GJ Willis' Art Notes

Ann Hampton Callaway in contrast was very entertaining and funny. At the end of the show she wrote a song using all the words that were shouted out from the audience. The words were those that audience members felt described Baltimore. You know stuff like hun, natty boh, down the ocean, etc. Callaway was simply incredible. She was like a one woman force of nature. They could have done the show with just her and the BSO instead of junking it up with those hack saxophonists, the Capitol Quartet.

An odd thing happened on the way to show. I ran into Scotty Stevinson from Sowebo Fest on the bus. At least I think it was Scotty... It seems that every time I see him he looks slightly different. This time he had coffee cake coloured hair and looked a little like Andy Summers from The Police. Then again maybe he’s always looked that way and isn’t a human chameleon. However, I could have sworn that the last time I saw Scotty he was a brunette...

Any way while on the bus he handed me fliers for Sowebo and told me that my poster was up in Spoons which he had previously emailed me about. I wonder what Scotty will look like next year?

MORNING COMMUTE
In the pouring rain I caught the #1 bus. It was being driven by a man who looked like Sherman Hemsley. Hemsley played George Jefferson on the Jefferson.

The light rail train came at it’s usual 5:37. The shuttle bus arrived a little late. Despite the weather everything was running as scheduled albeit just a slight beat behind.

CONCERN OF THE DAY: Last Symphony Show of the Season
Later this evening I’m going to the last concert of my BSO subscription season. I think I may make it out to one more show. They are doing a program of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony aka Ode to Joy in July. Beethoven’s 9th is probably one of my all time favourite Beethoven pieces.

My other Beethoven favourites are; Minuet in G, Turkish March, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, and of course Moonlight Sonata.

Tonight’s BSO pops concert is their seemingly annual big band show. I hope that Jack Everly will do as good a job as he did with the other show he did conducted earlier this season.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Today, I’m wearing a blue denim shirt, blue jeans, and brown leather lace up shoes. I’m not wearing canvas shoes because it’s raining outside

CONCERN OF THE DAY: Brand Spanking New Computers!!!

We finally have our new flat screen computers up. They’re black Viewsonics. We also have black keyboards to go with the new monitors. They look Totally Bitchin’!! I apologize for the uncharacteristic language. But Wow!! They look Super Bad!! They have to be the coolest looking computers on the floor.

I still don’t like the lack of a wall. I’m not sure if I could ever get used to having to have direct eye contact with the person sitting in front of me and to the side of me. I liked that I could not see the person sitting in front. The only thing I could see was the tops of their heads. Now I’ll have to feel compelled to speak to them and acknowledge their presence. I hope that we will be getting taller walls in the future. Heck, I’ll even pitch in and buy my own walls if necessary.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
This morning I have on a mint green pullover, blue jeans, and black canvas tennis shoes. I haven’t had on the beige canvas shoes in a while because something spilled on them and they need to be washed.

MORNING COMMUTE:
The morning bus was on time. This time the #2 and #1 bus were both running one behind the other. I got on the #2 because it was the bus in front. The driver again was the Anwar Sadat looking man. This makes two days in a row he’s driven the bus. The light rail train was on time. The shuttle bus was also on time. This morning no one had to stand up on the bus. Everyone had a seat.

CONCERN OF THE DAY: Where is Stephan Leggin?
For the past several weeks WTMD morning man Stephan has been missing from the airwaves. At first I thought he was on vacation. Then I noticed that his absence persisted day after day. The person who was filling for him never said if Stephan would be returning. He just started in one morning and never made mention if Stephan was on vacation or not. Then again I wouldn’t have expected the other DJ to boldly announce that he was doing the morning show for now on because Stephan was fired.

I have to admit I haven’t listened to WTMD in the morning since Stephan went missing. My mornings just aren’t the same without Stephan’s unique voice ushering in my day. If it turns out he’s gone for greener pastures I wish him good luck. The one thing I know for sure is that Stefan Leggin graduated from Towson a couple of years ago. I guess it was about time that he finally left the campus. I know it’s a long shot but I’ll have to scan the pages of the DCRTV to find out for sure. However, I doubt that they would cover the comings and goings of a small AAA college public radio station.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
This morning I have on a purple long sleeve henley, blue jeans, and black canvas tennis shoes.

MORNING COMMUTE:
The #2 bus was driven by a man who bore a striking resemblance to slain Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat. I feel sad that the LL Cool J looking driver isn’t back. It was kind of cool having him as a driver.

The light rail was on time. However, the 5:50 C shuttle bus did not arrive at it’s appointed time. Instead, the B Express shuttle bus arrived in it’s place. I got on the Express bus and transferred to the #8 at the Timonuim Fairground stop. I was surprised to see a coworker aboard the bus. She usually carpools with another woman that works in our department. I wonder if they’ve had a falling out?

CONCERN OF THE DAY: Missed Luncheon
It appears that Friday the 13th was the day of the service luncheon at work. I got a memo about it several weeks ago. The luncheon was being held for workers who have worked at the company for five years. I had no idea I had been there that long. In fact this is the longest I have ever worked at a company. Time flies when you’re having fun.

The reason I forgot about it was that I lost the original memo. I just assumed that when the date got nearer someone would remind us all. We got the memo’s sometime in March. Well, as you can see no one reminded anybody of anything. So on Friday after suffering a horrendous day at work on Friday I fled the building.

The reason I fled at quitting time was that I didn’t want to tempt fate by staying any longer than I had to. Friday morning our computers were down for an extremely long period of time and at the end of the day I just wanted to get out of there.

When my supervisor got to work on Monday morning he told me that I missed the luncheon and that I had gotten gifts. I had no idea that the luncheon entailed getting presents. I assumed that you would be forced to sit down and eat lunch with all the other five year workers and then get kicked out of the fancy hotel dining room. After all, I assume that they would want you to be back in time for work after eating lunch on their dime.

The gifts I got for working at the company for five years were a khaki green monogrammed bag, a star shaped note pad, and pen. They look very generic and very nice. I have no complaints.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Today, I have on a denim blue pullover, blue jeans, and black canvas tennis shoes.

MORNING COMMUTE:
This morning there was a fire up the street near the nursing home. There was a big firetruck and two police cars blocking traffic. I had no other choice but to walk down the street and pray that I ran into a bus that was diverted through one of the side streets.

Eventually, a #1 bus came along. The bus was being driven by a chipper substitute driver. She said “Good Morning!”, to everyone. At each stop as passengers would leave she said, “Have a Nice Day!” I don’t know why but her effervescent cheeriness grated on my nerves. It’s Monday morning for Christs sakes! You should be in mourning over the loss of your weekend and counting down for the start of the next one.

CONCERN OF THE DAY: Men in Pink
On the shuttle bus heading home from work there was a man aboard wearing a pink polo shirt with a popped collar. I had laughed when I listened to the Big O Dukes Show when they ridiculed men dressed like that. However, in person seeing a man dressed in pink left me with a feeling of eery displacement.

I have always regarded pink as being the sole colour representative of femininity. Pink is after all, Barbie’s favourite colour. 99& of the time I’m open minded. However, I have to admit that the sight of men wearing pink just seems wrong to me. Like all fashion trends this insanity will soon pass...

Damn you, Kanye West!!

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Today, I have on a short sleeve royal blue shirt, a black sweater, and black canvas tennis shoes.

who20, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

Today, I just couldn’t take it anymore. After going time after time over to the >Outpost Gallifrey message board for the BBC sci-fi show, Doctor Who I finally reached my breaking point. I had to find a way to download the new series. After finding a download site for episodes of the new series I previewed them. When I previewed the episode Quicktime said I had extensions missing that were not at the website for Quicktime, thus I aborted my first try. I had no idea at the time that this was a common message you get when Quicktime in Macintosh tries to read a Windows derived video file. I now realize that all I have to do was find the codec and I would be all set. I could also take the easy way out and download another avi reader... So thus I have begun to re-download Doctor Who. I have no idea how long this endeavor will take with a dial up modem.

The one thing that made me want to see the new series by any means necessary was that I recently found out that an episode (Dalek) that recently aired was based on one of the Big Finish audio’s. I believe I’ve written before that I like to listen to the Big Finish audio’s, especially the ones that feature Paul McGann as the Doctor and India Fisher as Charlie.

The audio in question does not feature McGann and Fisher. The audio is called, Jubilee and is written by Rob Shearman who writes a lot of Big Finish stuff. Shearman also happened to have wrote the script for Dalek which was based on his audio script. I now have to find out how the TV version varied or is similar to the audio version.

Jubilee is one of the BF audio’s I have of Colin Baker’s Doctor. I’ve recently started to collect them after listening once again to Zagreus .

So now I feel it would be a bad jumping off point for my first viewing of the series to be with the Dalek episode. Instead, I think it would be best to download them in sequential order, starting off with, Rose. The Rose episode introduces >Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and his newest companion, Rose played by Billie Piper. Piper as I understand it, is the UK’s equivalent of Brittany Spears. However, as I understand it she’s good in the series and has surprised a few folks that she can actually act.

It’s also sad to note that Eccleston has opted out of continuing the role for another season. The show however, will continue for a second season with David Tennant as the Doctor.