Trying to Think About More Pleasant Things for the Moment

 Swung by the Friends of the Merril Collection’s holiday party and spoke to a few people, but didn’t stick around for The Northlander — Andrew couldn’t face the idea of sitting in stackable plastic chairs for the length of a feature film. Instead we went to the AGO to use our memberships to see the Del Toro show again. I also took the opportunity to look at the Florine Stettheim exhibit. I ought to have remembered before seeing it that she was one of the sisters who had the arty dollhouse. Sadly there were no photos on display of the dollhouse, but I rather liked her paintings, especially the ones of her sister Ettie. I’m still unsure how I feel about the fragmentary footage of Four Saints in Three Acts (for which Stettheim designed the costumes and sets— appropriately enough as her work is probably the nearest visual equivalent to Gertrude Stein); I think I’d have liked it better if more of it had had a soundtrack.

Afterwards we had coffee in the restaurant they’ve put into the ground floor of the Grange, enabling me to partake of one of my favourite pastimes: drinking coffee in picturesque surroundings— in this case, a Georgian mansion with Modernist furnishings. Must remember to take advantage of it a few more times before our membership runs out.