Just another wormhole...

Belvedere Castle, The Ramble, Shakespeare Garden, Beats Antique and Randomness...

2009-07-06T01:27:21Z

Being a Manhattan dweller for nearly a decade now (and a native NYer to boot), it's with shame that I admit that I have barely explored Central Park. In my defense, Central Park is enormous (843 acres or 6% of Manhattan's total acreage) and home to a variety of very unique structures and gems of nature.

A few years ago, I documented my first time exploring the Conservatory Garden in Central Park which is very close to where my apartment is. And, I only first went to the Central Park Zoo 3 years ago (unfortunately I did not document that, but I will eventually ;)). However, there is one structure I have been dying to see ever since I was very young. That would be Belvedere Castle.

I still find it amazing that there is an actual castle structure nestled deep within Central Park and that I have lived here for over 30 years and have never been even close to it (despite having been to the Great Lawn more times than I can count). What better day to remedy this than July 4th?

Belvedere Castle, in addition to being the exterior shots used of Sesame Street's Count von Count's home, is also the second highest vantage point in Central Park. It was built in the late 1800s and is quite stunning to view and explore.

Left to right: Approaching the castle, the castle entrance, looking up at one of the towers.

Left to right: View from the very top, cockatrice above the entrance, view from inside on the second level.

Getting to the top was a bit of a chore and slightly maddening. The actual staircases inside are true to castle form in that they are extremely narrow and there were absolutely no personnel to guide the massive amounts of people in any sort of order so while they could only really fit one person going up or down, people were still piling into the stairwells to go down as people were trying to go up. There was random cheering when people would make it all the way up or down. Kind of funny.

Left to right: Nothing really screams nature like taxidermied animals as ornamental display. This particular squirrel was on the ground level., For whatever reason there was a random zombie/skeleton hand popping out from behind some woodwork, A very Edgar Allen Poe Raven over a doorway.

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On the way up to Belvedere Castle, stumbled upon the absolutely beautiful Shakespeare Garden. The Garden was dedicated to Shakespeare in 1916, the 300th anniversary of his death. Following a Victorian tradition, only flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's plays and poetry were planted in the garden. It's very quiet (it has a Quiet Zone ordinance and so is not only very secluded but also extremely peaceful).

Left to right: All views from the Shakespeare Garden.

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Walking past the castle following the path down, came across Turtle Pond. It's home to an impressive amount of amphibians and turtles and where people can rent out rowboats by the hour.

Left to right: All views from the bridge overlooking Turtle Pond.

The path past Turtle Pond gave way to something called The Ramble. The Ramble is an interesting concept. It's a deceptively kept path that looks very unkempt to give the feel of walking through a wild woodland. Was a lot of fun to hang out on the rocks in The Ramble. Also a highly secluded spot.

Left to right: Ramble path, nice rock for sitting, wild flowers

What I love most about Central Park is that it's a sprawling feat of nature. There can be thousands of people in it at any given time and you will still be able to find totally secluded areas that take your breath away and make you feel as if you are not even in NYC. I have always laughed when people scoff at those of us who love urban living by saying 'But there is just not enough nature' when there is a massive 843 acres of park space right in the middle of Manhattan.

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And now we enter the random part of this entry. I tend to post to my Twitter a lot on the fly and I post some of my photos to Twitpic so some of these have been sitting around for a while waiting for me to make an entry to properly put them in.

Went to see Beats Antique at Coco 66 in Greenpoint a few weeks ago. It was an absolutely amazing show. The space was very small and the audience was mainly bellydancing fans of the group so at one point tons of people got up on stage to dance. Great experience. Also, somehow ended up not making it home until 6:30 in the morning which still is making me scratch my head ;).

Left to right: The lovely Zoe Jakes who is just incredible, party onstage, Zoe again.

And now for some randomness...

Left to right: Mural somewhere on the lower east side at some crazy hour of the morning on the way home, video game store stuck somewhere in the 1980s, a clever way to hide an air conditioning unit inside a mural.

Left to right: Two Boots sort of close to apartment, apparently meat eaters get The Dude from The Big Liebowski, but vegetarians get Bette Midler? (why?!)

I frequently go shopping for groceries in the wee hours of the morning because, really why not? The things you find though...

Left to right: Scary dwarf-ish and demented fisherman figure who is missing the majority of his teeth that freaks me out everytime, some crazy toy that was like a mix between a breast/tribble/alien/cow utter, a holder for Twinkies (is that really necessary?)

And I will leave you with this image...

Those root vegetables...oh my.

I'll Use Cartesian Dualism To Separate My Mind From My Body!...

2009-06-14T00:10:09Z

After completing the philosophy course I took last semester which involved far, far too much writing and teeth gnashing, I just found these comics (aptly linked from an antitheist debate about materialism vs. non-materialsm) and laughed so hard that I cried.

This.is.genius.

Brilliant.

All of these are done by Aaron Diaz. His site is here.

Francis Bacon, Roxy Paine, Upper Manhattan Meanderings

2009-06-01T23:34:34Z

In an effort to document things better and stop saying things months later like 'Remember that day? Wow, I wish I had a photos' or 'I wish I could look back and remember specific things visually again', I have decided to start doing little trip vignettes.

I seem to have had some inspiration and motivation back in 2006 when I made a few posts which are fun to look back on like:

South Street Seaport Museum and Ships

Random Metropolitan Museum of Art Meanderings

The Jaw Dropping AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion Exhibit

My recent trip journals (directly before this post) have inspired me to get a little bit more on the ball with NYC journaling. In the summer, S and I do so much walking and exploring in NYC that it would be tragic to not document it all even just a little bit. I have an intense love affair with NYC that doesn't seem to die out.

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This past weekend we decided to go check out the Francis Bacon exhibit at the Met (more about him later). As much guff as I hear/read about the uptown NYC area (we live on the border of Spanish Harlem and Yorkville) because it is apparently not 'cool' to live up in this 'hood, I have to say I fall more in love with it year after year. It's in walking distance of Central Park, Museum mile and a staggering variety of places to eat (which are not, contrary to popular belief, expensive...just have to know where to look). Yeah, we spend a crazy amount of time downtown (hell, even my school is all the way down by City Hall) but I can't complain about this area. It kind of rocks. All the haters who think this area sucks don't know what they are talking about ;).

Walked up to Madison and 97th to look for a place to get some breakfast grub. Found a new bagel place which was cute (as if this area needed anymore bagel places hah):

In the back outside area it had a green picket fence and a nice view of barbed wire and apartment buildings:

These are not from the same bagel place but from the one we go to normally which is across the street. Pastries with happy faces must be posted:

We made our way up 5th Avenue by Central Park to the Museum. It's a gorgeous walk:

I don't know if you know this but apparently Central Park tastes like chipwiches, hot dogs and various other fried things. Was news to me:

Went straight into the Francis Bacon exhibit which wasn't very crowded, probably because we went later in the day. Usually the newer exhibits are painfully crowded and it takes away from the experience.

Highlights were listening to the over 70 crowd either gasp in horror at the content or try very hard to explain what they were looking at to their other over 70 years of age friends ;).

The exhibit was/is really stunning. Highly recommend it.

Went next to the The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion which was pretty cool to walk through. No photos because no photos are ever allowed in the Met special exhibits and I couldn't find any using my Google skills that would do it justice. Sad.

Got lost which happens every.single.time I go to the Met (and I have been going there since I was very young) because I have zero sense of direction and the Met is like an enormous labyrinth. In the process of being lost, we saw a sign that there was an exhibit on the roof which gave the perfect excuse to check out the roof and see something else new.

The roof of the Met is really extraordinary for many reasons:

1) It has insane views of Manhattan that are swoon-worthy
2) It usually has some really crazy exhibits which look great juxtapositioned against the views.

The current exhibit is Roxy Paine on the roof: Maelstrom which is "one of the artist’s Dendroids based on systems such as vascular networks, tree roots, industrial piping, and fungal mycelia. Set against Central Park and its architectural backdrop, the installation explores the interplay between the natural world and the built environment amid nature’s inherently chaotic processes." (<--yoinked from the Met site's explanation). It's really spectacular.

Remember what I wrote about the views from the roof? :

We then made our way out of the museum so we could rest our feet in Central Park for a bit:

They couldn't figure out a direction to go in:

We started to make our way up 5th to cut across in the mid-70s to make our way back towards 1st and 2nd avenues:

So many of the buildings in that area are incredible:

Past Lexington, nearing 2nd Avenue:

Got some dinner and passed what is quite possibly the most cluttered store in upper Manhattan near our apartment:

The end. :)

Montreal - Festival Kinetik - Trip Photo Journal.

2009-05-21T05:12:35Z

In keeping with my desire to keep trip journals which I started to do with my last trip to Philly, here is my extensive Montreal trip journal.

There are many, many photos. Be warned ;).

We arrived mid-Thursday afternoon to a very, very rainy/windy Montreal. It was pouring rain and our cab driver was gruff and completely misread our hotel address and took us to the wrong part of town.We eventually made it to the Le Cantlie Suites Hotel in one piece albeit drenched and exhausted.

Didn't really know what to expect because we waited till last minute to book our actual flight/hotel reservations gambling on the rates plummeting due to the global recession and faltering hotel industry worldwide. So, the deal we got was obscenely cheap and I think we half expected the hotel to be crappy and dirty but boy, were we wrong...

Left to right: Hotel facade, View from room showing the bad weather we arrived in, Our ridiculously off-the-hook room.

For whatever reason, they gave us a room with two enormous queen size beds which was amusing. The room was huge. These photos don't do it much justice but for what we paid, it felt like we won the lottery or something.

After getting into the room, we thought there was a closet near one of the beds...

Is it a closet?

It was actually an in-room kitchen with a microwave, full refrigerator/freezer, coffee-maker, full stove/range, tea kettle and silverware/plates/glasses. Hah.

Took some photos right after we arrived to try to actually see what color my hair was in natural light since the room was drenched in light (of course, it was stormy outside but hey, light is light). Was so exhausted here and without any makeup whatsoever.

That first day, we took a walk around to look for a pharmacy and a place to eat since we were famished. Our hotel was across from one of the many universities in Montreal, McGill University which has really pretty grounds and a gorgeous surrounding area.

McGill campus area.

Anecdote related to our long search for pharmacy needs: S needed a contact case and we spent something like 10 minutes in the Jean Contu pharmacy looking for it amongst the eye-care stuff. Couldn't find one anywhere and subsequently gave up. Ended up by the hotel and saw an eye-glass/optometrist shop, walked in, asked where to find a contact case and they just handed us a case and waved us away. Hello Canada. I love you.

Anyway, saw some more quirky things nearby...

Left to right: Robocop and Bogart?, The mailboxes in Montreal are so cute, A yogurt shack randomly in the middle of a block near McGill.

Our hotel was located in Centre-Ville (Midtown) which was very much like NYC's midtown in that it has primarily hotels, expensive shopping, a smattering of museums and little else.

Ended up finding a really great cafe near our hotel called Cafe Imagination. We seriously ate there 3 days in a row for breakfast it was that good. 4 page coffee menu and a huge array of things to eat. Semi-overwhelming. Most of the wait staff were McGill students who spoke English so I got to rest my terrible command of the French language pre-coffee at the very least ;).

Left to right: Cafe Imagination, President Kennedy Boulevard (huh?)

Montreal is one of the few cities that has an extensive Underground City. It is the largest Underground City in the entire world. Montreal is even known as 'Two Cities In One' because of it. We actually stumbled upon it the first day we were there when we were looking for a pharmacy.

It's really quite something. It's all connected to the Montreal Metro and is super clean and feels like a never-ending mall. You can literally go under most of Centre-ville to travel if the weather sucks and I assume it was created since Montreal deals with some rather extreme weather suckage. There is something like 120 exterior access points to the Underground City and many places to eat can be found there as well.

Photos: These photos of part of the Underground City do NOT do it justice but it's all I got! I wish every city had an extensive Underground City to get around in.

About the sucky Montreal weather. The third day we were there we had every intention of checking out Old Montreal but it was freezing cold and pouring rain again. By pouring rain, I mean, it literally was raining sheets of rain for hours and hours without letting up.

We hopped from cafe to cafe drinking coffee, trying to figure out how to salvage our afternoon (there are a staggering amount of cafes in Montreal, hardly any Starbucks, mostly cute independent cafes which helped lighten the terrible weather cloud quite literally hanging over us).

On our way back to the hotel, we came across the McCord Museum which was almost entirely empty of people so the staff was more than happy to invite us in and have us look around :).

The really, really funny thing was most of the exhibits had to do with...bad weather which was quite ironic considering that the only reason we even ended up there was because of the weather.

Montage: Figure skating dresses from 1930s Montreal celebrity skaters, sleds, winter clothing of ages past, some silly old cookbooks.

There were an enormous amount of exhibits of old photos of particularly notorious bad weather spells in Montreal's history:

Montage: Bad weather photos and the entire top floor which we had to ourselves. It was actually an exhibit of photography of Spain but sort of cool since it was entirely empty and had comfy couches to relax on and talk out our caffeine buzzes.

Couldn't help but noticing over the course of the weekend that Montreal had some pretty kick ass street art:

Montage: Street Art.

Skipping ahead a day since I am going through the tourist-y Montreal photos first, the weather got even colder (around 30 degrees at night and a brisk, damp high 40s during the day) and even though we were super duper exhausted from the festival's previous night's fun we were determined to see Old Montreal. We got coffee-d up at our favorite cafe, ate a huge breakfast and started the mile walk to Old Montreal.

Montage : On the way to Old Montreal: Taxidermied dog being wheeled around?, Montreal's Chinatown.

Montage There are all sorts of cool fountains in Montreal, these are only 2 we saw. The colorful building apparently is the Montreal Congressional Building.

About Old Montreal: Wow! What an awesome place. Well worth the mile long walk in the freezing cold.

Used my butchered French to figure out how to get there (poor locals, at least they got a good laugh :P). Old Montreal dates back to the early 1600s. It reminded me very much of Paris. It's gorgeous. It was almost perfect that there were heavy storm clouds and the day was cold and grey because the photos came out fairly awesome with the dark cloud background.

Because the weather was so sucktastic, there also were not that many people milling around so many of the photos have a 28 Days Later look to them. I kept on saying to S that Old Montreal resembled Silent Hill by way of Thief 3. It's true and there's the proof that I have played way too many video games ;).

Montage: Various streets in Old Montreal. Yes, that white horse in the top row has a dyed pink streak of hair. Wtf? Awesome.

Montage: Top left in first row: Old Montreal Stock Exchange. Bottom row, middle: Yes, I had to document the horse poop because there was a LOT of it everywhere which we found odd since the horses here in NYC usually travel with a poop-bag and so there is hardly any poop to be found. Either these brazen Montreal horses were freely roaming around without poop-bags or someone was being super lazy with the clean-up. And there you have my Montreal horse-poop commentary.

Ok, so the reason we went to Montreal was for Festival Kinetik, a 4 day Electronic Music Festival (Industrial, EBM, IDM, Noise, Power-Noise, Experimental, Synth-pop) and man, I don't know if I can properly explain how freaking awesome it was. I mean I had high expectations and all those expectations were totally exceeded.

What vacation/music festival post would be complete without pre-going out photos? Also, I loved my socks 2 of the nights so here we go...

Montage: Socks, Silly bathroom photos (light was good dammit), actual photos of me semi-full length. Look, I actually have more than a head and shoulders ;).

We took the Montreal Metro every day of our vacation. Their metro is very clean and the stations are all uniquely designed by different architects. The station closest to us was the Peel Station and it was pretty cool looking so I had to document because I am a subway monkey here in NYC so I am always fascinated by other city's public transportation systems.

Montage: Montreal Metro Peel Station. Again with some of the empty 28 Days Later-esque photos. The escalator also inexplicably did not have inclined stairs and was fairly steep and odd to ride up when we got to the stop at Beaudry.

This was worth documenting. On the way to the festival venue we saw tons and tons of apartment buildings with these awesome looking spiral staircases on the outside. I actually looked it up and found this reason for it (on some history site):

Why do Montréal duplexes have their staircases on the outside?

This is a an architectural peculiarity, given the length of Montréal winters: it snows five months of the year, which means plenty of shovelling! There are nevertheless a number of reasons for the outside staircases, including lower heating costs. But it was above all to save space on the inside that Montréal duplexes and triplexes were endowed with these wonderfully varied wrought iron spiral staircases. A 19th-century law, in an attempt to secure some greenery for the city, stipulated that a green space be left in front of buildings. This left less room on the lot for the building itself. The solution of putting staircases on the outside took care of this problem by claiming as living space the area that would have been taken up by an indoor staircase.

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Kinetik!

Again, wow. Not only was the venue GORGEOUS and huge but the entire festival was run so smoothly and professionally. Also, it was packed. It was great to not only see artists I admire greatly but to see that there were a staggering amount of people into the same thing. Everyone was friendly, there were many hot people to gaze at and it felt like a breath of fresh air to be surrounded by such a great vibe for 4 days.

Living in NYC and being an industrial/noise/experimental music junkie, it's easy to feel dissuaded since the NYC 'scene' (<--using the word scene loosely here) is almost totally dead. Sure there are some nights here and there usually hosted by either Audiolust or Vampirefreaks who seem both interested in keeping the scene on some sort of life-support but the majority of dark music nights here are either totally old school goth (boring) or empty wastelands in bad venues (Asylum is really great and plays lots of risky, new electronic music that isn't always 'danceable' which is great but it's also in the basement of Pyramid which means that 1) few people attend because who the hell wants to be in a musty basement of a club and 2) their promoting is halted by where the venue is.

Don't get me wrong, I still find it interesting that the goth nights still exist (like Salvation) (see New Goth City to see the majority of bland, boring goth nights that play the same old crap repeatedly) but damn, what's a girl got to do to hear some new, exciting noise/experimental/industrial?

Being surrounded by this in NYC, one can feel that either 'everything is over' or 'dead' and opine about how everyone has 'moved on'. But seriously people, one only has to start opening their ears to the new and awesome sounds coming from Europe or here in various part of N. and S. America and look around at these musician's Myspaces to see that there are vibrant new electronic music scenes everywhere else and people over the age of 25, well into their 40s still doing awesome stuff and creating. (Ant-zen, Tympanik Audio to name a few collaborative efforts of exciting new artists).

So, going to this Festival was eye opening and energizing to be surrounded by all of this for 4 days. Screw this depressing NYC chatter of 'woe is me, there is nothing new anymore'. I saw hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the world, all contradicting this attitude and dozens of music acts that were exciting and doing some really cutting edge, great music.

Montage: Photos of the venue which don't do it the least bit of justice: Usine-C.

Montage: There was an outside area which had a BBQ tent (with veggie BBQ too!). Also, an awesome cafe area downstairs where we spent time resting our feet during breaks.

Montage: So, we saw a LOT of acts. I mean, a lot. I barely took photos of everything because I forgot I had the camera phone half the time/was dancing my ass off/was creaming my panties because of the sounds...you get the point. Top row: Mimetic, Terrorfakt (they used saws, sledge-hammers, drills, welding devices....amazing). Bottom row: Life Cried, Aesthetic Perfection (holy crap, he is so hot), Architect.

Montage: Noisex (in noise we trust and sex we do...), Das Ich

Notable things: Absolute highlights musically were Architect (god, the set was pure excellence), Noisex (bombastic, aural noise-sex...so hot), Winterkalte (these guys are unbelievable live). Noisex and Winterkalte were back to back and I think I danced/grinded so much that I didn't realize I was in so much pain until we left right after haha. Seriously, freaking incredible.

Das Ich played one of the best shows I have seen them play and the audience was wild. Icon of Coil was ok (Andy looks like he should be in a boy-band). Their keyboardist at one point looked straight at me and decided to stage dive right.on.top.of.me and failed and fell which was pretty funny.

Mimetic, Memmaker, Aesthetic Perfection all rocked. Project Pitchfork was ridiculously energetic. Life Cried put on a kick-ass performance which was amusing since we see Chris out all the time here in NYC and he is so mellow usually but on stage he is crazy ;).

Got to make a total and complete fool of myself in front of Daniel Myer (I am a HUGE Haujobb, Architect, Destroid...ok anything by Daniel Myer...fangirl). He was just walking around by himself, no one even really talking to him and I cornered him and told him what I thought about his music and he was quite amused haha.

Grendel did totally raw vocals on all their music which sucked. Left in the middle of the set after the drummer threw his drum stick into the audience and it clocked me directly on top of my head. What a sign.

The rest was either really good or just ok. I will spare the play by play details. I just really had such an amazing time. I spent crazy amounts of time twittering while I was there to note down things I didn't want to forget.

I will definitely, definitely, definitely be going to the next Festival Kinetik. Infact, I cannot wait!!! I am so happy there is something like this finally on this continent and not only does it exist but it's successful and done so well and is held in such a great city.

Here are some videos of note if you have read this far and still have a raised eyebrow about the festival: The first is a video of the 2 people who put on the festival every year (Kyo, the female, is so hot/cute :D) and their dog. Yes, they talk after the dog does (0:46 in) and it is shot at the venue so you can kind of see part of the hallway area:

This is one of Terrorfakt's songs performed at the festival. You have to see it to believe it lol. Around 0:30 in is where the rhythmic welding comes in :P. The comments about the shrapnel and smell of the stage are so dead on if you go to the actual Youtube link.

Oh! How can I forget this?!

Remember when I said that we got an obscene deal on our hotel/plane tickets? Well, the downside was that our plane fit about 15 people tops and was super small and absolutely horrific to fly in (I am already phobic about flying so you can just imagine my panic in a small plane that feels every.single.bump).

In any case, on the way back home, the flight attendant was this enormous rapper-esque guy who decided to go on a rap/rant about the choice of alcoholic beverages on the flight. Thankfully S had the presence of mind through the laughter to record half his rap/rant.

Bonus:

You can hear me laughing half way through hysterically ;):

http://www.houndbite.com/?houndbite=11101

And that about wraps it up for now.

Rest of photos at my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27324415@N00/

Are Violent Video Games Preparing Kids For The Apocalypse?

2009-03-01T01:03:35Z

They are taking over.

2009-01-09T21:53:52Z

I could not resist posting these. I have seen both on several different journals and both make me giggle incessantly.

Slinking around in doorways....

2008-12-30T22:04:12Z

Artist: Emma Hack.

Philadelphia in 36 hours in some detail with photos.

2008-11-04T02:18:43Z

S and I decided we needed a little weekend getaway a few months back and settled on Philadelphia since both of us had been to Philadelphia when we were really, really young and could not remember anything about it and it really is very close to NYC which was a plus since we didn't want to travel all that much.

We have a knack for incredibly silly timing (ok, so really it's me who has a knack for that and S tends to be the victim which thankfully he finds amusing hah) and our visit definitely didn't break that trend. The Phillies won the World series just days before we arrived. To celebrate, the entire city had a huge parade on the day we made our way to Philly.

It just so happened that the enormous parade they held was literally right on the street where our hotel was located.

This was pretty funny for a number of reasons not limited to:

1) We arrived right as the parade was ending and this meant that the 30th Street Station was crawling with sports fans trying to get home and lines for cabs wrapped around the station. Their public transportation system was completely overwhelmed.

2) Deciding to hike it to our hotel (not a bad walk actually, only 15-20 blocks maybe?) the streets were covered in garbage from the parade which made everything hilariously apocalyptic as we navigated through stacks of beer cans, paper debris and ticker tape.

3) The sports fans of Philly are rabid and were extremely enthusiastic on our walk to the hotel. We were high fived repeatedly and people would randomly walk up to us screaming 'Go Phillies!!!' and almost everyone was wearing the red World Series champion shirts which was even more surreal.

Did I mention that it was also Halloween? Do I know how to pick a date for a vacation or what?! :D

Our hotel was pretty awesome and located on the Avenue of the Arts very close to City Hall. This was the view from our room.

The first night we arrived to the parade mayhem and we hadn't eaten since early that morning so we were famished. We decided to try to find this vegetarian restaurant called Horizons which was near South Street. This was relatively close to the hotel so we walked and walked and walked. Between the now insanely drunk sports fans screaming through the streets, the trick or treaters and the people walking to costume parties it was all very funny. South Street is bohemian in areas and littered with mosaic building facades, tattoo parlors, wacky bars and artsy/crafty stores and I am kicking myself for not having taken any photos Friday night. We were both very hungry and slightly delirious and weirded out by the crazy atmosphere so much so that I even forgot to snap photos.

We finally got to Horizons and it was closed for the week which also seemed to surprise quite a few locals who also showed up in shock that it was closed. Having walked almost a mile there, we walked back towards the hotel and realized there was a super cool vegetarian place only 3, yes 3, blocks from the hotel called Govinda's. It was pretty awesome. They even had a veggie version of a cheesesteak sandwich. It's a pretty small space and the front looks a lot like a truck stop but the back area is gorgeous. We actually ended up back there after doing touristy things the next day:

We made our way back to the hotel through the mounds of parade debris watching Halloween revelers and sports fans screamed at each other from cars to people on the sidewalks. Ended up swimming for about an hour in a totally empty pool room which was rad because we had the entire pool and hot tub to ourselves. Very strange.

Ended up crashing shortly after that or rather trying to crash and not really succeeding. I keep describing the crazy fans but it's hard to explain just how crazy it was that night haha. Until about 4am, there were sirens blaring every 10 minutes, ambulances rushing around, fire trucks racing down the street. We were on the 24th floor and it was SO loud at one point that we couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Somewhere around 2 in the morning, street cleaners and garbage trucks also were on duty trying to clean up the enormous mess from the parade so if you can imagine all types of sirens, garbage trucks and throngs of Phillies fans STILL driving and walking around screaming at the tops of their lungs. :P

The next morning we set out to do 'touristy' things and started our day off at a diner on the way to the historic area. It was there that I learned about scrapple.

Here I am, looking about 15 years old, contemplating what I just read about scrapple on the phone after S looked it up and showed me the explanation because we were befuddled by the word.

What is scrapple? Apparently, it is hog offal, such as the head, heart, liver, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth. Once cooked, bones and fat are discarded, the meat is reserved, and (dry) cornmeal is boiled in the broth to make a mush. The meat, finely minced, is returned, and seasonings, typically sage, thyme, savory, and others are added. The mush is cast into loaves and allowed to cool thoroughly until gelled. It's found in Delaware, South Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

After our breakfast (devoid of scrapple), we headed towards Penn's Landing and came across this pizza place which made us laugh:

Penn's Landing was gorgeous and the weather was perfect (a balmy 70 degrees on November 1st!). We just sat for a few minutes and watched some people dressed as pirates sword fight on the 'haunted ship'.

There was also what looked like a navy gun ship on the other side of the Delaware River.

Philly has so many cute buildings with colonial style facades and tons and tons of very narrow side streets.

We got to Independence park and it was too late to get into the main hub of buildings but we did get to see quite a few cool sites.

Left to right: Carpenters' Hall, Congress Hall,Independence Hall (I think?)

Because Philly is home to so much American history, there is a lot of homage paid to many historical figures and lots of patriotic imagery incorporated into just about everything.

We also went past the US Mint but sadly it was closed on the weekends.

Walking around, we came across this awesome shop/gallery named BS shirts with really cool shirts and some great artwork on display. I talked with one of the main designers for a few minutes and it was a great vibe.

The poster on the far right cracked me up. These posters are ALL over the place in Philly and have different insane fundie messages. This was just one example. Some of them condemn drug users to burning in hell. We kept seeing them and thinking they were just band advertisements and then started reading them and realized what they actually were. Craziness.

The Betsy Ross house was fun. They had a tiny little exhibit showing off election memorabilia throughout the ages. No photos were allowed of that. The highlight definitely was the Jimmy Carter toilet paper though.

We walked back towards our hotel passing through Philly's chinatown and marveling at the various murals (all part of the extensive Mural Art's Program which is all sorts of awesome) and the art deco style buildings littering the skyline.

A building I still don't know but it looked cool, barbies gone wild in the window at the Trocadero and cool lighting at night on a random building on our walk to where we were headed as explained below.

Spent an inordinate amount of time gawking at City Hall.

We wanted badly to go inside the Masonic Temple (far left in photos above) across the street but they were having an event and there were no tours or visitors allowed. Go here to understand why I wanted to go inside. Instead, we walked through City Hall and gawked some more at the impressive architecture.

Went back to the hotel after eating at Govinda's to rest a little before going back out to Dracula's Ball which was coincidentally happening that evening at Shampoo Nightclub.

I am not sure we really had any expectations regarding this. I mean, I was psyched to see Medieval Babes and we both thought it was would be amusing since it was Halloween weekend. I can definitely say now that it exceeded all of our expectations and then some. By that I mean, it was an overwhelming array of 'holy crap, all these cliches exist in ONE place at once'. Haha.

I am not even sure how to go into detail about the event. I will try but it will be hard to sufficiently explain ;).

Getting ready to go.

Although we were tired from walking miles and miles between Friday and earlier that day, we decided to walk to Shampoo. This was an interesting experience. The area we walked through once we got past the City Hall area was definitely not one of the best areas of Philly. Very eye opening.

For some eye opening graphs comparing crime in NYC to the insane amount of crime in Philly, go here. o.0

In any case, got to Shampoo and we were greeted by a very, very long line to get in where we realized it was an 'all ages' event. I haven't been to one of those in eons so that was the first tip off that the night would be epic since there were literally people who looked 12 in line along with people in there in their 60s and everything in between.

I don't think I have ever in my life been in a club as HUGE as Shampoo. I mean, it was just enormous. There was a downstairs area which was gorgeous and decked out with couches and beautiful decorations which was strictly for the over 21 crowd. The upstairs area had a big dance floor with merchants on the sides, a bar guarded with security guards so the kiddies couldn't hang out near it and then 2 other huge rooms, one with a tent (?) where all the jail bait appeared to be hanging out (very, very odd).

The upstairs dance floor was a crazy mix of older people looking at whatever the merchants were selling, little kids grinding to the music (disturbing!), and people in their 20s and 30s looking hot and trying not to gawk at the little kids. There was pretty much every.single.goth.cliche. you could imagine. Vampires, vampire metal heads, ren-faire gawths, ren-faire gawths with fangs, people in bad Halloween costumes, people in amazing Halloween costumes, people decked out in medieval attire, people decked out in chain mail, totally normal guys with their gawth girlfriends looking totally bewildered, hot-topic kiddies looking all emo, people role playing pirates, people role playing pirates with fangs, I could go on but man, I am STILL trying to process it all ;).

When I say that there were way over 500 people there, I am not exaggerating. The funny thing is that most of the DJs were from NYC.

Much fun was had. Ended up walking most of the way back to the hotel until we found a taxi thankfully.

Next morning, got up rather early to check out but we had 7 hours to kill until our train was supposed to leave so we went on another hike for breakfast since it was Sunday and many, many places were closed on Sundays (wtf?). Ended up at The Contintental in Olde City. The Continental was a really...odd place. The prices were very NYC and it had this really extensive drink menu and acted like it was a really upscale place but looked like a crappy 1950's diner. The food was pretty good but we couldn't for the life of us make sense of the place. Olde City is probably one of my favorite areas of Philadelphia. I love the streets.

Having time to waste, we then went to get coffee and chai at Cafe Ole. Cafe Ole was great. Really, I wish I could move this place here. :)

We then hiked over to The Mutter Museum. I have wanted to go to The Mutter Museum for years.

Sadly, no photos of any kind were allowed and there was security everywhere but it was everything I expected and more. I can't recommend this museum enough. Amazing collection.

We then walked over to the 30th Street Station to wait for our train and head back to NYC. For the short time we were there, I feel like we saw so much and packed a lot in. Will definitely be going back at some point :).

Yeah!

2008-10-31T04:41:50Z

I think it speaks for itself.

;)

Autumn, how do I love thee???

2008-09-19T16:19:39Z

The weather today is so disgustingly perfect in every, single way.

It makes me want to jump in piles of leaves, wrap my hands around a hot cup of pumpkin coffee and shiver in my hoodie.

On that note, I am about to put on eccentric knee socks under my pants (and you can bet I will be wearing my hoodie) and skip to anatomy lab. Pumpkin coffee may be on the menu after lab while I am on break before my music class this evening. Oh...yes.

Right next to the Argon beer pong table...

2008-07-24T22:01:06Z

Each element sample is individually embedded inside a solid acrylic block.
And it's only $8,550! ;)
You can find it here.

Ow.

2008-06-29T16:22:07Z

I am still alive.

I am one week away from the end of a 5 week intensive Chemistry class that I needed to take now since it was a pre-req for another class I needed to take this fall. It's been a rollercoaster.

It meets 4 days a week for 4-5 hours a day. Mondays and Wednesdays are 4-5 hours of lecture, usually going over 2 whole chapters of information (which is a LOT to take in at once) and Tuesdays and Thursdays are 4-5 hours of lab. Somehow I have an A average so far since I have been kicking ass in lab (partially due to my 2 lab partners and how well we work together and are able to sit and talk out difficult problems until things click). I received a 100 on the big Nuclear Chem test which had my jaw on the floor since I was almost in tears studying for it and was convinced I was too stupid to continue the class. Go figure.

The class has just been so draining on so many levels. Since it is only 5 weeks long, we have a test every Monday and I usually am so strung out from stress on Monday mornings that the relief felt by turning in the test when I am done is massive. The concepts are very, very complex especially for someone like myself who hasn't looked at any sort of Chemistry since I had it in 9th grade which was 13 years ago! This next test tomorrow is on gas laws (using almost all Stoichiometry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoichiometric#Gas_stoichiometry) and it's sending me into minor panic mode. The really funny thing is all the math in Chemistry (and it's like 85% math!) usually uses Dimensional Analysis which is pretty cool. The issue really is remembering the conversion factors you need to use for any given problem and all the super vague, nonsensical rules and laws governing whatever you are working with.

I will be very happy after July 9th when I take the final and can breathe calmly again. I will still need to take Organic Chemistry but honestly after reading through information regarding O-Chem and seeing the topics I had to swallow in this Chem class, O-Chem almost (almost) looks more bearable.

Off to give my brain a rest.

Jackfruit

2008-05-29T19:49:05Z

Sylvania Lightbulb Commercial from Thailand

Best.commercial.ever.

Yum.

2008-02-16T01:07:14Z

Ekova - Sip Siie

Ekova

Amazing. Enough said.

**Have I mentioned how much I adore Last.fm? No? Ok. I adore Last.fm. I am here on there.

Full of awesome

2007-11-07T23:41:19Z

Twin Musical Tesla Coils Playing The Original Mario Bros. Theme Song

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI. The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software.

Link

Strindberg and Helium

2007-08-26T16:51:03Z

Strindberg and Helium

I have nothing but love for these guys.

I never wear hats though....maybe I should start?

2007-07-27T21:37:47Z

Hussein Chalayan Spring Summer 2007 Collection

Looking to the future to express how fashion changes throughout history, Hussein Chalayan created six mechanical dresses that would transform from one era to another, using embedded technology and smart wires, for his runway show at the Paris Fashion Week. The robotic dresses, which took six months to create with the help of the film special effects wizards of 2D3D, are not part of his new collection, but Hussein expressed that he wanted to collaborate with a technology company to make such transformations a reality.

The girl walked in and stood stock-still, dressed in a long, high-necked corseted Victorian gown. Then her clothes began to twitch, move, and reconfigure of their own accord. The mono-bosom top opened, the jacket retreated, the hemline started to rise, and—finally, amazingly—there she was, wearing a crystal-beaded flapper dress: a woman propelled through fashion history from 1895 to the twenties in the space of a minute. This was one of six incredible feats of technology and conceptual commentary at the heart of Hussein Chalayan's show. The others also moved through decades—one from the hourglass Dior New Look to the Paco Rabanne metal-link shift.

Hussein Chalayan closed his Spring/Summer 2007 collection with a dress of white shear fabric, that wound itself up into a hat, leaving the model wearing nothing but a heels and a smile. -ozoux.com

-Old news yes, but awesome. Whole show and review here. Hussein's site found here.

Proof that all kitties no matter what size love chin scratches

2007-07-03T17:58:14Z

The other day I came across a bunch of photos of this guy playing around with lionesses, lions and hyenas and I really thought they were photoshopped but it turns out that they aren't!!

His name is Kevin Richardson (no, not the Backstreet boy) and he is an animal behaviorist who works with lions and other wild animals without the use of force and he becomes members of their prides and they have all this trust in him, enough to even play with him, groom him and let him near their cubs.

I don't have words for his. You have to see it to understand how much my jaw dropped.

Lionesses begging him for piggyback rides (for real)

A lioness with cubs allowing him to love her new cubs (which is just INSANE)

Him swimming around with a lioness

Some more photos:

Original photo spread found here.

This is your brain. This is your brain on anime.

2007-05-28T00:46:46Z

Perhaps more than any other film maker working today Japan’s Satoshi Kon is an explorer of the subconscious mind. While Tokyo Godfathers stands as an exception to the rule Kon’s work is overwhelmingly concerned with questions of memory, perception and identity. It is territory that Kon works better than anyone else working today and he is in fine form with Paprika, which may very well be his finest work to date.

Adapted from a popular novel of the same name Paprika revolves around a group of experimental scientists who have developed a new psychiatric tool. Known as the DC Mini the device allows a treating doctor to enter directly into their patient’s dream, interacting with them to diagnose and treat any issues that the dream may suggest – a premise quite similar to that at play in The Cell. The project is in danger, however, with the three latest DC Mini devices, just completed and without the proper security protocols installed, stolen from their creator, the absent minded behemoth Dr. Tokita. With security measures removed the thieves can use these devices to force themselves into people’s minds, trapping them in bizarre visions of the criminals’ own choosing and – most disturbing – they are showing an increasing ability to do this even to waking minds. The most likely hope in fighting against this threat is Paprika, the alter ego of Dr. Chiba – the lead treating psychiatrist experimenting with the DC Mini and herself plagued by an extreme split personality quite possibly brought on by early experimentation with the DC Mini technology, though the actual cause of her condition is never made specific. Whatever her origins Paprika is fully at home in the world of dreams and able to easily manipulate the reality found there.

The film finds Kon mining his favorite and most fertile ground, the strange subconscious urges and desires that shape and manipulate our daily lives whether we are consciously aware of them or not. Nobody captures the shifting reality of dream life better than Kon, the peculiar logic that rules there, the unsettling way that dreams can turn from pleasant to terrifying seemingly without warning. The urges that boil beneath the surface are Kon’s playground. The director worked very similar territory to this in his recent television series Paranoia Agent – on which he collaborated with the same screenwriter as on Paprika – but while the show bogged down in abstraction in the middle episodes Kon here strikes a much better balance between ideas and entertainment. Those who want to dig into the meat of his ideas will find plenty of nourishment here but those who wish to skim across the surface and simply be entertained will also find much to love.

In the past – notably with Tokyo Godfathers – Kon’s films have been somewhat limited by his relatively small budgets and the correspondingly simple, even primitive, animation. Though Kon has a loyal and vocal critical following his critical successes have not generally translated into large commercial audiences as of yet and so he lacks the sorts of budgets that his peers – and sometime collaborators – Katsuhiro Otomo and Mamoru Oshii have been granted to explore their unique visions. But while earlier efforts may have been hampered by production values that couldn’t keep up with Otomo’s vision there is no such problem here. With animation produced by the respected Madhouse animation studio Kon here has visuals every bit as lush and detailed as his fertile imagination can produce. Animation buffs will also take note that while there may very well be a CG assist here and there this appears to be a dominantly hand drawn affair, a rarity these days.

Kon’s fascination with the mind coupled with his abundant willingness to challenge his audience – he is a director that flat out refuses to spoon feed easy answers – are his greatest strengths and also, ironically, the very factors that will likely always keep him out of the top tier of commercial animators. Along with the aforementioned Oshii and Otomo Kon is a director that transcends the standard limitations associated with anime, completely disinterested in the fan service and stock scenarios that drive otaku into a tizzy. But while he may never find mass acceptance with the cosplay crowd Kon is a true auteur and a fierce talent that deserves to be more widely discovered.

Review can be read here along with comments.

I highly recommend this! I haven't been this gaga over this type of fare since Akira and Ninja Scroll. I am very glad S dragged me to this at midnight last night after some fun adventures. Now playing at The Angelika.

Go up! Now down! Up again, yeah right there....

2007-05-07T17:04:52Z

Watch the 'demo' and read the accompanying text here:

An intimate way to play

Would be funnier if it wasn't based on a whole lot of truth....

2007-02-28T21:38:06Z

I knew it!

2007-02-16T16:20:27Z

;D

From here.

Tomorrowco

2007-01-10T21:32:57Z

I would say this pretty much sums up our health care system.

It's the eyes...

2006-12-13T12:41:16Z

The music also is squee-worthy ;)

You're a creature that breeds it's kind and dies...

2006-10-14T22:19:29Z

Wieslaw Walkuski

Polish poster art is delectable. Walkuski and Sadowski are my favorites.

Wiktor Sadowski

These are all the work of Wieslaw Walkuski....

Go here for a large collection of Walkuski posters.

---

Back to making music again (with S no less! who constantly surprises me).

Sonar Home Studio 4XL has been awesome and I dream frequently about Absynth 4 and Cameleon 5000 which we have been trying out. Mmm, synths and molding sounds. It has been years and it feels so good, sooo good to be back doing this.