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bluejeans07 ([personal profile] bluejeans07) wrote2006-05-12 12:10 pm

Visiting Rachel, Day One

Summary: Arriving in Boston, seeing a small part of the city, and then THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS! Full of Jean fangirling dead artists, old architecture, exclamations of, "It's so East Coasty!" and lots of pretty pictures.


Mandy and I landed at the Boston Logan at the asscrack of dawn. We had taken the red eye flight from LAX to Las Vegas, spent all of an hour there where we went to the restroom in shifts, Mandy got a quesdilla and I took a double take a the Buddhist monk wandering around the gate. Buddhist monk in Vegas. Whoa. Contrary to popular belief (CAITLIN), we did not go on a drunken rampage around the airport, screwing up other people's gambling... yes you could gamble at the airport. There were SLOT MACHINES at the gate.

Anyway, we landed in Boston, call Rachel and is told we have to go to the T station at the Logan by taking the bus. ...Okay... taking the bus it is. Mandy and I hop on the bus and complain about how uncomfy the seats in the plane were and remark about how the guy sitting next to Mandy in the plane REALLY LOOKED LIKE HOUSE. Except he didn't, only the back of his head did (I really should've taken a photo of Not!House), and if he was House, he would've snarked at us about how we were prattling about the cute boy who I switched seats with so I could sit next to Mandy. Mandy says that if it was Sam's House, he would've probably joined in.

Spotted Rachel at the T station, HUGS ALL AROUND! And then WE GET TO GO ON THE T! I had been looking forward to riding the T because I had drawn comic panels with the T in them and I finally get to ride them after resorting to reference pictures on line and guessing how the T and the stations look like! T is much nicer than the Metro although Metro is quieter.

Some photos:


We went to an outdoor market thingie for breakfast. Rachel and Mandy hunted around for food while I sat with the luggage and took a few pictures. There were cobblestones! And the Freedom Trail! It was so East Coasty!


The ceiling of the indoor/outdoor market thingie. I really wish I was better at remembering names. The place was quite awesome and the tables were not really tables but they looked like kindgarten desks with rolly stools! :D Rachel had a canolli, Mandy had an apple turnover, and I had a bagel. Rachel's canolli was YUMMY (I know this because she offered me a bite).


We went outside and wandered around a bit, which proved to be difficult because we still had all of our luggage with us. Still, we got some gorgeous pictures and we saw the harbor!




The elusive Mandy fiddling with her camera as the Rachel watches on. Notice how the Mandy's plumage is incredibly puffy, she blames the chemo.


Boston has a lot of tulips. No, I'm not kidding, Boston is FULL of tulips.


I LOVE CLOCK TOWERS. I fell in love with this one.


More of the clock tower, except we were on its shadow side so I had to lighten the levels in photoshop.


Really really cool old building with a gold top thingie! It was SHINY, oooooh shinyyyy~




After breakfast and a quick wandering around Boston, Rachel took us to the MFA. As it turned out, we arrived too early so we sat around outside talking about various things until we got to go in. Mandy and I quite happily checked in our heavy luggage, grabbed our sketchbooks and cameras and paraded in for long moments of, "Oooooooh pretty artwork!"

P.S. THANK YOU FOR THE NEW DIGICAM, DADDY! I HAVE USED IT WELL. (not that he'll read this)


The MFA was having a Degas to Picasso exhibit. I like Picasso, he's a revolutionary, but really OMGDEGAS!!! Pastels, quick strokes, and gorgeous gorgeous color choices!


A Degas sketch of ballerinas.


A beautiful, simple sketch of a nude. I didn't write down who did, although I should've. *facepalm* I'm trying to clean up my sketching style so referencing art like this is helpful.


Picasso did this neat thing of developing photos on cut paper. Alix had told me about how she tried to develope photos onto a leaf and other things so I took these with thoughts of her in mind. ;D






Still thinking about Alix. XD It was the first thing you saw in this awesome circular hallway thing. There was a whole 'psychedelic' exhibit that had works from the 60s and lots of colored lights.


Painting that really reminded me of Sam. XD Masks and plays? Oh so Sam.


'The Torn Hat', this painting is of the artist's son. The strokes were large and simple but it's painted and rendered beautifully.


Incredibly FAMOUS and HUGE portrait of George Washington. It's HUGE. And the brush strokes are WONDERFUL. I fangirled.


Detail of the horse, I love that 'wild' look in its eyes. XD


This painting is also quite famous, and while I am lame and don't remember the title, I did study this painting in my History of Art classes. Basically, there was a man who got bit by a shark and lost his leg, and lived to tell the tale. This painting was done based on that story and painted in the style of a religious painting.


'Tomb Effigy of Elizabeth Boott Duveneck,' 1894. Yeah, I went rather nuts over this. This is seriously the COOLEST THING EVER. It's so lifelike and beautifully carved! Oh, and it's the artist's wife. SO BEAUTIFUL.





And then I promptly abandoned it in favor of...


Sargent, who gets his own entry.

[identity profile] chobit001.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Seeing that tomb sculpture reminds me of all the tomb sculptures back in England! These pics are great! I'm so glad you had a fun time!

[identity profile] bluejeans07.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
I will see those for myself someday!! SOMEDAY!! *shakes fist*

And one of the other things I thought as I was taking photos was, "ARAGORN!" XD The East Coast is beautiful in the spring :D

[identity profile] sarumann.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
GEORGE WASHINGTON PAINTING!!! *has history squee*

I'm glad you're having such a good time. :)

[identity profile] bluejeans07.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
IT'S TALLER THAN YOU. Really! And you're TALL but seriously, painting is TALLER THAN YOU. :D

[identity profile] candleschildren.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
RAWR, CHEMO I KEEL YOU DED!!!

*ANGSTS*

[identity profile] bluejeans07.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
O NOES!

*SHIMMIES*

from Sam's Cafe

[identity profile] flamingsword.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, pretty! Thanks for sharing, and for linking to the sharing. Have fun in Boston!

Re: from Sam's Cafe

[identity profile] bluejeans07.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
Actually, I arrived back in California Tuesday morning. And it is overcast here so I am grumpy XD All the sun went to Boston!

[identity profile] copperbadge.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
These make me so sad for missing Boston! That tomb effigy I actually sat and sketched, once. And I've sat in Post Office Gardens, right where you took that photo, and and and....

*loves the photos* Thank you. This made the day WAY better.

[identity profile] bluejeans07.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 01:54 am (UTC)(link)
Awwwww... well, I could always draw in a little stick figure in the photos and say that it's you! So it's like you were with us, right? Right? XD And I was armed with the e-mail you sent me about various places to visit in Boston but there wasn't enough time to do everything T_T Next time, I'm going to go for longer than just five days!

[identity profile] jedilora.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
WORD. Next time, stay for like...a WEEK. Or two weeks!

[identity profile] bluejeans07.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
You know I totally would've except SOMEONE had SCHOOL. XP

[identity profile] callmecaito.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
IAWTC.

[identity profile] jedilora.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
The marker is Fanueil Hall/Quincy Market, the gold domed building is atop Quincy Market, and um...I don't remember who did the nude sketch either. But I can see if I can hit the MFA before the exhibit moves on to find out?

[identity profile] bluejeans07.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds good! Only if you have time though!

[identity profile] never-ender.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
I've never been overly crazy about Picasso, he gets a really mixed reaction from me, but I do love a lot of the photography stuff he's done. The way he plays with light is amazing, especially b-shots, and of course his printing methods are quite fantastic. We did a lot of interesting techniques in my photography class, so I'm always interested in the ways people can use photography ^-^

Thanks for thinking of me *smooch*

[identity profile] bluejeans07.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
Psh, I'm ALWAYS thinking about you! ;D

[identity profile] f4l.livejournal.com 2006-05-14 02:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay pictures :D Those are all awesome, glad you had a good time! Can't wait to see more ;)