Norman, Is That You?

  In my last post, I mentioned that Perfect Wife and I recently visited The Norman Rockwell Museum. As I said, we had a wonderful visit. Seeing the work of perhaps the greatest commercial artist that ever lived in person was really inspiring, even to a hack like me. If you are ever out in the boonies of Western Massachusetts, you should really drop in.

  Unless you have teenagers with you, that is.

  While we were at the museum, we noticed a couple of teenagers touring the museum. They were easy to spot- Everyone else at the museum was middle-aged or older, and everybody except the teens seemed to be enjoying themselves. The teens were miserable. I overheard one say to the other, "This is sooooo boooooooorrrring! How much longer do we have to be here?"

The other replied that since their Mother was having fun, they were probably going to be "stuck" there for a while.

  I found the kids' dilemma both sad and funny. Sad because today's teens seem to be unable to enjoy or appreciate anything that isn't targeted explicitly to them, and that someday things like the work of people like Norman Rockwell will be completely forgotten by unappreciative future generations. I found it funny because the kids' attitude cheesed me off, and it was fun watching them suffer.

  Forget what I said earlier. Go to the museum, even if you have teens in tow. It will do them good- or serve them right, depending on how you feel about your teens.

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I would now like to remind you that next week, October 13th through the 16th, I will be attending the New York City Comic Con! I haven't been to a "big" comic con in awhile, so I'm really looking forward  to it. As I have previously mentioned, if you are also attending and see a geeky guy with a hot babe wearing an Infinite Hollywood tee shirt, that's me (the geek not the babe, that's Perfect Wifey). Please come up and say "hello".

And if you spot any teens having a miserable time, please point them out to me. I could use a laugh. 

Random Rambles...

Since I haven't updated the blog in a while, I thought I might take the time to address some of the  things that have been kicking about in my mind.

First up, after a very arduous Summer, Perfect Wifey and I needed a vacation. Since cash was low and we didn't feel like traveling a great distance, we decided to spend a week in the Berkshires. For those of you out of the  loop, the Berkshires is a place way out in Western Massachusetts. 

A boring place. A place where nothing much ever happens. A place where, if you were  sitting about remembering your days on a whaling ship, you might write a novel like, "Moby Dick".

And so we visited "Arrowhead", the place where Herman Melville supposedly wrote the classic "Man-VS-Whale" novel, "Moby Dick". In theory, this is a fascinating peek into the life of the author of a classic novel. In reality, the tour is a 45 minute walk-through of an old-time house, narrated by a "guide" who knows less about Melville's life than you do.

It would have been nice to tour the house at our leisure, unfortunately, we had to go on the "guided tour", hosted by a Historical Society volunteer. I knew we were in trouble when our lovely, ancient, guide couldn't remember Herman Melville's  name. Adding to the discomfort were the mosquitoes! They were as big as beavers, and very aggressive. How Herman managed to crank out the Great American Novel in that atmosphere is a mystery our tour guide couldn't answer.

One positive highlight of visiting the Berkshires was visiting the Norman Rockwell Museum. This place is probably the best-organized art museum I have ever visited. Rockwell's works are presented beautifully, and with the inclusion of a visit to his studio, you really "get" a feeling for the artist, and what he went through to produce his work.  Seriously, this place is worth a visit to the boonies of Massachusetts.

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In other news, I DID finally find a Star Wars Gamorrean Guard action figure. If you scroll back  into past posts, you'll recall I despaired of ever finding this figure for sale in a retail store- But I did. He is everything I had hoped he would be. If you are a fan of Star Wars action figures, find this guy! You won't be sorry.

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For you cartoonists out there, the drawing on this post was drawn with a Crayola™ Broad Tip Marker (with some Prismacolor shading). For general doodling, there is no better tool.  Try it and see!

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Lastly, next week I will be attending the New York City Comic Con. If you are attending, please let me know, I'd enjoy meeting up with people who actually read  this blog!

By the way, if you are at the NYCCC and see an attractive babe in an "Infinite Hollywood" tee shirt, hands off! She's mine!