Present Joys

I saw Dan Bejar play a solo Destroyer show at the Wexner Center last thursday night (21 nov 2013). It was austere: one guitar, hardly any banter. Presumably because of this, he only played two songs from Kaputt. Most of the set was old songs I wasn’t familiar with. But it was a trip to see Bejar in real life—he is such a weird, intriguing dude. It was a nice musical diversion from life’s present insanity.

• Had friendship lunch at Tip Top with Ian and Theresa. It was a cold, brisk walk there and back.
• Had a difficult time concentrating in Portfolio. I tried to sneak out halfway through but realized I’d get in trouble so instead I talked to Luke about relational database architecture. Very little actual work was done.
• Forgot my bag lunch on wednesday morning so I ended up fasting most of the day. Did unexciting, uneventful Thurber-House-related things in Branding on wednesday morning.
• Watched The Piano this week in History of Cinema. I’d have liked it better if the main character had been successful in killing herself.
• Wednesday night, I drove back downtown to go to dinner with Joe Finocchiaro, visiting lecturer on typography. We had a fancy dinner at Latitude 41 on the school’s dime (I had a delicious green salad and scallops and risotto and bread pudding), learned details about Mr. Mohr’s courtship, discussed senior thesis ideas, and pretended the CCAD short bus were a limousine. Joe and I bonded over a mutual admiration for Meryl Streep. I got a speeding ticket on my way home at 11pm. What a school night!
• Thursday was a long, delightful jumble. I got a loaf of bread from Kate in Jewelry, then I did enamel stuff for the rest of class. I spent lunch at the sink polishing enamel with an alundum stone under running water.
• Had one of those beautiful afternoons of six-hour, back-to-back Senior Ad and Portfolio where I didn’t get anything done. I am basically incapable of doing work in-class when I am surrounded by friends to talk to.
• Finished thursday with Joe Finocchiaro’s lecture at 7pm. It was another good, long day.
• Ate too many Lemonheads in Branding friday morning. (Jim Johnson ate some Lemonheads, too.)
• On saturday: worked at Saturday Morning Art Classes as usual, then I hung around for Anna and Julia’s Thanksgiving feast.
• Used every spare minute to work on big brand, an expansive graphic design project for Senior Ad. It is consuming most of my waking hours, and a lot of my sleeping hours, too!

Day 42: wed, 13 nov 2013. Finishing a long day with a fancy dinner with visiting designer Joe Finocchiaro.

I had the pleasure of seeing Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas play a show this afternoon (10 nov 2013) at Via Vecchia Winery in the brewery district, put on by City Music. I saw these two february 2012 in the same venue and they were great then; the show today was—dare I say—even better. I was once again struck by the freshness and vibrancy of this music. They played a bunch of new tunes from their forthcoming album and it was so exciting to hear new, great things in the Scottish folk idiom presented so fantastically. I wouldn’t complain if these two came to Columbus once a month.

• Using a very tiny kiln, I began experimenting with enameling in jewelry class on tuesday morning. There were lots of samples and lots of failures.
• Walked to J. Gumbo’s for tuesday’s friendship lunch. I was not terribly impressed. After lunch, I had an uneventful tuesday. Our big brand project is due in two weeks and we are still working on logo concepts! That seems unwise to me.
• Had a pretty dreadful wednesday morning in Brand and Market Development, where I inadvertently got caught in the middle of a meltdown.
• Watched Swoon in History of Cinema, which accidentally ran overtime and had to be stopped ten minutes before the ending. (I wasn’t upset about it—the film was profoundly unappealing.) History of Cinema is the longest free-knitting time I have all week, so that always palliates bad movie choices.
• Thursday morning in jewelry, I tried more enameling, still to no great success. My teacher felt sorry for me and offered to make the assignment less challenging. I am dissatisfied.
• After a nice lunch at the Hills with an old friend, Evan picked me up and drove Theresa, Anna, Julia, and me to the North Market. We “had class” on the second floor of the Market, which consisted of a mostly-inattentive discussion about branding. We also did other fun things, including teaching Mr. Mohr about Snapchat and eating samples of belgian waffles.
• We finished class early, so Evan, Theresa, Karl and I went to El Camino for a quick drink before heading back to class. (#senioryear?)
• Tried to maintain my cool in Brand and Market Development friday morning. Took a break from class to take photos at the Thurber House.