Daily Archives: December 2, 2009

My work ID gets me into several city museums for free, including the Museum of Modern Art, which is a good thing because otherwise I’d never go. The idea of paying twenty bucks to go to a museum rubs me the wrong way, bless Washington D.C. Sometimes, I’ll head over for even just ten minutes during my lunch break to stimulate my eyes. Plus, it feels like being on vacation, what with all the tourists, perfumed and looking nice (what is it about art museums that makes people dress-up?).

My favorite spot–in the old Modern and the new one–is the Matisse room.

Reproductions can’t do the paintings justice, of course, but this here is the picture I’d die for:

It hangs next to The Piano Lesson. I sit and swoon.

It is incredible to me how I never tire of looking at my favorite pictures. It is as if the paintings are living and breathing things. They never get old. There is always something new to see.

I don’t weep easily at movies or books or music even. But great paintings, for whatever reason, bring me to the brink.

Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being:

Oooh La La…

Here’s a Disco record:

Tyler Kepner with the latest on Johnny Damon:

The Yankees did not offer salary arbitration to Johnny Damon on Tuesday, which may not be such a bad thing. Damon, who is in Paris, said he was encouraged.

“In a better position since teams won’t lose draft picks,” Damon said in a text message. “Will now wait and see what develops.”

If the Yankees believed Damon could receive a better offer on the open market, they probably would have made the arbitration offer and taken draft picks if he signed elsewhere. By making no offer, the Yankees are again predicting a severely depressed market for free agents.

Damon is in Paris, Alex Rodriguez is in London. Life is good for the World Champs.

Cliff hipped me to a terrific interview with Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner at the Onion’s AV Club:

AVC: Carl, you’ve said in other interviews that you’re against analyzing comedy. Why is that?

CR: Well, people have a comic bent or an angularity to their thinking, and those are the people who make jokes. And it’s usually people who were in an environment, when they were young, where jokes were at a premium, or at least considered important to a life. My parents always listened to the comedy radio shows, we went to the comedy movies, and my parents appreciated comedy. So kids listen and follow what their parents like.

AVC: Do you think comedy is something you can teach somebody?

CR: No. There are people born with intelligence; you’re not born with a funny bone. If you’re just a normal thing, the palette is there; it just depends on who puts the paint on the palette, and what they put on the palette when you’re very young. And then when you’re a little older and go to the movies by yourself, then you start making choices, and it’s usually honed by choices you made very early in your life.

MB: Where are you?

AVC: I’m in Chicago.

MB: I was always treated with love and respect and joy in Chicago.

According to Jon Heyman, Billy Wagner has signed a one-year deal with the Braves.