I am 6% of the Artistic Crowd

I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art tonight to learn how to be an "Art Friend" for grade schoolers. This involves learning about eight pieces of art and doing some teaching for kids at my daughter's school. At the end of the night, Beryl, the nice Canadian lady doing the 2.5 hour tour of our eight pieces of art looked and me and said, "I wish more men would participate in this program." I was the only guy with 16 women (including two girls there with their mother), so I was definitely in the minority. There were two other guys I saw in the two other groups walking around, so at least we were representin' across the board. I'm fairly certain if I need to pick up single mothers because Pooteewheet leaves me, this is an optimal venue.

Some highlights:

• I (re)learned my rule about impressionist art. If it's good, I hate it. If it's not so good, I despise it. If it's incredibly good, I tolerate it.
• I can navigate by type of art from point z to a despite having not paid much attention from how I got from point a to z.
• 6'+ artsy women in designer glasses, a black skirt, a white blouse and high boots get a thumbs up from me on my personal fashion assessment scale.
• I don't know much about art.
• I still hate Gaugin. See bullet #1.
• If you leave two tween/pre-tween girls to their own devices, they'll sneak off to check out the wang on the nearest statue.
  
• I used my Tudor/Stuart undergraduate history major for the first time in about 20 years. I pointed out that the Tudor room was probably Elizabethan because it has Tudor roses in the woodwork and plasterwork, and that if it had been designed later, it would likely have had a few thistles to represent the union with the Scottish crown. I added that the Tudor roses, if not rendered in brown wood, were white and red, which could be traced back to the War of the Roses between two British royal families that were united under Henry VII. I also had an urge earlier this week when someone asked me about naming six new Linux (SLES) boxes if I could call them eg-Catherine, eg-Katherine, eg-Cleeves, eg-Anne, eg-Howard, and eg-Jane. Probably wouldn't have been all that funny to my fellow techies.