Gaudi!

Taken when I was in Barcelona.
This is a statue mounted on the
front of Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia.
Taken 3.18.2008

Images taken on my journey through Cinqueterre

Taken 4.11.2008

Taken 4.12.2008

Taken 4.11.2008

Kids in a Kidult World

The living room is dimly lit, aside from the intermittent television light. Rambo is on and Max is up. He smiles when we walk into the room. He drools while Dave puts him in his Joel’s arms to grab a cigarette outside. Steve, the homeless fixture of Dave’s house, is lying on the sofa watching some Megaman parody videos on an unlocked iPodTouch. The Pabst crack open and, now that they have company, Dave decides Rambo might be a little inappropriate. On goes Scary Movie.
The two sofas make an L shape in front of the moderately sized television that plays table to a haphazardly balanced Playstation 3 and Wii. Action figures and toys reign supreme in this comic book world. Statuesque figures of the Joker, Batman, Iron Man and Spiderman live on the bookshelf surrounding the television.
“I hid those G.I. Joes I found at KB for you,” Joel says to Dave. Dave responds with, “I really want Croc Master!”
Dave is thirty years old and has a multimedia degree from Wilmington College. He is a visual artist who specializes in comic book illustrations, but he currently works for a trophy maker.
He has two children, Alex, seven years old, and Max, six months old. Renee, Dave’s girlfriend, lives with Dave at his parent’s house. She is the mother of Dave’s second child, Max, and a waitress at a local hotel restaurant with a degree in philosophy from the University of Delaware.
And tonight the boys are on their own – Renee is at work and Dave’s parents are away - except of course for the two nonalcoholic half-pints they are babysitting, Alex and Max.
The newest name for the generation of Daves is “adultescence” or “twixers.” They are the very beginning of Generation Y who are living at home, working under their potential, and playing like kids but acting like adults.
And now they are parents! But the American societal norm for the “parent” has changed. The Gen Y’ers, who have grown up on MTV and video games, are now bringing children into their pop culture, electronic-centered, somewhat “kidult” constructed world. After work, it’s Call of Duty, Halo online, and a couple of microwaved hotdogs. A night with the boys still means a case of Blue Ribbon and FIFA.
For guys like Dave, it’s just time for relaxation.
After an hour and a half stint of MarioKart on the Wii – mostly the throwback N64 levels – on goes The Foot Fist Way, a movie about a strip mall Taekwondo instructor. But Dave, Joel and Steve could hardly get past the DVD’s main menu. The menu cursor was a tiny karate man, with sweet moves and awesome sound effects that would entrance any ten-year-old boy.