logisticslad

After turning in my grades for everyone except the grad students (whose essays I have still to grade), I decided to visit my former roommate moltvikh and his partner Paul in Portland, OR. I had never been to Portland and he had a few weeks left before he was going to start his new career in nursing school, so it was the ideal time to visit (plus it meant that I would be away during the chaos of the Manayunk Bike Race, which is right near my house). It also meant that I would miss the Swarthmore Alumni Weekend, but as it turns out, I'm going to have my own Swarthmore reunion with several folks while I'm out here! The plan is for us to have dinner with hhw tonight, and drive to Seattle tomorrow to see syndicatedebby and jhp64 and their kids and also Ellie, her partner and their daughter. moltvikh and I will stay overnight so that we can more easily visit Mount St Helens on Sunday. Since I've never been to anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, I'm happy to just roam around, visit folks, and sightsee. Today, I went to the Chinese Garden in Portland and it was beautiful and relaxing. We took a guided tour and learned all about the architecture and the plants. I highly recommend it. We had tea and mooncake there (they have an enormous selection of all kinds of teas). Then we visited Powell's Books, which was amazing! It's a bookstore that spans an entire city block. I was in heaven. So, I am enjoying vacation, and have even made friends with moltvikh's dog, Pedro (who is a cross between a pit bull and a German shepard). Fortunately, I have good animal mojo and we have gotten along. I'm looking forward to a bit of fun and downtime, since I've been very fried from work. Now to relax!

On Thursday, I went to NYC to spend the day with my friend moltvikh, who was visiting NYC on his own for a few days. I drove to Trenton and took NY Transit to Penn Station. Whoever thought that it was a good idea to name Newark's stop Penn Station, too, should have their head slapped. I almost got off there, but quickly realized that I was not in New York. I made it there by 1:00 and due to the magic of cell phones, moltvikh and I met at the station. If I remember correctly, in the days before cell phones, we would have specified a meeting place; but I admit, it was loads easier this way. We had lunch at a Jewish deli named Ben's. I had an authentic corned beef on rye with spicy mustard and it was wonderful ! (If anyone remembers, that was what Captain Sheridan was poisoned with in the torture episode of Babylon 5, and thinking of that makes me enjoy the sandwich all the more :-)

Since we were in the Fashion District, I decided that we should take an impromptu tour of the locations for Project Runway. So we walked by Parsons School of Fashion and Design, we stopped in Bryant Park, and we went to Mood, where they often buy their materials. Mood is located on the third floor of a large building, and access is by an old fashioned elevator, complete with an operator. There is a poster of Heidi Klum introducing the show on the door, but other than that, there were no other touches from the show. It turned out that the store has three floors and is basically wall to wall fabrics, with one floor dedicated to upholstery. The aisles were not wide, and it is hard to imagine how they maneuver the cameras and lights to film the designers selecting fabrics for the show. In any event, it was fun to see where the magic happens!

Next we went to the Whitney museum of contemporary art, where they had a display on Buckminster Fuller. They had is specially designed car in a showroom, and models of his ideas for houses and the geodesic dome. There was a whole display on how he developed the mercatur projection map. It was much more interesting than I would have expected. Also in the museum was a gallery of Maplethorpe's early Polaroid photos, where one could see that he was exploring elements of lighting, subject matter, and composition that appear in his later work. There was also a room of moving architectural art, the idea being that one expects architecture to be stable, so having it move challenges one's expectations in a disturbing manner. It certainly did. There was a floor platform with four walls that swung away from the base and each had a door that opened and shut with a bang! I felt sorry for the poor attendants who had to stand there all day listening to the commotion. The regular collection had some interesting pieces, including some paintings by Hopper, that I now recognized after having seen his exhibit in the National Gallery last Fall. This was all very cool to see with moltvikh, now that he has been studying art.

We walked through Central Park and had dinner at a Vietnamese/Thai/Asian fusion place, which was quite yummy, hung out for awhile more talking and catching up, and then I caught the train home. I had a fun time, and I'm delighted that the timing worked out so that we could both be there together.

Today began my 10 hour trek to the 12th International Symposium on Neural Regeneration, which is held at the ASILOMAR conference center in Pacific Grove, CA. I got up at the unjedly hour of 5:00am in order to drive to the airport for my 7:50am flight to San Francisco. The highlight of the trip was bumping into Jeffrey Sebelia, the winner of third season of Project Runway, who was buying breakfast at the Au Bon Pain in the Philly airport! I recognized him by his distinctive neck tattoos. Other than that, the plane ride was long but uneventful as I travelled with most of my research group. Once we arrived, we claimed out bags and my colleage Scott and I rented a car and drove 100 miles south to the conference, stopping for lunch and to by a map along the way. The facility reminds me of a summer camp on the beach. There are lots of small buildings with a dozen or so rooms. The rooms have no tv or telephones. Cell phone signal is sparse and there is wireless access only in the main building (although my room is close enough to get a faint signal). Apparently, this is intentional in order to create a more personally interactive atmosphere. There is a dining hall and we are all on a meal plan. Tonight we had dinner and then a talk followed by a social (which I ditched, being too tired). The conference has programming from 8am to 11pm each day, with these group meals scheduled inbetween posters and talks. There are about 200 people here and it looks like it could be pretty intense. On the other hand, we are in a park right next to the beach, which is beautiful, and I've already seen seabirds, deer, and a racoon. There is a sign posting advice on how to scare off a mountain lion in the event that we see one. Walking on the beach trails is a traditional conference pastime. Overall, it should be fun, but it's going to be work and not a vacation.

I've been enjoying my trip to DC. On Thursday, I went to the International Spy Museum. I did the interactive mission tour, where they have the group solve puzzles, search rooms, run surveillance, escape in a simulated truck, and direct the mission. That was a blast! The museum itself was pretty cool. They had lots of short films on lockpicking, sabotage, historical spies, etc and a wealth of display items. There were also computer terminals with exercises in code breaking and disguise spotting and other cool activities. One of the most interesting was about deciphering the Navaho code used by the US during WWII. They had displays on ancient spymastering in China, Japan, and Greece, as well as during Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Cold War, and Modern times. While there was a lot of balance between male and female spies, I found it interesting that there was very little regarding people of color, although they definitely highlighted what little there was. I spent over 5 hours there and thoroughly enjoyed it.

In the evening, I went to see the play that B. was performing in. It was an adaption of Camus' Caligula. I thought it was terrific and that B. did a great job. The lead was phenomenal and several of the other actors were able to match or reflect his intensity. It's a very disturbing nihilistic play, but I was quite entertained.

Today, I went to the American Indian Museum. They have an incredible cafe that showcases cooking from each different region. I went to the Pacific Northwest booth and had salmon that was roasted and glazed along with corn pone and mushrooms and a salad of wild rice and cranberries. Yum! The museum itself was fascinating. It was presented in a nonanthropological style, meaning that items made 10 years ago were beside items from 100 years ago and that there were no historical narrative blurbs. Instead there were videos of people telling stories about the things on display. It created a feeling of timelessness, which I suspect was the intent. While I was there, a dance troupe performed a set of tribal dances. The troupe consisted of almost two dozen men, women, and children (some carried in papoose type pouches) as well as drummers and singers. They created a real sense of community and at some points even had the audience join in. Very cool. There was a special exhibit on dressmaking and I now know how to tell the difference between a dress made from one hide, two hides, or three hides.

Next I went to see the Impressionism by the Sea exhibit at the Phillips Gallery. It was very impressive and featured an audio tour that you could take using your cel phone. The colors and textures they used to evoke sea and sky were simply breathtaking. I did the tour and enjoyed the exhibit and the rest of the museum. There was a Rothko room, which both amused and impressed me.

I must have done something to my ankle, because it began hurting while I was walking. Combined with the intermittent rain, this was enough to convince me to return to M. and B.'s house to rest for awhile. M. and I then met some of his friends for a drink and then went out to dinner at a Middle Eastern place called Skewers. We shared Hummus and Baba Ganoosh appetizers and I had Beef Biryani which was very tasty. M. and I were too tired to go out clubbing, so we came home and met B. who had just returned from his Friday night performance. After a nice chat, and some computer typing, everyone is now off to bed.