birthday weekend

sunday was my 31st birthday. these days, myspace reminds all your friends about your birthday, so i received a flood of tidings, including a databent birthday cake photo from syntax (who unfortunately deleted his blog last month, harumph). as far as presents go, i asked for and received a new electric griddle and hand blender... i'm becoming so domesticated. virago got me a copy of alan moore's massive lost girls and the first season of upright citizens brigade on dvd, so i didn't only get kitchen stuff.

friday night we went down to mass ave to check out the visualfringe opening, getting there a bit later than i would've liked. we went first to the loudermilk gallery, and there was my art right in front, as soon as you come in the door (visible from outside if the gallery happens to be closed). however, while i'd been told that all three of my pieces had been accepted, only two were actually hanging. apparently, while they'd initially thought they had enough room for everything, when it came time to actually hang the art, the curator decided there wasn't quite enough space for all three of my pieces where he'd wanted them. so my third piece is in storage at the beilouny; i'm going to go pick it up in an hour or so. (ironically, the piece that didn't get hung was my first selection, which was supposed to be the only one that was guaranteed to get in the show. on the other hand, it kind of works out, because virago loves that one and wants to hang it in our new apartment.)

so that was disappointing, but it did prompt me to talk to gallery owner mike loudermilk (which i probably wouldn't have done had all my pictures been hanging properly), who apparently loves my stuff and wants to get together in the future to do a photo shoot. so hey, even if none of my art sells, i'm still getting something cool out of participating in visualfringe, so it all works out.

(speaking of buying my art, i didn't have time to get to all the galleries, but of what i did see, my pictures were the only ones i saw that were priced under $100. mine are priced at $50. you can judge for yourself whether this says more about me [perhaps under-pricing my work because of my inability to sell records and shirts even at low prices], or about the other artists in the show. also, i wonder whether my shockingly low prices will make the work more or less likely to sell.)

beyond that, what i saw of the show was great. i highly recommend getting down to mass ave sometime this month to check it out.

saturday night we went to thai house to try it out, as it is the closest thai restaurant to our new apartment. the decor was nothing to write a blog entry about, nor was the service. but the food was perfectly acceptable. so it's not quite sawasdee (our current closest thai place, until we move later this month), but it should be a decent option for takeout.

sunday, my actual birthday, was pretty low-key. virago & i spent much of the day in front of the computer, playing civ iv: bts, and went to my parents' house for dinner. but that's all i really wanted. now the question is whether we'll actually get to see girl talk on thursday. (he's not supposed to go on until midnight, and virago needs to work in the morning.)¶