Friday, January 12, 2007

Do Look Down






Scenic Roadside Lookout in Norway
by Todd Saunders Sivilarkitekt

art school dropout

I got a horrible letter from my school in yesterdays snail-mail. It seems that despite the two unexpected (and probably undeserved) B-minuses I got last semester, my GPA is still just a hair below the cut-off point for federal financial aid eligibility. The gubment don't wanna give no money to a shitty student. So, either I come up with several thousands of dollars of my own money or I accept the fact that school just isn't my thing. The latter is less expensive and makes sense to me at this point. For the second time in three years, I'm an art school dropout!

+ I may go to the art store and buy some supplies for making linocut prints. I've never done any sort of printmaking, so this'll be a learning experience. I always wanted to learn screenprinting, so I may sign up for a printmaking class at the community college this spring. $11/unit is much nicer to wallet than $550/unit.

+ (Netflix Movie Review #1) Talladega Nights was funny, but not so funny that it makes me want to see it again. And not so funny that I'll be quoting it for the next few weeks, like Anchorman (shit, I still quote Anchorman and it's been out how long now?). It might have something to do with me not understanding the appeal of fast cars going 'round and 'round a track 200 to 500 times. Nascar bores me. (NFMR #2) Beerfest is hilarious and is my second favorite Broken Lizard film, after Super Troopers.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

cheese is bad. cheese is good.

I just got back from the café around the corner, after a sudden pang for coffee (Why I needed a coffee at midnight, I don't know.) and maybe something to eat. When I was standing in line, I could already taste the Veggie Cheese Lasagna, all hot and tasty. When I got to the register, I asked the guy if the vegetables were chunky or finely cut. He said he couldn't remember and went back to the kitchen to check. When he came back, he told me the carrots and broccoli (How do you spell broccoli?) were the biggest chunks. But even before he returned from the kitchen, I had already changed my mind and was craving a Quesadilla with Chips & Salsa. Only then did he finally say, "Well, actually, other than stuff we can microwave, like the burritos, we can only make nachos. The kitchen is closed." The place stays open until 1am, yet they close the damn kitchen at 11! So, I got a mocha and a banana muffin and came home. I didn't need all that cheese anyway.

+ It's so cold outside, I was freezing despite wearing a knit scarf and knit sweater. The wind was going right through me. And I need to buy gloves. Brr!

+ Netflix sent me The Machinest. I saw a behind-the-scenes interview with Christian Bale and he said that he starved himself to get as grotesquely thin as he was in the movie. Talk about "method". He said he didn't eat for weeks. I know, logically, that's a bad thing to do, but for a second there I thought, "Damn! I should do that shit!" Not more than an hour later, I was in the Taco Bell drive-thru. I have no self-control!

+ Netflix also sent me Sketches of Frank Gehry. Being the big architecture-ist and design aficionado that I am, I can't wait to watch this quasi-documentary. Quasi, only because Sydney Pollack chose to produce the film in a non-traditional manner (If that makes any sense).

+ L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme. I wear it and I love it, but nobody else seems to notice it. Before you buy a cologne, you imagine yourself walking into a room and hearing someone say, "Oooh! Who smells so good?" and then you say, "Oh, it could be me", while you feign a certain amount of modesty. At least, that's what goes through my mind anyway. And I haven't heard a word from anyone! So, either they can't smell it and I need to spray on more OR they can smell it and don't want to offend me. I don't want to go back to wearing Polo Black (Or do I?). That was a disappointing purchase.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

[ the art ( walk ] of shame )

I must preface this with telling you that I am drunk and drunk posts are always fun to look back upon the following day, right? So, it was "Second Saturday" in Sacramento tonight. "Second Saturday" is exactly what it is, the second Saturday of every month, most galleries in the downtown/midtown area of Sacramento stay open late and have live music and free wine and food. So tons of people come down and it gets really crowded in certain galleries. So, my friends and I went out, but first I went out on my own because they weren't meeting up at their house until 8 and I started at 7, because there was a certain gallery that I wanted to see, because there was a band that was playing at that particular gallery, but I had to leave in order to meet up with my friends at their house. We ended up not going back and I missed the band I wanted to see, but we went to a few other galleries that I hadn't even known about but had really great stuff showing. And it's not even close to midnight yet and we stopped at a couple of places that serve alcohol and now I'm drunk a little, but not a lot. We also stopped at cool little store that I'd always wanted to go to, because it has awesome locally designed clothes and accessories and music and things. I went in earlier when I was walking around on my own, but I didn't realizee they had gloves, which I had been looking for earlier at Target and Old Navy. Do you know that those stores don't sell gloves or don't have them in stock anymore?! It's the middle of winter and they don't have any gloves! That's like it being in the middle of the rainy season and not having anymore umbrellas! What's up with that? So, I found some gloves there when I went back because I saw that they have Vice Magazine in their glass case and I asked if they were for sale, even though I know Vice is free and the girl that owns the place said that they are free with a $5 purchase, so I bought a CD that I'd always wanted and I knew they carried which was $10. So I got the magazines I wanted only after I got the CD that I wanted but didn't know I was gonna get until I wanted the magazines. But only after I bought the CD did I realize to ask the girl if they had gloves and she said they did and they were on the table right behind me and I looked at them but they didn't look big enough to fit me. She said they were one size fits all and I should see if they might fit and they did, so I got some. They were only $7. So I ended up spending money when I didn't want to spend any money tonight because I'm really strapped this month. But then later we went found a bar/lounge that had a showing of one of our friends photos and I ended up buying a double shot of Maker's Mark which was a mistake only because it was over $13! And then we went to the bar that's around the corner from my house and my friend asked me if I wanted to go halvies on a pizza and since I hadn't eaten all day, I agreed to buy her a beer if she paid for the pizza, so that was another $8 plus tip. Shit I spent way more money than I should have, but I'm feeling pretty damn good right now so fuck it, right? Goodnight! Funny how I want to write so much more when I'm not sober. Also, I don't give a shit about sentence structure, however I hate incorrect spelling, so you won't find any of that here. I can even format the fucking tables that I use for each post! Goodnight again.

modern dancer

dreams of dancers last night. i was working at a coffeehouse again and we were auditioning dancers to work at the coffeehouse. i'm not s...