May 18th

I forgot to mention that while I was eating my delicious burger after my nature walk I listened to classy jazz covers of 1980s pop hits (Don't you want me baby! Don't you want me oooohhhhhhhh!). No really.

Yesterday I went to the Nordiska Museet finally. It wasn't really worth the 80 sek it cost to get in which was kind of disappointing. I really enjoyed the fashion exhibit they had going on, which conveniently taught me about 18th century Swedish fashion, and I really liked the exhibit on table settings, but other than that it was kind of meh. They did have a little section of Strindberg's Stuff, including the original manuscript of Miss Julie and some of his paintings. I saw some more of his paintings at the National Museum today and I quite like them.

Anyways, after the Nordiska Museet I went to the Army Museum to see an exhibit about uniforms, but I ended up going through the whole thing. I actually really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. They had some actual Viking swords! I just wish I had had somebody to go through it with me, because there were all of these dioramas and interactive stuff and it would have been fun to take silly pictures with them. The uniform exhibit was really cool, and at the end they had all these (adult sized- take note Royal Armory!) uniforms you could try on. Once again, not nearly as fun when you don't have a friend with you.

That evening I got started decorating my dress for the regency ball in Bath in July. It's going a lot quicker than I thought it would, all the roses are now attached and all that's left is Sequinpalooza 2011 Part 2: The Revenge of the Sequins.

Today I went to the National Museum which I really liked. On the first floor, among other things, there was an exhibit about Swedish design from 1500 to the mid 18th century, and they had the most amazing display of 17th century cabinets! This past semester I took directing, and the play we worked on was On the Verge (which you should read/see if you at all possibly can). For my directors notebook, which contained notes for my own personal production, I used cabinets of curiosities as a sort of visual metaphor. I even designed a set based on a cabinet of curiosity (that, according to my set designer friend Joncie, could never exist in real life but oh well). The point of all that is that I've always liked 17th century cabinets, but recently they've been on my mind. There was one that had a little theater in the center, with columns and a balcony and everything. Absolutely gorgeous.

On the second floor they had paintings and sculptures, and a special exhibit called Lust and Vice which I really enjoyed. It was basically about sex in art from the Renaissance to today, and they had a whole variety of things from little dirty doodles these two 18th century writers sent back and forth to each other (loved them) to great masterpieces featuring nude figures from classical antiquity to modern art. I especially enjoyed the 18th century dirty doodles, which were usually satirizing something or other. For example there was a whole series called The Priest and the Girl. The 18th Century France gallery was closed for refurbishment (woe and misery) but fortunately a lot of the pieces were on display in the Lust and Vice exhibit, like this gorgeous painting of Venus by Boucher. They also had the whole series of The Rake's Progress by Hogarth in prints, and a chastity belt.

After that exhibit I went to the 18th Century Sweden/Europe gallery, where I ran into Marie Antoinette and her two children! I didn't realize that particular portrait was in Stockholm. There was also a Gainsborough and a gorgeous painting by Roslin, among other beautiful works. I was quite happy until some one came over the intercom to say that the museum was closing in half an hour. Everything closes at 5 here which I think is lame. I need far longer than a half hour to look at 18th century portraits! So I quickly finished up and headed to the gift shop.

The gift shop had a great amount of 18th century portraits available to buy on a postcard. But the most exciting thing was that you could also get an 18th century portrait poster. Museums NEVER have 18th century art on posters, and especially never portraits. It's always the same ten Monets and Van Goughs and Picassos. But the National Museum had like three portraits and a couple group images! It's like finding bigfoot. THEY EXIST!!!!! I didn't buy one because I don't think I have room in my backpack and if I'm going to squeeze a poster in I'd rather wait to see what Versailles has to offer, but maybe I'll order a poster off of their website when I get back home. Sooooo exciting, you don't even know.

Tomorrow I leave for Copenhagen!