We have returned. Trip was a success and ran very smoothly; as always there are post trip blues…but it is also admittedly a relief to not have to rally the troops every morning and constantly be the point person for group logistics.😹
One thing that always strikes me about medieval and early modern interiors is how *colorful* they were. This wasn’t a drab, grey world! It was filled with these amazing colored surfaces!
@University of Bologna, their other ancestral intellectual home.
My favorite painting (by Perugino) at the National Art Gallery in Bologna. I fell in love with how he captured the shifting colors in St. Catherine’s robe.
Maybe I lied. Maybe my favorite building in Padua is the baptistery- it looks so dull and unassuming from the outside, but you step inside and it’s like entering a jewel box.
Medical students at the University of Padua, their ancestral home.
The Palazzo della Ragione is maybe my favorite building in Padua. It’s incredible.
I found a wine window in Florence!
Michelangelo’s David is obviously an artistic masterpiece. But it’s the small details that make it - the veins on the forearms, the shadow of the ribs. Truly glorious.
Anyway, we did arrive in Italy unscathed, so that is a solid 25% of the school trip battle.
Aire and Oriole!
I am very lucky to be taking students to Italy this year, but running these trips is also super stressful and I want a vacation where I do not plan anything and am not worrying about if everyone else is satisfied with the experience or not.
I do love spring tulips. Possibly so much I would be willing to stake my economic future on them.
I wonder if the the astronauts considered just…continuing on. Abandoning Earth and venturing out into the deeper unknown because everything seems so insignificant from up in space.
I love this little dude.
(From Ansei Uma no Aki Korori Ryukoki, an account of the 1858 cholera outbreak in Japan)
Clearly someone did not watch the classic Terry Belanger videos about this.
😬😬😬😬😬
Who among us would not love a senior trip to Medieval Times?!?!?!?
And really, there’s a reason why “classical” music ends up in movies - it conveys emotion! Classical music isn’t some inherently intellectual genre, which just treat it as such because it has centuries behind it. Wagner would have totally scored Star Wars (and made it a Gesamtkunstwerk).
At a symphony concert last night, I was struck by how the pieces by modern composers sounded like movie music. Which is not meant to be negative! They grew up on Star Wars, LOTR, etc., so it makes sense that they are influenced by that sound.
The turtles in the pond by my apartment are out sunning. Truly, warm weather has come.
I got the nicest present in the mail today! What a cool Tarot deck. :)
I think this might be true - my mom was at the broadcast and she definitely got a closer view of the singers, plus better orchestra/singer sound balance. There is also something magical about the live performance, though, so it all balances out?
Yes, cried during Liebestod. No one does emotional catharsis quite like Wagner.
I came to New York JUST to see this production of Tristan & Isolde and am staying here just long enough to catch the opera and eat dinner. I am so hyped.
Instagram has started pitching trips to North Korea at me. They always begin with some variation of “The world is such a dangerous place…I want to go someplace safe!” followed by bright, cheerful footage of Pyongyang.
Yeah, how about no.
The guy on the left is having a rough time.
Oooooooof. Such a shame.
one must always reblog this
An e-card that reads, "People are losing the spirit of the Ides of March. It's not about just stabbing. It's about coming together to stab in groups."
Happy tyrant assassination day!