Institute for Contemporary Art

I went this evening to the Institute for Contemporary Art here in Boston. The are having a special exposition of the work of Shepard Fairey who is the artist responsible for the Obama sign you can see here. Once you see the exposition you really understand why the poster is the way it is. It reflects Fairey's work since his beginning. Interestingly enough, this was the first time he did a poster of a political figure in support of him/her rather than to criticize. The exposition is worth going to and if you're around Boston go on Thursday after 5pm: it's free!! More works from Fairey can be seen in this page from the ICA.

John Abercrombie photos

As I said yesterday, the concert was awesome. Here are some pictures. The band was John on Guigar, Gary Versace in the Hammond organ and Adam Nussbaum on drums. Both John and Adam are very well known but I didn't know the organ player. 

However he impressed me in a good way. Very consistent and 

showing complete control over the instrument. His solos were 

solid. We might start seeing him around more often. After all he is already playing with some of the greats such as John and Adam. 

John Abercrombie

I just arrived from John Abercrombie's concert. It was a nice set with the trio playing in a good sync. It was an organ trio (guitar,drums,organ). They played for about 1:20hs. The organ player I did not know but he was amazing. In fact, playing that "thing" must be hard with you having to use your feet also. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures. Now I have to check if Jerry made his move on chess. ;)

John Abercrombie

This evening I'm going to John Abercrombie's concert also at the Regattabar. The only problem is that the concert is at 7:30pm which IMO is just a bit early for a concert. In any case, I expect it to be a good concert. He will play in a Organ Trio. 

Jacky Terrasson Pictures

I'm posting some pictures from the Jacky Terrason concert last Saturday.

Singing and drunk

It's Monday and this young guy on the T is drunk as he'll and singing his music as loud as he can. What kind of person gets drunk luke this on a Monday?! what kind of life this guy has to make him need to do this just to get some attention? I'm glad this place is more civilized because had it been in Brazil, someone would have told him to shut the f... up already.

Cold again

Today it got very cold again. It's 20F!! I thought the worse of the winter was over but I guess I'll have to endure a few more weeks of winter. Thankfully I'm heading to Hawaii on Monday and that should be a change... I hope!

Emergence

This is the title of the book that I started to read. It deals with the issue of organized complexity that is pervasive in all aspects of life. The book sound very interesting thus far as it is discussing an area that I like a lot: swarms. The book is not written by a scientist but the author does seem to have some understanding of the scientific process.

Working late

Friday night, I was working late here in my room and decide to try a new picture for my profile on facebook. Here it is. I guess it just shows my read eye. I hope this is proof that I'm working until late rather than doing other stuff. LOL. The facebook picture will not be that one though.

After Lunch

The lunch with Pat Bond and his son, Brad, was really pleasant. The place, Skipjack's, has a jazz brunch and the band was actually good despite my fears since I tend to dislike "local" jazz bands. For experience this always tend to mean, "a band that is local and really doesn't know how to play jazz but wished they did". The restaurant is kind of upper class like but the food was good. The location in boston is also nice for a walk. Today was a bit cold but I guess it will be good when Sarah and the kids come here during summer. The picture is from the trinity church which is just in front of the restaurant on Boylston street. 

Lunch with Pat Bond

I'm off to have lunch with Pat Bond, a colleague from FIT. He's retired now and leaves close by. Nice place to retire by the way. :)

After the concert

The concert just ended. Great stuff!! Jacky terrason, as the other guys I've seen at the regatta bar, stayed after the concert to talk to us. Nice guy and as I expected a great virtuoso. Well worth it. It became even better because everyone got a free CD from Cassandra Wilson. It was good value today. LOL.

Jacky Terrason

I'm at the regatta bar for terrason's concert. He is an incredible pianist and I'm really glad to have a chance to see him live. I hope he is as good live as on CDs. I have a couple of CD covers to see if I get him to sign.

Skeptic Blog

I found a skeptics blog which has received a lot of attention, including links from Richard Dawkin's website. If you like skeptic magazines and such you'll love this blog: Skepticblog.org. I'm also placing a link on my list of blog on the sidebar.

Indian restaurant

I found this nice Indian restaurant around close to the university. The food is good and cheap. The only problem is that I've been here three times already and the small buffet always has the same things. Some change would be nice.

Party and Work

We walk in the lab a fine line between work and party. What I mean I that people celebrate every possible thing but at the same time they work like no one else. This is a good path to walk because while partying you don't forget who or what is paying for all that: productivity. People don't produce they don't get the benefits of it. Nice trade off.

Python...

Jerry told python is easy... I hope so. I'll google it but I need to learn this fast!!!!

More snow around here.

Yesterday we a some snow while I was coming home we got some more. This time I managed to make a couple pictures from the street here around the corner. I had to go there because it was really deserted and thought the pictures would be okay. It's hard to take pictures when your hands a freezing but you at least get the idea.

Python anyone?

Does anyone know how to program in python? I'm going to have to learn fast because I need to run a package called networkX on some of the complex networks I'm building. I just hope it is straightfoward as I don't have time to learn yet another language. :)

Pizza time!!

Today we're having the joint seminar between BU and the lab here. As a result we had free pizza. Free is always good but the pizza and sale they order here is simply great. No Pizza Hut stuff, but real Italian pizza.