Cardinal

I went with some people to see the special exhibit at the Cantor Arts Center this weekend. As a side excursion, we went to the modern art exhibit next door. I surprised myself a little by answering the question, what is my favorite art style, with modern art. Probably not until this moment have I had much appreciation for modern art. I even started to appreciate the solid colored square paintings, and the parallel lines paintings, and the scrap metal sculptures. Some would say, that's not even art. Maybe more than other art eras, modern art seems to be meant to make people think, about pushing boundaries, and political and social concerns. Only problem is, until now, I hadn't begun to be able to understand what of anything they were trying to make me think about. Reading the captions is still a necessity.

Then there is the painting I did in pre-school, which looks surprisingly like it could be worthy of display in a modern art museum. ;) Actually I remember putting in a lot of thought into the seemingly random splotches of color.

Maybe I was inspired to consider art more after watching the movie, Mona Lisa Smile, a great feminist movie.

It was also nice to be back on campus, amidst a very intellectually stimulating environment all around, and feeling surrounded by smart, intelligent, intellectual, creative people. People say that the work world turns your brain to mush.

Diverging to randomness... and then there were the news segments on TV about so-called well-bred middle class teenagers in Las Vegas beating random people to a pulp for fun. That city has always struck me as one of the most brainless cities. And the people who flew all the way from Kansas to storm a high school graduation in Tracy because the people in Tracy had apparently raised their gay-accepting kids in the ways of the devil, and I can't even remember exactly what the guy said on TV but it was literally jaw-dropping, oh my, people like this really do exist. One might not be surprised if the people were from some dirt poor deep rural area in a third world country with no schooling, but apparently these people are well-off enough to spend their time and money flying across the country.

I conclude that I should probably never live outside a twenty mile radius of a top-ranked major university where half of the surrounding population are alumni.