Serendipitous Birthday

The first lucky discovery happened when I  found a copy of “New City” in one of the newspaper corrals. These corrals, which I so loved when I first saw them that I wanted to take a picture to share with our Northampton mayor, have become an eyesore and often are filled with empty coffee cups and people’s belongings rather than newspapers or free magazines. I was happy to find a “New City” in one as we left the Christina Ramberg exhibition because I had read an article online about it, and I was hoping to find a hard copy.

Unfortunately, it was not the right issue, but it did include a review of a show called “Moscoso Magic” at a place called Instituto Cervantes that was closing soon. Victor Moscoso was one of the main five San Francisco psychedelic poster designers, and the exhibit included his most recognizable posters created during an eight month stretch from 1966 to 1997. A visit to the exhibit seemed like the perfect birthday excursion.

On the way to the exhibit, the next serendipitous event occurred. After our bus got to the first Michigan Avenue stop, it didn’t start going again, and after a few minutes, we had to get off the bus. We decided to walk rather than get on another bus, which gave us the opportunity to go into a church on Michigan I’ve been curious about since I’ve noticed from the bus that it is open to visitors. When we walked in, we were directed to a brochure titled “A Guide to the Architecture of Fourth Presbyterian Church,” and I can see why because it’s amazing!

I was especially drawn to the ceiling. The brochure states, “The ceilings of churches often look like an inverted ship. The main area of the church is called the ‘nave’ from the Latin word for ‘ship’ [as in ‘navy’ and ‘navigate’]” So I didn’t just get to see a beautiful building, I got to learn something new!

We also got to see more butterflies on the way to the exhibit.

And then we got to Moscoso Magic. And it was magical!

That’s Victor Moscoso behind Janis. He has said, “The idea was to hang someone up in front of the poster for as long as you could.” He was definitely successful as it was difficult to leave but it was time to go get my birthday treat!