http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/10/gay.friendly.school/index.html
In response to this article, I want to ask one question...how does this change the landscape of tolerance in public schools?
I understand that it might be better for these students from a safety standpoint to be in a school with a peer group that is fully supportive of their lifestyle and orientation, but something about this doesn't sit right with me.
If we suggest as a city (Chicago) or as a country, that we should group gays, lesbians, and transgenders together into one demographic of a high school, doesn't that mean, while confrontations and safety may be higher, exposure to other viewpoints and other individuals will be lessened?
I can't help but wonder if my close friends that are gay/lesbian/bi-sexual and transgender decided to go to this public school instead of mine, i wouldn't have been offered the chance to get to know them so well and become such good friends with them. I can respect a decision based on the safety of students, because that is supposed to be one of the most important things a school provides, beyond the "education" factor that is a given. But, what about the whole diversity in schools idea?
There are a lot of high school students out there as it is, that will not meet an openly gay/bi-sexual/transgender person until they get to college...(remember small towns in Iowa are rarely the bastions of liberal ideas/thinking that the state as a whole may be thought to be) and that may be okay for many of them, but I'm sure they often wonder if someone in that school has a different sexual orientation and just hasn't come forward.
I am for people being comfortable in their skin, and if an openly gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/transgender high school will allow that to be the case for some folks, then I'm for that aspect of it...but I can't help but also see this as leading down a slippery slope of self-chosen separation, which will afford few high school students the chance to change their views on certain aspects of the culture/community of GLBTG folks or vice versa.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Carving, Taxes, and Friendship
Costume plans are coming together for the annual Spooktacular Pumpkin Carving party. As ya'll remember from "ghosts of years past" its' a BYOP (bring your own pumpkin) This year we're rockin' the "kid friendly" version, so that my friends and co-workers with kids should bring them along if the spirit moves you. Mulled apple cider, goodies and other such fare will be offered for noshing. Also, there are prizes for best costume, best pumpkin and best non-costume (i.e. the lovely popularity contest...) And of course, because costumes are option, best non-costume usually is a tough crowd, so accordingly and come prepared to bribe.
In other news, life, as I know it, just got more interesting, as it tends to when you're juggling jobs and a social life...more on that later though, as nothing's for sure...
oh and apparently part of that $700 billion dollar bill that passed Congress (and no a $700 billion dollar bill does not exist --who would you expect to see on that paper? Most of the really good presidents have already got their coinage...hmm...answers accepted here...Who would you like to see on a $700 billion dollar bill?
Regardless, there's a little add-on for those of us in flood ravaged Iowa...some sort of tax benefit write-off dealio---I'd simply like to not have to pay tax on the money FEMA gave us, but I think I'll have to claim it as "earnings" ---really not sure about that one...I had the UI folks do it last year cause it was easy with no stocks and three pay stubs...this year might be more complicated with flood money...who knows....anyways, that's the current update.
Pete...if you still read this blog, you should call me so we can catch up, it's been too long Mister.
In other news, life, as I know it, just got more interesting, as it tends to when you're juggling jobs and a social life...more on that later though, as nothing's for sure...
oh and apparently part of that $700 billion dollar bill that passed Congress (and no a $700 billion dollar bill does not exist --who would you expect to see on that paper? Most of the really good presidents have already got their coinage...hmm...answers accepted here...Who would you like to see on a $700 billion dollar bill?
Regardless, there's a little add-on for those of us in flood ravaged Iowa...some sort of tax benefit write-off dealio---I'd simply like to not have to pay tax on the money FEMA gave us, but I think I'll have to claim it as "earnings" ---really not sure about that one...I had the UI folks do it last year cause it was easy with no stocks and three pay stubs...this year might be more complicated with flood money...who knows....anyways, that's the current update.
Pete...if you still read this blog, you should call me so we can catch up, it's been too long Mister.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Is No News Good News?
Been awhile since I've updated. Mostly because not a lot to comment on really. Don't get me wrong, a lot has been going on in my small ego-centric world lately, as well as the real world that is tangential to it. (JK). A quick update....
hmm...work is going well. I'm now responsible for helping set up meeting room equipment for incoming non-profits using the space. Of course my first solo flight yielded a powerpoint that would not open on one of our older laptops downstairs, or a newer one upstairs...so the group waited 20 minutes while I tried to troubleshoot if it was a problem of a 2003 pt file not working on a 2007 version. Unfortunately the creator of said powerpoint was also not in attendance at the meeting, so we were all winging it. The group was good-natured enough about the delay to have commented "they probably don't pay you enough for this do they?" and the like, which was sweet. And when they found out it was my first solo time in charge of everything down there, they were even nicer about it. I'm also now in charge of our facebook page, and updating events pages for the city and on a cultural website. Go me getting more stuff to do.
The wedding scrapbook for Steve and Victoria is starting to come together I've filtered out the pics, put 'em up on shutterfly and starting cropping and editing. I have found the print album I'm going to use, and started scanning for layout design ideas. I'm excited to have it as my "downtime" project.
Not much else is new with me in particular, but I'm not about shameless plugs of things or people I find to be good. So, if any of you have been wanting to see Spamalot and have yet to go..well GO! it's a fantastic show even if you aren't a Holy Grail person, but even better if you are a fan of Flying circus or any other Monty Python show. Also, the national traveling tour features my cousin Matt as Lancelot, starting this Fall. An even better reason to see it! Because Erik and I saw it last year in Des Moines and loved it, but we're going to go see it there again for Matt (and cause we loved the show). It was supposed to come to Hancher, Iowa City's own performing arts venue for Broadway events...but because of the flooding, that is impossible. it also means that matt will spend Christmas in DM, Iowa, but luckily we've got family all across this state and baring any ice or really bad snow storms, he'll get to spend at least part of it with us!
Erik's roommates got kitties this week...well at least year old cats, that are short hairs and people lovers, which is great. The major drawback, since I haven't been around cats for prolonged periods of time in awhile, my allergies flared within half an hour of being there. To my credit, I didn't handle them the whole time, but not too my credit I did spend a good deal of that time playing and petting them. Hopefully as with my own Scotty, the allergies will fade quickly...
Tonight is the roommate's birthday celebration and we are going to the Brown Bottle for dinner (one of my IC favs) though it is also homecoming weekend, which means crazy busy traffic everywhere in this fair city. Go Hawks. I hope we win.
Alternatively I hope that our new president figures out what the bleep she's doing and gets a handle on things. She's just fired two major players in U of I dealings over a case that happened under her watch. of course she'd look to her team to help her with policies, etc...but really firings two days after the investigation into the "handling" of the case? I am glad the regents didn't give her a bonus this year...and since her posted salary this year was 450,000 anyway, i think it's time for her to give a bit more back to the community and accountability also. And my heart goes out to the female student, whomever you are for your willingness to continue with your case against the athletes involved and I hope that some manner of justice helps you put this awful mess into your past. You'll never forget it, but hopefully you'll be able to at least move on with your life and not let them continue to ruin it.
And now, that is all.
hmm...work is going well. I'm now responsible for helping set up meeting room equipment for incoming non-profits using the space. Of course my first solo flight yielded a powerpoint that would not open on one of our older laptops downstairs, or a newer one upstairs...so the group waited 20 minutes while I tried to troubleshoot if it was a problem of a 2003 pt file not working on a 2007 version. Unfortunately the creator of said powerpoint was also not in attendance at the meeting, so we were all winging it. The group was good-natured enough about the delay to have commented "they probably don't pay you enough for this do they?" and the like, which was sweet. And when they found out it was my first solo time in charge of everything down there, they were even nicer about it. I'm also now in charge of our facebook page, and updating events pages for the city and on a cultural website. Go me getting more stuff to do.
The wedding scrapbook for Steve and Victoria is starting to come together I've filtered out the pics, put 'em up on shutterfly and starting cropping and editing. I have found the print album I'm going to use, and started scanning for layout design ideas. I'm excited to have it as my "downtime" project.
Not much else is new with me in particular, but I'm not about shameless plugs of things or people I find to be good. So, if any of you have been wanting to see Spamalot and have yet to go..well GO! it's a fantastic show even if you aren't a Holy Grail person, but even better if you are a fan of Flying circus or any other Monty Python show. Also, the national traveling tour features my cousin Matt as Lancelot, starting this Fall. An even better reason to see it! Because Erik and I saw it last year in Des Moines and loved it, but we're going to go see it there again for Matt (and cause we loved the show). It was supposed to come to Hancher, Iowa City's own performing arts venue for Broadway events...but because of the flooding, that is impossible. it also means that matt will spend Christmas in DM, Iowa, but luckily we've got family all across this state and baring any ice or really bad snow storms, he'll get to spend at least part of it with us!
Erik's roommates got kitties this week...well at least year old cats, that are short hairs and people lovers, which is great. The major drawback, since I haven't been around cats for prolonged periods of time in awhile, my allergies flared within half an hour of being there. To my credit, I didn't handle them the whole time, but not too my credit I did spend a good deal of that time playing and petting them. Hopefully as with my own Scotty, the allergies will fade quickly...
Tonight is the roommate's birthday celebration and we are going to the Brown Bottle for dinner (one of my IC favs) though it is also homecoming weekend, which means crazy busy traffic everywhere in this fair city. Go Hawks. I hope we win.
Alternatively I hope that our new president figures out what the bleep she's doing and gets a handle on things. She's just fired two major players in U of I dealings over a case that happened under her watch. of course she'd look to her team to help her with policies, etc...but really firings two days after the investigation into the "handling" of the case? I am glad the regents didn't give her a bonus this year...and since her posted salary this year was 450,000 anyway, i think it's time for her to give a bit more back to the community and accountability also. And my heart goes out to the female student, whomever you are for your willingness to continue with your case against the athletes involved and I hope that some manner of justice helps you put this awful mess into your past. You'll never forget it, but hopefully you'll be able to at least move on with your life and not let them continue to ruin it.
And now, that is all.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Quick update and Pollock Fodder
Sorry guys, I've had a long hiatus from the blog on late...working 40-45 hours a week, and weekends filled with weddings and a beer festival and some soccer games have made this the case...plus my town flooded, which means I've moved out of an apartment, into my parent's basement, and then into a NEW apartment, (because the old building was condemned) all with in the last few months. There are thank you notes that have gone unwritten and many other scribblings to attend to before a proper update to this blog can be made. But, for the gist, I'm allright, and getting settled in the new place, and working, and squeezing in the fun where I can in between.
Also, I'm very intrigued by the discussion of the potential sale of our Jackson Pollock Mural to a "museum institution" and in fact, intrigued is only the beginning and I have just now read one of the more insulting varieties of the elitist art critics who shovel their drivel and insult University collections.
Felix Salmon - a critic says:
All the same, some paintings belong not to "the people of Iowa" so much as to the people of the world, and belong in a world-class collection. Which, frankly, the University of Iowa Museum of Art isn't.
One of the reasons that contemporary art goes for such huge sums at auction is that nearly all the major art of the past is now in museums and therefore can't be bought for any sum. But there's a corollary to that well-known fact, which is that some of the greatest paintings of all time have washed up in relative backwaters which don't and can't do them justice.
All of which is to say that if Mural had ended up in MoMA rather than UIMA, it would probably at this point be generally considered to be the greatest American painting of all time. As it is, it's described as being worth an "estimated $100 million" (which wouldn't even get you an opening bid on such a work in today's market) and as "one of the half-dozen greatest Pollocks". Nothing to be ashamed of there, but I do get the impression that being hidden away in Iowa has not done Mural any art-historical favors.
Indiana Jones, when he sees a priceless treasure, always says that it belongs in a museum. But not all museums are equal, and there's surely a case to be made that the greatest of the great masterworks belong in museums which are worthy of them, rather than in small university collections.
So, I'll break this down for my readers. I've been to many a museum in my day, both here and abroad, and from small art museum collections to places like MOMA and the Louvre, so I think this man has a lot of explaining to do by saying Iowa has done 1) nothing to promote the Pollock painting and 2) the belief that it would stand in some greater pantheon of modern art if it were in a place like the MOMA...part of the draw to a small art museum to see a "masterpiece" is just that, it is a standout in a collection, the collection doesn't overshadow a masterpiece. I'm sorry but when I walk through the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and see how many of the same style and scheme? Do I think any of them are less valuable than the others...no, but do I take a particular interest in them? not really. The point deer friends, is that the Pollock is an imposing piece at the UIMA because it is a large canvas and an important piece to the development of the artist's style. It is hung next to other works by modern artists...perhaps not "masterpieces" in the traditional sense, but still also, works by important artists...Miro, Gris, Feininger and Picasso...but you don't see us complaining that our museum collection was based on some art market issues. No...most of our collection of modern European and American masters came from one family, the Elliots, who traveled and collected. So yes, Peggy Guggenheim herself donated the Pollock to the U of I...and yes in the 1940's a museum didn't exist. But the art school did...and it was well-known and had a reputation for being the "Geenwich Village of the West" at that time.
I also take issue with him calling our collection small or "backwater" are you kidding me? Who is sophisticated society uses such language to describe UNIVERSITY collections? Seriously, has he not seen that most of the images of AFRICAN ART that exist in slide rooms and books and articles come from our very own Stanley collection? Outside of Indiana University (my other alma matter) we have one of the best African collections in the country...but should we discuss selling an Ibeji twin figure no one in the larger art community would bat an eyelash.
It is precisely the famousness of that Pollock piece and BECAUSE it is in a University museum that it gets this kind of attention in the first place. Hello, the MOMA decides to sell a Braque...big deal - would probably barely make it into the papers, they've got others. But a few months ago a similar case was in the news;'
From Wikipedia about Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic
After its purchase for $200 at the time of the Centennial Exhibition, the painting was housed in the College Building of Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia until it was moved in the mid-1980s to Jefferson Alumni Hall. On November 11, 2006, the Thomas Jefferson University Board voted to sell the painting for $68 million to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, now under construction in Bentonville, Arkansas. The sale would represent a record price for an artwork made in the United States prior to World War II.[3]
The proposed sale was seen as a secretive act[4] that many from Philadelphia believed betrayed the city's cultural legacy.[5] In late November 2006, efforts began to keep the painting in Philadelphia, including a fund with a December 26 deadline to raise money to purchase it and a plan to invoke a clause regarding "historic objects" in the city's historic preservation code. In a matter of weeks the fund raised $30 million, and on December 21, 2006, Wachovia Bank agreed to loan the difference until the rest of the money has been raised, keeping the painting in town at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
So here you have a painting kept in its native city - a masterwork by all accounts - in the cannon of art historical research - that was still in jeopardy until the people of the city rallied around it.
I do not think this Felix should be so quick to judge a painting like Pollock's Mural so simply, and nor the people of Iowa or our artistic merits either. And frankly, I'd love to write a more eloquent diatribe to post on the comments page of his article...but alas, perhaps I, in the "backwater" "small collection" vein in which I seem to live, would not do such an argument justice.
Also, I'm very intrigued by the discussion of the potential sale of our Jackson Pollock Mural to a "museum institution" and in fact, intrigued is only the beginning and I have just now read one of the more insulting varieties of the elitist art critics who shovel their drivel and insult University collections.
Felix Salmon - a critic says:
All the same, some paintings belong not to "the people of Iowa" so much as to the people of the world, and belong in a world-class collection. Which, frankly, the University of Iowa Museum of Art isn't.
One of the reasons that contemporary art goes for such huge sums at auction is that nearly all the major art of the past is now in museums and therefore can't be bought for any sum. But there's a corollary to that well-known fact, which is that some of the greatest paintings of all time have washed up in relative backwaters which don't and can't do them justice.
All of which is to say that if Mural had ended up in MoMA rather than UIMA, it would probably at this point be generally considered to be the greatest American painting of all time. As it is, it's described as being worth an "estimated $100 million" (which wouldn't even get you an opening bid on such a work in today's market) and as "one of the half-dozen greatest Pollocks". Nothing to be ashamed of there, but I do get the impression that being hidden away in Iowa has not done Mural any art-historical favors.
Indiana Jones, when he sees a priceless treasure, always says that it belongs in a museum. But not all museums are equal, and there's surely a case to be made that the greatest of the great masterworks belong in museums which are worthy of them, rather than in small university collections.
So, I'll break this down for my readers. I've been to many a museum in my day, both here and abroad, and from small art museum collections to places like MOMA and the Louvre, so I think this man has a lot of explaining to do by saying Iowa has done 1) nothing to promote the Pollock painting and 2) the belief that it would stand in some greater pantheon of modern art if it were in a place like the MOMA...part of the draw to a small art museum to see a "masterpiece" is just that, it is a standout in a collection, the collection doesn't overshadow a masterpiece. I'm sorry but when I walk through the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and see how many of the same style and scheme? Do I think any of them are less valuable than the others...no, but do I take a particular interest in them? not really. The point deer friends, is that the Pollock is an imposing piece at the UIMA because it is a large canvas and an important piece to the development of the artist's style. It is hung next to other works by modern artists...perhaps not "masterpieces" in the traditional sense, but still also, works by important artists...Miro, Gris, Feininger and Picasso...but you don't see us complaining that our museum collection was based on some art market issues. No...most of our collection of modern European and American masters came from one family, the Elliots, who traveled and collected. So yes, Peggy Guggenheim herself donated the Pollock to the U of I...and yes in the 1940's a museum didn't exist. But the art school did...and it was well-known and had a reputation for being the "Geenwich Village of the West" at that time.
I also take issue with him calling our collection small or "backwater" are you kidding me? Who is sophisticated society uses such language to describe UNIVERSITY collections? Seriously, has he not seen that most of the images of AFRICAN ART that exist in slide rooms and books and articles come from our very own Stanley collection? Outside of Indiana University (my other alma matter) we have one of the best African collections in the country...but should we discuss selling an Ibeji twin figure no one in the larger art community would bat an eyelash.
It is precisely the famousness of that Pollock piece and BECAUSE it is in a University museum that it gets this kind of attention in the first place. Hello, the MOMA decides to sell a Braque...big deal - would probably barely make it into the papers, they've got others. But a few months ago a similar case was in the news;'
From Wikipedia about Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic
After its purchase for $200 at the time of the Centennial Exhibition, the painting was housed in the College Building of Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia until it was moved in the mid-1980s to Jefferson Alumni Hall. On November 11, 2006, the Thomas Jefferson University Board voted to sell the painting for $68 million to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, now under construction in Bentonville, Arkansas. The sale would represent a record price for an artwork made in the United States prior to World War II.[3]
The proposed sale was seen as a secretive act[4] that many from Philadelphia believed betrayed the city's cultural legacy.[5] In late November 2006, efforts began to keep the painting in Philadelphia, including a fund with a December 26 deadline to raise money to purchase it and a plan to invoke a clause regarding "historic objects" in the city's historic preservation code. In a matter of weeks the fund raised $30 million, and on December 21, 2006, Wachovia Bank agreed to loan the difference until the rest of the money has been raised, keeping the painting in town at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
So here you have a painting kept in its native city - a masterwork by all accounts - in the cannon of art historical research - that was still in jeopardy until the people of the city rallied around it.
I do not think this Felix should be so quick to judge a painting like Pollock's Mural so simply, and nor the people of Iowa or our artistic merits either. And frankly, I'd love to write a more eloquent diatribe to post on the comments page of his article...but alas, perhaps I, in the "backwater" "small collection" vein in which I seem to live, would not do such an argument justice.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Flood of 2008
Someone in one of the papers said today "If the flood of 1993 was the flood of the century, it was LAST century" because 2008 with not only rival it, but surpass it...
I talked to one of the facilities guys that was trying to stave off the invasion of water into the theater lot monday morning, and in essence he told me this...
"If your place flooded in 1993, it will most likely flood again, and more so this time around."
That was enough for me...I called Cas and she came back to Iowa City and we spent Monday evening (after I worked for 6.5 hours at the CPL) moving all of our belongings into my parents spare bedroom, new basement addition, and one of the stalls of the garage...it's seriously an amazing site to see all of our crap shoved into the garage and basement...(Thanks mom and dad for putting up with your daughter returning for two months at the age of 27! and bringing a roommate and all of her belongings with her.)
We are doing this to be pro-active and as a precaution. The river has not yet spilled on to th earts campus, but they evacuated all of t ebuildings around our apartment...theater, and art building west, and two of the main routes we'd take to access our road (Dubuque Street/Park Road bridge, and Rocky Shore Drive are closed)
Thanks to everyone for the concern...cas and i are stressed, looking for a new apartment, but also, making th emost of it...I'm keeping good spirits, as I consider that now we can have sleepovers with a projection screen for movie watching I suppose.
I"ll post pictures eventually when my memory stick decides to actually work in the card reader I have...or i have another posting option...
but thanks to those who helped us move out...we do indeed still owe you a round of drinks!
I talked to one of the facilities guys that was trying to stave off the invasion of water into the theater lot monday morning, and in essence he told me this...
"If your place flooded in 1993, it will most likely flood again, and more so this time around."
That was enough for me...I called Cas and she came back to Iowa City and we spent Monday evening (after I worked for 6.5 hours at the CPL) moving all of our belongings into my parents spare bedroom, new basement addition, and one of the stalls of the garage...it's seriously an amazing site to see all of our crap shoved into the garage and basement...(Thanks mom and dad for putting up with your daughter returning for two months at the age of 27! and bringing a roommate and all of her belongings with her.)
We are doing this to be pro-active and as a precaution. The river has not yet spilled on to th earts campus, but they evacuated all of t ebuildings around our apartment...theater, and art building west, and two of the main routes we'd take to access our road (Dubuque Street/Park Road bridge, and Rocky Shore Drive are closed)
Thanks to everyone for the concern...cas and i are stressed, looking for a new apartment, but also, making th emost of it...I'm keeping good spirits, as I consider that now we can have sleepovers with a projection screen for movie watching I suppose.
I"ll post pictures eventually when my memory stick decides to actually work in the card reader I have...or i have another posting option...
but thanks to those who helped us move out...we do indeed still owe you a round of drinks!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
update
Finished the class in Nazi and Stalinist Art at the U of Iowa...the paper kept me busy for a bit there.
Went to Denver for the ARLIS/NA annual meeting, which was alot of fun and a chance to see some fellow IU alums and other new and continuing friends.
Spring Break in Seattle rocked. Pete was a very lovely host for our week there, and it was good times. And I met Rick Steves!
Saw Eddie Izzard last weekend at the Chicago theater. That man is hysterical. It was well worth the money and effort to go.
Spent my "Bush Money" (i.e. Congress tax refund) on new glasses, because I left my other glasses in the hotel in Denver at ARLIS...
Helping move the public library into our renewed space, and yesterday I pulled my hamstring playing softball with the CPL team...it's better today, though I'm still in bed, which is why I actually have time to update this blog, at least a little.
Went to Denver for the ARLIS/NA annual meeting, which was alot of fun and a chance to see some fellow IU alums and other new and continuing friends.
Spring Break in Seattle rocked. Pete was a very lovely host for our week there, and it was good times. And I met Rick Steves!
Saw Eddie Izzard last weekend at the Chicago theater. That man is hysterical. It was well worth the money and effort to go.
Spent my "Bush Money" (i.e. Congress tax refund) on new glasses, because I left my other glasses in the hotel in Denver at ARLIS...
Helping move the public library into our renewed space, and yesterday I pulled my hamstring playing softball with the CPL team...it's better today, though I'm still in bed, which is why I actually have time to update this blog, at least a little.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
No title left behind except this one
Like most folks, I am ready for Spring, and I associate the month of March with this changing of the seasons, so lets go! Today showed true qualities of 50 degree weather and a nice thaw of the inches upon inches of snow here in Iowa City. The parking lot of my apartment remains, as I have described to a few folks, a lot like a disneyworld ride that seems to be on track, but you aren't quite sure it'll withstand the test of time and jostles you around alot. My poor shocks. I'm sure Bessie's gotten her fair share of the brunt of the parking lot's ill managed snow/ice removal. At least, now, she's parked across the street in the theater lot.
I haven't written in awhile because I"m suffering from another wonder of winter, that dreaded cold and flu season. Another good reason to wish for Spring thaw. Luckily in my case this second round (I was first sick for new years eve) is a cold...though weirdly I've spent the first three days of it alternating between a really hot neck (usually on me that translates into fever) and cold sweats..all which mostly meant lots and lots of goosebumps that dont want to go away. Today I've actually felt a bit better, and finally was able to tackle some household duties, including picking up all those tissues that didn't quite make it to the wastebasket in the last few days. I always hate having a whole day off from work or three for that matter, in which I do nothing but stay in bed. I feel so unproductive then. With this particular cold though, it's knocked me on my a** completely and even getting out of bed seems to take the energy right out of me. Anyways, enough about the complaining side.
Random Notes of Updates:
1. Janet Evanovich One for the Money - hilarious and finished. I've discovered audio books are my friends! Since I spend a good portion of my week driving in my car on various errands to and from work or to and from one job to another, I've actually been able to finish this book and Alexander McCall Smith's Finer Points of Sausage Dogs. Did I miss the gloriousness of audio books in high school where I could have been reading all those classics? Probably, but no time like the present to catch up...
2. Erik and I are going to Seattle for Spring Break to visit my friend pete (and mooch off him for a free place to stay for a week) Thanks to all of my friends who live cool places that I stay with...you guys rawk my world, especially on a three part time job budget :) :)
***Someday I hope to be able to repay the favor...any one heard about librarian prospects in the Bahamas? I was talking to my boss the other day and we both decided that cruise ships MUST have libraries where the patrons on the ship could check out materials, that way they don't have to haul books back and forth on planes, etc and who better to do collection development of trashy romance novels, or hard hitting exposes like me? Carnival...I'm telling I'm the right woman for the job. I don't get seasick, and we could have books insured on a "lost at sea" option, whereby if they accidentally go overboard, they could be replaced easily. I bet Amazon.com will ship to a number of ports like Nassau.
3. My brother's wedding in May. Erik and I will again be embarking on a plane flight for this one, out to California and the Palo Alto area. ;)
4. Earlier in May I'll be on a plane to Denver for ARLIS NA. yay for seeing and staying with fellow IU Art Librarianship kids! Love keeping those costs down. And for seeing other conference attendee friends and colleagues from last year. I will also be presenting this year (the first time at a conference...might as well make it the annual national one...so wish me luck...public speaking is not something I"m very good at --see previous posts heh) I'm helping with the Tech Kiosk, where members that know newer technologies (web 2.0 and the like) help teach other ARlis members how libraries can use the software in interesting ways. I'm doing facebook and rss readers. So if anybody has suggestions for inclusions in the discussion, don't hesitate to comment here or shoot me an email.
5. Alot of other weddings this summer! Actually Erik and I will only have 4 non-busy summer weekends left when the weddings and family reunions are over. :) Congrats to you all and I"m looking forward to them. Individual shout-outs etc will be closer to each wedding date!
6. Trying to spend less money on unnec. things. I've developed a very lovely bad habit of buying good movies when they are 10 dollars or less. Now that bluray appears to be winning the war, I'm sure they'll go down in price more, and I'll hold off for 5 dollars instead.
7. Erik's moving to Iowa City in August. With this comes squeezing in moving him out of Ames and into the IC area on some weekend...probably the weekend before my birthday, and of another of the weddings...hmm...
Allright that is all for now..there is rain outside (yay for not snow!) and I must get some rest, even posting has tired me out a bit.
I haven't written in awhile because I"m suffering from another wonder of winter, that dreaded cold and flu season. Another good reason to wish for Spring thaw. Luckily in my case this second round (I was first sick for new years eve) is a cold...though weirdly I've spent the first three days of it alternating between a really hot neck (usually on me that translates into fever) and cold sweats..all which mostly meant lots and lots of goosebumps that dont want to go away. Today I've actually felt a bit better, and finally was able to tackle some household duties, including picking up all those tissues that didn't quite make it to the wastebasket in the last few days. I always hate having a whole day off from work or three for that matter, in which I do nothing but stay in bed. I feel so unproductive then. With this particular cold though, it's knocked me on my a** completely and even getting out of bed seems to take the energy right out of me. Anyways, enough about the complaining side.
Random Notes of Updates:
1. Janet Evanovich One for the Money - hilarious and finished. I've discovered audio books are my friends! Since I spend a good portion of my week driving in my car on various errands to and from work or to and from one job to another, I've actually been able to finish this book and Alexander McCall Smith's Finer Points of Sausage Dogs. Did I miss the gloriousness of audio books in high school where I could have been reading all those classics? Probably, but no time like the present to catch up...
2. Erik and I are going to Seattle for Spring Break to visit my friend pete (and mooch off him for a free place to stay for a week) Thanks to all of my friends who live cool places that I stay with...you guys rawk my world, especially on a three part time job budget :) :)
***Someday I hope to be able to repay the favor...any one heard about librarian prospects in the Bahamas? I was talking to my boss the other day and we both decided that cruise ships MUST have libraries where the patrons on the ship could check out materials, that way they don't have to haul books back and forth on planes, etc and who better to do collection development of trashy romance novels, or hard hitting exposes like me? Carnival...I'm telling I'm the right woman for the job. I don't get seasick, and we could have books insured on a "lost at sea" option, whereby if they accidentally go overboard, they could be replaced easily. I bet Amazon.com will ship to a number of ports like Nassau.
3. My brother's wedding in May. Erik and I will again be embarking on a plane flight for this one, out to California and the Palo Alto area. ;)
4. Earlier in May I'll be on a plane to Denver for ARLIS NA. yay for seeing and staying with fellow IU Art Librarianship kids! Love keeping those costs down. And for seeing other conference attendee friends and colleagues from last year. I will also be presenting this year (the first time at a conference...might as well make it the annual national one...so wish me luck...public speaking is not something I"m very good at --see previous posts heh) I'm helping with the Tech Kiosk, where members that know newer technologies (web 2.0 and the like) help teach other ARlis members how libraries can use the software in interesting ways. I'm doing facebook and rss readers. So if anybody has suggestions for inclusions in the discussion, don't hesitate to comment here or shoot me an email.
5. Alot of other weddings this summer! Actually Erik and I will only have 4 non-busy summer weekends left when the weddings and family reunions are over. :) Congrats to you all and I"m looking forward to them. Individual shout-outs etc will be closer to each wedding date!
6. Trying to spend less money on unnec. things. I've developed a very lovely bad habit of buying good movies when they are 10 dollars or less. Now that bluray appears to be winning the war, I'm sure they'll go down in price more, and I'll hold off for 5 dollars instead.
7. Erik's moving to Iowa City in August. With this comes squeezing in moving him out of Ames and into the IC area on some weekend...probably the weekend before my birthday, and of another of the weddings...hmm...
Allright that is all for now..there is rain outside (yay for not snow!) and I must get some rest, even posting has tired me out a bit.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Broadway Baby I ain't
I awoke yesterday morning at 5:36am with a jolt. The kind of jolt that makes you sit upright, and if you were on a bottom bunk, would surely leave you a shinny goose-egg reminder. The cause of my awakening so much earlier than my 7:15am alarm clock, was a dream, or more aptly, being "stuck in a broadway nightmare" (to quote Willow from BtVS).
Lately I have been surrounding myself even more with people in the field of theatrics, and no I'm not talking about the "drama queen" within. A good portion of my friendships in high school and college involved theater majors. I am by no means a theater person myself though. My most apt description for myself is somewhere along the lines of "theater groupie" - only without the worship part. I know terminology, can work out blocking, can assess camera angles, and analyze director choices. I can tell you if a period piece has the right costumes and set design, and I can swap some of the best stories of stage antics with seasoned vets of the playwrights playground. (ask me about the vodka switched for prop water in Bye Bye Birdie)
However, I am in no shape to be an actress, musician, or in general, under those bright lights. The aforementioned dream, and its corresponding real life influences should prove just that.
Back in undergrad I used to have an anxiety/panic attack nightmare akin to many people who say they dream they've gone to class naked. In my version, I take an art history test where I know all of the images, but I have to formulate my comparison answers in the Russian language, and the questions are all in Italian. Two languages I don't speak/read/write in. Inevitably I scribble something illegeable to my dream-self and wake up frustrated and shaken.
In this new formulation of this same anxiety driven dreamscape, it began with me auditioning for a play. (This, in real life stems from the recent auditions of friends and roommate for City Circle Shorts - and in real life nothing would possess me to try out for a play unless it was upon penalty of death or a failing grade.)
I get the part. (In real life I'd go, "eekk" ) The part is to be the second of two detectives in a film noir stage piece. (Indeed in real life the roommate's role is in a film noir stage piece) I show up for the first day of reheresal and discover that everyone else already knows their lines. (in real life I helped roomie to learn hers) I am appalled to notice that the other female characters are all wearing really short skirts, and claim that these are the outfits we will be wearing on stage (roomie and i watched an episode of Gossip Girl - yay Kristen Bell - and the characters wear really short skirts) I tried to explain that my character, as the detective who investigates the death of the first detective and femme fatale, would wear pants, not a short skirt. obviously all that leaning over bodies and dusting for fingerprints couldn't take place in a skirt, and I asked if I could wear my gray power suit instead. (I actually do own a gray power suit) The director said no, and I threatened to quit. (There's a running joke among the theater folks about quiting, and how there is no quiting in theater...(ala League of their Own and crying) Anyways, I then overhear the director telling other cast members that I'm the $$$ behind the production and that is the only reason I'm in the show. (In real life this relates both to the roomie and the funding for the movie she's in, and also, ala Shakespeare in Love you must have a bit part for the money) Well, I inform the director that I've got no need to actually be in the show, I'm perfectly happy to be in the audience, and the director decides to expand my part instead, and I am now the "singing film noir second detective" Oh yes, he's added a musical number for me. (In real life I believe this part came from seeing a fantastic version of Little Shop of Horrors at Cornell college on Sunday, which always makes me wish I could sing solos and actually act without being terrified to do so) At this point, I open my mouth to object, and suddenly I'm singing some over-the-top ditty wrought with innuendo and discussion of DNA.
The End. Susan awakes up, and a little while later tells roommate about said dream, thus it gets journaled in the blog.
Lately I have been surrounding myself even more with people in the field of theatrics, and no I'm not talking about the "drama queen" within. A good portion of my friendships in high school and college involved theater majors. I am by no means a theater person myself though. My most apt description for myself is somewhere along the lines of "theater groupie" - only without the worship part. I know terminology, can work out blocking, can assess camera angles, and analyze director choices. I can tell you if a period piece has the right costumes and set design, and I can swap some of the best stories of stage antics with seasoned vets of the playwrights playground. (ask me about the vodka switched for prop water in Bye Bye Birdie)
However, I am in no shape to be an actress, musician, or in general, under those bright lights. The aforementioned dream, and its corresponding real life influences should prove just that.
Back in undergrad I used to have an anxiety/panic attack nightmare akin to many people who say they dream they've gone to class naked. In my version, I take an art history test where I know all of the images, but I have to formulate my comparison answers in the Russian language, and the questions are all in Italian. Two languages I don't speak/read/write in. Inevitably I scribble something illegeable to my dream-self and wake up frustrated and shaken.
In this new formulation of this same anxiety driven dreamscape, it began with me auditioning for a play. (This, in real life stems from the recent auditions of friends and roommate for City Circle Shorts - and in real life nothing would possess me to try out for a play unless it was upon penalty of death or a failing grade.)
I get the part. (In real life I'd go, "eekk" ) The part is to be the second of two detectives in a film noir stage piece. (Indeed in real life the roommate's role is in a film noir stage piece) I show up for the first day of reheresal and discover that everyone else already knows their lines. (in real life I helped roomie to learn hers) I am appalled to notice that the other female characters are all wearing really short skirts, and claim that these are the outfits we will be wearing on stage (roomie and i watched an episode of Gossip Girl - yay Kristen Bell - and the characters wear really short skirts) I tried to explain that my character, as the detective who investigates the death of the first detective and femme fatale, would wear pants, not a short skirt. obviously all that leaning over bodies and dusting for fingerprints couldn't take place in a skirt, and I asked if I could wear my gray power suit instead. (I actually do own a gray power suit) The director said no, and I threatened to quit. (There's a running joke among the theater folks about quiting, and how there is no quiting in theater...(ala League of their Own and crying) Anyways, I then overhear the director telling other cast members that I'm the $$$ behind the production and that is the only reason I'm in the show. (In real life this relates both to the roomie and the funding for the movie she's in, and also, ala Shakespeare in Love you must have a bit part for the money) Well, I inform the director that I've got no need to actually be in the show, I'm perfectly happy to be in the audience, and the director decides to expand my part instead, and I am now the "singing film noir second detective" Oh yes, he's added a musical number for me. (In real life I believe this part came from seeing a fantastic version of Little Shop of Horrors at Cornell college on Sunday, which always makes me wish I could sing solos and actually act without being terrified to do so) At this point, I open my mouth to object, and suddenly I'm singing some over-the-top ditty wrought with innuendo and discussion of DNA.
The End. Susan awakes up, and a little while later tells roommate about said dream, thus it gets journaled in the blog.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Snow: 4 Susan: 0
When I bought my Honda civic in 2004, I drove it nearly three weeks later to Indiana. Bessie, as she is affectionately named, did a nice job waiting patiently in my dorm room and apartment parking lots. I barely drove her while at school, because I could get a parking permit for oncampus ---something next to unheard of here at the U of Iowa, and because most of what I needed was centrally located pretty close to that dorm or apartment. I never had to venture too far into the town of Bloomington out of necessity, though I did often for discoveries and random oddities. Bessie handled the Indiana snow, what little there was that I drove through like a pro. However, now that I am back in Iowa, and the snow does not melt usually the same day it falls, Bessie has come up against some challenging issues.
Observe:
Snow 1 Susan 0: Coming home from work at the public library one night, during a not so fun blizard, Bessie could not make it up the hill on Rocky Shore Drive/Park Road. It wasn't really her fault, she's a front wheel drive baby, and the plows had not been out yet...luckily, I could simply turn around in a driveway, and stay with my roommate (who was housesitting at the bottom of said hill).
Snow 2 Susan 0: The next morning, Bessie made it up the hill just fine...the plows had been out, the road was sanded and all was good. Until, I got back to my own apartment. Between the snow from the night before, the lack of the apartment parking lot being cleared, AND the snow piled up in the entrance from the plows going by...there was more than a surmountable bit of snow blocking my way. Well, I did what any logical woman would do in this situation**, looked to the parking lot next door which belongs to the U of Iowa. (The theater building lot to be exact, which is free on the weekends...and this, was a Sunday) Well no such luck...it was early, about 8:30am and the U of I plow crews were just getting to the music building down the street.
I decided I could go it alone.
Because, really, I just needed to shovel out enough of the plowed up snow, and get up enough momentum and I should be able to glide into the parking lot - with some expected minor fishtailing. No such luck. After clearing the first foot of snow with the shovel off the parking lot entrance, and climbing back into the car, and making a nice turn from the road, coming from the left...poor sweet Bessie met her second icky winter weather issue.
She was stuck.
I shoveled out around the car, and still had no luck. Stuck at the entrance to my parking lot. No one else could get in around me...but no one else was up at that hour anyway. Lucky for me the very nice man who was plowing the sidewalks for the University of Iowa, (that I immediately sought out to help) was good enough to come over and attempt to help. He pushed the car from behind, and I pushed the gas. No luck...we tried reversing, and I happened to get stuck again, halfway out into the street, ergo blocking on coming traffic. A few minutes later the public safety officers arrived in thier patrol car...it took all three men pushing on my car to get me BACK out into the street, and I was no better off than before. I drove around the block a number of times, and the UI guy took pity on me, and cleared the rest of the opening to my parking lot for me. I was then able to get into a spot.
Snow 3 Susan 0
A few days ago, I had my third run in with the snow gods. I tried to back out of my parking space to make a doctors appointment. What do you know. Stuck again. This time the cause of the problem, a rut created by ice and snow and other people's tires before mine. Anyways, around 9pm that night, I was finally able to drive out of that spot..while my roommate and friend watched...(I had thought they'd have to push me out) So I ended up looking like an idiot. My other friend was nice enough to give me a ride earlier in the day to the appoitnment, so I at least didn't miss that.
Snow 4 Susan 0
Today marks my 4th frustrating annoying experience with this year's Iowa winter snow. I was dogsitting for friends in North Liberty, near the Coralville Res. Their driveway is almost a mile long and turns and twists a bit, but the only real hill part is right before the actual paved driveway itself, as the rest is gravel. Well, I had no trouble getting into the driveway this morning to let the dogs out and give 'em breakfast. The snow was coming down pretty hard, and by the time I tried to leave at 9:30, probably an inch or so had fallen on the already covered drive. Wouldn't ya know? Bessie couldn't make it up the little hill.
I went from a half gallon of gas to a quarter of a gallon of gas during my rounds of attempts. I shoveled out the whole length of the hill up to its crest. I put down sand and salt around my car and in front and behind it. I tried unsuccessfully 2 times before I called my dad, exasperated. "Why do you always call me when you get stuck?" He spoke gruffly. "Because you're a physics person, you know how these momentum things work" I told him. He suggested all the things I'd already done, but I did get the phone numbers I needed to call into work and tell them I might be late. (Yes I'm working on a Saturday...but it's not busy, so I"m blogging) Anyway, I called both the public library and the art library employees, and they are all very understanding...but I say, I may make it if I can get out. I really just need a good push or something. Then I called another friend who lives nearby, but she didnt' answer, so I called my roommate, and melted down a little. Yes, I had a very "girl emotional" moment, and lost it slightly. I was so frustrated, and I had somewhere to be. My roomie was pretty understanding as she always is, and offered to come and get me. I told her to stay away, since I didn't know if the rest of the roads had been plowed yet either, and I resigned myself to sit in the car for a bit, collect myself, go back inside and wait it out for awhile. (The owners of the house will be home before supertime, hopefully). But then, I saw a group of deer bounding around nearby, and they came over (probably to investigate the smell emainating from my tires) and started to literally sniff at my car. It wasn't exactly an easy moment to open the door, scare them away and retreat into the house. So I waited a bit longer, and watched them move about. They are actually quite pretty, and I wished I had been outside the car to get a picture of one of the deer sniffing at my headlights. Luckily the deer out by the Res are not quite as tame as those by my parents house, and when I hit the car horn, they all dashed back off into the cover of the trees.
I told my roomie on the phone: I want to commune with Nature, but apparently Nature is telling me to shut the hell up. And when I hit the horn, I yelled scatter into the phone because it's an inside joke with a few friends, including Cas. She started laughing, and so did I, which made me take a breath and stop the flow of meltdown in progress, and I told her "wait, listen to how this sounds" and I made the final attempt up the hill.
Apparently enough of the salt/snow/sand mix worked, and Bessie had enough energy again, or perhaps she felt sorry for me after my outburst of tears, that she finally made it up the little hill.
So what I've learned from all this: My dad was right to have me always carry a shovel, sand and salt in my trunk, as well as an emergency kit so that I can be prepared.
Help will sometimes arrive in the form of people, animals, or pity.
And sometimes, you're just going to get stuck.
**logical woman really only refers to what I suggest might be logical, and this is my disclaimer that what I did/do remains not quite logical to some.
Observe:
Snow 1 Susan 0: Coming home from work at the public library one night, during a not so fun blizard, Bessie could not make it up the hill on Rocky Shore Drive/Park Road. It wasn't really her fault, she's a front wheel drive baby, and the plows had not been out yet...luckily, I could simply turn around in a driveway, and stay with my roommate (who was housesitting at the bottom of said hill).
Snow 2 Susan 0: The next morning, Bessie made it up the hill just fine...the plows had been out, the road was sanded and all was good. Until, I got back to my own apartment. Between the snow from the night before, the lack of the apartment parking lot being cleared, AND the snow piled up in the entrance from the plows going by...there was more than a surmountable bit of snow blocking my way. Well, I did what any logical woman would do in this situation**, looked to the parking lot next door which belongs to the U of Iowa. (The theater building lot to be exact, which is free on the weekends...and this, was a Sunday) Well no such luck...it was early, about 8:30am and the U of I plow crews were just getting to the music building down the street.
I decided I could go it alone.
Because, really, I just needed to shovel out enough of the plowed up snow, and get up enough momentum and I should be able to glide into the parking lot - with some expected minor fishtailing. No such luck. After clearing the first foot of snow with the shovel off the parking lot entrance, and climbing back into the car, and making a nice turn from the road, coming from the left...poor sweet Bessie met her second icky winter weather issue.
She was stuck.
I shoveled out around the car, and still had no luck. Stuck at the entrance to my parking lot. No one else could get in around me...but no one else was up at that hour anyway. Lucky for me the very nice man who was plowing the sidewalks for the University of Iowa, (that I immediately sought out to help) was good enough to come over and attempt to help. He pushed the car from behind, and I pushed the gas. No luck...we tried reversing, and I happened to get stuck again, halfway out into the street, ergo blocking on coming traffic. A few minutes later the public safety officers arrived in thier patrol car...it took all three men pushing on my car to get me BACK out into the street, and I was no better off than before. I drove around the block a number of times, and the UI guy took pity on me, and cleared the rest of the opening to my parking lot for me. I was then able to get into a spot.
Snow 3 Susan 0
A few days ago, I had my third run in with the snow gods. I tried to back out of my parking space to make a doctors appointment. What do you know. Stuck again. This time the cause of the problem, a rut created by ice and snow and other people's tires before mine. Anyways, around 9pm that night, I was finally able to drive out of that spot..while my roommate and friend watched...(I had thought they'd have to push me out) So I ended up looking like an idiot. My other friend was nice enough to give me a ride earlier in the day to the appoitnment, so I at least didn't miss that.
Snow 4 Susan 0
Today marks my 4th frustrating annoying experience with this year's Iowa winter snow. I was dogsitting for friends in North Liberty, near the Coralville Res. Their driveway is almost a mile long and turns and twists a bit, but the only real hill part is right before the actual paved driveway itself, as the rest is gravel. Well, I had no trouble getting into the driveway this morning to let the dogs out and give 'em breakfast. The snow was coming down pretty hard, and by the time I tried to leave at 9:30, probably an inch or so had fallen on the already covered drive. Wouldn't ya know? Bessie couldn't make it up the little hill.
I went from a half gallon of gas to a quarter of a gallon of gas during my rounds of attempts. I shoveled out the whole length of the hill up to its crest. I put down sand and salt around my car and in front and behind it. I tried unsuccessfully 2 times before I called my dad, exasperated. "Why do you always call me when you get stuck?" He spoke gruffly. "Because you're a physics person, you know how these momentum things work" I told him. He suggested all the things I'd already done, but I did get the phone numbers I needed to call into work and tell them I might be late. (Yes I'm working on a Saturday...but it's not busy, so I"m blogging) Anyway, I called both the public library and the art library employees, and they are all very understanding...but I say, I may make it if I can get out. I really just need a good push or something. Then I called another friend who lives nearby, but she didnt' answer, so I called my roommate, and melted down a little. Yes, I had a very "girl emotional" moment, and lost it slightly. I was so frustrated, and I had somewhere to be. My roomie was pretty understanding as she always is, and offered to come and get me. I told her to stay away, since I didn't know if the rest of the roads had been plowed yet either, and I resigned myself to sit in the car for a bit, collect myself, go back inside and wait it out for awhile. (The owners of the house will be home before supertime, hopefully). But then, I saw a group of deer bounding around nearby, and they came over (probably to investigate the smell emainating from my tires) and started to literally sniff at my car. It wasn't exactly an easy moment to open the door, scare them away and retreat into the house. So I waited a bit longer, and watched them move about. They are actually quite pretty, and I wished I had been outside the car to get a picture of one of the deer sniffing at my headlights. Luckily the deer out by the Res are not quite as tame as those by my parents house, and when I hit the car horn, they all dashed back off into the cover of the trees.
I told my roomie on the phone: I want to commune with Nature, but apparently Nature is telling me to shut the hell up. And when I hit the horn, I yelled scatter into the phone because it's an inside joke with a few friends, including Cas. She started laughing, and so did I, which made me take a breath and stop the flow of meltdown in progress, and I told her "wait, listen to how this sounds" and I made the final attempt up the hill.
Apparently enough of the salt/snow/sand mix worked, and Bessie had enough energy again, or perhaps she felt sorry for me after my outburst of tears, that she finally made it up the little hill.
So what I've learned from all this: My dad was right to have me always carry a shovel, sand and salt in my trunk, as well as an emergency kit so that I can be prepared.
Help will sometimes arrive in the form of people, animals, or pity.
And sometimes, you're just going to get stuck.
**logical woman really only refers to what I suggest might be logical, and this is my disclaimer that what I did/do remains not quite logical to some.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
An American in Paris #68 (AFI)
Cas and I also sat down to watch An American In Paris recently. I have to say, having been to the City of Light in 2001, it brought back some fond memories of getting lost in the city and stumbling upon the Paris Opera house. I believe the best scene in the movie is toward the end when Gene Kelly and Leslie Carron are dancing in a fountain, mind you it is not a real fountain, but a stage fountain which includes fabric water "sprays" that rise from the mouths of the figural beasts on the exterior circle of the fountain. They twirl and whirl and it is rather divine and romantic. I'm not much of a romantic sucker. I mean, I laughed when Rose finally let go of Jack's hand in Titanic as his corpse-cicle plunged to the depths. (This was of course after she's emphatically exclaimed, "I'll never let go!" about a million times...well okay, maybe only twice..but it just seemed to ironic for her to say that, and then literally let go, while maybe metahorpically still "holding on") Anyways, I digress.
American in Paris features the fancy footwork of Gene Kelly, and to be honest, he rather remarkably resembles a penguin in many movements. So much so, that when I think on it, and in fact mentioned to Cas that, I now understand where Dick Van Dyke got his inspiration for Mary Poppins. He was mimicing Gene Kelly mimicing penguins. (or at least that's my opinion)
Leslie Carron's performance shows that she's a classically trained dancer with a more modern dancer's build, which makes her endearing if not a little bit more believeable as the "woman they are all in love with"
Overall, it's entertaining, though I felt the dream sequence at the end runs a little too long.
American in Paris features the fancy footwork of Gene Kelly, and to be honest, he rather remarkably resembles a penguin in many movements. So much so, that when I think on it, and in fact mentioned to Cas that, I now understand where Dick Van Dyke got his inspiration for Mary Poppins. He was mimicing Gene Kelly mimicing penguins. (or at least that's my opinion)
Leslie Carron's performance shows that she's a classically trained dancer with a more modern dancer's build, which makes her endearing if not a little bit more believeable as the "woman they are all in love with"
Overall, it's entertaining, though I felt the dream sequence at the end runs a little too long.
Double Indemnity #38 AFI
Cas and I sat down last night to watch a movie that I'd rented from the CPL last week. Without remembering that it was on the AFI list, but thinking it looked good. I rented Double Indemnity. It's a fantastic noir genre piece that stars Fred MacMurry and Barbara Stanwyck. I highly recommend it to anyone who is or is not a noir buff. Having finished a paper on Edward Hopper's Nighthawks for my art history course last semester, I could see the influences of Hopper's paintings of isolation and shadow playing into the cinematography of Wilder's direction. Besides the great on screen chemistry of the leads, the film is a good old fashioned murder mystery with a well written script and a slew of Academy awards to its credit. Also, coincidently enough, Cas will be staring in a noir piece for City Circle's upcoming Valentine's weekend theater experience. I think she was definitly finding some character traits to play up while watching the film....
Additionally, we also watched two more films, A Perfect Murder (the Michael Douglas version/remake of the original Hitchcock film) which features another murder/attempted murder, insurance money clause plot. I told Cas she needed to see my favorite Audery Hepburn movie, Wait Until Dark, which is adapted for the screen by Hitchcock first, and originally the play Dial M for Murder.
It was a great night for good classic films and very enjoyable.
Additionally, we also watched two more films, A Perfect Murder (the Michael Douglas version/remake of the original Hitchcock film) which features another murder/attempted murder, insurance money clause plot. I told Cas she needed to see my favorite Audery Hepburn movie, Wait Until Dark, which is adapted for the screen by Hitchcock first, and originally the play Dial M for Murder.
It was a great night for good classic films and very enjoyable.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
caucus time
There is one very good reason for me to keep my permanent address as my parent's address in Coralville, rather than my apartment address in Iowa City. Round about this time of year, during an election, we get numerous calls to our home asking about caucusing and supporting various candidates. I am a registered Democrat for the reason of having experienced my first caucus at age 18, at the Kirkwood Elementry school gym, and I caucused for Al Gore that year. I am only a registered Democrat for lack of energy in changing my status back to Independant, which I generally more aptly fall in to. So, unfortunately my parents have been fielding these phonecalls and adverts for me for the last couple of months. The few times I have been home, I did receive a knock on the front door, and a woman from the Obama camp asked to speak to me. She asked me who I was voting for and why. But, before I could actually tell her my opinions, my mom told her her own. I found this pretty hilarious. I only had enough time to slip in that I am caucusing for Hillary (haven't decided who I'll "Vote" for yet..), and mostly because of her health insurance plan, and her understanding of international politics that far outweighs that of her fellow candidates.
I will say this though...being in Iowa this is one of the few times we get all this national and international attention, and this year, with the caucus moved up, I know many students at the U of I and ISU and UNI won't be doing the caucus, because they are at home for winter break. THat will be interesting to see, since Obama appears to have a huge following at the U of I campus (this is based only on the # of ppl marching for him in the homecoming parade that I witnessed)...
guess it's anyone's race right now....
I will say this though...being in Iowa this is one of the few times we get all this national and international attention, and this year, with the caucus moved up, I know many students at the U of I and ISU and UNI won't be doing the caucus, because they are at home for winter break. THat will be interesting to see, since Obama appears to have a huge following at the U of I campus (this is based only on the # of ppl marching for him in the homecoming parade that I witnessed)...
guess it's anyone's race right now....
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Aught Eight aught to...
While I haven't posted in awhile, I have thought about things I could write, and then just didn't get around to writing them here. So instead, a quick update and a new year's wish.
Finished the semester at UIowa with success in my one art history class, though I've found that high standards of excellence here, in the form of having to maintain a 3.5 gpa (which also counts for courses outside of the Art History program...see taking classes in translating French) means that I am also exploring other possible places to complete this degree (Hopefully my final one). I'm currently looking to programs that have a non-thesis track option, on the assumption that a non-thesis track program isn't trying to churn out professors after the M.A. projects, but instead recognizes that many people with an MA in art history do far more than go on to simply get a PHD. Case and point...me, art librarian, or many of my friends pursuing museum education and curatorial positions, or gallery jobs. So, alas, while I know that someone special is considering moving back to the area to be near me, I may fly the coup after one more year in the ole IC. He's well aware of this fact though, and we'll see how the whole "life" thing shakes out.
If I haven't already said congrats to the friends with recent additions (Ella Jane born December 18th) and those starting lives together (engaged, moving in together etc) well congrats to you all.
Life for me has been pretty nice lately. I could complain about the health related issues, but I hate it when I complain about them enough in person, so I'll spare you all the annoying details of migraines and headaches, and flu bugs, and now apparently a sinus infection. I think my primary reason for voting in this next election (and cacussing tomorrow night will be socialized healthcare for the U.S.) While I have insurance through one of the three jobs, it does not do nearly enough to cover the problems, and because of some past issues, I'm high-risk, so I can't get insurance through independent means. Luckily I have fantastic parents, who are understanding of my needs and have been kind enough to literally fit the bill for a number of things lately. I'm trying really hard to support myself, but unfortunately without a full time position that has health benefits, I'm sort of stuck in a limbo mode.
My roommate is a fantastic example of someone who has a dream of the job she'd like, and is working against the odds to get there. However, she, like me, has to have more than one job to support not only her day to day expenses but also that dream job. So goes the way of most of us in the humanities before we become big shots or big stars in our fields huh?
I do hope that everyone has a very happy and healthy start to Aught Eight, and that you will be able to reach those dreams and realize the potential you recognize in yourself and others.
Finished the semester at UIowa with success in my one art history class, though I've found that high standards of excellence here, in the form of having to maintain a 3.5 gpa (which also counts for courses outside of the Art History program...see taking classes in translating French) means that I am also exploring other possible places to complete this degree (Hopefully my final one). I'm currently looking to programs that have a non-thesis track option, on the assumption that a non-thesis track program isn't trying to churn out professors after the M.A. projects, but instead recognizes that many people with an MA in art history do far more than go on to simply get a PHD. Case and point...me, art librarian, or many of my friends pursuing museum education and curatorial positions, or gallery jobs. So, alas, while I know that someone special is considering moving back to the area to be near me, I may fly the coup after one more year in the ole IC. He's well aware of this fact though, and we'll see how the whole "life" thing shakes out.
If I haven't already said congrats to the friends with recent additions (Ella Jane born December 18th) and those starting lives together (engaged, moving in together etc) well congrats to you all.
Life for me has been pretty nice lately. I could complain about the health related issues, but I hate it when I complain about them enough in person, so I'll spare you all the annoying details of migraines and headaches, and flu bugs, and now apparently a sinus infection. I think my primary reason for voting in this next election (and cacussing tomorrow night will be socialized healthcare for the U.S.) While I have insurance through one of the three jobs, it does not do nearly enough to cover the problems, and because of some past issues, I'm high-risk, so I can't get insurance through independent means. Luckily I have fantastic parents, who are understanding of my needs and have been kind enough to literally fit the bill for a number of things lately. I'm trying really hard to support myself, but unfortunately without a full time position that has health benefits, I'm sort of stuck in a limbo mode.
My roommate is a fantastic example of someone who has a dream of the job she'd like, and is working against the odds to get there. However, she, like me, has to have more than one job to support not only her day to day expenses but also that dream job. So goes the way of most of us in the humanities before we become big shots or big stars in our fields huh?
I do hope that everyone has a very happy and healthy start to Aught Eight, and that you will be able to reach those dreams and realize the potential you recognize in yourself and others.
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