Candle on the water

Magnet #926 - Lighthouses of Maine

As I type this, I'm sitting on the slowest moving train known to man (I could seriously run faster, ya'll), on the last leg of my three-week sabbatical home.

Looks like that layoff was some damned good timing, since I ended up having to chauffeur my parents up and down the east coast for my dad's eye surgery. First the surgery, then the week-after follow-up. And, in another two weeks another follow-up roadtrip.

So this trip included:

• One train trip from NYC to NC
• One roadtrip from NC to Boston, with an overnight stopover in NYC
• One roadtrip from Boston to NC, with an overnight stopover in NYC
• One "roadtrip" to Raleigh to have some fun with a former client and friend
  
• One roadtrip from NC to Boston, with an hour stopover in NYC and a rather profitable side trip to Mohegan Sun
• One roadtrip from Boston to NC, with a detour through New Hampshire, Vermont, and an overnight stopover in NYC
• One train trip from NC to NYC
  

Whew. I Tweeted it, but dang, did I make the 85/95 corridor my bitka!

I picked up this magnet at a Hannaford's in York, Maine, when it was becoming clear that I wouldn't be able to see any lighthouses of Maine. In fact, I'd mentally written up the whole lighthouse magnetpost to be how of course I went to Maine and didn't see a lighthouse.

The next morning, though, we decided to take a quick oceanside jaunt, and just before a fabulous breakfast at Sandy's Purple Palace, we stumbled to Nubble Lighthouse. It's on an island, next to a look-out promontory - so gorgeous. Hurricane Earl helped us out with a strong surf, so it was very cool to see it with busy waves hitting the shores.

The lighthouse and its outerbuildings were very much like a Hopper painting and I couldn't stop taking pictures, just trying to capture the right shadows of the towers on the lawn.

Or, you know, waiting for the gift shop to open.

eta:
I have this strange urge to see Pete's Dragon now. And I haven't been able to stop singing It's Not Easy or Candle on the Water, ever since. And I can't stop trying to say Passamaquaddy, either.

At the corner of coincidence and fate

Magnet #820 - Inset of Hopper's At Two Lights

This inset of Edward Hopper's Lighthouse at Two Lights that I magnetblogged about before, is supercool. If you go back to the original magnet, and compare it with this, and the Met link above, it's amazing how these art magnets change colors depending on the production process and the image resolution they're reproduced at.

Technically, I suppose the colors also depend on how you look at the image, and ultimately even the person who is looking at it.

It's much like watching LOST. The show means so many different things to different people - everyone has their own set of theories about it.

I said last year that I was just going to enjoy the show for what it was. That I wasn't going to make my head crazy by trying to figure out the ins and of the plot, the story, the characters, the time frames, the whatevers.

For me, there was just no sense in becoming obsessed with the details. I kinda realized that I was out of control the day that I stayed on hold for like half an hour having called in to that one marketing number, freaking myself out, wondering what secrets would unfold on the phone.

Of course, I'm using this magnet for today, because I'm still trying to figure out how they built that lighthouse that Jack destroyed - how'd they build it to reflect the lives of the candidates on LOST? Did they answer that question? Probably, and I just had to move on.

I've had to put LOST on self-imposed hiatus since the beginning of March - and now that I finally watched 11 episodes back to back yesterday and today, I cannot believe how much I managed to stay unspoiled for! Like, boom, went the sub!

Today's backend of the marathon included a 3-hour break for the Last LOST Weekend at the Paley Center. It was a screening of the pop-up pilot, and then a panel with a couple of my favorite crix, @Sepinwall and @poniewozik. So fun.

But, now that I'm totally caught up before the show's finale, I find myself wondering what people will be feeling tomorrow night at this time. Of course, everyone better than to think that tomorrow, when the LOST end credits roll, that half the questions we've asked over the last several years will be answered, or even addressed. I just hope that when the box set comes out, that they'll put in the writers room storyboard and timeline tracker. That, I would pay big money for.

In the meantime, I'm loving this @DamonLindelof tweet:

Folks. Things are going to start leaking. Resist. It's Christmas Eve. You've made it this far. Don't read it. EXPERIENCE IT. Please.

Of course, I dunno how to take that...I open my Christmas presents on Christmas Eve!

Do you know the way to La-la Land?

Magnet #685 - Hopper's Lighthouse at Two Lights

Another sale magnet from the Met. I think I might singlehandedly be supporting their magnet sales.

As I was looking at my little fridge magnet art gallery, I realized I have a couple of Hoppers, well, in the hopper, so to speak.

So I won't wax poetic about Hopper's work in general, and how meant for Lighthouse at Two Lights (Maine) to stand for the individual's stand against industrialization. One, because I don't totally get it, but also because really? fight against industrialization?

But, a twofold reason why I picked this one today.

One, because I kinda like the idea of the lighthouse sitting as a bastion of hope on this promontory. And, two, because of the amount of sky in the painting.

Why sky? Because it really didn't even take the full first week of 2010 before I remembered my theory about advertising folks, and I suppose, people in general:

There are two people in this world.

The ones who have their head in the clouds, going about their merry little way singing their happy la-la-la's.

And those behind them, who have their noses to the ground, scurrying about, just trying to pick up the pieces.

Which one are you?

Western motel

Magnet #657 - Hopper's Western Motel

I want to say that I bought this at the National Gallery in DC, during the Hopper exhibition a couple of years ago.

I do so love a good Hopper. He's known for putting people in everyday places and spaces, and still somehow making them stand out.

Western Motel, one of his most important pieces, is a perfect example. It's a lady sitting on a bed that's perfectly made, in a motel in an obviously desolate area of the US, with her bags packed, waiting by the window.

Where's she going? Who's meeting her? What's she thinking? Who's she looking at? Is that car hers? Is that her ride?

All that. From one painting. There's a story there, and an unanswered ending. Awesome.

I just picked her for today, because she's probably nice and warm sitting in the sunlight poking through her hotel window, with her supercute sleeveless dress. Me? I'm frozen, sitting here by my 7th story window, overlooking the monorail, here at the Hotel Andra. The thermostat's at 86, and I'm shivering uncontrollably. I know, I could complain, but I'd rather blog and then jump under the covers. Jeepers.

I will give Andra its due, though - it's a supercute hotel, with the nicest staff ever and the biggest rooms ever, all for the most unbelievably low rate ever.

Probably not lower than this chick's hotel, but still.