http://eatingtheroad.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/whereshouldieat.jpg
seriously awesome
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
finally I remembered to look it up...
While strolling the painfully cold streets of London, Anne and I were moved to ask that question that many strollers have asked before us... "how many #@!*^# Starbucks are there!?!?"
Well, according to Wikipedia, the total number of locations (as of November, 2006) was 12,440 worldwide. I read elsewhere that they have set their sites on a future target of 40,000 stores. So if you think there's one on every corner now...
And incidentally, in London (and other civilized European countries, I'm sure) there's a whole lot of "for here" coffee consumption going on, with real cups! I know there are coffee mugs to be had, here in an American Starbucks, but the sheer quantity of people sitting down, sipping cappucinos and acting like they were in a real café kept surprising us.
Friday, February 9, 2007
quotes of the day
My son, after I fed him a tamale for breakfast:
"it's a corn meal! in a corn husk!"
A coworker, after placing a picture I suggested in a presentation:
"your fat guy looks sweet!"
"it's a corn meal! in a corn husk!"
A coworker, after placing a picture I suggested in a presentation:
"your fat guy looks sweet!"
Monday, February 5, 2007
acronym hell
What better way to chronicle the demise of society and communication as we know it, than to examine the acronyms which surround us. I have become so obsessed with the inexplicable and popular ones, that I'm now striving to create more, and more absurd, acronyms of my own. A worthy pursuit indeed! Today's acronym (and this is one of the "real" ones): F2F... meaning "face-to-face" as in, "do you have time for a F2F meeting?" It has the added plus of fulfilling the Artist Formerly Known as Prince's (or is he Prince again?) criteria of replacing words with numbers (and hand symbols!) whenever possible.
why Spike Jonze deserves his fame and fortune
Sometimes not having TV actually does make us miss good things in life. But apparently this Spike Jones ad for the Gap only aired in select cities. A shame, because it kicks ass. link
jolly ol' (2)
In the interest of not being chronological...
On Day 2 in London, Anne and I took ourselves to the Tate Modern.
I love this museum. Somehow it is just entirely right in every way.
There is a tangible energy, not unlike SF MOMA I guess, but somehow more lively and noisy. It helped that it was a Sunday and there were loads of families there. In fact, a big draw was the installation of giant hamster-tube-like slides that descended from the 2nd (European 1st) to the ground floor. (Unfortunately tickets were sold out well in advance and we were unable to experience high-speed claustrophobia on that day.)
The aforementioned families were welcomed by a kiosk where they could pick up activity kits, intended to guide them through the art exhibits while preempting tantrums potentially induced by crowds, overstimulation, hunger and parents looking too long at Klee paintings. Anne and I found ourselves momentarily wistful when presented with toddlers, sprawled in front of paintings, happily coloring away on the provided handouts. Our kids would love it here! And what also struck me was how comfortable the parents were with the whole thing. Am I wrong in thinking that we Americans may have actually been more uptight? I myself am always consciously avoiding being one of those moms who assumes that her child's every gesture is ADORABLE to everyone in the vicinity. Watching people veer around my kid's bodies to get closer to a Kandinsky may have filled me with anxiety. At any rate, the feeling in the exhibits was undeniably full of life and good cheer. People chatted and laughed and milled about like they were at a cocktail party.
The unexpected highlight, though, came when we wandered into one of the video installation rooms. Three screens (a fourth was dark) filled the wall. Two or three benches accommodated a handful of patrons. The rest of the audience lined the back wall and clumped on the sidelines. Flashing on the screens in random-seeming, but clearly organized, quick succession were snipets of movies and other footage ranging from the Marx Brothers to The Sound of Music to Jimi Hendrix, live in concert. All were musically themed, some more conventionally so, and each carried its original soundtrack. The result was a delightful cacophony and at the same time an incredibly thoughtful orchestration of these seemingly disparate sounds. At times the soundscape matched up thematically -- all strings, all percussion. At other times they worked in comical counterpoint. Parts made us laugh out loud and parts got us a little misty-eyed. It was amazing to see so many recognizable moments from the films that had tugged on our heartstrings throughout our lives, not in small part due to their soundtracks. Taken all together, the impact was intense. I had an admittedly cheesy moment of identifiying as a member of the global group of movie-goers and music-appreciators. A kind of "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" feeling washed over me. I think that may have been the jazzy section where Denzel Washington was playing the trumpet, so we'll forgive me for getting hypnotized... And near the end, there is a crescendo of screams that is a work of art in itself. The enormity of what the composer had to sort through, organize and edit, humbles me.
Oh, speaking of... his name is Christian Marclay. The piece was called "Video Quartet" and a viewer has kindly posted a couple of excerpts (which of course can't possibly do it proper justice) here part 1 and here part 2
By the way, those excerpts also revealed what I had suspected: one of our screens was dead. Just imagine... it might have been 25% better!
On Day 2 in London, Anne and I took ourselves to the Tate Modern.
I love this museum. Somehow it is just entirely right in every way.
There is a tangible energy, not unlike SF MOMA I guess, but somehow more lively and noisy. It helped that it was a Sunday and there were loads of families there. In fact, a big draw was the installation of giant hamster-tube-like slides that descended from the 2nd (European 1st) to the ground floor. (Unfortunately tickets were sold out well in advance and we were unable to experience high-speed claustrophobia on that day.)
The aforementioned families were welcomed by a kiosk where they could pick up activity kits, intended to guide them through the art exhibits while preempting tantrums potentially induced by crowds, overstimulation, hunger and parents looking too long at Klee paintings. Anne and I found ourselves momentarily wistful when presented with toddlers, sprawled in front of paintings, happily coloring away on the provided handouts. Our kids would love it here! And what also struck me was how comfortable the parents were with the whole thing. Am I wrong in thinking that we Americans may have actually been more uptight? I myself am always consciously avoiding being one of those moms who assumes that her child's every gesture is ADORABLE to everyone in the vicinity. Watching people veer around my kid's bodies to get closer to a Kandinsky may have filled me with anxiety. At any rate, the feeling in the exhibits was undeniably full of life and good cheer. People chatted and laughed and milled about like they were at a cocktail party.
The unexpected highlight, though, came when we wandered into one of the video installation rooms. Three screens (a fourth was dark) filled the wall. Two or three benches accommodated a handful of patrons. The rest of the audience lined the back wall and clumped on the sidelines. Flashing on the screens in random-seeming, but clearly organized, quick succession were snipets of movies and other footage ranging from the Marx Brothers to The Sound of Music to Jimi Hendrix, live in concert. All were musically themed, some more conventionally so, and each carried its original soundtrack. The result was a delightful cacophony and at the same time an incredibly thoughtful orchestration of these seemingly disparate sounds. At times the soundscape matched up thematically -- all strings, all percussion. At other times they worked in comical counterpoint. Parts made us laugh out loud and parts got us a little misty-eyed. It was amazing to see so many recognizable moments from the films that had tugged on our heartstrings throughout our lives, not in small part due to their soundtracks. Taken all together, the impact was intense. I had an admittedly cheesy moment of identifiying as a member of the global group of movie-goers and music-appreciators. A kind of "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" feeling washed over me. I think that may have been the jazzy section where Denzel Washington was playing the trumpet, so we'll forgive me for getting hypnotized... And near the end, there is a crescendo of screams that is a work of art in itself. The enormity of what the composer had to sort through, organize and edit, humbles me.
Oh, speaking of... his name is Christian Marclay. The piece was called "Video Quartet" and a viewer has kindly posted a couple of excerpts (which of course can't possibly do it proper justice) here part 1 and here part 2
By the way, those excerpts also revealed what I had suspected: one of our screens was dead. Just imagine... it might have been 25% better!
Friday, February 2, 2007
jolly ol'
When Anne called and asked if I might possibly be interested in joining her on a short trip to London, the answer was easy. Having journeyed with her to Southeast Asia 14 years ago (14 years! it shocks me to write that...), I knew I couldn't pass up another adventure with the best of travel partners. My vision of us throughout Thailand, Nepal, Malaysia and Indonesia is of two young women, doubled over with laughter, nearly crying with the hilarity of... well, of life, the world and everything. Over the next few posts, I'll recount our most recent foray into the world beyond Marin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)