March 11, 2006 - I took a day off yesterday from work to check out the Frank Gehry Art and Architecture exhibit at the AGO. Call me a nerd but I have actually been looking forward to it (well to both the exhibit and to the fact that I'll get to take a day off!). The exhibit takes a look at four recent projects that Gehry recently completed in Los Angeles (Disney Concert Hall- see right picture), Boston (the Stata Centre), Chicago (Millennium Park), and Berlin (DZ Bank headquarters). The exhibit also provides a preview of the AGO Transformation Project, headlined by Gehry, which will completely transform the AGO facade and add new galleries to the other wise bland building.
The exhibit features Gehry's sketches and scale models. Some of the models are truly amazing - with my favourite being the interior model for the Disney Concert Hall, which includes every minor detail, including the performers and their instruments. The models for the Stata Centre at the MIT campus in Boston (see below) are equally impressive - the creativity and the ingenuity (with the different use of material, the bright colours, the infamous Gehry random curves and angles) that went into designing the complex (both inside and out) illustrate just how Gehry is no ordinary architect. When I visited the MIT campus back in 2004, the Stata Centre stood out because it showed so much more energy, creativity, and spontaneity compare to the other wise traditional yet dull buildings.
As for the new AGO, while it definitely lacks the "wow" factor of the nearby ROM crystals, it definitely is an improvement over the the current facade. Unlike the ROM or the nearby OCAD building, Gehry has decided not to use the airspace above the current building, which I think in a way is a missed opportunity to expand the gallery, but equally understandable given Gehry had mentioned that the new building needs to find a right balance between the AGO's needs and the neighbourhood just north the gallery (hmm, a lesson learned from Bilbao?). Gehry talked about how the new AGO will still have the intimacy of the museum going experience - an antithesis to larger museums, such as the MET in New York.
Anyway, the exhibit is definitely worthy to check out. I personally wished it had included more of Gehry's other works, including his most famous piece - the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The fact that we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the exhibit also sucked big time, though we tried to sneak our cameras in and managed to take a few shots (which reminds me, Jason, you still have the pictures!). Anyway, you can click on the links below to see pictures of the exhibit from media day - you will be impressed!
Pictures from Media Day: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ago/pool/
AGO Transformation Project: http://www.ago.net/transformation/home.cfm
March 8, 2006 - It's funny how sometimes, it really takes something tragic to shake up your system. Unfortunately, the tragedy is often painful and shocking - and often, at great costs. For the past several weeks, I guess I have been ranting and complaining about all parts of my life - work, school, relationships, friendship, etc. Those who know me well know that I really don't complain all that much - so all this ranting and complaining is definitely not an everyday thing. Anyway I must admit that it's easy to forget that life really isn't that bad - until you learn that worst things happen to other people.
Tonight, I got a call from a friend telling me that a mutual friend of ours from planning school has passed away. It was a shock, mainly because he was only 27 and we had no idea that he was sick. Apparently he had a seizure and died in his sleep. He was a really great guy: smart, funny, tall, really cute - we did undergrad together (we even shared the same majors: we were both in life sciences and geography) and he was also my TA for one year. We had the same undergrad thesis supervisor too - so in many ways, we were linked.
When I heard the news, it was shocking and depressing. To think that someone around my age, so full of potential and so full of life, could be gone, just like that, is really saddening. It also made me wonder why I'm complaining about getting out of bed when a colleague of mine would never get to experience the same things that I will get to enjoy in life. It also reminded me how short really life is and that not only do I really need to take better advantage of life's opportunities, but I also need to value and cherish the people and things around me.
I might be getting a little too sentimental, but hey, if I can't be sentimental at a time like this, then I don't know if there ever will be a better time.
Matt, you will be missed by all of us. Rest in peace.
March 6, 2006 - Have you ever had days when you wish you could just stay in bed, maybe forever?
Today was definitely was one of those days. It was hard enough to just lift my head off my pillow, let alone physically get out of bed. Each time my alarm clock rang, I felt like smashing it into pieces (needless to say, I have broken quite a few in my lifetime). It was just one of those days when I wish I could just skip and stay in bed.
If only I could do that. At least when I was in school, I could always skip class and sleep in whenever I feel like it. With work, you can't do that anymore. There are responsibilities, deadlines, reports to managers. No matter how much you want to pick up the phone and pretend you have a cough while talking to the secretary, the thought of losing yet another of your sick days (or worst yet, your vacation days) is enough to put that thought quickly behind you.
I'm probably just ranting about nothing. Going to work, even when you don't feel like (and really, who feels like going to work all the time? even if you have a cool job that you like, there are still days when you just don't feel like going...) is part of growing up, part of being responsible, part of being an adult.
So yet another long Monday and seriously, I'm starting to feel a little burned out. Maybe I'm just getting a little restless at work (or maybe it's because I'm tired of dealing with other people's crisis and issues when I already have so much of my own stuff to deal with). I think I will take Friday off and just enjoy a long weekend. At least I can look forward to going to the AGO with Jason =)
So 3 more days to go. I can do it.
March 2, 2006 - Today went by pretty slowly. Work was awfully slow and then my friend Jerry called and I had to deal with his latest crisis. Initially there were plans for him to come over so we could talk, but he ended up being a no-show. No big deal I guess - so what did I do? I watched tv of course!
Thursday nights used to be the best night of the week for tv (remember those Must-See-TV days with Friends and Will and Grace, etc?). Now, Thursday nights suck. I don't care for Survivor; I would rather watch CSI on dvd; and I just can't sit through the entire hour of Skating with the Stars. So I was actually quite happy when I found the movie Sweet Home Alabama on! It was one of those movies that I've always wanted to see, but never got to.
The movie was quite funny (Reese Witherspoon was really good - but then again, I've always liked her). It was a total chick flick - and sadly, these days, I seem to watch more and more of them. Now I don't think it's pathetic that guys watch chick flicks, what is kinda pathetic was the fact that I started tearing up at the end of the movie. Out of nowhere, my eyes got watery and I felt like crying. I think it started right at the part where Reese's character, Melanie, told her fiance at her wedding that she couldn't marry him because "The truth is I gave my heart away a long time ago, my whole heart, and I never really got it back." And then Melanie ran to find her still-not-yet-divorced husband, Jake, and told him "You're the first boy I ever kissed, Jake, and I want you to be the last."
Awww...
There's more: Jake asked why Melanie she would want to be with him, to which Melanie replied: "So I could kiss you anytime I want..." (to which Jake had replied when Melanie asked him the same question when they were 10 years old).
Pass me the Kleenex box right there...
It was totally sappy - but for some reason it got to me. It's kinda..well...sad. I don't know what's wrong with me! I never used to get this sappy (this is the guy who wanted Dakota Fanning's character in War of the World to die so she would shut up). But lately, I don't know, the littlest thing would get to me: I teared up watching Clara Hughes and Cindy Klassen on the podium at the Olympics with the national anthem playing; I teared up reading this article about this kid who was abused by his grandparents and died in his cage; I even teared up watching those World Vision infomercials. Seriously, I need to get a grip.
Having said all this though, I have this urge to go out there and buy the "A Walk to Remember" dvd. I could re-read the book, but I think watching the dvd might help in satisfying this stupid pathetic need to watch sappy sad movies...
March 11, 2006 - I took a day off yesterday from work to check out the Frank Gehry Art and Architecture exhibit at the AGO. Call me a nerd but I have actually been looking forward to it (well to both the exhibit and to the fact that I'll get to take a day off!). The exhibit takes a look at four recent projects that Gehry recently completed in Los Angeles (Disney Concert Hall- see right picture), Boston (the Stata Centre), Chicago (Millennium Park), and Berlin (DZ Bank headquarters). The exhibit also provides a preview of the AGO Transformation Project, headlined by Gehry, which will completely transform the AGO facade and add new galleries to the other wise bland building.
As for the new AGO, while it definitely lacks the "wow" factor of the nearby ROM crystals, it definitely is an improvement over the the current facade. Unlike the ROM or the nearby OCAD building, Gehry has decided not to use the airspace above the current building, which I think in a way is a missed opportunity to expand the gallery, but equally understandable given Gehry had mentioned that the new building needs to find a right balance between the AGO's needs and the neighbourhood just north the gallery (hmm, a lesson learned from Bilbao?). Gehry talked about how the new AGO will still have the intimacy of the museum going experience - an antithesis to larger museums, such as the MET in New York.
