New York Journal - Part Six

Blogging is an excellent avoidance technique.


September 20, 2008

Phew. Problem with journaling is that life keeps on happening, with no time to write it all down! Which, y'know, is ultimately good, but it leaves me a lot to catch up on.

So. Um. After L'Image, I wandered over to Boog City, a literary festival/book fair. I missed the event, arriving just as the crowd was dispersing. Two people were waiting for the rest outside; turns out the woman had read! I apologized for missing her performance. She said it was okay. On an unrelated note, she has a sailor suit.

I tagged along for the post-reading diner visit, which was attended by one Jessica Smith, a Facebook friend I'd never met in person. She is cute and quirky. I bought her book or, more specifically, her omelette.

They were definitely writers, maladjusted in particularly writerly ways. I can't identify right now exactly which ways those are - maybe it's been too long, or maybe their eccentricities are too vague to define. You can tell writers from actors from dancers, though. There's just... something.

I walked Jessica to the subway, waved to her from the opposite platform, picked up some beer, and went to bed.

... oh, and bought some frozen yogurt.

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Aaaaand now I'm in Le Gamin Café, no real idea of where exactly, near the HERE Arts Center. It is enormously difficult to pee in the street here! People everywhere!

Had dinner with Janette at The Park, this wicked place in the West Village with an indoor garden and a killer atmosphere. We're not sure of the nationality of our server, Simona.

My server here is Russian! But I don't know her name. She seems scared of my chirpiness.

So! Uh. Yesterday! Went to MOMA in the afternoon, which was cool but reminded me that I'm bad at museums. I spent the first little while in my usual internal rant - Why bring all these works of art under a single roof, removing them from all context, dulling their unique allure through endless hallways of repeating canvases? I made what I thought was a very apt comparison between MOMA and IKEA (endless hallways? get it? c'mon.), then amused myself by taking pictures of tourists taking pictures of Andy Warhol paintings.

While I can't say that my cynicism completely left me, I have to admit that I became quite absorbed in some of the galleries. My art history needs some serious brushing up, but it was pretty fucking cool to stand in a room with original Picassos.

I was more in my element in the special collection - more context! It was an investigation into pre-constructed architecture, and the alleged revolution that pre-construction had in architectural practice. I was less than impressed. While, again, my knowledge of the subjet is severely lacking, the emphasis on cost-efficiency and productivity seemed more capitalistic than artistic, and the resulting structures were... well, kind of spartan and ugly. Plus, the architecture that has really impressed me (see: Water Centre) is entirely reliant on and respondant to its environment, so I had to question the quality of factory pre-fabricated structures. That being said, it provoked some very interesting questions, and I hoep to investigate the subject further.

I wish all my gallery experiences could be ala Chris Cran in the Lab, with personal anecdotes and wine. Not a reasonable expectation, perhaps, but one to strive for.

Also, experimental artists are assholes. Soup cans? Groceries? Narrow painted strips of red? Ballsy motherfuckers.

Also, if it says right on the blurb that the soup can paintings were originally displayed atop shelves, why not mount some fucking shelves?

I don't know if the music playing is Spanish, Italian or "other". Definitely not French.