Around the Bloch

With the grand opening of the new Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art just two months away, the organization is moving into a promotional phase.

I received an email from my inside source, Matt the Architect, with a link to an "e-preview" of the building's interior. It's not as much a video as a slide show in video form, but still a good preview of what the experience will be like.

I've been kind of a booster for this project for the last few years. I think it's a really cool juxtaposition to have this modern glass "building on its side" next to the neoclassical structure of the museum proper.

That said, I have a couple of lingering questions about the Bloch building. With only 60 days to opening, it's looking kind of plain. I thought they might hang some paintings or quilts or something. I bet you could do a nice farmers’ market in there, but that’s just one of many possibilities. Also, I think they need to paint the damn thing already, maybe add a nice shag carpet and some drapes.

tagged: Steven Holl, Nelson Atkins, art, architecture, Kansas City, museum

Friday Blogthing: Apparently I'm also a Japanese schoolgirl

I never really put much stock in these online quizzes/surveys/personality tests.

But it's spooky how accurate a profile about your bathroom habits can be (except for the caricature of the Japanese school girl. No way my eyes are that big).

What Your Bathroom Habits Say About You

You are very independent and self-centered. You don't solve other people's problems - and you don't expect them to solve yours. Your idea of fashion is jeans and a t-shirt. Clean, if you're lucky. You are a little shy and easily embarrassed. You often wonder if you are normal. In relationships, you are practical and realistic. You have a romantic side, but you only let it out when it's appropriate.

What Do Your Bathroom Habits Say About You?

tagged: bathroom, habits, Friday, blog, quiz, profile, test

Cool change

So I walk in to Starbucks across the street yesterday for my customary afternoon double espresso.

I give the barrista my order, make a little small talk and whip out the two bucks to pay for my tiny cup of concentrated caffeine.

As you know, a double espresso at Starbucks costs about a $1.85. I typically give two dollars and tell the kid behind the counter to drop change into the tip jar.

I'm guessing the barrista knew this, because when he rang up my charge the register showed that I was owed change of $9,999.12. Some tip!

tagged: Starbucks, coffee, tip, change, barrista, dollar

Slogan time again

The Kansas City Star, apotheosis of journalistic integrity that it is, has launched a contest for a new unofficial city slogan to go with the new ideas and administration of the new KCMO Mayor Mark Funkhouser.

And since I riffed severely on the state of New Jersey when they were going through their state motto crisis, I thought I'd try to give equal time to Kansas City, Mo. So here are a few lame thoughts to go with the lame thoughts posted as comments to The Star's article:

• Kansas City: Jazz + Funk = Junk.
• Kansas City, leading the way in steel-plated streets since 1993.
• Kansas City, the loosest slots aren't in the casinos, they're in Westport
• Kansas City: In Your Face, Omaha!

tagged: Kansas City, slogan, contest, Missouri, Omaha, Mark Funkhouser, jazz

That's not my banana!

I'm crazy with conference calls all morning, so I'm focused on taking notes, looking at PowerPoint presentations and contributing as little as possible to the call.

Finally during a break between calls, I try to do a little tidying up around my cube. That's when I notice that there was a banana peel in my trashcan.


Only, I hadn't eaten a banana all morning! In fact, I was so busy with conference call meetings that I had only left my cube for a few minutest to get the requisite cup of coffee after starting up my pc.

My superior powers of deduction have led me to conclude that some socially defective cube drone was eating their breakfast while passing my cube and, instead of disposing of the refuse properly, they decided to dump it in my own private trash can.

So now I have to deal with the smell of rotting banana peel all afternoon? I don't think so, Sunshine. I don't know about you, but that's not the way we roll in my little plot of the cube farm.

I deftly exchanged my trash can with the offending peel for a trashcan from a cube a few aisles away. I think it was an unoccupied cube. But if you work in cube 1B963, well, er, sorry 'bout that.

tagged: corporate, office, trash, banana, cube

YouTube Tuesday: Brutha can't drive

Here's the scenario: You're a famous actor, you're doing a movie about fast cars, and you have a chance to drive a $1 MILLION Ferrari Enzo.

Here's the result:


tagged: movie, YouTube, video, Eddie Griffin, Ferrari, Enzo, crash

Dream job?

Let's face it, most of us aren't in a job we love. Personally, I merely like my job, but I always have this nagging thought that there's probably something better.

Then I caught this little nugget. It looks like KMBC Channel 9 News, home of geezersauraus rex Larry Moore, is looking for a new weather dude/wench.

In my mind, there are pros and cons to any career choice and you have to weigh these carefully before telling you current employer to foxtrot oscar. So, regarding this opportunity...

Pros

• You don't have to know a thing about meteorology.
• Chromakey+Maria Antonia+remote control=tons of fun.
• I have more hair than Micheal Mahoney.
• Endless opportunities to riff on Larry Moore.

Cons

• I'd have to develop a "sky is falling" attitude about thunderstorms.
• I've been told I have a face for radio and a voice for print.
• Endless opportunities to be hazed by Larry Moore.

All in all, I'd say it's worth a shot. I'm off to polish up my resume and get my audition tape ready.
tagged: media, job, career, meteorology, Maria Antonia, Larry Moore, Kansas City

Carnival time

John B. has posted this week's edition of the Kansas Guild of Bloggers carnival over at Blog Meridian.

Great posts all around, including one from yours truly. So if you have a few extra minutes to kill while avoiding any productive activity, be sure to check it out.

And don't forget to submit an item for next week's edition, which will be hosted at Thoughts from Kansas.

tagged: Kansas, blog, blogger, carnival, KGB

The More You Know: What's that smell?

The next time you're in Houston and you smell something terrible, it might be a dude roasting his ex-girlfriend on his balcony.

But just to be sure, here's a primer from The Slate on what to look smell for

Burning muscle tissue gives off an aroma similar to beef in a frying pan, and body fat smells like a side of fatty pork on the grill. But you probably won't mistake the scent of human remains for a cookout. That's because a whole body includes all sorts of parts that we'd rarely use for a regular barbecue. For example, cattle are bled after slaughter, and the beef and pork we eat contain few blood vessels. When a whole human body burns, all the iron-rich blood still inside can give the smell a coppery, metallic component. Full bodies also include internal organs, which rarely burn completely because of their high fluid content; they smell like burnt liver. Firefighters say that cerebrospinal fluid burns up in a musky, sweet perfume.

tagged: smell, human, flesh, burning

Monday Malaise: Tell me something I don't know

I've seen this sort of thing on other blogs, and since I'm a radical conformist I realized I had no choice but to post a few random thoughts myself.

• I feel a little uncomfortable shaking all the hands at church during that time when you're supposed to get up and shake everybody's hand. I just feel like I'm picking up all kinds of germs. I actually sit with my "shaking" hand away from my body for the rest of the service.
  


• I've always thought I would die in a fit of spontaneous combustion, probably after the Democrats nominate Hilary Clinton for president.


• I have a horrible compulsion to peel and chew my fingernails. It's a shameful, disgusting habit I know, and it's a demon I constantly battle.


• I think gravity is an interesting theory.


• I wear only two styles of sock, white (on the weekends) and black (during the work week). Seriously, I buy multiple copies of the same black sock so I don't have to worry about having "pairs" of socks.


• Sometimes I think the hokey pokey is what it's all about.


• I absolutely almost loose it in crowded elevators, especially if people only take the elevator up one or two flights. I mean COME ON!


• I hold a very dim view of people who spend too much time working on their MySpace pages (not you of course, just other people).


• I would never actually do this, but sometimes, when I'm driving at night down a two-lane highway and I see the headlights of an approaching car in the other lane, I wonder what it would be like to veer into the other lane at the last second and get into a head-on collision. Please don't hate me.


• I wonder if anybody really "fits in," I mean really.
  

tagged: personal, thoughts, fingernails, elevator, myspace, driving, collision