six degrees

Commuting home from work last night, I listened to a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The introduction was narrated by Philippe de Montebello, who is of course the head of all the Met, which in my book is up there with Mayor of New York as being one of the finest, loftiest titles imaginable.

The recording was on Van Gogh's drawings (in conjunction with a stellar exhibit of the same currently on view), and featured, reading some of Van Gogh's letters (in translation), none other than "the actor Kevin Bacon." You'll have to imagine Mr. de Montebello's distinctive accent there; if you've never heard him speak, his voice sounds pretty much exactly like you'd expect someone with the middle name "de."

At any rate, all I could think about through the whole thing was how, if you count this recording, it creates a new and very odd set of connections in the game "6 Degrees of You Know Who."

Okay, I did get one other thing out of it: from a letter to Theo, on the motivations and drives of an artist: "One would rather be in the dirtiest place where there is something to draw than at a tea party with charming ladies. Unless one wants to draw ladies."