Smooth Talker

The REAL State Of The Union!

Pizza and Picasso

I had a long but rewarding day yesterday, as I traveled to Chicago as part of an Honors Student Organization activity. For twenty bucks I got a round trip bus ride, admission to the Art Institute of Chicago and the special Rembrandt exhibit, and dinner. The Rembrandt exhibit was truly amazing. Due to the small size of most of the pieces on display, the usual special-exhibit space was filled with about 200 works. It took me just over ninety minutes to make it through, although I think I was more meticulous than most. The final two galleries were fairly empty, as people grew tired and sped through to the end. Upon exiting I met up with a fellow member of the HSO film society, and we adventured out into Chicago for lunch. We decided on a restaurant called Giornano's, and had quite an adventure looking for the place. We encountered a lot of misleading signs, locked doors, and mysterious courtyards. We found the place though, and boy was it worth it. I think I had the second-best pizza of my life (after MC's 2002 St. Patrick's Day gastronomic delight); Les and I split a stuffed pizza with spinach and sausage. I ate my half with difficulty, and Les had leave one of his pieces behind, much to our mutual despair.

Back in the museum, we toured for a few more hours, taking in Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon in the Island of La Grande Jatte, a handful of Monets, some interesting pieces by Hedri de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa set in the Moulin Rouge, and some more modern art, most notably a substantial number of paintings by Tanguy Yves. When we met-up with our group, we drove over to Ed Debevic's for a quick dinner. The place was loud, and their intentionally rude waitresses were less funny that they could have been. I can't really judge the food, since we, as a group of 45, got a fixed meal dinner, with a choice of hamburger, cheeseburger, veggieburger, grilled cheese, or grilled chicken. I had the chicken, and it was a simple, but tasty sandwich. The bus ride back was long (since I didn't want to nap so late in the day), but I through about 50 pages of Art History reading. All in all, it was a well-spent day.

Leapin' Lizzards!

It's that day again.

Who Is John Galt?

I finished Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged this morning. It was a pretty good book, although rather preachy at times. I believe Ms. Rand had some good ideas, but failed to take into account a multitude of factors. Regardless of her shortcommings, I think that memebers of the Republican party would be wise to examine this work and see where they stand these days in comparison to the true conservative and advocate for freedom that is Ms. Rand. Atlas Shrugged is a very long book and at the same time both a "quick read" and a serious undertaking. I would recommend reading it should you have the time.

International Cinema

I watched City of God last night. It was extemely violent, but in a much different way than The Boodock Saints. It was very realistic; it was sad and scary and funny; it had wonderfully written characteres protrayed by talented actiors. Really an amazing movie. I give it 4 stars.

Midnight Movie

I just returned from a delightful film called The Boondock Saints. It's high level of violence is topped by its strong language, which is second only to the movie's humor. I give it 3.5 stars. Much to my surprise, they were serving up free popcorn and sodas with the film over at the Union. I tried a grape soda, which was not very good, but the terribly cluttered label amused me. If one simply read it in the standard left-to-right, top-to-bottom method, it would say this: "Beverage Gray's Company quality taste since 1856 Janesville, Wisconsin Great American Grape pure cane sugar 100% caffeine free Soda." I walked back from the film with my fellow ex-Rocker Brian Ziff-Levine and his charming girlfriend Leah. Now its time for bed.

Me Oh My, I Love Pi

I've been working on memorizing the first seventy-five digits of pi, just for fun. I'm up to fifty-four digits as of this posting. Maybe I'll do e next...
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628

Love! Baby!

Happy Valentine's Day to all you love birds out there. Happy V-Day to everyone.

Lights! Camera! Cut!

I watched the movie Barbershop last night and enjoyed it greatly. It was quite a large cast and somehow managed to make each character distinct without making each one a caricature. It had a proper balance of humor and sentiment that is found in only the best comedies. I'm not sure if I'll see Barbershop 2, but if I don't, it will be out of my desire to preserve my memory of the first as is. I give Barbershop 3.5 stars out of four.

Other films I've viewed since starting the semester have included Bad Boys (1.5 stars), Porky's (1.5 stars, for a single highly redeeming sceen), and Apocalypse Now Redux (4 stars).

End

Single again after almost nine months.

Spring 2004

I've just returned to the Langdon, after an exciting break with trips to the Caribbean and Scandinavia. I had a great time with my family on board the Grand Princess for a week as we sailed round trip from Port Everglades, just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. I managed to pick up a tan, which has apparently lasted some time, and people are commenting on it now. I was home for New Years Eve, along with the usual church group; a good time was had by all. I flew to Copenhagen, Denmark on the 5/6th of January, where Marget and her dad met me at the airport, and took me back to Dave's apartment in Lund. Both cities were terrific, and I'd love to go back.

Classes for the new semester:
Advanced Calculus [Real Analysis]
Art History: Renaissance through Modern
Masterpieces in Literature for Honors II
Fourth Semester Spanish
Engineering Mechanics: Statics

Since 1958

Happy forty-fifth, Dad!

WTF Mates

End of the world. Presented by Claire.

Ah-Ha!

Apparently, my DMB CDs were here the whole time, but got lost in the office like so many of my packages. Grrr. And Yay!

Gripe

Where is The Central Park Concert? I want my DMB!

Backstreet's Back

I find this notable not so much because of the message, but the unparalleled quality for a flash parody: I Want a Fat Babe. More stuff from the same guys can be found here.

Since 1953

Happy fiftieth, Mom!

There is no spoon.

I watched The Martix Revolutions on Sunday, and found the final third of the trilogy to be quite satisifying. The plot seemed to develop naturally, and at the end I felt that Revolutions was much like the scene in the Merovingian's restaurant: "What happened happened and could not have happened any other way." Were the sequels as strong as the original? Not quite, but in this case, I'm glad to have seen them anyway.

Breaking News

I just ate three caramel apples.

O.W.W.

I spent the bulk of today at Old World Wisconsin. It is an amazing historic attraction designed by my Landscape Architecture instuctor Professor William H. Tishler. A great field trip, and we got back just in time for the evening festivities (creative costumes for guys, revealing costumes for girls; drunkeness follows).