Tampa RV Show

We visited the Tampa RV show way back in 2011, enjoyed it, and wanted to go again (when in the neighborhood). Our interest this time was less in RVs themselves than in the assorted accessories and accoutrements, since we are in the process of building our own RV. More anon. It seemed to us there were far fewer class A's this time than in 2011, and way, way more Class B's...perhaps reflecting a) the downsizing impetus of the boomer generation, but also b) the van-life impetus of their children and grand-children. Whatever.

We spent most of our time in giant halls like this, looking at the accoutrements

For example, these inflatable kayaks...guaranteed against alligator bites

Other interesting things available among the RV accoutrements;
this is Florida, where everything is politicized

Our interests focused on items like this RV van/life fridge

Actually there wasn't much of interest at the RV show, so I can now
offer an update on our own little RV "build": above is the Silver Sleeper, 
our 2024 Toyota Sienna mini van, now lifted 3.5 inches (for Forest Service
roads, not rock-crawling); accoutrements and appliances now purchased
and ready to be installed include a Joolco portable toilet, a Bluetti power
station (lithium battery, inverter, numerous inlets/outlets); a BougeRV
fridge/freezer, a Dometic water pump/faucet, a sink/water supply console,
a 4 inch memory foam mattress...and more to come...

Vicki's current design; note eraser completely worn away

Platforms for "day" mode; cushions to be cut and covered with 
fabric; platforms to be adjusted for height, level...

Platforms for "bed" mode

The sink/water console; the carpentry is a work in progress, Vicki
often remarking she'd wished I'd taken shop in high school and not
Latin IV; I was briefly a dues-paying member of the carpenters' union
for one of my summer jobs; also a teamster for another job, but that's
another story; long before Florida was a Free state...

Dali Museum, St. Petersburg (USA), 2

Continuing our visit to St. Pete's Dali museum...

Retrospective Bust of a Woman, 1969; another copy
of the one we saw at MoMA last fall; the original dates
from 1933; Dali apparently thought the American 
expression "bust" was hilarious; also "drawers," on which
he did many a visual pun 

Unusual dorsal view, etc.; note reference to Millett's
Angelus...

Archaeological Reminiscence of Millett's "Angelus," 1934; classic
Surrealist Dali, all kinds of allusions, reverence for Millett...

Telephone in a Dish with Three Grilled Sardines at the End of September,
1939

The Average Bureaucrat, 1930

Profanation of the Host, 1929

The Font, 1930; all kinds of Surrealist-shock stuff
going on here

Girl with Curls, 1926

Portrait of my Sister, 1923

View of Portdogue, 1918-19; Cubist, no?

View of Cadaques from Playa Poal, 1920; finding his voice...it
would be a few more years...

Self-Portrait, 1921

Portdogue, again, 1923

Homage to Crick and Watson, 1963 (omitting the longer title);
now into his "scientific" period

A few specimens of his jewelry...Persistence of Memory, 1949

Tristan and Isolde, 1963; as we saw at the castle in
Pubol, Dali was a bit of a Wagner fan

Saint Helena of Port Lligat, 1956; he never tired of painting Gala

The Broken Bridge and the Dream, 1945

Slave Market with Disappearing Bust of Voltaire, 1940; another
double-image deal, emphasizing the irrationalist view of things...
a good place to end; and exit through the gift shoppe

Dali Museum, St. Petersburg (USA), 1

We have been to the Dali museum and theater in Figueres, twice, and to the Casa Museu Castell Gala Dali in Pubol, and to the couple's seaside home at Port LLigat. We are, as I said in a previous post, qualified Dali fans. We like the intellectual aspects of his work, the playfulness, the parodies and allusions in art history, the technical prowess, the many dimensions and innovations of his work. We disregard the clownery, the personal life, the politics and theology. One has to do this with many of the great artists; e.g., Wagner. Anyhow, from Orlando it was easy to visit the other major Dali museum, in St. Petersburg. So our set is now complete. Plus we have seen many of his works at almost all the major museums of 20th century art we have visited in the past couple decades. FWIW, we thought the museum and tour far too serious, trying to convince us of the profundity of his work and the importance of the museum. We like Dali for the laughs, mostly. Compared with the sites in Spain, it seemed like a funeral home.

Unadorned, unlike Figueres, etc.

In his prime, in the 50s; ever the showman

You exit through the gift shoppe at many museums, but at the Dali in
St. Pete, they get you both coming and going; Dali would have liked that

One of the better gift shoppes we have seen; all and only Dali, of course
(sort of like Disney (with whom he collaborated (among many other
notables of the day))); these are puzzles of some of his works

Among the collaborations...a Marx brothers movie (Dali
and Harpo were close personal buds); never got made;
Groucho didn't think it was funny; MGM was not amused; wisely

Surreal deals

In addition to the paintings, Dali also wrote...essays,
memoirs, a novel, poetry, screenplays, manifestoes, etc.)

I opened the book above to a random page, where you can see he 

fit right in with the French philosophers of his day...

Alas, I am no longer a suit, but I would have loved wearing
one of these in the president's office at SMU

Gala being his wife, muse, financial manager...

The American couple, Reynolds and Eleanor Morse, whose
Dali collection forms the basis of the museum

A replica of Dali's 1937 lobster telephone...from which,
via the miracle of AI, you can ask Dali a question...
see below

I asked what the final score of the Ohio State versus
Notre Dame game would be, but did not get a helpful
response

A bit of the museum interior...gift shoppe, Cafe Gala on the 
first floor, collections on the second

So we did the highlights tour initially, then wandered the main collection;
above, Daddy Longlegs of the Evening--Hope, 1940; Dali's first painting
in the US (he and Gala sought refuge from the war mostly in NYC), also
the first Dali painting acquired by the Morses

The tour consisted mostly of these very large format,
heavily symbolic multi-paintings (up close it looks
like one thing, further back, something else entirely);
above, The Hallucinogenic Toreador, 1969-70

Ditto: The Ecumenical Council, 1960; Gala as St. Helen,
Constantine's mom; Dali himself in a Velazquez/Las Meninas
pose

Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man, 1943; the Americas
and Africa surpassing the old world (Europe); symbolism and not a little
didacticism

Nature Morte Vivante, 1956, expressing Dali's "atomic mysticism,"
whatever that was...

The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, 1954; referring
to his most famous work, The Persistence of Memory, which we saw
at the MoMA last fall; copies everywhere: everywhere...

Velazquez Painting the Infanta Marguerita with the
Lights and Shadows of His Own Glory, 1958; another
of those works that changes completely when viewed
from a distance; Dali revered Velazquez, and Vermeer,
and a few others; more atomic mysticism

The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus,
1958-59; Dali's largest canvas, 13 feet high 

Two views of the very famous and huge Abraham Lincoln
portrait...this what my camera could see from a distance...

And this closer up; a better version is at one of our visits
to the museo/teatro in Figueres; it really is stunning and
unlike anything before it in art...an essay in art and perception