i love the mfa

Titian, Death of Actaeon

This glowing review from the New York Times has just solidified the fact that I will be spending part of the next six months of no work wandering around at the MFA. (In fact, I will be giving an encore presentation there April 19th.)
The "Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese: Rivals in Venice" exhibition opens tomorrow (!!!) and it's an awesome synthesis of the collections at the MFA and the Louvre. I may have to convince Mme Tournier to take the class on a field trip as a part of our AP work or whatever.
For now, it has inspired today's work of art. (Compare to 2/28.)

spring forward

Since we've all lost an hour today and I'm up to my eyeballs in work I've been cursing daylight savings since I got up this morning (about an hour ago... but in my defense, it would really have been 10:30). Anyway, the only plus to this is that if the days are longer here, they're longer in Italy too.

more stalkin

Here are your images of Venice for the day. As before, Saint Mark's and Rialto Bridge.
You can thank me for my expert creepin skillz l8r.

stalkin venice

Here are some screenshotz of the webcams in Saint Mark's Square and by the Rialto Bridge. It's about eight at night there now, but these were taken just before sunset.

er, speaking of venice

Carnevale starts in Venice tomorrow, which is exciting. I hope you all recover from the plague and mono (I'm talking to you, slutty sophomores) soon so that you can break out yo masks and elaborate costumes! Ali told me that she's off bread for Lent because she couldn't give up Facebook. Good choice, methinks.

Anyway, my little chumlettes in Rome, however, aren't going because they haven't planned properly, although Venice is a mere 6 hours away by car and 4 days on foot. Ah well, they're going to Poland for spring break, so I suppose I can forgive them. A bit.
Anyway, I've been stalking the webcam and there are lots of lights and people milling around the Piazza San Marco. I will be sure to stalk it again (properly) tomorrow morning.

The lovely image is from [link].

Anyway, here's a guy who can draw a perfect circle.

veronese is lazy

Since I'm really cool, I subscribe to emails from the MFA and I got one yesterday about an exhibition I've known about for a while, but it's snazzy that it's nearly here. I'm talkin bout the Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice exhibition which opens March 15. I suspect I will be dragged to see this over March break, so I may as well prepare myself for it. In all honesty, though, I'm looking forward to it. It's got some cool people and my current picturesque city obsession all in one.

Also, I like Veronese... mostly because he's a blasphemer and a lazy one at that!
Here's a Monty Python skit, and as much as I respect the Python's razor sharp wit, I think you'll find that Veronese fits the role better than Michelangelo.

does this mask make me look fat?

Mardi Gras will soon be upon us like an unsympathetic fat asshole (he calls himself big boned). Except what makes this a simile (i.e. unrelated for the dim amongst you) is that we have the French (well, more specifically the Christians) to thank for this ridiculous holiday before Lent when everyone wears cheap and essentially crappy beaded necklaces and considers themselves colorful (read: slutty) enough for the day. Anyway, that's the silly American version of it. Disclaimer: I've actually only been to the shitty Cambridge one, so I can't speak for the others in the country.

The best parties, of course, will be in Venice at Carnevale (and also the perfect opportunity for you to pull off a stereotypical Italian art heist), so I recommend that your start buying your masks and costumes now. In fact, it may already be too late. Glastonbury's sold out without a definite line-up being announced and it's a fair bet Wino will either not show up at all, or if she does she'll try to punch audience members. You've been warned!
But back to topic. Carnevale is from Friday, February 13th (ooh fear factor ten) to Tuesday, February 24th.

I know I put up a lot of useless links, but if you've never bothered to click any of them, this one would be a good start. Head over to Camacana to check out their beautiful handmade masks. Trust.

So boldly people built their city, thinly bound to the mainland

Venice has launched a tourism website, which in any other circumstance, I would roll my eyes at, but it's got a webcam in the Piazza San Marco that I thought I'd share. Even though it's rotting, I love it best when it rains there.

Image [link]