Art - Ask for it.

Posted in Assholery on February 1st, 2006 by Дмитрий

OK, you asked for it. Fuck art.

This campaign includes billboards plastered all over San Francisco talking about how children to not recognize who Caravaggio was, of PSAs interrupting my stock crack on Bloomburg featuring a little girl who asks her dad to read her a planning and ordinance tome and another child changing the radio station to financial news in their parents’ car. They are trying to say these children are defective, nevermind that such children would probably grow up to be far more interesting and successful people than a child who spends their whole youth watching Gilbert & Sullivan musicals.

Fuck art. If these self-rightous morons think that art is more important to emphasize to obviously gifted children than the passions actually driving these children, they deserve the society they’ll get from it. I was one of those kids who would rather have read the encyclopedia than Huck Finn when I was young. As an adult, I would rather attend a planning session at City hall than the Opera. I would rather put my money into stocks and watch it grow than throw it into subsidies for a symphony and watch the hall be at half capacity on good nights.

Thus, I’m defective in some way. Society suffers from my lack of appreciation of art. Fine. Fuck Art.

I hereby declare war on art. Specifically, war on self-righteous, logic-loathing, economy-destroying art advocates. Fuck Art.

Another Weekend in Fresno Flies By

Posted in Family, Fresno on February 5th, 2006 by Дмитрий

I love visiting my family, and I love seeing my hometown and my new niece. But every visit makes me a little more depressed and anxious.

 

My visits to Fresno lately have been declining in quality, it seems. So much is happening to Fresno, from new communities and new freeways and a new downtown skyline, but all I ever seem to see is the stale stretch of freeway between my sister’s home and my parents’. I’m usually rushing between the two or waiting for someone else to do so. In a 48 hour stay I should be able to find a 4-hour block to spend driving around and seeing all the strange changes and mutations this fast-growing city has undergone since I stopped living in it almost four years ago. But such a chance is never to be found in several dozen visits over the past few years…

 

I’ve always said I should plan a trip here with a rental car, no family agenda, and no schedule or pressures. Guilt usually overrides that idea at every pass (and every time I mention my desire to see/do more I get snapped at by one or all of the family), but it’s weighing on me less and less with each disappointing visit…

Contemplating the Pittsburgh of the Carolinas

Posted in Home, Winston Salem on February 7th, 2006 by Дмитрий

… So if David and I moved to Winston-Salem, would y’all ever come to visit?

 

We’ve been looking at houses there. There’s so much more of the types of neighborhoods we like there, and it’s all so much cheaper. Plus the decay and oldness of the place satisfies our ever-so-gothy aesthetic affectations… Plus it’s much closer to David’s folks, who are needing their baby nearby more and more lately.

 

… It’s by no means a sure thing, but I would regret the idea of all the new friends I made in Charlotte and having to do it over again…

It’s Cute, But I Wouldn’t Want to Live There

Posted in Travel, Urbanism on February 10th, 2006 by Дмитрий

Yesterday my parents dropped in on me at work in SF. I showed them Twin Peaks, West Portal, The Richmond, and South of Market - what I dubiously consider the interesting parts of San Francisco. Of course, my Dad complained several times that he wished we would have gone to North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf and Chinatown. Alas, it shows you how distant I am from my parents, and from polite society, to insist that one can find Disneylandized neighborhoods in any city and they’re all the same, but to find a truly functioning and interesting neighborhood is a rare thing.

 

But then, I’ve always said one of my severe personal flaws is that I judge all places and cities and neighborhoods on how much I want to live in them… I’m sure it makes me a rather annoying sightseeing partner.

Dates

Posted in About Me on February 15th, 2006 by Дмитрий

Tomorrow: The two-year anniversary of my wedding. Such as it were. Althoughmy opinions on the subject of marriage and weddings have changed a bit in the past couple years, there’s still no one I would have rather spent a cold, rainy night outside City Hall with in order to say “I Do”…

Friday-Sunday: A weekend in Durham/Raleigh. Originally I wanted to spend a weekend in Winston-Salem, but the hotels there are massive expensive, and we haven’t seen Raleigh/Durham any good amount since more than a year ago when we passed through on our way to DC. This should be fun.

Next Tursday: Hopefully make my first trip to see Spider at her weekly gig. I had a ton of fun chatting my mouth off with her for coffee earlier tonight.

Sunday 26th Feb: Hop back on a jet plane for another couple weeks of fog and toil. The shortest trip yet (only 13 days), and hopefully more like what the balance of the trips will be like going forward.

Horse Lattitudes

Posted in Travel, Winston Salem on February 24th, 2006 by Дмитрий

Some relief from the horse latitudes came as the week drew to a close. We decided to bail for a quick trip to Winston for our last 24 hours together before I catch my jet plane west.

 

March will be a better month, right?

Hello San Francisco, Please Treat Me Well

Posted in Travel on February 26th, 2006 by Дмитрий

Back in SF for a couple weeks. Not quite as ready for this trip.

 

Friday/Saturday in Winston-Salem was nice. I want to return again soon. Have I mentioned how much I like it there?

To My Homeowning Friends

Posted in Home on February 27th, 2006 by Дмитрий

…Please share with me your first-time-home-buyer stories.

 

As many of you know, David and I are shopping for a home. We are looking to move this summer. I’m so totally clueless and I want to hear something from people other than industry peeps and my parents on what the best ‘order of operations’ might be.

 

I’d be especially giddy if any unmarried couples (homo and otherwise) who are sharing ownership of a house have some pointers for us from a legal/tax perspective…