when buildings touch each other

it's not that bad being back. i have not yet smelled the skunks, but i have seen stars in the navy nighttime skies.

i woke up today with a dusting of snow and some optimism. the snow melted and i am still sanguine. go figure.

it was good to see my students and i attended a very good talk tonight at the college of a+up. the architect cracked wise about beer and drinking and things that ordinarily would irritate me, but i actually found him to be clever and perhaps even endearing. quite aside from his personality, his ideas were definitely stimulating. i left feeling extremely pleased to be part of a design school. the students, lured by $400 worth of pizza, sat obediently and absorbed his didactic digressions. he had a lot to say and all was worth listening to.

during the talk tonight, md spoke about urbanism as being the biggest environmental issue of the 21st century. here, i thought that it was going to be urbanity.

i like to hear architects talk. i relish the verbs they use. e.g. i like it when buildings touch each other.

after the talk, i chatted with some students briefly in the hall and a colleague stopped to holler at me ... his phrase. he secured a copy of vagabondia on dvd that we can use for the next month. (it's a seven minute piece filmed in the soane museum in london). looking forward to seeing the film; to seeing whether i can teach with it; and especially pleased that my colleague recognized me and he thought to mention it to me. now, to be clear, i have had several conversations with him and even served as a critic at his students' final presentations last term, but it is michigan and i have been invisible to some here.

in other news, ebb secured a signed copy of juanita harrison's book. and--the big news is that she found a photograph of miss harrison on the beach in waikiki in it. i am so wildly jealous and very happy for her. i can't even begin to imagine what she can and will do with it. i am so jealous. and happy. maybe in reverse order.

my parents are on a lenten mission for the next three days. i think it is three days. maybe they will find that they are bacon?