Often our wants and desires are shaped by the unconscious, and humans often can't explain why they like or dislike something. One of the main reasons I suspect I dislike smoking (both for myself and other people) and fortuantely kept me from ever trying them was the gross amount of cigarette butts that litter the streets of urban cities. They're everywhere; like little pieces of garbage that were used up by the smoker and just laid out for everyone else to deal with. But also MJ and I both get grossed out by mass quantities of small objects, whether it be lots of small mushrooms on the ground, tiny dots in the air, little tufts of hair grown on a piece of moldy fruit (she probably threw up a little bit just reading that). I can resist the nausea better than her, but doesn't mean I like it: big city sidewalks are just full of cigarette butts, dog poop, and gross garbage water. So it really stings when I see someone smoking a cigarette, using it all up, and when it's all over, just throwing the butt out into the street or into the gutter, and in a disgusted arm motion like they don't want anything to do with it anymore, like they themselves were grossed out by it. Here's an unsympathetic thought: If you are grossed out by it, then quit! Don't smoke it! (I know it's hard and smokers hate hearing that). It's that lack of concerns for other people and the planet that's leading to climate change (2023 is becoming one of the hottest records ever) even if it's not the sole reason. Cigarette butts are actually a major source of the garbage deluge (overload) that we have in the world; there are people who actually have to pick those up and gather them into garbage. Not only that, it's the attitude: use up all the good stuff, discard, throw away like trash, don't deal with any of the consequences. I don't think it's that hard to find a garbage or an ashtray. It really turns me off sometimes about the city of New York, and art of the polar extremes I witness every time I go there: It can be simultaneously the best city in the world and the worst city in the world.
Also, dog poop is kind of disgusting and the owners who leave their dog poop out on a sidewalk especially where thousands of people walk through a day should be ashamed of themselves, but at least it's "organic" and might wash away and be delivered back to the soil: cigarette butts don't.
The MET museum might be on the opposite side of that "best/worst" ledger, as 2 exhibitions stood out to me on this, the something like 15th time MJ and I have gone together. The Van Gogh museum (Starry Night was on loan from the MOMA 30 blocks away) as part of a "Cypress" exhibition of Van Gogh works: never really studied these pieces of work in depth, but really should get the background on them. Despite having painted my own version of "Starry Night" in a Paint N' Sip activity way back when, I never knew that the large dark structure on the left side in black was a cypress tree, not a clock tower or some sort of Gothic cathedral like I always assumed. And to the right of that tree is the star Venus, the 2nd brightest star in the painting other than the moon. And the city is not Arles, where Van Gogh spent a lot of time, but Saint-Remy-du-Provence. It's really a masterpiece of art, I prefer it over the Mona Lisa or Girl with a Pearl Earring, or Guernica, not sure how it stacks with Botticelli's Birth of Venus. I noted that there was a guard on hand next to one of the most famous (and most valuable) pieces of art in the world because, well, there have been a lot of vandalism of paintings this year by climate activists like people throwing cake at the Mona Lisa, so yes a guard was warranted to protect things everyone can benefit from from people (like cigarette butt discarders) who are negative externalities.
Also, the Karl Lagerfeld exhibit caught my eye, somewhat surprisingly more popular than the Van Gogh exhibit (could be timing sometimes as it might be the last day of an exhibit). I've been on record as saying fashion is just a waste of time and a popularity contest, but there was quite a lot to be learned about dressmaking (lace, tulle, crepe, chiffon) and surprisngly, lines (S-lines, aka serpentine, and straight lines). Fashion, more than any other trivia category, is one that has to be experienced rather than just read about, and the dresses are really just amazing; it's kind of too bad one person can only wear one of the dresses at a time. Much like MJ trying on different dresses in the mirror before deciding on one, sometimes people would wear multiple dresses if they could. Maybe that's the next big idea: clothes that change color/style/texture/everything depending on your preference; with the click of a button you can change into a whole new outfit while just standing there. Going to patent this idea now!
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