Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

What didn't we do this week?

Tuesday evening, 5:50 pm Pacific Standard Time.
I got out of class and packed everything up in a hurry. Although I normally have class on Tuesday evenings, this was a special night when class was in San Francisco. Or rather, class was cancelled, but our professor wanted (required?) us to go to a council panel on the Zero One Festival from this summer. We hit 280 flying because the reception started at 6:30 and the forum/panel started at 7:45. Thomas told me to park at the Safeway around the corner from the Art Institute, but after we got off 80, we learned that turning left on Market isn't something done easily. After another 20 minutes trying to ingeniously get across that street, park at a Tower Records, talk with Thomas to find out that the Safeway was a couple blocks away and Tower is less lenient with their parking, found a new spot, walked back up the hills: it was time, the panel was starting. That's alright. Although it really was my first "artist conference" to rub elbows with my contemporaries, the stench of wine was a bit overpowering and I was glad for the excuse to relocate our car.

The panel was fascinating. Really, I should let Rebecca talk about her feelings as an outsider coming to a "real" art meeting, because she had a much different experience than I had. Mine was mostly bureaucratic and administrative. This panel was a discussion about what went well and what needs to be fixed if there is the possibility of having a technology San Jose biennale. It is a fascinating prospect, especially since I might be around to be a part of such a great milestone in art history, but there are a lot of theoretical conflicts about making a "new media" art festival -- making something concrete out of something that by nature isn't. Anyways, we got home a little after midnight, but that's becoming more usual for us.

Friday evening, 7:20 pm Pacific Standard Time.
We have tried to sit for dinner for twenty minutes. Without children and with strong wills to be actively engaged in a good cause, it takes a lot of self-control to sit at the dinner table for longer than 15 minutes [or even 10 minutes]. So we're working our way up. But this night, we were also determined to not have another Friday go by without doing something unique for date night.

After searching cityscape for something to do in this town, we picked up the yellow pages and started hunting down used bookstores in the area. It's a good thing we got distracted and went to a game store instead because we are simply devilish at used bookstores and show no restraint whatsoever [we show a bit more restraint at game stores because there's not usually such good deals! :) -beck]. But we ended up at the Game Kastle down the street from us. This game store gets big points for having the widest selection of any game store we've ever been to [though only one copy of each game on the shelves...so they fit a wider selection into a smaller space]. I started talking with this old man who was a big gamer and asked him for some recommendations. After going through a long list of great games, I think he sold us finally on Ticket to Ride and Blue Moon City. I was then approached by the (really cool) counter kid who said "I work here...so....could I give you some recommendations?" Like it was his duty. Like it was his right. It was so cool. He's the one who then proceeded to sell us on Killer Bunnies. After we got home, we found that we now have a list of $125 worth of games that we want to own. Ah, games.

We also watched the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, an absolutely fascinating, captivating documentary about a crazy musician. I had heard great reviews about this film and when I saw the trailer I wanted to watch it. It just came out on DVD. Go rent it. Thanks mom and dad for believing in me!

Saturday morning, 9:50am Pacific Standard Time.
After everyone's replies to last week's email about farmer's markets (especially thanks to Melissa for the web tips), we made it a point to check out our local market. Sadly our local market isn't that large and doesn't emphasize produce. We did pick up some delicious fruit (white nectarines have amazing flavor), but next time we will try to find a place that sells things like onions and peppers.

Afterwards, we stopped by my studio at work to do a bit of cleaning [and picture taking...and so I could see all the new work! -beck]. I'm still in the process of getting organized and finding out what I need. Apparently, I need a trashcan brought in from home. And paper towels. And Rebecca got to see my paintings of Pikachu. Ah, Pikachu.

The rest of the day was spent playing games, doing homework, and Rebecca went to the Relief Society broadcast. Afterwards, they had shrimp, fresh veggies and fruit (non-prepackaged) and other fancy things. Ah, California ... land of "plenty."