Swingers

A long time ago (like 25 years) I used to go out a lot, see lots of music, spend a lot of time in bars. Last spring, I was talking to John on the phone and he was appalled because, he, at 20, was home doing nothing on a Friday evening. I guess I was like that.

Savarin, 1977. Lithograph, 45 x 35 inches. Co-copyright Jasper Johns and Universal Limited Art Editions, 1977. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Last night, a Friday evening, we went to an opening at the local art museum - a really nice show, Jasper John's Prints, organized here, with no travel plans at the moment, unfortunately.

We saw a lot of people we knew, mostly other nice middle-aged couples. we talked about our kids in college. One family has a son in Egypt, with no Internet; a cable is broken under the Mediterranean - I heard on the NPR news this morning that repair is underway.

I know some people who work at the museum; an exhibits preparer who was wandering through the opening, camera in hand, supposed to take pictures of the crowd, a job he hates; and the Director of Public Information, who arrived as we were leaving, with her husband, an artist and art teacher that I know quite well - we were both members of a silkscreening collective for awhile. We had a nice conversation, but awkwardly situated in the doorway.

We came home and watched the Painted Veil on DVD, it was beautiful but sad - in it an elderly nun describes her love of God as an old couple, their ardor long gone, sitting on the sofa - I felt like that.

Or maybe I just mostly felt like an ass - I didn't even have anything to drink, but I still tried to introduce the exhibits preparer to Mark, using the wrong first name ...