This Was A Good Day Until About Five Hours Ago
So: I went to Bloomington today, because I had hideously overdue library books, and I haven't been in, oh, forever. I was happy while I was there. Now I have returned, and it is in the past, and I am sad. That I may self-medicate, I will now show you a bunch of pictures of my town. Well, sort of.
A blurry shot of the rear entrance (through the parking lot) of where I lived when I lived in Bloomington. Technically my mail was delivered to another address, but I actually spent a shitton of time here. I figure when I go back, I can probably still live here; HPER is just a block or so away and there's food nearby. If I lived on the 11th floor, nobody would know.
So, after dumping my overdue books, I decided to park at the IMU and go to the art museum! Fun trufax: When my parents were undergrads, the art museum was like three rooms in the School of Fine Arts building. The current museum was built in the early '80s and there was a big stink about it because I.M. Pei won the contract and the old guard were concerned that his design wouldn't fit with the older buildings that flank it. I can't imagine the campus without it, though. My only complaint is that the interior stairs are also built on an angle and were apparently designed to give patrons vertigo and/or kill them.
Big red sculpture outside. I forget who sculpted this. Srry.
Look, you guys! Art museum! OMG MUSEUM.
Unfortunately, taking actual pictures of the art is an ordeal, so there are none, but you can visit the virtual collections online here. If you really want me to pontificate boringly, you can leave a comment going HEY LEE WHICH OF THESE ARE YOUR FAVORITES. They had some Joyceana out that I didn't recall seeing, and also some Blake prints that I hadn't seen before. Tragically, however, the Enchanted Slinky Forest is gone! It was a modern sculpture made of extended Slinkies wrapped with red thread, and it looked like an enchanted forest made of Slinkies. (I think its real name is Floor Slinky, and it may possibly be this piece, returned from a long-term loan.) It made me smile every time I saw it, though, and I shall miss it, because the odds of my getting to Chicago anytime soon are pretty long.
ALSO BITCHES DONE MOVED MY GENJI SCREENS. Not that tsam is not all very fascinating, but some of us enjoy the screens that illustrate Genji monogatari and dammit I miss them.
Then I took some other pictures while I was on campus.
Here's the Showalter Fountain, which features what one of my profs described as the ugliest Venus ever. There have been several urban legends surrounding this fountain, the most prevalent probably being that one of the dolphins was stolen in the '80s and until it returns we will never win another NCAA tourney again so forward this e-mail to everyone in the classics department 49 times or the dolphin will come to your house and pee on your bed when you are at the library or something.
But seriously, have you SEEN these dolphins? How the fuck would even several very determined students detach and move one? The building in the background is the theatre, by the way.
Here is a slightly different shot of the fountain. While I cannot confirm the NCAA rumors, I can confirm that at various points Tootsie Rolls, dish detergent, and Jell-O were insinuated into the water during the early to mid '70s, on account of my father used to do this kind of thing.
This is the Lilly Library, home of the University's rare book collection and also of almost the entire set of Iskra, which I started translating back when it was still kept at the regular library. This was a long time ago and it shows no signs of being done yet. Also, it is not true that one of the world's largest pr0n collections is kept at the Lilly. The pr0n is at the Kinsey Institute, and they don't just let you see it; you have to say why you want it. This has put a damper on my looking at pictures of gay samurai Legitimate Research Activities in the past.
This is part of Woodburn Hall (the Poli Sci building; also, a lot of arts and sciences classes meet here). Specifically, it is the part 'round the back where, back in the day, I used to go smoke and harangue Wareh.
Here is a shot of the Jordan River, which runs through campus. No, it's not low--that is, in my experience, about as high as it ever gets.
Here's another shot of the Jordan, a little closer to where I was standing.
This is Ballantine Hall, where classics majors go to die. A popular source of frustration is that a key (issued to faculty, staff, and grad students only) is needed to get the elevator to stop on the first 1-3 floors, which is where the classrooms are. The English department, located on the fourth floor, used to snipe about people getting off at the fourth floor and then taking the stairs to lower floors. I don't know what they thought blaming us for the problem was going to do.
So then I decided to get some lunch, and also Tuesday is Half-Price Bread Day at the Bakehouse. I eat there way too often, but what the hell. I got the lolmom a couple of loaves of bread, and then I got myself a sandwich.
pixelation and I have been having this ongoing conversation about BLTs and Pixel's inability to fetch her own sandwiches over the past couple of days. So I uploaded this just to taunt her. Also, yes, that IS some delicious toasted jalapeno-cheddar bread you see there. :D
Then I went to the used bookstore and actually stayed within my budget (sh0xx0rz!), and then got coffee for the trip south. At first leaving doesn't seem so bad, but once I get to the parts of town that have a Bloomington address but are technically outside the city limits, I start to feel a little sad, and by the time I've crossed the county line, the little voice in my head is going YOU'RE ONLY HALF AN HOUR OUT IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO TURN AROUND YOU KNOW.
So now I'm back. How are you?
A blurry shot of the rear entrance (through the parking lot) of where I lived when I lived in Bloomington. Technically my mail was delivered to another address, but I actually spent a shitton of time here. I figure when I go back, I can probably still live here; HPER is just a block or so away and there's food nearby. If I lived on the 11th floor, nobody would know.
So, after dumping my overdue books, I decided to park at the IMU and go to the art museum! Fun trufax: When my parents were undergrads, the art museum was like three rooms in the School of Fine Arts building. The current museum was built in the early '80s and there was a big stink about it because I.M. Pei won the contract and the old guard were concerned that his design wouldn't fit with the older buildings that flank it. I can't imagine the campus without it, though. My only complaint is that the interior stairs are also built on an angle and were apparently designed to give patrons vertigo and/or kill them.
Big red sculpture outside. I forget who sculpted this. Srry.
Look, you guys! Art museum! OMG MUSEUM.
Unfortunately, taking actual pictures of the art is an ordeal, so there are none, but you can visit the virtual collections online here. If you really want me to pontificate boringly, you can leave a comment going HEY LEE WHICH OF THESE ARE YOUR FAVORITES. They had some Joyceana out that I didn't recall seeing, and also some Blake prints that I hadn't seen before. Tragically, however, the Enchanted Slinky Forest is gone! It was a modern sculpture made of extended Slinkies wrapped with red thread, and it looked like an enchanted forest made of Slinkies. (I think its real name is Floor Slinky, and it may possibly be this piece, returned from a long-term loan.) It made me smile every time I saw it, though, and I shall miss it, because the odds of my getting to Chicago anytime soon are pretty long.
ALSO BITCHES DONE MOVED MY GENJI SCREENS. Not that tsam is not all very fascinating, but some of us enjoy the screens that illustrate Genji monogatari and dammit I miss them.
Then I took some other pictures while I was on campus.
Here's the Showalter Fountain, which features what one of my profs described as the ugliest Venus ever. There have been several urban legends surrounding this fountain, the most prevalent probably being that one of the dolphins was stolen in the '80s and until it returns we will never win another NCAA tourney again so forward this e-mail to everyone in the classics department 49 times or the dolphin will come to your house and pee on your bed when you are at the library or something.
But seriously, have you SEEN these dolphins? How the fuck would even several very determined students detach and move one? The building in the background is the theatre, by the way.
Here is a slightly different shot of the fountain. While I cannot confirm the NCAA rumors, I can confirm that at various points Tootsie Rolls, dish detergent, and Jell-O were insinuated into the water during the early to mid '70s, on account of my father used to do this kind of thing.
This is the Lilly Library, home of the University's rare book collection and also of almost the entire set of Iskra, which I started translating back when it was still kept at the regular library. This was a long time ago and it shows no signs of being done yet. Also, it is not true that one of the world's largest pr0n collections is kept at the Lilly. The pr0n is at the Kinsey Institute, and they don't just let you see it; you have to say why you want it. This has put a damper on my looking at pictures of gay samurai Legitimate Research Activities in the past.
This is part of Woodburn Hall (the Poli Sci building; also, a lot of arts and sciences classes meet here). Specifically, it is the part 'round the back where, back in the day, I used to go smoke and harangue Wareh.
Here is a shot of the Jordan River, which runs through campus. No, it's not low--that is, in my experience, about as high as it ever gets.
Here's another shot of the Jordan, a little closer to where I was standing.
This is Ballantine Hall, where classics majors go to die. A popular source of frustration is that a key (issued to faculty, staff, and grad students only) is needed to get the elevator to stop on the first 1-3 floors, which is where the classrooms are. The English department, located on the fourth floor, used to snipe about people getting off at the fourth floor and then taking the stairs to lower floors. I don't know what they thought blaming us for the problem was going to do.
So then I decided to get some lunch, and also Tuesday is Half-Price Bread Day at the Bakehouse. I eat there way too often, but what the hell. I got the lolmom a couple of loaves of bread, and then I got myself a sandwich.
pixelation and I have been having this ongoing conversation about BLTs and Pixel's inability to fetch her own sandwiches over the past couple of days. So I uploaded this just to taunt her. Also, yes, that IS some delicious toasted jalapeno-cheddar bread you see there. :D
Then I went to the used bookstore and actually stayed within my budget (sh0xx0rz!), and then got coffee for the trip south. At first leaving doesn't seem so bad, but once I get to the parts of town that have a Bloomington address but are technically outside the city limits, I start to feel a little sad, and by the time I've crossed the county line, the little voice in my head is going YOU'RE ONLY HALF AN HOUR OUT IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO TURN AROUND YOU KNOW.
So now I'm back. How are you?