A return to the Norman Rockwell Museum

 

This past Saturday would be a long day with my brother.  We had tried to get together on a weekend for a while for a road trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum.  Since I've seen the exhibition before, I figured that I'd look at things I didn't look at before, and let him wander around the place while I sat and took a load off my feet.

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I set my alarms to wake me around 8 am, so that I could be at our meeting place by 10:30 am.  It's hard to believe that I was early for a change, but I arrived at the parking lot around 10:15 and killed time waiting for him.  Unfortunately, he hit a lot of traffic, and didn't get to the lot until 11 am.  (It also didn't help that Google Maps gave him bad driving instructions.  But I digress.)

Once we were on the road, it took us a little over 2 hours to reach the museum.  (We were careful not to feed the bears.  We passed at least 3 "Smokeys" handing out citations on our way up.)  It was the perfect day for such a drive: traffic flowed smoothly and fast, there were no clouds in the sky, and it was the perfect temperature to drive to the Berkshires on an autumn day.  Eventually, we made it to the museum, and we went inside.

My brother took in all the exhibits slowly, while I picked and chose what I wanted to see next.  I didn't try to take everything in on this visit.  Instead, I looked for the exhibits that interested me most, and took some pictures before sitting down to ease my back pain.  Once we were done, I went to their shop and bought a couple of books related to the art of Mad, and then we departed the museum to find some lunch.

Once in Stockbridge, it was hard to find a vacant parking spot.  But we got lucky.  However, we did not find much in the way of open restaurants that weren't crowded at the time.  Yet, after a little bit of walking, we found a place to sit down for lunch.  (I won't mention where the place is, but as Arlo sang, "it's just a half of a mile from the railroad tracks.")  Sadly, Alice left the building many years before, and its current proprietors serve good food with mediocre service - so I will look for other dining venues when next in town.

After our late lunch, it was time to drive home.  I shared some of the driving duties, as my brother needed to nap a bit.  Boy, does he saw wood!  This wasn't as bad as I made it sound.  But he was tired, and he'd still have 90 minutes of driving ahead of him when he dropped me off at my car.  I was home by 6:30 or so, while he got home by 7:45.  (Again, he hit a lot of traffic.)  I was home in time to do laundry, but I didn't bother with this.  I could do it on Monday when I have some time.....

A meetup on a weeknight for a change

 

Lately, there haven't been that many dining meetups held on weeknights.  Since I am booked most weekends, it's been a long while since I've been out to eat with any of my groups.  So, tonight was a refreshing change of pace.

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Since RQS had stayed over until Tuesday morning, I decided to cancel attending Monday night's meetup with this group.  So I figured that I should get off my butt to attend tonight's gathering.  Only one problem - I was tired, and could have used another couple of hours napping on the couch.  But I made myself get up then got showered, made up and dressed to go out around 5:30.

Luckily, the meetup was in a restaurant 20 minutes from home.  Although parking wasn't hard to find, it wasn't as close to the restaurant as I'd have liked - the lot is shared with commuters, and they don't start clearing out until 6:30 pm.  So I had to walk a little more than I wanted to get inside.

As one can see from the picture above, there is a caboose on the left and an old coach car on the right.  The former Valhalla railroad station between them is the main body of the restaurant, with both non-mobile pieces of rolling stock now being used as dining areas.  Once inside, I looked to the left and saw my meetup group inside.  It was nice to be wearing a dress to dinner, as it will soon be too cold to dress as feminine as I'd like.

After greeting my fellow diners, I perused the menu to see if there was something interesting I'd like to eat.  There was, but I made a mistake in choosing it.  It's October, and the restaurant had Oktoberfest specials to choose from, and I selected the Wiener-schnitzel with a side Caesar salad.  I should have gone for the cheeseburger instead.When the Wiener-schnitzel arrived, the server didn't even know what it was, much less how to pronounce the name of the dish.  So the dish ended going back and forth between our table and the kitchen until someone realized that the waitress didn't know what the specials were.  I should have gone for the cheeseburger.  Not only was the schnitzel leathery and overcooked, but the potato pancakes served with it were devoid of moisture and flavor.  I should have gone for the cheeseburger!  But the Cookies and Cream ice cream truffle was pleasant.  Too bad I didn't go for the cheeseburger first....

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Once done with dinner, it was off to the supermarket to do some shopping.  While on the way, I chatted with my brother, confirming a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum this weekend.  It'll be nice to spend the day with him, although it would have been nicer for me to spend the day with RQS visiting a few Open House NY sites.  Well, maybe next year....

My Pooka was at it again!

 

I just spent $20 to replace a souvenir button that cost me $2.50.  And that wasn't a bad deal, except that I found the button two days after its replacement.

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A couple of weeks ago, RQS and I went to the Norman Rockwell Museum to see an exhibit for the Art of Mad Magazine.  Somehow, I had misplaced the sweater that had this souvenir button on it. After searching everywhere for it, I gave up hope of finding it and ordered a replacement.  Today, I found that sweater and button.

Misplacing items like this has always been a common occurrence for me.  I have learned to have two of everything important, as I never know when one of these things will go missing.  (I'm still looking for a pendant I bought while in Hawaii - it was one of my favorites!)  I even have duplicates of all of my portable electronic stuff (wires, adapters, etc.), as I tend to misplace or lose them while in transit.  (I lost a cell phone charger on a flight back from London this year, and just replaced it.)

If you were to see a picture of my desk, you'd understand why I misplace things so often.  A cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind.  Boy, this is an understatement in my case!  But it does allow for the random mutations of ideas which allow me to have insights that most people aren't lucky enough to have.  (Could you imagine how much more boring I would have been if my brain hadn't been able to make its random connections?)  

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One of these days, I'll be able to straighten out the mess on my desk, in my bedroom, and throughout the apartment.  Until then, I expect to keep misplacing many more things and replacing them prematurely.

A visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum (Going "MAD" for the day.)

 

I didn't know this, but Mad Magazine once offered Norman Rockwell a commission to update the image of Alfred E. Newman.  Sadly, he declined the offer, based on the "Good Advice" from his wife.  However, years after his death, the Norman Rockwell Museum decided to have an exhibition of the Art of Mad Magazine. 

Both RQS and I realized that this would be a rare chance to see Mad's art treated as something more than disposable, especially since the current publishers of the magazine helped with the exhibition.  Our only issue would be the distance to get there.  We skipped going there the day before because of the length of the drive and the time it would take to reach the museum.  Since we didn't know when we'd have the chance to drive there on a weekend day, we bit the bullet and left the house around 10:00 am.

The drive up the Taconic parkway was dull and boring (as expected), but we made it to the museum by 12:30 pm (including stops for breakfast and bio-breaks).  Given the warm weather, it was the perfect day for both of us to be wearing linen dresses.  So we were comfortable on the short walk from the parking lot to the museum, as well as inside where it was properly air conditioned.

 

Some of Mad's "Usual Gang of Idiots"

I've been a fan of Mad Magazine since I was a child, and I have to say that this exhibition does Mad's Usual Gang of Idiots" justice, as it covers art from the EC Comics day, through the Golden Age of Mad, to the Current Day.

Of course, no exhibition of Mad Mad Magazine artifacts would be complete without a reference to my favorite sport 43 Man Squamish.  Although the unplayable sport described in Mad is a joke, it has rules always tend to make me smile when I read them. One could go on and on about this visit.  But it was nice to see the work of Al Jaffee, Dave Berg, Don Martin and Sergio Aragones again, being given the respect it deserves. 

We both spent too much at the museum's gift shop, and left the place around 3:00 pm.  It took us 2 1/2 hours to get home, including a stop in Dover Plains for ice cream.  It was a long day for us, but a day well spent....

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Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes it eats you.

 

RQS was up here for the weekend, and we decided to visit the Norman Rockwell museum in Massachusetts.  I made the mistake of taking my least favorite road, the Taconic State Parkway, and got "rewarded" for my efforts - I fed the "Bear".  Yup, a "Smokey" nailed me.  This was my first ticket in years, and I will be paying for it!  AARGH!

But asides the assassination, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

I was surprised when RQS suggested that I spend the day as Marian, and we had a great time (ticket, not withstanding.)   She had never been at this museum before, and it was nice to be able to spend an hour looking at Rockwell's work. Getting ticket is an awkward feeling at best, and I was in female presentation at the time.  I was glad that the officer treated me with respect (he has likely seen everything in his line of work), and I was on my way with a minimum of wasted time.  

On the way home, we took slower moving roads, and ended up in Dover Plains, NY where we stopped into a local ice cream shop before it closed for the season. Yum!  If you're ever up in this area when the weather is warm, go visit them.  For me, it's a must stop when I'm driving on Route 22....