25 66% 20% 0mph SSW bar29.90 windchill24 Winter
Waning Gibbous Winter Moon
At the MIA I picked up my old security badge with the grinning face and a patch of remnant frontal hair which looked like a soft, brown green at the 1st hole. This earned me admission to the basement, the haunt of the security guards. I went in the basement to get my picture taken because the badges are, after all, a security concern, relegated to the basement, or id level of the museum. This is the instinctive, protective part of the museum’s body; it strikes without forethought to protect art, then vitrines, cases and stands. In a pinch they will protect people, too, but mostly it’s about the art. Makes sense. After all, the guy didn’t come in and sit on a patron; no, he chose the $500,000 Ming dynasty chair. (Now worth $750,000 after renovation)
Anyhow, I went down the stairs. On the left was the guards lounge with the artistic funky furniture and guard art on the wall. On the right was the photo shop. On the wall next to its door was an old museum sign in bronze, perhaps 3 feet high and 18 inches wide. It gave the hours and days of the museum. So, the basement is also where old signage goes to live after its working life is over.
Once inside, more guard art on the walls, there were those little light reflecting umbrellas that photographers use, plus a tilted white board at desk level in front of the stool. Pauline? had a Canon SLR digital on a tripod. She took three shots: I smiled broadly, quirkily, and deadpan.
“I’ll leave it to you to choose the most winning one,” I said and left the basement.
Back here at home I’ve also begun my attempt to learn Chinese characters on my own, with the aid of softwared I bought a while back. Over the years I’ve tried to learn Welsh, Spanish, German and Greek. I have some Latin and some French. Languages are not my long suit, but I keep sticking my head back in the stocks every few years. Part of me is ashamed I’ve never learned another language. No, make that all of me. Very ethnocentric and gauche American.
