Ember Vignette
Procrastination is a sinful virtue.
Last week was "fun". With a critique pending tuesday, I worked all of monday night to get the painting done. It was a big "fuck you" to the establishment, too. On one hand, UNM is draconic in its insistance that all painting is on canvas, with oil, or else it ain't art. Blasphemy! One girl in my Painting III class did some awesome stuff with watercolour. The response?
"Well... maybe if you glue it to piece of masonite, it look more like real painting."
Glue!? Seriously!? WTF!? My mouth was just twisted in horror when the professor prescribed such a crude solution to such a crestfallen young artist. I decided to show up the professor, taking a piece of sturdy watercolor paper and using a combination of the paper stretching and canvas stretching technique to create a surface that looked like a canvas, but was easy to draw and paint on! I went one step further, creating art out of something few people see as such: videogames. That's right; I painting a scenic landscape of Green Hill Zone. People who got the reference loved it, and for people that didn't... well, I made up some BS about the surreal nature of the image and the floating rings being a metaphor for unattainable wealth. Interestingly, one student who had also come in the night before noticed my blank "canvas". She mentioned to me after class that she was very surprised I could finish the whole thing in just one sitting, in one night.
I felt so accomplished that I had produced something moderately skillful in such a short time, using watercolours. I felt I had learned a lot. There was an Art Symposium going on in the Cellar Friday night, so I decided to enter. After consulting my "managers", Francesca and John (you ever notice how much those two hang out recently? :D), we figured Of Earth, Of Water, and Green Hill Zone would be the best choices. I was originally just going to submit all three finished elements, since Of Fire came out... ok. They argued that the strong greens and blues in water and earth complimented those of Green Hill Zone. The night of the actual showing was semi-formal. I wore an over-shirt, which is about the most "formal" I get. It was kind of nerve-wracking, since some people came in monkey suits and formal dresses. There were some great artists there, like on person who did some really beautiful glass sculpture and jewelry, or one guy who drew the most impressively rendered tiger I've seen in a LONG time. I loved talking to him; he was really quiet and reserved, but you could tell he had a fire in him. It's really ironic how a lot of people like that don't actually major in art, but do it on the side. Time came to announce the winners, decided by a crowd vote. Three Chinese students who did some strikingly unimpressive collage and vestigal paintings of flowers won. The guy who did the fucking epic tiger drawing? He barely placed fifth. What bullshit!? Even I voted for him. Unfortunately, those three kids confounded the vote by bringing every friend and family member they could to vote for them. I guess that's not really cheating, since I could have (and did) summon as much of Gamer's Club as I could. Still... it was kind of disheartening.
Whatever. Dae brought Robo Rally, a fun and kind of convoluted game that's basically BattleBots.
So... in case you somehow hadn't heard, Barack Obama was in Albuquerque yesterday. I missed my first opportunity to hear him speak when he was in the South Valley, orating in a local high school. I drove to Chimayo for my monthly visit, and a week later Obama was speaking in the plaza at Espanola. Finally, I get wind that he's going to be speaking on Johnson Field, almost literally right outside my dorm room window. I like a candidate who comes to visit me.
Anyways, the Cheetah and I ventured out to the rally two hours early. Big mistake! The line was, I kid you not, a mile long long! It took us half an hour to find the end of it, looping around the parking structure, passing the Ferris engineering hall, and back around all the way to the president's house. People continued to coalesce behind us, until the line extended all the way to the junction of Lomas and University! 25,000 people were expected to attend, but estimates put the real number at about 45,000. It certainly seemed like it! Everyone and their mother was in line, and along the way we encountered ari_foxy, as well as John, Kris, Francesca, and later the duo of Andrei and Maggie. We held the line for nearly an hour, and managed to move a whole 30 feet in that time.
...yeah... I don't think I'm going to stand waiting for thatcould get a new drivers license, especially since this one is about to expire, but what address am I supposed to put? My campus mailbox, where I am going to live for 3/5 of the year? Nitty...
After the Obama rally, we caught up with the gang to play Saturday night laser tag. I love laser tag, it's a fun excuse to exercise and be immature. At the Obama rally, Todd called. He was anxiously waiting for us to get back, and I idiotically muttered the words "Do you guys have enough guns? I mean, I have some more in my room, if you need them." Cheetah was amazed we didn't get tackled and interrogated for that slip of the tongue!
Unfortunately, we've been getting a lot of new members. I don't know where they come from, or who keeps inviting them, but it's been kind of hit or miss. Tom and Francesca were great additions, they're cool people. This week, we had a new member; my neighbor Donnie. Now, Donnie was a cool person at first. When I, John, and Kris were hanging out in my room trying to finish Sonic Adventure 2, he dropped in and we started talking videogames, anime, general nerd topics. At one point, he described us as akin to brethren in geek. Then... well, he started talking about his lunatic beliefs. Such as the idea that the stealth fighter, the Apollo missions, etc, all took their technology from angelic sources. He took heavy offense when I started talking about a Jesus-like creature on Spore, an evolution-sim game for the computer. The last straw was when I mentioned that I had a boyfriend, and then had to explain that I wasn't exactly straight. He almost literally turned heel and walked out then and there. Ever since, he doesn't pop in, talk to anyone near me, or even acknowledge me when I pass by or say hello.
Yeah... and for some reason, this guy was participating in laser tag last saturday. On the way to north campus, he took disgust that we would endorse a "baby killer", a "socialist", a "terrorist". He proceeded to stress the importance of Barack Hussein Obama's middle name, and call him both an athiest AND a Muslim at the same time! Feh. I could tell Cheetah wanted to shut him up with the traditional bitchslap he has become famous for: detailed, logical argument. His fists were balled and he was brooding, you could tell it was coming. We were all kind of glad he left before Cheetah ripped his throat out (and I wanted a piece too!). We helped Todd get home, and headed for our late-night snack over at Dennys. It was fun, until once again some fuckwits decided to ruin it. As we left the building, we were laughing and being merry. Some idiots out in the parking lot mistook it for us laughing at them, and tried to get us riled up. Tom rose to their picking, and we tried to get him to back down and just come home. Luckily we did. It was then that we realized someone was laying unconscious between two cars, with a number of people gathered around. As we drove off, I called 911. The guy probably needed help, and hey, maybe I saved someone's life.
It always seems as if it only takes one bad apple. How come a single good apple can't undo the barrel?
Last week was "fun". With a critique pending tuesday, I worked all of monday night to get the painting done. It was a big "fuck you" to the establishment, too. On one hand, UNM is draconic in its insistance that all painting is on canvas, with oil, or else it ain't art. Blasphemy! One girl in my Painting III class did some awesome stuff with watercolour. The response?
"Well... maybe if you glue it to piece of masonite, it look more like real painting."
Glue!? Seriously!? WTF!? My mouth was just twisted in horror when the professor prescribed such a crude solution to such a crestfallen young artist. I decided to show up the professor, taking a piece of sturdy watercolor paper and using a combination of the paper stretching and canvas stretching technique to create a surface that looked like a canvas, but was easy to draw and paint on! I went one step further, creating art out of something few people see as such: videogames. That's right; I painting a scenic landscape of Green Hill Zone. People who got the reference loved it, and for people that didn't... well, I made up some BS about the surreal nature of the image and the floating rings being a metaphor for unattainable wealth. Interestingly, one student who had also come in the night before noticed my blank "canvas". She mentioned to me after class that she was very surprised I could finish the whole thing in just one sitting, in one night.
I felt so accomplished that I had produced something moderately skillful in such a short time, using watercolours. I felt I had learned a lot. There was an Art Symposium going on in the Cellar Friday night, so I decided to enter. After consulting my "managers", Francesca and John (you ever notice how much those two hang out recently? :D), we figured Of Earth, Of Water, and Green Hill Zone would be the best choices. I was originally just going to submit all three finished elements, since Of Fire came out... ok. They argued that the strong greens and blues in water and earth complimented those of Green Hill Zone. The night of the actual showing was semi-formal. I wore an over-shirt, which is about the most "formal" I get. It was kind of nerve-wracking, since some people came in monkey suits and formal dresses. There were some great artists there, like on person who did some really beautiful glass sculpture and jewelry, or one guy who drew the most impressively rendered tiger I've seen in a LONG time. I loved talking to him; he was really quiet and reserved, but you could tell he had a fire in him. It's really ironic how a lot of people like that don't actually major in art, but do it on the side. Time came to announce the winners, decided by a crowd vote. Three Chinese students who did some strikingly unimpressive collage and vestigal paintings of flowers won. The guy who did the fucking epic tiger drawing? He barely placed fifth. What bullshit!? Even I voted for him. Unfortunately, those three kids confounded the vote by bringing every friend and family member they could to vote for them. I guess that's not really cheating, since I could have (and did) summon as much of Gamer's Club as I could. Still... it was kind of disheartening.
Whatever. Dae brought Robo Rally, a fun and kind of convoluted game that's basically BattleBots.
So... in case you somehow hadn't heard, Barack Obama was in Albuquerque yesterday. I missed my first opportunity to hear him speak when he was in the South Valley, orating in a local high school. I drove to Chimayo for my monthly visit, and a week later Obama was speaking in the plaza at Espanola. Finally, I get wind that he's going to be speaking on Johnson Field, almost literally right outside my dorm room window. I like a candidate who comes to visit me.
Anyways, the Cheetah and I ventured out to the rally two hours early. Big mistake! The line was, I kid you not, a mile long long! It took us half an hour to find the end of it, looping around the parking structure, passing the Ferris engineering hall, and back around all the way to the president's house. People continued to coalesce behind us, until the line extended all the way to the junction of Lomas and University! 25,000 people were expected to attend, but estimates put the real number at about 45,000. It certainly seemed like it! Everyone and their mother was in line, and along the way we encountered ari_foxy, as well as John, Kris, Francesca, and later the duo of Andrei and Maggie. We held the line for nearly an hour, and managed to move a whole 30 feet in that time.
...yeah... I don't think I'm going to stand waiting for thatcould get a new drivers license, especially since this one is about to expire, but what address am I supposed to put? My campus mailbox, where I am going to live for 3/5 of the year? Nitty...
After the Obama rally, we caught up with the gang to play Saturday night laser tag. I love laser tag, it's a fun excuse to exercise and be immature. At the Obama rally, Todd called. He was anxiously waiting for us to get back, and I idiotically muttered the words "Do you guys have enough guns? I mean, I have some more in my room, if you need them." Cheetah was amazed we didn't get tackled and interrogated for that slip of the tongue!
Unfortunately, we've been getting a lot of new members. I don't know where they come from, or who keeps inviting them, but it's been kind of hit or miss. Tom and Francesca were great additions, they're cool people. This week, we had a new member; my neighbor Donnie. Now, Donnie was a cool person at first. When I, John, and Kris were hanging out in my room trying to finish Sonic Adventure 2, he dropped in and we started talking videogames, anime, general nerd topics. At one point, he described us as akin to brethren in geek. Then... well, he started talking about his lunatic beliefs. Such as the idea that the stealth fighter, the Apollo missions, etc, all took their technology from angelic sources. He took heavy offense when I started talking about a Jesus-like creature on Spore, an evolution-sim game for the computer. The last straw was when I mentioned that I had a boyfriend, and then had to explain that I wasn't exactly straight. He almost literally turned heel and walked out then and there. Ever since, he doesn't pop in, talk to anyone near me, or even acknowledge me when I pass by or say hello.
Yeah... and for some reason, this guy was participating in laser tag last saturday. On the way to north campus, he took disgust that we would endorse a "baby killer", a "socialist", a "terrorist". He proceeded to stress the importance of Barack Hussein Obama's middle name, and call him both an athiest AND a Muslim at the same time! Feh. I could tell Cheetah wanted to shut him up with the traditional bitchslap he has become famous for: detailed, logical argument. His fists were balled and he was brooding, you could tell it was coming. We were all kind of glad he left before Cheetah ripped his throat out (and I wanted a piece too!). We helped Todd get home, and headed for our late-night snack over at Dennys. It was fun, until once again some fuckwits decided to ruin it. As we left the building, we were laughing and being merry. Some idiots out in the parking lot mistook it for us laughing at them, and tried to get us riled up. Tom rose to their picking, and we tried to get him to back down and just come home. Luckily we did. It was then that we realized someone was laying unconscious between two cars, with a number of people gathered around. As we drove off, I called 911. The guy probably needed help, and hey, maybe I saved someone's life.
It always seems as if it only takes one bad apple. How come a single good apple can't undo the barrel?