Friday, September 19, 2008

Twenty-four hours

A girl of three or four in a pram stared at me until I passed, when she said: “Mommy, I saw a boy with long hair!” My hair was close to this long right up to last Friday:when I got my first cut in a year. Luckily, it’s still long enough to confuse the children. Anyway, back to the Durer at the Museum of Biblical Art, which is poorly acronymed as MOBIA (was MOBA taken? or were they worried about the inevitable “dick”) for two more days. I only heard about in the middle of the week, so I thought I’d rush over. As you would expect from the venue, this show is heavy on the Christian idolatry -- all those Immaculate Conceptions, Annunciations, Adorations, & Crucifixions that wore down European art for centuries – but there are plenty of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings of pagan and genre scenes, as well as his superb animals. A master, from half a thouand years ago.
*
I went to help out with the bird banding again this morning. We started at 6:30 this time. The fences are more symbolic than actual for some peeps:
A Swainson's thrush.
Olmstead and Vaux would like this. Here's to youse guys! Poor old Vaux, you know he took a long walk off a short pier and drowned off Brooklyn.

*
Man on Wire: the story of elfin Philippe Petit’s walk between the World Trade Towers on an extremely high wire moved me profoundly last night at BAM.

5 comments:

amy merrick said...

Last weekend I got my first hair cut in a couple of years, 10 inches off! Hellooo Louise Brooks!

Matthew said...

Who doesn't like a Louise Brooks bob? She could write, too, so people should look up her memoirs.

amarilla said...

What a Thrush! I may have seen one of those while walking down Prospect Park South West. Can't help but wonder how it affects you to have held all those birds in your hands.

Brenda from Flatbush said...

How the heck do you catch a thrush in order to band it? I can't even get one to come out for a blurry picture.

Matthew said...

It's all in the mist nets, so called, set close to the ground. There are six of them behind the fences in the park in two different areas of the Ravine; they get rolled up overnight and weekends.