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went to denver friday afternoon - back on saturday evening. not too much of a trip. the wrangler expanded, had many more 'cruise' areas, video cameras, and many more 20 something bears.

i looked up renee's number but didn't call.

the tattered cover had closed the cherry creek store, and opened one on colfax. it felt like a bookstore from the 70s - straight out of a woody allen movie.

the art museum had a new wing designed by daniel liebeskind. for a museum in the land of wide open spaces, it seemed oddly cramped. especially after the fort worth modern museum and others i visited in the past few months - the levy collection wing at the met, the elegant tadao ando building in st. louis for the pulitzer foundation. i found it difficult to escape the angles and odd juxtapositions in the galleries. the one thing i thought stunning and dramatic was the grand staircase viewed from the third floor. i saw two exhibitions. 'artisans and kings' which was a hodge podge of furniture, drawings, objets d'art, and a few paintings from the reigns of louis xiv-xvi from the louvre. a lovely le brun, and a few other paintings i enjoyed. the other stuff - partly because of the exhibition space - had less appeal. the other show - 'color as field' - had large paintings by larry poons, frankenthaler, morris louis, etc. etc. again - a few paintings were beautiful, but the exhibition space seemed, distractingly, to compete with the art.

the best of the trip was the ride on the rental car shuttle to the surreal denver airport on a beautiful november day. the kind of day that recalls wallace stevens.

israel is here as of monday...