In Which I Take A Much Needed Vacation

A few weeks ago I stopped by MoMA for a movie, something I wish I did more often since they’re free for members. Unfortunately I chose the one week of the year when the movies aren’t actually free; fortunately I paid to stay anyway and got to indulge in East Asia’s answer to Wes Anderson.

Naoko Ogigami’s “Megane” is so twee and cute it deserves some new descriptive word combining the two, like twutsy or cutwee. Well maybe those are terrible words, but something along these lines could work. Between the enchantingly reserved performances of the actors, Ogigami’s super-saturated visuals of the beach, and the pleasantly simple guitar score, I felt like I was on a vacation.

One and a half hours later though, the vacation was over. It was disappointing to come back to the real world where you can’t trade paper cutouts for the best red beans and shaved ice in Japan. But one and a half weeks later I was on a real vacation. For the first time in two years, since starting my current job in fact, I took some vacation time and flew to France.

I’m not too interested in summarizing here why the trip was so amazing (and most of my friends have already had to sit through hours of exposition about it in person) so a few pictures from the week will have to suffice.