Saturday - April 05, 2008
My first tattoo
Got my first tattoo today!
This morning while pondering my breakfast of waffles, it suddenly dawned on me what tattoo I should get. You see, Aviva and I have talked about getting a tattoo for years, but we've never settled on a design. And, you do have to live with it (and if you're Jewish you live with it forever).
So, after handling the latest crisis in our move from Chicago to Los Angeles, I went to Nathan's at the suggestion of the new woman at our apartment complex, Amanda. Javier did a great job I think, and we had fun doing it (it hurt a lot at first, but I got sort of used to it and even watched some of the filling-in).
So, here it is - its on the inside of the right wrist!
Sunday - March 23, 2008
Moonshadows Restaurant in Malibu, CA
20356 Pacific Coast Hwy., Malibu, CA 90256
I'm moved into my temporary housing, Aviva goes back home Monday to finish getting the house ready to vacate, so we decided to drive to Malibu and have a nice dinner.
The service wasn't great; I think our server forgot about us a couple of times. The menu is interesting and modern. The shrimp cocktail only had four shrimp. I had the pork chop, which was in a mustard seed and organic bacon sauce with an sweet potato puree with anise seasoning. The chop was a bit dry, but the food was flavorful.
Saturday - December 08, 2007
Spertus Museum reopened and the One of a Kind sale
We did two things this week to take my mind off of my job search.
The Spertus Museum, which is attached to the Spertus College here in Chicago, is a Jewish museum and educational facility on Michigan Avenue. We went in on Thursday this week to check out their new digs - its a really nice building, very open, bright and airy. The old space was claustraphobic, but this one is really beautiful. We had lunch at their cafe, which is kosher food from Wolfgang Puck, all prepackaged except the soups but all properly sealed. We both had salads which were very good. The exhibit on display was disappointing - an exhibit of "art" by Jews in the west.
On Friday we went to the "One of a Kind" sale at the Merchandise Mart. Its a huge sale with at least a hundred people from all over the world selling interesting things. One company sold harps and psaltries; Aviva bought two sets of earrings from a woman that uses antique beads in her work.
Sunday - October 28, 2007
Dinner at Alhambra Palace Restaurant
Alhambra Palace Restaurant is a good Morrocan restaurant on Randolph Street.
1240 W. Randolph, Chicago, IL - (312) 666-9555
We went to the antique market on Randolph and went by this restaurant on the way there. You can't miss the facade - its a bad takeoff of the Arabian Nights. Aviva had wanted to try this place for a while so we decided to eat there after the market.
The food was decidedly good - Aviva had the dolmeh (stuffed grape leaves) and chicken tarine, and I had the falafel and spiced lamb tarine. The grape leaves weren't soaked in brine and were soft and tasty. The falafel was perhaps the best I've ever had, crispy and not oily on the outside and soft and fluffy inside, with a slight hint of cinnamon. Tarine is the name of a ceramic cooking pot that's got a conical top with a hole in it; the food is placed inside and then slow cooked. The chicken was lightly seasoned, but the lamb was outrageous - I could pull it apart with a fork only, and the spices were wonderful.
The restaurant is actually not the main attraction - they have a large (perhaps seating 500 - 1000 people on two levels) auditorium in back where they have belly and flamenco dancing. They rent hookahs at $20.
It was expensive. But, the portions were large (we took some home) and the food was good. We'll go back again.
Tuesday - October 23, 2007
More paper models!
I built two more paper models, one of the Duomo and the other the Campanile, both in Florence. I also started a web page on my paper modeling hobby.
I made two more paper models, which I bought on eBay and from Daedalus Books (a good overstock and discount on-line bookstore). The models are of the Duomo, the large cathedral in Florence noted for its dome, and the Campanile, the tower designed and started by Giotto that's next to the Duomo.
I now need to get the kit of the Bapistry, which is across the piazza from the Duomo, and I'll have all of the buildings located in the main square of Florence!
Monday - October 01, 2007
Real Dolls
We saw a documentary last night on BBC America called "Love Me, Love My Doll."
This was a strange one we found by accident - a documentary about four men that own realdolls - dolls designed to look and feel like women. I'm providing the link to the wikipedia entry here for your enjoyment. I think this is a little strange, but if it makes the guys happy I guess it can't be that bad (to badly paraphrase Sheryl Crow). The dolls do look very realistic (at least the faces - they fuzzed all the bits you can't show on TV). These guys dress up and make up the dolls, which I find a little wierd - one time I went as a woman on Halloween and Aviva had to teach me the basics of make up; I wonder how these guys figured it out, since they claimed to have little contact with women.
Monday - October 01, 2007
Gates of Paradise
We visited the Gates of Paradise exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.
We went to the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago to see the exhibit "The Gates of Paradise." The show includes art work and three of the panels of the east doors of the Bapistry in Florence; these panels are considered an excellent example of early Renaissance art. Lorenzo Ghiberti won a competition (Brunilleschi, the man that put the dome on the Florentine Duomo, lost that competition) to cast doors for the Bapistry which is across the square from the Duomo. This was Ghiberti's third set of doors (copies of the first set is on the north side of the Bapistry). During the Arno flood of 1966, some of the panels of "The Gates of Paradise" were dislodged. This led to an effort to restore the panels; the east doors of the Bapistry are now a copy, and the original panels are located in the museum of the Duomo. I visited that museum on our last trip to Florence and you can see my pictures here. The panels in this exhibit are Adam and Eve, Jacob and Esau, and David and Goliath.
I liked this exhibit a lot - it combined some of the art work going on at the time (Ghiberti really liked the Gothic style and spent some time in Siena decorating their cathedral).
On Ghiberti, I think the last paragraph of the web page on the exhibit sums him up nicely:
"Sculptor, painter, draftsman, architectural consultant, stained-glass designer, entrepreneur, author of a treatise on the arts, and the first artist to write an autobiography, Ghiberti could honestly declare in his Commentaries that "few things of importance were made in our city that were not designed or devised by my hand." The masterpieces in this exhibition, while representing only a small portion of his works, confirm that Ghiberti had good reason to boast."
Thursday - August 09, 2007
Paper model of Chartres Cathedral - IT'S DONE!
I bought a model to assemble of the famous Chartres Cathedral in the Cathedral gift shop, and this entry will track how I put it together.
The model is large, at least 2 1/2 feed long and a foot or so wide. Its pretty complex with a lot of little parts (mostly the flying buttresses), but the instructions are clear and pretty easy to work through.
For a project like this, you need a sharp hobby knife, a good white glue stick, some wax paper and some round toothpicks. At some points tweezers helped out.
Below is a photo journal of the construction - I hope you find it interesting!
The core of the Cathedral glued to the base. That's a foot ruler bottom-left.
A view from the front - partial south tower installed August 5, 2007
South tower finished with the foot ruler to indicate the height
A front view with completed south tower August 7, 2007
Front view with completed north tower (those buttresses were not fun!) August 9, 2007
The north transept completed August 15, 2007
The south transept completed August 18, 2007. Note that the south transept has more decoration and higher higher roofs on the towers; I wonder which was built earlier.... The model is really starting to shape up; the last things are the rear (which looks difficult - lots of curved paper to cut and glue) and the flying buttresses.
The chevet, or rear of the cathedral August 22, 2007. Now comes the really fun part, cutting out all the complex curves of the flying butresses and gluing them in. But, then this model will be done.
And the first set of butresses are installed on the rear of the cathedral August 27, 2007.
A couple of detail shots to show the butresses - very neat! Almost looks like an Escher print!
And the rear is completed (note the copywrite message) August 28, 2007
I finished the side butresses yesterday late afternoon September 3, 2007
Some general views of the completed model
Its hard to believe its done! It took a month to assemble this, but it wasn't too hard; developing a technique for cutting and gluing along with being slow and careful were the keys to success. The kit came with photos and text about Chartres - you can find the material here.
Sunday - August 19, 2007
Walked by the point where the Chicago fire started
Had lunch with a friend and walked by the starting point of the Chicago fire.
I had lunch last week with a friend of mine, a former peer at LaSalle Bank. As we walked by a building for the Chicago Fire Department, he asked me if I'd been to the starting point of the Chicago fire - I said no, and he said were were there now! There is a monument and a plaque on the site.
Wednesday - August 15, 2007
Visit with my son for my mom's 82nd birthday
Nathan and I both traveled to Columbus to visit my mom.
Nathan and Terry drove down from Monroe, MI, and I caught a flight to Columbus. My mom has her 82nd birthday coming up and we celebrated it on the Saturday before. We had a nice dinner together.
From front clockwise - Terry, Nathan, Joe, mom, Hart
I flew in Friday night and back Sunday night. I read the book Perfume on the trip (finished it on the flight back).
