Thursday, August 05, 2004

the very last college visit......

ok, so we have seen enough...........or at least, if scw wants to visit more schools he will have to find an alternative family to take him there...............the three of us most interested in visiting williams got into the car and drove the 22 miles across the ny/mass border...just in time for the 11:15 am tour....the tour guide, a russian/something political double major from chicago........entertained us thoroughly with williams lore and enticing differences between williams and other schools.....the entry system of dorms....the tutorial classes available in the oxford style......you gotta love a tour guide who tells you up front that she was active in the pro-choice consortium during the past school year..........anyway...the campus is marvelous...the berkshire/taconic mouintains are breathtaking.....we were impressed.......if they would admit aging feminists i would apply..............we then visited the clark institute, where we saw an exhibit of french paintings collected by some guy named bruyas.....who commisioned fellows like courbet, delacroix, etc to paint his portait......he had no fewer than 8 portraits of himself, either alone or with others.....like baudelaire.........i vow, right now...that when i win the lottery, i will commission artists to paint my portrait in at least 8 settings........like doing laundry, doing dishes.......all of thoese things that i avoid doing....just for the irony/absurdity of it all........surely this guy bruyas wasn't really in all of those situations portrayed on canvas as he paid others to paint for posterity................ah well.........we then dined on fine thai......not my spouse's favorite cuisine.....stephan and i enjoyed curry dishes, which we made over greatly, knowing that ernst despises curry...............this, on williamstown's 2 block downtown........and then on to north adams.....to mass moca...the museum of comtemporary art that is housed in a converted mill.........we saw at least 2 variations of exhibits we have seen elsewhere......the one we saw in bilbao......the one with the iron worm-like things on the floor around some larger iron-masses...with a wheeled thing...........the l.o. will recall this one....................the other was by an ohioan, just my age, named anne hamilton...who does these installations that involve a large room, with paper-dropping machines.....voices from speakers.........and masses of crumpled papers on the floor................the hirschorn in washington dc has a smaller less-elaborate version.....we saw that with belgian boy last summer...............he did not get it, but that is another story................we enjoyed watching scw enjoy this installation.................and then, there was the requisite stop at the local bike shop.........gentle readers......we stop at most bike shops........i particularly enjoyed one in downtown london on a previous vacation............but i opted to sit this one out..........we have vowed to honor our son with a cloak of secrecy with regards to his choice for early admission, and the choices for open season/back-up applications......so don't go asking me...............ok? tomorrow, weather permitting, we are going to saratoga springs to watch the ponies......and maybe start on paying for this high-end college education through sheer dumb luck...............it will take luck for us to win at playing the ponies...........

No comments: