Score: 7/10

GUS EAGLETON
Gus Eagleton’s art has explored figurative painting on canvas and in urban street art, where he’s used aerosol paint and oils together in small compositions and across massive murals. Central to his latest body of work is an interest in the dichotomies, and the tension between these poles that manifest in the urban landscape. He explains:
As economic growth fluxuates, so to does infrastructure, this correlation has a direct association to a living organism both expanding and deteriorating. Sky risers ascend and the long forgotten remanets of the old world slowly deteriorate. This notion of a living moving infrastructure is a direct link to people, a structural doppelganger, shadowing cultural traits and trends. The theory of Apollonian and Dionysian is just one of many dichotomies with a relation to two complete opposites in simultaneous harmony. Apollonian being ordered and imperialistic, while Dionysian is free and rebellious. This series of paintings looks for aesthetic beauty within infrastructure by looking at categorical but harmonious opposites and relating them to economic expansion and deterioration, enabling the viewer to delve into the human condition.1
Gus Eagleton undertook a Bachelor of Fine Art from Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, between 2011-12. He has exhibited in artist-run and independent spaces around Australia and London. Eagleton has been the recipient of several awards including: Lilli Pilli Youth Award NSW (2008); Green Dragon Highly commended Award, Brisbane (2009); Under-Grade Painting Award Queensland Collage of Art Brisbane (2012) and finalist in the GAS award (graduate exhibition and espresso garage award) (2012). He was recently featured in Australian Art Collector magazine, Issue 62, 2012. Eagleton does commission work, including mural work and has pieces in private collections all around Australia.
Naomi Evans, 2012
1. Gus Eagleton, artist statement, 2012.

 
LINKS
www.guseagleton.com
www.fintanmagee.com
www.yannickblattner.com

Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) has a problem, and nobody knows what it is. He’s painfully shy, full of anxiety, is super-awkward and can’t even have dinner with his family, let alone have a normal conversation with a girl. When he tells his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and Gus’ wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) that he has met someone over the internet, they are ecstatic for him. However, Bianca is not what they expected. She is a sex doll that Lars ordered online. Lars’ family, friends and the town must now find a way to deal with Lars’ delusional beliefs that Bianca is a real girl who not only talks to him, but loves him back.

I remember hearing about this film a while ago, and since it had Ryan Gosling in it, I sort of shied away from it because he tends to be in a lot of movies I don’t particularly have much desire to watch. However, this film seemed to have such a quirky idea and personality that I figured I’d give it a shot.

First off, I think the premise was the best part about this film. A town set “somewhere” up north, which is somewhat reserved and apparently full of churchgoing people, having to deal with an otherwise healthy and kind individual who is in love with a sex doll….that’s great stuff. What it lacked was the proper focus and execution.

The movie felt like it dragged on forever. I understood what the film was trying to do fairly early on, so to have to watch it all unfold at a snail’s pace somewhat lessened the impact of the film’s idea. Also, they sort of moved “six weeks later” from the point Lars first hears about the doll until he had ordered it, and you don’t really see anything in between. It was the only jarring part of the movie, to me.

Gosling’s acting was great, honestly. The whole cast was acting up a storm, so no complaints on that front.

There had to be a little suspension of disbelief because of certain things, like an ambulance that is willing to pick up a sex doll and waste money/time and potentially interrupt someone’s REAL emergency…all because he is Lars? When he doesn’t even seem to be that well-liked at the start of the film? So, there are things like that in the movie that are somewhat hard to swallow.

It makes for a great date movie, I’m sure…or if you really like Ryan Gosling in sweaters.

JOE Rating: ★★★

Meet Justin Owen, Director of Medical Technologies at Georgetown University’s O’Neill Family Foundation Clinical Simulation Center. When Owen comes into the office every morning he descends into the basement of St. Mary’s Hall, home to Georgetown’s School of Nursing and Health Studies, to the simulation lab. Here he operates GUS, the Georgetown University Simulator. Hear from the man who controls the advanced robots that are revolutionizing the medical education approach on campus.

The above video was recorded on an I-Phone using the FilMic Pro application and edited in Final Cut Pro X.

It is really interesting and fascinating that after one year of intensive involvement of student union’s work I feel quite comfortable with specific terminology in Swedish and procedures of official meetings. Back in Russia two years from 2006 till 2008 I was working as a vice-chair of the Youth Government of Saratov region, but there it was more interaction with municipal authorities. That’s why it is so interesting for me to have that kind of experience here in Sweden, and I’m sure it will be a life-long memories.

After a long day of meetings and discussions I went to Studenternas Huset, where every first Thursday of the month is a karaoke party. It was a lot of people from my program who came as well – it was great fun. Especially, our dancing and singing performance of Loreen’s Euphoria was terrific!

Friday evening I spend with my choir friends at the concert of the most famous Swedish male choir from Uppsala – Orphei Drängar. Konsetrhuset was full. There were people of all ages and social classes, and it is always fascinating to see that music has no limits. Choir was singing very good and special quest jazz-musician Magnus Lindgren made it memorable.

Regardless he’s still my pretty doggeh. I love you Gusy baby <33

Seeeee! Gus was such a skinny pup in 2010! 

  ZZZZZ.

  Of course, I missed you!  What was your name again?

There was a trip to the largest dog park in the universe where we spent almost 3 HOURS on Saturday morning.  The seasoned enthusiasts call it “Disneyland for Dogs” and I can see why… Gus friggin’ loved it.  And it’s so big that we barely saw anyone while we were hiking around even though there were probably hundreds of people/pups there.   Thankfully, no one but us saw when Gus decided to rub his entire body all over a dead skunk.  I’m not kidding.  He also ate a chunk of horse poo.  ……….. That’s all I have to say about that.

Among many other more respectable activities, we were also invited to a friends’ parents house for Easter brunch.  I hadn’t given much thought to Easter this year, probably because it’s generally a family holiday and we have no family out here.  But it was a nice surprise to be invited to the burbs by our friends – especially since what we thought would be a maybe-awkward, mostly-family gathering was actually a mix of their closest pals and neighbors.  It turns out that this group of people, who have all lived in that neighborhood at one time or another, have been getting together for holidays for years.  I’m talking 25+ years.  Most of them are Oregon-transplants who don’t have much family in the area so they’ve all basically adopted each other and each others’ children as their family.  It was so sweet to hear their stories and see photos of the same group of people from Easter, 20 years ago.  It definitely gave us hope for our future in Portland.  Because it can be so hard to be away from our families.  Especially knowing that we’re missing out on holidays and memories.  (do you hear tiny violins playing yet because I sure do.)  Seriously though, the “family” that we met on Sunday made me excited to continue making friends so great that even if were aren’t able to be in MN for a holiday, we’ll still have our own Portland family to celebrate with.

So, all that being said, who wants to hang out with me for Memorial Day?  No pressure.

Suck it #PsychWhoDDit #100Episodes #Psych #USA simply one of the best shows ever #Gus&Shawn #clue

Click here to see more photos!

- At school’s spring church service, my schoolmates and I sang “Jesus Loves Me”, “I’ve got the Joy” and “He’s got the Whole World”.  From the crowds response, we did an excellent job.

- Finally, I do #2 on the potty!  All on my own – without coaxing, encouragement or bribes.

- I had an amazing lunch/afternoon play date at my friend Layla’s.  We made pizzas for lunch, ate fun snacks, and her silly Daddy, Monte, kept us busy all afternoon.

- For Read Across America, I attended Uncle John’s Puppet show at my school.  Uncle John kept my attention with magic tricks and his funny puppets.

- I attended my classmate Thalia’s birthday party at The Little Gym.  It was so much fun to climb and run the afternoon away with my friends.

- To celebrate St. Patrick’s day, we feasted on Irish food all weekend – homemade corned beef with potatoes, cabbage and Irish soda bread one day, and Guinness Lamb stew the next.  We also dressed in green all weekend long.

- I had a play date at my classmate Luke’s house.  Seeing school friends outside of school is fun – and so is playing with someone else’s toys.

- I also have frequent play dates with my friend, Brendan, and his sister, Natalie.  Brendan’s in Ms. Autumn’s class, so I don’t see him at school anymore, but I really enjoy the times we do get together.

- Gunnar & Kaj came to my house for a dinner play date!  I love to see these two guys!  We played splendidly together, and let the grownups have some time talk among themselves.

- One cool, sunny Saturday I participated in the Jaycee’s (a community men’s group) annual Easter egg hunt.  It was like hunting through a mob of people, but I managed to collect 11 eggs, and was delighted to find candy, small toys, stickers and tattoos inside.  The following day I dined at the Jaycee’s annual pancake breakfast.  Yum!

- I recently received two Geronimo Stilton chapter books.  I enjoyed having these longer books read to me, and although I was mostly patient through the text only pages, I really enjoyed the pages with accompanying illustrations.

- I like to build “snares” with ropes and love trying to catch people in them.

- The weather is finally getting nice enough to venture to the playgrounds again.

- To end off the month, Layla joined me for a half-birthday morning/lunch play date, complete with cake!

-I play this “game” (for lack of a better word), which drives Mom & Dad crazy.  It’s kind of like dragging M&D through a very long brainstorming session.  For example, a cover of a book has two boys being chased by an alligator – so I’ll ask Mom and/or Dad, what they think is going on in the picture.  They give an answer, to which I always say, “I don’t think that’s it. You say another word.”  And I continue to ask this until they’ve exhausted all possible and impossible explanations.

Quotes of the Month:

- to Mom… “We kiss and then I give you a ring.”

- “The squirrel did not lose his nut because he is not a loser.”

- “Mom, if you are good, after heaven, you’ll come back as a boy.”

- “When I was growing up, I had a crocodile and kept him in the back yard until he died and went to haven.”

…Gus

Paolo Di Canio – The Italian is a fiery character who would appeal to many Leeds fans due to his passion for the game however his lack of experience may be a problem for a few who would like to see people. But he does have a promotion under his belt with Swindon and will have a whole host of contacts within football and they could prove vital and bring in some good players.

Gus Poyet – Once assistant at Elland Road Gus knows all about the club, the fans and the history and would be an extremely popular choice with fans. However having recently turned down Reading and his current side Brighton chasing promotion it is highly doubtful he would come but in the past he has said he would relish the chance to manage Leeds as he has unfinished business here.

Karl Robinson – Someone I would like to see get the job is current MK Dons manager Karl Robinson. He is the second youngest manager in the football league and has a lot of suitors in higher leagues. He likes his team to get the ball down and play short short passes and play with pace.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink – An outsider for the job ex United striker Hasselbaink has completed his coaching badges and had a brief spell at Nottingham Forest earlier in the season. Whether or not fans would take to him is a different matter as some still hold a grudge over the way he departed Elland Road. This would be his first managerial role so it would be a big ask for him to take the job.

Lucas Radebe – The Chief would be an instant him as he is a legend at the club however should he fail to bring success would the fans turn on him like they have others in the past? He has said that he would only ever manage Leeds or the South African national team. For me I wouldn’t want him to be our manager as I would rather remember him as a great player than failed manager.

Here’s my cat Gus making a home in the washing machine.

for ever more

a scar will remain

on a heart sill raw

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all be lazy like cats. This is my sister’s cat Gus….and this is HIS chair. If you are sitting in his chair he will make sure to lay in front of your face so you can’t see anything….give you a massage which involves him scratching you every time he does it. If you get up for just a second he will make a bee line for his chair and claim it as his own…just like this picture; i wasn’t even gone for a second and he took my spot!!! Got to love him!!!

Since our son arrived one week ago, our world has more or less been flipped upside down.  All schedules have been trampled upon, and all expectations have been suspended.  Soon we will resume everyday life, but for now, this is all we need.  We do all we can to take care of each other, and we wait for  a new routine to evolve.  We are re-learning how to manage a family, this time with as many children as each of us has hands.  Balance will come, and it will be beautiful.  But for now, our world is this simple life inside of our apartment, taking everything moment by moment, one day at a time.  I know that a time this simple will not come again.  Soon [daughter] will have her own world of friends and school, and [son] will begin his great journey of lifelong discovery.  But now- now all they need is their Mama and Papa, and each other, and this big world of family and food and rest and play inside of our little home.  [Husband] and I lay side by side in the darkness, ever so grateful to have one another in these amazingly beautiful and trying times.  Soon our whispered conversation evolves into sleep-deprived delirious laughter.  We laugh and laugh.  These are the days, we say.  This is family.  This is love.

from Belle over here.