The Globetrotting Geek

Friday – Day 249 #TheNextBigThing

April 11, 2013

Firstly in case you noticed the odd title of this post, I will be hashtagging a number of my posts as such for the next few weeks. This is because I’m part of a promotion at the University of Pennsylvania to promote the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and have been given the opportunity to own one myself if I pass a sufficient threshold of views. Selling out it may be, but I trust you to forgive me for the period of two weeks or so. Also, if you feel like being particularly generous, like my posts, as that counts extra!

Friday was intensely busy with grading CIS 121 midterms for a good majority of the day. It was relatively uneventful with the exception of a difficult coding question at the end. The gist of the question was as follows:

Assessing student responses was difficult, even more so given that many of the TAs found the question to be challenging as well.

In the afternoon I caught a bus to New York City, where I would be staying for the weekend as part of the Glee Club NYC Performance Tour. Upon arrival I was taken by my fellow clubbers Dan ‘Po’ Carsello and Kirk ‘Mortton’ Arner to a home in the West Village. The place where I was to be staying for the weekend belonged to one Daniel Pincus, Glee Alum and renaissance man.

Dan was a consultant for The Quantic Group, a pharma focused consulting group. Balanced with that is his position on the board of The Muslim Jewish Conference, an international non for profit that focuses on discussing topics of shared concern between the two faith communities. That was paired with additional activism efforts he engages in across the middle east, working to free women from repression and on the establishment of civil liberties.Oh and did I mention he founded his own popular dance troupe?

Not only is he professionally accomplished, but he is something of an artist, with a work of his own on display and varied books on artwork and photography.

Sitting on Dan’s coffee table was a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, a top of the range, full frame, digital camera. He was gracious enough to let me take a few photos on it, but the feature set was overwhelming and combined with my very amateur skills, didn’t result in any fantastic images.

Opposite the coffee table, I fell in love. As I entered the room for the first time, my eyes were immediately drawn to a piano mysteriously labelled with a white number 15. The piano was a Steinway upright, already a good sign, and as I tinkled at the keys, rich, full, dulcet tones rose from the heart of the beast.

Piano #15

My first impression of Dan when he walked through the door was already pretty favourable. His stride evoked a sense of confidence but the smile on his face and his demeanour as he walked two guests into the house betrayed a side that carried more spontaneity. Bolstering my impression of him was the two fine ladies that entered with him, a gorgeous Pakistani in a flowing yellow evening gown and a researcher from the Antarctic circle, casually in conversation.

From his position, it would’ve been easy to lay the three awkward Glee Clubbers in his house aside and make haste to away to his next destination of the evening, but generously he offered us to join him on his next adventure.

His next animus was to convene with an artist friend of his, who, residing above a dumpster owned by an Italian Mafia family, had been commissioned by Dan to build a ‘Gamelatron’ – a fully automated Indonesian gong music ensemble. He showed great passion towards this pet project of his, and enthused all of us as to it’s transformative powers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to embark on the trip (Dan and Kirk filled the car anyway) but a few hours later they returned with stories of wonder. It seems they two were as impressed by Dan as I was.

Dan then explained to me the story of Piano #15 and my breath was almost taken away. He took a photo of the signatures under the lid and explained to me that the piano I had played on was in fact purchased from Carnegie Hall and had been played on by artists such as the great Lang Lang.

Lang Lang’s Signature

Following their return, I closed up my Physics books, unpacked on the couch in his most spacious apartment and soon fell fast asleep.

Purim! – Shabbat/Sunday – Day 207/208

February 27, 2013

Shabbat itself was nothing special, however, after sundown the festival of Purim began. First up was reading of the megillah scroll detailing the story of the Jews’ victory over the evil Haman during the reign of King Ahasuerus.

I had to listen on with the CJC (Conservative Jewish Community) as I was time pressured by a Glee Club Gig immediately after (that I ended up missing anyway).

Purim is the usual Jewish festival story. Someone tried to kill us, the didn’t, let’s eat. However on Purim the feasting is taken a step further by applying significant amounts of alcohol, dancing and fancy dress to the mix. My costume was a minion from despicable me (see comparison below), but thanks to the gig, I had not sufficient time to change into a pair of overalls and so, as per usual for me, stood out a little.

Purim Minions

Despicable Me Minions

College students, as could be expected, take this idea rather to heart and, as a result Penn Hillel organized a whole series of parties and events. One of which I attended (the Hillel Golf Night). We traipsed around local off campus residences, collecting shots of various liqueurs, ingredients for the baking of Hamentaschen and socializing with the many people taking part. Robbie Glynn, a good friend from computer science, and a Jew at heart, joined in the celebrations too.

Following that, back to my room for yup, you guessed it, a coding marathon till the late hours of the morning.

Sunday was not particularly notable, I crammed in my Physics work and a lot of stuff for my students and my recitation. However, one fun thing in the afternoon was a Purim seuda/mishte (feast) arranged by the lovely Arianna Schanzer and Ben Bolnick. There was a little too much Chinese food, but it was supplemented by plenty of cheer and good company. I also prepared and delivered a few mishloach manot (Purim food present-baskets) to a few of my closest friends at Penn before settling in to finish up everything I needed to.

Friday/Shabbat – Day 120/121

November 28, 2012

I was intent on not letting any of today go to waste. Thus it was up as early as possible, despite the late night, in order to go into the city of Detroit and see all it had to offer.

First up was the ‘Black Friday’ sales at the local mall. Even arriving at 10AM people were still going a little mad and the place was packed. Every store was full of people queuing up for bargains that weren’t all the great and sometimes not even there. For me, this reflected one of my less favored sides of the US. The rampant and needless consumerism. Everything everywhere on the streets implies and impulse to ‘buy, buy, buy’ without bound.

However, despite all that, there was one product I couldn’t help but find mildly adorable: Lord of the Rings Lego!

Following that we drove to the Heidelberg project, an outdoor art installation designed to highlight the challenges that Detroit is facing, poverty and dilapidation amongst them. The project encompassed a number of houses, adorned tastefully in castaway items.

Someone’s house!

In between the houses, on the ‘sidewalk’ and on nature strips in the center, objects were nailed to trees and signs posted, with religious and eschatological themes.

We walked in the cold for a few minutes however the chill was soon too much for us and after finishing the length of the street we raced back to the car.

Next stop was the newly reopened Detroit History museum that chronicled the life and times of the city. As today was its grand reopening, entry was free and we spent a good few hours in the many exhibits! Grace and her boyfriend met us there after lunch and I was glad to see them both after having gotten along so well with them the night before.

A genuine Detroit car

Amongst the things I learnt in the museum was that Detroit was once the capital of stoves, with a large stove manufacturing industry through the mid to late eighteen-hundreds.

Who would’ve thought?

Amongst the things I already knew was that Detroit was famous for its auto industry with a number of the world largest manufactures calling the city home. In fact, I was later privileged enough to visit the Ford Rouge manufacturing plant that takes raw materials and processes them, eventually producing a car. All at a single plant.

Museum Exhibit – Lowering the body onto the chassis

The tour of the Rouge factory that we later went to was fascinating but at the same time scared me a little.

The rest of the evening was a quiet night at home with Tammy and family.