Globe Corner Blogs

La Bayadère is my new favorite ballet. I saw it this past weekend at the Boston Opera House and absolutely LOVED it!  La Bayadère was first performed in 1877 by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theater in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Choreographed by Marius Petipa and composed by Ludwig Minkus, La Bayadère is a romantic ballet set in ancient India.

The first act begins with temple dancers, Bayadères, celebrating the Indian Ritual of Fire. During this ceremony, the High Brahmin declares his love for the most beautiful Bayadère, Nikiya. But Nikiya rejects him and instead meets secretly with Solor. They dance and swear eternal love over the Sacred Fire. The High Brahmin sees them together and in an act of jealousy, he vows to take revenge on Solor. Continue Reading »

I was lucky to have absolutely gorgeous weather this past weekend when I was visiting my brother in New York City. After a few dark, cold, and drizzly days in Boston, I prepared for much of the same down in New York. I pessimistically made a list of museums to visit and packed an umbrella for the trip. But I was pleasantly surprised to encounter clear skies the whole weekend – a bright, late-October sun and a warm, caressing breeze.

Instead of spending a day at the Met, we walked from neighborhood to neighborhood and borough to borough. We wandered through the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and the area surrounding NYU (where my brother is currently an undergraduate), we went over the Manhattan Bridge, explored DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), and then doubled back over the Brooklyn Bridge. By that time it was already sunset, and the many-storied buildings of lower Manhattan and Midtown reflected back to us in hues of pink, orange, and blue. We watched night gradually transform a rosy fairytale island city into an elegant, glittering metropolis. Continue Reading »

Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian - photo by Cecilia

I count 39 museums and galleries in the Washington DC’s Official Visitor’s Guide, and I read that the Smithsonian alone has 19 separate museums. It is my last day here, and I have only one afternoon to see something of this city. When I was in DC two years ago, we visited the Mall, the White House, the Natural History Museum, and walked Constitution Avenue. With the “basics” covered on this rainy afternoon, the obvious selection was a museum. I just had to choose from those 39+ options. Looking at the map in the city’s visitors guide, I discover the National Museum of American History (one of the Smithsonian’s museums), and I decide to visit when I  read that Julia Child’s kitchen and Kermit the Frog are there.

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Royal Street -photo by Meghan

On a recent trip to New Orleans for spring break, I found the city of my birth to be as interesting and unique as I had always imagined it. (I left when I was six-months-old).  Part “old-world” European, and part something all its own, traveling to New Orleans is like leaving the country without having to change currency or take your passport.  I spent the first day – inappropriately dressed for the humid spring weather in a sweatshirt and scarf – taking in the massive freighters steaming down the Mississippi and capping off the evening with some crawfish étouffée in the French Quarter: the perfect introduction to the Crescent City.

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Rodin's The Thinker - photo by Kate

The Rodin museum was perhaps my favorite museum that I visited last week in Paris. Housed in a mansion where Rodin spent much of his time, the gardens are filled with casts of The Thinker and The Gates of Hell, set amidst giant, cone-shaped yew bushes and rows of flower beds. The mansion itself is fabulous, with ceilings at least 15 feet high, rocaille motifs, and a grand marble staircase below a giant crystal chandelier. The faded velvet furnishings are all originals, as are the cloudy old mirrors. There is a general sense that everything in this place has been here forever; the peeling paint on the ceilings lends an air of authenticity, and somehow reminds us that Rodin used to hang out here.

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Annunciation (detail), Simone Martini

A trip through the Uffizi in Florence is almost like a crash course in Renaissance Art. I didn’t quite know what I was in for heading into this gallery; it turned out to be one of the highlights of my recent trip to Italy. My boyfriend and I purchased a Friends of the Uffizi pass, as we knew that this is a  blockbuster of a museum. The pass allowed us unlimited entries into the museum, which we used over the course of a few days (pass details here).

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The museum consists almost entirely of Florentine Renaissance paintings and sculptures. Arranged chronologically, viewers are able to link the progression of Renaissance art from the 13th to the 18th Century in their trip through the museum. The early Renaissance paintings, many of which are altar-like shaped canvases, are astounding in their straightforward approach to storytelling. The life of Christ is depicted in an almost storyboard manner on many of the various panels of the paintings. We loved the brutal simplicity of these works: angels floating on beams painted with gold leaf; halos so bright that they completely block out the background image; the hands of God peeking into picture planes.

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Cartagena--photo by Harriet

We arrived in Cartageña to welcome sun and humidity. The 5-10 minute stroll along the harbor, from our hotel in the Getsemaní district to the entrance to the walled city, was glorious even during the mid-day heat. The walled city’s many plazas, varied retail districts, cobblestone streets, and beautifully maintained or restored buildings were breathtaking. It was reassuring to be in a historic port–a cultural travel destination that still somehow retains a sense of everyday life. We wandered down narrow streets, gazing at colorful buildings, pausing in plazas (many with fountains) to take in cafes, check our map, and plan our next route to a museum or church. Continue Reading »

Vasa Ship Stockholm -- photo by Lisa

Even though my Norwegian grandfather brainwashed me into believing that Norway is superior to Sweden in every way, I love Stockholm. I thought that I was going to have a leisurely three days to hang out in Stockholm and visit friends, but the plan changed and instead of sight seeing, I was recruited to help someone move into her apartment. So my three days turned into one and next thing I knew, I was on a whirlwind tour of non-sequential Swedish history.  Knowing that I had three things on my agenda (Swedish meatballs with real lingonberry sauce, vikings, and really big ships), my friend tailor-made a schedule for me. And she had one thing on her agenda: showing me why Stockholm is the “Capital of Scandinavia“. Continue Reading »

I have been a Boston resident now for almost four years. I like to think that I know the city fairly well, and have seen a decent portion of what there is to see. This was true for the most part until the other night.

It was towards the end of the evening when I was working when I happened across a particular book in our Boston section. The Museums of Boston it is called, and boy did it throw me for a loop. I have been missing out completely! …Did you know that there is a Museum of Dirt, and a Museum of Bad Art? Continue Reading »

My friend Katia and I were assigned to transport a robot, built by her son’s school team for the FIRST Robotics Competition, to Atlanta, Georgia. The poor thing had to travel in our packed car all the way from Richmond, Virginia to the Georgia World Congress Center, covering four states and enduring numerous bumpy highway stretches.   Continue Reading »