Mar 25, 2011

After being out late I didn't take an early job, but I got a call for a half day at the Senior High. It was for an Industrial Arts class, which I thought would be a shop class or auto. It turned out to be a CAD class. The students were not the best, but they could have been much worse and I got some reading done.

I came home and went for a run by the river. I had to take advantage of the nice weather a little bit. Chuck and I went up to The Abbaye a little later. Not much going on there, but we saw some people we haven't seen in a while and got some decent beers. The selection wasn't really to my liking this time.

I got The Burger for the first time in quite a while. It was still delicious. We had a few more beers and then decided to go hang out at Alex's.

We got some beers and hung out trying to get some work done but not doing a very good job of that. We talked about some work-related things and then drifted off onto more interesting topics. Such as Alex enjoying good beers now!

We were over there for quite a while. Bryant stopped by and hung out while we listened to music and went through pictures. Good night.

Nov 5, 2010

Once I had taken care of a few clerical items at Rowan Andrew and Laura picked me up and we headed to The Abbaye for lunch. We each got a beer to start off with. The Leffe Blonde was really good as was the Flying Dog beer that I had.

We were all really hungry and had to wait a while for our food... but it was worth it as always.

The first-timers were very happy with their lunches. Andrew got a cheesesteak but Laura went with The Burger. She made the same face that I made the first time. I think I like this burger too much. I realize I write about it on here like I'm going to propose to it. Wouldn't be a bad idea, really. It always leaves me satisfied.

We took our leave of The Abbaye and headed down Second Street to the art galleries. The first place we stopped at was a lighting gallery. There were a lot of really awesome lights, some of my favorites I put on my website. The mercury lights were pretty cool as well.

We went to a sculpture gallery next. This is an installation by Jackie Brown dealing with the changing state of our brains. The materials she uses are really amazing and you have to walk around them to really get it. I love the idea of working a concept into a sculpture. That's what I'd like to do.

We went to a few more painting galleries in the area. Some were better than others and one involved us taking a walking tour of a small gallery space with the proprietor because she seemed bored and glad that someone came in. There were several pieces by Brian Burt at one of the galleries. He does trompe l'oeil paintings that are really amazing.

We took a quick walk through Christ Church on the way back to the car and stopped at a print gallery where I found this little gem printed on fabric. Pretty awesome.

After a failed attempt to get blueberry pie from the strange lady at the health place near South Street we went to Phileo Yogurt (whose name I still do not like) and I got a meager portion of frozen treat.

We left Philly and I added my last coat of latex to my sculpture pieces and then became discouraged once again with my website after a new idea failed to pan out. I then went over to Bunce to see the production of Our Town. It was very well done. Just before the third act Laura noticed me and invited me to sit with her and Troy since I was alone. The third act was great also.

I came home and made some revisions to my plans for the weekend. Now that I have all my information together I'm going to try to fall asleep before 5 tonight. I don't like pills but I need something to help me sleep.. warm milk? Nah, I'll just watch The Mentalist until I drift off.

Oct 6, 2010

Once again I got to school early to set up my sculpture this time after putting a few finishing touches on it. I found the perfect spot to make my point, just outside Westby by the ashtray.

This pile of cigarettes was smelly and gross but it gets the point across.. I think. After getting some food with Joanna we had our critique. I got a lot of positive feedback for mine. It's not really supposed to be about smoking, more about littering and the way people will drop cigarettes like they're nothing even though there is an ashtray right there.

There were a lot of good sculptures up including half an eye, an umbilical cord, large coins and Joanna and Margaret's vagina performance piece. A lot of people did good work on this.

I had to leave early again for work day two of Alternative School. I had the same kids and it was a little more laid back today. The one big class wouldn't do any work but I had resigned by that point so I got a lot of sketching done for Type. The rest of the night was good.

I picked up Chuck after work and headed right for The Abbaye for Oktoberfest! They had plenty of great beers on tap so we just started going down the line. We also encountered a creepy situation where a bearded man at the bar held up his phone to Chuck and said, "Is this you?" showing a picture of him playing guitar with Argyle Gargoyle on his iPhone. After exchanging concerned looks we found that he ran The Abbaye Twitter page and saw Chuck's tweet about it and looked at his profile picture. Still weird.

The waitress who gave us chocolate vodka on Belgian Independence Day came over and asked if I wanted to be an alternate for the Das Boot drinking contest. I said yes, of course. We had to chug our beers from the boots and I was in the first round after eating half a burger so I had a hard time chugging fast. I don't think I lost it for us but our whole team was a little slower than the other guys. Oh well, thanks for the free beer!

We came back to the table and continued trying the beers while eating The Burger. It was still amazing. My favorite beer of the night was the Copper Crow Oktoberfest. I didn't really dislike any of them. It's my kind of beer.

The musical entertainment for the night had been an accordionist called Otto von Auto, who played a lot of Lady Gaga. We ended up talking to him about the accordion and he taught Chuck how to play a little. He was doing well for his first time ever holding one.

We ended up hanging around with him for a bit as he played cover songs that we sung along loudly with. The Twitter gentleman joined us as well. We had a great time singing Nirvana and trying to think of other songs for him to play. Chuck tried to teach him Dammit with minimal luck.

It was a great night out at The Abbaye as always. You can always count on your favorite bar to make you happy! Thanks, @theabbaye. See you next time!

Sep 15, 2010

I got up early and continued trying to get a job. I had no luck at all. Since I didn't have class I didn't know what to do. I went to the gym in the afternoon for a while.

I went over to the course and went for a run around the lake. It was a good run and it wasn't that hot so I got to enjoy it.

Later that night I went to The Abbaye with Chuck for Weyerbacher buy-the-glass night. It was another "buy a glass for ten bucks and drink what you can for two hours." They had Hops Infusion, Autumn Fest and Harvest Ale.

We tried some of each of course. I think I liked the Harvest Ale the best but the others were very good as well. Our waiter was a pain but once he eventually gave us beer it tasted good.

Tonight was also the debut of the vegan buffalo wings and they were awesome! They tasted very real and I want more right now! I miss buffalo things.

We also got the red bean burger and.. It. Was. Amazing.

I think our faces say it all.. but if not then read: Best burger ever. Seriously. I loved every minute of this burger. Sorry Gatsby's, there's a new champ. And it's closer than you.

We had a few more beers as the event wound down and sadly finished our burgers. I love that place. Every time I go I wish we lived in Northern Liberties.

Oct 25, 2009

I needed to take some photos for my assignment in the morning so I lit some candles and put them on my pumpkin pie. I was going for the idea of remembering birthdays but only having a fuzzy view of what happened since you were focused on the cake, blowing out the candles so you could open your presents.

I met Katie and Chuck at Kawa for sushi lunch. Their rolls are really big and really good. Nicely presented also. Sushi is always a good choice.

After lunch, Chuck and I left, picked up Joanna at Rowan and made our way to the PATH station in Jersey City. I took the wrong exit so I had to try to find a new way and then ended up getting back on the Turnpike to take the right exit after all. We got there and hopped aboard a train. Actually we had to wait and it seemed even longer because I had to use the bathroom.

When we got to Manhattan, we found the nearest restrooms and then debated subway options only to walk all the way to the Bowery Ballroom anyway. It wasn't really that far. Once we knew where we were going, we walked down the road and Joanna chose a street to walk down that turned out to be the best. We ate at Gatsby's, a bar/restaurant with the best veggie burger I've ever had. It was made in-house with couscous and other secret ingredients. Delicious.

We saw this place on the way down the street and knew we had to save room for it.

It's a brilliant idea, it's all rice pudding, all the time. It's like Cold Stone with rice pudding. They had about twenty different flavors. The design of the place was great too, very modern with really funny quotes all over the place, like the one pictured above the bowls: "Eat all you want, you're already fat!"

We went cost-effective and split the "double" size with two flavors. The season pumpkin and almond. The pumpkin tasted just like pumpkin pie filling. The almond was amazingly good. I want more.

We hung out in there for a while, making Chuck wonder how long it could take two people to finish some rice pudding. Maybe it was because of the pictures... Sorry, Chuckles.

We went back to the Bowery Ballroom after eating and found our way through the maze and up to the main stage area. It was a really nice looking place. We found a "private" area upstairs. It was a little room with seats around the outside with a curtain as a door.

We hung out there for the first band, it was pretty comfortable. I took some photos out the window to hopefully use for class. Omari and his friend, Tim, showed up and hung out in there with us for a while as well.

Soon, it was time for Far. Their first tour since they got back together. They played a good set and I was surprised at how much I knew. It was really awesome to see Jonah playing some loud, angry music. I love his acoustic stuff as well but it was just a cool change.

Geoff came out to sing with them during "Mother Mary." They all looked like they were having a lot of fun and everyone in the crowd loved it as well.

It wasn't long before Thursday took the stage opening with their intro from Full Collapse and right into "Understanding.." to start off the full-album show. I was right up front for the first couple of songs but then I resumed my position a little farther back.

They played through the entire album, some songs that they hadn't played in many years according to them. And it turns out they hate the song "Wind Up." Everyone else loved it though and even Geoff said that it was fun to play.

After they left the stage once the album was over they came back out to play an encore of six songs. They played some newer songs and Jet Black New Year, of course.

They closed with "War All The Time", which I haven't heard them play in a really long time. I wish I saw that full album show. Maybe they'll do it again some time.

We walked back to the train and looked at the pictures I got. It was a pretty quick drive back home and then time for sleep and not taking a job for the morning.