My dear Ernest, what are you laughing at?

So now it's a bit colder out, and the playgrounds are more sparsely populated and the  free boat rides about the Harbor suddenly less appealing. In other words, it's time to seek out other pursuits. Exhibit 1, above: the generous sculptures of Franz West, at the BMA. A guard tells me that they are generally instructed to ask viewers not to walk atop their upper ridges. But a 4-year-old who simply wants to sit on them, and giggle? no problem.

But sometimes it takes a little more in the way of creativity. On Monday, I spent much of the day reading Oscar Wilde's 'The Critic as Artist.' In that lengthy dialogue, Gilbert, a witty, iconoclastic dandy of the sort in which Wilde specialized, hopes that he can return to his keyboard, after a lengthy discourse on aesthetics with his friend Ernest. 'And now,' entreats Gilbert, 'let me play Chopin to you, or Dvorak? Shall I play you a fantasy by Dvorak? He writes passionate, curiously-coloured things.'

Curiously colored things? Later, Gilbert also tries to describe how certain pieces of music make him feel. And - well, why not? When we got home, I pulled three CDs, and asked Cleo if she would characterize brief segments of music in terms of colors, and describe how the made her feel. Yes, said my willing subject. So now I offer the results of our first attempt at emulating Gilbert.

1. The opening of Count Basie's One O'Clock Boogie? Orange, fire. And: 'It makes me feel... I don't know what it makes me feel like.' All right, then. So let's try...

2. Renato Carosone's Tu Vuo' Fa l'Americano. Purple. And happy.

3. Ornette Coleman's Broad Way Blues. Brown. Like I'm shouting.

And then, soon enough, she was virtually shouting, playing loudly in the next room after having decided that three excerpts was enough. Meanwhile, I sat in the empty dining room for a few moments, writing down her reactions, wondering about the gulfs between Cleo and Gilbert, and thinking, for the first time, about the way in which Carosone's ballad contains a note or two of purple.