Sunny Days

Snow on the ground again but at least its nearly forty degrees. Spring is almost here!

I returned home from Philadelphia late yesterday afternoon. The Dali exhibit was brilliant, easily one of the most comprehensive exhibits I've seen. It took nearly two hours to see all of it (without doing the audio tour). Its amazing how accomplished Dali was as an artist from such an early age. The first two rooms of paintings are from age 11 to 21 or so. Once he gets the gig to attend art school in Madrid and is classmates with Luis Bunuel, things really take off. After this point works are thematically and chronologically grouped by room. I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration of his 'paranoiac-critical method' and the eventually progression towards 'nuclear mysticism'. As a whole, I am also very impressed with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, its collection is very good. I will have to spend some more time there seeing the rest of the museum. I regret only staying in Philadelphia for a little under 48 hours. I should say if you plan on going to the Dali exhibit you need an advance ticket or you will not get in. The entire day was sold out when I attended the show. You should visit the Museum's website (http://www.philamuseum.org/main.asp) and arrange for some kind of package with a hotel or some such. The packages allow for VIP tickets which are absolutely key, you enter when you want, no timed entry, no waiting in lines.

Lovely Philadelphia had no snow to speak of and sunny blue skies. It is very easy to walk around the entire city and many street signs encourage it. I stopped at Monk's for dinner and was plesantly shocked and amazed to find Saison Dupont on tap as well as a few Belgian beers I wasn't familiar with. Monk's is a priority stop on any visit to Philadelphia. The frites with mayonnaise are especially tasty. (http://www.monkscafe.com/) I walked from there down though the historic district and over to AKA Records to meet a friend.