the art is very wearable today.

Back in September Buddy and I took a trip to go visit the lovely Windy City. It was so much fun! Chicago feels different from other cities like San Francisco (my favorite) or New York (where we were just in June)—a little bit more quiet, maybe a bit older, calm and established, doing its own thing...

While we were there we went to the Art Institute of Chicago (where the lions are!) and there was an exhibition on kimono as art, titled (somewhat anticlimactically) Japanese Kimono, 1915–1940. The collection wasn't that large, but it had some interesting pieces with discussions about changing modes of design (influenced by modernization and the West, of course) and also of production and consumption. It made me think about the various ideas that each kimono piece signifies (ranging from the obvious, like class and marital status, to the perhaps a little less so, like the season or the occasion for which the kimono is being worn). Which reminds me...I need to learn how to wear a kimono so that I can do it by myself.

The exhibition ends this coming Sunday, and I'm really glad that Buddy and I went at the time that we did. There was also an overwhelming Chagall piece there titled America Windows, which left me slightly breathless. It was kind of intense. And very, very blue.

We also saw Cloud Gate at Millennium Park, of course...and the tall fountain that spits out water once in a while. Whee. :D

お久しぶり······

今さっき、日本から出張でアメリカに来てる友達に会いました。なんと、１０年ぶり！お互い全然変わってなくて、なんか笑っちゃいました。友達の先輩達も来てて、とても楽しい時間を過ごせました。

時間の都合もあって、T.G.I. フライデーズで会うことに。っと、日本にもあるんだってね。悪いことしちゃった。すまん！今度はもっと美味しい所に行こうね！

で、その友達がなんとお土産に、柚子茶をくれました！あ〜、幸せ〜。こう言うの、大好き。しかも、「とびっきりおいしい」って所が、とっても可愛いです。:)

早くお湯沸かして、飲みたいな〜。幸い、今夜は徹夜で仕事だから、その機会はたっぷりと······　嬉しいのやら、悲しいのやら············

fall harvest

A little while ago we got a pumpkin in our CSA box. That was a busy weekend for us, so we decided to put off doing anything with it...until now. And now, we still haven't quite figured out what to do with it.

Any suggestions? It's so cute, and I don't want to carve it, but it's so much more fun looking at it than (the thought of) eating it...

Coffee Blast

That's the flavor of Double Rainbow ice cream that is my boss's favorite. He and his partner used to get us all sorts of good food and wine to eat while we worked. Really, the best of employers.

Yesterday as we were walking home Buddy and I were talking about double rainbows (well...I was talking about the ice cream, he was talking about the phenomenon). When we got home and looked up, there it was—a double rainbow.

It must be a sign...which is good, because now that I am done with grading I have to write my paper that is due on Monday. And even though this paper isn't about rainbows (the previous paper was), they should still inspire me to do a good job.

(I like how things in our environment cause these little delights...)

how to be a 24-hour joint

On Wednesday I left campus rather late, so to make myself feel better I took a picture of Library Walk. Yeah, no idea how that logic works...

But seriously, can we, as members of society, ever take breaks? I get this feeling that, for many people, life is just an endless cycle of deadlines. (Well...I actually don't feel like that applies to me necessarily, but sometimes I do feel like taking a break.) If it isn't cycles of writing papers or grading, it's the necessity to pay bills, pay the rent, pay the mortgage...to go shopping so that the fridge is stocked, to sleep so that we don't break down, to change clothes so that we don't get treated badly by other clean, well-dressed people in the world. Wow, talk about demanding.

At least when I worked in an office I felt like I had weekends...although in hindsight, there are numerous occupations where you are on the clock 24-7, where there is really no weekend, where you are on-call even after you drive home...oh my, work (and the feeling of having to make money just to make ends meet) is oppressive.

I wonder, though, how this might differ specifically for people in academia. We're not really on anyone's clock, except for maybe the tenure clock. If we don't get our work done, the only people who suffer are...us (we? ourselves?). If we do badly, we're just letting ourselves down. Some people in academia probably don't even get paid that much. Working conditions may be less than ideal. There may be no health insurance. Maybe no job security. But still, the occupation of "teacher" (or even better, "professor") still remains a somewhat high-status occupation in the United States. So, are people in academic subject to this cycle of deadlines differently?

Why is it that we feel like we can't even take a break once in a while? (Of course there is the response that some people really like what they do for a living/job, and thus there is no need for breaks. Or there is the all-consuming "once I get tenure" mantra... Hmm, these questions are too complicated for my tiny brain right at this moment...

::sigh::

That's three deadlines down, three more to go...

Today I was a little bit more sleepy than the limit for being productive during the day, so after class I got myself a cup of mint mocha from The Art of Espresso (est. 1999, according to the paper sleeve—not sure if that warrants an explicit indication). I could have done with more sweetness, but it was a pick-me-up, and for that, perhaps the taste doesn't really matter...

While I was standing in line at the cart I entered into a conversation with the person standing behind me. It had been a while since I'd had a random friendly encounter like that. I feel like it used to happen more often, probably when I lived in San Francisco. I wonder if people in certain cities are more prone to interacting with people they don't know? Or maybe my encounter today was particular to me and the other person (who also was not American)? I am curious whether people in the U.S. are less inclined to have casual, friendly conversations while on queue...

and the crowd goes wild!

I'm looking forward to a work-filled week (as in..."I have work to do," not "I'll get a lot of work done"), but Buddy and I spent the weekend with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday, and upon returning we enjoyed the opening weekend of the new season with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus.

What a way to kick off a season titled "Stravinsky Circus" (and spend Sunday afternoon)! Steven Schick (of red fish blue fish fame) conducted the performance, which itself was subtitled "The French Composer." It was everything I expected of LJSC...including the usual from the horns, but that's OK.

We started off with a short piece by Stravinsky that was my least favorite. I'm too simple-minded to be able to appreciate music without a clean, graspable melody. So by that standard, Symphonies of Wind Instruments was out (though it did remind me of just how lovely clarinets can sound).

Then we moved on to a Debussy piece titled...it's too long to remember what it's titled. But we had a special guest performer to play the harp, and I am convinced that when I have mastered the trumpet and the guitar, my next instrument is going to be the harp. It is a hulking instrument but it is so lovely (visually and sonically), and it has such a special place in my heart. It has such a warm sound...and the Debussy piece was lovely (and lovelily played).

The Mother Goose Suite was also lovely, a perfect rise and fall of movements. What do I remember from it...? Maybe I remember the bassoon and oboe here too, or maybe that was the whole performance...I think the entire performance I came to appreciate the un-sexy instruments, the ones that the relatively quiet, uncool kids play in middle school. (I was one of them.)

Everybody's favorite was The Rite of Spring, and it certainly deserved a standing O at the end. I think I was expecting something crazy and unpalatable (like the first piece of the program), but in fact it was so well put/pulled together, with the pieces falling gracefully into place. Schick was doing his usual swishing on the podium, and there was so much energy in the performance. I wished I knew more technical terms to describe the piece and the performance, but I must say, I really enjoyed it.

(I did fall asleep during The Rite of Spring, but that doesn't mean I couldn't hear it...I am known to fall asleep even at loud concerts. Apparently not even The Rite of Spring could stop me.)