I believe I survived a bought of bronchitis over the last two weeks. It hit me hard, mostly in the sinus reagion. Queen and David Bowies “Under Pressure” comes to mind. The sickness had me down and out, as it took forever for me to feel well. Also, after two straight, full weeks in a drug-induced stupor, it began to feel as if I was just dead to everything. The unbearable chill of winter in New York must have also played a part in my intellectual dysfunction.
All this led up to somewhat of a rebirth yesterday. I got sick of feeling dead and useless. I just decided against the feeling and went on with life as I thought it should go. This translates to taking my Lyotard reading for class, along with a yellow pad, down to a coffee shop called Blackbird. Officially, it’s a parlor, meaning I think I can sit there all day and read philosophy. Anyway, the act of getting out and settling into a studious lifestyle, embracing a hipster ideal, felt reinvigorating. Cliche? Sure. But therapeutic, no doubt.
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While I could list complaints about Grad school, I’ll avoid it. Something about taking out loans to fund an education makes me feel entitled to a certain amount of bitching. But never mind that. I’ll leave it at this:
I’m enjoying my program, and in the long run, I believe it was the right choice to pursue this degree at this point in my life. I love the readings so far and enjoy the creative aspect of my practice courses. The foundation of the program is strong. It’s execution? A bit sloppy. But, overall, I’m happy with it.
Here are four selections from a photography project I did for my Media Concepts class. Just a simple little set of photos that offer strange or familiar views. The first view is from Williamsburg; the second from Riverside Park on the Upper West Side; the third, a view of some street trash in Brooklyn; and the last a dead plant that sat in my stairwell for a few weeks.
Ellyn and I took a trip to the Lower East Side and the Bowery on Saturday. Our first stop — The Doughnut Plant.
We saw a few celebrities, a standard for any New York outing.
I always love walking through the different ethnic market districts in the city, and the weather was perfect as we walked through a Chinese shopping district. I liked the fresh ginger.
Taking advantage of our student discounts, we moseyed on over to the New Museum, where ellyn pretended to see something for the sake of this picture.
For the sake of this picture, she just sat and looked beautiful.
Sometimes, you just have to spray paint “Yoink” on a building.
After the New Museum, we swung around the block to one of my favorite galleries, Lehmann Maupin.
Before heading to a performance of Chris Scharb’s “Twilight and Ghost Stories” with some good friends, we had a beer or two at the little German bistro, Loreley. The place holds a special spot in my heart, as it’s right next door to the hotel I stayed at during my first visit to NYC back in college. I had just got back from Berlin before heading out to New York for a conference, and it seems God wanted me to know where I could get a true Hefeweizen then and six years down the line.
More to come concerning my new adventures at school, I’m just to tired to get into it all now.
An old high-school friend, Carly Bodnar, and I reconnected not too long ago on facebook. And, it turns out we both grew out of high-school nerd-dom to become something altogether different. Well, grown up nerds, I guess. Doing art and such.
Anyway, she has an Etsy store with some really, really nice handmade cards. I just bought a valentine’s day card for my valentine. And I encourage everyone to check out her cards and pick a couple up, as they are really well priced.
Also, if you are a Portland reader, live vicariously for me and check out the Robot Love show over on Mississippi tomorrow night. Carly has a painting in the show, and the whole evening sounds pretty cool, indeed.
The details:
What: Good Gallery Group Art Show
When: February 6th, 7-10 pm
Where: 4325 N. Mississippi Ave.
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been discussing Napalm in one of my theory classes.
The way in which Dow was able to produce such an efficient and terrible weapon is pretty mind blowing. By striping down the chemical compound into a series of “building blocks” and then assigning each block to an engineer, each individual was released from the ethical dilemma associated with producing weaponry. Basically, Dow was able to sidestep individual ownership of Napalm and create destructive weapons through a process of consumer-driven enterprise.
In 1969, German director Harun Farocki made a short film, The Inextinguishable Fire, exploring the process. The film makes some startling points about the sterilization of warfare. You can watch it here:
Playing a little catch-up, ellyn and made an evening of our visit to the Craperie, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant we saw on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
Flay visited to learn about the proper way to make a Crepe. We visited to lean about the proper way to eat them.
I love crepes, and the Creperie didn’t disappoint. Like true food critics, we sampled something form each category.
For our main course, we shared the “Winter House Special” — a brie, tomato, basil and avocado combo — and a prosciutto, mozzarella and sun-dried tomato savory crepe. The winter special was fresh and clean, while the prosciutto crepe was salty and delicious. We scarfed them down with a smile.
Of course, we couldn’t pass up on a sweet dessert. We chose a fruit combo and a crepe off the chocolate menu, just to make sure our bases were covered. I loved the strawberry, banana, brown sugar and caramel crepe, and ellyn drowned herself in the dark chocolate and fresh raspberry puree crepe. Both were decadent and mouthwatering. A good date with good eats. Thanks Bobby Flay.
