California was still the setting this week. Midweek was mostly personal admin—including selling some things (thanks to friends online who helped share the listings)—and the weekend was for wandering.
On Saturday my sister, my brother-in-law, and I drove to Carmel-by-the-Sea. We hit an enormous fog bank; it was the first time I'd looked out at the ocean through fog that thick. The town itself is charming, full of tiny storybook houses, which may have something to do with its Spanish colonial history. Its best-known landmark is the Carmel Mission, founded in 1797, which also holds California's first library. The church was under repair and we arrived a little late, so we didn't go in for a proper look.
Sunday I met Bo. The last time I saw her was October 2019, before the pandemic—no one could have guessed what was coming. As a proud Exploratorium member, she took us through the museum, and it was a blast. It's a very hands-on science center, a bit like the ones I loved as a kid but much richer: optics, acoustics, electromagnetism, biology, geography, psychology, and plenty of installations that merge science and art. Sunday morning was member hours, so it was nearly empty and we played until we were happily exhausted. I picked up a few new facts, though I'll admit I still didn't understand most of it.
I also watched the first season of Sex Education. Set in a British high school, it follows a group of teenagers stumbling into sex and relationships, full of confusion and questions that school doesn't really answer (though compared with some places, they're already better off). The protagonist, a boy whose mother is a sex therapist, starts dispensing advice to classmates almost by osmosis. Beyond sex education, the show touches on a gay boy being bullied, the headmaster's son whose personality is squeezed until he bullies others, and the main character's relationship with his mother. Some plot turns are melodramatic, but overall it's very watchable. A third season is said to arrive on the 17th, so I plan to finish season two before then.
A National Gallery talk on Vincent van Gogh was another highlight. Van Gogh is hardly unfamiliar, and Sunflowers is famous enough to be on everything, but I still learned something new. The lecturer connected the painting to earlier Dutch flower painting, whose underlying point was often to remind viewers of life's brevity. Van Gogh's sunflowers include blooms in full flower, flowers already wilting, and buds about to open, which echoes that theme. The lecturer was also genuinely engaging—the video is long, but the longer it went, the more I wanted to keep listening. The channel has many talks like this; I'd recommend it.
I wonder why. I wonder why. I wonder why I wonder. I wonder why I wonder why I wonder why I wonder! (Richard Feynman)