Best Dying Days of Summer

Up until Sunday night, I thought classes started on Tuesday. But thanks to the sort of argument I'm always happy to lose, I found out that classes were to begin on Wednesday, and I don't have Wednesday classes this year, so that meant I had an extra two days of summer! How did I spend them? As well as I could.

Originally I was going to try to fill Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with as much mad crazy awesomeness as possible and have a blow-out post on each day, but the excitement sort of tapered, and now they're all going to be in one post that I will subdivide into fake mini-posts. Okay?

Best Solitary Journey Into the Incredible



Monday I woke up and decided to adventure. To seriously adventure. So I set out to fulfil my year plus long dream of visiting the Dia Beacon museum. A trip to Grand Central and an 80 minute train ride later and there I was, in Beacon New York, right up alongside the Hudson River, hiking up to the Dia Beacon.

The Dia Beacon is run by the same folks (the Dia folks, actually) that run the Earth Room and Broken Kilometer in Soho (and other insane installations found throughout the United States) and it's the 300,000 sq/ft clearing house of all their greatest insanity. Just imagine an old box factory of enormous size filled with installations of the most insane variety and you've got the Dia Beacon. Unfortunately, it's the sort of museum where you aren't allowed to take photos, so I've very little to show of my trip . . . but it's probably all for the best, because were I to show you photos of what I saw Monday afternoon you'd either die of despair from not being able to see these things yourself right away or just call your computer a liar for showing you such unbelievable images.

But, seriously, browse their website, it'll give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Something overheard at the Beacon as an old fellow in a Navy baseball cap entered the room full of white on white canvases (one of the more "mundane" Dia Beacon exhibits): "Here we go . . . this is cool . . . look at this! This is waiting for something. They're going to put something on this. This can't be it."

Also, there were "Don't Touch the Artwork" signs everywhere . . . which made sense, of course, especially in the room with the huge piles of broken glass.

The Dia Beacon was the sort of place where I couldn't decide if I wanted to keep it a secret all to myself, or share it with everyone in the world.

Also, don't get the cheese sandwich.

Best Mystery of the Hudson



Someone please tell me the tale of this ruined castle I saw from the train on my way to and from the museum.

Best Fake-Cafe Rio Night



Monday night the Bowens had Utah ex-pats over to attempt to replicate the taste of the Beloved Cafe Rio we all left behind when we came to New York. The result? Everyone pitched in and put forth a magnificent effort and the end product was pretty dang great . . . especially thanks to Karisa's off-the-hook Fake Cafe Rio salad dressings.

Best Tuesday Afternoon Indulgence



Tuesday I had plans to do all sorts of things in the city but it was SO humid I quickly lost my resolve. So instead I had some refreshing freshly fried Corn Dogs and returned to 15B to do some end of the summer cleaning. That night I saw a French crime drama that was mostly about pianos and then bought a coffee table book about Mexican Wrestling.

Best Graffiti Confusion



In this NeckFace age, one really can't tell if a piece is just sloppy and ugly or if it's serious.

Best Wednesday That I Pretended Wasn't a School Day

Yeah, as much as I wanted it to be another vacation day, you have to have already read before you go to law classes for the first time so I did a lot of reading and book buying today. And I'm doing some more reading when this post is done. But I also grabbed some great looking books from the library for my Utah trip. (Utah trip? Yeah, I'm headed out tomorrow night. It's gonna be the best.) Also, in Washington Square Park they were pan handling for CBGBs.



You know what I think of Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers' financial woes? I'd be a lot more concerned if they actually booked good bands these days.

Best Unrelated Bonus

Here's a direct link to the new Franz Ferdinand video. It's good. Amber and Mitch are in it . . . somewhere.

Best Little Weekend Movie

On Wednesday, as I was walking home from school (the geographic location, not the actual taking of classes, that hasn't started yet) I passed the "new" IFC Center Theater at 6th and 3rd and they were having the New York City premiere of The Baxter and Michael Showalter (the writer, director, and star of the film) was standing around having his photo taken.



Then a bit later his co-star, Justin Theroux, showed up and they posed together.



Then, on Friday night, I went and saw The Baxter. While it has been getting absolutely horrible reviews, I found the movie to be very likeable. It was beyond inoffensive and harmless and I thought it was plenty funny. It's only playing in New York and LA right now, but it's worth checking out when it arrives in your city, or just rent it, maybe. I'd definitely see it again.

Best California Catch-Up Pt. II, Addendum

Before.



After.



I hope you read all the words in the post below.

Best California Catch-Up Pt. II

So, last Tuesday was my last day in LA and the whole family went to the Huntington Library because it's three blocks from Grandma's house and that's what you do when you go to Grandma's, you visit the Huntington Library.

When we got there I signed the guestbook.



If you can't tell, I wrote "My family has been making me come here all my life."



It's occurring to me that a proper post about the Huntington Library would explain the history and purpose of the place, but this isn't a proper post, so let me just say that the Huntington Library is what remains of an era when money really meant something.



(they used the outside of the main mansion as the setting of the final party in the Staskey and Hutch movie)

There are statues and stuff everywhere



On this part of the grounds they've filmed lots of movie weddings.



We posed for a family photo. I'm afraid this is my only picture from the whole weekend with Grandma Taylor in it.



Like I said, statues everywhere





This is Dad with Father Time



This is Father Time. He doesn't look so great.



Like I said, statues everywhere!



Dog statues, too.



We visited one of the art galleries and looked at statues and paintings and stuff.





Pinkie and the Blue Boy are the Huntington's most famous paintings



All through Egypt my Mom asked me to pose like statues, and even though I rarely did it, I had Mom pose like the Blue Boy here . . . or maybe it was her idea?



I was born to love volcanoes.



"Yes sir, I understand what you would like . . . but you need to know that I'm not very good at painting horses."



Paintings of people. Good looking paintings. Decent looking people.







Then we were off to the Japanese Garden which are the main attraction but will soon lose out to the new Chinese Garden that are going to be opening.



Now, see, the thing you do when you go to the Japanese Garden is put your hand in the lion's mouth like this because Destro put his hand into the mouth of a statue of a snake to enter into the Cobra Temple in the original GI Joe miniseries which was what I was watching as a kid when I was forced to go to the Huntington Library one time.



In the good old days you could slam a log into this bell. In the good old days. Now you have to lean over the fence and hit it with your fist. But it's pretty much the same noise.



That's the moon bridge, and there's turtles in that pond.



Up above the garden there's a Japanese house.



This would be my niece, Rachel.



There's paths everywhere.



Over at the rock garden Blake was throwing rocks in a very not-Zen way.



Despite what it looks like, my Dad wasn't yelling at the Bonsai expert guy.



Bonsai trees!



But as soon as we get into the bamboo forest portion of the garden I kind of knock it off with my complaining about being at the Huntington.



Know what I mean?



Ahem. Statues everywhere.



That evening we went to Twohey's. Rachel got her foot up on the table. Sometimes I worry about this happening to me.

Best California Catch-Up Pt. I

Yeah, a week ago I sort of had a little time open up in my schedule so I decided to go to California since all my family would be there. I flew from JFK to Burbank, quite convenient, and was in a clicky enough mood when I got off my flight to take a picture of this ad for Pasadena, because that’s where I was pretty much headed, to Grandma’s in San Marino.



Good Ol’ Broekie picked me up and before heading home we stopped off at Del Taco because Del Taco is the greatest, so much better than Taco Bell. While there I tried to imitate myself with only medium success.



Now, Grandma had been on a trip to Alaska with Aunt Louise and Uncle Bob and the rumor was that they were going to be getting back on Thursday so I figured that for sure she’d be home on Friday night but nope, Grandma wasn’t home, and neither was her lodger, Max. Fortuntely for me, I knew where she hid a spare key (is it a security breach to say that she hides a key somewhere on her property?) but unfortunately for me, I couldn’t remember the code for Grandma’s alarm. So I spent Friday night talking to the alarm company, talking to the police that came over, and going through Grandma’s phone book looking for some relation somewhere in the country who could tell me the code whilst the alarm rang through her house and through sleepy San Marino. Sorry neighbors. But now I promise to never forget the code ever again.

Saturday morning I took advantage of the fact that a New Yorker can sleep in until 12:30 and have it only be 9:30 in California and rested fully and was still up and at ‘em. I drove down into Hollywood or whatever and hit up Amoeba Records and the okay stores on LaBrea, but the whole time I was sort of like: “Hmm, yeah . . . we’ve got all this stuff in New York.” Except we certainly don’t have anything like Amoeba, and for Amoeba I am grateful when I go to California.

I admired some Californian graffiti . . .





And saw things I wanted to remember later . . .



I spent Saturday thinking that my Grandma was about to return at any moment, but it turns up she didn’t show up on Saturday either, even though I bought cookies and put up balloons to welcome her back.

Also, I spent Saturday wondering when my own family would be showing up, because I was strongly under the impression that they were going to be in California too (they had been “vacationing” in Utah the week previous.) But I finally heard from my Mom that they’d be arriving on Sunday afternoon and that we were to meet up at my cousin Danny’s missionary farewell in Tustin.

So, yeah. On Sunday I met up with my family at my cousin Danny’s missionary farewell. It was a fine affair jammed full of relations and I realize now that I pretty much didn’t take any pictures, not even of Danny. But here’s one of people holding babies.



And here’s me and Grandma.



Shucks, no mail.





All right, and then on Monday we all drove down to Orange County again to check out the Newport Beach Temple open house.







The Newport Beach Temple is really, really ridiculously good looking (on the inside [not that the outside is so bad])



You know you’re at a major LDS event when you start seeing license plates that say “Brig Rig” on them. Crap. Another Brigham that isn’t me?



After the open house we went to the Cannery at Newport Beach for lunch. There were lots of glass jelly fish there.





When I was seated the waitress asked me if I would like a black napkin, so of course I said “yes”, even though I didn’t even understand why I would need a black napkin (I’m not that fancy, afterall). So this is me with my special black napkin.



This was my calamari. I didn’t mean to eat the whole appetizer, but I kind of did. I mean, there was some sharing that was done, but I ate most of it myself.



I took some pictures of the whole family dining, but I can imagine scenes of cannibalism more civilized then the manner in which we devoured the delicacies of the sea that were placed before us.

Our Tustin relations watched after Kristen’s babies. We found Blake watching TV.



Greg did all sorts of Uncle nonsense with Blake.



Heading back to Grandma’s we checked out the Mr. and Mrs. Smith residence and their neighbor’s house, both of which are on the street behind Grandma’s.





That night I went and hung out and stuff and guess who I ran across down in LA . . . none other than Ms. Gwendolyn Stevens from back in the day.



I wasn’t so surprised for her to pop up like she did on a Westwood ballfield, but still it’s special that she did.



The Westwood Jews for Jesus building logo . . . I just think it’s good looking.



Over there by UCLA there’s a really serious In N Out with a huge In N Out sign inside (as shown here with Ms. Broek)



Now, having only lived in LA from age 2 to 8, I’m not as fanatical about the In N Out as life-long Californians but on this specific night there was no better way for me to have spent $2 than on this cheeseburger.



First it was so good that it made me make a perv face . . .



And then it was so good that it made me make a face of sheer joy and satisfaction (with a touch of patriotism).



Just walking around Santa Monica you’ll find interesting apartments or whatever.