[travel] Palm Springs Art Museum

The Palm Springs Art Museum was not far from my hotel downtown. I walked over to check it out one evening:

They had a really great collection of western art- paintings, sculptures, artifacts.

The museum is also known for it's glass collection. I took a picture of this because it so soo soooo creepy.

Their contemporary art was really thought-provoking. Like this painting:

Doesn't that make you think of the color grey? It really makes me think of the color grey. Mind blowing.

Now look at this garbage:

Literally. Black trash bags. How... avant garde? This is funny to me. It could be commentary on the state of art or consumption- but what this is really doing is making people look down at bags of garbage and say things like, "All art... it is garbage, no? You look at this trash... Is it art? It is art in that it is meaningless. The artist is so brave- to put it in our faces like this." That's funny.

Anyway, my favorite piece was this huge collage made from ripped magazine pages:

Close-up:

Walking back to the hotel, I saw a huge Marilyn Monroe statue:

I had to walk around to get another picture:

Biggest granny panties ever!

[travel] Hard Rock Hotel

My hotel arrangements were made late enough so that I wasn't able to get a room in the actual hotel attached to the convention center but early enough so that I didn't have to stay 20 miles away. I stayed the week in a Hard Rock Hotel and it was awesome.

Everything about it was super cool and hip, with lots of artifacts all over the walls.

This is the wall paper inside the elevators:

My room was great. I had my own balcony:

I wanted to steal the duvet cover on the bed so bad. It looks like some regular pattern but when you look closer:

HOW COOL IS THAT? \m/ (I just checked and the duvet cover is for sale online at the Hard Rock shop.)

The floor lamp was shaped like a drum and you turned it on my stepping on a little button on the floor:

Coolest hotel I've ever stayed in. 

[travel] Palm Springs, CA

Last week I was lucky enough to be able to attend a conference in Palm Springs, CA. I knew it was going to be 80 - 100 degrees warmer than here, so I was expecting to melt/die, but the weather was phenomenal. Warm, sunny, dry- perfect. Everyday was like the most perfect summer day in Vermont.