Oooohhhh. Aaaaaahhh.

My favorite yard and tree in Cambridge.

Head of the Charles

This weekend was very exciting for my neck of the woods. Right here in Cambridge/Boston, the Head of the Charles, or Charles Regatta was held right on the river that divides the two cities. Tons upon tons of people poured down to the river banks to watch the boats race against the clock.

I caught the first days events during a morning run and stopped on a few bridges to watch a couple heats pass underway. Age groups from youth to 70+, teams from all over the world, and former olympians all participated in the event. The pure numbers and stats are enough to get you excited, but watching the boats stealthily glide over the water, the teams moving in unison with one another and the coxswain yelling with all they've got from the front of the boat will make you cheer and scream with the best of em

Museum of Fuiiiine Art, Baybay

At last, I finally made it over to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I wasn't sure what to expect. You don't hear people talk about the MFAB as something spectacular, or rather you don't really hear them talk about it at all. But I had made it a point to go, so with a free ticket from Rodolpho Machado, I coerced myself to take a little trip over to West Boston.

The museum is huge, not well laid out, but full of good art, apart from the building. The museum is located within its original structure, opened in 1876. There are lots of walls and columns and stairways, and really no visibility of the plan. Sir Norman and Foster have just designed a new wing for it that is to be built within the next few years, so perhaps that will modernize the museum a bit. For now, however, it is pretty closed in and lacks a lot of natural light.

I had a chance to run through an exhibit on Napoleon and 19th century French era art/clothing/design. I did literally run. What was more interesting were a couple of exhibits on Japanese art, one entitled the Art of Drama and Desire. This had a lot of the kiyok-e(?) art most associate with Japan. Lots of scenes depicting the brothels and geishas of the "floating districts," home to women of such work. The art was really delicate, for the most part, although there were a couple of pornographic scrolls placed along the back of the show room that were quite unexpected. Apparently, these were shown only at private house gatherings of the artist. Ha, I guess things never change.