protected museum

the pretty entrance to the norton simon museum is guarded by several menacing statues.

life imitates art

as a part of my favorite twenty albums, i featured the exterior of the norton simon museum featuring an advertisement for an art exhibit of japanese block prints by hiroshige.  meredith and i recently visited and were able to see the print found on the banner (above) as well as the original piece of art used by weezer for the pinkerton album.  very cool!

cd sunday: weezer's pinkerton

i imagine this one might be a controversial choice.  after all, it was weezer's self titled debut album (unofficially known as the blue album) that broke through the music charts and made this band a phenominon of the 90s.

their follow-up album was much anticipated, but compared to blue, pinketon (or is it pink or tan?) was considered an epic failure.  many fans were disappointed, critics were harsh, and yet that did not deter my good friend jeff from falling in love with this album.  it was his enthusiasm (and singing along with the music turned up as loud as his parent's minivan could handle) that sold me on this disc.

much like many of the albums featured on my top 20 list, this one is unique.  it features lyrics that make you cringe, cry, and laugh, all at the same time.  the music is somewhat dark and rough around the edges, but is all comes together in one complete package.  some have said that it ushered in the "emo" music style, but but nothing i've heard from that genre comes close to the complexity featured on this record.

favorite songs from this collection are the cleverly written fan mail song "across the sea", the sexually frustrated "pink triangle", and the quiet acoustic guitar song that closes the album "butterfly".

you might be wondering what pinkerton has to do with the norton simon museum, and quite frankly, very little.  however the giant banner on the side of the museum advertises a current exhibit featuring the artist, hiroshige, from whom the band borrowed the cover art for the album.

1. u2 - the joshua tree
2. dave matthews band - crash
3. cake - comfort eagle
4. blue rodeo - five days in july
5. the beach boys - pet sounds
6. coldplay - viva la vida

third stop: norton simon museum

today's post is part of a series of images from pasadena's art walk night that happened last friday. for more details, check out the post on monday.

our last stop was the norton simon museum. a pretty fantastic museum that was open free to the public. i'd never been, although i've posted about it before. i agree with my wife that it may be the best museum in pasadena, if not all of l.a. county.

one final photo tomorrow.

the norton simon museum

i haven't been, but my wife claims that it is a fantastic art museum. pasadena has quite selection of museums for a town of this size, i'm sad to say there are quite a few i still have yet to visit.