Birthday party; Day of art; Lunch with Becca
8/11
Birthday weekend (or "Matt Tuesday" or "Ward Fest '06" rolled around. Left school early, met Rebecca and Cindy at my place, and took off for Rudz. Lots of people showed up (Kim & co.; David and Tiffany; Oliver & co.; First Years; Dan, Kristin & Co.; Jeff & Jim; Wanda; Will, Char, and Angela; Second Years; Law School Lauren & Chris—about 30 all together). I had a Rudz burger (a damned fine one), and Cindy tried their jerk pulled pork sandwich (also good). Beers were drunk. Darts were played. Cake was eaten. I managed to maintain well. I got lots of nifty presents:
I hadn't really gotten into the album when it came out last year, but in the days leading up to the show I had listened to it for a few times and really liked it. The show was great. Very chill, very pleasant. It was a nice way to wind up my birthday party.
8/12
Saturday morning, I finally got around to checking out the Breakfast Klub. It's a Houston institution, and I'd heard great things.
The place isn't tiny, but not particularly big, and there's generally an hour wait. Rather than just having a line around the block, the owners cleverly purchased a building across the street for waiting space. They had a jazz combo playing, and some French Market-style vendors. It was all very nice.
Our number was called, and we crossed the street to the building, entered, observed the colorful interior, and ordered. Chicken & waffles and catfish and grits were specialities. I'm a big grits fan, so I opted to mix and match and do chicken and grits. Everything was very tasty, if horribly unhealthy and heavy. Great food to be enjoyed occasionally.
Cindy left and Becca and I went to check out some art. We started out at Project Rowhouses. We parked and started to walk around the block of identical houses, eventually finding one that was open, with someone inside working on art. He directed us to their office at the end of the block, where we found a group of African American men playing dominoes. One of them told us that there was no formal tour; that we could just walk around, talk to the artists, and check out what they're doing.
I liked it. Very free form, very performance art with audience participation. The artists there were artists interning there for the summer, each one given a house as studio space. One person did a sculpture (foot cast)/portrait/interview combination of Native American descendents. Another was doing some dramatic paintings with a crucifixion motif.
The whole thing was nicely casual, unpretentious, and interactive. It's funny, as we left I thought of classic role-playing games, where you're in a village (often of identically-formed houses), and you just go in whatever open doors you want and talk to the inhabitants. Funny, it always seemed completely unrealistic before.
Next up was a trip to the the Contemporary Arts Museum, but the Jung Center was right there, so we took a brief detour. Not much there, but some nice stuff...
The main exhibit upstairs at the CAM was by Kiki Smith. Her stuff mainly focused on body parts, organs, etc. Some of it I liked. Some of it I didn't. The stuff I didn't was... well, gross isn't the right word. But something about it seemed surprisingly low brow. The glass water droplets on the floor (pictured) were nice. The glass sperm on the floor? Meh.
There was a neat installation at Rice that Rebecca wanted to check out, a rainbow wall, constructed sort of like a mosaic or like scales. The building seemed to have closed early, though, as the doors were locked, but we got the general idea of it.
From there it was on to the Menil Collection. Rebecca is a Dan Flavin fan, so we checked out the building dedicated to his fluorescent light installation next. It was a neat installation, with very interesting uses of geometry, light, color, and space.
Finally, on to the Rothko Chapel. I liked that the foyer had a very wide selection of sacred texts. The interior was very interesting with its muted greys and purples. Reverant, but a little sad, too. It was paradoxically brightly lit from a skylight above, but dim due to interior color. The large canvases featured prominently on the walls were actually painted in two different colors, which I was surprised to discover. It almost looked like a trick of the light, as they were so similar, but close inspection revealed otherwise. My favorite thing was the skylight, which had a square opening with a solid cylinder sculpture hanging in the middle of it like a chandelier. Standing directly below it and staring upward, the skylight started to look like a solar eclipse, with a dark circle (the cylinder, appearing flat from that perspective), outlined by the sunlight let in from the skylight. It was a very dramatic effect. I would have liked to take a few photographs, but alas the room was guarded. I got the sculpture and reflection pool outside, though.
After that, we met up with Cyndi, I donned my new "Elitist Prick" shirt, and we met Sabrina and Shawn for dinner at Niko Niko's. I wasn't that hungry after such a heavy lunch, but an order of soup and salad turned out to be just right.
Dinner consumed, it was on to the MFAH for another night of the Starbucks mixed media series. Rebecca wasn't impressed with the quilting exhibit ("That's not real art."), but I found it reasonably interesting. The music was nothing special, but Dan had VIP access again, and while we didn't get into the VIP area, his wristband was good for free drinks, a privilege which I readily abused.
Afterwards, it was on to the afterparty, which was hosted in a warehouse north of town. The organizers almost had a riot on their hands when it took about half an hour to get the beer flowing from the kegs, and they were obviously concerned because they got very defensive. They were unwilling to start handing out the jello shots they were charging for (this after we had already paid $10 to get in and drink beer) to placate us, making matters worse.
Eventually, though, the beer started flowing. The party was fairly low key. There was a stench near the port-o-potties, which was a bit intrusive, and Becca disappeared at one point (but was just outside on her cell phone), which worried me, but ultimately, there was beer and good company. It was a nice denouement to the birthday weekend.
8/13
I decided to take Becca to La Mexicana for lunch. It ended up being a good choice. My eggs mexicana and tamales were great. Becca introduced me to horchata, which was, basically, a revelation. Becca's chilaquiles were also quite tasty.
After that, Becca took off for Austin, and I reveled in a chance to have some time to myself. It was a good birthday weekend.
Birthday weekend (or "Matt Tuesday" or "Ward Fest '06" rolled around. Left school early, met Rebecca and Cindy at my place, and took off for Rudz. Lots of people showed up (Kim & co.; David and Tiffany; Oliver & co.; First Years; Dan, Kristin & Co.; Jeff & Jim; Wanda; Will, Char, and Angela; Second Years; Law School Lauren & Chris—about 30 all together). I had a Rudz burger (a damned fine one), and Cindy tried their jerk pulled pork sandwich (also good). Beers were drunk. Darts were played. Cake was eaten. I managed to maintain well. I got lots of nifty presents:
- From Jeff & Jim, The Venture Bros. Season 1. Jeff's a fan, so he understood my apprecation of the show.
- From Sabrina & Shawn, a nifty shaker.
- From Wanda, a Spec's gift certificate, which will buy me all kinds of nifty hotness.
- From Rebecca, an "Elitist Prick" t-shirt that I had spied in Austin once and never been able to find again. Sort of true but sort of ironic...
- From Cindy, a wall-mounted bottle opener (which I had been looking for forever) and two tickets to see Ben Folds with the Houston Symphony Orchestra.
I hadn't really gotten into the album when it came out last year, but in the days leading up to the show I had listened to it for a few times and really liked it. The show was great. Very chill, very pleasant. It was a nice way to wind up my birthday party.
8/12
Saturday morning, I finally got around to checking out the Breakfast Klub. It's a Houston institution, and I'd heard great things.
The place isn't tiny, but not particularly big, and there's generally an hour wait. Rather than just having a line around the block, the owners cleverly purchased a building across the street for waiting space. They had a jazz combo playing, and some French Market-style vendors. It was all very nice.
Our number was called, and we crossed the street to the building, entered, observed the colorful interior, and ordered. Chicken & waffles and catfish and grits were specialities. I'm a big grits fan, so I opted to mix and match and do chicken and grits. Everything was very tasty, if horribly unhealthy and heavy. Great food to be enjoyed occasionally.
Cindy left and Becca and I went to check out some art. We started out at Project Rowhouses. We parked and started to walk around the block of identical houses, eventually finding one that was open, with someone inside working on art. He directed us to their office at the end of the block, where we found a group of African American men playing dominoes. One of them told us that there was no formal tour; that we could just walk around, talk to the artists, and check out what they're doing.
I liked it. Very free form, very performance art with audience participation. The artists there were artists interning there for the summer, each one given a house as studio space. One person did a sculpture (foot cast)/portrait/interview combination of Native American descendents. Another was doing some dramatic paintings with a crucifixion motif.
The whole thing was nicely casual, unpretentious, and interactive. It's funny, as we left I thought of classic role-playing games, where you're in a village (often of identically-formed houses), and you just go in whatever open doors you want and talk to the inhabitants. Funny, it always seemed completely unrealistic before.
Next up was a trip to the the Contemporary Arts Museum, but the Jung Center was right there, so we took a brief detour. Not much there, but some nice stuff...
The main exhibit upstairs at the CAM was by Kiki Smith. Her stuff mainly focused on body parts, organs, etc. Some of it I liked. Some of it I didn't. The stuff I didn't was... well, gross isn't the right word. But something about it seemed surprisingly low brow. The glass water droplets on the floor (pictured) were nice. The glass sperm on the floor? Meh.
There was a neat installation at Rice that Rebecca wanted to check out, a rainbow wall, constructed sort of like a mosaic or like scales. The building seemed to have closed early, though, as the doors were locked, but we got the general idea of it.
From there it was on to the Menil Collection. Rebecca is a Dan Flavin fan, so we checked out the building dedicated to his fluorescent light installation next. It was a neat installation, with very interesting uses of geometry, light, color, and space.
Finally, on to the Rothko Chapel. I liked that the foyer had a very wide selection of sacred texts. The interior was very interesting with its muted greys and purples. Reverant, but a little sad, too. It was paradoxically brightly lit from a skylight above, but dim due to interior color. The large canvases featured prominently on the walls were actually painted in two different colors, which I was surprised to discover. It almost looked like a trick of the light, as they were so similar, but close inspection revealed otherwise. My favorite thing was the skylight, which had a square opening with a solid cylinder sculpture hanging in the middle of it like a chandelier. Standing directly below it and staring upward, the skylight started to look like a solar eclipse, with a dark circle (the cylinder, appearing flat from that perspective), outlined by the sunlight let in from the skylight. It was a very dramatic effect. I would have liked to take a few photographs, but alas the room was guarded. I got the sculpture and reflection pool outside, though.
After that, we met up with Cyndi, I donned my new "Elitist Prick" shirt, and we met Sabrina and Shawn for dinner at Niko Niko's. I wasn't that hungry after such a heavy lunch, but an order of soup and salad turned out to be just right.
Dinner consumed, it was on to the MFAH for another night of the Starbucks mixed media series. Rebecca wasn't impressed with the quilting exhibit ("That's not real art."), but I found it reasonably interesting. The music was nothing special, but Dan had VIP access again, and while we didn't get into the VIP area, his wristband was good for free drinks, a privilege which I readily abused.
Afterwards, it was on to the afterparty, which was hosted in a warehouse north of town. The organizers almost had a riot on their hands when it took about half an hour to get the beer flowing from the kegs, and they were obviously concerned because they got very defensive. They were unwilling to start handing out the jello shots they were charging for (this after we had already paid $10 to get in and drink beer) to placate us, making matters worse.
Eventually, though, the beer started flowing. The party was fairly low key. There was a stench near the port-o-potties, which was a bit intrusive, and Becca disappeared at one point (but was just outside on her cell phone), which worried me, but ultimately, there was beer and good company. It was a nice denouement to the birthday weekend.
8/13
I decided to take Becca to La Mexicana for lunch. It ended up being a good choice. My eggs mexicana and tamales were great. Becca introduced me to horchata, which was, basically, a revelation. Becca's chilaquiles were also quite tasty.
After that, Becca took off for Austin, and I reveled in a chance to have some time to myself. It was a good birthday weekend.
Labels: art, bars, birthday, concerts, restaurants
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 1:46 AM
