gilman 2010
in the new gilman, there are memories that lingered. the rooms are still lined side by side reminding me of sweaty afternoons in the basement, nodding off to the poor air conditioning's endless drone. the hut is still a open space equilibrium, though more like an airport now with its sky high glass ceiling and panopticon modernity. the halls are as narrow and endless as before; though now covered in light and unbroken chiffon yellow. i am most impressed by the staircases. how cramped they were before and now sweeping and bottomless.
true, i miss the old gilman of freshman year. the place where i pulled all-nighters and had to test for usable outlets. where the worn sofas were large and enveloping. and the night came in drifts of unwelcomed sleep.
hard times/good times
in court i often have downtime. this is when i drift into sketching. it is a perfect location, stained and straining with human experience, grief, and lives colliding. i usually sit up front with the judge so that i face the "clients," some in prostrated attentiveness as if the rows of cold benches were pews and the judge their revered priest, some in stony, silent indifference, and the worst, rowdy nonbelievers who muttered and whispered their discontent under the bailiffs' watchful eyes.
yet they were all united by their setting, a human circus of drugs, abuse, poverty, and violence. often i would sneak among them, more comfortable to sit in the chaos than pretend i was above it. i was in domestic violence court when i chanced upon the person i drew above. he slept through the entire proceeding. at the end when the judge asked him to come up, this conversation followed:
judge: why were you asleep?
man: sorry sir, i was very tired today.
judge: why were you so tired?
man: i had to wake up at 5 today to get to court, sir.
judge: do you live far away?
man: no sir. i actually moved houses yesterday. over the weekend, i got shot.
.
.
.
judge:......are you fine?
man: yes sir. just tired.
time to wander
today i went on a trip to find shop gentei, one of the two places in baltimore i know that carries japanese imports; it was definitely more for the adventure. the picture above is my map...the best map ever; drawn to scale and oh-so more accurate than the iphone gps. we were actually able to find the location but we didn't realize since (believe this) the store had no display sign. we walked a full 180 and wandered down some pretty sketchy alleys. we even tried asking two architectural firms located nearby, the last one a door down from the shop and they had absolutely no clue.
it ended well. we found it before my feet mutinied. the place carried mostly men's goods: skate, bike, motorcycle. y-3 skates were 40% off, very nice but none in my size. either way, my friend managed to do some shopping. time not wasted.
after, i bumped into one of my favorite people at hopkins: anatoli, political theory graduate student and ta extraordinaire. i finally met his wife. just as i imagined: socal sweet and smart. man, they give me so much hope after sitting in on all those domestic violence cases. their recommendation for dinner: the helmand, runned by hamid karzai's brother. the appetizers were some kind of amazing. :)
coming home, i found that my pen converter came in; now where is my pen (or ink for that matter)?! night time was spirit within, children of men, and the ice storm as i read today's news and reconnected with friends. i can't explain in a non-rambling format how much i love the first film. children was pretty eye-opening and violent. and the ice storm--well, i like how packed this movie is with famous actors in their youth: christina ricci, tobey maguire, elijah wood, katie holmes....and that dude from numb3rs.