Museum Musings

Howdy all!
This weekend was grand (only a personal level, obviously - Norway's horrifying attacks were utterly shocking and saddening, to put it mildly. But this is a vintage blog so I will keep it peppy), especially since today the heat wave cleared up and it was a tolerable 80-ish degrees!
Saturday was the last day (fingers crossed!) of the heat, but it was really bad and I was fed up with suffocating in my apartment with no A/C, so I headed out to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, partly to escape the heat, but mainly since I'd been meaning to go to the museum since I got to Boston.
And boy, am I glad I didn't leave it to the last minute! Because I definitely need to make at least one trip back there, it was so huge I missed out on one and a half floors and the Chihuly exhibit because the museum closed before I was finished!
And I had a nice encounter with a stranger - I was staring at Victorian-era American painting when a young Irish fella came up to me and asked me if I had any experience with time travel. I took it as a compliment (even though he said I looked like I was out of the 50s, when technically my hair and outfit pointed to mid-late 40s, but hey, I won't be persnickety lol) and we started chatting, and exchanged numbers. Eventually, after the museum closed, we got coffee at a nearby cafe. It was a pleasant day, and good stranger-meeting events always put me in a good mood and make me feel like the general friendliness of the past isn't totally dying out (I read this article a few months ago that was on the Yahoo front page about how research shows most American young people think it's creepy/inappropriate to talk to strangers, which makes me sad because how else are you supposed to meet people outside of your normal circle??)
And then today I went out to a vintage shop I hadn't yet visited - and it was a success! More on that tomorrow, when I'll post some recent finds.
Anyway, I thought I'd post just a very few of my favorite parts of the museum that I saw - it was really difficult to narrow it down, but here's a few nice pieces that I found images of on the MFA website (except for the first two images).

"Stream in the Forest Near Plombieres" (1870s) by Francois Louis Francais. I don't know why I liked this so much - I mean, it is beautiful, way more so in person, but usually I'm drawn to paintings/art of people. But I just stood in front of this one for at least five full minutes, feeling really weird. After a bit I realized that I think part of it was that at that moment, even though I was enjoying the museum, I so badly wanted to be there, in that forest, by the stream, alone, with a picnic blanket and a cool breeze, to just lie there for ages - it would be perfect happiness.   Hah, okay, mushy ramblyness over. 

"The Haymaker and the Sleeping Girl" (1785) by Thomas Gainsborough. This one was pretty, and the description accompanying it was interesting, talking about the social context of it and whatnot. 

Bobby From Boston

Come one and come all! – Chaps, mostly.

Last week I went to check out Bobby From Boston, a vintage shop in Boston I had read good reviews about online, via Yelp. And I was certainly not disappointed.

I should note up front that the store is mostly for the fellas – about 85% of the stock there is for men, but there’s a small women’s section that is very well selected. I would be annoyed about how small it is, but I realize that most vintage vendors focus on the ladies, so this is a nice change.  Also, Bobby has a warehouse nearby in Massachusetts and that is apparently very well stocked in women’s items – I plan to visit there as soon as I can.

Anyway, back to Bobby’s in Boston. Walking into this place was like a dream – its wonderful to see a place that presents guys with a chance to dapper-ify themselves. And any guy that dresses himself here would have no choice but to walk out dapper as hell, to borrow the title of Solanah’s husband's (Samuel's) blog. I never before gave much thought to men’s clothing, except to ruminate on the sad state of most modern guy’s wardrobes. But Bobby’s made me wish I had a fella to dress up – there was absolutely everything here. Shirts, ties, suits, bags, cuff links, shorts, pants, suspenders, shoes, and hats-a-plenty. I can guarantee you I’m forgetting a lot of the stock, since again, I am not well versed in men’s clothing, but I could tell this place was a haven for the Well Dressed Chap. The chronological range of vintage runs from turn of the century military garb to 60s menswear, and it is all in very clean and new-looking condition.

One thing I especially like about Bobby’s – a lot of shops that call themselves vintage are really consignment, or stock mostly 70s and 80s stuff and think that this qualifies as vintage. I suppose you could stretch it and say 70s is vintage (even though I really don’t like it), but 80s absolutely is not, not at this point. Bobby, the owner of Bobby From Boston (whodathunk?) told me that he tries not to go past the 60s, but stocks a wee bit of 70s as it is somewhat in demand.

So, my final verdict? I recommend – no, I implore – any and all guys who would like to step up their daily spiffiness factor to head over to Bobby’s whenever in the Boston area and contribute to the beautification of the world by dapper-ify themselves in clean, quality, vintage garb. Preferably from the 40s and before. But you know, whatever floats your boat. Just stick a hat on top of it to doff, and you’ll catch the world’s (and my) eye.

Now I’ll let the photos do the talking. I had to cut out a LOT, so this is really just a peek at what lies within...