Hansomat

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Sea Day, Art Lesson

Sea day, Art lessons F 68 (20C)

It must be that time on board is getting to me or the ports we visit just don’t seem to fit what I am looking for while travelling. Not that I feel bored, it’s just not that easy to constantly do nothing. I smile while I write this. Here I am complaining it’s not good to do ‘nothing’. Ah, life is good, right?

One Of the Paintings Outside the Art Store

I spent the day forcing myself to do something ‘new’. I went to the ‘art’ shop they have on board. There was a lecture on Impressionists. This art shop is selling ‘fine art’ pictures of more or less ‘famous’ artists. No, not a Picasso, nor a Van Gogh, but people like Peter Max

Yaakov Agam

Or Romero Britto;

Commercial art so to speak. But the lecture was on the older artist, the Impressionists I know of like Renoir, Degas, Calder, et al. I liked the talks. I could go on and on here about what I learned but I leave it up to you to look up Damien Hirst,

Nano Lopez

or even wacky Ai Weiwei.

What I did not know before was that all of the impressionistic paintings really started with the picture by M.J. Turner. He named his picture "Snow Storm: Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth" and that was way back in 1842. Who knew that?

Snow Storm: Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth

I wonder if there is a café in NYC where today’s artists meet to talk about how they see the world. Paris, way back was such a place where certain places were meeting spots for artists. Do they have those today? Send me a note if you know of a bar, restaurant or meeting hall like this.

The old school of painters might have an equivalent in today’s world. But where is that?

I tried playing Trivia, something I had not done before. Yes, I even tried Bingo, but I cannot say I liked it. What is this world coming to, me playing Bingo?

I’d rather talk to the art dealer than talk to any Bingo leader.

I guess the cruise is starting to get to me.

We tried to have crew people for dinner and it was ok with John, the Maitre d’, but then when it came down to it, those crew folks were busy almost every night.

The night's entertainment was Fabio Zini, who played the ‘Flight of the Bumble Bee’, all 1000 notes in 1 minutes 20 seconds. Amazing.

Am I losing it?

Friday, August 17, 2018

45.5 Just Some Ideas

Just some ideas

This is a break in my blog because I have had time to think.

Sitting in the desert harbor of Coquimbo I just jotted down some ideas.

Are you listening Marriott Hotel? Hello Hilton; any other worldwide luxury chain hotel?

Here is a marketing idea I KNOW would give you a lot of customers: How about a package of 101 nights (with breakfast) in every city you have a hotel worldwide.

Example: 3 nights in Frankfurt, Germany

2 nights in Munich, Germany

3 nights in Vienna, Austria

3 nights in Venice, Italy

3 nights in Florence, Italy, etc, etc.

Then I would travel to Greece, or someplace in Europe, then to Asia, the U.S. etc.

Move around the world. NO, you only give rooms and breakfast, I would handle my own transportation.

This would be a package offer for a total of 101 nights (3 months), anywhere anytime, no restrictions of any kind.

Price per package could be? Let’s see… I looked it up on line; prices in those cities for a Hilton Hotel would run about $ 150/night. So for a 101 package that would be about 15000 Dollars. How about it Hilton? You can throw in a 20% discount knowing you have lots of people taking you up on that. Or how about if you keep those prices but add dinners for each stay? Stay 3 nights get 2 dinners free?

The folks here on the cruise ships would take those trips. All prices mentioned here would be for couples. Not per person.