Mood: Content
Music: Mr. Bill Collector - Bone Thugs ~n~ Harmony

After a series of 'novelty' or one-shot posts (like the penis video :P) I figured it was time to revert to a more traditional blog entry.

Today was another 'field trip' to Chicago day. To be honest, I was slightly worried about this trip. Not enough to skip going, but I have to admit that in the back of my mind there was the "What are the odds that today is the day Chicago will be hit?" thought - but today was also the day of competing protests (anti-war protestors, and pro-war demonstrations in very close proximity), mix two extremely emotional elements and there is a distinct probability for something bad to happen.. and I have an aversion to rubber bullets and tear gas.

But in the end we were only on the far South Side of Chicago pretty distant from the metropolitan area (ie: most logical targets). It was another really nice, if a little strange, trip. It started off focused almost primarily on more architectual examples in the University of Chicago. We had a great lunch at a Southern food diner (I had a blackened chicken sandwich, very good). Next we went to one of the various African American Art museums in Chicago (forgot which one off the top of my head). Which turned out to be.. well.. the strange part of the trip.

We managed to sort of sneak our way into a mini-presentation introducing the museum and its point (sneak in so much as it was being conducted for some junior high school students, and we sat in on it). What disturbed me about it was how littered with propaganda and conspiracy theory it was. For example - he cited Pokemon and Dragonball Z as being racist and conditioning young Blacks to think very little of themselves. I had to bit my tongue to avoid pointing out that, well, these are Japanese series made for Japanese audiences that were *never designed to be seen by Americans*. So don't tell these kids that these shows are designed to condition a wounded sense of self-pride when they were never even originally meant to be seen outside of their native country. That's bullshit.

Other than that the museum was fine, albeit somewhat... boring (the African American art at the Art Institute last trip was a lot more engaging, meaningful and fascinating than this museum, which was not much more than a history lesson of issues and events that anyone who's taken an honest non-Statist American history class will already be familiar with).

Sorry about the rant. But I thought the ideology that the museum started to express crossed over from simple pride in African American culture and history, to very misleading propaganda. Which I found disquieting and a bit offensive. There are plenty examples of real racism in the US, but pointing fingers at straw men doesn't accomplish anything - it only makes matters worse.

Anyhow, other than that it was a nice trip and I made it back in one piece - which is always a plus.

Last night, after seeing that wretched waste of celluloid Dreamcatcher, I got a voicemail from Grace telling me everyone was meeting at her house that night around 11. It was about 12:30 so I thought I'd drop by and see what was up. As I pulled down the street I immediatly noticed it. Alex's car. I called Pat and sure enough, Alex was indeed at her house. So instead of going there, I went home (which turned out to be the best choice, I forgot I had to finish my Humanities take-home midterm for Sat -_-)

Today after work I had a voicemail from Pat asking me to call him when I got his message. So at about 9:30 I have him a ring.
Pat: Brendan?
Me: Hey.. so what's up tonight?
Pat: Dude, I really wanted to hang out with you tonight.. but Alex is here.
Me: Oh, that's okay - It's my problem anyway. Give me a call next weekend.
Pat: Okay.. I'lll call you Thurs or Friday.
Me: Sounds good. See you later..
Pat: Bye
*click*

Again, this works out best for me anyway. Tomorrow I have tickets to see David Copperfield in Rosemont... which was actually a birthday gift from mom. When I was about.. 10 till I was around 15 I was really into magic tricks. I built up a pretty good show and even got my hands on a big 'grand illusion' to end my shows with. But even as I grew out of magic tricks I've always admired Copperfield's stuff. The theatrics and style is all top notch and to a young magician is is all but God himself. The last time I saw Copperfield I think I was about 13 or so in the middle of my magic phase. While I was out this holiday season seeing the Rockettes at the Rosemont theater I noticed he was coming back to Chicago and commented to my mom that I'd really like to see him again. I then promptly forgot about it until I saw the commercials. By that time I was sure there were no good tickets left. However, on March 8th I found out I was wrong. I love my mom :P

So yeah, I've got that to go to tomorrow afternoon so I wouldn't have been staying out late with Pat (et al.) anyway. I'll see them next weekend.

I haven't spoken to Alex for over a week now. My mom says that it's really strange how I can sever a friendship like this so easily. Well, for one thing I didn't sever a friendship - he did. And it's not easy. It's just that after repeatedly pulling the knives out of my back, it becomes not so difficult to hold someone in extreme contempt.
So, fuck him.

---

SMALL


(results contain pictures) What kind of ANIME BOOBS do you have?
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Sam - I don't know if this is a good thing, or, a bad thing ^_^; And why do I keep taking these female-specific quizes?

- posted by Brendan @ 10:42 PM 0 comments

 
Looking for a cool movie to see this weekend? Well - Do NOT go see Dreamcatcher.

It's not what the trailer made it look like.

What a terrible movie. I mean... my God! All I could do was stare at the screen with utter disbelief and make snide remarks to Karen as Alyssa struggled to maintain conciousness during the banality and stupidity of this film. It's the most insipid mess of a movie I've see in a long time.

And the worst part? I missed the goddamn Matrix CG animated short before the movie. 1/2 of the reason I went was to see that short. So not only didn't I see the short, Dreamcatcher turned out to be my front runner for the worst film of 2003. And what hurts more is that *I* suggested Dreamcatcher so in some strange way it's my fault that Dreamcatcher sucked so much. *sigh*

Ah well, I'll watch Lily Chou-Chou to get the woes of Dreamcatcher out of my head. But, trust me on this - Dreamcatcher is a waste of money.
- posted by Brendan @ 3:52 AM 0 comments

 

-Motherly- You're the motherly type. You love to
take care of the one you love, and generally
you can be a bit overprotective and possessive,
but you know, that isn't always such a bad
thing. At least you'll be a good mom in the
future.


What Kind of Girlfriend Are You?
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Bahaha... why am I not surprised?
- posted by Brendan @ 4:50 PM 0 comments

 



I don't really know what to say about this video. This is how I spent my Saturday night. I figured ending my Spring Break with a bang wasn't such a bad idea, so I went along for this extremely surreal event. I hope you enjoy.

Also, I need to note that this was 'sort of' a hidden camera affair, since I'm not sure videotaping inside stores like this is entirely legal. In other words, I wasn't looking through the viewfinder at all (bluntly: I was not intentionally filming anyone's butt ¬_¬)

The sudden change in image orientation at the end of the clip is because we were being escorted out of the store and the camera was upside down, so I flipped the image to be as right-side-up as possible ^_^;
- posted by Brendan @ 1:45 PM 0 comments

 
Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I'll have something substantial soon. It involves these things:

1.) A digital camcorder
2.) A group of friends with lower inhibitions
3.) A supermarket at 1am
4.) A giant penis costume

How's that for a teaser?
- posted by Brendan @ 4:15 AM 0 comments