Saturday, September 3, 2011

Observations from the Bar 9.3

The 125th season of Penn State football began Saturday with a 41-7 win over Indiana State. A game in which Penn State ran the opening kickoff back 95 yards for a touchdown. Sadly for the first time in years the season began I wasn't there. I could have gone but I would have had to drive back right after the game as I have to be in the Village Sunday morning to try and finish a small art project of mine. My brother is going to the 'bama game next week so maybe I'll try to get to that one.

Still I was a little bummed at missing the game so I did what works best at times like that and I went to the Museum of Modern Art to walk around. Coincidentally the museum just redid the painting and sculpture galleries on the fourth and fifth floors so that just gave me another reason to go.

Ann Temkin has been the museum's chief curator of painting and sculpture since 2008. The redone galleries are principally her work with the help of five other curators and is supposedly the most far reaching since the 1940s. The opportunity to reinstall the galleries came about because of the closing of the “Abstract Expressionist New York” show after a seven month run. I'm not going to get into it but if you know MoMA it's just fascinating to see. In its look at the new galleries the New York Times said it seems to “soften its historic focus on linearity, male genius and art movements while excavating exciting, little seen treasure from deep storage.” One gallery I especially liked is devoted exclusively to the feminist work of American born artist Hannah Wilke. As I said, if you are a fan of the museum it really is worth a look.

No hurricanes, earthquakes, or other pocalypses this weekend but there seems to have been one world changing event. On my way to the bar for the, as it turned out, yet again tropical storm delayed Phillies game I wandered into Urban Outfitters to pick up a jacket I had tried on last time I was there. Not a leather jacket or even a black jacket but a brown corduroy sherpa lined jacket. I can't wait to see the VQs' faces when they see this.

Finally don't feel bad for Indiana State. In exchange for their trip to Happy Valley their cut of the days' revenue was $450,000.