2010 Is Here--Nothing Changes

Just like 2009 we went to JIM'S for our 1st breakfast of the year.
I ordered the same exact thing.
It was good, of course.



On the 2nd I went downtown just before sunset to try for the next card picture.
Was hoping the new Museum Reach section would have decorations on par with the old part of the river, but aside from a subtle (to be kind) string of LED lights and a bow on random light poles, it was no different from September.
See if you can spot the Christmas decorations in the pic of SAMA above and the art fish below.

FISH! Since it was too late to abort Plan A, I decided to ride it out and try to have some fun.

This shot was only made because a large group of people had interfered with a previous one by walking into the frame and then milling around (moo-ing, actually) even after noticing that I was waiting on them to move. (Moooove?)
This time they came up the Riverwalk from behind me, so I held out my arm and said "A moment, please".
After chimping, instead of letting them pass I pretended to make adjustments and took this identical one just to have them wait 15 seconds more.
Christmas is over, so I'm back to only being nice to people who aren't rude or stupid.

Reaching the museum again at the end of my trip I found these trees lit with many green floodlights that I had never seen before. I don't know if this is Christmas-related or permanent, but I know it's pretty.
There's the edge of an observation area complete with benches visible on the left.
A nice place for kissing.

I had walked all the way to the Pearl Brewery complex, as you'll see next.

The McNay Art Museum

My brother wanted to see the Edward Gorey exhibit at The McNay, but we made him wait until the last day.
Anything I might say about how much we enjoyed it is wasted breath, because it's over and you missed it.
Remember the animated credits on PBS's Mystery series?
Gorey.
My own description after seeing the travelling show at The McNay was "Whimsically Macabre".

There was lots of other great art, and an impressive collection of work by the famous impressionists like Picasso and Van Gogh and Cezanne, Matisse, Renoir, etc.
Strangely, even though I'm a photographer my preferences lean towards sculpture.


The map we were given had red areas where photography was not allowed.
Basic rule was if the McNay owns it, you can shoot it.
Still too complicated, so unlike our visits to SAMA I kept both cameras in my bags until we were booted out the door at 5 seconds past closing time.

I also took pictures in the courtyard, and from it's balconies.
LOVE the building.

Many local photographers pay a fee to use the grounds for bridal, quinceanera and graduation portraits. Others try to skip the fee by going ninja--I can always spot them at meetings by their crutches.

The previous post's turtles were in this pond.

The new wing has been open for quite a while and we always meant to check it out.
These little junipers are part of it's landscaping.

I'm glad we went, even though getting home turned the day sour.
Riding to our mechanic's shop in the cab of an old tow truck had enough moments of terror that it would make a good theme park ride.
The guy on SW Military who started asking me a lot of BS questions at knifepoint seemed about as dangerous as a drunk lemur after that, although he's lucky it didn't end up deep in his ass just on principle.

Something Strange At SAMA

Time for some New World art.

Ever meet someone who personifies the old saying "Couldn't find his own ass using both hands"?
Now you know what that looks like.


Another Robertson-inspired composition. This style is growing on me. Did I do it right?
BTW, the shadow behind the man's ear is actually a reflection of my ear.
Clever?
Accident?
So what?
Thought so.

It was in this next room, where I remarked "It looks like they looted a Mexican church", that the weirdness began.
Mexican folk art and religious art appeal to be in a big way, from the Day of the Dead to Catholicism to altars and even tourist junk. At first I was really enjoying myself.

Right around this part of the exhibit I started getting a feeling I know all too well. My heart started racing, my scalp tingled, my stomach dropped out my ass and ran away...
(BTW--while Photoshopping this photo the eye moved while I was looking right at it!)

It didn't take long to figure out (as I almost ran past it) that this big and complicated altar was the source of my discomfort.
In fact, I had to wait a few minutes before returning to get the picture, and I'll be damned if it didn't start all over again.

Say what you will about the supernatural, especially the concepts of ghosts and haunted places.
Can't be proven, agreed. (Yet! Never seen a radio wave but I have enough proof to admit they exist).
But why is it that a large percentage of people from every known civilization since the dawn of time believe?
Coincidence? Don't be foolish. Statistically impossible.
It's because they have experienced very strange things, as have I for most of my life.
Always associated with very specific locations.
Always seen/heard/felt by others.

The place I lived before moving here was haunted as hell, and I have plenty of witnesses. Impossible things happened late at night, and we could actually bring them on by talking about ghosts after 3am.
I would get smacked in the face while sleeping and awake to find my arms were under the covers, so it wasn't me thrashing around hitting myself. A quick run to the mirror would allow me to see the marks before blood started to flow.
As the paint on my walls faded I discovered bullet holes, and asked a neighbor about the deaths in my place. He confirmed.
I'm a rational and intelligent man who could have lived quite happily NOT believing in this stuff, but an open mind and careful examination of the evidence leaves no other explanation.
And like I said, I've got LOTS of witnesses.
(Some of whom would rather not talk about it while others think I should write a book).

So trust me when I tell you that there is a haunted room at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Whether it's connected to the objects displayed within or from something that happened in the building's previous life as a brewery I can't tell you.
I just know what side of which room I'm going to be careful about visiting.

And I fully intend to return, because it's also my favorite exhibit.
I'll just have to work quickly.

A Day At The Museum

Went back to the SA Museum of Art on Sunday afternoon, paid our money (didn't think name-dropping would work) and toured as much of the place as we could find.
It seemed to be laid-out in such a way as to gently guide you through the whole collection, but if you make a wrong turn would you ever know it?

Didn't feel like taking pictures in Egypt or Greece for some reason, nor of the Chihuly ceiling. Still enjoyed those collections.

China and Japan got me clicking. This was from a re-creation of an artist's room in Japan, and I felt very comfortable there. The sparse yet functional nature appealed to me, in the same way that Japanese gardens relax me and feel right.

The Oceana rooms struck me as primitive and frightening. I moved faster and didn't much care what anything was.
I don't relate well to opera or poetry, either.

Looking out all the windows was rewarding sometimes, both for the grounds (which were originally the Lone Star Beer™ brewery) and for little surprises like this Fokker DR1 Triplane on a rooftop.
The famed WWI German Ace known as the Red Baron is almost universally linked to this plane even though the majority of his career was spent flying the DVII.
Such is history, fraught with misconceptions and glamourization.
The machine guns aren't correct, being more of a general idea of how all such things looked back then. This only bothers me because WWI as a conflict was literally defined by machine guns both in the air and especially in the trenches.
Art doesn't care and shouldn't be expected to, but that doesn't mean the viewer isn't allowed to care. I imagine some hairy jerk complaining about the length of a mammoth's tusks on a cave painting while the artist ponders crushing the critic's skull with a rock.
Some things never change.

I took this photo from afar (it was very big, so I had no choice ) but then didn't want to get close enough to learn more about it--already made the same mistake earlier in the case of a uterus.


Next time we'll head south of the border.
That's when things got strange.

Tomorrow I return to fetch my print, and there's a small chance I'll take a few more pictures.