My current ipod stats.

Just thought I would update my current ipod stats. Actually, more correctly they are my itunes stats since I now have more music than I can hold on my 40gb ipod. My music file grew so large I had to export all my music onto an external hard drive, and in the process lost all the play counts, so I am starting fresh.

My current ipod stats are: 8403 songs, 23 days, 44.96 GB.

Most Played Song: "New Slang" by the Shins.

Most Played Album: "Rooney" by Rooney (10 complete times)

Most Recently Added Album: Iron and Wine "Our Endless Numbered Days."

Music in the Big City.

So last weekend my partner and I went to check out Jeff's violin recital in Purchase, NY. Now he might not admit, but Jeff is quite a fiddle player, so I decided to post the first piece from his recital, Beethoven's Sonata for violin and piano in A Major, Op. 30, No.: I. Allegra here at the rival schools.

Download Performance Here
Windows users may want to right click the link and select the "Save Target As" option


Current Music : [This Place is a Prison - The Postal Service]

Yet even more art appreciation at chutes and ladders...

Sorry if you are getting tired of seeing these here, but I feel like posting them for personal posterity. This is an earlier piece (it came after "shower" but before "passing") of mine that I painted during one of my down periods. This piece was a loose "reproduction" of a van gogh, not so much in that it was meant to mirror the master's piece, but that I saw i similar picture of it in a book and thought, "hey, i could do something like that." so i did. it is more an exploration of color than an attempt to produce a decent picture of some flowers. Notice the mixture of blues and whites in the back ground. I really like this look and you can see that I most of my later works have incorporated this style.

current music: [Such Great Heights: Iron and Wine]

Even More Art Appreciation at Chutes and Ladders.

"standing in her panties in the shower" .

Thought I would post some more of my artwork here at chutes and ladders. This latest piece is actually the first painting i ever did on a canvas larger than the size of a piece of paper. I guess the title would be "standing in her panties in the shower." Like most of my original artwork, this piece was inspired to a song I heard playing on the radio one night as I was driving from Columbia to St. Louis. The song was the Sheryl Crow hit There Goes the Neighborhood and the verse was:
The photo chick made to look sickly/ Is standing in her panties in the shower/ She plays the guitar in the bathroom/ While the police dust her mother's plastic flowers/ And Schooboy John's in jail/ Making a killing through the U.S. mail.

Of all the pieces I have done, this is my favorite. As a result, I gave it to my partner and my closest friends as a gift. It is very distinct from all my later artwork which has much more aggresive brush strokes and layers upon layers of paint. I often think about doing a companion piece, but haven't found the time. Perhaps when i finish the piece I am working on I will give it a go.

current music: [caring is creepy - the shins]

Playlist for the week of April 17th

Here is a list of the music that I was spinning last week that I am posting for posterities sake. While my ipod has nearly 7000 songs on it, this adaquately captures the music I was listening to last week.

The Sights: The Sights (2005)
The Postal Service: Give Up (2004)



Death Cab For Cutie: Transatlantcism (2003)
Rooney: Rooney (2003)


Phantom Planet: The Guest (2002)
The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow (2003)

"Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (Game 2)

phillies 1

windy city (Day 4), or "Take me out to the ball game (Game 1)"

Met up with my cousin and went to Wrigley Field with him and a co-worker today. It was a beautiful day outside, warm but not hot... the perfect day for a ball game. I love going to the ballpark. I don't know what it is... but there is just something about that transition from being inside the stadium and walking to the field entrance and seeing the grass for the first time... it is simply breathe-taking the way the grass just seems to glow in the sun. I don't know what it is? Perhaps it is because I grew up in Houston and all the games there are played in a dome, but once I was in colllege and walked into my first open air stadium I started loving baseball.

Wrigley field is the second baseball park in the United States (next to Fenway Park). As a result, the stadium has large iron pillars that obscure some of view of the ball field. One such pillar obscured some of our view of third base, but as you can see our seats were still pretty good. They were under the shade, which is regrettable since it was such a beautiful day, but Chicago in April, you never know what kind of weather you are going to get. And quite frankly I would rather be in the shade on a sunny day than exposed to the elements on a cold rainy day.

The match-up was Sheets v. Zambrano. I would have loved to have seen either Wood or Prior (both were on the DL), but I have to admit I was really impressed with Zambrano. He pitched 7 and a third shut out innings, striking out six and giving up only a single hit before being yanked by Baker to the dismay of Cubs fans. Even more impressive than his pitching, was Zambrano's bat: in three plate appearances Zambrano had 2 hits scoring a run and batting another run in. All and all it was a great first trip to the ball park this year.

While I am now a pretty devout cardinals fans, I have to admit there is a special place in my heart for the cubbies. Some of my earliest baseball memories are of the Cubs game being broadcast on WGN after the Bozo the Clown Show. I remember my how mom used to like Ryne Sandberg and how I used to love it when Harry Caray would sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch. And while every ballpark in America sings it during the seventh inning stretch, I feel sorry for the kids who will never get to experience Caray's version. It just seemed so empassioned, so honet. It embodies everything that is great about baseball.

While I didn't get to enjoy my Chicago style hot dog, I have to admit going to Wrigley Field was a great way to open the baseball season. If you have a free weekend, I encourage you to go to Chicago and check it out, you won't be disappointed.



Current Music: [I'm a Terrible Person - Rooney]

Windy city (Day 3), or more Art Appreciation at Chutes and Ladders

I went to the museum at the Chicago Art Institute today with two of my colleagues. It is funny how people have completely different art preferences. I just can't get enough of the late European artists, particularly the impressionists. I could stare at those paintings forever, but one of my colleagues indicated how he felt a little impressionism goes along way. So while we all entered the museum together planning to walk through it together, we lost each by the second or third room. I was reminded while walking through the museum how insignificant my work really is. These guys (and girls) were doing something that really moves people... that effects them psychological... that moves them. I can't really think of a time that I was ever "moved" by a piece of political science (although I Schattschneder and Olson did resonate quite loudly within me).

Thought I would post a few pictures for people to see. It is hard to take good pictures in a museum because they don't allow flash photography. But over the weekend I learned some photo editing techiniques in iPhoto and Photoshop that really helped clean up these images.
















Current Music: [Blueside - Rooney]

Windy city (Day 3)

Was walking around downtown Chicago and saw the corncob buildings as featured on the wilco album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" (and also Newhart if if I remember correctly). Anyway I tried to reproduce the cover of the wilco album from memory... not a very close reproduction, but I thought that the picture was still kind of cool.

Current Music: [Young Pilgrims - the Shins]

windy city (Day 2)

So today was my second day in the windy city. I love chicago. It's such a distinctly better city than New York. A native described it as a large city made up of a lot of small neighborhoods, which is definately the feel that you get when on the north side of the city. The south side might be a completely different story.

Didn't get a whole lot accomplished off the whole to do list today. I did finish preparing my presentation for the conference, so I was a good boy. (Yay me!) After that, I went down to Michigan Avenue for lunch and a little shopping. God, I love the apple store. It's such a great place... from the see through stairs to the bean bag chairs to lecture hall... it is definately a place I could spend a lot of time. (I got out with minimal damage to the ole pocket book... just picked up a couple of kid proofing items to better protect my expensive toys from my lovely but non-price discerning daugther.) I imagine I will go again tomorrow. From there I walked down Michigan Avenue, across the river (see photo) to Monroe Avenue so that I could head over to the conference, which is at the Palmer House Hilton. So you are thinking, hey went to your conference, that's one thing you can scratch of your list right? No. I didn' get there until after 5 and I just snuck in to meet my coauthor and my buddy so we could go get drinks. Found a little dive in the basement of a pizza parlor which had pints for 2 dollars. Good thing to, because they tasted more like water than beer.

I am including another shot off the river... if you look on the left hand edge you can make out the corn cob buildings that are on the cover of wilco's "yankee hotel foxtrot" album.

tomorrow we have pretty solid plans to head to the art museum...

windy city (Day 1)

windy city

Day 1: (of the windy city trip). Drove from state college to chicago today with five of my colleagues. It is a little strange travelling with people you don't know... noone knows what to say and at times the silence is deafening. I was riding shotgun which made listening to my ipod most difficult... which kind of bummed me out, since I had spent so much time uploading new music onto it this week. oh well. there is always the trip back i guess...

I successfully navigated the L train from down town to my aunt and uncle's place on the North Side (off Diversy). It was pretty easy, but I (as well as anyone who knows me) had my doubts. (I must have asked at least five people, "is this a north bound train")

i took this picture as we pulled into town (driving west on I-90. In the back ground you can see the Sears tower. I didn't notice this when I was taking the picture but near the bottom, you can see two large murals commemorating the Attack on Pearl Harbor and 9/11. I am not quite sure what utility the serve (Chicago was not directly hit by the attacks), they are kind of located in an industrial district. The only thing I can think of is to inspire patroitism among the blue collar laborers working in the area. You can imagine with the number of good jobs going overseas, inspiring an us against them mentality has its uses for modern industrialists.



Things to Do in Chicago:

1) If it is nice, I think I will go down to the lake and walk along Navy Peer... maybe hang out on the "beach" and do a little reading and blogging.

2) If it is rainy, definately going to check out the art museum.

3) Go to Portillo's and eat too many chicago-styly hot dogs.

4) Go to the cubs game, get a cubbies hat (or a cheap sammy sosa jersey), and eat even more Chicago style hot dogs. (If I am feeling ambitious, I can attempt the nine dogs, nine beers, in nine innings challenge.)

5) Find a cool used music store and get some new cds for my ipod.

6) Maybe go to my conference.

7) Drink a Murphy's Irish Stout.



Music to listen to: I picked up Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" which was supposedly inspired by Chicago. Figure that will help get me in the mood.

Current Music: [Eve, the Apple of My Eye - Bell X1]

my current ipod stats

ipod

My current Ipod stats are: 6223 songs, 17.2 days, 31.61 GB.

... and I was worried that I won't have anything to listen to on my trip to Chicago! Not sure how people survive on the ipod mini.

Most Played Song: "Numb/Encore" by Jay-Z and Linkin Park (67 times).

Most Played Album: "Transatlantacism" by Death Cab (42 complete times)

Most albums by the same artist: Prince - 14 albums (although includes counting multi disc volumes seperately), otherwise it is Bob Marley - 13 albums.

Guiltiest Pleasure: Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone." What can I say, I am a sucker for a good pop tune.

I finished my conference paper today.

It's funny how something that is almost done, ends up taking more time then you ever imagine. With that being said, Heather and I did finish our conference paper and get it sent off today. I am glad to be done with it so I can get back to my methods exam preperations.

You can download a copy of the paper here. Identifying that when quizing the public about politics men consistently demonstrate a better understanding then women, this paper addresses what the practical impact is of women's lower levels of political knowledge. Specifically we find that women's lower levels of political knowledge significantly depress the likelihood of women participating in public forms of political participation. It's still needs some work (this is the second substantial draft), but I can see the end of this paper is in sight. Hopefully I can get it published somewhere... otherwise it will go to the place where unpublished papers rest in peace.

Art Appreciation at the sounds of settling.

I just thought that I would post a painting that I am working on. Hasn't taken me very long so far, maybe 3 or 4 hours, but I am not happy with it quite yet. I like the sky and I really love the moon (I like to paint pictures that make people want to touch them), but I am not happy with the grass. The painting is called "further" after a song by the band longview (all my paintings are inspired by music... every once and a while I will just be listening to a tune and I get this image). The lyrics are:

artwork

And the same when autumn comes/Cold Air I breathe in my lungs/Something's new but nothing's changed/Familiar feelings just the same

Soon too the warm air comes by/Lie back and stare at blue skies/Thinking back away and from/When I'll be here and you'll be gone

Further from me

I think now of summers high/And reminisce on past times gone by/Only remembered now in/Earth, trees, the stars that have been there/And there forever held/Kept safe but memories never told/But felt if you went by/In never changing sky

And we'll be gone

passing

Half finished pictures are kind of a systemic problem. It's kind of a pattern I have when I paint, I get about 75 percent of the way done but then stall because I can't make the image look the way that I want to. Maybe if I ever took an art class it might help. Take for example this painting. It is called "passing" (named after a song by garrison starr that had a verse that went: "That boy sittin' over there/With the way he is going/He hasn't got a prayer/And he's probably not even worth knowing"). I started it about six years ago. There is a lot I like about it: the face, the sweater, the glass, and the bar. But I could never get the window in the back ground to work out... it's hard to tell in this picture because it is cropped, but in the original version there is just this big, obnoxious purple rectangle in the background. As a result, it has just been hanging out in a box in the garage waiting for me to get back to it. Oh well!