Paddington's Birthday!

When I was a child, I remember getting a Paddington Bear on one of my younger birthdays. I honestly don't remember watching a single episode of the British show, but I know it existed and there's still quite a few available on the web through YouTube (First show). For those of you that don't know, today was Paddington's 50th birthday. The story begins in 1958 when author Michael Bond wrote about a bear that ventured from "Darkest Peru" on a lifeboat and landed at a London train station.

I had to look all that up because I really didn't recall any of it! I do remember climbing into our coat closet when it still had doors and digging around to find my Paddington Bear in the back. He had a hat sewn on, a removable coat with fishbone buttons, and bright red galoshes on his feet. It was fantastic! The only other thing I really remembered was that he loved Marmalade sandwiches, which in turn, made me love marmalade.

Maybe my mom knows better, but I remembered it as a stiff but lovable bear. Maybe I really loved the show, or maybe it was on sale... I don't know. But it was a great birthday for me. And now, I wish a great Birthday to Paddington Bear.

Official Website
Wikipedia page

A Taste of Weird

Yesterday, October 11th, 2008, I ventured on my bike to two separate festivals. Baltimore seems to have an endless supply of festivals, sometimes referred to as "Festivitus" or "Festivonomas". This Saturday's festivals were the "Bolton Hill Street Festival" and "A Taste of Waverly" just north of the city.

Bolton Hill really is a beautiful area and has a surprising volume of greenery. I stumbled onto this small party on a sloping street. The weather was clear and the crowd was full-figured with vendors, musicians, and artists. At the top of the block was an Episcopal church where a large garage sale also occupied and freshly brewed tea form the Lady's Auxiliary awaited. My favorite food was "Taco in a bag". Fantastic! They used Frito Lay chip bags and poured in the sauce, cheese, and other veggies right on top to create your taco... in a bag.

After a Clipper's Brewery Amber Ale, I went through Little Korea around Charles and 20th St and on my way to the next festival, "A Taste of Waverly". The Waverly Village is very vague and as far as I could tell... it has a few rough spots right near or in its boundaries. It lies around Greenwood and 32nd St. The whole thing was a little awkward. I was there at the start as people set up in the parking lot next to Papa Johns and 7-Eleven. I kept hoping something more would show, but I waited in vain. About 8 different vendors showed up and one of them was-in fact- Papa Johns. I thought that was kind of sad. The attendant literally went to the store and brought pizzas from there, across the street, and into the booth.

Because I was waiting for the festival to become exciting (balloons in the parking lot were more thrilling), I did some walking around Waverly. I quickly saw that the Middle-Aged pudgy white males at the parking lot were not representative of the low income minority groups that were the Waverly residents that I encountered. As far as I could tell, the people of Waverly, and the people at the Waverly Festival were two distinct groups and I don't think either of them appreciated the other. Personally, I liked the residents... more exciting and flavorful to me.

All in all, Bmore is a hit or miss with its festivals. I was lucky at Bolton Hill and could have done better at Waverly, but it was a beautiful day for a bike ride no matter the outcome. I hope the pictures show up well and if you get the chance to visit... choose Bolton Hill.

Walters Art Museum

I went to the first “First Friday at the Walters Art Museum” located at 600 N Charles St in Baltimore, MD. First impression... WOW! And not a good wow. More like a “You gotta be kidding me?” type of “wow”.

I brought the flyer home with me so I wouldn’t misconstrue the facts as they were presented.. “Looking for a place to wind down after work? Want to start the night out right? First Fridays at the Walters is the place to delight the senses and entertain the soul! Join us for our inaugural event, as we celebrate cultures from ancient Persia, Rome, Greece, Egypt and more, with music, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and live performances."

The first event included “TASTES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN” and “BELLYDANCE PERFORMANCES”. What I got were stale tortilla chips and bar pretzels, followed by a performance that I thought could have used a stripper pole. The soiree was held in the side foray of the museum where there were about 20 sculptures and 12 photosand one broken fountain.

Problems:
What collector in their right mind would put galaxy photos from the Hubble telescope above 16th century sculptures from Italy? Now the music was certainly eclectic, but also completely out of place and acoustically miserable. And when the Belly dancer came out, it was clear that the performance would be mediocre, but that was OK. What wasn’t OK, was the turn from mediocre to the sexual grinding and shaking to techno Indian music. I am NOT a connoisseur of Belly dancing. However, I do know what club dancers look like and as the dancer tonight approached an elderly man in a wheelchair for the third time, I couldn’t help but walk away.

The idea sounded promising. Art, music, and a touch of class. I’m not sure whether I was absolutely spoiled while traveling or if it was actually as terrible as I am dictating. I do think that what I’ve seen in Paris and Seoul has dramatically effected how I see the culture in America. The art abroad was exquisite and ubiquitous. Not just beautiful, but impressive and astounding... something I could close my eyes and dream about.
Que sera sera. Amusing at least. As the dancer came to her knees and leaned back while her chest went into convulsions, I closed my eyes... I won’t be dreaming about, but I will remember it.

Next First Friday, I think I’ll just stay at home with my Milwaukee Best and Doritos. I do believe the quality of my hors d’oeuvres will outdo that of Walters Art Museum.

Mad Hatter

As my sister so elegantly pointed out... I am indeed in need of a hat in my last post. Otherwise, how would you know I was celebrating New Year's in Madison.
Cheers

2006 will be my Year

Actually, probably not. But we always try. "This will be the year that I..."
Fill in the blank with just about any idle threat to improve your body, mind or soul. I guess my only real resolution will be to quite my nasty habit of smoking, for health and financial reasons. Don't worry, I still support everyone's right to smoke if they chose.

HAPPY NEW YEAR's DAY!!!
New year's eve has essentially been a bust most my entire life. Either no party or a horrible party. My best experience is probably the New Year's eve I brought in with a group of complete unknown's--joined by my temporary Best Friend Lauren Kerr. (I say temp b/c we were close as long as it was convienent, and we both knew that)

New year's eve in Madison is no exception. It's horrible. The Mid-West is a sink hole for holidays. They just don't celebrate them like would like to see. Except for 4th of July, they celebrate that proper. The Mid-West isn't the first to see the American New year--the glorious apple NYC is. Everyone knows the Ball Dropping moment, which always comes 1hr eary for us in the Mid-West. I enjoyed this eve with my girlfriend and her sister, but we might as well have been out any other night of the week. As I recall the people in the bar hollered more for the east coast than for their own mid-west.

Still I enjoyed my time out. I barely go to the bars anymore. As Lewis Black says on "The White Album"... "How do you guys know when its New Year's out here, 'Oh, well, New Years is when we drink with HATS on!'"

Lazy Days

I can remember exactly when I had some spare time. Last November, three days before Thanksgiving. Ah, the memories.

Today, I have about 3hrs of down-time, and so, I write to you--my fellow Bloggers. I bring you news of a great T-day and a Merry X-mas. I have come to grips with my aggravating projects as a graduate student and nobody has gotten injured along the way. Life is good.

On other mentionable notes, one of my X-mas gifts was a cook book from my sister. Not an ordinary cook book. This book (http://www.altonbrown.com/pages/bookit.html) describes the principles of cooking and how they actually work in a scientific approach. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! I'm not a particularly horrible cook, I follow recipes well and have a few specialties. However, I usually lack the ingredients and Lord help me if the recipe says "chop" or "dice" because I'm not quite sure what the difference is.

This book gave me an approachable go between to learn. Maybe my Hamburger Helper days will be over before I know it. Although, I can always rely on my beautiful girlfriend and her exquisite Korean cuisine ;-)

Unforgettable

"If there was ever going to be a Harris wedding, this is exactly how I pictured it."

Devin's words and our thoughts precisely. Laura's wedding did not go off without a hitch. Instead there were numerous fiascos and incidents that interfered with our original plans and performances. Firstly, it rained... and rained... and rained. Not a big deal for an indoor wedding, but for our outdoor wedding, whoa boy! Big deal. Secondly, bickering within and outside the family. The groom's parents had essentially disappeared when it came time to rehearse and the minister had an air of a dictator. Thirdly, the ren-faire was not an option to celebrate afterwards (what with all the rain and bickering).

Still, we managed to have a very unforgettable wedding. Laura and her groom were married and everyone was happy, soaking wet and all. Even all the brothers managed to calm down and politely seat themselves in the draping renaissance themed outfits.


17 Umbrella's........... $78
6 King-size tarps..... $100
4 Bales of hay.......... $20
Remembering the day your sister was married during a torrential down-pour...... Priceless.
There are a few things money can buy, and for the rest, there's the Harris'.