Get a job, hippie! (George!)

(A long while back, when  we finally got settled into real jobs in Australia, George made up a list of all the jobs he has had in his peripatetic career. While cleaning out all our drawers getting ready for our tenant, he found the list. Here it is! He has added to the list his more recent working experiences. What follows are G’s comments)

My current job is retirement. As best as I can reconstruct it, here are the jobs that led to this one:

Greeley
lawn boy
student library aide
coffee house manager

Denver
community college library assistant

house parent in home for mentally challenged adults

Logan, Utah
county librarian

Denver
cataloging aide

San Antonio
machinist’s mate (making screws)
ILL librarian
jail librarian
regional library functionary

Philadelphia
dish washer
short order cook
bookstore clerk
instructor
census enumerator
bibliographer
dorm parent
wine bar manager
tv camera man
resident counselor
av operator
publicist
bookstore clerk
dorm parent
librarian for client DWB
cook
library consultant

Vienna
compiler/author @ UNIDO

extra in “The Winds of War”

Denver
library aide
editor
slide library aide
editorial research assistant
instructor
free lance editor

New Orleans
folklife coordinator
researcher
wood splitter

Appleton, WI
library consultant
lecturer
director community artists’ org
curator
assistant prof. prison
compiler/bibliographer
fieldworker
bibliographer
secretary

Canberra
library consultant
beans & tortilla vendor
author
researcher/compiler
publisher/editor
academic functionary/coordinator
executive assistant

Los Angeles
library consultant
exhibition researcher
librarian
law librarian

Updated itinerary

George & me at the Norton Simon a month ago.

The photo has nothing to do with this share, but I figured a picture of us as we look now, right before we take off on our grand adventure, wouldn’t hurt anything! And Whistler’s Mother in the background!

So here’s what we have planned, and the itinerary we’ll take to the Austrian Consulate next week, to get our National “D” visa. Fingers crossed all goes well, since we’ve already paid for most things, and most of the flights are non-refundable.  The only flight that I have purchased cancellation insurance for is the one from Barcelona to Athens.  Poor Greeks, who knows what things will be happening there by March!

Itinerary

3 September 2015: NYC-Iceland

–Icelandair Flight no. 612 (paid in full), overnight at private home, Hildur Elísabet Þorgrímsdóttir

4 September 2015: Iceland-London

–Icelandair Flight no. 454 (paid in full)

4-15 September 2015: London

–at private home, c/o Henry Kitchener, 1A Albany St, London NW1 4DX.

15 September 2015: London-Berlin

–Germanwings Flight no. 4U 8461 (paid in full)

15-28 September 2015: Berlin

–stay at Sigridstraße 7, Berlin, Berlin 10407 (paid in full)

28-30 September 2015: Berlin-Poland-Berlin

–drive with Enterprise rent-a-car (paid in full)

–reservation at Cedrowy Dworek, ul. Osadników Wojskowych 39a, 83-020 Cedry Wielkie, Poland (paid in full)

1 October 2015: Berlin-Vienna

–via DB, Booking confirmation (Order NDL3RS) (paid in full)

1 October 2015-5 January 2016: Vienna

–stay at Petritsch, Sigmundsgasse 11, 3. Stock, 1070 WIEN

5 January 2016:  Vienna-Lisbon

–Iberia flights no. 3121 & 3106 (paid in full)

5 January-3 February 2016: Lisbon

–at “Azulejos” Apartment, R. Polais de S. Bento, 51-2 floor, 1200-346 Lisbon, Portugal (paid in full)

3 February: Lisbon-Barcelona

–Vueling Flight no. VY8461 (paid in full)

3 February-6 March 2016: Barcelona

–stay at 29 Pasatge mas de Roda in Barcelona, Spain (paid in full)

4 March 2016: Barcelona-Athens

–Aegean Airlines Flight no. 681 (paid in full)

4 March-4 April 2016: Athens

–stay at Evy S. Karatza, Grammou 3, Papagou, Athens 15669 Greece

4 April 2016: Athens-Zagreb

–flight not yet booked

4 April-ca. 2 May 2016:  Croatia, e.g. Dubrovnik and environs

–drive from Zagreb to Dubrovnik

–stay at Wolfgang Petritsch, Dragiceva 6, 20207 Mlini, Croatia

ca. 2-16 May 2016: Trieste

16 May 2016: Trieste-Vienna

–car or train?

16-23 May 2016: Vienna

–stay at Walder, Paradisgasse 30/3/6 A-1190 Wien OR Walder, Hart 18, Wullersdorf A2041

23 May 2016: Munich & Frankfurt

–by train

26-27 May 2016: Frankfurt-Toronto

–Icelandair Flight no. 521 & 601 via Reykjavik, arriving Toronto Friday 27 May 2016 (paid in full)

Caspar David Friedrich in Texas

11-22-11-Russell, 11/22/11, 2:56 PM, 16C, 7404×7320 (456+1284), 100%, Repro 1.8 v2, 1/8 s, R59.1, G35.4, B49.4

friedrich_objectpresentation_KAM_jan1984

When I was librarian at the Kimbell Art Museum in the 1980s, I was still fairly green as an art historian. I hadn’t taught at all, and I hadn’t yet finished my dissertation. But I was treated as an equal by the curators and the Director, Ted Pillsbury, chiefly because I was the only one on staff who could read and speak German.  When the museum had a show of Jean-Baptiste Oudry, many of the works came from Schwerin, then still in East Germany. As the East Germans sent a courier who was a good party member and consequently spoke no English, I was dragooned into going to the airport to pick her up. Since Max was then only about 5 months old, I had to take him along with me, which, in the end, was a good thing: a baby worked wonders with the woman who arrived. “Ein kräftiges Kind”, I can hear her saying–a strong child!

The Kimbell at that time was on a huge buying roll. They had just purchased Cezanne’s Man in a Blue Smock for the then-astronomical sum of $5 million, as well as some amazing treasures that very few other American museums at the time could afford to buy. One of the works that had come on the market then was a very small painting by the relatively unknown artist–at least unknown in America–Caspar David Friedrich. At the time, no Friedrichs were in any American museum, and German art in general had been largely dismissed by most of the major institutions.  I adored Friedrich, and said as much. And once again, because I was the only one who had any knowledge of German art and language, I was asked to write up the object presentation for the museum’s board meeting where it was decided which objects would be purchased. Most of the board then were still the rich old cronies of Kimbell himself–they knew more about money than they did about art–but still, one had to make a good case for the work to get it approved. I was understandably nervous about this, my first professional piece of writing about art; I worked very hard at making it sound significant. I was thrilled when the grand man Robert Rosenblum–called in as the expert appraiser–complimented me on my presentation.

While going through and tossing 40 years of academic papers, I came across this piece, which I hadn’t seen in many years. I didn’t even know I still had it.  And now, because of the internet, there’s the painting, too.  The museum did buy the Friedrich!