Boston

I went to Boston this weekend to visit one of my oldest friends (we've known each other for most of our lives). It was wonderful to experience a different city with someone who knows the lay of the land. Here are some highlights of the weekend...

My trip apparently coincided with a major sporting event, so there were people wearing Boston gear all over the city. Someone decided to clothe the Public Garden's decorative brass ducks:

And this is what looks like a ballroom in the main branch of the Boston Public Library:

It's a stunning space, with wood panelling and frescoes running the entire length of the walls. I could imagine a medieval ball being held here.

This library could give the New York Public Library at Bryant Park a run for its money. It has an interior courtyard that looks like it was airlifted from Renaissance Europe:

I'm reminded of the courtyard of the Frick Museum. I could imagine Juliet leaning on the rail of the balcony on the left, beckoning to Romeo in the garden below. I've never been to Verona, but in my mind, it looks something like this.

Boston is also home to the world's only Curious George store! I didn't know this a few days ago.

This was taken on a bridge over a particularly scenic stretch of the Charles River:

I believe it was the Longfellow Bridge, which was named for the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was one of the preeminent poets of his day; one of his most famous works, "Paul Revere's Ride," is a classic in the American canon. There is a plaque in his honor, and the poem is engraved on a stretch of the footpath on the bridge. I didn't think to get a photo of it at the time; I was too busy walking backwards reading the poem!

And that was Boston. It's such a quaint place (cobblestone streets! trolleys!) with so much history tucked into the fabric of the city.

The Google Art Project

My sister sent this to me last week, and it's just about the coolest thing I've seen in a while (yes, I'm a museum geek):

http://maps.google.com/maps?ftr=sv.museums&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=mapshpp&utm_source=en-mapshpp-na-us-gns-svn&utm_term=museums

An article about it (from The Atlantic):
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/the-google-art-project-makes-masterpieces-accessible-to-all/70634/

Basically, it's bringing Google Maps Street View into some of the world's most famous and amazing museums. How awesome is that?

BBC: Background Noise Affects Taste of Foods

I fly (in airplanes) a lot. I have to, considering that I go to school in California and live in New York, not to mention that our debate league consists of mostly East Coast schools. One thing I've noticed about air travel is the general disappointment that is airplane food. The BBC has an explanation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11525897

It's not that airlines don't try -- some of them try way too hard, hence the salt overloading -- but it's just a natural phenomenon. Good to know!

NYTimes: The Dutch Pioneer an Airport Library

One of the very sad trends of today is that fewer people seem to be reading, what with all the other forms of entertainment readily available. Some of the recent e-book innovations (like the Kindle) and blockbuster franchises (like Harry Potter) have helped, but overall, libraries are noting a downturn in patronage and bookstores a decrease in sales. We have to come up with new ways to get people to read, much as many other aspects of life have evolved. One previously underexploited population is the commuter -- not the daily commuter who spends half-an-hour on the train, but the distance commuter who often has plenty of time to kill in the airport. Enter the airport library:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/arts/16iht-library.html?ref=global-home

It's a really good idea, methinks. Of course, we shall have to see whether the net loss of books becomes a problem. Two things to consider:

1. A lending library system with locations at many major international airports. People going on longer journeys may forget about a book entirely during their trip, and probably wouldn't remember to return it at their airport of departure when they finally made it back there. But most people, I think, can finish a paperback of reasonable length during an international flight, and it would be much more convenient if they could drop off the book at a different branch when they get off the plane, rather than bring it with them on their return trip.

2. A system for e-book lending. A lot of people have e-book readers nowadays, and a lot of people bring their readers when they travel, because it's easier than carting around a stack of books in their luggage. Such systems already exist in many library systems; it shouldn't be too hard to adapt that technology to an airport library. I can imagine some system of lending periods corresponding to the duration of flights or trips.

I think this is an excellent concept, and I can't wait to see a library in JFK or SFO one of these days!

Italy Travelogue, Part 3: Vatican City

If you're ever in Rome, the Vatican is definitely worth seeing. It'll take a day, at least, but do go. It's chock-full of centuries of artwork and architecture, and not all of it is Catholic; some of the most famous classical sculptures are there. The pièce de résistance, of course, is the Sistine Chapel; disappointingly, but understandably, we were not allowed to photograph it. We did take pictures of lots of other things...

The Vatican Museums are home to some of the greatest artistic treasures in the world. Exhibit A -- Here's the marble of Laocoön and sons being strangled by Athena's sea serpents, the one that Pliny the Elder wrote about (Yes, I took Latin in high school, why do you ask?), one of the most celebrated statues from antiquity:


The story goes, Laocoön was a Trojan priest of Poseidon, who was in Poseidon's bad books because he took a wife and sired children (this is relevant only because his terrible luck and grisly death is sometimes attributed to the god's displeasure). Anyhow, he was one of the few Trojans who suspected that the Trojan horse was a ruse, and proposed that they set it on fire. Athena summoned a pair of giant snakes to strangle him and his sons. The Trojans then assumed that the horse was sacred (and that anyone who dared to harm it would meet a similarly nasty end), and so they brought the horse into Troy. I'm not sure who had it worse, Laocoön or Cassandra.

We also saw Raphael's even more famous The School of Athens:


This is often considered to be not only Raphael's finest piece, but also the very spirit of the Renaissance in painted form. The term itself, "Renaissance", means "rebirth", and the great artists and thinkers of the Renaissance felt a deep intellectual kinship with their Greco-Roman peers. It is only fitting that the spirit of the era is captured as Greek institution.

I had fun squinting up at it and trying to identify all the people in the painting, but I didn't get very far. The two figures in the middle (under the central arch) are Plato and Aristotle, in the red and blue mantles, respectively. Plato is supposed to be modeled on Leonardo da Vinci (and with that beard, I can see the resemblance). Michelangelo is in the middle on the bottom step (purple shirt and red pants, with his elbow on a box, looking bored), as a Greek painter (what else) of some importance. Raphael painted himself in, too, though I didn't find him until we got home. He's in the upper right, where the bottom of the arch meets the top of the pillar, next to the old man in the green cloak (he's wearing red and purple, too).

Fast-forwarding several centuries in art history, we come to Canova's Perseus, who is depicted in the style of the classical hero (read: naked), holding up the head of his slain foe (Medusa). Here he is:


I thought he looked rather familiar, and that's because he is. Canova made another Perseus, which is almost identical, and that one resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so I've seen it before.

Canova's Perseus is one of the few post-Renaissance marbles to be exhibited so prominently in the Vatican Museums, and rightly so. He sculpted Perseus in the tail end of the Baroque era, when everything was excessively embellished (to the point of seeming nauseatingly garish), and manages to capture the hero triumphant, simple and clothed in little besides his own achievement.

The Vatican Museums also house a collection of artifacts of non-European antiquity. They have an excellent Egyptian wing, and also one with Near Eastern art. My sister and I were much amused to find, in the Assyrian section, this piece:


It's Birdman! (My sister is a better bird(wo)man than I am, I know; I have a terrible poker face.)

It's one of many long-standing points of reference for us. She currently attends the same middle school I did, and one of our favorite teachers is the inimitable Ms. Springer, archaeologist and historian extraordinare, who taught us sixth grade history. (She did a wonderful job of it, too; I was immensely surprised to find, in my Ancient Empires course reader, a passage from "Wen-Amon Goes to Phoenicia", which we read in sixth grade.)

Birdman was one of the most memorable characters from our Assyria unit. I still remember taking a field trip to the Met to see him; I thought he was enormous, back then. I spotted him in the Vatican all these years later, and we couldn't resist.

Of course, no trip to the Vatican is complete without a visit to St. Peter's Basilica. The lines were not as terrible as we'd feared (thank goodness!), and the inside was every bit as spectacularly grand as we'd imagined. I made a beeline for Michelangelo's most famous Pietà:


You'll have to click on it to get a closer view, and even then, it's still quite small; I was pressed up against the plexiglas wall, but I was still about a dozen feet away from it. Apparently, some crazy person tried to attack it with a hammer, and ended up chipping off Mary's nose, and so they won't let anyone get anywhere near it anymore. (Something similar happened to the David (who lost a few toes), and so there's a plexiglas shield around him, too.)

One of the first things anyone notices about the work is that Mary looks incredibly young. There's some debate about why this is; we know that Michelangelo made her deliberately so. Some say that it's an indication of her purity and favor with God; others say that she's actually supposed to be a young mother, and that she's holding her baby and having a premonition of her son's fate.

On the subject of Pietàs, I edited the Florence part to include some pictures from the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo that I oddly couldn't find the first time around, so scroll down if you're interested in one of Michelangelo's other Pietàs.

Well, that's Italy. It was a lot of fun (and a historian/erstwhile Latin student's dream). There was plenty we didn't get to see this time around, so I'd definitely want to go back sometime in the future!

Italy Travelogue, Part 2: Rome

Rome is big. Not quite as big as New York (what is?), but after Florence, Rome seemed huge. Of course, it was the place to be (in Europe, at least) for several centuries, way before any of the other major metropolises even existed. We procured four Roma Passes, which are designed for tourists and include discounts to major attractions (museum tickets are expensive!) and free public transit, valid for three consecutive days.

Four days in Rome was definitely not enough (especially since one of them was spent outside of Rome, technically, in the Vatican). Unlike Florence, which rose to prominence in the Middle Ages, Rome was the center of a vast empire in antiquity, and has several millennia of history on Florence. (Huzzah for Ancient Empires!)

The afternoon we get there, I drag them to see the Pantheon. (I'm a sucker for Greco-Roman mythology, but this one's really worth seeing.) It also houses the work of several Renaissance masters, as well as several of their graves, most notably that of Raphael. This is an interior view of its dome:


The Romans were really architectural geniuses, given their level of technology. It's incredible that the Pantheon survived several regime changes and wars. Of course, one of the reasons it wasn't quarried for marble or anything was that it was converted to a church in honor of the Virgin Mary and assorted Christian martyrs. It stands in stark contrast to many of the temples in the Roman Forum (dating from the days of the Republic) and the later Imperial fora; most of those now lie in ruins, much of their marble facing carted off to adorn other facades. Even so, the Roman Forum is well worth seeing. Here is a photograph of the Temple of Romulus:


This was one of the most intact of the temples in the Forum (and indeed, in all of Rome), mostly because it was converted to a church, that of the saints Cosmas and Damian, two Greek brothers, to stand in stark contrast to the Temple of Castor and Pollux, also in the Forum. This is, unfortunately, all that's left of the latter:


Freestanding monuments and buildings not constructed of marble were also generally in better repair; take, for instance, this photograph of the northwestern corner of the Forum:


In the middle of the picture is the Arch of Septimus Severus, commemorating the emperor's victories against the Parthians. He was a strong leader and a military man, which was good for Rome, given the corruption and political disunity of the preceding reigns. He also sponsored numerous public works, among which were several arches like this one.

The brownish building on the right (the one with three windows above its main entrance) is the Curia Julia, the Senate building built by (somewhat ironically) Julius Caesar. (He never saw it in its current form, as it was completed during the reign of Augustus.) The height of its ceiling is particularly impressive from the inside.

While I'm at it, here's another Augustan monument:


My sister and I are standing in front of the Ara Pacis (English: Altar of Peace). It was built by the Senate on the occasion of Augustus's subjugation of Gaul and Hispania, to celebrate the Pax Augusta, the peace that the emperor brought about by uniting various far-flung European peoples under imperial rule. My father, when I explained the altar's history, aptly remarked that Augustus was rather like the first Qin (秦) Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇), who unified China. (Personally, I think Augustus was a lot friendlier. Also, Augustus's overall geopolitical achievement was probably somewhat less impressive, given that he was building upon Julius Caesar's successful military campaigns, whereas the Qin Emperor had to conquer the other six Chinese states, which were more or less equal in power to his at the start of his campaigns. Not to say that Augustus wasn't awesome, because he was.)

We also spent an afternoon at the Capitoline Museum, where there is a great glass-roofed hall housing some remarkable and historic bronzes. This one is the very famous equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, the only such statue of a pre-Christian emperor still in existence. It survived the Christian fanaticism of the Middle Ages mainly because it was thought to depict the Christian Constantine; this sort of imperial statue was quite common in the Roman Empire, but all the others were melted down.


It's greenish because it used to be prominently displayed on a pedestal outdoors, but then people moved it inside and put up a replica instead, because of precipitation damage.

This one, from the same hall, is the equally well-known bronze of the Capitoline Wolf, with Romulus and Remus as suckling infants:


Its origins are still uncertain, with some art historians contending that the wolf was first cast in the Etruscan era and others (a minority) arguing that it was made in the 13th century (both parties agree that the twins were a later addition). Either way, it's an iconic sculpture in the modern consciousness, where Rome is concerned.

This is getting ridiculously long. I'll write a third post on the Vatican, and lump in the Renaissance stuff with it. Stay tuned for travelogue part 3!

Italy Travelogue, Part 1: Florence

I'm back! And as promised, highlights of the first leg of the trip:

Upon arrival in Florence, my father, my sister, and I decide to explore the neighborhood to scope out nearby sources of food and to pick up some essentials at the supermarket. We encounter a strange public service announcement spray-painted on a building. We aren't quite sure what it is all about, so we decide to take it very literally:


Anyhow, on to items of actual historical significance. These are the east doors of the Baptistery of St. John, which Michelangelo famously dubbed "the Gates of Paradise", because they are so beautiful. (They're actually a faithful replica; the real ones are in restoration.)


The first set of Ghiberti doors was actually commissioned for the north-facing entrance in a competition sponsored by the Florentine guild of wool merchants. He and Filippo Brunelleschi were tied for the commission, but Ghiberti, through sheer persistence (and Brunelleschi's temper didn't help), eventually won out. Brunelleschi swore off sculpture in a fit of spite, and took up architecture and engineering instead (and was astoundingly talented at both); he designed the famous dome of the Florentine cathedral Santa Maria Del Fiore, one of the architectural marvels of the Renaissance:


Further reading on the subject, if you're so inclined: Brunelleschi's Dome, by Ross King. It was an assigned reading for a course I took in freshman year on Renaissance machine design (the system of pulleys, cranes, and other machines that Brunelleschi created in the process of constructing his dome is quite amazing), and it's a wonderful (and short) read on its own.

We also went to the Museo dell Opera del Duomo, where the real Gates of Paradise are currently housed. That particular museum is a treasure trove of amazing works by famous Renaissance masters. Among them is the understated, somewhat mysterious Magdalene Penitent by Donatello:


It's most striking, methinks, in its depth of emotion. She's not particularly beautiful, but she's wonderfully tragic.

Also in the Museo dell Opera del Duomo is the second-most famous Michelangelo Pietà, where instead of the Virgin Mary (as is customary), he depicts Joseph of Arimathea holding the body of Jesus:


It's believed that this Joseph was actually a self-portrait; Michelangelo originally intended this sculpture to be placed at his own gravesite. It's beautiful, and unlike many of the other really famous masterpieces, there isn't any plexiglas or a ten-foot fence, so we could walk right up to it to admire it.

We saw a lot of other things, too, like the David (I trust you don't need another picture of him) and some of the Medici palaces and private chapels (some of these restricted photography, to preserve the artwork). Florence basically belonged to the Medicis during the Renaissance, so half the sites in the city from that era were Medici-related in some way.

Florence was smaller than I'd expected; given its prominence during the Renaissance, I had thought it would be much bigger. I'd forgotten that cities in general were smaller back then (comes of being a New Yorker, methinks). We could basically get everywhere on foot -- no public transportation adventures there!

Rome is next.

Blog Hiatus

My family and I are going to Italy for about ten days, leaving tomorrow, so the Miscellany is temporarily going dark. We'll be back towards the end of next week. The itinerary includes Rome and Florence, with a tentative day-trip to Siena. I'll post pictures and/or a travelogue when we return.

The earlier, very brief dearth of posts (last weekend) was due to my friend Lucas visiting New York, and because I got a new computer, which needed setting up and so forth. Here we are:


(That's me, Lucas, and Mycroft. (See, Brett, here's a picture of me!))

He's 13" (if it isn't evident from the picture), and he's named for Mycroft Holmes, of Whitehall and the Diogenes Club, the lesser-known but more important of the Holmes brothers. Sherlock Holmes was (and still is) one of my favorite action heroes from my childhood (yes, he's a mostly cerebral detective, but he's also well-versed in boxing, fencing, single-stick, and "Baritsu" (see "The Final Problem"), all of which qualify him as an action hero). I thought Mycroft's personality and function were more suited to that of a computer.

Anyhow, see you all in about two weeks!

NYTimes: College Dorms -- Britain's New Hostels

This is a great idea, especially seeing as most of Britain's major universities (and their dormitories) have centuries of history behind them:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/travel/01journeys.html?src=me&ref=travel

I would love to stay in an Oxford dorm room for a few nights one summer. They say it looks like Hogwarts -- what's not to love?

Subway Compass (the most brilliantly simple idea ever)

I've been noticing these past weeks that a certain spray-painted symbol has been showing up on sidewalks by the entrances of subway stations. It occurs in various colours (mostly red, light blue, and yellow), and looks like this:


(The dark mass at the bottom of the image is the hem of the dress I was wearing.)

I grew curiouser and curiouser, especially since I did not think it was mere chance that the symbol bore a remarkable resemblance to a compass rose, and even pointed in the right directions. (The "I.M. Pi" was also intriguing for its sheer cleverness.) I looked it up, naturally, and found this:

http://nyctheblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/steciled-compass-project-expands-to.html

It's absolutely brilliant. It's an ingenious solution to the inevitable momentary disorientation that comes with ascending from underground; it takes a few minutes and/or a few wrong turns to situate oneself on the Manhattan grid (and let's not even go into the snarl of lanes below Wall Street). I actually used to carry a small compass in my pocket/bag, just to save myself the confused wandering. This is a boon to all New York, and a long time in coming.

NYTimes: 26 Hour Flight by Solar-Powered Plane

I've seen unmanned solar-powered aircraft, and manned solar-powered cars, but this -- a solar-powered plane piloted by someone in its cockpit -- is huge, almost as huge as Kitty Hawk just over a hundred years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/world/europe/09plane.html?_r=1&hp

The Wright brothers would have been greatly pleased to see this, methinks. How like their Model A this craft appears!

NYTimes: The Besieged and the Beautiful in Languedoc

I'm particularly interested in the history of southern France, in part because of a fascination with troubadours, Eleanor of Aquitaine, castles, the Albigensian Crusade, and the area's medieval culture of arts. Anyhow, here's an article about it:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/travel/09Languedoc.html?8dpc

It is, in some ways, not surprising at all, that these old castles and grand landscapes were once the site of so much bloodshed. It is often the most beautiful places that have the darkest stories. After all, castles were originally built as fortresses, their imposing facades and crenellated towers meant to defend their inhabitants against besieging foes.

I'd dearly love to see the place at some point in my life. Anyone want to road-trip around southern France? (My high school French is rusty, but still serviceable, last I checked.)

Oh, and the lede line is brilliant.

BBC: The Seine, a Memoir

Historically, most of the world's greatest cities were built on rivers, for the many obvious (and often life-sustaining) benefits a river contributes to any settlement. Rivers are colorful backdrops, facilitators, and even participants in major historical events. Here is a modern perspective on one of the most important rivers in the world, the Seine:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8695476.stm

NYTimes: Pyjama Ban for the World Expo

Yes, it's apparently a public relations issue now:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/opinion/17gao.html

As I see it, there's a difference in perception. It may just be a culture divide. The Chinese are inclined to have separate clothing for "at home, in private, &c." along the lines of pyjamas, and for "outside", which are more presentable than those kitten-patterned pants or oversized Chinglish-spattered tee shirts one might wear at home. (I myself wear "house pants" in the dorm, and change into jeans or the like when leaving the dorm.) Westerners, as far as I can tell, change strictly before bed, and consider it lazy, or something of an indulgence, to wear pyjamas around the house; most of the Westerners I know wear their street clothes at home, and consider themselves to be half-way undressed when in pyjamas.

So, the Chinese are much more comfortable wandering around in house pants, or pyjamas, in Shanghai, which Western tourists find rather quaint. The government, however, sees it as a bad thing -- they want respect in the international arena, and to that end, do not want their citizens to look strange or backwards. But really, such a crackdown is more than a little excessive; I'd say Westerners see many more shamelessly scandalous doings on their own streets to really bat an eye. If the government is so worried about PR issues, why don't they start with human rights, eh?

MSNBC: The Proliferation of (Odd) Vending Machines

Vending machines: no longer just for snacks and soda. Behold:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37089469/ns/travel-destinations/?GT1=43001

A pizza? A real pizza? Out of a vending machine? I feel a bit like I'm living in a science fiction novel (reminds me a bit of the synthesizers in Star Trek, actually).

It's all a bit unnecessary, but I can see why they'd be fun. I can imagine having pizza vending machines at Stanford; it would definitely help when we've got ten minutes between classes, and we have to bike across campus, too.

(It's labeled humor because I find strange and whimsical things amusing. Go figure.)

NYTimes: Packing a Carry-On for Maximum Efficiency

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/05/06/business/businessspecial/20100506-pack-ss.html?src=me&ref=homepage

This is of especial interest to me, because I travel by air a whole lot. There's the fact that I go to school in California despite being from New York, and then there's the debating, where almost every one of our competitor schools is on the East Coast (the Ivies, the Little Ivies, &c.), and we have to fit a sleeping bag, a suit, dress shoes, and a load of other things into our carry-on luggage. (The rolling vs. folding of clothes is a trick I figured out a long time ago.)