Dalí: The Late Work

We went out to Atlanta for the weekend to check out the Salvador Dalí exhibit at the High Museum. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about Dalí’s influence on other artists, such as Andy Warhol. The pieces that they had on exhibit were amazing, and really showed just how talented, and bizarre at times, Dalí was. If you’re in the area, it’s well worth the time. They also have an exhibit of Titian and other Venetian Renaissance works, which you shouldn’t miss…

Red

Heather and I went to see Red tonight. It’s based on a graphic novel about some retired spies having to fight back as they’re being hunted. There’s a lot more to it than that, and the cast was great. Between Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and Hellen Mirren and cameos by a few others, it was full of fun. I’m really liking all of the comics/graphic novels that have been made in to movies lately. Hopefully that’ll continue…

Rick Bayless At UT-Arlington

Heather and I were back out at UT-Arlington tonight to hear Rick Bayless give a talk. He’s a really interesting guy, with a great take on traditional Mexican (not Tex-Mex!) cooking. He’s got some well regarded restaurants, a PBS show, as well as some books. The talk was fun, with lots of humor and great insights into how he approaches food and culture. I’m going to try to get in to Frontera Grill when I get up to Chicago…

Tech Day – October 2010

I went down to the local BMW club‘s tech day today to do some work on the bike. The first order of business was to replace the halogen light I had to install on the long ride in August with a new HID bulb. That went relatively easy, the only problems being related to the cramped space between the front forks and the fairing. It’s nice to have the extra light output of the HID bulb back.

After that was the real meat of the work, installing a Whelen TIR3 LED lighthead as an auxiliary brake light. It was a pretty involved process, but the gist of it was that I extended the wires coming out of the lighthead, tapped in to the existing brake light circuits, and wired in the flash mode selector. I’ve now got an obnoxiously bright secondary brake light on the bike, so hopefully it’ll increase visibility enough to justify it. I picked up the lighthead from Fleet Safety and would definitely recommend them if you’re looking to do a similar installation on your bike.

Finally was some routine maintenance, due after the long ride. Namely adjusting the valve clearances and syncing the throttle bodies. They were pretty close to good and it took very little time to get them set. After that I just had to put all of the body panels back on and head home.

Thanks to everyone in the club that helped me get the work done. It was definitely appreciated.