The Emperor's New Clothes

Friday, August 14, 2009

So as indicated in one of the earlier posts about our trip to New York, Manda and I went to the MOMA for several hours one day. For anyone who doesn't know, the MOMA is the Museum of Modern Art. And for anyone who doesn't know me, modern art isn't really my thing. Manda loved it, so I indulged her, and now I never need to go back.

While modern art isn't my thing, and really art appreciation isn't really my thing (we also spent a day at the Met and that was somewhat tortuous, although much less so than the MOMA), I am able to appreciate the artistic talent of the pieces. We did the audio tour, which entails carrying around what looks like an old cell phone, into which you type numbers to hear the curators and art critics talk about pieces. I had a really hard time getting through the audio explanations, because I feel like the majority of the time the artists don't put nearly as much thought into the painting as later interpreters credit them with. In other words, I feel like the critics like to hear themselves speak, so they make up a bunch of bull to sound deep and so understanding of the tortured soul of the artist.

Anyway, just because I don't want any of the art, doesn't mean it isn't art...except the crap that isn't art. These pictures are a few examples of some of the things they had on display that cannot seriously be art. For anyone who thinks they are, the emperor is really naked, he doesn't have a new suit on.

Of all of these pictures this one is my favorite (in all seriousness) but only because it reminds me of Qbert. This is somewhat artistic, but it is just theft of the Qbert game screen


Maybe it is just my simplistic mind, but what is artistic about a rope, especially if the artist didn't even make the rope. If the artist made the rope, then maybe there is some argument, although not a strong one.

Ok, a piece of fabric stuck to the wall. There is no design on the fabric, no apparent shape to it, it is a solid color, and stuck to the wall. Seriously? Maybe the emperor should have ordered his suit in this color.


This is one of my favorites, in a sarcastic way. Its description is nylon cord and metal brackets. It is a purple nylon cord running through four metal brackets, two on the wall, two on the floor. Wow!

This may come in handy if your kids are acting up, but it is really just a very skinny steel cage.

I have moved and stacked a lot of bricks in my life, I never knew I was being artistic. There are 120 bricks here, stacked in the middle of the floor. I thought they were getting ready to display something on top of them, but no, this is supposedly art.

I think this one was my absolute favorite. I know it looks brown, but that is because I was not using the flash and I don't know how to use the camera as well as Manda so I can't get good color. It was actually black. That's it! No detail. No indentations. Nothing. It is oil on canvas, an it is solid black! What the hell?!?!

These pieces of "ART" (and I use the term loosely) somehow are deemed to be good enough to be displayed in a world renowned museum. Who are the pretentious morons who are doing this? These are being displayed in the same museum as van Gogh's Starry Night, and Warhol art work, along with many other pieces of art that I don't like, but I can at least appreciate the artistic value of them. Art is whatever you can get away with, but seriously, the emperor is naked. Get him some clothes!

at 10:53 AM 4 comments  

The Plays

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Ok, so Amanda and I went to see a couple of plays while we were in New York. The first one we saw was Mary Poppins.


It was really entertaining with great acting and singing. But the real star of the show was the scenery. It was really amazing how efficiently they could change the set without any delay in the play. The massive set pieces easily switched between the main floor of the house and the nursery, then to the rooftops. It was really a fun show to see, but nothing compared to Rock of Ages.

If you are a fan of 80s Butt Rock, you will love Rock of Ages. It even made me like Constantine Maroulis (of American Idol fame). This show features music from Whitesnake, Journey, Starship, Poison, REO Speedwagon, Europe, Bon Jovi, Foreigner, Warrant, Mr. Big, and much more. The acting isn't great, and I didn't feel that story was all that strong, but it is a lot of fun, and extremely entertaining. Be aware, however, that it is a bit risqué so the teenage kids in front of us were a little uncomfortable with their parents right behind them. All said, Rock of Ages was a ton of fun.

at 10:47 AM 0 comments  

New York

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

So, Amanda and I just got back from a week in New York. Amanda's sister, Emily, and her husband, Miles, were in New York for the summer and they kindly let us stay at the apartment they sub-let, thereby drastically reducing our costs, allowing for a much more enjoyable experience.
We had a lot of fun on the trip. We went all around Manhattan on a great bus tour, well the tour was great for the first part, the down town tour. For the uptown tour we had a horrible guide who didn't know anything. On that part of the tour we learned a lot of useless facts about Holland, and the Dutch love of sprinkles.
Anyway, we also went to the Met, the Moma, to a Yankees-Red Sox game, to a couple of plays (Mary Poppins and Rock of Ages), Central Park, of course to Tiffany, too much shopping on Canal Street, we walked the Brooklyn Bridge and much, much more.
Here are some pics...

Manhattan from Brooklyn

Inside the Egyptian exhibit in the Met

Me in front of the Guggenheim

Manda in front of the Guggenheim

Me in front of the Apollo Theater in Harlem

Me in front of Grant's Tomb

Empire State Building

Manda and me on the bus tour

In front of the restaurant from Seinfeld

Manda and me in front of the restaurant from Seinfeld

(it was so humid that the camera lens fogged up)

Grand Central Station

Manda and me in front of Grand Central with the Chrysler Building behind us

Manda in front of Warhol at the MOMA

van Gogh's Starry Night at the MOMA

Manda and me at the Yankees game

Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium

A-Rod ducking a pitch at his head

Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge

Emily and Manda walking across the Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge

Manda and me on the Brooklyn Bridge with Statue of Liberty in the background

at 4:26 PM 4 comments  

If anyone is still checking this...

Thursday, July 16, 2009

I know, it has been a really long time, but I have been really busy. I plan on starting this up again in a few weeks.

at 9:24 AM 2 comments  

The End Has Come

Friday, May 8, 2009

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, so I thought I should do a quick post. The end has come. Today is the last official day of my law school career. I actually finished on Wednesday when I emailed my paper in, but finals end today, and the semester is officially over. One week from today I will be graduating, then it is time to start studying for the bar exam. I have actually already started studying, and it is no fun, but you only have to pass the bar once. Anyway, in the words of London Tipton, Yay me!

at 1:30 PM 3 comments  

Twilight should have never seen the light of day!

Monday, March 30, 2009



Ok, so I can understand the book being good (I don't know, I haven't read it), but the movie was awful. Amanda convinced me to watch it over the weekend, we got it on Netflix, so I figured I wouldn't feel guilty if I just turned it off, or left the room, but I couldn't. Much like driving slowly past an accident on the freeway, when you see a white sheet over something on the ground, you can't help but look. However, in this case, it wasn't just the white sheet, it was a decapitated body with blood flowing from the gaping wound. I couldn't pull myself away.
You would think, given the success of the books, that the studio would have invested a little bit of money in the movie and produced a decent screenplay, but they didn't. The entire thing was so low budget that I couldn't help laughing to myself numerous times throughout the movie. Oh, did I mention the acting was atrocious too.
Anyway, if you are looking for a good movie to watch, steer very clear of Twilight, but if you are looking for a movie to make fun of, I would probably still steer clear of this one, but you can make a lot of fun of it.

at 2:49 PM 3 comments  

The End Is Near!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009



So, I got an email today from a fellow student. This email informed me that there are only about 5 weeks of classes left. I don't have any finals this semester, I just have a couple of papers (3 of them short 2-3 page papers) and a trial to do. It will be a lot of work before I am done, but the end is near. In just under two months I will have a JD, but unfortunately this is the worst time to graduate from school. No one is hiring. So, I guess it is a time for joy at being done, and a time for fear at not having a job for after graduation. Anyway, wish me luck.

at 11:32 AM 0 comments  

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Friday, March 6, 2009

I thought this was pretty funny.

at 11:15 AM 0 comments  

Political Speeches

Wednesday, February 25, 2009


OK, Amanda was at book club last night, and my kid was in bed, so I decided to watch a little TV. Of course nothing was on Food Network (or at least Alton wasn't on) so I was resigned to flip through the stations, trying to find something interesting to watch. Because of all the cable news channels, and because of all of the big networks broadcasting it, I was bombarded with Obama's speech to Congress. As I will later explain, I found myself so frustrated that I turned to the Wii and played a little World at War (which only heightened my frustration).
My frustration wasn't with Obama, but with the rest of the crowd there. Why is it that politicians can't give a speech in which most of the time involved is not used up by applause? I've gotta say, if I were President I would start my speeches by saying, "please hold your applause until the very end of my speech." Think about the time wasted by the constant pauses required to allow the annoying people to stand up and clap for 30 seconds every 15 seconds. Think how much more quickly they could get back to regularly scheduled programming if they weren't wasting all that time applauding. Think about how much more coherent the speeches would be without breaking up the speech constantly.
Oh and on a side note, how annoying were Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden last night? Pelosi was the instigator of so much of the annoying applause, and did you guys see Joe Biden do the wink and point. What was that all about? Anyway, those are my thoughts.
Maybe next time I will discuss my grievances with video games that trap you on a level and there is nothing you can do, no one to kill (you can't even kill your own guys) and nowhere to go.
Servus.

at 9:05 AM 0 comments  

Hope? Pity party. Sorry, this is a rant.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I know, I have received numerous complaints, some in person, and at least one on the blog. I promise this post has nothing to do with football, or about how much better the U is than the Y.

Ok, news flash... the economy is in the crapper. The Bush administration kind of screwed us over with the so-called stimulus. It didn't do anything except bail out companies that should not have been bailed out. Darwin was right in at least one respect. Businesses that can't survive should not survive. Let a new, smaller, more efficient company take over and start anew. Don't even get me started on the auto industry, oh, too late.

The American auto industry is just about worthless, so why did we just give them billions of dollars? To delay the inevitable collapse, of course. The first thing that needs to happen with the auto industry is move them from Michigan. Either move them to a non-union state or change Michigan into a non-union state. The UAW (along with most other unions) is the devil. All unions do is create job security for workers who no longer have motivation to do a good job. Wait haven't we seen this before, oh yeah, in the USSR, it is called communism and it failed. No surprise the auto industry, hampered by the UAW, is failing. See the Chinese form of communism seems to be working somewhat because those workers still have motivation. It isn't that if you do a good job you will be promoted and earn a good living, it is that if you don't do a good job you will be thrown into a prison for the rest of your life and be tortured. That can be great motivation.

The big three auto companies should be merged into one. Get rid of the bad apples and start with a new, more efficient company called American Motors. Think of the advertising dollars that could be saved just on the trucks alone. No other company truly competes with the big three on trucks (for about a year Honda tried to, but that appears to be over, and Toyota has a nitch in the market, but the vast majority of the market is tied up in Dodge, Ford and GM). If the new company took all of the good things from each of the trucks and created a new model, without any of the bad issues, there would be multi-millions saved each year in advertising costs alone. I know, there is the slight issue of a monopoly, but we can work around that. And the issue of jobs lost by those who now work for the big three? Give them a few months to prove they deserve a job. If they don't, fire them! That's the way it works in any non-union industry, and it is the American way, isnt it?

New topic. Any company that has received any amount of bailout should be unable to give anyone in the company a bonus for at least 5 years, or until the company pays the bailout back. Also, all executives should be limited in salary to no more than $1 Million annually. Since when does anyone deserve $700 Million in salary and bonuses. I don't care who you are or what you do, that is absolutely unreasonable, especially if you are then turning to the government and requesting money so you can buy a few new jets and take everyone to Vegas for a "retreat."

Hope??? I consider myself a conservative. I'll tell ya, I even voted for McCain. (On a side note, I didn't like either of the candidates.) But I came in to this administration with hope, isn't that what we are supposed to have with Obama in the White House. So why is it that the Democrats, now that they are securely in power, are doing the exact thing they accused Republicans of doing, fearmongering? Why is it that Obama insisted on passing this new stimulus bill that almost no economist, outside the administration, believes will be effective. Isn't that just adding debt to an already bad situation? Oh yeah, if it doesn't pass now, a catastrophe will occur. Isn't that exactly the type of language Democrats hated Republicans for using? I know they are all politicians and will say what they need to, but you didn't even wait one month into the new administration to start the fearmongering, the exact thing you despised in the late administration.

Now, for anyone still reading, we are all in a bad situation. The economy sucks. Jobs are scarce. Get over yourself thinking that everyone should pity you. Everyone's situation sucks right now, so quit being so selfish and assuming that your situation is so much worse than everyone else's.

For anyone still reading (i know I used that in the last bit, but I am using it again). This has been a stream of conscience post. Sorry for any ill-thought out ideas. Sorry for any grammatical errors. Sorry for wasting your time. These are just a few thoughts I had.

Servus

at 11:10 AM 6 comments  

Where Are You?

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

I know, I haven't posted in a long time and this is yet another football post. I am not going to discuss how Utah dismantled the supposed powerhouse Alabama team, I just have one question...what happened to all my extremely vocal BYU friends? I know at least a few of you were very vocal about how Utah was going to get killed by whoever they played, especially if it was an SEC team. Why so silent?

at 2:54 PM 4 comments  

Hitler reacts to BYU's spanking at the hands of the Utes

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I thought this was pretty funny. Thanks to Cody for sending it. It is a little long, but pretty funny. Go Utes!

at 9:21 AM 1 comments  

New Saying?

Monday, November 24, 2008

Well, for the past two years I have had to put up with some really annoying sayings. First, "Harline is still open." Second, "It's fourth and eighteen, do you know where Austin Collie is?" or just "4th and 18." I have a question. What is the new saying? I was thinking maybe, "Hall back to pass...it's picked off! Again!"


I was talking with my brother-in-law, Daren about the game yesterday. I told him it was a good game all the way to the end of the third quarter, then it became a great game. I do have to admit, Utah has been outplayed for almost entire games throughout the season, only to come through at the end of the game. That was definitely not the case on Saturday. Utah outplayed BYU in every aspect of the game. Being plus 6 in turnover ratio tells the story of the night. The Utes manhandled the kitties to clinch a BCS bowl birth for the second time. And to top it off, assuming Utah doesn't drop in the next couple of weeks, Utah is still the only team to qualify under the old BCS rules, and this is the second time they will do it.


BYU fans, maybe next year you should get on Austin Collie's home teaching companion, and make sure they are magnifying their callings so that God will bless them to win the game.


Here are a few pics from the game.


Touchdown!

That looks like a facemask to me.

Johnson played the game of his career as he tore apart BYU's defense.



I told you he hadn't really seen a defense this year, before TCU.



Oooooo, cold! But Phoenix won't be!



Maxi-pad, don't cry!

Wow, roles were reversed this year. Isn't Austin supposed to be the one holding the ball?

How many BYU players does it take to stop the Utes offense? Don't know, but it is more than 11.

See picture above for caption.

What a b-ute-iful sight.

at 10:10 AM 2 comments  

Go Utes!!!

Friday, November 21, 2008


I am really kicking myself for not having ponied up the cash to get Muss tickets this year. I wish I was going to the game, but I will be cheering, probably much too loudly, from home. GO UTES!

at 2:00 PM 0 comments  

Disneyland

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I know this is way late, but I wanted to get some pics up. From October 28 through November 2 we went to Disneyland. Amanda and I took Spence and some of my family came too. We traveled to Anaheim with Papa, and Spence threw up 3 times on the plane; once on mom, once on the floor and once on Papa, I was lucky.



Papa left us at the gate to the park on Tuesday and the three of us went in. There was no one there and we could have basically walked on to every ride. Too bad we couldn't leave Spence. Tuesday night Jenny and her family (Steve, Abby, Tyler and Makenna) came up from San Diego, and my mom, Mindy and Jessica flew in. Wednesday we all went in together. We had a lot of fun on the trip, but for now, I am Disneyed-out.













at 9:23 AM 3 comments  

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