h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's not uncommon - but these spots were nice

Old friend of mine is an . Has been for decades. He once w*rked a lot with 'spots'. One picture showed a stream w*rking its way through a sunlit meadow and vanish in between some trees. The way thousands of tiny dots created the impression of lights and shadows, flowers etc. was fascinating. Squinting your eyes (or - as in my case) taking of ones glasses perfected this illusion

On describing what you see and feel, on being wrong or right in that: I kinda like Wolfgang Iser and his reception aesthetics. Even on everyday level. It doesn't matter what you say - I respond on what I hear.

This is one of the rare exhibitions where everything on show was worth having on show. That I could definitely appreciate. Whether I can convey what I saw and what I felt is probably irrelevant, but it has been fun trying.

There was a Degas that I thought better and more interesting than most of the works in the official Degas exhibition last year. Ballerinas of course, but it wasn't as posed and contrived as some of them. There was a Monet - waterlilies again, but somehow clearer and more real than the version that's in our permanent collection. Every so often some other painting comes to mind... If this is still happening three days afterwards, it must have been a good show.

Indeed. Good for you

There once was an who said "if I could have put into words what I was trying to tell you I would not have gone to all the trouble of painting this picture"

I understand, but it should not refrain the rest of us from discussing it

I'll be able to discuss it all a bit more in a couple of weeks' time. This morning I booked four tickets for Sunday 18 April, the last day of the exhibition. We're going to the 3am session. The slogan is 'Spend the night with the Masters'. I might or might not be in pyjamas. Afterwards we'll wander off for breakfast somewhere, during which I'll probably fall asleep in pancakes or maybe muesli.

Sounds like fun.

I love the mental picture of the smiley. It's animated, or it should be...

I'm sure it would have a number of uses

Yes, it would have many uses, few of them sane.

I finally got a chance to catch up- what an exciting exhibition!

I would be totally on board with attending at 3am, in pajamas. It's ideas like that which make me regret, at times, living so far away from some of my friends.

I wouldn't mind sleeping on a giant pancake with another pancake as a duvet

Hold the syrup, though!

I'm sure this mental image would have inspired Dali

*cue mental picture of two enormous pancakes with a hand and a foot sticking out*

Pc - if you can get here by 17 April, I'll get you a ticket.

..or a peg leg sticking out .

Go on, Pierce, I'm sure you and Ivan will have a great time with Australian and and singeing humour. After serious art experience in pajamas.

*Would like to and at such a meeting*

I can't make it!

I have an appointment here in Denmark on the 16th and another on Lanzarote the 18th




Both should be fun as well, though

I've convinced one of my colleagues to join us at the 3am session. She actually *paints* when she's not being either an office person or a musician, so I'm looking forward to hearing what she thinks about it all.

Even better - when I booked her ticket, it was number 7 in the series. I'd already booked tickets 1, 2, 3 and 4, so that means there are only going to be two people I don't know. So far, anyway. A couple of hundred nightowls will probably descend at the last moment, but for now it feels almost like a private viewing.

Now I am even more jealous, because there's no way I can pull together a trip to Australia by the 18th. I'll make sure that I'm in my pajamas at 3am your time and be with you in spirit.

It's lucky for you it's a weekend, you won't have to go to the office in night attire.

If you can't come here in time to see the exhibition, would you be able to catch it in San Francisco? I'm not sure when it's there; it might do Tokyo first.

Ooh, San Francisco. Always wanted to go there, too. Not that I'd refuse a trip to Tokyo, either.

While I've gone to work in jim-jams before, that wouldn't fly here, no. That's not quite what they mean by "office casual".

Are you sure about that? Why not push a few boundaries?

The 3am session at the gallery was fabulous. They had a light show outside, a bar inside (half-price between 2 and 3am) and a national radio program broadcasting live from the box office. There were quite a few people in pyjamas, some with teddy bears as well. Our tickets entitled us to enter after 3am and to stay until 8am if we wanted. It was about 6am when we went to breakfast. One of my group had to have a nap at one point, but she'd brought a large teddy bear with her so she commandeered a bench outside the exhibition shop and used him as a pillow. I stayed awake, which surprised me; I put it down to lots of caffeine during the day and two good champagnes from the half-price bar.

There were quite a few people in the exhibition, but it was by no means crowded; I could stand three or four metres from some of the pointillist pieces and still get a clear view. I also got to be alone with the Van Goghs for a litle while. It's hard to believe that I'll ever be able to see these pieces again without having to fight through a crowd, so it was well worth the trouble.

(Sadly, I wasn't in pyjamas. I didn't get organised enough to get a pair. This might be a good thing; a couple of my friends were shown on the 7pm TV news while the voiceover commented on what people had worn to the last night of the exhibition. Sooner them than me.)

The exhibition is now on its way to Tokyo. After that, it's San Francisco. As Teddy Girl has just landed a job in San Francisco, starting in July, she'll be able to see the show again when it gets there.