"Some People"

This is amazing. It is a comic of short stories focusing on the relationships between people and first impressions. I love how it comes in a full circle, and nothing is what you expect it to be. If you can't see the whole image, or if you want more info about the artist, click here

When I die, I want to be Cremastered, Matthew Barney style

After my long post the other day about Dandi Wind, I feel the need to write two more like that. One on Emily Haines, and one on Matthew Barney. The one on Emily Haines will take forever because I will spend hours looking up images and watching videos and being jealous of her life.

The Matthew Barney post will take hours because I could write for years on him. I have this discussion a lot with people, but I don't think anyone fully understand my love for this man and his work. And it really doesn't hurt that he is basically gorgeous. Damn Bjork. She is quite lucky. The Cremaster Cycle book by Nancy Spector, the curator from the Guggenheim is possibly my prized possession. While working at Tenet over the summer I made a lot of large purchases, like a new Holga camera with all of the attachments and accessories, Blink 182 tickets, a flight to New York and masses of clothing, but the only wise purchase I made was buying this book. Who spends $300 on a book? Me, that's who.

I had to leave it at home since it is so damn heavy and huge. Plus the casing is delicate and I'd rather not mess it up. Thank go the Sweet Briar Library has a copy though. I have been living in the library for the last week or so, and there have been multiple times where I have wandered down into the stacks to get a book, but soon find myself sitting on the ground, pouring over this book. I just planned on this being a quick post, but of course that didn't happen, the second "Matthew Barney" was mentioned.

Apparently I am not the only one that is super excited about owning the book...



In the beginning of this semester, I was in John's class, getting ready to apply a huge map onto a birch panel. I was applying the paste with my hands, because that was just the easiest way, and it was fun. John walked past, giving me an odd look for sitting there like a five year old, covered in paste, smearing it around. I said, "I feel like Matthew Barney playing with his Vaseline." He said, "You know Matthew Barney?" surprised, because 99% of people my age do not, actually, not enough people know him, but they will. HE is already in art history texts. Anyways, I told him I did, and that he is my favorite artist, ever. He sat in silence a minute, just looking at me, and finally came out with, "you make more sense now that I know that Matthew Barney is your favorite artist." I am still not too sure ho to take that, since Matthew Barney's most well known work is seriously messed up. Amazing, once you understand the symbolism and the story lines, but its messed up.

On my TweetDeck, I keep a search column open for tweets regarding Matthew Barney (along with other people/things, I' not THAT much of a creeper), and Once, around last May, a woman tweeted "Am following some folks I found searching for Matthew Barney. This one chick has a mad crush on him... Yeah didn't follow her." You know you have issues when you see something like that and know immediately know it is you. I replied and now we are tight, via Twitter.

My favorites on Twitter have a good amount of Matthew Barney related tweets saved:
@VIKTORIA_LISBET: I'm wondering what Matthew Barney does with all of the Petroleum Jelly in the privacy of his own home. Perhaps there will be some clue.
@kgoreee: I would like Matthew Barney for my birthday. Someone make that happen. This tweet will be making its return in 133 short days
Perfection: @BrandonJD: Football + Yale + Bjork + Male Reproductive Organs + Indulgent Art Films - Humility = Matthew Barney

This post has gotten out of hand. Good God.

I want to travel to Brussels, Isle of Man, or Turkey to see where he got all of his inspiration from for the films and to see where they were shot. I want to go to a film festival overseas to see the entirety of the films. When reading the Nancy Spector book, I realize that there are so many aspects of the films that I cannot understand through reading since I have not seen it. YouTube videos are not enough. I am missing hours footage. I want to fully understand the relationship between the Entered Apprentice and the Architect. Cremaster 3 the one I want to see the most. I wrote a huge paper sophomore year on The Order from Cremaster 3, on the Masonic symbolism and how, as the last film out of the 5, it pulls together all 5 films perfectly. One of my favorite parts of The Order is that includes Agnostic Front and Murphey's Law to represent the battle between two groups. In this case, New York punk versus New York hard core. Aimee Mullins as the Entered Novitiate, the Entered Apprentice's counterpart. And artist Richard Serra as the architect.



At least I am not as crazy as this guy.... I don't think I would even go as far as to get a Cremaster tattoo. I don't think. I hope I don't get to that point one day...



Aaaand if anyone wants to get me this shirt for Christmas, I would love you forever.

Okay, time to go back to my paper. This is was a monstorous waste of time, but worthwhile.

My love for Dandelion Wind Opaine

It runs very deep.

Girls like her fascinate me, but I feel that she is the epitome of the "authentic" girl. I don't mean to sound like Carles, but it is true. Her music, her style, her words, all of it is her own, and he is not influenced by anyone else. As a musician, an artist, a director, everything is completely authentic. I mean, with a name like Dandelion Wind Opaine, how could you not be? ("She swears it's her real name and claims that she was raised by hippies in a cabin in the forests of central British Colombia with neither electricity nor running water." - via allmusic.com) She styles and directs all of Fan Death's videos and photo shoots, and every thing turns out to be different than anything I have ever seen before.



The Lab Magazine interviewed both her and Marta in Issue 00 for an article on Fan Death, and even all of her responses were so different. I cannot articulate exactly what I think about her originality. It's just crazy.

She directed the video for "Cannibal" (which I posted a few days ago) after some crazy mega-fan sent her and Marta life size, anatomically correct dolls of themselves (which remind me of the weird man in the video). She based the whole idea of the video off of those dolls. Also, she directed the video for Lady Sovereign's video for "I Got You Dancing." While of course I am a fan of Lady Sov, this video's content is so dynamic. Dandi was inspired by the Warriors and made this awesomely confrontational video with local dancers from Vancouver. Can you ever go wrong with a little bit of stop motion?



Behind the scenes clip of the shoot from Lab Magazine. Dandi styled both her and MArta, and the majority of the clothes that were used are actually Dandi's, along with from diesel Diesel shoes. (heh... heh...) And damn, anyone that can be electrocuted int he middle of a set and keep playing has points in my book. (Minus the guy from Shai Hulud... that was his fault. Even though it remains one of the most terrifying things I have ever witnessed)



Marta had a hilarious qoute in that interview that was printed in the magazine. "I don't hate anything. Only love." Then the next question he asks her response is: "I hate scrunchies!" Oh Marta... I love you too, but its just not the same.



Even just the idea of Fan Death amazes me. Dandi was (and still is) a part of the Dandi Wind Band, and Marta saw her perform, and decided to talk to her. Two years later, they have made this amazing creation. They have revived a genre of music that is seldom heard and enjoyed by my generation, and they gave it their own twist. Marta has roots in folk piano while Dandi is all about the electro side of music. Combine the two and the outcome is electro-disco, set for the current time.





I know this is media heavy, but I feel that it was worth it. Shes just so damn creative, innovative, authentic and already prolific. I just don't know what to do with myself... But I do know that I have a lot of respect for this girl. I wish I had the brain power right now to properly articulate what I am thinking.

"This is a coin for the well, I wish my wrongs were righted."

Slacking. Headache. Hungry.

I just created a tumblr, and the first thing I feel the need to do is to blog here, before posting anything there. I feel like I am cheating.

Friday was the last day of the classes for the semester. Although I only had one class, and hours and hours of work. Art history was the funniest class I think I have had all semester. Kim is very conservative, and even said "boobs" makes her blush. We were looking at a painting, I think it was a Matisse but I can't remember. Her commentary? "Her tits are hanging out!" Granted, this is true, and she had the weirdest shaped boobs we have ever seen. Malone: "I'm sorry what was the question? I can't stop looking at her chest..." One girl commented that they looked like a boomarang, making Ashley immediately go, "you mean like a booberang?!" And that was the funniest thing I have ever heard. I laughed so hard that Megan, who was a few classrooms down, texted me telling me that she heard me laugh.

Work Friday was the first time I had been in the new office. It was weird. It will be interesting being a new building. Especially without Megan...

Friday night Britt and I hung out, and went to GV to Melchor's. Afterwards we came back to her room and started watching a movie, but I immediately fell asleep, and woke up at 6:00. Walked back across campus to my room and it was 16 degrees out. Yuck.

Saturday I woke up late and did absolutely noting productive. Well, I did go to Volvo and get an oil change. Megan and I went to Vito's in Lovingston for dinner, then to the Colleen drive through which I have always wanted to go to. Although we looked so stupid standing there. It was 25 degrees, I was wearing a skirt, standing outside, getting ice cream. Dumb.

Now I am sitting in the library, in my cozy nook in the lowest level of the stacks. I have done nothing productive. At. All. My Papaya Farm playing has gotten out of hand. I unplugged my phone today at noon, so it charged all night. Then I played Papaya Farm so much today that by 5:00 I already had the 20% of battery life warning flash. Horrible.

Backtrack: On Friday, Ashley and I went to White Hart, and it was not as delicious as I remember. I have only been a few times this year. A few times with Ashley and twice with Matt. Otherwise, neither Ashley nor I have had time to go. We were both thuroughly disappointed that there is a new man working there, making the sandwhiches. Its just not the same.

Hipster Runoff is back. THank Christ.

Slacking slacking slacking.... I was planning on leaving on Wednesday, but I have so much to do, I don't think it's possible. I have already planned to "forget" to finish my accordion book. I literally have no time, and I hate the assignment anyways. John won't care.


My to do list for this week:

-work on proposals
-OOTJ
-Loftus (meeting Monday morning)

-accordion book

-AG IDs for exam

-Junior Banquet odes - Jan 20 class2011@sbc.edu

-Early 20th century art exam

-Arts Management Exam

-Portfolios done by Tuesday

-time sheet from Karol's box

-box for art barn supplies

-exchange Liam's shorts

I'm on drugs.

Right now I have antibiotics, pain killers, and adderall in my system. And I just had intense deja vu. I didn't realize how wired I am until Allison asked "Did you take another adderall because you are on the most intense mission I have ever seen." Yes. Yes I had.

I have about 2.3 seconds to post this since I am in the middle of working on a presentation that I have to give tomorrow. I am sitting in what I have come to view as my "blogging" table in the basement of my building, where some of my longer, weirder posts have been written.

Anyways. The health center did not know if I had mono or strep, so they decided to treat me for strep even though the antibiotics would have had a bad reaction if I have mono. So far, so good. On Monday I was in so much pain in my glands that I could not lift my head or talk. I went to work, and my teacher and boss basically kicked me out of the building and told me to leave work and not to come to class since I was a wreck. I went back to my room and slept until art instead. And then I only lasted a few minutes before I went to the health center. While I was there they tested me for both mono and strep, but I tested negative for both since they were the quick 5 minute tests that are always wrong. She started to tell me that since I was negative for everything she couldn't give me any medicine and I broke down. I spent from Saturday to then in the most pain I have ever been in. I wasnt eating or talking and barely sleeping since moving my head at all hurt. The only way it was bearable was to tuck my chin into my left collar bone. And walking around like that doesn't really work out.

So I started to cry, which only inflamed my throat even more, putting me in more pain. She gave me a prescription for some pain killers and antibiotics and this weird mouthwash and sent me on my way. After a long debacle at CVS over insurance and what not, I was blessed with my drugs. I took the pills and used the mouth wash, which is the most ridiculous thing I have even experienced. In the parking lot I gargled it for a minute, and my lips, cheeks, tongue, and entire throat went completely numb. It was magical.

So now it is Wednesday. Gave my presentation this morning. Had my final critique with John this afternoon. Working on my arts management presentation now.

Going home Wednesday. I am thrilled.

Stolen from Matthew Hasting's tumblr.

Things I haven't thought about in a while.

For pretty much the entire time I have owned an iPhone, a detail of Heironomus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights as my background. Jerri and I talked about it today while we were driving back form Panera. I forgot about how much I love this painting.



It's one of those things that you notice something new every time you look at it. Being me, my favorite panel is the Hell panel. Its crazy.

Then when we got back I pulled up a photo of it for Jerri to see, and Allison said that she has been to the Prado to see it. Allison and I keep finding random things that we have in common, and just now we discovered our common love of Goya's Black Paintings. Most people hate them, because they are so messed up. I think what makes them so amazing is that he was delirious with syphilis when he painted them. They are so dark and messed up. Saturn Devouring his Son is haunting. That's all I can say about it.



I am no longer hungover, but I just have the worst cold ever. I can't hear anything and I can't stop sneezing. Ughhhhh. I have so much to do this week, and I am terrified about it all. I have a proposal due to Loftus Monday, Art History presentation Monday, Ancient Greece paper due Tuesday, ARMG presentation Tuesday, another ARMG presentation Thursday, LCP paper due Friday. Then all my art projects have to be finished by Wednesday. Im fucked. F'realz.

Art today was interesting, to say the least

Today in art two interesting things occurred. One, I realized that I can be categorized as a Dadaist, which I am not fond of. I hate Dada, I have never been interested in it or inspired by it, but all of the work I have done this semester has a very Dadaist element to it. Take today, for example, the panel I am working on is the one which suffered my hissy fit. It is brown with bits of red. Brown. Sign one of Dada. Then over the break I was trying to think of a compelling image to transfer onto the panel, and I decided on a train. Train. Machinery. Sign two of Dada. All of my work this semester has had the same color scheme of brown, red, black and white. Everything has machinery or metal incorporated into it. I hate Dada. But I have accidentally created a number of Dadaist pieces. Although, this piece by Hannah Hoch from 1919 is mind blowing.



Second: I had a odd heart to heart with John about my future. I can't remember exactly how this got started. I was sitting there, working on my train, when he came over to watch me work as usual. I think Ashley said something about being stressed with exam time, and I said, "I just want to be out of school for good." I still have Riverside and a year off on my mind, and that is all I want right now. John replied with, "Don;t say that. The second you are done with school you will want nothing more than to be back." Yeah, right.

I told him that when I leave I have years and years of schooling left. MBA, Masters in Art History, then eventually my doctorate in Contemporary Art. That's alot. I told him I don;t want to go to grad school, because right now in my mind grad school is getting my MBA, while working at Tenet. In recent months I have been excited about working at Tenet after graduation, going back to Jessica and Denise and Carrie and Craig. I really miss them all. But the second that I realized that I want nothing more than to take a year off after graduation and live in Riverside, I have come to view working at Tenet like selling my soul. I told all this to John, and he said that grad school was the best times he ever had. I pointed out that he went to art school, so that hardly counts. He thinks its ridiculous that my parents would never go for sending me to grad school for art. I would be deliriously happy, but there is no future in that. I don't want to teach; god no.

John asked me what will make me happy, and what I want to do with my life. I told him about Tenet, and his response to hearing the words "marketing for a hospital management company" was simply "eeew." I want to work in a museum. I want to curate at MoMA. I want to own a little gallery in Brooklyn. I want to live in a little apartment in Brooklyn, possibly walking to work at the Brooklyn Museum every day (and seeing Matthew Barney drinking coffee on a corner while on the way there wouldn't hurt). I want be around art for the rest of my life.

I know that working for Tenet is the wise choice, but it will not make me happy. I enjoy working there, but I am not passionate about it. Ever since I made this plan I have told myself that I will just work there for 5 to 7 years, get my MBA while there, save up the money I made so that I can afford to move and take risks. Careers in the arts pay nothing, but I am perfectly okay with that.

This blog has turned into an odd thing. It is more so a train of thought than anything. Over the summer it was simply "I did this then I went here and then did this" simply so that I could remember. Over Thanksgiving break I hated writing and updating it, but I like being able to read back on what I do while home. While at school posts like that would be boring. "Today I woke up. Ate breakfast. Went to art. Had an LCP meeting. Went to Ancient Greece. Went to Leadership. Took a nap. Ate dinner. Did my homework. Went to some meetings. The End."

That's horribly boring. I think this blog is going to change, and I am excited about it.

Friday, November 20 - Almost Home

I am sitting in the Charlotte airport, listening to Fan Death, and people watching. I have been given some awesome people watching opportunities lately. I had some interesting characters on my flights from Lynchburg, then last night Allison and I went to the midnight premiere of New Moon, because we are huge nerds. Of course there were some odd people out and about at that. Girls in PJ pants and Edward shirts. There were a hilarious amount of couples there. I feel bad for each one of those boyfriends. Stuck in a theater that is 75% squealing girls. I am glad I am not one of them, and I laugh at those who are. The first time Edward appeared on screen, in this awfully horrible slow motion, windy walk, there were a bunch of girls that did literally squeal with delight. I dont understand. I think this says something positive about my character, though.

Although right before Bella jumped off the cliff the reel broke, and apparently it broke in all 10 theaters. It was a min-mayhem moment. The old woman next to me turned to me and asked if I wanted to help her start a riot. I really wish I was making this up. She was dead serious. When she sat down she said to Alison and I "I can't wait to see Jacob's shift changing!" I think I will classify that moment as a "Life Fail" for that woman.

Yesterday at lunch Sarah, Elizabeth and I played MASH. I have not played in so long. I had a pretty positive outcome. I will be marrying Matthew Barney, working as a stripper, living in Brooklyn with 4 kids, driving a Hummer, making $100,000 a year and I will have my honey moon in Afghanistan.

Errrr.... Looking back on that, that is actually quite horrible. The only good thing is the marrying Matthew Barney part. My minor obsession with him has somehow become more public recently, and I am not sure how this happened. Last Saturday I was with Allison, Blair, Shep and Britt and at one point we were discussing what Blair would name her future children, and she said, "Kate I know you will have a little Matthew Barney Jr." And then Ashley said the same thing:




Allison and I attempted to make a list of the songs we would listen to if we could only listen to 10 for the rest of our lives. I have shared this with a few people, and so far everyone has been shocked to see this one on the list. I don't know why I like it myself, when I really don't listen to too much rap and whatnot, but it sneaks onto every playlist I ever make.




Boarding my flight soon. My mom is going to pick me up at the airport, then off to Town Centre for dinner where I will creep into the Apple store to see Rob. I think either Corbett or Colton is going to come over tonight. I'm hoping Corbett simply because I don't want Colton to ride his bike from Riverside to Ortega. He is even more of a bum lately.

The man sitting across from me keeps starting at me... Errr...

I am playing FishVille in the Charlotte airport. I am ashamed.

Friday, November 20 - Stuff White People Like

I have read with Stuff White People Like post multiple times, and every time I read it I can't help but crack up. It is oh so very true. Ashley and I both relate to this one a little too well. Stuff White People Like makes me feel like a very predictable person.

"Keeping up with art is hard; trips to galleries, enormous books, and costly bi-annual magazines are just a few of the many expenses you will incur during the process of attempting to stay current with art. While the challenge and difficult of this proposition would seem to actually attract more white people than dissuade them, the amount of work required to become and remain an expert on art is simply too much for the majority of white people.

Of course there are exceptions such as the people who have invested both their money and their lives into the appreciation of art: people with Art History Degrees. But as you have probably noticed, they have very little value to both you and society. The latter is evidenced by their annual salary while the former is to be determined on a person by person basis.

Currently, the artist who is both cutting edge and easy to keep up with is Banksy, and white people love him. He is anonymous, British, easy to understand, and he works in the medium of graffiti! This last bit is very important since all white people consider graffiti to be art when it looks like something other than a bunch of squiggles. In every other instance, they consider it vandalism.

As with any conversation involving white people and taste you should be forewarned that you are walking into a potential minefield. However, art does not work the same way as Indie Music when it comes to the need to like the obscure.

Here’s how it works: if you say your favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh, MC Escher or Monet, you will appear as though your taste in art is derived entirely from college posters. This is unacceptable. Conversely, if you list Jeff Koons, Laurie Anderson, Damien Hirst or Basquiat, you’ll look like you are trying too hard but don’t really know what you are talking about. Chances are that white people will assume your art education consists entirely of documentaries, bio pics, and looking up references from Gossip Girl on Wikipedia.

Finally, if you list your favorite artist as a current, bleeding edge visionary who white people have not heard of, they will immediately recognize you as a threat and dislike you. It is also a certainty that they will call you pretentious behind your back.

Needless to say, it’s complicated. But Banksy is just right. He’s just edgy enough to be outside of the mainstream, but popular enough to be available in coffee table book form at Urban Outfitters. Though if you spot this book on the coffee table of a white person it is strongly recommended that you imply they got the book at a Modern Art Museum gift shop and not at an Urban Outfitters. This will make the evening far more enjoyable for everyone concerned.

If you find all of this to simply be too much work and wish to ensure that white people will never speak to you about art again, there is an easy escape. Simply mention your favorite artist is Thomas Kinkade and that you are in negotiations to purchase an original from the store in the mall. This will effectively end any friendship you have with a white person."

Wednesday, November 18 - 2 Days

Jacksonville in two days. I am so excited. Rob has an alright work schedule so I will be able to see him a good bit. It will be really weird not having Jenn there. I will be spending time with different people though, so that's good. I am excited to see Corbett and Kevin, Rob and Emma. Except Kevin is being a jerk... We shall see.

Sunday night Evan and I are going to go see Between the Buried and Me at Edge 17. I have never seen them live, but I know it is amazing. Rob saw them a few years ago and he loved it. This will be an experience.



Allison got a concussion last night. I had to go pick her up at the gym and talk to the trainer about everything. She was not doing too good. We came back to the room, and I went to go hunt down some applesauce for her in Prothro. I asked the older woman in Prothro if she could get me some apple sauce, and she said, "Yes, I will be right back." Then she was gone for about 5 minutes. when she came back I hadn't moved yet and she said, "Yes sweetie? Anything I can get for her?" I asked for applesauce again, pretending that this did not just happen, and she asked if anyone was already looking for me. I just lied and said no. She left to go look, then this whole thing happened again. I gave up and asked someone else.

Allison and I enjoyed a quiet night in, watched Drop Dead Gorgeous and went to sleep early. Except we both had to wake up every 2 hours so I could make sure that she was alive and well.


Today was... interesting. During art I got a call from Courtney. Her dad was diagnosed with brain cancer three weeks ago, then he just died on Saturday. I feel so bad for her. We are putting together a package to send her after Thanksgiving. She isn't going to come back next semester, like she was originally supposed to.

John has been comparing my work to William T. Wiley lately, who I have never heard of before the past few weeks, but I am in love with his work. With the hidden checks and ampersands and the incorporated text, it is quite similar to my Arabic triptych.



I love the quote on this one, although this one is far different than his other work.



The Arabic triptych and the embellished vest print on a panel both turned out awesome, and I am really proud of them, although I have no idea how I am going to get the triptych home. It will not fit in my car.....

Day 86 - Fox, Art Market, JMOCA, Cummer, Shai Hulud, SATURDAY

Today was far more eventdul than yesterday, thank god. We woke up and went to get breakfast at the Fox. On the way there we stopped and saw Jenn at Casablanca. I have never been there. She gave us the tour. Then we went to Breakfast, and saw Amber slaving away back in the kitchen. Didn’t get to say hello. From there we went to the Art Market. It keeps getting worse and worse. There is less art and more children’s clothing. It is really disappointing. We did meet this one really nice artist, Jay Negron, who had some amazing charcoals. After we walked around the art market for a bit we went to walk around Five Points. Took Ashley to Edge City, Clothing Warehouse, Anomaly, and Wolfgang. I bought an amazing dress at Wolfgang. We left 5 pts and went to JMOCA. I haven’t been there in a while. There had a huge Rosenquist that was amazing.

This afternoon we also went to the Cummer, and we sat in the garden and painted for over an hour. It was a nice day. We came home, showered, and went to dinner with my mom and Jenn at Timiquana. Then Ashley, Jenn and I went to the Pit to see the Shai Hulud show. Colton was there, of course, completely wasted, of course. Therefore more Colton Words of Wisdom came out of his mouth. He is one of the funniest people I know. At one point during the show we were outside ad we were dancing, ballroom style. I said, “Colton why didn’t you dance with me at my prom?” And he put his hands on his hips and stood in the gayest way possible, then said, “Kate, a lot has changed since your prom. I’m a man now.” It was the funniest thing ever.

Saw Kevin also. And Stamps. And a lot of people I did not care to see, including Justin Jarrell. Ew. During one of the bands I was sitting outside with Colton and Stamps and Ashley, and this girl runs by, and just starts hitting this other girl and pulling her hair. It was like the third fight that night. But, since it was a girl fight, no one broke it up. Kevin ran after then taking pictures. It was hilarious. The whole time they were fighting Colton was jumping around yelling, “It’s Saturday! It’s Saturday!!” Overall it was a hilarious night.

Day 56 - Week Five, Thursday

I did nothing of interest today at work. I don’t think.

Tonight Jessica and I met up at the museum in Fort Lauderdale. There was some lecture going on about art and the human body in relation to bodybuilding, so there were all these seriously built people walking around the museum tonight. Jessica used to work at the gym at Nova so surprisingly she knew some of them. It was nice walking around the museum, and then we went down to Mangoes and had dinner. I have never been there, but I walk past it a lot. Plus, the band that I booked for the physician’s gala in October plays there every Saturday night. Tomorrow Jenn is coming. So excited!

Day 43 - Week Three, Friday

Last night was amazing. Right after I left work I went back to the apartment, hanged, and left to go to the museum. I got in free and there was no one there at all. Amazing combination. They had a contemporary art exhibit, which left me in the most amazing mood possible. They had Sally Mann, Barbara Kruger, Banksy, Judd, Hirst, Rauschenberg, and so much more. I was shocked by the Banksy piece. I would never expect to see something like that in a non-major museum. It was half of a phone booth surrounded by rubble. The first time I passed by there, there were about 5 or 6 security guards just loitering and following me around because there was nothing else for them to do. I went into another wing and shook them off, and when I came back, there was no one around the Banksy piece. I wanted to steal a rock from the rubble so bad. It would definitely not be missed, there were thousands. But there were security cameras all over the place. Ugh I want a Banksy rock. I wasn’t even allowed to take pictures. As I was leaving I asked about the Banksy piece, and the woman kept calling him “Banksky.” People tend to do that a lot for some reason and I don’t understand. There is one “K.” Not that hard to pronounce this two syllable word. I left with a few books, of course.

As I was leaving I called Ashley and told her about it, and I got to talk to her for a while, which was nice. I have been trying to call her for weeks and finally she answered her phone. As I was talking to her I drove down Las Olas and drove around the beach area or a bit, then went to Cheesecake Factory and picked up some dinner.

Today at work was boring. I honestly can’t remember what I did. Nothing important, obviously. I did get the majority of the newsletter cleared, and I am happy about that. This afternoon right after I left Good Sam I drove home. The drive was long and boring, and most importantly uneventful. Right when I got home Jenn came over and just sat around while I cleaned my room. It is a wreck. Why is it that when you are cleaning you must first make a much bigger mess than when you started? I hate that.

Day 23 - Epic Adventure

Today was the perfect day to end my small little summer with. Jenn and I decided to ride our bikes to the art market. We left around noon, and got there over an hour later. It was beautiful weather, and it was amazing to just ride and listen to music and go through Riverside. The art market was still disappointing, with way more vendors and not very much art. Jenn’s aunt has a stall there selling wheat grass. I didn’t know, but it has a lot of amazing benefits aside from health benefits. We walked around for a while and I got a muffin, and then it started to rain. We decided to just wait it out, but it kept getting worse. I kept checking my phone to find a lull in the rain, but there was nothing, so we went ahead and rode our bikes to Al’s to wait it out. Although in the short ride from the Art Market to Al’s we were completely soaked. At first both of us were completely miserable, but we realized that it was actually a lot of fun riding in he rain. So we kept going and went to Kickback’s. I went inside and just stood in the door until a waiter came over, all worried to see this soaking wet girl in the doorway, an he brought us inside and gave us towel and pretended like it was completely alright for us to be inside, all the whole looking very concerned. We ate there, and got our bikes to ride back to my house. Although in the short time that we were inside Kickback’s, the temperature dropped and it was really windy. We rode only about 2 blocks to Walgreens, and we about froze. So at Walgreen’s we bought flannel PJ pants and huge tee shirts. We changed in the bathroom and looked hilarious trying to scurry out of the bathroom and back to our bikes without being seen. Although that failed, since we saw the whole world. The owner of Violet was in there, which made me immediately ashamed of my purchases. Then once we got past Avondale, Thomas Taylor stopped and talked to us. We were wearing terrible PJs, soaking wet, with make up running down our faces. Once we got back to my house we changed and got under some blanket on the couch with some tea, and Jenn got a tweet from Preston, who also saw us apparently. So that’s just great. It was an epic adventure.

Tonight I hung out with Evan. Went to his house and watched this really surreal anime movie called Mind Game. The plot was interesting and it had a bunch of montages that showed how all of the character’s lives intertwined. It was a weird movie, but very good.

Tomorrow I leave for Miami. Boo. Although today was a good last full day at home.

Day 20 - Liam, Art Walk, Casbah

This morning, pretty much right after I woke up, I took Camp and Liam to see UP. I have heard from so many people that it is so amazing, yet sad. I was in tears after the first 10 minutes. It was so sad. But overall, it was an adorable movie. Like other Pixar movies, they had a short movie before hand, and the one this time was so adorable. I would like to have a Kevin of my own.

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When we were leaving the theater, it was raining, and I realized that Liam and Camp are the two slowest people to ever walk the earth. All day long I was saying over and over “Come on guys walk faster!” They never listened. Then I had to get them ready to take them to Rover Rats, and it took Liam about a half our to put on his bathing suit. It was ridiculous. Today was, thank goodness, my last day of babysitting.

Tonight Jenn and I went to Art Walk, which was a huge let down. There really wasn’t very much going on. So we left and went to the Casbah. We ran into Damon, Mark’s friend, and a bunch of his friends there and sat with them. Corbett was there as well, and we had an awkward Tweet War from 3 feet away, which had us cracking up, and the people we were with very confused. Oh well. One of the guys we sat with tonight works for Chacha, which is this company that pretty much just answers questions. You text in your questions and bam, you get an answer. The first thing I asked was “Who is Kate Gorman from Jacksonville, FL?” and they replied with my dad’s home address. It was creepy. Then I decided to be a jerk and asked “What is the hokey pokey really is what it is all about?” And the reply said “Then we live sad, sad, sad lives.” So ChaCha is my new favorite thing.

Tomorrow will be a very good day. I am excited to get out and stay busy throughout the course of the day, since I haven’t done that in a while. I am waking up tomorrow and going to School Four with Mikey to take picture. It may be demolished soon and we want to go. Its funny because we bonded over our common unhealthy love of School Four, yet we have never been together. I am excited about that. Then later I am going swimming with Colton, which will be entertaining with this miserable sunburn I have. I am going to try to run over to the town center at some point to get some work clothes shopping done, but I am not sure if that will work. Then later I am hanging out with Evan, a guy I met at the party last night. So I am thinking that tomorrow will be a good day.

Day 16 - Art Market, Outlets, Augusten Burroughs

My mom and I were going to ride our bikes to the art market in Riverside today, but my aunt and grandmother came over to go so we didn’t get a chance to do that today. I went to my dad’s though to get my bike back, and barely spoke to him while I was there. I am still livid with him. I don’t plan speaking to him for a while. But that probably wont work out. Marsha, my mom and I went to the art market, and I was really disappointed. I went once when I was home in March or early April, and it was the second week of the market being open. Then it had a lot of art, and little tents for a bunch of different local galleries. But today it was all food and clothes and regular vendors. There were a couple of cool artists though. There was one I fell in love with. His name was Schallenberg, I think. All his work was really textured and abstract, kind of like a really 3D Pollock.



Afterwards my mom and I went to the outlets to get work clothes. I am not too fond of this people work clothes and I just don’t mix. I don’t have a very feminine style and everything is skirts and blouses and slacks. I hate slacks more than anything. I cant even wear normal jeans. F I can feel fabric flapping around my ankles, even in the slightest, I cant stand it. I have been wearing skinny jeans for far too long to ever go back to normal pants. Also, the people that shop at the outlets are… interesting. You get such a range. While we were in J. Crew everyone was normal, and dressed cute. But then we walk outside and first thing I see is a woman in a huge grey shirt, red, ill fitting sweat pants, and carrying a child haphazardly on one hip and smoking a cigarette. Can we say classy?

Rob met us at Marsha’s house to fix up her internet and then went to dinner at Barbara Jean’s. every time I go there I think, “OK, lets be open about this, maybe I will like it this time.” Nope. I still don’t. The fries are delicious, but I don’t like anything else. The majority of their menu is sea food, and I don’t eat sea food so I am kind of screwed there.

Finally I am getting my iPod to work. It is too small for all of my music, so I have to pick and choose what I want on here. I went through and put everything on it that I would like to listen to driving up and down between Miami and Jacksonville, and it was only about 2,700 songs, which is about a third of my iTunes library. I miss my iPod, and I am excited to have it back.

I am riding my bike to the Fox tomorrow morning for breakfast with my Mom. I may die, for reals. I am so out of shape, which hopefully will change this summer. I haven’t ridden my bike in so long, aside from between my mom’s and dad’s today. And even that was kind of painful. My mom and I watched a bit of Running With Scissors tonight. Earlier we listened to some of an Augusten Burroughs audio book while driving out to St. Augustine and that got me in the mood to watch that movie. I forgot how weird it is, and now I just really want to watch the Royal Tenenbaums. I haven’t seen that in a really long time.

I am falling asleep while typing this and I have to be fairly soon to go to the Fox. Although this is a video from Davey Dance Blog, where he goes to historic locations, picks a song, and dances. The song he used in this video is one of my favorite songs, and it was the finale of the CollegeHumor all nighter this year.

DaveyDanceBlog -64- NYC Union Square from Pheasant Plucker on Vimeo.

I didn't talk to a certain someone at all today. Ugh "/ Going to Miami is bad luck, I swear.

Day 9 - Art, TSI

This morning I woke up to my aunt and cousin coming over to wait on UPS. UPS said they would be there between 10 and 11 and nor surprisingly they didn't show. But at like 11:30 there was a knock on the door and surprisingly it was the UPS man. We spent the next few hours hanging art. We got a bunch of original Duaivs and an original Peter Max, which I was basically salivating over. I never thought I would own a Peter Max. He is easily the most famous living artist, and when he dies he is going to be as famous as Warhol. The house looks amazing with all of the new art. There were these terrible pictures of me in the bathroom in a bathing suit from when I was 15 and those got replaced. Thank god. Marsha loaded up her car with a bunch more pieces, some Duaivs and an original copy of a Rembrandt sketch. It's so amazing.

This afternoon all I did was sleep. I got no sleep last night and this morning I was up far too early for my liking. This evening my mom, Liam, Jenn and I all came out to Ponte Vedra to have dinner. My aunt made all of my favorites. It was delicious. Jenn and I left Ponte Vedra and came back to my house and got changed and went out. Justin was having a party at his house and Jarrett told me to go out there. Last time I was at Justin’s was over thanksgiving break. It was easily the nest night of my thanksgiving break. It was just me, Jarrett, Perry, and Justin and some other guy, and they were all so wasted and stoned. Perry was so stoned he was asleep on the couch the whole time I was there and I couldn't wake him up. So tonight there were a few more guys there, including Trevor who I see almost every time I go to the mall. Jenn be I realized that we have never played beer pong together and we fixed that. Last time I was there Jarrett made me play even though I told him that I am easily the worst beer pong player in the world, and he made me play again last night. Right before we played and during my heart started freaking out. My heart has been fine once last summer and having it randomly race like it did tonight really scared me. It was worse than it was last summer, and I could barely breathe. I don't know why that was happening. I barely drink any caffeine now and there was mo reason for it to do that. It was scary.

After we left Justin’s we went to TSI. Jenn ad I were driving around downtown trying to find a parking spot to go to VyStar, and the whole time I was about to pee myself. We finally got to TSI and Jenn was changing her clothes so I peed in the corner of the parking lot. I can't remember the last time I did that, but tonight I was pretty proud of myself for some really odd reason.

Anyways. TSI was fun. We danced and hung out and there weren't very many people there. My heart kept racing the whole night and it was hard to ignore. We were sittng by the pool tables towards the end of the night and this guy asked to play with him. He was so drunk it was hilarious. He didn't understand that you have to put money into the pool table to get the balls out. We finally started to play and that's when the creepy began. While either Jenn or I was playing our turn, he would get behind either of us that were still standing there and rub our backs and just scoot towards us when we moved away. When he talked he got so close our noses touched and I had nowhere to back up. When we were dome playing he asked me "so you want my number or what?" haha ew. Jenn came over and we just laughed at him. We decided to go dance and left him then all of the sudden he was creeping right behind us. It was funny yet creepy.

My heart still has me worried. If it happens again I will have to go back to the hospital. Which is not something I want to do. Obviously.

Tomorrow Jenn and I are going back out to Ponte Vedra to lay out by the pool and have a cook out. I didn't update my Daily Booth today either. I can't slack this early in the summer

Day 5 - Regency, Cheesecake, Lame

Today was just pretty laid back. Woke up and went to with Jenn to the mall. Came back home and actually unpacked, then went to dinner with Jenn and Adam then to Kickbacks and saw Lee and Mike and Mira. That is pretty much all that I have to saw about today. Lame, right?

All the mall, Regency, Jenn realized that they closed down the Walden Books that was there. Although she just said, “I can’t believe they took out the book store. Although the people at this mall probably can’t read.” Which is so true. We had a good day today. We were together for over 24 hours straight, aside from the 4 hours where she was at work.

Liam and my mom and I have been playing board games a lot recently. Like tight we got Tijuana Flats take out for dinner, and played Apples to Apples while we ate. After dinner we played Life and read the Westing Game. I think Liam is getting into it. Although I think I am just going to go and steal it out of his room tonight and read it for a while. I can’t stand only reading a couple chapters a day. Its crazy. I love this book too much to be patient. But then again, when am I ever patient?

Tomorrow Liam goes to my dad’s house. I am afraid that my dad will tell Liam then about Kathleen. I have decided that as much as I want to tell my mom, she has to hear it from my dad first. I shouldn’t be the one to tell her. Since my parents have gotten divorced, I have been the one to relay news and questions, and I am sick of it. And it isn't right to make me do that, especially in this situation. So I guess I will just find out tomorrow what will happen. That is, if Liam even goes over there. He pitches a fit usually because he hates going over there so much. He is just bored and it’s hard for him to be there and just watch TV. Tomorrow I also have to go and take the prints over to Eileen’s. The better of the two prints has little blue dots around the hem of the dress, so I have to tackle that in the morning. As usual, I have been hoarding things for my little memory book but I have yet to put anything in, and I also have all the candy wrappers ready for my next print. Although I have been too lazy to get it started. I mean I can just do the background here. I have to wait to do the actual print part until I get back to school since I need a press. I really want to get some berens and burens and blocks and just print straight from my room, just little things that don’t need a press. Although my mother would probably freak out since I will most likely get ink all over the carpeting.

As usual, my contact is about to fall out of my eyeball so I am just going to steal Liam’s book and get to sleep. Oh and today Jenn and I realized that when we laugh, we sound like Beavis and Butthead. Not attractive.