phyllo facts

I love keeping a filofax (not the flaky pastry, although that's how some folks pronounce it) when I can't remember everything that's happened since I last blogged over two weeks ago. Let's see...since February 6th, in addition to the usual, I attended a presentation by NY painter Adam Cvijanovic, watched some mind-blowing animation by William Kentridge, experienced my first Boston blizzard (like DQ but with fewer M&Ms), bought tickets to listen to Kara Walker speak at the MFA in March, lost my monthly T pass, which was a huge bummer, visited family in Oregon, and most recently decided to erase and animate some charcoal portraits à la aforementioned Kentridge and Amy Adler.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, I've seen some amazing art, and had a real breakthrough (I think...I hope) with my own. Stay tuned for that.

As for that blizzard, Neal did some documenting. You're probably wondering why we walked to the T when the wind was gusting at 50 mph and the snow was falling at about three inches per hour, and you're right to wonder. Turns out I had the bad luck of being scheduled to work at a store that doesn't let a little blizzard get in the way of weekly goals. I was shocked at how many people were in the mall, but on the other hand, the Pru serves as a corridor between the convention center and a bunch of hotels, so the majority of shoppers may very well have been stranded tourists. Even so, shopping would have been the last thing on my mind in that kind of weather.

Needless to say, my nearly mid-semester break in Bend was much appreciated, despite making the trip solo. It was actually colder there than here on the first day (10 below with the wind chill factored in), but warmed up to about 43 by Monday. I did some cross country skiing for the first time in at least two years, as well as some hiking, bruised both knees by falling on snow and ice, enjoyed the kind of blizzard I prefer at DQ, and ate tasty Mexican food two of the four nights I was there. I was happy to be home in Boston, but there are some things (namely blizzards and Mexican food) that the west coast just does better. Not to mention the fact that I got to see my Dad, grandparents, and an aunt for the first time in almost a year. I've done a lot of sightseeing in Bend (even lived there for a year myself) so I didn't take many pictures, but I've posted a couple on Flickr.

oh romeo

Oh how I have neglected my blogging duties! I find the busier I am the less likely I'll feel motivated to blog about any particular thing. And the one thing that stands out over the last couple of weeks and seems appropriate to this blog (which aims, at least, to be somewhat organized around art, pop culture, and life in and around Boston) Neal has already sufficiently summed up. Let me just add to his much more eloquent commentary by pointing out the poor decision to put seats where the back of the stage should have been, so that audience members were facing one another. You've already got a lot working against maintaining any kind of illusion in theater (I always feel a little anxious when someone coughs or sneezes, for example, like the actors don't know we're there but they might stop what they're doing if they realize what's really going on) so that an already somewhat distracted audience member like myself can't help but watch the folks on the other side of the action instead of the play itself. Especially given the second act of the play was performed without lighting or sound, in, as the venue director announced prior to the start of the production, rehearsal mode (this was acceptable, I can only imagine, because it was the first performance, free tickets having been offered to local college kids like ourselves...I took offense, actually, that we weren't afforded the full production). Particularly distracting was when one of several audience members who failed to make their escape during intermission attempted to stealthily exit between scenes and managed to sort of half fall down the stairs. Oh, and did I mention the play went on for a full hour longer than advertised? And to think I could have spent the evening bonding with other first year students at Sean's place...On the other hand, knowing me, I probably would have mostly hung out with his dog and two cats.

Otherwise, school is going splendidly. I feel like I learned as best I could from last semester about just how one navigates the Museum School studio system and made some decent choices. I dropped one of five classes, but feel okay about it. As I see it, I have more time to focus on my other classes, including screenprinting, which I love! Yeah, yeah, so it's two-dimensional and for the time being at least, static imagery, and probably highly aesthetisized (all qualities pointed out in my review board for me to mull over this semester), but man, it's soooo fun! As they say in German McDonald'ses, "Ich liebe es."

And, yeah, I'm like totally still watching The O.C. - just a handful of episodes left in season two and the dozen or so of the current season (that's, what, a couple of nights' worth?) until we're all caught up. Only occasionally have I felt like my time could be better spent and it was mostly because I caught myself simultaneously writing Valentine's Day greetings on complimentary stationery I received at work. I don't know what to write except that it was an odd moment. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but after two or three notes, I realized there's not really much else to write other than the obvious. Guess I'll have to find some other use for all that pink paper.