Hell effing vetica (and the kids!)

Every Monday, (ideally--I do have three kids I have to get out of the house in the morning) I like to do the New York Times crossword (I do it through Wednesday--Thursday's is way too hard, and Friday, well, just forget it. Besides, it usually takes me until the following Monday to get close to completion on Wednesday's puzzle). I usually skim it at breakfast, filling in the extra-easy clues, and then leave it around the house; so say, while I'm making lunch, I can get a few clues in. But today was a promising day: I had finished the puzzle by 9:30 AM. Wow, I thought, I have can actually read the Arts section! And it was there I came across this clever ad, from MoMA, thanking Target. The word Helvetica caught my eye, so of course I read it (It was a quarter page ad):

Thank you.

This is a message from MoMA to thank Target for their generous support of Target Free Friday Nights and to commemorate the arrival of our millionth free visitor this past Friday evening. It is set in 15-point Helvetica Roman, widely considered the official typeface of the twentieth century. Helvetica conveys an undeniably modern aesthetic clarity and is in fact the subject of an exhibition at MoMA. Just thinking about Helvetica totally makes us want to get down and party. Maybe its the triple Chococcino talking here, but suddenly we feel like screaming, ‘Thanks a million Target!” while mingling outside in the Sculpture Garden. Okay folks, here’s what we do: Meet us up on the third floor and check out the finest collection of modern art in the world. We’re going to rock out to Philip Glass all night long and gab to somebody we just met about how much Expressionism inspires us. Then,if the mood is right and all our planets are aligned, we’ll show our new friend what Expressionism really means. It happens every Friday from 4 - 8 p.m.

(By the way, I totally did not type this in. I have to give Bloghound the credit for that.)

And then came the big DUH from me... There's a Helvetica exhibit at MoMA! The trouble is, it's only until March 31. Uh, folks, that's 2 weeks from today. How on earth, with my schedule and workload, not to mention three kids--oh yeah, and Easter is this weekend!--am I going to get down to the city to see this exhibit by the 31st?

Easy, peasy: make it a culture day and bring the kids. See, when Ashlee was younger, we decided that our proximity to NYC was not to be wasted. So we started bringing her in a 2-3 times a year and going to places like the Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim, MoMA, etc. Nothing was planned, the whole day was up for grabs, we just started at a museum and let her lead the way. Unfortunately, with the pregnancy and resulting baby, we haven't made it down in quite some time.

So lucky for me, Mattio has Friday off, so Ashlee, Madeline, and myself are going down to see Helvetica: the exhibit. If I'm lucky we can spend some time at MoMA (Madeline is only 4 and a half, so we'll see how that goes), and then we'll cross the park and hit the "dinosaurs." I'm sure the day will be plenty exhausting for all, but I plan on ending it with a viewing of Helvetica: the Movie (which I told Mattio I'd rent, but seriously, who am I kidding? It's a movie about a font; of course I'm going to buy it!).