NC Museum Of Art - 09/27 2005

Spent a few hours at the NC Museum of Art on Blue Ridge Road - very nice place.
Something’s that caught my eye ...

There was this piece by Ron Rozelle called “Me and Apocalypse” – At first I dismissed it for another representation of the A-Bomb mushroom cloud – but on closer inspection I saw layers in the painting. The artist actually described the piece as “Growing up under a bomb” – which is very very true for most people who have been around for the last 30 years or so! He had pictures of various stages of his childhood and his growing up years as a part of the artwork! Very thought provoking!

Anne Kesler Shields –
Here was this piece of art which was a collage of pictures from different parts of the world in different times, representing the “Visual Clutter” that we are faced with today – thru Television, Radio and the Internet.
Although the work mostly reflected war and religious conflicts in history, I particularly liked the “Visual Clutter” description – that resonated with the way I feel sometimes about the world!

Stacey L Kirby – A Salt Library
Interesting piece of art – with blocks of Salt. Stacey basically placed these salt-cubes by the sea shore and then picked them up after a few hours – after the sea had deformed the cubes in interesting ways! And she made this wall out of many such salt pieces!
More interesting was that she documented this activity in painstaking detail – the times that she placed the cubes and pictures of each cube at regular time-intervals.
What interested me most was the various realizations that she went thru during the process – in her log, she talks about how she learnt about Gandhi and the Dandi-march and how Salt is actually representative of oppression in the world and how important it is to all of us. A truly surreal experience for her!

Jeff Whetstone
And his BW pics – which always interest me. There was this particular pair of pics called Turkey hunter – with the first pic of this man dressed regularly and then in the next one he is dressed ready for a hunt – ready to kill - face covered and all. Interesting.

Mirror Paint
This guy called Jimmy O Neal actually invented a special kind of “mirror paint” - which gives depth to the painting and is actually reflective. Very neat stuff.
More interesting was that he actually invented a machine that would capture his brain activity over a period of time (say – during the day) and then amplify these signals and play them back to another device which would translate them into pictures on paper. This device actually burn dots on the paper to draw the image – neat!

Preternatural Beauty
Michael Schultz actually had digital pictures of Industrial Complexes! Sounds absurd but you need to take a look at his pics to understand the beauty of his pics and the ingenuity of this dude. Regular worn-out walls which we might have seen while driving thru old-towns – but on close inspection, you realize that they truly are works of art – industries helped shape this nation and the pics were the artist’s tribute to them!

Pattern Matching

I have always been interesting in Matching patters - in anything (even faces).
I actually realized that when I took this aptitude test when I was 14 - they told me that my pattern-matching skills were exceptionally good and that I could be either an architect or a computer-engineer!

Just the other day, I caught myself trying to distinguish between the two pics that made the "Turkey Hunter" at the Museum. I notice that I do this quite often!
And then there was the time when I first saw the "Ghosts" video by Michael Jackson - a long long time ago - something about the fat professor (his eyes) in the video made me believe that he too was actually MJ and it was not until a few years later when I came to the US and saw the complete making of the video that I found out that I had been right all along :)

Sunsets and Moons

Have always been fascinated by the sunset. Something about the way the big red orange looks with the sky on fire and in its colors!
Have never been a fan of sunrise - not that I have seen many, but still - sunrise seems so much shorter and so less colorful.

And then of course theres always the rising moon - I could swear that it looks bigger in the US than it does in India - dunno if its because India is closer to the equator!
And then the sunsets in Bombay are better than any place in the world I have been - better than California too! - don't know if its the pollution but it truly is fun to watch the sun sink into the water in Bombay!
And A full-moon rising over water - truly truly enchanting experience.

Night

I have noticed that I am most active after about 6pm. I am most sluggish in the morning and I would rather sleep than do anything else!
In fact after @10pm is when I get most of my work done - wonder if that is because I was born at 11:20pm!

Black and White

Always wondered why the best photographs in museums and art exhibitions are in black and white.
I personally love BW pics - given a choice between the two.
But still - how come we (majority of the ppl I know) like BW pics more, despite the fact that we want everything in color!

hmm...

Nice to have a log-book and hence this blog.
Still going to keep my main blog alive for more "descriptive" entries - although I just might merge the two at a later point in time - we'll see.

Is the Door fully open yet?

Saw this latest offering from Sprint PCS and looks like my personal mobile gadget has arrived - PPC-6700

Am not saying that I would buy this very device - but the features say it all - a handheld computer, phone, mp3-player, video-recorder, decent camera and internet capability - all rolled into one device that fits in your pocket - sweet.
I know the Treo was there, but it still was not seamless for Wi-fi connections.
Looks like the time has arrived.
like I have said before - shuffle your feet ipod(and the ntire i-family as well)! you might have to move!

Which Fantasy Character am I?

Took this 1-min survey thingie - thought it was fun. Thanks to Brij
Must admit - not a huuuuuge LOTR fan - but will have to read about Galadriel now. Esp. since this is what they say -
Galadriel
Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

And Hey - I checked out the LOTR museum while in Houston and Galadriels dress was quite pretty :)
Which reminds me - I have seen the LOTR series only once! OMG!!!

From Dust to Computers

Dust and Death!
Its in the dust - can you believe it. I have been getting pretty frustrated with my laptop over the last few months. It’s been almost two years since I bought this machine - has worked flawlessly till recently - speed dropped by almost 50%! Knee-jerk reaction, I blamed windows for it - regular stuff - backed up my HDD - reformatted it - reinstalled stuff ... and convinced myself that it was running faster ... sure enough a few wells later I was back to square one - guess it wasn't Microsoft after all (OMG)

Googled 'Dell inspiron 5100 heat problems' last night - and guess what - all my computer needed was a few good blows (of air) in the ducts behind!!! DellForum

Yep! you read it right - apparently it was the dust that has been collecting on my heat-sink and fan over the months and my poor P4 processor was running dangerously hot (and slow)
I kinda figured this a while ago and even bought a cooler pad for the laptop - so as to keep the CPU cooler - but nothing helped like a few good blows of air :D
My CPU was constantly working @68C for the last few months - and since last night it’s been @50C and works a lot lot lot faster. Waiting for the weekend to go to Wal-Mart and buy a can of compressed air - to blow all the dust out!

Moral of the story - clean the heat sink and fan on your CPU and watch your computer fly :)