New Logo for HTR (me)!!

I have made a new logo for my blog, Youtube and etc.
You'll probably see this in pretty much everything I make/post.

Studio Art 104, Critique Day.

This might be a bit of a surprise, but I'm currently taking a studio art class this semester (2014 spring).
In this class, we have this "Critique Day" after each of our projects.
The critique day is mostly run with praises, but people also give some suggestions, or sometimes, ask the artist how he or she did a certain part.

I always wanted to bring my camera to one of those critique days, but I kept on forgetting about it.
However, on March 24th, 2014!!
I finally brought my camera to a critique day!!

Here we are at the classroom/studio with all of our artworks hung up on the wall, ready to be critiqued.

As you can see, this was the day we were critiquing our value drawings.

Having all of our works hung upon the wall made me sort of feel like I were at an art gallery :D

 Normally, we come up to the front and look at the works close by at the beginning of the critique time, but this day, professor forgot about it at first so we did this in the middle of our critique. ^-^;;

 During this time, we can take pictures of our works.

 we can also admire them, or we could just analyze them.

My professor does this really frequently.
She likes taking pictures of our works.

My classmates are great artists!
They create really impressive artworks, some of which I cannot even dream of making.

Now, back to critiquing.
The professor and the TA helped us keep the critique going.

By the way, you know what?
I was actually called on first to talk this critique day....
it was because of my drawing..

Well, this is my drawing.
I didn't really know anything about value and that kind of stuff...
So what I did was pick the easiest shape that was made out of material that is the easiest to draw (no reflection, no transparency), and try to, at least, learn the basics about it.....
and to my surprise.....
the professor, the TA, fellow classmates.... pretty much everybody liked it!! (seriously? I just picked something simple...)

Anyway, thank you, everyone for making such nice remarks about my work! :D

When the critique was over, we could either take our drawings to our home or our dorms.

 Or we could hang it upon the hallway of Hanes Arts Center, like three of my friends did in this picture.
In this sequence, the heads looked as if it were slowly turning, so.....

The three artists stood in front of their own drawings, and imitated their own drawings.
In addition, you know, there's also this thing when the art kind of resembles the artist in a way...

Haha
I really love this class, it is one of my favorites of the semester.
It's just kind of sad know that there's only about a month left of the spring semester... :'(

[Chapel Hill] The Loop, the Pizza Grill

March 14th, 2014

While my friend went to a skiing with his dad, the remaining people went to a restaurant.

This was the last time I ate out when I was staying at my friend's house during spring break.

I personally wanted to go to "Chubby's Tacos," because I liked it so much the last time I went there.
It turns out that my friend's little sister wanted to eat here (see above picture) instead, so we at "The Loop."

This is the typical atmosphere of the restaurant.
The Loop makes pretty much anything from pizzas, burgers, hotdogs and etc.

When I came here before (during Thanksgiving break), I ordered a pizza.
This time, I wanted to eat something else, so I ordered this "Chicago Dog."
There were so many ingredients on it, that it sort of fell apart, and I had to use a fork and a knife to eat it. haha
Regardless of the Chicago Dog falling apart, it still tasted good.

Pretty descent place to eat.

[Chapel Hill] Monterrey, Mexican Restaurant

March 12th, 2014
Again, I followed my friend's family to eat out at a restaurant.

This time we ate at a Mexican restaurant called "Monterrey."

This is how it looks like inside the restaurant.
Actually, this was the most crowded restaurant I've been to this spring break.
I don't know, I'm just not used to seeing restaurants this crowded around Chapel Hill.

First of all, they give us nachos and salsa sauce as appetizers(?).
Oh yes, I'd love some good nachos with salsa! :D


Monterrey had a lot of different dishes on their menu.
It sure gave me a hard time choosing what to eat.
After thinking over and over, I've just decided to go with shrimp and steak.
Haha, I know, I ordered something that doesn't really sound that Mexican.

Anyway, after waiting for a while

 I got this plate of Mexican(?) fried rice and salad.

and another plate with roasted steak, shrimp, onions and peppers!
My goodness, this looks delicious!

Focusing Fail....
To tell you the truth, I wasn't really planning on taking pictures that night.
I feeling kind of lazy...

but the food actually was delicious beyond imagination!! (That shrimp and steak were FANTASTIC!!)
I snapped out of my laziness and I was like "There's no way I'm gonna miss posting about this place!"
That's how I started taking pictures for this post.
...and right now I'm like "I wanna have some more Mexican food" :D, this thought is literally stuck in my head.

Although I've only been there once and only tried one food, I was amazed by what I got.
If I get the chance, I would definitely go to Monterrey again and try some of their other menu!

[Chapel Hill] Chick-fil-a, Chicken Sandwich Fastfood Chain

March 10th, 2014
My friend's family and I went to University Mall to have dinner...

 ...at "Chick-fil-a!"

Actually, there is a Chick-fil-a on campus, at the Mainstreet in Lenoir Hall.
I just.... haven't eaten there yet.
But I know that some of my friends at UNC like eating at this place

 Just when I was having a hard time deciding what to eat,
the cashier said "We recommend the chicken."
ha ha ha, as if there's something other than chicken on the menu.

 Well, here it is, Spicy Chicken Sandwich Deluxe
My first Chick-fil-a sandwich!

I didn't really feel like eating cheese that day. (and the cheese in this sandwich didn't really look like the one I would be able to tolerate.)
So, I ate it without the cheese.

and you know what?
This is really good. No wonder people like eating here.

I guess the love of chicken is pretty much universal.

[Chapel Hill] Mixed, The Bibimbap Restaurant

March 7th, 2014

It was the first day of spring break.

One of my friends' family allowed me to stay over at their place.... again.

My roommate's train to his home was on the 8th, so he had to stay there as well.

Anyway, My friend's family, my roommate, and I went out to have some Korean food for dinner.

So all of us went to eat at "Mixed," the casual Korean bistro.
This place cooks mainly bibimbaps, which are Korean rice with vegetables, gochujang, and etc. mixed together.

I haven't had any Korean food after winter break, so yeah, I was looking forward to this.
Time to go in and see what it's like.

 This is where you order your bibimbap.

 First, you pick your bowl for your bibimbap.
You could choose either dolsot (hot stone bowl) or just a regular bowl.
dolsot bowls are those brown stone bowls that are heated up, so that your bibimbap can stay warm for longer amount of time,
....and they cost a little bit more.

Then you pick your rice and your vegetables that you want to have in your bibimbap.
Just like how you order things in Chipotle.

 Then you pick your meat

 You get to choose one from 3 kinds of different meat: bulgogi, pork, and... I'm sorry I don't really remember what the last one was.

Lastly, you get to decide if you want a fried egg topped on your bibimbap, and you get to choose a sauce.

Well, here it is.
My own special bibimbap.

 ...with Korean chili sauce?
Is this supposed to be gochujang sauce?
because, I recall gochujang being more red than this.

Maybe it's less spicy, which I don't really mind, because I'm not actually a big fan of extreme spiciness. :D

Anyway, time to dig in!

Although this bibimbap isn't original Korean style, and didn't really taste authentic, it still tasted really good.
I liked it, besides, it was my first Korean food in 3 months.
my roommate, and my friend's family seemed to like it too.

However, for those of you who really like to have your bibimbaps super-spicy, you might end up putting in too much sauce in your bibimbap.
Still, I'll say that it is one of the really decent places to have some Korean food in Chapel Hill.

Wayne Shorter Quartet Jazz Concert in Chapel Hill

February 21st, 2014...

The day right after the Tar Heels victory against Duke...

I was really tired after rushing to Franklin Street on the previous day.

but since one of my friends I met in the afternoon recommended the artist's concert, I headed to North Campus, fighting my body's biological need too sleep.

(still I strongly hoped that I don't fall asleep during the concert.)

 Ever since I've got my DSLR, I kind of got into the habit of taking pictures of pretty much any composition that looks decent... haha

...like this Bell Tower for example.. haha

After the triumph against Duke at Dean Smith Center, the Bell Tower has been ringing 'Hark the Sound.'
There's just so much Tar Heel pride in that song! :D

 but still, gotta head to the Memorial Hall before the concert starts!

 I'm here!!

 time to retrieve my ticket from the box office

and here it is.
Today's act is 'Wayne Shorter Quartet!'
Quartet led by one of the biggest figures in contemporary Jazz!

 Since I have my ticket, let's enter the Memorial Hall.

 What's this??
It seems like there was a mini-concert in the lobby, since the main act is a jazz group.
Maybe I should've come a little bit earlier???

 Anyway, here I am, inside the concert hall.

 There seems to be more instruments on the set.
Grand Piano, Saxophone, Acoustic Bass, and Drums...
What a Jazzy-looking stage!

and it's time to see the concert!



...... well guess what happened....
I fell asleep....
My body just couldn't resist the biological needs, and fell asleep for the early parts of the performance...
Fortunately, I got a hold of my consciousness after the quick rest, and was able to stay awake for the rest of the performance.

Personally, I was expecting music with cozy and soft kind of timbre for jazz music.
Now that I've listened to Wayne Shorter Quartet's performance, I learned that there's more to jazz than that.
I'm guessing that the style differs from musician to musician, and musical piece to musical piece. :)

After their setlist, the quartet left the stage with a 'bye~'
However, we all know that's not the end of the concert.
With an incessant round of applause...

The came back for an encore.
and can you believe that the crowd did this for 2~3 more times?
Yes, they did about 3~4 encores!
Many people didn't really expect that. No wonder some of the people left in between each encores...

Finally, after 3 to 4 encores, the concert was finally over!

You should consider going to their concert if you're interested in jazz!
(I'm pretty sure that there's a concert in South Korea in mid-April.)