Andrew Schroeder » Every Day Life

Perfect Breakfast

andrew — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:07:08 +0000

Smoked Salmon + Dill + Mushrooms… the perfect crepe.

The Unbearable Lightness of the #18A Bus

andrew — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:42:00 +0000

A Snippet of (Now) Edited Reality in My Kitchen

Conversation overheard on the #18a bus this morning:

A woman in a puffy trashbag-like Northface winter coat is complaining that every artist (from “That Beyoncé” to the Jacksons) lip-syncs. She looks puzzled as she tries to explain her dislike of the practice of dubbing and lip-syncing live performances to the half-asleep, rapidly drying-out middle-aged woman next to her in a blazer roughly the color of freshly laid dung. A heated debate follows with both reaching the conclusion that all live music since (I’m not kidding) Wayne Newton has been pre-recorded crap.

This is where I finally became thought conscious in my morning haze.

Why do we have such an intense aversion to the knowledge that our favorite pop-culture music icons can’t duplicate their studio performances in front of a live audience? Just when I thought I had shed my thick patina of MFA/grad school mentalities, it dawned on me. Baudrillard was right in saying that the simulation of reality is always more real than reality. In the case of music, we prefer the perfect studio recording (without audience noise, feedback, mistakes, off-key renderings of “Its Not Unusual”) to the real thing. In a world where a highly edited version of New Jersey is popular on television, why shouldn’t all live performances of music be edited to the artist/label’s heart’s content?

I wish we could take this a step further and “undo” Milan Kundera’s paradoxical situation in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. I want to be able to create a perfect, studio-edited version of myself, my life, my actions, my speech, my mind… that I am able to summon up and present to the world as soon as I feel a mistake coming on.

If only.

Safe (For The Moment)

andrew — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:49:14 +0000

October 13, 2009

I’m not sure if I am caught in an atemporal vortex or if Minneapolis is hitting some sort of built-environment equilibrium. While walking home yesterday, humming various bits of soundtrack to myself, I noticed that my city is engaged in a process consisting of equal parts renewal and equal parts decline. As the first image testifies, the elements of renewal tend to be laden with a heavy handed, pig-wearing-lipstick aesthetic.

In true wabi-sabi fashion, while the parking garage is being turned into a disco-vomit-colored monstrosity, the businesses across the street are slowly being ground away…

October 13, 2009

Less, Less, and Less

andrew — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:00:58 +0000

Materialism.
My materialism.
My materialism out of control

This has been my life over the summer. I buy things that I believe I am enamored with (and for all intensive purposes, I am) and then watch as they collect dust in my house. While my newly purchased items lose their luster, I find myself asking “where exactly did my money go?

So, I am going to put some serious effort into getting rid of stuff.

First task: get rid of books I haven’t read for a year. Lucky for me, the library at my place of work is run by a groovy librarian who has offered to take a huge part of my collection. On Monday morning, I am going to cart approximately 1/3 of the 400 books I own to the school library for safe keeping and circulation.

Second task: simplify the wardrobe. If there is one thing I love it is impulse clothing purchases. Numerous times before I have tried to standardize my wardrobe into a few basic items. This time I am actually going to make it stick. I only need: 7 collared shirts, 4-5 sweaters, 5 pairs of black or gray pants, 1 suit gray charcoal suit, 4 pairs of shoes, and a goodish amount of socks, underwear, and what not.

The big purchase I am trying to figure out… where can I pick up a really well made, nicely fitting, dark charcoal gray winter coat? I have a budget of only about $300, and I want this to be something that is going to last for at least 2 years. At least.

Third task: purge my junk closet and have an artist garage sale. The one major trouble area in my home is the closet off of my living room. When I moved in, I just dumped all the things I wasn’t using into that closet and threw away the key. Well, 6 months later – those things are still there… festering. I want to get rid of all that suff…

If you have need for: a white drafting table, woodcut tools, various art and framing supplies, mahogany chairs, and other goodies… you know where to find them.

Well… that is my lament for this sweet Friday. I hope everyone out there is preparing for a relaxing, joyful weekend…

Friday Inspiration

andrew — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:30:24 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen, it is Friday. I’m off to have happy hour with David before he departs for Bergen, Norway to become a famous photographer and eventually will be stalking my prey and having dinner with Courdis. Before departure, here are a few images that are keeping me sane on this dismal day.

-as