This is the cover of the Valentine’s Day card my fabulous bridge-playing, artist friend made for me:

An image from one of my new favorite ‘blogs:

Last night I spent some time making flash cards for various hand distributions. Then I spent some time chanting the four digit combinations. It crossed my mind that if Dan Brown were lurking nearby he’d have a new book out next year exposing the sinister “Cult of Thirteen”. I can see the film’s tag-line already, “Twelve disciples plus Jesus, a baker’s dozen, half marathons, hours in a flight from Newark to Beijing … it all adds up to a rip-roaring, action packed, psychological thriller starring Tom Hanks as Dr. Robert Langdon and Melissa Joan Hart as the Mona Lisa — that’s right, she’s still alive, but only for thirteen more minutes.”

And then there’s this:

The Philadelphia Police are at it again. This time they went into an art gallery and removed all of the paintings being exhibited by an artist named Justin Nagtalon (AKA “El Toro”) who was convicted of vandalism two years ago. Story here.

It gets better though, Officer James Quick of the 9^th has been cyber stalking the artist in question for several months and doing so with tricky AOL monikers like “The Police!!” Should I even bother to mention what using AOL says about his web savvy?

I guess we’re just lucky they didn’t fire bomb the gallery instead.

My bridge club’s decor is dominated by card-themed posters, knick-knacks and comic strips. An exception to that rule is the clown painting that presides over the table at which the lessons are conducted. The clown’s hands are raised in front of his chest, fingers splayed; his eyes are pleading. I can not help but imagine that someone is pointing a gun at him.

I had a front row seat for Kooza last night. It was very entertaining, though being that close-up I found myself paying quite a lot of attention to the way the apparatuses for the various stunts were being assembled.

The last time I went to a Cirque de Soleil show it was Dralion back in 2000. The clowns were more European in appearance and performance. It is a shame that the clowns have been Americanized, they just aren’t as funny in general and the humor was more crass, which I found distracting.

The story, costuming and music in Kooza is multi-cultural, drawing on influences from around the globe. It follows an innocent, the Innocent, to be more precise, as he is in drawn into a strange kingdom by a red lacquered box delivered to him within the first few minutes of the show. Said box contains an agile imp god in the form of the Trickster. The Trickster has power over the denizens of the strange land, a power which he imparts in part to the Innocent. I liked the way in which the Trickster would hover in various places on the stage, overseeing the activities without much intrusion, but with a definite presence. The character was charming, but mischievous and a bit dark.

The acrobatics and feats of daring do were about what one has come to expect from a Cirque performance. Many were breathtaking, but what made them even more enjoyable to watch was the fact that many of the performers were clearly having a good time. The solo trapeze artist especially was beaming as she flew about high above the stage, even giving an audible “Woo-hoo!” during one particularly spectacular trick. It’s nice to see performers who seem to be doing it for the fun of it, instead of some compulsive need for the audience’s affection and approval though there was maybe a bit of that too. Part of what draws me into the performance is an ability to believe in the moment that these performers would be doing this whether there was an audience or not.

Why is it that the security line moves so quickly when only one of us has a boarding pass?

Daniel left today to return home. The apartment seems empty without him, but I am comforting myself with the thought that the next separation won’t be as long.

The week flew by and mostly we did seemingly boring things. Yesterday, however, we ventured out to the Brandywine River Museum where we toured the Wyeth home and studio in addition to the museum. (I had been to the museum previously, but the home and studio were not open that day.) Then we went to the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I had been meaning to go and this was the last week. The galleries were somewhat crowded and it was the end of the day, but I did get to see the pieces that I wished to up close. I noticed details in several that I had failed to note in any of the reproductions I have seen. I decided to buy the catalog in part because of the photographs included which I had mostly skipped due to the time constraint.

Though I do not always manage to do so myself, I do believe that one should make every effort to get out of the urban sprawl at least once every three months to get in touch with the seasonal changes that happen in the rest of the world. It is depressing, to say the least, to experience this cycle primarily by way of the items for sale in grocery stores.

I have been lucky this spring in that I got to Virginia last week and this week I made it up to Bucks County. In the time that I have lived in this area, the drive to Doylestown has becoming noticeably less rural, but it still has its moments. I took a liking to the area specifically because it reminded me of Virginia in spots.

This afternoon I went on my second tour of the Moravian Tile Works there in Doylestown. I also bought a second decorative tile. Tonight when I got home I moved things around a bit so I could display them together. The one on the right I bought several years ago, the one on the left I bought today: