nanovivid

Life has been music and artalicious recently. It started Friday night after our Arbor Day celebration at Dave’s Taverna (our == me, Ney, and Dave). We went to Mel Steffy’s voice recital of 20th century music. She did an excellent job and it was quite enjoyable. Then Courtney and I went to the "Hair House" (see, the guys who live there have longish hair, thus the Hair House) for an Oscars Mad concert. It was the first time I had seen them, and they were really good. Props to those guys for some quality music. The party itself was kind of strange, because there were a lot of people there I kinda knew or knew of, but wasn’t really comfortable around, so even though the music was really enjoyable, it wasn’t the most fun time ever.

The next musical incident was Saturday night, at Bandfest. I only went for the first two acts, Shapiro and Jibbercomb. Shapiro totally blew me away. Quality, quality music. Very arty and jam-based. You can download some songs from their website, but seeing them perform live is waaaaay better. Jibbercomb was good too, but a lot of the songs sounded really similar and didn’t quite do it for me. The best part was at the end when Ry grabbed his guitar and added that to the mix.

Sunday night was Erica’s senior art show gallery opening. It was quite nice and the food was delicious. ;-) The new pieces she created for the show are very cool, especially the lip series. I had the opportunity to buy the umbrella pieces that graced our apartment over the summer, but unfortunately Tonya had to go and get them. Grrrr. However, I have managed to forgive her because I’m getting Set Free, which has major emotional impact for me. So there. Go ahead Erica with the mad art skillz.

Then yesterday evening was Daniel Stutzman’s senior piano recital. He is an amazing piano player, and rocked the house. I don’t normally get into classical music a huge amount, but he really made it work. Great stuff.

So that is the cliff notes version of my adventures into the arts as of late. Moving on to random events (and jumping back in time), Saturday night after Bandfest, I went over to Ney’s apartment to hang out with her and Josh. That was lots of fun. Josh is so on crack, it’s great. We watched TS and I Love the 80s, and then went and rented Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a first-time viewing for both Courtney and myself. It did indeed prove itself most excellent. Party on, dudes! Classic. (And for some reason Keanu Reeves is frighteningly good at playing a stoner. Agent Smith is totally bogus, dude).

Tonight after hanging out with Erica and watching some random tv, Ney asked if I wanted to take a walk because it was freaking nice, I said of course. So we did. Walking and talking is the best. Many subjects were discussed, and it was good to connect. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and processing about some of my friendships (one in particular) and trying to shift some expectations to be more realistic. Good stuff. Afterwards, Brittany joined us for a trek to the mart of wal.

That’s just about it, I think. Work continues to be busy as we move faculty and staff to the new email system. Things have been quite smooth so far and are getting smoother every session. Only a couple hundred people left to go. Yay! :-)

For some random linkge, there are new explodingdog pictures. Ones I like:
i came here to find out who you are
i loved you at all the wrong times (I’m so feeling this one)
i need to know if i can trust you
and a silly one:
i think i need some space to think

Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather. I know I am.

♫ Mint - Digital Mix

My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon (Chinese Proverb). I saw that quote yesterday while I was working on a rather stubborn laptop problem (which I’m really hoping is finally resolved). The proverb seems to fit in well with my understanding of what has happened and is happening in my life. I’ve lost a lot of my previous ideas about God and faith, but with that has come the discovery of new and beautiful experiences that I never had before.

Tonight I came (once again) to the realization that spending time regretting things I do and feeling down about them doesn’t help anything. Forget it, adam. It’s ThePastTown. Learning from the past is one thing, dwelling on it and sulking about it is another. This is one of those facts I know I’m going to need to learn over and over. The moments when I do get it are nice, because I can smile and say to myself, self, it’s time to move on. It’s a good feeling.

On to less serious things… In my last update, I forgot to include one of the other "fun" things that happened Sunday night. I was hanging out with Tonya in her suite and Kristen came in. All was well for a while until Kristen decided to attack me and punch me in the face! Ok, so it was an accident… and she really didn’t "attack" me exactly. But I did get a nice love tap above my left eye. No black eye though. Thanks for showing me the love, Kristen!

Last night I saw the Simpsons Christmas episode from 2001. For some reason it hit me as very profound how in the end the family still accepts Lisa despite her different beliefs. The more I watch of that show, the more I’m impressed at the way they handle difficult issues with humor and style (when they choose to do so :-).

I feel the need to express my love of this icon for Phoenix I like it much better than any of the other Phoenix icons I’ve seen so far. (The real version doesn’t have the white dots around the edge like the picture at deviantART shows). I’ve used Resource Hacker to replace Phoenix’s default dinosaur icon and now my Phoenix windows look much yummier. Mmmmmm… icons…

My #1 online discovery for today was Mack Daddy Mario 3. I never knew Mario could get down like that. And while we’re on the subject of fun flash stuff, check out the Industorious Clock (and the rest of MONO*crafts). It’s a very cool piece of flash work.

♫ U2's The Joshua Tree album

Wow… I got back a few hours ago from one of the most intense and very cool weekends in recent memory (heck, in my whole time at college). We had a retreat for my worldview class to present our projects, and it was totally awesome. I feel like the thirteen of us got so much closer over the thirty hours we were there, but how could we not with all the very personal and honest interaction? My presentation went very well and I felt like everybody else’s did too. The projects ranged from art to poetry to drama to storytelling to sharing of experiences. I have to admit that it was a bit draining at times, and now I’m pretty tired, but in a happy way. If anybody from class is reading this, thank you, thank you, thank you. :-)

Speaking of my worldview project, there is a final piece entitled reflection. Also, the worldview section has been changed to reflect the page I used for my presentation.

♫ Something Corporate - I Woke Up In A Car (thanks Jeremiah!)

I’m about to head off to sleep, but I figured I’d throw something up here before I did. Today was a good day… I talked to the professor for my worldview class about my project, and he was very positive about it. Later on I’ll be writing up a little reflection type thing about what I learned from the project and stuff like that.

While we were talking, he mentioned how everyone in the class had said how much they really enjoyed working on their projects. I can totally agree with that. This worldview project has been one of the most fun, yet most enriching activities of my time at college. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two other times that I have had so much fun doing college-related things. One was last semester’s Intro to Graphic Design class, and the other was my semester cross-cultural to Ireland.

It’s a bit depressing realizing that I’ve spent most of my time in college classes not enjoying or feeling very enriched or enlivened by them, but trying to live up to someone else’s standards and expectations. Why does school have to be like that? It’s not all the professors’ fault at… I think it’s a problem with our educational system in general that emphasizes so much of "serious learning" and knowing The Right Answer. Being serious and knowing facts are both good things, but when they get almost the sole focus of the learning process, I think there’s an imbalance.

I wish I knew the answer to this problem, but I don’t, and unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I’m done with college after this semester and so I guess I won’t have too much of a chance to work for change. But I encourage anybody who’s still in school to take advantages of those rare opportunities when learning and life collide to produce something beautiful.

Please forgive me if the preceding paragraphs weren’t 100% coherent or well thought out… it’s Friday, I’m tired, and I’m sure some people know of other reasons I wouldn’t be thinking totally clearly. (No, I’m not drunk. Sheesh… you people. ;-) It felt good to vent. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

I’m just an art-making maniac. The newest in the worldview project series - locked [self vs. self] - has arrived, ready for your eyes only (not really, but it sounds cool).

Music-related: I got the new Chevelle cd in the mail today as part of my early birthday present and man is it good! It’s quite a bit harder than their first cd in places and just as solid. Expect to see this showing up on my playlist quite a bit. :-)

For your reading pleasure (or proofreading pleasure, if you’re my mom) I’ve just posted a review of Ascension’s T.A. Project album.

In other site news, I’ve revamped the worldview section with separate pages so that it’s a little kinder to people with slower connections. Dial-up users are people too! :-)

If you need some entertaining reading, check out Kevein Burnett’s Another Language which is a dictionary of sorts of the very entertaining slang some people here at EMU use.

Yep, it’s a new worldview piece. This one gets out some ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for quite some time. It’s also the most personal and vulnerable of any of the worldview pieces so far. Go check out sadangel and let me know what you think. :-)

The worldview project page is now more fun than ever! And why is it more fun, you ask? Because you can now leave comments on the worldview pieces. Tell me what you like, what you don’t like, any suggestions or insights you might have. I want to hear from you! :-)

Short and to the point: lush music of euphoria is the newest worldview piece. Give it a gander. And I’d love some comments. :-)

After a bit of time away from the project, I got inspired tonight to put something together. I now submit to you damaged, the latest piece in my senior worldview project. Feel free to leave some comments about what you think.

Here’s some good news - there’s a new Strong Bad Email! Sure, it’s a bit late, but it’s pretty funny, so we can let it slide, I guess ;-)

Random side note: The Scorpion King is a hilarious movie. At least the little snippets I saw while my roommates were watching it. I don’t know that it’s meant to be nearly as funny as we found it to be. Let me just say that we could smell what The Rock was cooking!