This is already getting old.
Berlin
2 weeks ago
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
idea
Once read a suggestion-- probably in a teen magazine, way back when-- of taking at least one photo for every day of summer vacation. So will attempt to do so. Thus far, then:
May 21
Very windy & rainy.
May 22
Not a photo, but the next best thing. Indy was good. A little weird, all things considered, but still pretty good. I was ready to aggravated & annoyed by Shia LaBouf(sp) for some reason, but he held his own really well & was really good. Cate Blanchett does evil Soviet real well. Harrison Ford may have looked his age, but he sure still moved lightening fast. And-- i don't know the name for the actress who's Marion-- but it was ace to see Marion again. So it was good, even if it was weird & kind of "eh" at bits, but i really liked it, overall. Even though they play Elvis at the very beginning (i just cannot escape that man). (And, haha, Ark. That was beyond priceless.)
There was also a guy at the theatre dressed as Indy sitting next to a girl who had her hair done like Marion's at the beginning of Raiders. Which was pretty awesome.
May 23
The computer is currently delusional: the time is pretty much correct, but the time this was taken, it was 11:03 p.m.
And nothing for today, as of yet. It's only 1:22 a.m., after all.
May 21
Very windy & rainy.
May 22
Not a photo, but the next best thing. Indy was good. A little weird, all things considered, but still pretty good. I was ready to aggravated & annoyed by Shia LaBouf(sp) for some reason, but he held his own really well & was really good. Cate Blanchett does evil Soviet real well. Harrison Ford may have looked his age, but he sure still moved lightening fast. And-- i don't know the name for the actress who's Marion-- but it was ace to see Marion again. So it was good, even if it was weird & kind of "eh" at bits, but i really liked it, overall. Even though they play Elvis at the very beginning (i just cannot escape that man). (And, haha, Ark. That was beyond priceless.)
There was also a guy at the theatre dressed as Indy sitting next to a girl who had her hair done like Marion's at the beginning of Raiders. Which was pretty awesome.
May 23
The computer is currently delusional: the time is pretty much correct, but the time this was taken, it was 11:03 p.m.
And nothing for today, as of yet. It's only 1:22 a.m., after all.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Principles of Uncertainty
I definitely recommend this book. I was finally able to buy it this past weekend at Borders (yay, 40% off coupons...), after reading it numerous times in bookstores. Maira Kalman's art & words are thought-provoking, though sometimes seemingly odd, & the book generally feels like there's a tint of melancholy (or maybe that's just me). This doesn't hurt it, though; it's part of it.
It's an amazing book; hardback & everything, it has weight to it (literally, metaphorically). Kalman's writing is more like she's speaking to you, very personal. It's as though you're following her through her adventures. And her art, while not exactly realistic, gets down likenesses amazingly well with very little brushstrokes. And even when she works from photographs-- i'm assuming she does; she carries a camera with her when she goes walking-- they don't feel like they were. It's all her style.
One of my favorite pages reads thus: "At Cuccio's Bakery we see a seven-layer chocolate cake with a cherry on top. A seven-layer chocolate cake with a CHERRY ON TOP!!" It is accompanied by a painting of the aforementioned cake, & just seems so full of exuberance for this seemingly little thing. It's kind of inspiring-- the book as a whole is.
Also of note: The Invention of Everything Else. Bought it a while back, with a coupon & a gift card, after reading a little blurb about it in Elle magazine. The cover looked interesting, & it had to do with Nikola Tesla, whom i'd only heard about in passing on MythBusters. So i went & bought it & read it, & it is also a very good book. Very well-written & atmospheric, & also very well researched. Samantha Hunt's writing is amazing, & now i want to read the book she write before this one (The Seas, i think it's called), but no one ever has it in stock. But if Invention of Everything Else is anything to go by, Hunt is definitely one of those writers that people call "a writer to watch," & all of her novels will be this good.
Bought two new books at Ukazoo today. (Eheh. I'm horrible.) Ukazoo's a really nice store; it primarily sells used books, but, as the images on the site show, it's not a mess like most other used book stores. Don't get me wrong-- i like going to The Book Thing (free books!) & the Unicorn Bookstore & other places where there's just books everywhere, but it often feels overwhelming to walk in & have to dig without any clear direction. (Most times, even in sections, books aren't in order.) So it's really nice to have a place where one digs about as much as one would at a conventional bookstore, & the prices are even nicer: everything's less than or about equal to $10. So one could get lucky & find a book they've wanted that's usually $16 & get it for $2.89 or something. Places to sit are also plentiful 9some of the squishiest chairs ever), & there's even a little corner supplying complimentary tea & coffee. So you can make yourself some earl grey without having to pay anyone.
The only thing is that they're updating their inventory, & there's never a guarantee that they'll have the book in anyway, so the best bet is to ask or call. It seems that every time the computer tells me they have whatever i'm looking for, i go & look, & it's not there. Have a bad habit of walking all over the store & walking back to the same spot multiple times, as if the hoped-for book will miraculously appear while i've been off elsewhere. That can be frustrating.
But found two that seem interesting, & will see if they are. Not as though i already have about eight other books i'm supposedly reading.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Thursday & stuff
First off, read this if you haven't already.
First off, read this if you haven't already.
Thursday, stayed at school/college past the time I usually leave, because the internationally known artist, Judy Pfaff, was coming to speak. Hadn't seen her work, but it sounded interesting, &, seeing her walking around, she seemed like a nice person. So sat around, waiting. There were a lot of people, & it was a little late due to technical problems (I think?).
Her art is really, really interesting-- installations, sculptures, drawings, & prints. Her website has photographs (think it's www.judypfaff.org; might want to plug it into Google just to make sure); you should go see. Especially like some of her prints.
There were also two shows opening: An MFA thesis show & a show featuring two women artists who started to really become artists back around the late '50s, I think. Back when women were expected to be nice little housewives & mothers, & to do that & balance making art was extremely difficult.
So there were a lot of people. The MFA thesis had to do with eating, & all the trappings & associations linked to it in today's world. So there's all these deeper, darker meanings to the pieces that, though they look really beautiful & intricate, definitely give off a feeling of a darker side. Of course, food was everywhere at these receptions, & this was no exception-- only the artist had laid her food out in the shape of a person. Despite not having eaten for a while, only took two little chocolates, because it was kind of disconcerting-- like by eating, we only proved the artist's point more, when it came to food. We became part of the art, interacting with it, in a way that was subtly disturbing. Maybe I did the same thing by not eating much-- proving her point, that is.
Had ended up meeting & talking to a girl at the Judy Pfaff talk, but other than her, only talked to my Design teachers. (I have no life. I have no friends.) My DeII teacher is from Britain, & we talked about Ghost Hunters & traveling & things. My DeI teacher was my Drawing II teacher last semester. Mentioned the new Discovery Channel show (The Human Body: Pushing the Limits) to both of them. It's really interesting; people should watch it. The things the body can do under pressure-- or that it just does naturally-- are amazing.
An example that links into the current MFA show: Our bodies are designed for a time long, long ago, when people still hunted for food & it was often scarce. So, due to that, whenever food is in plentiful supply, the brain makes sure that you stock up on food-- because, it's thinking, you don't know when you'll be able to eat again. So in today's society, a lot of people have easy access to food, & that mechanism still works. But because we've become so sedentary, it just starts to build up. It's a really interesting show that should be watched if you can get a chance to. It explains how people manage to stop feeling pain (even when they've shattered a knee & broken a hip), throw slabs of rock that are twice their weight off of themselves, survive being thrown by a tornado with no broken bones... &c., &c.
Didn't get a chance to actually talk with Judy Pfaff, because parents finally showed up & we went home. Friday was uneventful, except for mother thinking someone was going to break into our house (no one has ...yet). And I am now on Spring Break for a week, & hopefully am not the only one.
The whole breaking in thing is because she let someone into the house so they could use the phone & only thought of saying no afterwards, &... It became this whole huge thing, with mother fairly foaming at the mouth & complaining about people not understanding, while I stood there & said whenever I acted that way, I was told to calm down.
It's really cold down here, but the heater shut itself off again, & it never comes back on when it pulls this. Look like a modern day, romanticized druid in my Army hoodie with the hood up.
Speaking of druids: This past weekend, bought Charles de Lint's Moonheart at Goodwill, & thus for very cheap. Almost didn't get it, though, but am now glad I did, because it's really, really good. It was the first time in forever that I finished a book in days, as opposed to weeks. Deathly Hallows, of course, still holds the record for being the book I read the fastest-- thirteen hours or so, all told, I think? Give or take? That was the last book I went through quickly. But so yes, Moonheart is amazing & people should read it. I really liked de Lint's ability to switch perspectives & show certain bits of the story through a certain character's eyes without losing their voice. Sara's voice was always there, but he could switch over to Blue's POV, or Tucker's, or Kieran's (what the heck does nom de tout! mean, anyway?) without any of their individual voices being lost. Seeing certain situations from multiple perspectives was handled really well, too. Was kind of worried that someone like Tucker would kind of lose his personality, but he didn't really-- just became a lot more open-minded. The drug references kind of threw me, but maybe that's because I'm so straight edge. :p Or whatever. But it's really good. And just when I thought I'd never find an interesting book ever again...
It also kept up the suspense & all really well. I read for ages at a time because something would happen so that the situation changed drastically, & then it switched to what was going on elsewhere, so... Sometimes it could be jarring (the switch), but usually got into the next bit easily enough. It usually tied into what was going on elsewhere &/or with other people, anyway. Kept thinking, Someone should make this into a really good movie, but the switches seem like they could be a hindrance. In a book, you can go back & forth easily like that (just hoping you don't confuse & thus lose your reader because they just give up, they don't know what's going on anymore), but in a movie, things have to flow together. Some cuts might be easier than others, when there's time allowed for backtracking & showing the different perspectives (something that could also be lost in a film version). But certain skips are between things that are happening very fast, & the two different perspectives interlock & are connected, but lead off in different directions, & would be a lot harder to get to flow together without seeming awkward.
Rambling. Ugh. Printing this out will be so much easier than rewriting it all again in my actual journal. The thought of writing right now seems too tiring. I'm just a lazy idiot.
Also got to see Maggie for a while (a very short while) on Wednesday.
And an interesting conversation in leaving Japanese class yesterday morning, because Christina (someone in class) said she was skipping the rest of her classes. Was saying how it's difficult to write about what one will do when one will do nothing over break, except sleep, eat when necessary, maybe read...
"'Eat when necessary,'" Christina said. "Eat to survive."
"Will you pass me the greens, mother?" I said in an odd voice. Then somehow, the Force entered the picture, along with grapes. "I will Force choke you," Christina said; then I said, "I'm choking on a grape! My devious plan... has failed..." Deanna, one of Christina's friends, laughed.
"That's what I'd do," Christina said. "I'd be a really bad evil villain."
"Keep tripping up & things?" I asked.
She then declared she needed the New York Times, & I mentioned goats, & then the goats that Janna & I met the last time we were at the zoo, & how they tried to eat my pants & Janna's sketchbook. ...And no, have no real idea how exactly that conversation took the course it did. It just did.
Really, really hope I'm not the only person on break this coming week. That would suck so much, it's not even funny.
...wonder if the old phones books got recycled yet.
Really, really, really tired. ねむいねむい... Only been on about an hour & a half, but will probably go very soon, because am just so stupidly tired. (You know it's bad when you start to think of fluffy, roly-poly things... or something. Is this off the record?)
Think am going to bed. ね~~~むい~~.....
First off, read this if you haven't already.
Thursday, stayed at school/college past the time I usually leave, because the internationally known artist, Judy Pfaff, was coming to speak. Hadn't seen her work, but it sounded interesting, &, seeing her walking around, she seemed like a nice person. So sat around, waiting. There were a lot of people, & it was a little late due to technical problems (I think?).
Her art is really, really interesting-- installations, sculptures, drawings, & prints. Her website has photographs (think it's www.judypfaff.org; might want to plug it into Google just to make sure); you should go see. Especially like some of her prints.
There were also two shows opening: An MFA thesis show & a show featuring two women artists who started to really become artists back around the late '50s, I think. Back when women were expected to be nice little housewives & mothers, & to do that & balance making art was extremely difficult.
So there were a lot of people. The MFA thesis had to do with eating, & all the trappings & associations linked to it in today's world. So there's all these deeper, darker meanings to the pieces that, though they look really beautiful & intricate, definitely give off a feeling of a darker side. Of course, food was everywhere at these receptions, & this was no exception-- only the artist had laid her food out in the shape of a person. Despite not having eaten for a while, only took two little chocolates, because it was kind of disconcerting-- like by eating, we only proved the artist's point more, when it came to food. We became part of the art, interacting with it, in a way that was subtly disturbing. Maybe I did the same thing by not eating much-- proving her point, that is.
Had ended up meeting & talking to a girl at the Judy Pfaff talk, but other than her, only talked to my Design teachers. (I have no life. I have no friends.) My DeII teacher is from Britain, & we talked about Ghost Hunters & traveling & things. My DeI teacher was my Drawing II teacher last semester. Mentioned the new Discovery Channel show (The Human Body: Pushing the Limits) to both of them. It's really interesting; people should watch it. The things the body can do under pressure-- or that it just does naturally-- are amazing.
An example that links into the current MFA show: Our bodies are designed for a time long, long ago, when people still hunted for food & it was often scarce. So, due to that, whenever food is in plentiful supply, the brain makes sure that you stock up on food-- because, it's thinking, you don't know when you'll be able to eat again. So in today's society, a lot of people have easy access to food, & that mechanism still works. But because we've become so sedentary, it just starts to build up. It's a really interesting show that should be watched if you can get a chance to. It explains how people manage to stop feeling pain (even when they've shattered a knee & broken a hip), throw slabs of rock that are twice their weight off of themselves, survive being thrown by a tornado with no broken bones... &c., &c.
Didn't get a chance to actually talk with Judy Pfaff, because parents finally showed up & we went home. Friday was uneventful, except for mother thinking someone was going to break into our house (no one has ...yet). And I am now on Spring Break for a week, & hopefully am not the only one.
The whole breaking in thing is because she let someone into the house so they could use the phone & only thought of saying no afterwards, &... It became this whole huge thing, with mother fairly foaming at the mouth & complaining about people not understanding, while I stood there & said whenever I acted that way, I was told to calm down.
It's really cold down here, but the heater shut itself off again, & it never comes back on when it pulls this. Look like a modern day, romanticized druid in my Army hoodie with the hood up.
Speaking of druids: This past weekend, bought Charles de Lint's Moonheart at Goodwill, & thus for very cheap. Almost didn't get it, though, but am now glad I did, because it's really, really good. It was the first time in forever that I finished a book in days, as opposed to weeks. Deathly Hallows, of course, still holds the record for being the book I read the fastest-- thirteen hours or so, all told, I think? Give or take? That was the last book I went through quickly. But so yes, Moonheart is amazing & people should read it. I really liked de Lint's ability to switch perspectives & show certain bits of the story through a certain character's eyes without losing their voice. Sara's voice was always there, but he could switch over to Blue's POV, or Tucker's, or Kieran's (what the heck does nom de tout! mean, anyway?) without any of their individual voices being lost. Seeing certain situations from multiple perspectives was handled really well, too. Was kind of worried that someone like Tucker would kind of lose his personality, but he didn't really-- just became a lot more open-minded. The drug references kind of threw me, but maybe that's because I'm so straight edge. :p Or whatever. But it's really good. And just when I thought I'd never find an interesting book ever again...
It also kept up the suspense & all really well. I read for ages at a time because something would happen so that the situation changed drastically, & then it switched to what was going on elsewhere, so... Sometimes it could be jarring (the switch), but usually got into the next bit easily enough. It usually tied into what was going on elsewhere &/or with other people, anyway. Kept thinking, Someone should make this into a really good movie, but the switches seem like they could be a hindrance. In a book, you can go back & forth easily like that (just hoping you don't confuse & thus lose your reader because they just give up, they don't know what's going on anymore), but in a movie, things have to flow together. Some cuts might be easier than others, when there's time allowed for backtracking & showing the different perspectives (something that could also be lost in a film version). But certain skips are between things that are happening very fast, & the two different perspectives interlock & are connected, but lead off in different directions, & would be a lot harder to get to flow together without seeming awkward.
Rambling. Ugh. Printing this out will be so much easier than rewriting it all again in my actual journal. The thought of writing right now seems too tiring. I'm just a lazy idiot.
Also got to see Maggie for a while (a very short while) on Wednesday.
And an interesting conversation in leaving Japanese class yesterday morning, because Christina (someone in class) said she was skipping the rest of her classes. Was saying how it's difficult to write about what one will do when one will do nothing over break, except sleep, eat when necessary, maybe read...
"'Eat when necessary,'" Christina said. "Eat to survive."
"Will you pass me the greens, mother?" I said in an odd voice. Then somehow, the Force entered the picture, along with grapes. "I will Force choke you," Christina said; then I said, "I'm choking on a grape! My devious plan... has failed..." Deanna, one of Christina's friends, laughed.
"That's what I'd do," Christina said. "I'd be a really bad evil villain."
"Keep tripping up & things?" I asked.
She then declared she needed the New York Times, & I mentioned goats, & then the goats that Janna & I met the last time we were at the zoo, & how they tried to eat my pants & Janna's sketchbook. ...And no, have no real idea how exactly that conversation took the course it did. It just did.
Really, really hope I'm not the only person on break this coming week. That would suck so much, it's not even funny.
...wonder if the old phones books got recycled yet.
Really, really, really tired. ねむいねむい... Only been on about an hour & a half, but will probably go very soon, because am just so stupidly tired. (You know it's bad when you start to think of fluffy, roly-poly things... or something. Is this off the record?)
Think am going to bed. ね~~~むい~~.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)