Athens Day 1 and 2

 

Days 1 and 2 Athens

THB and DB have a very easy flight of over 13 hours from SFO to Istanbul, a short flight to Athens after a 1+ hour layover, and our transfer is waiting for us after we fly through immigration. SA and DA are on our flights after an early morning flight from Portland to SFO.

The view from the upgraded room at the Intercontinental Hotel is of the big tourist attraction: 

The Acropolis

later in the day

much later that night (jet lag wake up call?)

Our upgraded room gets us access to the Lounge, free munchies and drinks and another view of the Acropolis

Turkish Air gift bag: ancient bread recipe and a roll inside

Fitness center: 101 treadmills and one mat

art in the lobby

The bed has a view of the Acropolis: huge single room, giant closet, big bathroom, and the Lounge is super-convenient

Day 2: A bit of shopping and touring with SA and DA, and lunch at Akra. Exceptional, everything cooked on top of wood-burning stove or oven

Potatoes with smoked ham and soft-boiled egg

"croissant" Akra/Greek style

THB has ice coffee (no iced tea)

To go: smoky loaf, great with cheese and chicken in the Lounge

painted house spotted near Akra

Of note: some pic problems disappear (for now), some pics won't download. Way better than in SLC

Book Review: Palo Alto, a History of California Capitalism, and the World, Malcolm Harris (read by Patrick Harrison):

Really long (23+ hours at 1.3x) and very well researched, styled in a POV that gives Herbert Hoover and Stanford University a  lot of credit for animating capitalism's capturing of the world's economic growth and domination. Highly Recommended (special shout-out to DaB for the recommendation)

Pre-game kickoff for a trip to Grease and Turnkey

Department of Folklore

Some of you faithful followers know what THB stands for: TRAIL HEAD BOB...and you count on THB for at least most of the following updates:

Finding the trail head (usually the hardest part of the hike)

Documenting the ups and downs of traveling

Relaying how much a meal cost

Enjoying morning pastries 

Chasing art, buying art, watching art

Documenting THB's every scratch, ache, sore, shot, infusion, root canal, and all the while hardly uttering a word of complaint (maybe a few moans and groans)

Recommending his fave books, quoting song lyrics, and commenting on most things cultural

Posting pics of the twins  as they meander through early childhood

Posting unusual toilet signage

After a thousand posts (round up!), THB has decided it is time for something new, a change, a metamorphism, a rebirth, an infusion of fresh blood (not Rituximab) 

Two Headed Beast

• no, THB has not dumped DB ( or vice-versa!)
• no, THB  is not looking for a cozy government job
• no, THB is not becoming an Iron Man triathlete
• no, THB is not moving to Panama, or Greenland, or the Gaza strip, or a remote island in the Gulf of America

 THB has a new "meaning" 

What the hell does THB stand for now?

Turnkey Hot Bagels

THB also makes necklaces (not hot , warm)

Turnkey Handcuff Bagels?

Two Heads Beachdogs

Twin Heat-dispensing Behemoths

Two Humming Birds

You will never leave a glass anything but empty

 Three Horses Beer, Imported tariff-free from Madagascar

THB is leaving the country with plenty of cash: a brick of Turkish lira 

NCEA 2025 Wrap Up

 

OBSERVATIONS

Le Meridien: 

 

• THB knows you can't read this sign, it was posted outside the pool area and says, essentially, no poop in the pool. Over and over again, no poop in the pool.
• It shares a pool, fitness center and a bar (all on the roof) with another hotel. One  day, after working out, THB took the closest elevator down to the lobby to get coffees for DB and THB. OOOPS! THB was in the wrong lobby. The only recourse was to get back in the elevator and goo back to the rooftop. OOOPS! THB's key didn't work in the other hotel's elevators. THB at least was savvy enough to get his coffee in this other lobby. OOOPS! this hotel does not serve coffee in their lobby. THB is starting to feel very strange. Out the doors he goes,  walks around the building to the lobby of Le Meriden, gets the coffee and heads back to his room
• It turned out THB and DB were staying in a handicapped room, that is if you were blind or deaf.  

To make sure a light goes on in the room

In case you need to locate your room (geo-caching?) 

• The hotel restaurant does not serve cereal: no cereals for kids, no granola for adults, no cereal for nobody. 
• The water in the bathtub never got above warmish. That appeared to be true for all the rooms in our "stack" yet the sink and shower both had hot water. DB talked to the desk several times and they made up some story and eventually they comp'd us for one night. 
• There were plenty of staff on hand for breakfast. Unfortunately the food was really slow and getting a check was an long uphill slog. One day a "manager' type showed up and I explained, in a friendly and cheerful way, of our struggles to put the bill on our room. A breakfast was comp'd. 

Note how clean the shelves are? Maybe so someone who is blind doesn't knock anything over? 

same for coffee table, except for the TV remote 

THB is very glad we came to SLC, and hopes to see much more art in Detroit next year!!!!!!!!!!

Le Tour:

• Bottom line: not enough local artists and venues to keep the tour in front of contemporary ceramics or gaining knowledge of SLC
• THB knows you are in trouble in a city where the second stop on the city tour is the botanical garden. JOB (aka mom) said you didn't want to eat at a restaurant where the review went on and on about the décor. The tour also suffered from a lack of locals on the bus willing to talk about what was going down in SLC.
  
• Of course, THB and DB cut short our time in SLC to get ready for Greece and Turkey (we leave on Monday, March 31) and it is possible we missed out something exciting.

           THB and DB did buy a Laura Dirksen mug and 

             EW and JW gifted us another one. Here they are

             with the large Dirksen from 2023 in the background

• 
• The good news: THB and DB kept to our agreement of not buying anything without agreeing on what we would have to get rid of first. The bad news: it is always a bit depressing when one of us doesn't jump up and down encouraging the other one to just say yes to the dress.

Kelly Connole: THB wanted this piece, there are thousands of crows (murders upon murders) now living in E-ville And this one could chase away the ones in the trees right outside the loft cawing all night long 

(and shitting on the cars silly enough to be parked under the trees)

• 

and all wheelchairs welcome

Le Backpak: 

THB and DB visit REI and THB picks out a new backpack. Unbeknownst to  THB, he was shopping in the pre-Kindergarten section of the store and the backpack looked like it was made on the 7 year olds' manufacturing line. 

Turns out Cotopaxi is headquartered in SLC (and not in the Andes)

sold in museums

Left in  doorways

Cotopaxi makes jackets

THB's backpack is modeling for one of 

the tour leaders during painting class

In the Merieden lobby

In airports

Approaching Oakland, reasonable snowpack in the Sierras

SLC NCECA Days 2 (cont'd) and 3

Day 2 (kind of...THB got lost during photo recovery, so the Days got scrambled)

Lost and Found Department: THB loses his phone; DB helps him doublecheck, it had slid off the side of the bus seat and was lodged in between the seat and the wall of the bus. THB also leaves his hat behind in restaurants several times, fortunately the staff found it both times before THB could get out of range.

{Insert NCECA shows here!!}

Julia Galloway, EW JW, DB

Julia has embarked on a long term project: burial remains urns...THB won't be around to see it completed (at least from the outside)

Gallery visit

THB and DB bought a large piece by Laura in Sacramento 2 years ago for $2k. Now much smaller work is going for more money, she's moving up 

Dara Hartman was on the bus with us on Day 1 

Ukrainian artist with self-portraits? 

one of two Laura Dirksen mugs now in THB and DB collection

Another gallery stop, THB and DB dine al fresco, it is lovely out

Another gallery stop; NCECA shows are always taking advantage

 of other sites all over the home city

Oquirrrh,  our dinner spot (with EW and JW): Way, way too loud to be enjoyable

Day 3, SLC Tour

The main streets are numbered by the number of blocks 

from the center of town (the giant Mormon Temple). Here THB and DB

are trying to decipher the street signs at the corner of 200W and 200S and then 

deciding which direction to head

large concrete ashtray in the intersection?

our breakfast destination, 20 minute wait to order au laits and pastries

big, half the muffin is pre-game breakfast the next day

about the size of line when we arrived

now the line stretches to the door...40 minute wait?

Element shares a rooftop with Le Meridien (bar, fitness center, pool)

Another NCECA show

The artists selected by the curator are considered 3rd wave feminists (hmmmm...THB has no clue).

One of the members of the tour (white guy, in his 50s) gets very upset about this POV of putting together ceramics shows. Very upset! Noticeably UPSET. He was on the tour the last few years and seemed "normal" ... easy going

Guess DJT / MAGA / DOGE / DEI Dismantling is now making it easier/acceptable 

to show outrage publicly

Io Palmer. THB liked her work last year...outrageous?

Kim Dickey (she's on the bus with us and will be doing the keynote interview with Suleika Jaouad later)

pretty outrageous

Lydia Thompson: she's doing birds this time around, last year it was houses. Very upsetting?

Anna Calluori Holcombe: enough to promote outrage?

Another Museum  visit, 1/2 hour lecture on ancient ceramics (THB wanders away)

THB did not include the visit to the Archeological Museum, the dinner of drinks and appetizers at the Hyatt Regency (attached to the convention center), the evenings kick-off to the show (overlong Invocation, (overlong) modern dance numbers, or the interview of Suelika Jaouad...creativity under duress