matt.wronka.org

This past week, from 2005-05-07 to 2005-05-14, Anna visited with me. We spent some time in Providence before beginning a three-hop trip to Philly to see an exhibit of works by Salvador Dalí.

They had a lot of art I hadn't seen before (especially a lot of his religious work), but also had my favorite of his paintings and, while they did not have "La persistencia de la memoria" they did have a later work based on it. I also saw two movies on continuous loop, Disney's Destino (making this the second Disney movie that I've seen recently--perhaps they can still put out some decent stuff?) and the silent film written by Buñuel and Dalí, Un Chien Andalou. The latter I also got on DVD because I hadn't realized it was playing, but it also contains about 47 minutes of commentary (the movie itself is only 17 minutes). It's interesting. Dalí was insane.

After seeing the movies (and to some extent before) I walked around. I'm not entirely sure why, but there was a section of the museum dedicated to medival armor and weapons which was interesting, but not particularly so. The other surrealist/modern art was much more interesting. It's also the first time I've really been interested in Miró's work--in particular this piece.

After the gallery, we left to get some food (cheesesteaks of course, but not very good ones unfortunately). It's sad to point out that the Hilltop Sub Station (back in Montgomery on CR-518), where for several years I stopped for cold treats during the summer, is now a pile of dirt.


Prior to leaving Albany for Jersey and then Philly, we stopped by at RPI. Anna had wanted to talk to someone from her former lab (or something like that). We got to see the inside of the new biotechnology building.


The image on the page linked there is a bit misleading, in my opinion. When I was there, there were no plants to liven the place up. The building had a very sterile appearance. Doors lock behind you magically which can be annoying, especially if you're someone's guest and just want to catch a moment of air, then find yourself locked two doors and a hallway away because you switched corridors. The main atrium is long and very narrow. It reminded me very much of the inside of a submarine, except for its height (possibly part of a battleship would be a better comparison). In all, I'm pretty dissapointed by the building. When I got locked out, I decided to stop by Empire's (Pizza Bella or whatever they call themselves this year). They remodled the place. They took out some tables, and have a new drink case where the side table with napkins and the pizza specials used to be. They no longer advertise specials in the store, but the web site seems to indicate that they still have a cheap large pizza. Of course, they haven't brought back the cheap subs. When I got there I tried finding their Buffallo Chicken pizza, which used to be my main staple order there. I saw something that looked like it, and did indeed to turn out to be it, but it lacked the bleu cheese that used to be so liberally smeared upon it. In all, the experience was disappointing. I didn't stop by China House (Green whatever-they-are-now after they got shut down) or I Love this time, but last time we stopped by we did notice the price increases at I Love. Gone are the days of $1 slices. :(

Also while I was in Albany, I stopped in at the Apple store where I was told outright that nine hours of my own time was less important than even less than one hour of an employee's time, even when Apple had the power to reduce my time to one hour and the employee's time to a few minutes. The staff at the store also demonstrated complete cluelessness about Apple hardware. Apparently they are only trained to click candied buttons.

On our return from Jersey to Albany we picked up some White Castle hamburgers. (No link because their web site decided to become braindead and won't let me use it. This means no more searching for stores ... this means they're stupid.) It was good. I'm still eating the leftovers. I still haven't seen the movie. We were supposed to rent it (Anna has an all you can rent membership deal) when we got to Albany, but didn't. I'm promised that Anna will finally see it with me when I fly out this summer to see her. While in Albany we visited her family and took a trip to John Boyd Thatcher Park.