Welcome Back

Thanks its great to be here! 

I am sorry its been awhile since my last post. I've been busy. Get off my back already. 

But I'm here now so that is what matters, and boy do I have one awesome post for you today! So the last week or so I have been busy trying to do nothing. The reason for my attempt at laziness is due to an intensive religion class that I just finished last Friday. (well I technically didn't hand in the final paper until Monday... so let's say the class was over Monday as well.) The class was short (only three weeks) but it met every weekday 8:30-12 and we covered all of the letters of Paul in the bible. Lots of information in a little time tends to fry the brain a bit and that's how I felt by the end.  So! now that class is over all I wanted to do was to sleep in, laze about, and enjoy the summer the way it should be.  To some extent I suppose I have slept in (later then 7:30 am everyday at least) and I have done some summery things, but its been busy as well. 

One reason for that is attributed to a summer ceramics tutorial I am currently taking. I have a quota of thrown ceramic pots that I need to produce by the end of this week and (as a result of a busy last week in religion class) I am a bit behind in meeting my desired amount. So the last few days I have been trying my best to be in the studio making work and tomorrow, after a morning latte at madcap, I plan on getting an early start and working through the day to try to make the amount I need to have. Oh yeah! the reason I am trying to finish my work by tomorrow is because tomorrow night Alex and I will be driving to Ohio to visit the Alex's sister, brother-in-law, and two beautiful nieces. They recently moved to Ohio about a month ago so this will be the first time we visit them in their new home. 

Anyway, the last post I put on here had little to do about the going ons of my day-to-days and more about some conceptual, thought-provoking information. That being said it is the only post that did not receive any comments.  Well,  I want to make my readers happy so here are some insights into my last few days. The people want what the people want I guess. This is for you. 

So I've been walking around the blocks near my apartment to explore the neighborhood and boy have I found some gems. Literal gems, just laying on the sidewalk. Like rubies and crap! 

This last Saturday I was on such a walk and I decided to go down an alley that I have seen people in before. What would you know but in the middle of this alley there was a bar that I have heard a lot about. Stella's lounge is the name, and it is a whiskey bar (200 types of whisk(e)y) that also serves all sorts of good vegan dishes. 

So I continued walking (I planned on getting a coffee so I headed downtown) and I began to hear music. Naturally when you are somewhere and you hear music in the air, you should always follow the sound and see where it takes you. And that what I did. Well the music was this outdoors, bike, founders, fest sort of thing. I was not able to figure out the name exactly but there was lots of beer and nice bikes and people riding bikes and what not. here are some pictures. 

As I started leaving the area where everything was going on, I hear someone call out my name. I turned around and my friend Kristen was there! She was working at the GRAM (grand rapids art museum) and had just got off work. We talked and I told her how I discovered Stella's, so we decided to head back that way I eat some lunch. We shared a vegan Philly cheese 'steak' and some vegan beer-battered onion rings to eat and we both ordered Edmund Fitzgerald by Great lakes brewing to drink. I highly recommend the Edmund although usually I am not a huge fan of Great lakes brewing. Both the food and drinks were awesome. I will definitely go back to Stella's especially since it is only like 200 hundred feet from my front door. That night Alex and I made fish cakes for dinner at my apartment because her apartment was too hot. Fish cakes were awesome as well. 

Then I guess some days went by, and then I went on a picnic. Alex, Emily and I planned a picnic in the park. We ate our famous veggie-black bean burgers courtesy of Alex, fresh salad picked that day from the garden by Emily, along with home-made dressing, nuts, and Emily's home-made pickles. I made shortbread cookies for dessert. They were and still are very good (almost a pound of butter). I just ate one in fact. 

My soundtrack lately has been two albums I recently found. Serge Gainsbourg, who was a french singer popular in the 70's. I downloaded Histoire de Melody Nelson. Check it out, its really good. It is only seven songs and some of them are short but it is basically a story about Gainsbourg hitting a 15 year old Melody with his rolls Royce and then seducing her. 

The second album I got is by the dream-pop group, Beach house. The album is called Teen Dream and I highly recommend it. Apparently it is one of the top albums from last year.   

So that's basically it, and its 12:37 so I'm going to take that as a sign and say goodnight. 

Bringing it Back

Recently someone linked me to a blog post they had about Charlie Chaplin, Robert Smith, and The Cure. It is a pretty interesting idea that Robert Smith could have been influenced by Charlie Chaplin to such an extent. Well, that got me thinking. Charlie does look pretty dang sweet in the short film "The Cure". (Watch it if you haven't. I just watched it by myself and it made me laugh out loud. It's fifteen minutes of classic comedy. )


Just take a minute to think about how music and culture and art influences everything (such as music, culture, art) that comes after it. I think it's pretty funny/sad when people don't realize where trends come from. Take the "hipster" movement of today. I won't go into to much detail about it now (I'll save it for another day) but let's not kid ourselves. There is very little new under the sky. (I stole this picture from a friend's facebook album. I know I am a creeper. ) Im sure these two fellas are pretty cool cats. And yes, they are probably pulling more from the 80's then from the early 1900's but if we are assuming Robert Smith was copying Chaplin in anyway then hey, you never know... 

Campin'

I went camping 'up north' last weekend and as I promised, I am going to tell you all about it. Plus, with the aid of the Internet I will include photographs with descriptions about what is going on in the photographs!! Get ready! gasetgo! 

 

So yes, Alex and I went to Fishermen's island state park along the lake shore of the lower peninsula. (at the tip of the ring finger on the mitten.) 

We did all of the things you are supposed to do when you go camping. (hiking, swimming, campfires, cooking over the fire in a cast iron skillet, carving sticks, walking through spiderwebs, using the woods as a toilet, sunburn, burning your trash, eating fruit snacks, roasting marshmallows, judging the other campers for not knowing how to appreciate nature the right way, and so on) 

I think having campfires may have been the best part for me for a few reasons. 1) I feel like a man when I find dead trees in the woods and drag them back to camp to break up and burn. 2) we cooked all of our meals over the fire. 3) When I found Phalangium opilio and promptly threw them into the flames. With a vengeance. 4) And because Alex happens to be a pro at roasting marshmallows and then she would give them to me. (We bought a whole bag of 'mallows' but because we are old we only ate like 5 between us.) (side note: has anyone ever noticed how strange the word 'marshmallow' is?) 5) And lastly, because I always love the chance to have a campfire out in the woods. Always have, and always will. 

This is a picture of Alex making pancakes for breakfast! 

This is a tree that was next to our tent!

This is the road we walked down to get to the beach! 

This is our neighbor peeing in/on the woods in the morning! 

So we got the to park Friday night and all day Saturday we spent on the beach.

  I won't take the time to describe it but basically it was a very cool beach.  The water was crystal clear and you could walk out like two hundred feet before it got deep.  

We slept on the beach for a few hours and as a result I now have an awkward sun burn on my chest where I had my shirt over my face. After the beach we walked back to our campsite and saw a dead snake on the road. Then we saw a dead chipmunk. Then we saw a dead frog. We hung around, made another fire and then went back to the beach for the sunset. Be prepared to be jealous now. 

Well, obviously the sunset was amazing. There was also this guy on the beach who was drunk and he kept yelling to this other young man who was taking pictures of the sunset to 'email me some!' of the pictures because he liked it so much. Apparently its totally cool to drink in state parks in Michigan. Go figure.

 Anyways, we left on Sunday and ate lunch at this little place called Shirley's cafe. 

Surprisingly, Shirley's had veggie black bean burgers which were very tasty.  

Whilst we were eating Shirley's cherry pie we asked the waitress where there was a good place to buy cherries?  If you don't know, Michigan is known for their cherries, especially 'up north.' The waitress told us to go to a place fifteen minutes up the road. We did, and we bought some delicious cherries and a glass bottle of tasty root beer. I love drinking soda from glass bottles in the summer. (Hey David, remember that time we did that in Flemington? Good times.) About three hours later we pulled back into the city and it turns out Spain won after all. 

 

I camped, I swam, I conquered.

Here are some pictures of the camping trip Alex and I went on. I will write more about it later and post more pictures, but since I am too tired to do it now this should hold you over until I get the rest up.  So for those who need their fix now...

JULY eighth

Its 12:37 and it just stopped raining... 

Actually it stopped raining this afternoon and now it is as humid as heck outside. But (even though it is 12:37 at the moment) it doesn't matter because it still made me think of that infamous line to a song I once wrote. So I guess it is worth it. 

Today was a long one. I had set my alarm for 5:40 in the morning so that I would be able to wake up and finish writing a paper for my religion class that I am currently taking during the summer. Then I caught the 7:50 bus and rode it to school.  After class was over I walked in the rain to the bus stop and rode the 12:11 bus back downtown. Unfortunately I jumped the gun and got to the bus stop 15 minutes before the bus came which meant I sat wet and freezing in the overly-air-conditioned bus for the 20 minute ride home. By the time I got downtown my friend Jared (who graduated from Calvin, who also happens to be from NJ) called and said he was in town and wanted to meet up for lunch. So I hopped off the bus, (my glasses immediately fogged up) walked across the street and ordered an espresso from my favorite coffee shop Madcap while I waited for Jared to finish at the Library. 

We went to Marie Catrib's for lunch, which was, as usual, freaking amazing. I ordered the sweet potato and quinoa sandwich on branny oat bread and an iced tea.  For emphasis I will repeat that it was..freaking. amazing. 

After lunch we (Jared, Liz, Kristen, and myself) went to Calvin (college) and I stacked rocks outside while I waited for the rest of the group to pick up some art making supplies. Then they dropped me off at my apartment and I said goodbye. After that I took a nap because after all I had been awake since 5:40 if you remember. [side note: taking naps in the middle of the day can be one of the best things in the world. Especially when you can look out your window and see the mid day rain evaporating off the hot sidewalks.]  

Then I woke up abruptly from my nap, remembered I was supposed to make dinner for Alex and myself and hurried to look up a recipe that used the few ingredients I have in my cupboards.  I decided it would be best to pretend like I was on the food network show "Chopped" and wing it.  I made vegetable stir fry with sesame oil, rice, and perogies that I sauteed with onions.  I made an asian dumpling dipping sauce (worcestershire, sesame oil, vinegar, onions) which made the perogies taste more asian than polish.  Then after dinner I used the left over rice and made and attempt at making rice pudding (Grandma Clark style).  I think it would have turned out better if I had used a smaller baking dish which would have made the pudding 'thicker.'  Alex and I hung out for a bit as she did her laundry and then drove back home. 

Im pretty happy with today but Im also looking forward to going to bed as soon as I am done this post. This weekend Alex and I are going camping on the shore of lake Michigan which should be a good time and hopefully lead to a more engaging post than me just writing about my day. I will make sure to take a bunch of photos of the lake and wildlife and birds and fish and what not. Now if I can only get some followers who read this stuff... 

PS: I saw the pastor of the church I go to walking down the street with his family. It was a big deal being that he is Rob Bell. 

Firstly I would like to start by saying that I want my friends to live with/near me.  I know its a selfish thing but if I can be honest for a minute, I do sort of like my friends. So that being said, here are some pictures of my kitchen. My plan is to entice my friends to move (or at the least visit me!)  to Michigan so that we can have good times together in, well... my kitchen i guess. Also, Alex (my girlfriend to all you strangers out there) just bought me a pair of oddvars that I think go quite nicely with my drafting table-kitchen island-thing.  For all of you who aren't fluent in Ikea, "oddvar" means stools. 

 

If you couldn't tell by the pictures, I basically live in a big room. So far the 'kitchen' area is becoming the most settled are in my 'room.'

  Anyway, the big painting in the back is from a friend of mine. I got it through a "art trade." Basically she gave me a painting for a painting I gave her.  Its a good way to get your work out there and to acquire some work from some other artist as well.  That and she was driving back to California and could not fit the thing in her car. So, I agreed to make her a small piece that she could take with her. Long story shorter.. she is leaving tomorrow morning and I still have the piece that I was supposed to give her. my bad. 

The lamp that is hanging above the island was actually built by me and my friend Ryan but it originally had a base on it.  I knocked the base off (sorry Ryan but your in another state now) and hung it from the ceiling. I used a "clamp lamp" from Lowes for the hardware, and the wood was found in the used wood bin at my school.  The shade is peg board and wood veneer. 

Anyway, this blog was a bit pointless but I guess I'm missing my friends and liking where I live so I decided combining the two would be note-worthy.  I guess that's it. Until next time. 

Here we go...

If you could not tell this isn't the first time I have blogged. My first time was about two years ago and I didn't have a clue about what I was doing at all. I made one post and never blogged again.  In truth I only created a blog so that I could comment on someone else's blog (which probably was one of the main contributing factors to the failure of my 'blogging' in the first place.)

 But! This time around things are different! Mark my words this blog will be historic! For one thing I have no real reason for creating a blog (unlike my failed prior attempt at communication.) Plus I think I am at the place in my life where it's time to take the crucial step from simply living, to living and then telling people about it on the internet. I mean, why make memories unless you plan on translating them into prose for other's enjoyment? Why take pictures unless you wanted to upload them on to a venue for strangers to look at? My humble hope with this blog is that after you read my posts you take a minute to think about life and how much more fun my life seems then yours.  Because after all, I am going to try my hardest to make my life seem fun and interesting and only include pictures of attractive people that happen to be around me to give the impression that those are the kinds of people I associate with. 

Well, thanks for reading so far. 

  Until I find something interesting and exciting to post again just imagine I am too busy going to parties and art openings and et cetera.  Enjoy. 

Stephen