Ghibli Museum

English language map for the Ghibli museum.

On Saturday, I went to the Ghibli museum with a Japanese friend. While it was nice to have a personal translator, it certainly wasn’t a necessity: most of the exhibits were self-explanatory, and the short movie we saw in the museum’s theatre contained no speaking (in either Japanese or English). I particularly enjoyed the “history of animation” exhibit.

I certainly haven’t seen all of Miyazaki‘s movies, although I’ve enjoyed the ones that I have seen (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle). However, I don’t think that seeing any of Miyazaki’s movies is a prerequisite for enjoying the museum. If you’re interested in film, animation, or well-presented museum exhibits, then you’ll probably enjoy the Ghibli museum. I would, however, recommend buying tickets well in advance (you can’t actually buy tickets at the museum), and, if you don’t speak Japanese, in a country other than Japan.

Shepard Fairey at the ICA Boston

Jesse was in Boston yesterday, and, after some inexcusable forgetting and oversleeping on my part, we headed to Flour bakery for brunch. I’m the first to admit that Flour doesn’t provide a particularly tradition brunch, but their food is just so good, and the place becomes more and more zoo-like as the day wears on. In any case, I had a delicious roast lamb sandwich and piece of berry bread pudding. Yum!

Knitted graffiti spotted in front of Flour Bakery

After we’d finished eating we both had the afternoon free so we walked along the silver line route to the Institute of Contemporary Art. After admiring the building’s architecture we headed inside (where I discovered that Harvard has recently purchased institution membership to the museum, so free entry for me), and checked out the Shepard Fairey exhibit.

Shepard Fairey is perhaps most famous for the Obama campaign posters he created, and is one of the best known and most influentual street artists.

I really enjoyed the Fairey exhibit. I’m afraid that I’m probably a little lowbrow. I like contemporary art best when it’s fun and humorous. I tend to struggle with it when it’s overly serious.