Saturday, July 31, 2010

I'm adding films to my list, since I still have 3 weeks and can fit in a lot more:

1.) Funny Face
2.) West Side Story
3.) the Royal Tenenbaums
4.) Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind
5.) A Clockwork Orange
6.) Schindler's List
7.) Network
8.) This is Spinal Tap
9.) Amelie
10.) Princess Mononoke
11.) Bottle Rocket
12.) Where the Wild Things Are



Experimenting with abstraction. I think the 2nd attempt is more successful.
I like this sign

Friday, July 16, 2010

1 week and 1 day until I'm visiting Walt Disney World

5 weeks and 1 day until I'm moving to Washington D. C.

re-arranged goals:

Clearly I'm not going to finish my AFI list. So here is my revised movie list:

1. Finding Nemo
2. Funny Face
3. Rushmore
4. Tootsie
5. West Side Story

Complete 2 paintings. Just two. This whole "continue painting and be a creative person" thing is harder than I anticipated.


My reading list is still floating up in the air.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

I found this book in a drawer at my desk. It claims it will change my life. I admit perusing it is interesting.

It's filled with tasks designed to spark soul searching. And perhaps I might gain insight and a certain mental freedom from societal norms if I completed them all.

But I'd rather admire the illustrations and just contemplate doing all the little things they prescribe to create a change of that magnitude.

The book mark I found inside does make an excellent point though.
Abraham, you look good in green.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Everything changes, even change.


The U.S. mint redesigned the tails side of the penny. Apparently this was announced awhile back and I missed it. Not that it's anything to cheer about. There is nothing better than looking at the image of the Lincoln Memorial on the penny and seeing the tiniest, faintest outline of Lincoln's statue.

Now he'll only appear on one side. Sigh.
An untitled installation piece by artist Tara Donovan. I can't stop staring.

Friday, July 9, 2010

This morning on the commute to work, the sky stretched out over the desert was a surprising purple color.

"Do you think it'll rain today?" I said to my Dad in the driver's seat. Rain is a scientific curiosity out here in Nevada. Even though I've seen hundreds of showers in other locations, whenever it rains in Las Vegas, fascination ensues.

"No. It'll just be a virga," said Dad.

"What?" I asked.

My dad explained that a virga is a streak of precipitation that falls from the clouds, but evaporates before ever hitting the ground. I haven't been this excited since meteorologists discovered a new type of cloud (the undulatus asperatus).

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Found objects

I found this guy stuck to one of the bathroom stalls at work. Normally the abundance of stickers on the stalls annoys me, but not him (or her, it kind of looks like a lady bear.) I would assume a child stuck it there, but I found it at the very top of the door, which is about five feet up. I think I might stick it somewhere else unexpected for a passerby to find.


I don't know if this counts as a found object. With determination someone coyly slid it inside a copy of When You Are Engulfed in Flames in a Las Vegas Barnes & Noble. It almost seems that the poem stumbled across me in the bargain books section, instead of the other way around. Unlike the sticker above, I don't think I'll ever pass it along. The poem hit me too hard (the way some poems often do) for me to let go. But I wish I had something equally stirring to leave in another book. I want to join the ranks and fight along side these guerilla operatives.

Quotes from John Oliver that are hilariously applicable to my personal views

"Soccer brings the world together in abject hatred. Nobody knows that better than me. I'm an Englishman. The worst of the worst."

"When I was young I dreamed of becoming a drunk and hostile lout."

"One things is clear. It doesn't matter if England had been knocked out of the World Cup, because there's one title that no one can take away from us. We arethe biggest scumbags the world has ever seen."