I don't know if it's all the walking or the cultural overload, but I am finding this break exhausting. Maybe I have just relaxed and am trying to catch up on missed sleep. Having a lot of fun, but pretty much dead to the world by 11.
We took it a bit easier today, only visting the Museum of Modern Art which is just up the road. It was though perhaps too much art in two days and I didn't get too much out of it, though again impressed by the audio tour, which this time occasionally included the actual creator of the piece discussing it. Where were you Kadinsky? Hey. And don't think that just because you died in 1944 that lets you off the hook.
You had to be observant with the audio guide in this museum as different symbols meant you were getting a different commentary. I was confused as to why the guide had suddenly become obsessed with the dimensions of the piece I was looking at and why it then started describing it to me when I could clearly see it. I had, of course, hooked into the commentary for the blind and partially sighted. I did wonder how they would be able to see the number on the wall to type into their machine anyway. But maybe there was a system. Another time the commentary seemed rather patronising and simplistic (when talking about Warhol's soup cans) but then I worked out that the commentary was for children (which was a shame as I'd enjoyed the plinkety music and request to step towards the painting ""But not TOO close!"). There was also a slightly funky and cool commentary which I guess was aimed at teenagers with music and people shouting out opinions. I found it more patronising than the child one and I don't think that was just because I was 42.
Anyway, this blog is not just a review of the audio guides of various New York Museums. Although I might make it become that soon.
I brought about 5 books with me, but typically have not had much time to read and even more typically have chosen to ignore the books in my suitcase for one I bought at the airport - Michael Palin's diaries from 1980-88. I suppose this one is fascinating for me for many reasons. Palin is the comedian I think I would most like to be - he seems to have chosen consistently excellent projects and not sold out like Eric Idle (forever exploiting Python) and done what he wants. Also of course, like him, I have turned into an obsessive diarist, even if in blog form the modus operandi is slightly different. His diary is more about his thoughts and as it was for himself and not for immediate public consumption he can be more open and honest about what is happening in his life. On top of that in this volume Palin is in his thirties and forties so he is around about the same age as me (a little younger in 1982 which is where I am up to). This is a little dispiriting as I am forced to acknowledge how many light years behind him I am in my career. In his late 30s everything is going his way and he's performing in and writing films and everyone wants a piece of him. I have some catching up to do.
I suppose I also enjoy it because in the early 80s Python was the most important thing in the world to me and so I remember vividly each of the projects he is talking about (as well as the world news) and it reminds me a bit of my own life. It's cool to see that like me he was a bit disappointed by the Contractual Obligation album and to read about the debates behind the Hollywood Bowl film which as one suspected at the time was partially about trying to milk the Python franchise for all it was worth. But I am also glad to see that the team were wary of this and concerned about not damaging their reputation.
But the thing that made me laugh the most and which resonates most with this blog is that fact that Palin seems to be regularly confused with Eric Idle by the general public. There are two entries (at least) in which someone challenges him with "You're Eric Idle!" in exactly the same way as I have written about people insisting that I am Stewart. Idle, I mean Palin, dealt with it in much the same way as I do by feeling a bit embarrassed and slighted and insisting that this is not the case. Which just makes the accuser all the more insistent. It's natural that one should respond in the way that Palin and I have done on these occasions.
But it made me think that next time it happens I am actually going to try and be bright and cheery and say, "No, I am Richard Herring." It might just save a lot of aggrivation in the long run and will shift the embarrassment right back on to the person who made the mistake, which is only apt and correct.
We'll see if I can manage it. My bruised ego might not allow it.
