I visited the Cloisters Museum yesterday afternoon. The Medieval collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of my favorite places to visit, not only here in New York City, but anywhere. It is one of the memberships I have that I feel proud to be a part of and actually use. I
feel like I am going back to visit old friends, and here at my Spring visit I took a few pictures now that the flowers are in bloom and the leaves are on the trees. I sat in the internal cloister and listened to a recording of chants. I considered some of what I learned from PDF2007, my growing interests in philosophy, how Posey has recovered from her tumor, how I really want to visit France again, and how nice it is for a perpetually
working/researching/teaching edu-geek such as me to finally have a place of peace and contemplation. I wonder if those Benedictines and Carthusians and such got it right all those years ago . . .

Technorati Tags: cloisters museum, metmuseum, metropolitan museum of art

Did anybody else notice that the 10 Republicans who are currently running for president all look the same? When I saw the photo in this morning's New York Times, and then saw it again online, I did a double-take.

I know some of their policies may appear diverse, but they are all eerily the same distinguished, older, white, and male. Not that there is anything wrong with being that, but it is still so much the same in a nation of such rich diversity and individuality.

I am wondering how they all even managed to look like they were dressed by the same person!

Last night we went to see the Barber of SevilleBarber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera. This is a new production of Rossini’s classic comedy (remember Bugs Bunny and The Rabbit of Seville):

To hear the music from the Met, click here. John Del Carlo as Dr. Bartolo and Samuel Ramey as Don Basilio were both superb!

Technorati Tags: Barber of Seville, Metropolitan Opera, The Rabbit of Seville

So, I suppose the New York Times saw my blog post yesterday and wrote their own article on the new Greek and Roman galleries. While they probably had their story already written and in-press before my post last night. They agreed with my asessment and, with interactive images on the NYTimes website, they seem to agree that the 15 year, $220 million renovation was worth the effort.

This past Tuesday I was fortunate enough to have a member's preview of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's New Greek and Roman Galleries. These galleries have been closed for a number of years, and they did a wonderful job converting the former restaurant to an open sculpture court. Click the image to see the other photos I took while visiting on the first day the galleries were open.  

So, Kathy Sierra seems to be directly addressing her (or more extensively, our) challenges with the online vicious attacks she has suffered. In an extended way, I think these attacks can perhaps be applied to all of us. The difference is that most of the rest of us do not have the readership or following to make this headline news. I am not sure to what extent free speech turns into aggressive and dangerous behavior, but someplace that line appears to have been crossed.

I am glad she is handling this situation, yet I am still concerned that she is, once again, quiet. While I can only wish her and her privacy and peace of mind the best, the longer it takes her to get back to leading her life as she best sees fit, whether online or off, the longer we can suppose that perhaps her bullying attackers may see themselves as having won. While in a very different situation and time and place, I think about the time it has taken, now six years later, for the rebuilding to begin downtown New York after the bullying attacks on 9/11. While we don't want to rush back into things, the status quo of sitting back and watching things go by is very compelling.

I do not think life can ever "get back to normal" after an assault that changes our very habits and ways we live, but the more our lives remain disrupted and our free voices silenced, the more I believe the longer-term effect holds us back from moving forward in our lives. Of course, who knows how we choose to live our lives in the future?

Thinking about Kathy Sierra's and Chris Locke's Joint Statement, I wonder why it was only on Chris' blog, as opposed to both of their own blogs? Furthermore, while I was at work on Monday so could not watch CNN, I wonder why there has been so little discussion about this since then. Strange how things so quickly go back to normal for those not directly affected by adversity.

Walking around New York City last week, I was surprised to find a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Union Square Park. After living here for 20 years, I am still surprised by what I notice when I really start looking.

That seemed to be Lincoln's way as well. I uploaded a few other pictures I took in Union Square, as well. See my other Union Square pictures on Flickr.

So, it appears the pope is ordering Catholic politicians how to vote.

Reuters recounts how the pope spoke about the moral duty of these people (yes, he speaks of politicians as moral), to support the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage as "non-negotiable."

Hmm, the pope ordering politicians how to vote? This recalls the American fears that John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic U.S. President, would take his marching and voting orders from Rome. President Kennedy clearly stated he would not do this. It seems that the current pope wants to return to an earlier time when the church dictated global political policy. How else can the statement "non-negotiable" be understood? Wow, what a way to try to maintain the last grip of power over people–by refusing to even discuss an issue. It may be easy for an older man of 79 to demand something and expect others to follow, especially coming from a traditional culture of obeying the orders of your elders. I can only imagine him jumping up and down yelling about it, too!

It is lightly snowing in New York City this morning, so I took a few shots with my Palm to share.