Chihuly

I'm hereby adding a new component to this blog: Art Shows. I think we come across them now and again and some of them are worth talking about.


This weekend I saw the Chihuly exhibit at the De Young. I was intrigued because half the people I know passionately hated it and decried it, claiming it wasn't art. The other half loved it, praised it, and thought everyone they know should see it.

As for me, I only want to add two things to this scholarly debate.


First, the presentation of the pieces, be them art or not, was awesome. Walking through dark rooms and discovering color made you feel like you were exploring the gemstone section of a museum or the phosphorescent fishes of the deep in an aquarium. But I especially loved the mirrors. You could see the reflection of the piece, but not your own reflection since the room was so dark! That gave it an even more surreal feeling. I also loved how vibrant the glass looked in the dark mirrors below each piece- the reflections were almost more impressive than the art itself. That was worth the price of admission alone.

In contrast, the plaques on the walls, with Chihuly's thoughts behind each piece, did everything they could to belittle the experience. "I called this 'Persians' because I thought it was a cool word but I don't really know much about anything to do with Persia." "I wanted to try using every color in my studio, so here it is." I wonder what would have happened if his thoughts had just been vague and obscure, saying simply "This represents conflict." Perhaps then the art world would embrace his work. In some ways, it's refreshing to see honesty on those plaques, but it was still hard to look at his pieces with the same respect after reading them.

Spring Awakening

It's so great. It's the greatest musical of our lifetimes.

I was so thrilled to see this again. I counted every second until I was finally at the show. It was just as perfect as I had hoped. Better, in fact.

Since we've both seen it, I'll just talk about what was different in this West Coast premiere compared to Broadway. The female lead was much better. Stronger, less Mimi-esque and a lot more fun to root for. Melchior was BETTER- looked more like the other kids and sang SO WELL.

I think this show featured the "original" Melchior and Hanschen. Could be wrong? Can you verify? It said they debuted the roles on Broadway. Anyway, they were amazing.

The "My Junk" song was ten times more elaborate than I remember it- they added TONS- it was HILARIOUS. I could've sworn that the gay-makeout scene took place on the swing platform on Broadway... maybe I'm wrong? This time they just sat on the steps near the front of the stage and kissed.

Our audience was amazing. Ten minutes of laughter on every joke. It was SO FUN to see this show with such a vibrant audience!

The only other thing to add was that I noticed a line early in the show where Melchior is describing Goethe to Moritz and talks about this one story Goethe wrote called "-some girl's name- and Child." Melchior complains, "Everyone focuses so much on that story just because of an illegitimate child!" The lady in front of me was telling her husband that Spring Awakening's plot parallels that story- that was interesting- we should research that.

Anyway, I hope to see it a few more times before it leaves SF. It might be fun to try and score seats on stage too! Check out this review that dares readers to do what we joked about, sing from the audience!