Goal #37

Goal #37: make new friends.

I am going to spend two days this week attending a conference, and I will do my best to be social and outgoing!  Obviously there is no clear way to measure my success at this, but I'll report honestly.

Recap of goal #36: Hm.  Sleep.  I have determined it to be overrated, if you can get by without it.  Here's how this week played out:
Sunday: 5.75 hours
Monday: 6.5 hours
Tuesday: 5 hours
Wednesday: 5 hours
Thursday: 5 hours
Friday: 7 hours
Saturday: 5 hours

Quote of the Day

"If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
   -- Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Quote of the Day

"My only regret in life is that I did not drink more champagne."
  -- John Maynard Keynes

Goal #36

Goal #36: Get more sleep.

This is a repeat of a long-ago goal, but I think it's a good and worthy one.  This weekend I did a LOT of bike riding, and all that work and sun and getting up early gave me a good excuse to go to bed at 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday night.  As did the fact that I had nothing else to do, but I digress.

Getting up at 5:00, it turns out, is easy when you go to bed at 9:00 the night before.  Okay, actually "easy" might be overstating it.  "Less painful than normal" is probably more accurate.

Regardless, this week I will try to be good and actually sleep. 

Recap of goal #35: I actually did go climbing last week, but only once. I was hoping for twice, but I guess you can't always get what you want.  Hopefully I can hit the gym again in the next couple of days, just as soon as I've recovered from my bike ride.

Random Links

Extremely Decent Films.

Turns out Facebook is worse for us than I thought.

A great version of my all-time favorite Simon and Garfunkel song.

Topless female trampolining world championships.  Just kidding.  Sort of.

Glass into bone.  What will they think of next?

Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?

Quote of the Day

"Powder your nose, paint your toes,
Line your lips and keep 'em closed.
Cross your legs, dot your eyes,
And never let 'em see you cry.

Go and fix your makeup, well it's just a breakup,
Run and hide your crazy and start acting like a lady.
'Cause I raised you better, gotta keep it together
Even when you fall apart."

  -- Miranda Lambert, Mama's Broken Heart

St. Louis Architecture Series

The sun behind the City Museum

Lucas Avenue and N. 15th Street

SLAM Grand Opening

Way back in late June, when K was in town for our big trip to Wisconsin, the two of us were joined by T at the grand opening of the new wing of the St. Louis Art Museum.

The day started out with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the East Building, where SLAM Director Brent Benjamin was joined by Governor Nixon, Mayor Slay, architect David Chipperfield, execs from HOK, and other bigwigs.

 

The East Building almost exclusively houses the contemporary art collection, save for one gallery of ancient art.  Generally I'm not a huge fan of modern art, but there are some interesting pieces there, and there's lots of quality, in the traditional sense: Rothko, Pollock, Warhol, etc.  I found the Post-War German collection to be interesting.  I found this piece to be rather amusing:

Homage to the Square: Wondering by Josef Albers

I really loved this series of photos of blast furnaces, taken by Bernd and Hilla Becher:

They also had random deep thoughts posted on plaques all throughout the East Building. Loved them!

I could see how this piece, Townscape Sa 2 by Gerhard Richter, would look neat on a brightly-painted wall:

As for the building itself, I like the simple lines of its exterior design.  Unfortunately, that's coupled with white paint on the interior walls, which I find a little dull.  On the other hand, I love the paint job they gave the old building a few years ago (see below).  I think the art looks so much better backed by color.  The new building does, though, have fabulous light.  It has floor-to-ceiling windows in many of the galleries, and skylights dot the ceiling.  Well done.

We briefly wandered into the lovely old building, built in 1904 and designed by Cass Gilbert.  There I saw a few of my old favorites and discovered a few new ones:

Vinyards at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh

Lake with Castle on a Hill by Joseph Wright of Derby

Love the round frame!

The Three Trees by Rembrandt van Rijn

Once we were satisfied with our intake of art, we wandered back outside to enjoy the view. Not bad for little ole St. Lou.

Quote of the Day

Audrey: "You know, you just make jokes about relationships 'cause you wish you could have one."
Russell: "Hm."
Jennifer: "Yeah, you're just jealous."
Russell: "You know what? I am a little bit jealous, you're right.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go do whatever I feel like doing, all the time."
  -- Rules of Engagement, Season 1, Episode 5, "Kids"

Goal #35

Goal #35: climb.

I have been busy.  Life has happened.  I have managed to get in two rows and a bike ride this past week, but I did not go climbing.  It's good for clearing one's head.

Recap of goal #34: unfortunately R the Wonderdog did walk into a few things before the end, but thankfully not many of them were on my watch.  I hope his poor little nose wasn't too sore.