Waaaay off-topic

I know I've been slacking this week, but I've been TDY and switching back and forth from soldier to SCAdian has been tougher than I can manage.

So, anyway, we got some downtime today, so a bunch of us went to the Norman Rockwell Museum. It was great. In addition to 133 original Saturday Evening Post covers, they had probably twenty or thirty of his original paintings. Now, if you're like me, you're familiar with his covers. His covers are good, but you have to remember that they're copies of his original paintings. The originals just blow away the covers. My overall favorite was definitely his Main Street in Stockbridge. Oh my God! Looking at the original, it has so much depth! I had to get as close as I could to it and look at it from the side to convince myself it wasn't really 3-D. I mean, my God!

My favorite of his covers was one of his war ones. I don't know the name of it, and I can't find a copy of it online, but it was of a wife, standing in a dimly lit bedroom, wrapped in her husband's service coat. Norman Rockwell might be best known for his humorous paintings, but you can look at the painting and just know everything going through the poor woman's head. I have to admit that I had to turn away almost immediately when I saw it. Even now, six hours later, I have trouble just thinking about the picture. Let me tell you, it's right up there with the songs American Soldier and Letters From Home. If I ever find a copy, I'm getting it.

But enough depressing myself. The other reason I was excited about going to the museum was were it is. It's in Stockbridge, MA. In the words of Arlo Guthrie, "...the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts... they got three stop signs, two police officers, and one police car..." Yep. That's right, Stockbridge was the setting for that great protest song, "Alice's Restaraunt Massacre." And other than being part of the Berkshires, it was still the way he described it (although I'm not sure if they still close the dump on Thanksgiving).

Okay, so I'm weird. So sue me.