The Friday Five are late, but clearly not because they were enjoying Guinness yesterday

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1. Are you Irish? Possibly a bit. (I don't know that much about my ancestors. One side of the family immigrated relatively recently (early 20c) from Sweden; the other side's history is more nebulous and might include some Irish among the Germans and Scots.)

2. Do you like Guinness? No. Don't really drink at all, in fact.

3. Do you know what the symbol of Ireland is? The harp?

4. Have you ever watched Father Ted? I haven't even heard of Father Ted.

5. Do you believe in leprechauns? No. Wow, I'm really failing this Irish quiz, aren't I?

In other, non-Irish news, the last out-of-town guest of the spring break has now departed, and the regular work week is on the horizon. Big take-aways of this last visit? If you're mid-forties-ish and you've been keeping up with someone since college, you've actually known each other for longer than you hadn't known each other, and long enough to have forgotten entire episodes in your relationship. (Or maybe my memory's just getting worse very quickly, and folks are being polite with me.) Also, the Obamas are still the hottest ticket in town. We had to wait in line to see their portraits at the National Portrait Gallery.

Comments

[splix]

Ooh! How were the portraits in person?

It’s always fascinating to examine long relationships, isn’t it? I hope you had a fun and relaxing week.

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You know, neither portrait is the artist's best work, in my very humble opinion. The point is driven home by Michelle being hung opposite one of Kehinde Wiley's most powerful portraits, LL Cool J, and all I can think when I see them together is "Why is LL Cool J so much more successful to me than Barack himself?" Michelle is a bit too generic (she doesn't look quite enough like the actual person, who's got a very distinctive and instantly recognizable face), though the pose and dress convey her glamor and dignity and roundedness really well, and Barack's a bit too....well, honestly, too small. His personality's captured well in the relaxed position and the expression on the face and the contrast with the background, but he's got this outsize reputation that the painting doesn't seem to acknowledge. They were both *mobbed*--people posing to have their photos taken alongside them, groups standing and talking about them. It was so interesting to see!

Relationship are infinitely complicated and interesting! Wish there were more friendship fic exploring this, actually. M.

[splix]

Yknow, I didn't think that the portrait of Michelle looked like her much, so I'm glad you concur. I did like the Barack portrait immediately when I saw it, though that LL Cool J portrait is just fabulous.

I wouldn't mind teasing that idea out at some point!

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It's funny--for me, Amy Sherald's stuff works best in a dreamy, generic sense, and while Michelle Obama doesn't *not* look like her, it's also not the intensely naturalistic portraiture that people are used to, and a lot of folks who don't look at portraits very often are going to be interested in this one and wonder why it doesn't "look like her" in that sense. That said, the dress and pose are amazing and convey exactly that quality that so many people love about her so much. (By the way, that was "groundedness" above and not "roundedness!" Darn auto-correct! Unlike me, Michelle Obama doesn't have much "roundedness" about her.)

Isn't LL Cool J fabulous? Wiley's exaggerated style is much more suited to him than Obama. I do like the Obama portrait enormously, though.

I've been thinking about friendship a lot recently--something sparked by recent visits but also reading about a study that showed that a significant percentage of people who feel that someone is a friend don't have that sentiment reciprocated. Somehow that touched me and got me thinking. So much unrequited love fic and so little unrequited friendship! M.