Well, it seems like a while since I have sat down and written a journal entry that wasn't quick and specific. It seems that I have been externally focused for the last couple of weekends - a strong need to get out and go, to ramble, to spend the time doing...things. Those things have not be particularly purposeful - often they have just been things. This last weekend was a classic example.
Sunday, I woke up, watched the morning news and chatted online for a while. Then, I drove down to San Jose and met some friends for breakfast - we went to the Cup and Saucer. I had hash benedict (basically an eggs benedict with hash instead of ham), orange juice and coffee. From there we drove up to the Fall Festival in Los Altos.
The Los Altos Fall Festival is a smaller festival (small being relative of course) so we only spent about two hours there. The best part of the festival was a display of classic cars - I took some good pictures there.
From there, on the spur of the moment, we went up to the Cantor Arts Museum at Stanford and saw the "Treasures of New Orleans" exhibit. It is an exhibit of a wide variety of pieces on loan from the New Orleans Museum of Art. It was kind of an odd exhibit, mostly bits and pieces without a real central theme. However, I love art and though the exhibit seemed to lack a central theme, there were some excellent individual pieces.
Rodin's "Age of Bronze" stood out, a nude bronze statue of a young Belgium soldier. It is a pretty incredible piece. I am not sure if it was on loan from New Orleans or from the Cantor Arts permanent Rodin collection.
The other pieces that particularly resonated with me was Whisperings of Love (Bougeureau), Woman in the Reeds (a bronze by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse), and Seamstress at a Window (Renoir). I bought a small print of Whispers of Love at the Museum store.
Renoir's Seamstress...is a particularly powerful piece as well. Very simple, very...charged...for lack of a better term. It is amazing what an artist can do with paint and canvas.
From there, we went to The Prolific Oven in downtown Palo Alto for a slice of cake. It is a great place, the cake there is excellent and they have a very wide variety.
Afterwards, we stopped at a comic book shop and I picked up a pair of Fable's trade paperbacks to add to my reading collection.
Then, I took my friends home back to South San Jose, circled home, took a shower and then popped out for a couple of errands. The evening was spent at home, with pizza, followed by a great little phone call with a friend.
All in all, an externally focused day. Today was a good day at work - busy enough to make the time fly, but sane enough that it flew by productively. After work I went out and saw "Burn After Reading" - skip it - it has a few good moments but is otherwise very slow. A clear miss by the Coen Brothers, whom I usually enjoy.
So, now I am at home, relaxing, watching the sun set, listening to the sounds of the courtyard below, and finishing up this journal entry.
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