Architecture
This was really a Garfield Monday — between dealing with dead computers, staff panics, kernel panics, intermittent mice and funky variables, I think Bruce and I managed to get a little bit of work done. I drive by the window in the last photo almost daily, and never really paid much attention to it, until tonight when I noticed it looked like an aquarium.
When the old Territorial House burned on July 23, 2012, I was saddened by the damage to the historic landmark I had grown up with, worked on, and even performed in. The demolition started last week and the first two photos show all that was left of it at 8:00 am this morning. I took the last photo of the orange barrels on my way to class this afternoon as I imagined the stormy sky marked the time that the last vestiges of the T-House were dumped in a trucked to be hauled away. The site where the 213 year old hacienda once stood was vacant and scraped clean when I passed by on my way home tonight.
Roadies waiting out behind the Sunshine Theater. I didn’t have time to check and see what groups were playing tonight.
I met the artist working on the installation a 2nd and Gold this morning. The installation is Jane Gordon’s MFA Thesis Exhibit called “Gathering.” She describes it as a “Site-based art installation in a public space.” She uses a variety of materials and processes “to explore a personal, historic, and forward-looking narrative of labor, struggle, survival, and hope in a time of ecological and social uncertainty.” The exhibit will be officially open from February 9 — March 30, and there is an opening reception on Saturday, February 9 from 3pm to 6pm.
Taxi 127 was driving pretty wild tonight — maybe the passenger was in labor or something. Continuing my new, scenic routes to and from my new parking spot, I wanted to photograph this door for the past couple of nights, but there were some rough looking characters hanging around in front of the door, and I didn’t want to see what their reactions would be to me either asking them to move, or be in the photo since I couldn’t really see what they were involved in. The installation of sheets on the wall in the pocket park I photographed last night turned out to be quite colorful in the daylight.
Even though we are creatures of habit, our intelligence, ability to learn and adapt quickly are a few aspects of human nature than help us to survive and advance, so after 15 years of leaving by the back door every day, I should be able to simply change that habit and remember to leave by the front door, because going out the front door is now the shortest route to my car. I walked out the back door twice today, and instead of unlocking the back door and walking through the building, I walked around the block both times. Yet it wasn’t all for naught, because between 1:30 this afternoon and 7:30 this evening some new art was installed in the pocket park on the end of the block at 2nd and Gold.
We lost our parking spots again, so now I’m parking in the block north of Gold and south of Central between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The parking spot gives me a new point of view, and now I am going in and leaving by the front door — an entrance and exit I haven’t made for almost 15 years.
Film crews often block streets and take our parking in downtown Albuquerque. They had 3rd Street blocked off the between Gold and Central the other night while filming “Force of Execution” with Steven Seagal. While I was making my way out of downtown the same night, I noticed the Kimo Theater’s marque read “Story of Film.”
There were a lot of band tour buses parked out behind the office this afternoon, so I looked up on the Sunshine Theater’s schedule to see who was playing tonight. As usual I had never heard of or heard any of the groups listed, so I looked up samples of their music on Youtube. The first group in the list is Emmure and the music video I chose at random was what I would call hyper-grunge with caveman lyrics, although to be fair, cavemen were probably much more clear and articulate. After a few painful seconds on listening to Emmure, I looked up Whitechapel, the next group on the list, and the random song I chose sounded just like the song I listened to by Emmure. I had to do a double take to make sure I hadn’t reloaded Emmure — I hadn’t. Obey The Brave and The Plot In You also sounded the same to me. If I got it right, these bands tour together as Brothers of Brutality and from the snippets of the songs I listened to, they are brutal.
I guess I’m getting too old, because I don’t know why the groups want to subject themselves to themselves, or why anyone else, of any age, would want to subject themselves to the Brothers of Brutality, but there is an appeal that goes beyond both my understanding and sensitivities. I left the office a little after 5:00 pm tonight, a bit later than I had intended since I was supposed to pick up Laurie and Tristan at school at 5:00 pm. When I walked out the door the cold hit me like a stinging slap on my face, and I shivered as I walked to the car. While I was sitting at the light at 2nd and Gold, I got a text from Laurie that read “Hypothermia!” The light turned green and as I drove by the Sunshine theater, I noticed that many of the kids who waiting in line for The Brothers of Brutality concert were wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts, and many of the girls who were wearing jeans had slits all over them and plenty of flesh exposed to the cold air. Maybe being brutalized by the elements is a required to properly experience The Bothers of Brutality? Call me old, call me a prude, but it’s much too brutal and mysterious for me.
We got a little snow before I went to class at UNM this afternoon, then the clouds broke up for a couple of hours, regrouped and it started snowing again. We got over an inch in Corrales, and I drove most of the way home in a blizzard. The storm let up as I got on the west side of Albuquerque, where I was able to get a panorama of it snowing on the east side. The snow had hardly settled on a wall at UNM before a student walked in it.
Off Center & Not Even 