Work on my thesis continues, although it's tough to feel like I'm making much progress. I have a couple more experiments to run, and a lot of writing to do, before I'm ready for the thesis defense. Graduation in June is still the goal, although it's going to be pretty tight. Ken (my advisor) is behind in reading my writeups and giving me advice. It's becoming clear that he is going to be the bottleneck on getting this thesis done. I will keep trying to work around him and streamline his advising process, but there's not much I can do to speed him up. In a way it takes some of the pressure off me, since I can't make any faster progress even if I work twenty hours a day. But it's kind of a powerless feeling, which is not fun.
It was a great way to bring in the year 2000. As I'm a ham radio operator, I was part of the MIT Ham Radio club's emergency response network. I was pleased to find that my handheld unit could transmit to the MIT repeater, from inside the Hynes Auditorium, with no problems. Of course, once the drums started, I couldn't really hear the radio anymore! As we all know now, there were essentially no Y2K problems, but it felt good to be ready to help out in the event of an emergency.
I also taught a didjeridu class for MIT's Independent Activities Period. That was a lot of fun, and was very well attended (I scheduled a second session to fit in extra people, and still had to turn some away). The students were interested, although many seemed to have a lot of trouble learning the basic techniques. I encourage them to keep practicing, and I've supplied most of them with drain-pipe didjeridus to practice with.
Sadly, my first and favorite didjeridu (the green bamboo I got at the Bread & Puppet circus in Vermont) split during the class. It had been showing some little cracks and checks for a while, so I knew it was going to go sooner or later. Perhaps it was the cold dry weather, combined with the heat and humidity of my playing it, but it split open (along its whole length, end to end) in my hand, while I was talking about a lesson. The sound was like a gunshot! Of course it's junk now, not playable at all, so I guess it will go on a sacred fire sometime soon. I have other didjs, so I will certainly be able to keep playing.
In order to play didj for this class, I shaved my moustache off (I can't play with a moustache, although there are excellent players who seem to have no trouble). But I kept the beard, figuring if it looked too weird, I could always shave it off later. An informal poll of characterizations of this new look yielded the following results.
My sister Cindy and I went to the Maxfield Parrish exhibit in Manchester, New Hampshire, and it was great. Parrish started out as an illustrator, and worked with L. Frank Baum (Parrish didn't actually illustrate _The Wizard of Oz_, although it's a similar style) before going on to the "art pieces" which are so distinctive. The exhibit shows how he visited Arizona and Italy, and did landscape painting in each of these places, before returning to his home in New Hampshire. Most of his famous works show New England foregrounds and vegetation, with Italian architecture, against backgrounds from the American Southwest. It's remarkable once you know what to look for! Also his colors are intensely vibrant, and the meticulous details make it look like hyperreal photography of dream worlds.
Cindy and I had a good day together too. We don't get to see each other much these days, while I'm busy with thesis and she's busy with her houses (finishing up the new one, and trying to sell the old one). We enjoyed food and beer at the Stock River Brewery (?) in Manchester, which is another good destination.
My girlfriend Lee is enjoying life. She spent a week in Dominica (Caribbean), DESCRIBE LATER. Our relationship is in a tough place right now, though, we seem to have a lot of trouble communicating. I don't know how this is going to play out, we will see.
Then we went out and got dinner at one of the overdecorated Indian restaurants in the area (East Village, East 6th St and Avenue A). It's been years since I visited the Village, and it still has lots of the bohemian funkiness that I remember, although it's noticably more yup-scale now, with real estate prices going through the roof. Anyway the local streetlife is great fun. The Indian restaurants seem to be engaged in a glitz war, with astonishingly opulent displays of Christmas lights, glittery ornaments, and shiny gewgaws of all kinds. Plus they have doormen that try to shill you in as you walk down the street. What a riot! We found a good place and had some fine food, although pricier than the Central Square places I frequent (no surprise).
The best part was, his sister Nancy has just moved out of an apartment right in the center of the Village, at West 10th St and 5th Avenue, and I got to stay there for the weekend. A beautiful old building with high ceilings in a VERY tony neighborhood, and a huge (mostly empty) apartment all to myself! Nancy has left some kitchen and bathroom supplies, and a futon on a couch frame that folds down into a bed. Really very nice! She even has a stereo there, and a telephone, so I was very pleasantly set up.
Saturday morning I did taiji (I have NEVER been in an apartment in NYC that had enough space to do taiji in!) and then met Jon for brunch, at a slick little espresso and wine bar. Nobody seems to cook their own food in Manhattan, and with nice eateries everywhere, I don't blame them. Jon and I talked more about his work and mine, a good time.
From there I went back to Nancy's apartment to meet Nigia, a friend whom I haven't seen in years. She's just as pretty and vivacious as I remember, great to see her again! We spent several hours walking through Soho, visiting art galleries -- there are lots of them, and I can't describe them all. I liked the work by Ray Pettibon (I've seen his work in comic book shops, in some of the more obscure collections) but I was really impressed by Adriana Vareja~o who's a Brazilian artist I hadn't seen before. Her work is quite surreal. There's a series of paintings, with unframed canvases hung on the wall, but the paintings aren't centered on the canvases, they bleed over onto the wall, as if poorly aimed by the artist! She also has a series of pottery tile displays, blue and white patterned like Delft pottery, but with gaps and wounds that show bloody guts and viscera behind the tiles. Wild. I will watch for more of her work.
From there we wandered down to Canal St, poking into the shops which collect antiques and construction materials, a riot of marvellous junk such as you'd find in attics and basements of really old houses. There's also the Sacred Body Art Emporium, a vast tattoo studio with loads of books of artwork, I could spend hours here. We walked up through Chinatown to CBGB in the Bowery, which did have art shows, but wasn't serving real food. So we went up to the Telephone (a Brit bar & restaurant) which serves excellent Guiness, fish and chips, and key lime pie. I love the lower East Side.
We had vague plans to go out for music after dinner (electronica at the Knitting Factory) but were feeling kinda pooped. We did stop into a world music store, where I played some djun-djuns and didjeridus for the people, but we went from there back to Nancy's apartment to just relax. We exchanged massages, and had a wonderful cuddle and talk. Nigia really is a sweetheart, and heavily into the NYC alternative sexuality scene, which is not a contradiction. It's always good to get together with her, I must stay in touch, call her more often.
I brought my laptop computer, so I could do thesis work on the train. In fact, I'm writing this part of the journal entry on the Amtrak outside of New London, Conneticut. It's very handy, and one reason why I like traveling by rail. It takes a little longer, but it's useful time, not like standing in lines at the airport. Gotta make best use of whatever time is available!
Stay warm, everybody!
Wil