Today, I was out with a friend, shopping for furnishings for her new apartment. While at CB2, it suddenly started to rain, which has been annoyingly typical these past few weeks. But we were hungry, so I used the Yelp iPhone app to find restaurants nearby. We settled on a cheap burger place called Soho Park, on Lafayette and Prince, and we sprinted over through the rain. The burgers were great, a solid 7 out of 10, The highlight was the endless bucket of fries, which came with a choice of two “speciality” dips. The service was shoddy, but the cheap price, good food, and easygoing company made up for it.

Afterwards, we wanted to see a movie, but we had already seen the good movies currently out, including Up and The Hangover. So I pulled up the Now Playing app on my iPhone, and it told me which movies were playing in which theaters nearby, and their Rotten Tomatoes rating. Given that we were in the SoHo/Greenwich Village area, we were able to find the nearby Cinema Village, a 3-screen cinema specializing in foreign and independent films. We quickly honed in on the documentary Herb & Dorothy, mainly because of its 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

I’ve only had my new iPhone 3GS for a week now, and I’m really enjoying the fact that I can access the internet anywhere. Location-based services add a lot to the experience of going out and figuring out what to do. Rather than sit around wondering what is going on in the big and daunting city, location-based apps on the iPhone help me parse what I can do nearby, to certain broad or specific parameters. I firmly believe in planning in advance, but sometimes it’s nice to let the spur of the moment carry the day. I had read the hype about location-based services through blogs, but until last week, I had not had the opportunity to really experience it for myself.

We took the trek up 10 or so blocks to walk off the heart-stopping dinner, and made it just in time to buy student tickets (only $7.50 each!) and squeeze into the small, cozy theater at Cinema Village. I went into the movie with an open, but skeptical mind. While the movie did receive critical acclaim, I was skeptical of the synopsis of “documentary about two art collectors.”

I was pleasantly proved incorrect. Herb & Dorothy is a documentary about the most charming couple, Herbert and Dorothy Vogel. Herb was a postal clerk for the USPS and Dorothy was a librarian with the Brooklyn Public Library. They spent every moment of their time outside of work to collect art and engage with the artist community in New York City. With only their income to work with and the relationships they built with the artists, they built on that passion and built a massive collection of over 4,000 unique works. They collected art that they liked, not necessarily what was trendy at the time, and over the course of half a decade, they showed the world that you don’t have to be rich to collect art. I’ll leave the details at that, since I don’t want to spoil the documentary for those that want to see it.

I had a discussion with my friend Andy yesterday over dinner about whether art appreciation is something that we can learn, something that we are born with, something that comes with age and maturity, or a combination of the three. I think it definitely helps to have an academic education of the history of art and the techniques behind it to provide a framework to interpret art. One particular type of art, conceptual art, places an emphasis on the concepts or ideas behind a work of art over its aesthetics. But in general, I think that if you appreciate art with an open mind, you can begin to form your own perceptions and opinions about a piece. I was never that into art; when I was younger, I was infinitely bored by museums. But walking around the RRE offices these past few weeks, I surprised myself to find that I would stop to look closer at pieces of art hanging on the walls. After seeing Herb & Dorothy, I will go to museums with a renewed sense of interest in the art, and the artist behind the piece of work.

Herb and Dorothy believed in every artist they bought from. They didn’t believe in selling their art for profit. They collected art because they loved art. and they went beyond the role of a “collector,” and established real relationships with the artists. So the ultimate, sappy, cliche lesson here is to do what you love. And if you aren’t doing what you love, make time for it. Work 9-5 on your day job, but take an hour or two at the end of each day to do something you enjoy.

A second, auxiliary lesson is to give everyone a chance. When talking to someone, I don’t believe in trashing that person’s beliefs or values, and this is something that I have tried my best to transfer to my first month at RRE Ventures. The entrepreneurs whom I talk to most likely have more experience than I do, so I am a listener first, and questioner second. I will go into a meeting with my own beliefs, but I try not to let those beliefs stay rigid. I am always pleasantly surprised when I talk to people who are experts in what they do, and I can refine my beliefs and values.

So this is less of a review than a recommendation. I don’t think that movies like this can be reviewed. They are like art – you interpret them your own way, and they have different effects on each person. So, go see Herb & Dorothy. But don’t expect explosions that keep you at the edge of the seat. Do expect to be at the edge of your seat for a thought-provoking documentary about a quirky couple who refused to stop doing what they love.