Art Museums

I try to live a life without regrets, but I think this is impossible for many people if not everyone. Some regrets I have:

• visiting Berlin and not going to ANY of the art museums there. Checkpoint Charlie was interesting, but seriously, no art museums?
• going to Chicago and NEVER going to the art museum there (it has Nighthhawks, American Gothic, and so much more. I drool over their collection of Impressionist paintings).
• only going to the DIA and the museum at the Parthenon in Nashville, although the former does have an excellent Dutch art collection and the latter has a great accumulation of Hudson River School pieces.

Conclusion: I need to get to more art museums.

The MOMA is screaming my name, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is simply waiting for me, the Uffizi is getting a bit impatient with my lack of funds to even get to Italy (as am I). The Louvre knows I need to see its treasure trove of art, the Prado is keenly aware that its Goyas are a magnetic force, the Hermitage is beckoning to me with its Rembrandt collection. The National Portrait Gallery in London has the only verified portrait of Jane Austen while the National Gallery (in London) has masterpieces from Giotto to Cezanne. So many places, so little time, so little funds.

Why don't I live in Europe?! I think this is the real issue here.

Book Covers and Other Things

I have Samantha to thank for my book cover craze right now. So, thanks? These for Lemony Snicket and these for Harry Potter were pretty great. I'm also really liking the ones for Penguin Classics. In May it dawned on me that they put classical art on the covers of many works of literature....ever since then, I always look to see what the cover design is. I have a Gros on my copy of War and Peace, I saw a Pride and Prejudice with a Manet, a Man in the Iron Mask with Rembrandt's magnum opus, and a collection of Charles Dickens with sketches by Boz. (I'm not a big fan of Boz right now actually. Well, perhaps I should say: I'm not a big fan of the art community for attributing many of Rembrandt's works to Boz, who was a pupil of his. Yeah, I'm kind of upset over this.) For some reason though, I find this really exciting.

I have a lot to do, mainly for quiz bowl. The other day I discovered that the library has this book I've been looking for and guess what? I've already read most of the book. I stumbled upon it last summer and started reading it, however I did not finish it nor did I know that it was recommended by quiz bowl forums. I feel rather accomplished.

Quiz bowl camp is getting close....I'm kind of really pumped.

It blows my mind....

Several things blow my mind. For instance,

• the size of the universe. Just think about it. If you were to fall in space, where the heck would you go? Would you just float in space? Is our universe within another universe? Oh my gosh, it creeps me out. Conclusion: The universe is HUGE.
• the concept of eternity. Do I really want to live forever? What would I live for? What would I do? Wouldn't you get extremely bored? I feel like some things have to end, even if eternal happiness is promised. Conclusion: Eternity is a really, really, really long time and sounds extremely boring.
• the concept of a Nazi-Zombie-Communist. You might be thinking, "But, Bianka, Nazis and Communists hate each other. They can't co-exist within the same being." Conclusion: A dead person who shares equally with all while believing in a supreme race. I dig it.
• time. I mean, what's with time? We try to measure time and our whole world is bound by time. Really, there is no such thing as time. The future is quickly becoming the present and the present quickly becoming the past. There is no time. Conclusion: It's a conspiracy.
• Volansky. What the heck goes through that woman's head? Conclusion: I will never know, nor do I necessarily want to know.

Camping, Stars, and Rain

I'm going camping for a whole week. I'm looking forward to it.

There's something oddly soothing about camping; it's relaxing.

I remember the first time I really saw the stars was while camping in Montana. Yes, of course I've seen stars in the night sky, but not like this. There was something different about these ones. There was little to no air pollution and when you looked up, the sky was permeated with them. Little clusters sprinkled across the sky, natural illumination as far as the eye could see. It was breath taking as I lay there with my father while he showed me constellations. I remember thinking that it looked as if God had taken a salt shaker and shook it vigorously across the sky.

In ninth grade I learned in Earth Science that for most stars, it takes eight years (or more) for their light to reach Earth. Ever since then, I've always thought that looking into the night sky is like looking into the past. Then I get all nostalgic and then common sense kicks in.

Shut up, nostalgia.

Anyway, camping. I hope it doesn't rain. There's actually a 50-60% chance that it will, but I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't. Rain is terrible while camping. We're going tubing and hiking, we're making peach cobbler and s'mores.

Yeah, it should be good.

Hello?

Hi. It's been a while....

New layout! Thanks, Andrea! I really like it, by the way.

Summer is here. Why does it take forever to feel like summer? Just when it starts to feel like summer, it's time for school to start again. This seems kind of unfair.

Last Friday, on the last day of school, I felt like I would be back there on Monday, doing homework during one of Watson's lectures, cringing/rolling my eyes at Volansky, loving one of Bryen's classes, and falling asleep in Shupick's chem class while Vera drew something wildly exciting. The normal routine of life. But it's over and I'm sad. I think I'll miss many aspects about school. It provides me with a motivation to work. I need to stay focused this summer; we're looking to have an amazing quiz bowl team next year. I just hope I'm here.

I'm glad summer's here anyway. I don't have super exciting plans (no Germany this summer), but I am going to quiz bowl camp! NERDS OF THE WORLD UNITE! (Yeah, that was a Communist Manifesto reference.)

Super psyched nonetheless!!

Also, I've learned something a bit...frightening? exciting? surprising? since school ended. I'm not quite sure how to respond or if I'll even need to respond. Probably the latter, but it's OK.

Ahh, the relaxation of summer.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

I've been reading Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and I find it to be a very humorous yet insightful play. The titular characters are the protagonists (obviously) in this play adapted from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Essentially, that's what this play is: Hamlet from the perspective of his two friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The following is a passage from the play, one I find particularly interesting:

"Guildenstern: ...you can't act death. The fact of it is nothing to do with seeing it happened--it's not gasps and blood and falling about--that isn't what makes it death. It's just a man failing to reappear, that's all--now you see him, now you don't, that's the only things that's real: here one minutes and gone the next and never coming back--an exit, unobtrusive and unannounced, a disappearance gathering weight as it goes on, until, finally, it is heavy with death. "

Death--whether this version of Hamlet be told by Shakespeare or Hamlet's two comrades--seems to be a prevalent theme throughout this play...however I think I like Stoppard's more light hearted and well-balanced version somewhat better. I would definitely recommend it.

My Kind of Humor

"Hey! Just wanted to say I loved the Book of Kells."

I love geeky humor.

Can you even read the Calvin and Hobbes one?

Anyway. It's been over a month now. Odd. It's not like anyone really missed me, but I usually blog more often. Though I should warn you I'm not going to be blogging for a while. May is a busy, busy month. I feel like all I do is sleep, sleep, study, study, or just repeat myself for rhetorical effect. Something like that. These fragments are getting worse.