ilex_cassine

I went to a Dr. Sketchy's Art School in Raleigh on Saturday. I'd never drawn from figures before. I'm terrible at it. Really, really bad. But it was fun, definitely a good art workout, but hard. I like the atmosphere at Issac Hunter's Tavern, but 8 bucks for a coffee and amaretto? Where do they think they are located, LA or NYC? Jeepers. Boo on the Tavern prices. I'd go to another one, the 8 buck entry fee for 2 and a half hours of figure drawing seems reasonable, but I'll sneak in my own beverage. The drive is a bit much though, 45 minutes each way and I took a funky way and got lost. Ooops. I hate that. By the time I got home I was a bit of a wreck.

Today I and the hubinator went to Guglehupf (yum yum! Linzer cookie and cheese brezel) and then to the Nasher to see the Andy Warhol Polaroid exhibit. It was quite neat. I'm rather shocked that these Polaroids haven't been exhibited before. Its going to Greensboro and Chapel Hill before it rolls up. Its interesting, if you like Wharhol or the Wharhol era I recommend it. My fav was a little series of Basquiat and his family.

Tonight we had our traditional V-Day meal of the small lasagna we keep aside from Xmas. It was good, and much better than fighting our way through crowds of diners out and putting up with not-so-good food as the kitchens can't keep up with the crowds and their ambitious menus. We've done that, I think its good to indulge in the 5 course V-Day dinner at least once. Don't need to do that again though.

Day 4 of my trip.

I somehow managed, in spite of getting up extra early (6:00 AM) and arriving on time, to miss the tour bus for the field trip associated with my conference. I think I must have been waiting in the wrong spot. That was a real bummer.

(Another aside about the PsyOps meeting: While I was getting I noticed a ton of runners by the river, like more than you'd expect for 7 in the morning on a Saturday. Turns out the Industrial Psychologists have a 5k in association with their meetings. Wacky.)

But I decided to go on about a day anyway. First I went to the Hove perfumerie. That was fun. And then I went onto the Lafeyette Cemetery near Commander's Palace. I tried to get a table at Commander's Palace, but dang, they were booked. I should have made a reservation, but I was intimidated by the "dress code" thing.

So instead I wound up at Slim Goodies Diner on Magazine St. I had the Tex Mex Hashbrowns, which were fantastic. Their salsa was really good. For the price I expected a bigger plate, however. And the hash browns, while real hash browns, were not quite crispy enough for my taste. But I'd eat that meal again, no doubt. It was a fun joint, too, with lots of fun pics on the walls and nice waitstaff.

I did a little shopping on Magazine St. and I got my friend a tee-shirt as requested.

Then I went to the zoo. By the time I got to the White Alligator house (I am not sure why they keep the white alligators in a house and the others out...) I was pooped. It was cool in the building and there were loads of seats. So I sat a long time watching an alligator that was totally under water, waiting for him to come up. Nearly 40 minutes later, he was still under water. And he moved, so he wasn't dead. That was pretty impressive.

I love Audubon Park. Love love love it. I have spent a lot of time there this trip, and could spend more. The egret nesting grounds are especially cool- hundreds of white egrets on a little island. I don't normally think of egrets as making a racket, but dang, they make some strange noises.

For dinner I went to Voodoo BBQ, which is a chain in Louisiana. It was fantastic. I had been smelling it from the St. Charles street car twice a day, and decided that even though it wasn't a foodie tooty (my play on hoity toity) restaurant, I was going to eat there. Yum yum. I watched the Michigan vs Conn game while I ate. I didn't get the final line up right at all. Oh well. People are totally not into college basketball here, either.

Then I went to this Jumping on Julia event, which was basically a bunch of art openings. It was more neat to experience the scene than the art, I'm sad to say. I have seen some abysmal art in this town, and very little good art. I did see some paintings using oil on copper, which weren't great, but the technique was neat. I think many of the native artists are trapped by the culture of the town and stereotypes thereof, a bit. Lots of decadence/debouching themes. I ran into the gal who was staying at India House, but as it happens she is an artist who uses ethnobotany in her work, so she was in deep networking mode and not feeling otherwise social (or at least that was what I gathered).

Then my legs started cramping up big time. Ouch! So I bailed on my plan to find somewhere to drink and hang out, and went back to the hostel for a shower and feet up time. I don't think the sleep I'd like is in the offing, because Gary is working the desk and likes to blast NIN from all of the speakers in the joint till 1. At least. Ugh.