In Adolescence Arrested---Urban Edition

Let me tell you about Providence.


Later tonight------after class.


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All right. So class is over.

So Providence. Marina, Yelena, David Emer, and I all went down to Providence to meet one of Marina's friends who attends Brown and is living in Providence for the summer. After dinner, we headed out and saw the most amazing display of living art I have ever encountered.

Folks, normally, modern art blows. Badly. I almost didn't go to Brandeis because the boasted of having the biggest collection of Modern Art in New England. That's kind of like boasting that you have the biggest collection of leprotic rats in the U.S. Nobody cares, and if questioned, they'd rather not know.

To me, Modern Art is usually a 20 year old "artist" following his whimsy, and blowing his patron's good money doing so. Then, when you question his/her extravagance, the artist calmly replies that it was designed to transcend blah blah and little minds like yours wouldn't understand. Its roughly analogous to being 5 and your parents being silly enough to hand you a box full of markers, some fruit, and a blank wall of their newly furnished house and say, "Go to town!"

However, this was art. A genius decided to place 100 stone pillars in the middle of the three rivers of downtown Providence and place bundles of firewood in large, metallic braziers on top of each of them. Then, he would swoop down the rivers in a gondola and when the sun set, light each brazier in turn. The effect is visually enchanting and the atmosphere created as the earthy perfume of hickory smoke fills your nose and the music hypnotizes your ears is unforgettable. Bravo. If you ever come to New England, be sure to make a detour to Providence just to see this. You won't regret it.

Additionally, in terms of Providence itself, it reminded me a lot of Boston, just quainter. Its like a Boston that never grew up, never got rich and famous, so it was able to horde all of the trappings of childhood and only recently has it been forced out of the house. Consequently, it has a charming blend of modest skyscrapers and lots of federal and colonial style buildings.

The only marred part of our evening was that our train was delayed for 1 hr. 10 min. in Providence and I had to rush around downtown to make sure I got the last train home to Wash. Square/Cleveland Circle. At this point, if you sat me down and did a word association test, this would be the result:

1.) Frozen Pizza = Mom!
2.) Mustache = Dad!
3.) Republicans = Cincinnati!
4.) Cleveland Circle sign = Home!

I remark this only because I've noticed that every time these days that I step onto a Cleveland Circle car, some part of me starts to relax. It's like, "Finally, I'm going home."

I got my midterm back today, and was originally disappointed to see that I got an 83. Then he announced that the class average was a 73, and the median a 77. Furthermore, the highest grade was only a 94. Thus, that puts me roughly in the top 20% or so of the class. Certainly, room for improvement, but I have since noticed that he took 6 pts. off on problems I got right. So, hopefully, I have some room to argue up a few points. Hopefully, this puts me in the A- range, at minimum.

That'll do for now.