March 2005 Archives

Yesterday, in the course of my work, I got to meet a fairly famous artist, Lucas Samaras. I'm helping him set up an exhibit at Pace Wildenstein Gallery in which he is displaying about 4500 digital pictures and 60 movies. They're an odd collection, but interesting. It's actually quite a big haul for anyone interested in his art. You apparently get a Mac Mini, a 23" apple cinema display, and all 4500 pictures and 60 movies, for about $15,000. Considering art prices, that's a good deal!

Anyway, this is a surrepticious celphone capture of the interesting Mr. Samaras, in his NYC apartment:

So I'm continuing to chat with Ellen about various things, and we get to something about Thursday. So she says, "That's St. Patrick's Day!". Now, remember, we're A, not religious, and B, at least 50% Jewish, so I ask "Does St. Patrick's Day mean a lot to you, then?".

Ellen: Well, he scared away all the snakes! Thats good!
Me: Well, yeah, but most of them are too small to bother you around here.
E: Are there any that eat people?
M: Sure, but they're all in the Amazon.
E: But I thought that was a network.

I sit for about 15 seconds, puzzled, then "amazon.com" comes to mind and I roll my eyes. A whole generation of kids who think the "Amazon" is a place to buy books and a "Google" is a place to find book reports quickly.

Yay for technology!

I'm having a conversation with Ellen just a minute ago about DNA, and about cloning, and of course that leads into talking about Jurrasic Park. I say to Kim:

Paul: What a perfect segue.
Ellen: What's a segue?
P: It's switching from one topic to another.
KIm: A transition. Do you know what a transition is?
E: Is it like transportation?
P: not exactly, but the trans part does mean changing from one thing to another. (Over my shoulder to Kim: Like transubstatiation...)
E: What's transpistaciation?
P: That's when you change a God into a Peanut.

Walking to the bus station tonight, I look up from the corner of 42nd and 8th to see this:

Now, you can't read the words, but it says, in letters as tall as I am, on a lit up billboard that must be 40 feet high:

"Windows XP Is shutting down."

If only that were really true...

Two funny snippets in the past 12 hours that I wanted to post. The first was chatting online with my friend Karin, about silly stuff, when this conversation, worthy of bash.org, occurred:

Paul hands karin a woodburner.
You say, "what are those things called?"
You say, "that you write in wood with?"
Karin says, "Penguins?"

The second little snippet occurred this morning, overheard between Ellen and Kim:

Kim: "Are you still getting dressed? You're the slowest thing in the world!"
Ellen: "That's not true! A snail is slower. it would take all day for a snail...(pause)...to get from our house...(pause)... to our neighbor's house!"
Kim, waiting patiently. "uh huh...can you finish getting dressed, then?"

I'm bustling around the kitchen tonight getting some chinese takeout ready for dinner and Ellen knows one of the things we're having is pork fried rice, a favorite of hers. So I hear her mumbling and then I start to pick out words. She's singing, to the tune of "Kumbaya":

Pork fried rice, my lord, pork fried rice.
Pork fried rice, my lord, pork fried rice.
pork fried rice, my lord, pork fried rice.
Oh, my lord, pork fried rice.

Now, THAT'S one tasty spiritual.

Kim told me this story:

"The other day, I'm sitting in my office, and Katie comes tearing in with "Mommy! Mommy! Come quick!". "What's wrong?", I asked. "There's a noise in my room and I didn't make it!""

Turns out the radiator was making the noise, but I love that line..."There's a noise in my room and I didn't make it!!"

Yay, bug.