Day Three

Day 3 – Your idea of the perfect first date.

Perhaps these '30 Day Challenges' are meant for young, free spirits, i.e. unmarried. In any case, I guess my idea of a perfect first date (or a place to receive your engagement ring) would be the Art Institute of Chicago. If I get tired, you (Mordo) can take me across the street to Bennigan's. Or we can walk the rest of the block and you (Mordo) can take me to McDonald's for an even cheaper, more satisfying  meal.

Ideally, the museum would not be crowded, and would be soothing, like Ando Tadao's Museum of Modern Art in Forth Worth. You wouldn't have to wait in a line that wraps around a giant cement upside cone thingie and then snakes its way up the escalators, like I had to last summer at the National Art Center in Tokyo for an exhibition of stuff from the Orsay.

If you are not Mordo, and you want to take me out on a date, a perfect one would be to a White Sox game. But I think the only other 'dude' who is permitted to take me out, by MordeKei standards, would be Southpaw.

Thursday Adventures Again

Today was gray and rainy, but not too cold. Mordecai and I went downtown this afternoon. We ate at Fontano's first; I had a turkey sub. Not as great as Mr. Sub's, but satisfying nonetheless. It turns out admission to the Art Institute was free throughout February, and the Munch show was half off (still $10!).

We went partially to see the Munch show, and partially so I could do some research for my own class. I was disappointed that "The Scream" was not in the exhibit. There's some lame sketch of it in its place. I understand everyone wants to steal "The Scream," but can't they get some Norwegian special security to accompany the painting when there's a Munch show at a big museum? Jeesh. Also disappointing: a lot of the modern and contemporary stuff is in storage, waiting for the new modern wing to open in May. For instance, my penguins are nowhere to be found. I was prepared for this, but again, can't there be special accomodations?

Photography (and lecturing!) was not permitted in the Munch exhibit, so instead I have these pictures of my other favorite works. I think my favorite works in the Art Institute tend to be ones that make me laugh--I laughed at the penguins, I laughed at the gold dragon-slaying, I laughed at this duo-person on the right from the Japanese modern print exhibit (it also reminded me of Aristophones' speech on the origins of love from Plato's "Symposium," which I just read again recently). The hush-hush and bow-down-with-respect-to-the-work atmosphere of art museum is too much for me, so I appreciate works that invite me to be silly.

Also noteworthy: blueberry tights! These tights are from Uniqlo, courtesy of Jenni. I want to live in all the Uniqlo things she brought from New York for me. I think if I do, I'll end up like Violet Beauregarde.

I love how unnecessary it was to roll her before sending her off to the juicing room (~1:08).

Chanel Mobile Art in NYC

One interesting thing about the Chanel Mobile Art exhibit that I hadn't really thought about is that since it's mobile, the reception will differ not just from person to person but from city to city. It's up in Central Park of New York now, and the NYTimes gave their verdict on the structure and its contents. Mr. Nicolai Ouroussoff seemed to be quite disappointed.

I just have to say, I don't know why you'd expect social responsibility from Chanel or Karl Lagerfeld. I was just thankful I didn't pay to see this building or go into it (I did have to wait in line, but "time is money" didn't apply last summer). I mean, this is coming from a brand that just raised their bag prices by 20%, and from a man who does stuff like this. Perhaps Mr. Ouroussoff enjoyed the last piece on the tour, which was Yoko Ono's wishing tree. You are asked to write your wish on a slip of paper and tie it to one of the tree branches. If one smells bullshit, this is the place to start breathing through your mouth. But I waved the stench away and wrote, "A Chanel 2.55 flapbag!!!" Which was what all of this was about, not "idealistic causes." Maybe I just had a different perspective of the exhibit in Japan, where consumerism is embraced, not shunned?

Chanel Robertson Nail Collection

These nailpolishes were released in honor of the new Chanel boutique in L.A. I heard about this in May, and had been waiting to hear how I could purchase them. Back then if you didn't live in or near L.A., where you can get them directly at the store, you had to sign up on some useless email list and wait to see when they would be released online. But I inquired at the Chanel counter at Takashimaya here in Yokohama and the pretty Chanel lady told me that they were going to be one of ten locations in Japan to sell the line starting July 4th. After accompanying my grandma to her doctor's appointment that day, we stopped by Takashimaya and I picked up the pink and purple polishes.

"Melrose"

"Rodeo Drive"

I couldn't not get "Melrose" and "Rodeo Drive" is perfect for my quest to turn into a grape or Baikinman. I was tempted to get the orange "L.A. Sunset" since it matched my relatively dark skin, but common sense told me not to and for once we agreed on something. Here is the interactive site for the nailpolishes--you can purchase them and download a desktop image you "create"! Yay for materialistic art!

Chanel Mobile Art

Another day in Tokyo, another day of waiting in line. It's like I'm in Disneyland. Naomi accompanied me to see the Chanel Mobile Art exhibition at the Yoyogi park in Harajuku. Entry is free, but you have to reserve tickets for an exact date and time. They were sold out for the entire time the exhibit is here at Family Mart (convenience store), and apparently the line for this weekend's tickets at the box office started forming at 8AM so it was totally impossible to get any when we arrived at 11AM. We ended up waiting in line to enter the exhibit that day, which we were told was possible because there are often no-shows. But it was well well well worth the one and a half hour wait!

You enter through the cave-like part, and exit where the woman is standing by the slick glass doors. Designed by Zaha Hadid, the structure is basically a mobile art museum with Chanel-bag-related contributions from various artists. It moves from city to city—it started in Hong Kong, came here in May, will move on to New York in September, and then I think it goes to Paris. When you enter, you get an audio guide that helps you navigate the building and the works of art. The woman’s voice who guides you sounds like the old lady at Margie’s—for those of you who don’t know her, she’s a crabby old lady who takes ice cream orders inefficiently and sounds like she’s been smoking since birth. Anyway, it was a cool interactive guide with nice music and direction. Before you leave, you get a gigantic, unstapled (wtf?) magazine that includes artist information, interviews with Karl Lagerfeld and Zaha Hadid, and other random cool stuff.

I should've checked to see if my camera has a panoramic option. I highly recommend seeing this exhibit if possible. Long live Uncle Karl!