This blog post is going to be a pretty random list, but sometimes, that’s just what comes out of the keyboard.  So here we go:

First off, I know we’re a little late to the game with this one (considering my teenage sister has had one for, I don’t know, her whole life) but the Pulitzer now has a MySpace page, and a Facebook page.  We’re still tweaking, still adjusting, and still adding, but in the meantime- add us!  Be our friend.  And our fan.  And tell all your friends and your fans.  Whew.

Secondly, a Must-See: there’s an interesting post on Edward Lifson’s blog about the new Ando building in the Berkshires.  He says some nice things about the Pulitzer building too, and includes great photos of other Ando projects I’d never seen before.  It’s a must-read and the Clark looks like a must-visit.

About a month ago, I wrote a blog post about Google Maps and how St. Louis didn’t have the Street View feature yet.  Well a few weeks ago that changed!  And it’s really addicting.  Take a look at the Pulitzer.  Now enjoy spending hours scooting the map around St. Louis looking for your house, your car, your work, your favorite restaurants….

So it’s been awhile since my last installment, but today I thought I’d write a Work/Play version of websites I’m liking lately.

Work-related:

A List Apart. If you’re interested in the web - web design, writing for the web, usability on the web, pretty much anything related to the web - this is a perfect site for you. Over the summer, I will be relying on this website a lot for ideas and tips. More to come on why that is throughout the coming months (what a teaser!).

Play - A Two in One:

I subscribe to the email newsletter for Very Short List. It’s fantastic - you only get one email from them a day and often it’s about a site that I’ve a) never heard of before and b) now frequent. Today’s website was particularly fun to play around with — it’s called TuneGlue. Type in the name of a musician, click, and it expands into musicians with similar styles, click on one of those names, expand again, and so on and so on. While looking through this, I thought - how great would it be if someone created something similar to this, but for artists? That could be huge for art history classes! And for other interested parties, for example, those who write arts-related blogs…

Last Thursday - since it was the first Thursday of the month - the Pulitzer was open from 6-9pm so visitors could view the Flavin works at night.  My parents and grandmother came out for dinner (at Hodaks! Another St. Louis must-visit, if you’re unfamiliar) and to see the exhibition.

It was really nice outside, so we went out on the watercourt patio to enjoy it for a little bit.  The colors bouncing off the water were so incredible, I had to run to my office and grab the camera and take a picture.  As with most photographs of Flavin, the picture doesn’t do it justice - but I wanted to post it anyway:

In connection to Maria’s post today about Google Earth, I also have a weakness for looking up places.  You can really get sucked in, exploring areas, finding your childhood home, etc.  Also on Google Maps (speaking of, something I only recently tried out because it’s not up and running in St. Louis - have you used the Street View option yet? It’s crazy! Click here and try it on the Art Institute of Chicago).

I’m glad to see Google Earth is updated with our current buildings at the Contemporary and the Pulitzer - I think the last time I checked us out on Google maps, it showed the Contemporary still under construction! It’s fun to look at Joe from that view….awhile ago, I wrote a post about Twain downtown too, which is pretty interesting to view from that angle as well. Take a look here.

A view of the back of the Pulitzer building, with trees in bloom:

Yesterday we got blasted (again) with a huge snow storm in St. Louis.  Which meant a shortened work day for a lot of us around here.  But before heading out, Lisa and Camran trekked out to the courtyard to check out Joe in the snow.  They got some amazing pics - I thought I’d share a few of these with you today:

With the close of Water fast approaching, thoughts have turned towards the opening of our next exhibition - Dan Flavin: Constructed Light - and what that means for our respective jobs here.  For me, that means lots of press, marketing, and new website sections.  We’re meeting with our design company soon to discuss concepts.  Something I’ve been drawn to lately is non-traditional advertising - not just the typical ads in the typical magazines.  But what exactly does it include?  I’m trying to learn more.  Any suggestions for good sites to research?  Interesting ad campaigns that have really struck you? I’ll keep you posted on anything I find too.

When you walk in the back door of the Pulitzer building (which is the way we enter and exit when the galleries are closed), you come up a stairway along side the watercourt. Sometimes this can offer a variety of surprises first thing in the morning — we’ve had swirling steam in the winter, and massive grasshoppers on the window in the summer. However, this morning we encountered the biggest surprise yet — a falcon sitting at the end of the watercourt taking a bath. I took a bunch of photos for the blog (of course) and saved them in a folder called “PFA wildlife” where I also put photos of our local cat, Untitled.

Here you can see where he was sitting in the relation to the rest of the watercourt…

And here he is up-close:

We called him our Thanksgiving Falcon. Not really sure what that means, but it seemed appropriate right before we closed up for the holidays.  We’ll be taking a mini-hiatus on the blog too.  Our galleries will still be open, however, on Wednesday and Saturday — so come by and see if he’s still hanging around. Now we just need to come up with a name for him….

What does it mean to really love a work of art?  Perhaps nothing less than to infuse your life with its image for all time with a tattoo.  I used to a know a guy who had Michelangelo’s famous hands of God and Adam tattooed across his shoulder blades.  I thought that was devotion.  But today I have discovered a tattoo that puts those hands in perspective.  Look at this tatoo of Max Beckmann’s “Fisherwomen” on the arm of Sal, one of the guys who helped install the Pulitzer’s current exhibition (which includes “Fisherwomen”). Not only is it huge, it’s personalized: the two figures on the right have been made to look like him and his girlfriend!  That is some serious devotion.  Wow.