In vino, scientia

Magnet #1317 - My Mood Is Wine

On a whim, and a LivingSocial deal, I took a wine class from the American Bartending School today.

I'm not a huge wine drinker, though I'll drink it if there's nothing else around. But I'm constantly in situations with wine, and have a few friends who love the stuff, so I figured why not learn something about it.

Ironically, the American Bartending School is working on their liquor license, so they weren't serving anything. It was literally a class that imparted wine knowledge, complete with handouts and everything.

Still, I learned a caskfull, so it was interesting.

Of course, two hours of talking about it, made me want wine. So after class, I bought a bottle of Malbec. And proceeded to break the cork in half. Oops.

Oh well, maybe that bartending glass the girls and I are taking in December will help.

You're the cream in my coffee

Magnet #1316 - My Mood Is Coffee

If you've been anywhere near me in the last few weeks, you know I've been fangurling over Seth MacFarlane, left and right. Actually, if you paid any attention, you'll know I picked up this particular crush way back at SDCC 2010 - sometimes, I am so damn consistent.

So yeah, a year later, the cuteboy crush is still going strong, only now, he's released a Big Band album. As he put it during his online concert tonight, "Don't think of it as music your grandparents listened to. Think of it as music your grandparents listened to...while making your parents."

It's funny, because it's totally the music I grew up with in the house, in the van on every roadtrip everywhere with my family. Now, I can't stop listening to the album. And when I'm not listening to it? I'm humming a track from it, usually You're the cream in my coffee, or Something Good from Sound of Music.

I'll admit, I'm completely fascinated by a dude my age, who can put out stuff like Family Guy and Cleveland Show and American Dad, but also play the piano and sing like an old-school crooner.

The marketer side of me wonders how the hell he is marketing to two such disparate audiences. For example, the 20somethings who watch his shows - at least a couple of them that I talked to - just refuse to acknowledge the musical side of Seth. Meanwhile, me, the 30something who can't watch anything he puts on television, loves the musical side of Seth.

But how is he selling his album? How are the numbers? Who is buying it? There's a part of me that feels like he basically waited until he had the money and the cred to produce this album, so that he wouldn't have to worry about any of that stuff.

And if that's the case, kudos to you, Seth. Let me know when the next album drops!

Lost in Trafalgar Square

Magnet #1315 - Trafalgar Square, London

I just got myself lost in Trafalgar Square tonight.

Ya'll, I can't count how many times I've been in Trafalgar Square. But, it seriously just took me 20 minutes of googling images and layouts trying to orient myself to this vintage image.

Not even joking.

I finally figured out that the vantage point is actually as if you were standing with the National Gallery to your right, as if you were on top of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Here's why this is even more ridiculous.

The very first time I walked into Trafalgar, it was to find the National Gallery. And I walked around for a good 10 minutes before I found it. You should have seen how much I laughed my ass off when I finally walked up the stairs of the giant building right in front of me.

For context, it's akin to walking around the National Mall in DC, and not being able to find the Capitol Building. Or walking around in Times Square, and not being able to find the Coke sign.

See? Ridiculous.

Anyway, picked this magnet for today, because we sat through a couple of tapings of Would You Rather? with Graham Norton for BBC-America's Ministry of Laughs comedy block. Much as I love Graham, highly doubtful I'll actually watch the show when it airs, just not my cuppa.

But, ya'll know how I adore tapings and behind the scenes anything, so it was a fun way to spend a few hours.

Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg

Magnet #1314 - Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg

Oh, yes. I still have several Faberge egg magnets left. And I love. them. all.

I just want one egg. The more I wear my own cobalt-blue "made by a real, live Russian" (seriously, that's how they billed it) Fauxberge hummingbird egg with the odd little angel as the surprise, the more I'm convinced I should buy a real one. Now, I just need all that disposable income.

This Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg from the VMFA collection was designed by one of the Faberge workmasters, Henrik Wigström, in 1915. It's made of silver, enamel, gold, mother-of-pearl, and watercolor on ivory. The surprise inside were miniature portraits painted on ivory of the women in Tsar Nicholas' life, the women of the House of Romanov - his sister, his daughters, and his cousin - who also served with the Red Cross.

Check out the below vid, seen up close the workmanship is just amazing.

"Hellish banditti"

Magnet #1313 - Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve

Louisiana's Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve is made up of about six different sites - the Barataria Preserve in Marrero, the Chalmette Battlefield in Chalmette, the French Quarter Visitor Center in New Orleans, the Acadian Cultural Center in Lafayette, the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice, and the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux.

Lots of places to visit, I'm sure it must take days. At least, I think, that's how long my friends who brought back this magnet for me spent down there!

Depending on who you ask, Jean Lafitte was either a pirate or a privateer, a smuggler, or a patriot, creating mayhem and havoc in the Barataria area of southern Louisiana back in the early 1800s. They say he had about a thousand people working with him, helping him smuggle goods and slaves throughout the region.

During the War of 1812, the knowledge of the local area and people came in handy for Lafitte, who actually started working with General Andrew Jackson, the very man who had dubbed him Hellish banditti. Together with Jackson's troops, Lafitte's Baratarians managed to win several key victories during the war, including the Battle of New Orleans. Their efforts earned Lafitte and his men full pardons from President Madison.

Of course, Lafitte totally went back to smuggling. I suppose after doing lots of crime, which he totally blamed on the government, it's hard not to go back to what you know.

But here's what I love. All that living and ne'er do welling, all that fighting and smuggling...and in the end, no one seems to know what happened to Lafitte! While there are some reports that he lived well into the mid-1800s, no one actually knows what happened to the guy in the end.

Talk about building a mystery.

What?

Timeshare art

Magnet #1312 - Baby (Cradle) by Klimt

The same friend who went to Australia brought this magnet back for me from the National Gallery of Victoria's Vienna Art & Design exhibition, featuring artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele and architects Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos.

Sounds like the coolest exhibition ever.

Here's funny, though. She went all the way to Australia...to see this painting, Baby by Klimt...owned by the National Gallery of Art. In Washington, D.C. Hahahaha.

I read a story a while ago about a trend for museums to just re-hang important pieces from their own collections and focus a whole exhibition around that one piece, supplementing them with lesser works from the artist, or with works from the same school. Part of it was to cut down on having to pay for the insurance and transportation of important pieces from museum to museum.

But, it looks like that's starting to ease up a bit - for example, that Feininger exhibit at the Whitney that I mentioned a few times already, only one Feininger is actually owned by the Whitney. The rest came from around the world, after years of work.

I love that. I love knowing that museums share their collections with each other - it's like timeshare art! (I know, it's a pretty naive idea that they're sharing, when there's all sorts of deals and insurance and whatnot that actually means they're not really sharing, per se, but go with it.)

What it does mean is that people all over the world get to see artwork they'd never be able to travel and see. It's why I try to see as many exhibitions here in town, because you just never know if you'll be visiting the museums the work came from. Pretty cool.

Direct mail

Magnet #1311 - New York City Ballet

A while ago, I made a promise to myself to enjoy everything this city has to offer. The problem that I didn't count on is that everything - from Groupons to direct mail to email blasts and Living Social - is determined to help me spend my money.

That means that besides the usual amount of bills in my mail, I get an extraordinary amount of direct mail about various performing arts programs scattered throughout the city.

And they're all these gorgeous 4-color, folded every which way, wafer-sealed, direct mail pieces. That totally get my attention. Add a celebrity component, one that I recognize, I'm almost sure to take the bait.

So that's how I ended up sitting at the New York City Ballet today, watching Paul McCartney's first ballet, Ocean's Kingdom, performed in Stella McCartney's costumes.

While the story didn't quite capture my heart, the music was wonderful and the costumes were simply amazing. You could tell they'd been designed as beautiful works of art, rather than costumes the dancers normally wore, but to see the colors splashed across the stage was something else.

It was a full house, for an afternoon matinee. Not surprising, I suppose. Then again, maybe it's just direct mail proving yet again how effective it is.