On the local classic rock station, I heard a song by Carlos Santana today; luckily, I thought I had it in my iTunes library. Headed home, checked, and there it was: “Oye Como Va” from the Best of Santana album. Naturally, I wanted to learn a little more about the guy … I knew he had been around a while and experienced a resurgence in the 90’s. I didn’t realize that his album Supernatural was essentially all collaborations, and pretty good ones, too.
Thus began my journey through useless yet interesting trivia. Starting from Santana’s Wikipedia page, I linked on over to a list of music artists who have sold over 250 million copies. Shocked to see ABBA on there, I continued down the list. What’s this? Some guy named Julio Iglesias, right there by Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and etc. Turns out this Julio fellow is the most popular song’ster in his native Spain, but before his musical career he played soccer for Real Madrid, which is considered “The 20th Century’s Best Club” by FIFA. Take a minute to think about that. This guy was a professional soccer player, but after he suffered debilitating spinal injury in a car accident, decided to pick up guitar and became a smash hit at that. Who in the world can honestly claim such undisputed success in two wildly different categories of human activity? Finally, his son is Enrique Iglesias; I thought that name sounded familiar.
I think we chatted with the owner about the fish in this really cool pond in Mai Village. He was very nice. Mykala, do you remember what the name of that expensive fish he mentioned was?
The cat that loves water - Turkish Vans are a breed of cats that love water. What’s more: “Vans can easily hit the top of a refrigerator from a cold start on the floor.”
Review: Juvenile felis catus - “A kitten will, however, enter this standby mode for most of each day. During this period, it is safe to approach, and will consume no food and little oxygen; you may wrap it in a blanket with impunity.”
This was taken inside Mai Village, an inexpensive restaurant with amazing atmosphere. Surrounded by authenticate Vietnamese artwork, you cross over a hand-carved wooden bridge to the most comfortable restaurant I’ve been to in a while.
Voted Best Vietnamese by City Pages readers in 2006, 2005, and probably some years before that. Perfect.
Interesting, this was found in Saqqara which, as ancient burial grounds go, is pretty amazing. “The step pyramid at Saqqara was designed by Imhotep for King Djoser (c.2667-2648 BC). It is the oldest complete building hewn stone complex known in history.”
After weeks of physical chemistry, biochemistry, and cell biology, I finally took Friday off to play some piano; it was physically cathartic to produce some creative work. In addition to the usual stress of trying to cram so much information into my head, I find the lack of creative outlets in my classes stifling. Spontaneously, unexpectedly, I find my hand drawing things, as if the urge to create inside of me refuses to be held back any longer. I end up sketching crappy trees.
Incidentally, I also learned today that the ASL symbol for “fire” is tracing circles othogonal to yourself towards your body, whereas the symbol for wheelchair is the same, but your fingers trace circles away from your body. Therefore, if you had to say that your wheelchair was on fire, the motion would be an odd one. This was funnier in person.
I saw The Prestige with Mykala this weekend - it was great! No, really. The most twisty plot I’ve seen in a movie for a while; it kept messing with your concept of “I get what’s going on.” Personally, I thought I had at for quite a while, but realized in the end I had mussed a critical detail. Fun movie ride, neverthelss. I feared that on-stage magic acts from the early 20th century would be hokie at best, but they are used so well to advance the plot, I felt the excitement of the audience inside the movie added to my anticipation (facilitated by my third-person vantage point of the events unfolding). Watch this movie and report back here.
And with the creativity desire satiated for today, I’m off to memorize, read, understand, and problem solve.
The k in kottke - This is not unlike me - the replaying conversations I’ve had throughout the day and analyzing what I’ve done/said wrong. It happens during conversations, too. A handicab, I think.
Weight lifting can be monotonous … but there are always those moments of sparkling dialogue.
Guy 2: So, what did you do Sunday night?
Guy 1: Yeah, I ended up watching 8 Below.
Guy 3: Hey - that snowboarding movie, right?
G1: Umm … no. But there is a lot of snow involved. It’s about sled dogs.
G2: Oh oh - that’s that movie with Cuba Gooding, Jr. in it!
G1: Uhh … no. Cuba Gooding Jr?! What? It stars that worthless actor …
G3: Oh yeah, yeah -
G2: Paul Walker!
G1: Yeah, Paul Walker.
G3: “You’re not double clutching like a good little boy …”
G2: Wait a second. What were you doing watching 8 Below?
G1: It was actually pretty good.
G3: Are you gay?
G1: No. And now I want a husky.
Timelapse photography - Using the Canon camera (one model newer than my own), this guy makes some incredible timelapse movies with software set to snap an image over a certain time interval. “Montreal Sunset Shards” is one of my favorites.
