girl date

Portland coffee shops
futures decided over
lowfat chai latte

Met Jen at Coffee Time. She was shocked that I had not gone and so she requested, no demanded, that we meet and chat for a bit there today. Located in the posh 21st street district of Northwest Portland, it was quite the hip little joint. I rode a different way there and came upon some lovely little houses and some not so lovely hills. It is good to get a sense of what my city is like. I so rarely take the road less travelled. I arrived before Jen and ordered a turkey panini and a root beer float. I grabbed a spot and did a quick sketch of a lady sitting, chatting about school and how she should change majors. The coffee shop had walls painted with a lovely mural that contained pyramids, trees, mermaids, and much much more. Very beautiful, warm, and cozy. Jen arrived and we hugged. We both sketched and talked and ate panini. My sketches were loose with the intention to ink them in later.

I convinced Jen (with the promise that if she didn't like it, the next film would be on me) to see Let The Right One In with me. It is a Swedish Vampire film (the other tween vampire film out right now) and is playing at Cinema 21 and being students and a matinee, it only cost us 5$. It is about Oskar, a young boy of 12. He gets bullied and his parents are divorced. A strange man with a young girl move in next door to him. Turns out the girl is a vampire. They become friends. It is a very sweet little love story. The cinematography is amazing and when I felt a bit bored, I just relaxed and feasted on the colors and textures. It felt long and dragged a little bit. The action sequences were very subdued and utilized the strength of not showing what is going on to heighten the emotional impact. Bloody yes but not very gory. I liked it, and Jen did as well so now I don't owe her a film! I would still like to see more movies with her as she is a great movie buddy.

There was a trailer for Darren Aronofsky's new film The Wrestler. I'm a sucker for Aronofsky so I plan to see it. The French A Christmas Tale with Mathieu Almaric looked heartwarming and entertaining.

We sat in Coffee Time for a little while after, digesting the film and our lives. Sometimes I wonder if I am getting pretentious, or maybe I am just growing into the type of intellectual that I want to be. Who knows. We hugged goodbye and I rode off into the cold, crisp night.

Watched a few episodes of Rome while inking the days sketches. I need to do a ton more because one of my assignments for Illustration is journalism sketches. I have to draw real life or something. I'll draw some Max people. How I draw them seems to go over well so I'll keep with my method. I see it as unrefined and others dig it. Oh well.

I made my finals list. Four weeks to do:
Essay about Duchamp
Homage to a designer
Puppet
Painting Final (whatever it is)
Float design
Journalism Sketches
Science Friction Final (once I decide, I'm still undecided)
and document my illustration and painting work.

Tomorrow I need to start in on my essay and clean up my apartment. Monday is for painting.