BIRTHDAY PART II

I was insanely productive on Friday. I did laundry, baked a focaccia (topped with garlic, green onion, rosemary, sea salt, and so much OIL), baked a cake (buttermilk strawberry - but let’s not talk about how it turned out), and made a kale-and-turkey frittata for lunch.

Then, as late afternoon approached, it was time to activate the Culture Pass for the second day in a row for a gratis visit to the Museum of the Moving Image.

Outside, some roses were resting, while others were poised to open at the next suggestion of sun.

The day was cold and damp, but it didn’t bother me one bit. For my birthday, I splurged on a waterproof trench from RAINS (recommended by Susan Orlean on her substack), and I was excited for the opportunity to give it a spin.

I should really make a point to come to the MoMI more often. It blows my mind every time. Got a heady art high from Gregory Barsamain’s Feral Fount, a stroboscopic zoetrope made of 94 subtly shape-shifting sculptures.

Stopped by the Auriea Harvey exhibition My Veins Are the Wires, My Body Is Your Keyboard. The above is the only picture I took, but it really isn’t the type of exhibition (much like Feral Fount above) where pictures will do any justice. I emplore you, mystery reader, to drop what you’re doing and GO.

Auriea is a sculptor and video game designer who found early success as a net artist in the ‘90s. In this exhibit, her websites and collaborative art pieces were displayed on old desktop computers, emulating a Windows '98 interface. Time just dropped away as I clicked around every corner of every page, scanning inscrutable manifestos and chat boxes, trying to find hidden switches to unlock new layers of the maze.

This is what being a kid on the internet in 1998 was like. Link to link to link. Glittery, graphic-filled webpages that each had their own look and accent. Rooms within rooms. No searching, just finding. This was when clicking to a new page on the internet could entice yet unsettle you - or even give you a jump scare - with unexpected music, strobing gifs, or strange cursor functions.

In a sublime daze, I walked downstairs and into the surreal Tut’s Fever movie palace. A completely hand-painted, 30-seat, working reproduction of the movie houses of the 1920s. Somehow didn’t even think to get a picture of the movie screen, which was playing (of course) an episode of The Muppet Show.

I love museums. They’re the first thing I think to do in my downtime or when visiting a new city. I skim and scan certain rooms and study others. Some give me a meaningful education, some I rush through too quickly, some leave me cold or bored or deeply disturbed. This whole trip was… life-changing? I haven’t felt this full of inspiration and wonder since seeing the Museum of Jurassic Technology back in February.

It feels like Kid Melanie is back at the helm. So much of the stuff I saw here today reminded me of the imaginative, playful, mysterious, digital world I grew up in. I want to redirect all my energy toward feeling this ineffable wonder at every possible opportunity.