, strong acting, and a rich poetic unfolding of a personal story.

It was nominated for in the 2003 British Independent Film Awards for Best Independent Film and Susan Lynch won the Best Supporting Actress category.  In the USA the reviews have been mixed, but on the positive side.  This is definitively a must see and may possibly become a cult classic.

The Scope of New York 2006 Art Fair

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“Things have gotten so bad, lately, that people are in revolt against life itself.” – Kurt Vonnegut

There is art, and then there is…
That is the overwhelming sentiment guiding the omnivorous visitor as he meanders, craving enlightenment, up and down the cluttered corridors of the Scope New York 2006 art exhibition.

A hairy, overstuffed goon stands guard in one of the first stalls, his faceless head a reminder of the content (or not) that lies beyond the graffiti festooned portals, his celebrity a result only of his creator’s name. The walls are draped in an uneven, oriental-looking cardboard tapestry (one of the better pieces, by the way) offset by a pile of photographs leaning against a flimsy, badly whitewashed partition. These technically competent offerings just might snag the interest of the virginal visitor who has never glimpsed the works of Diane Arbus. A progression of wide yellow stripes on the concrete fortification adjacent to this opening scene were actually painted by the work crew, the same one that will tear a hole in it once the crowds have fully dissipated – so I am told by security personnel as I stare intently at the cement in search of meaning.

Three menacing, punkily clad, life-sized and high-powered-weapon wielding papier-mâché figures (secular Iraqi insurgents, perchance?) occupy a stage that warns the unwitting voyager of what is yet to come. A glance to the right reveals the disproportionate oral sex series, artfully done but equally artful in its lack of substance – an internet porn site must have inspired the proficient sketcher. Painfully distorted, tear stained puerile faces take up yet another space in oversized photographic zeal that may have been more appropriate in a magazine titled: “How to Deal with Your Spoiled Brats,” perhaps a suggestive subtitle for the whole Scope affair, as well.

A few labored steps forward and voila! The masterpiece unveiled: A crude oil rendering of a certain Nazi Chancellor fornicating with a swine to which an astute observer behind me, certainly just barely legal for barroom admittance, remarked enthusiastically: “Awesome!” Astonishing, indeed, was the “artist’s” audacity to present this image as though it possessed a single iota of originality or, the vaguest resemblance of simple forethought.

Few and far between were works from which one might, in fact, catch a glimpse of artistic talent coupled with a search for substance. A series of drawings with abstract geometric and topological qualities (vaguely reminiscent of Klee), a sequence of non-figurative paintings on wood and an excellent collection of acrylics inspired, in equal measure, by orchids and ancient Chinese technique were especially noteworthy. Nevertheless, the outright violence and wanton hostility of the great majority of regurgitated junk culture supplied by the “exhibitionists” helped make the experience one of indelible disgust. But what can one expect from a mindset that looks to Fear Factor and South Park for cultural direction? What can one say when artistic endeavor is pulverized to the obscene ogling of wretched lives alongside the elevation of hopelessness and topped with the idle pursuit of momentary gratification?

The old adage garbage in, garbage out seems to fit as snuggly as a lambskin glove the hands of these tots of trivia. Were there reason and rhyme for the outbursts of gratuitous cruelty disguised as art, then one might even be left to ponder. There are countless examples of art employing carnage as a mere medium to put forth a broader and more significant message. However, the absolute want of rationale seems to be exactly the point: “we are doing this because we can” is proffered in the true spirit of the spoiled adolescent who thinks he is entitled to something other than a swift kick in the rump.

Talent is never enough. Talent without core is a waste of time, space and energy for both spectators and artists. One would hardly praise Graham Greene for writing brilliantly tailored laundry lists. The hackneyed approach to pointless violence is neither a social statement nor a cultural observation; it is an excuse not to think for oneself; it is the scatterbrained copycatting of a devil-may-care, pseudo anti-intellectual pose popularized by the irresponsibly frivolous, make-believe world of the affluent strata. Random brutality exists in our society and it is the duty of art, as an ultimately human manifestation, to speak out against it, deterrent that it is to the evolution of our species, but never to trivialize and glorify it, so as to wind up co-opted by the same system that they, the self-proclaimed artists, pretend to despise.

Great Tips for Memorable Baby Shower Gifts

boston celtics baby clothes

I never realized how complicated buying a baby shower present could be.  I always loved to shop for the gifts before I had a baby.  Unknown to me, I actually thought I knew the best things to get.  You just pull up the registry and get something.  This is a full proof way o make sure you get something the new mommy wants.  However, let me propose another idea.

I have a 13 month old little girl.  When I was pregnant, I had 3 baby showers.  I was very fortunate and my friends and co-workers were very generous.  I didn’t have to buy any clothes or onezies for about 6 months.  I also found out, after my showers and registry completion, which I didn’t know what to register for when my daughter grew a little. 

These are some of my tips on baby shower gifts that I give friends when they ask:

1. How much I spend depends on how well I know the person.  If it is an acquaintance, I usually spend $20-$25.  If it is a close girlfriend, I usually spend a little more.  I also keep some basic stuff on hand and buy it when it goes on sale.  That way it is cheaper.  Those items are infant Tylenol and gas drops. 
   
   


2. I start buying for close friends when they are about 4 months along.  This way I can spend a little more and not feel it so bad in the wallet.
   
   


3. I always start out with a basic set for everybody. This consists of diapers, infant Tylenol, and gas drops.  Usually I can find a box of wipes on sale and include a couple of packages.
   
   


4. Other items I try to include off the registry are things that the baby will need later on.  Such items are usually spoons that change colors when too hot, sippy cups, other feeding items, and bibs that are for when the baby starts eating solids as opposed to the adorable drooling bibs that the new mommy will probably get a ton of.  I have found that these are very much needed and are usually not purchased off the registry as they are not “cute” gifts to give.
   
   


5. Filler items that I can usually find for $1 or less are teething rings, socks, generic bottles (make sure you get the right size nipple neck the new mommy registered for), and toys/rattles.
   
   


6. Things I don’t get are onezies, cute drooling bibs, towels, washrags, and outfits.  I have found by going to many showers and by my own experience, that the new mommy gets plenty of these whether she has registered for them or not.
   
   


7. Diapers are an item all to themselves.  I loved getting all kinds of diapers.  That way I got to try different brands without having to buy them myself.  I do have a confession, however.  I was so blessed that when I figured out that only Pampers didn’t leak or break out my little girl, I returned $105 worth of unopened diapers to Wal-Mart.  So I don’t worry about whether I look cheap or not when I buy different kinds of diapers.
   

Here are some tips I would give the new mommy that I learned the hard way.  I made the mistake of washing all my new clothes as soon as I received them.  I would whole-heartedly recommend not washing anything until you are all done with your showers.  I probably would have exchanged some onezies for other things I needed but didn’t get but couldn’t because I washed everything as soon as I got them.  I also received duplicates but didn’t realize it until I had washed both items.  I could have exchanged these as well.  I also saved all of my shower bags and have used them for other baby showers that I have been invited to since then.  This allows you to spend a little more on the gift since you don’t have to spend anything wrapping it.

I hope you have a great time buying for your baby shower.  It is one of my favorite gifts to buy.  New mommies are so appreciative of anything they get.  I know I was.  Not to mention that they are usually starting off with a clean slate and have nothing to begin with.  Maybe these tips can help you buy the best gift sets you know the new mommy will love.  I have gotten lots of complements even though I never buy the “cute” stuff.