Menil Collection: Rothko Chapel

I saw the Rothko Chapel last time, but when we were finally able to get in (after the memorial service), I realized I remembered everything wrong. I thought the paintings were "red/umber" but in reality they're purple/black. Oops! I also thought the whole place was almost completely dark. Nope, there is an octagonal skylight.

I wish I had a photo of the inside, but it was hard to hide from the guard... basically the walls are covered with 14 20-foot-high paintings that are all different variations and combinations of purple and black. (The black is barely discernible on top of the purple.) Rows of wooden benches fill the middle of the octagonal space, perfect for meditative contemplation.

Again, religion via art, art as religion. Definitely something I could get evangelical about.

The photo above is of the Barnett Newman sculpture outside the chapel -- very similar to the one usually in the main atrium at MoMA.

Menil Collection: Byzantine Fresco Chapel

The Rothko Chapel just happened to be closed for an hour-long private memorial service when we got there -- darn! -- so we went first to something called the Byzantine Fresco Chapel. Like with the Dan Flavin thing, we didn't really know what to expect.

Well, I was blown-away. The top photo's one that I snuck, but it doesn't really do it justice. The walls of the building itself are concrete, but there is a separate black box inside that's suspended from the ceiling and comes down to about eight feet above the ground, with a one-foot gap between it and the concrete shell. Light streams down through this gap, leaving the edges of the room luminescent. The black box, meanwhile, makes the "chapel" in the center of the room seem to float in infinite space. The effect is terribly striking in person.

I put "chapel" in quotes because it's really a deconstructed chapel, sort of an idea of a chapel rather than anything corporeal. Glass panels held up with black brackets that disappear into the blackness of the enveloping walls hint at the architecture of a conventional chapel yet transcend it. The minimalism of the space makes it deeply spiritual -- kind of like Zen temples in Kyoto (which I like for the same reason). It is a place, in short, where even atheists can find religion.

I should definitely mention that the whole point of the chapel is to house a number of Byzantine fresco fragments from an old chapel in the Turkish part of Cyprus (which I've been to!) that were on the verge of being sold on the black market. The Menil Foundation recovered them, and the architect son of the Menils, Francois, designed the structure to showcase them and "return them to their original spirituality."

Mission accomplished, I say.

Day 8: Menil Collection Redux

Kaii and I went back to the Menil Collection yesterday, to see the Rothko Chapel. It was pretty awesome, though, because we ended up seeing a bunch of other things we hadn't the night before.

For starters, the museum itself is just gorgeous during the day. The ceiling is made of glass, under which there are white sail-like flaps that let the daylight through and give the building the appearance of being open to the elements. There are also interior courtyards sheathed in floor-to-ceiling glass and planted with gigantic tropical plants. The white walls, modern art, glass, jungle vegetation... it's kind of an interior design fantasy. The Menil Collection is one of those museums you just want to move into.

In front outside, there are some minimalist troughs implanted in the lawn by Michael Heizer -- aka the fanciest storm drains you've ever seen -- that were impossible to see in the dark before.

Dinner at Tan Tan

You know what was so exciting about dinner tonight? We stumbled upon a totally amazing place completely by accident.

So, I got a top-notch recommendation for a Mexican restaurant but Kaii and I were both feeling like Asian after five straight days of hardcore Southern food, so we asked around and found out that the Asian part of town is in Bellaire.

We just kind of nosed down Bellaire Boulevard and waited until we saw Chinese characters and then drove around a couple strip malls to see which places were full of people. Lo and behold, we found Tan Tan -- a monster Vietnamese/Chinese place easily the size of seven normal restaurants, all lit up with neon and mirrors and with fake trees inside. And completely packed. SO Asian! We knew we had come to the right place.

I had a seriously revelatory wonton noodle soup. Kaii had some Vietnamese dish that was chicken, pork and egg over rice. On top of that, we shared a plate of double-fried noodles with shrimp (cooked perfectly) and Chinese broccoli. Omg so good.

Menil Collection: Dan Flavin Installation

One thing I didn't have a chance to see last time was Dan Flavin's special installation in yet another separate building. It was really special to catch it this time with Kaii.

The building was several blocks away from the main museum -- kind of confusing to get to. And when you approach it, it's from the back. You have an inkling you've come to the right place, but even so, what's inside is a spectacular surprise. Not to be overlooked is the small back room with smaller white-light sculptures. Really a must-see!

One funny thing is that the top of the building's exterior is ringed with green fluorescent lights. On the one hand, they kind of scream Dan Flavin, but if you didn't know -- well, they could also scream "auto-body repair shop." Also, there is a condo complex across the street that gets completely bathed in green light. Day and night, can you imagine? "Screw you, Dan Flavin," I'd be saying. A little ways away there is a really cool minimalist sculpture/installation by David Smith that comprises four rectilinear black shapes sitting on a piece of lawn.

Menil Collection: I HEART CY TWOMBLY

The Space Center took all day, which wasn't our original plan, so we ended up having to rush over to the Menil Collection, which was the other big thing on our Houston itinerary.

The Menil Collection is one of my favorite museums in the whole world -- right up there with Tate Modern, MoMA and (a new one from 2008) the Decorative Arts Museum in Paris. The first time I went, in 2004, it was for the Cy Twomblys, but they have an absolutely outstanding collection of modern (wonderful Magrittes, etc.) and African art, plus the unique Rothko Chapel, which features a number of Rothkos in spiritually peaceful purple/black hues. (I'll blog about the chapel tomorrow, because we didn't quite make it before close today...) The main building itself is by Renzo Piano, and is extraordinarily satisfying in its rationality and serenity -- one of my favorite pieces of museum architecture, entirely aside from what's inside.

Unfortunately, we got there at 6:05 and the museum closes at 7, so we had to breeze through the main building. I took a good 20-30 minutes with my Twomblys, which are given their own building.

I HEART YOU, CY TWOMBLY! You have been my favorite since 1995, and I have a feeling you always will be. I don't know anyone else whose work is both so cerebral and so pungently physical. The best combination.

Day 7: NASA Space Center

Yay, Houston! I gotta admit, I kind of like this place. It's the whole California-ness of it, like I was talking about. The weather. The ethnic mix. The size of things and the driving.

This morning Kaii and I stopped by Costco -- seriously his favorite store, I think -- reveling in the normalness of it all. It was nice not to feel like tourists but like we lived here.

Of course, we went back to being tourists a little when we visited the NASA Space Center. I hate to be a nerd (again), but it was awesome!!! We did a flight simulator, watched several movies on the history of NASA and what it's like to be an astronaut, and checked out an exhibit with info about and artifacts from every one of the past NASA missions. (Did you know the next shuttle is taking off on Feb 19 of this year??)

The best part was probably the tram tour we took of NASA's actual facilities -- including the famous Mission Control Room, the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility and the Saturn V rocket (the largest rocket ever).


Lots of kids at the Space Center. I wish I could have gone on this super-tall chutes and ladders thing-y for the little ones.


A mock-up of the shuttle that the astronauts train on before missions. It also helps the ground crew figure out how to help astronauts with mechanical problems while they're in space, as well as develop better equipment for future missions.


Mission Control! (They have a new room now with more updated equipment.)


Facility where the Saturn V is kept.


The Saturn V.

Day 6: Houston!

I know, I skipped Day 5. I'll go back. Just wasn't able to blog last night... you'll see why.

Anyway, Kaii and I made it to Houston a couple hours ago and are chillin' in our spacious 3-room suite (including fully stocked kitchen!) at a Homewood Suites here. We just had dinner at some Tex Mex place in an upscale strip mall -- it's so reassuring and nostalgic to be back in a suburban area like the one we grew up in in California.

Houston is very LA-like -- everything is gigantic and far apart, connected only by massive highways. Earlier, we stopped by the Houston Galleria, which is quite close to the hotel, to exchange a Sony netbook Kaii bought back in Ohio. Here I am at the ice skating rink!

Wow, I am doggone tired.