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Be My Escape
July 30, 2008 | permalink

I saw a funny thing the other day. And when I say funny, I mean I stopped dead in the street laughing like an idiot when I saw it, totally helpless, no doubt to the great disinterest of my fellow pedestrians.

You see, on 3rd Ave, near 17th Street, there is a two story building. There is a business on each floor. The one on the ground floor is called Still. The one above is Sal Anthony's School of Movement. Get it? Still? Movement? Funny, no? (If you doubt me, here is the Google Maps Street View to prove it...)

Of course, as comical as I find that juxtaposition, it leads me to questions. How many people walk by there every day oblivious to the joke? How many times have I walked past without noticing? Are either of the parties involved aware of how funny this is? Did one of them do it on purpose? If so, I want to buy them a beer.

How much more comedy is out there, Gentle Readers, going unappreciated?

Posted in Around New York & Random & The World is a Funny Place
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The Gala Event
May 30, 2008 | permalink

I had dinner with the internets last night!

Okay, not with all the internets; just with some of my favorite people on the interntes. Curly, Jess, A Lover and a Fighter, Kelsi and I had dinner at Supper. It was, as expected, lots of fun. We laughed, we cried, we drank too much, and we offended the wait staff. Possibly. (We're not sure if the hostess heard the unfavorable comparison to Amy Winehouse or not, but , so we will go with yes, just in case).

The really great part about it, to my mind, was the fact that I was sitting there having dinner with these four fabulous people that I would not have ever met were it not for the internet. It wasn't so very long ago that one's social options were limited to schoolmates, co-workers, family, and maybe a group one degree removed from your immediate acquaintances. That's not really a lot of people (nor, I think, was that relatively close-knit group likely to have been terribly diverse... but that is another issue).

In any case, those times are past, and I was able to have dinner with a group of people that I am terribly fond of, from all over the country, whom I would have never crossed paths with in a less technological time.

Good job, internet....

Posted in Around New York & Blogging & Social Life
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The Map of Belgium
August 13, 2007 | permalink

I was out and about today, enjoying the beautiful weather, and I was treated to several strange and unusual sights, all of which (in their own special way) reminded me of how much I love this fabulous city, and how no matter how many times you have walked through it's streets, there is always something new to see. Of course, sometimes it's not really new, it's just something tucked away in an out of the way place. Well, like this:

Really?!? A plaque dedicated to the first automobile fatality in the Western Hemisphere? Is that something that we really want to advertise? On the other hand, it is kind of fitting. I can't imagine a place more plausible than New York to be the site of the first poor bastard to be run down by a car. And I suppose it can be viewed as a kind of cautionary tale for the tourists- look where you're going, if you want to get out of here in one piece. Sometimes it seems like they (the tourists, I mean) lack all sense of self preservation, so I suppose every little bit helps.

Then there was this little gem:

I guess it's an HOV lane scam. But I would think that a) you would want to perhaps conceal your scam once you were in the city and your car was parked, and b) you would use a dummy that was a little more realistic. This picture isn't great, so you might not be able to tell, but it's basically a cotton scarecrow with a paper mask on. It's kind of creepy, actually.

Regretfully, the last unexpected thing I saw I was unable to get a picture of- I just wasn't fast enough. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tail disappear into a knothole in a tree. My top-brain said 'squirrel,' but my bottom-brain thought that didn't look quite right, so I stopped and peered into the hole, which was at least 9 inches across and 18 feet up, and a raccoon poked his head out. He looked at me for a few minutes (enough time for me to have gotten a picture, except I was too fascinated to think of it) and then disappeared back inside, presumably to sleep for the rest of the afternoon.

What did you see this weekend?

Posted in Around New York & Random
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You Can Do Magic
July 26, 2007 | permalink

I went to a magic show the other night. The Waistcoat Man has been studying the art of prestidigitation (and getting quite good, I might add), and had a bunch of tickets to the last New York show of a friend of his, Maritess: The Queen of Magic. The only catch was that anyone he brought had to drink their bar minimum, so as not to cut into her take. Which was a trial, Gentle Readers, but I persevered and drank my drinks. I'm tough like that.

It was a good time. I hadn't seen The Waistcoat Man in quite a while, and it was great to spend some time with him. The Director and The Laughing Girl were there too, as well as a few of The Waistcoat Man's friends from another circle that I didn't know.

The show was also pretty good, though I was sitting at a bad angle and could see some of the workings of the tricks. Maritess' banter was quite funny, and her slight of hand was very well done. The Laughing Girl mad a comment at one point that made me laugh loud enough for Maritess to hear, and since I caught her attention of course she made me come up on stage for one of the 'And now I need a volunteer' bits of the show. I got to be the 'sender' of psychic vibrations to another volunteer. He was able to tell, with his eyes closed, where she touched me. Three times in a row, even. Pretty impressive stuff.

I used to do a bit of the old slight of hand myself, many many years ago, but I lost interest at some point. I'm not really sure why, now. Not that it really matters. About all I can remember how to do now is pull a coin from behind someone's ear.

Posted in Around New York & Social Life
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Noche Azul
May 28, 2007 | permalink

I was walking down the street Friday night after work in Soho. The streets were crowded with people and cars, and the congestion from people trying to get to the Holland Tunnel was about average (by which I mean awful, what with the honking and gridlock). I was crossing Broome at Broadway, and there were two things that struck me as odd.

The first was the large clock on the outside of the building that the Staples is in. It gave the time as 2:35. The time was in fact 7:10. Did I happen to walk by at the exact time that a broken clock was wrong in the exactly opposite way? Or is it somehow geared backwards, with the hour and minute hands reversed? Was this done on purpose, or is it some kind of awesome prank? We may never know the answer to these questions. Well, at least until I walk by again at another time of day.

The second thing that I thought was funny was a guy in a car. He wasn't too funny in and of himself- just a guy, about fifty, clean-shaven and with a short, almost conservative haircut. There was a sign stuck on the dash, visible through the windshield. It wasn't really funny by itself either. It read: 'Clergyman on Official Church Business,' and it had a very official looking seal underneath the text. Very serious stuff, to be sure.

What was funny was the car. The (presumed) clergyman, looking respectable, was driving a gold Trans Am convertible. With the top down. On Official Church Business.

I wonder if he called it the Priestmobile... because that is totally what I would call it.

Posted in Around New York & Random
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Washed Away
May 4, 2007 | permalink

UPDATE: My clothes have been found. They turned up yesterday at the laundromat, having been given out to the wrong patron. Which is a big relief. Why it took them so long to bring them back and correct the error, however, is a mystery to me.

The laundromat lost my clothes.

I'm not talking about a couple of items here; I mean the whole bag, three weeks worth of clothes and assorted sundries like towels and handkerchiefs and pajamas. The bag was thirty five pounds of laundry, give or take, and I'm sure you won't be surprised when I tell you that it represented the vast majority of my wardrobe. Not to mention that of course all of the clothes that I like best were in there- the things I am least fond of I left to wear last.

I was at the Laundromat for close to two hours last night, helping them look. They are very nice people over there, and I have been going to them with my washing for years. We had several theories about what the problem could be. It's possible that my bag ripped, and so was replaced with one of a different color, and if that was the case my laundry was just hiding in plain sight. (No such luck.) Or, it could be that it mistakenly was loaded in the delivery van, and would show up when the delivery guy, who was due soon, showed up. (The van was empty.) Maybe it fell behind something? (Nope.)

By the time I left, the owner, her sons and I pawed, examined, and opened every single bag in the place. None of them were filled with my clothes. The only plausible alternatives tot he clothes still being in the laundromat somewhere that still eludes us all are that either a) someone was mistakenly given (or mistakenly took) my bag instead of their own, or b) someone purposely gave away (or took) my bag in addition to their own. In the first case, I can't imagine why they wouldn't return with my clothes to exchange them for their own clothes, and in the second, well, I just don't get it. I am not, Gentle Readers, that snappy of a dresser that someone would covet my clothing.

I left without any real resolution. They were going to continue to look today, and go through the claim tickets of the bags that have been picked up to see if there were any clues as to my laundry's whereabouts. I took the initiative and made as accurate a list as I could of what was in the bag, and what it would cost to replace it all ($568.50, as I figure it) so that tonight when I go in and they still haven't found it, I can have a conversation with them about reimbursing me for my clothes.

What really sucks is that by the time I go to sleep on Sunday, I need to be packed for a two week trip to Santa Monica, where I am being dispatched to look after The Boss' interests in a fashion show we are providing the design for. So by Sunday afternoon at the latest I need to be buying more clothes. I have less than a weeks worth of stuff right now, and like I said, most of it is not clothes that I am particularly fond of. If I weren't going out of town, I would try to stretch it out a while, doing laundry often and wearing the same things for a couple of weeks, but I don't think that I can show up in Santa Monica, representing The Boss, looking like a schlub in the same three outfits.

I expect that the Laundromat will not want to give up on finding my clothes so quickly, and I am going to have to rebuild a significant portion of my wardrobe out of my own pocket. My fear it that I will lay out a few hundred dollars this weekend, and then they will find my bag while I am gone, so I'll be left high and dry.

Grrr....

Posted in Around New York & Bad Luck & Random
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I'm So Excited / I'm So Scared
January 14, 2007 | permalink

I went with my sister The Star this evening to get her first tattoo. And believe me, I do mean first; she already has the next one planned out. In the picture is the shirt she wore especially for the occasion, which I thought was funny as hell.

She was really cute tonight, actually. She was nervous that it would be unbearably painful (it wasn't) and that she wouldn't be able to communicate what she wanted to the tattoo artist clearly enough (she was) or that she wouldn't like it as much as she'd thought she would once it was done (she loved it). It's been awhile since I felt 'big brotherly', if that makes any sense. While I am 4 1/2 years older, she is nearly thirty, and I've thought of her as an adult instead of as my kid sister for many years. Playing that role tonight was nice.

I was touched, actually, that she asked me to accompany her. The Star, as you might well imagine of someone who gets such a nickname, has no shortage of friends (both tattooed and not) who would have gladly gone with her and been her moral support. I'm really happy that I was able to be there with her tonight, instead.

Posted in Around New York & Family Matters & Random


Somebody Told Me
January 5, 2007 | permalink

To live in a big city like New York, you have to become a practitioner of the fine art of Not Noticing if you want to keep your sanity. There is just too much of everything to pay attention to all of it all the time; too many people, too much dirt, too much despair, too much waste, too much wealth, too much noise. Seeing it all, all the time, would drive you mad, and make New York unlivable. That's why tourists and newcomers have that wide-eyed look of dazed confusion and wonder on their faces all the time- they're not just amazed, they are over-stimulated (while there haven't been any studies on the subject, I think if you hooked them up to an MRI you would find evidence of brain-damage, little seizures or the like running through their gray matter).

Eventually, though, you learn to pay attention only to the things that are directly impacting you at that moment. A New Yorker can completely miss a fire engine roaring down the avenue while they manage to sidestep a pile of dogshit that they can't even see because their arms are full of groceries. And this kind of tunnel vision doesn't just benefit the individual and protect their brain from leaking out of their ears; everyone's collective tunnel vision combines, and along with the inherent anonymity of living among so many other people becomes a kind of buffer. It's what lets us pretend that we have some privacy and go about our lives in a normal fashion. It's why we can walk around our apartments undressed without worrying that our neighbors are watching through the windows, or have intensely personal conversations while walking down a crowded street, or relax and read the paper during rush hour.

Now, all that said, if you do pay attention to what is going on around you (which I do try to do), you can see a lot of strange and funny things in this city, things that only happen because most people are Not Noticing. I saw something just this morning, while I was riding the subway to work, that really illustrates my point. I know that some of you will not believe me, Gentle Readers, but I swear it's true.

I was sitting on the train, alternating between reading the paper and people watching. It was one of the older trains, and I was sitting on one of the forward-facing benches. There was a couple in front of me, on one of the benches facing into the train. Well, she was on the bench, in the middle seat with strangers on either side; he was standing in front of her.

He shuffled closer. She leaned forward and put her forehead against him, just about where his belt buckle would be, her hands hooked into his pants pockets. He arranged his jacket (which was oversized and long) so that it hung open on either side of her face, obscuring her. They were like that for a long time.

Now, I can't say that I actually saw her performing oral sex on him in the middle of the rush hour train- as I say, she was pretty well hidden by the very careful arrangement of his coat. What wasn't hidden, however, was the expression on his face, and I can tell you for a fact that I have never enjoyed the morning commute as thoroughly as he was.

I looked around to see if anyone else seemed to see what was going on, but I'm pretty sure I was the only one. Everyone else seemed to me to be very busy Not Noticing what anyone else on the train was doing.

Posted in Around New York & Musings & Random
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A Go Go
December 11, 2006 | permalink

On the subway this morning, I was standing next to a woman who was putting on her makeup. Not just a little blush, either- eyeliner, mascara, the whole deal; I'm sure you're all seen someone doing this before.

I was fascinated. The co-ordination and control involved are beyond me. I feel like I am having a good commute if I don't spill coffee on myself. One particularly bad commute I was taking a sip just as the train lurches, and I got a nice shot of hot coffee up my nose; so I'm sure as hell not going to put anything near my eye while I'm on the train. And yet there she is, totally calm, not missing a beat. She might as well have been at home in front of her own mirror. I was impressed.

Posted in Around New York & Random
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Any Type of Way
December 7, 2006 | permalink

I went to the movies the other night, and saw Casino Royale (which was awesome). Afterwards, while using the restroom, I noticed a vending machine in there. It was full of basic stuff like Tylenol and antacids and eyedrops. Except for the last slot. The last slot was full of Body Play's Tattoos for Two - The Ultimate in Fun and Fantasy.

Now, I have a pretty good imagination, and I fail to see how that claim holds up, with the exception of teh '...for Two' part. Presumably we are talking about a pair of temporary tattoos, one for him and one for her, that are applied somewhere in the region of the respective erogenous zones. Presumably. If I had had four quarters, I assure you I would have bought them, just to see what the deal is. Because from this point on, as I play this out in my head, it gets ugly.

All I can imagine is ending up with some big, blurry, blue-green stain that looks like gangrene or some other unsavory condition. I don't see that being fun at all, let alone the subject of fantasy. To say nothing of being the ultimate in either category.

Am I misreading this? Am I applying my admittedly gutterbound mind to something completely innocent and going down the wrong path? Help me out, Gentle Readers.

Posted in Around New York & Musings & Random
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Stealing My Heart
November 28, 2006 | permalink

Sunday I had brunch at Max Brenner's, on Broadway just below Union Square. Gentle Readers, you need to get yourselves there and give this place a try. It was fantastic.

Now, I don't say fantastic just because nearly everything on the menu comes with some kind of chocolate in or on it, though that is surely reason enough. It was just all so damned good. I had what's called Max Brenner's Favorite Breakfast- eggs, cream cheese, and ham poached together in a little beaker, served with strips of baguette for dipping, and butter, chocolate paste, and peanut butter on the side, in case you wanted to add another flavor into the mix. Very tasty, as was the Chocolate Chai Tea that I had along with it. I can't wait to go back- there were a couple of other things on the menu I wanted to try, most notably the Peanut Butter Brioche French Toast.

Would you think less of me if I admitted that writing this made me salivate? Because it did.

Posted in Around New York & Food and Drink
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Empire of Light
November 20, 2006 | permalink

Saturday I volunteered my services (well, mostly volunteered; there was also a promise of a bottle of scotch... but that was after I had already said yes) this weekend to help a young designer I know load in a show at a high school in New Jersey. They really wanted a New York designer, to try and make the show look more like a professional production instead of High School; but they have no idea what goes into a production on a professional level. What I do for a living, these people do as a hobby, and there is a large gap of standards between the two. So the support and resources were just not there, and the designer would have ended up being there 24/7 trying to get everything done. Rather than do that, she enlisted some help.

It was actually a lot of fun. One of the other people working with us is someone that I often have on my crew, and it was good to see him in another dynamic. I also haven't done the nuts and bolts work of hanging lights and running cable in a long time, and it was quite enjoyable to do some physical work, and kind of nice to not be in charge. I also got to drive the articulating boom lift, which, as you can imagine, is just about the coolest thing ever.

Totally unrelated, except that it happened this weekend, I went to the grocery store on Sunday. Which is completely unremarkable, except for the people in front of me in line to checkout. They were a young couple, clearly shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. Equally obvious was that neither of them new how to cook worth a damn. I know I am a bit of a food snob, but come on- mashed potato flakes, stuffing in a box, vegetables in a can, gravy in a can... the only thing these two bought that qualified as a raw ingredient was the turkey itself.

Poor bastards...

Posted in Around New York & Random & Working
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Run Lola Run
November 6, 2006 | permalink

Sunday I went to watch the Marathon, in part because I think that anyone running 26 miles deserves an audience; but mostly because I knew four people who were running, and I wanted to cheer them on. I decided to go to Mile 21, on the Manhattan side of the Madison Avenue Bridge, which is at 138th Street. I picked that spot for a few reasons: I figured that it would be relatively uncrowded, and so I would get a good view and increase my chance of seeing my friends. I also thought that it was a good place thematically- crossing the last bridge, coming into Manhattan for the last stretch- what a great place to be cheering people on.

I got there early, about a half hour before the first of the runners went by, though some of the people competing in wheelchairs had already passed. At the bottom of the ramp from the bridge onto Malcom X Boulevard DJ Jazz had set up, which I gathered that he did every year. And let me tell you, he was kickin' it old school for the runners. Beat It, Eye of the Tiger, Celebrate, Higher Ground... and that's just to name a few. He was awesome. Whenever possible, he called out the runners with names or their nationalities or affiliations on their shirts, urging them on. I'm definitely headed back to that spot again next time.

Much to my disappointment, I missed every one of the people that I was trying to see and cheer on. Despite my great viewing spot, I must have missed them in the throng. (Though I suppose there is a remote chance that I caught one of them on film- I took something like 150 photos...). But nonetheless, I was there, rooting, and I think that I was able to give a boost to some of the other runners.

Posted in Around New York
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The Strangest Party
November 3, 2006 | permalink

I love the change of the seasons. I don't think that I would be completely content in a place without them, though I am willing to sip cocktails in some tropical place for a while to see if this were really true or not. Because I'm scientific like that, willing to endure hardship in the interest of fact finding. But I digress...

This time of year, late autumn into winter, is my favorite. The crispness of the air and the cool temperatures are invigorating, and seem to make everything smell and taste better. The gourds and apples are at their best, perfect for cooking with, and everyone seems rosy-cheeked as they bustle about. It just makes me happy.

Posted in Around New York & Musings & The Home Front
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These are the Times
November 2, 2006 | permalink

I met Jess last night. Like, in person. It was a good time- beer and wine were drunk, conversation was had, and tipsiness ensued. It was great to meet her- I've been reading blind cavefish for a couple of years pretty regularly, and I am a big fan, as goofy as that sounds. In fact, Jess' site is the very first one that I began reading on a regular basis, back when I started the first incarnation of this site.

You might find this hard to believe, Gentle Readers, but I'm not the most socially adept person you'll ever meet, and I don't meet a lot of new people; the new people I do meet are people who are working for me. Which isn't awful- They're great, and in truth nearly all of the people that I love best in this world are people that I have met on gigs. People like Turtalia and Waiscoatman and Smacktalk, people that I count as family. But this isn't a thing that most of us do forever; the flexible schedule and the good pay make it a temporary situation for most people, something to do until they achieve some other goal, and they move on. So the average age of my crews keeps dropping, and I find we have less and less in common. So hanging out with Jess, with whom I had things in common with and who was also not in the business, was awesome.

Posted in Around New York & Blogging & Social Life
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This Music is Wasted if We Don't Dance
August 28, 2006 | permalink

I love the rain- always have. I like the way it smells, I like the way it sounds, and I especially like the way the rain can transform a place, making it linto something new.

The most extreme example of this that I have ever seen personally is the city of Aberdeen, in Scotland. Like most medieval towns, it is built out of the most readily available material. In Aberdeen, this means slate. The whole old section of the city is built from the same grey slate, from the streets (crushed slate mixed with tar) to the sidewalks (huge slabs of slate) to the buildings (blocks or bricks of slate) to the rooftops (shingles of slate). Its kind of oppressive and dreary after a couple of days.

But after it rains, and the sun comes back out... Gentle Readers, it's breathtaking. The sunlight shines on the wet slate, and the shole city looks like it was fashioned from silver, like it's from some fairy tale or Arthurian legend. It's magnificent.

Posted in Around New York & Out of Town & Random & The Past
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What Ho, Me Hearties?
August 5, 2006 | permalink

Film Forum is having a Summer Swashbucklers festival, now through August 24th. Pirates! Outlaws! Muskateers! And they are being shown as double features. When's the last time you went to a theatre and saw two movies for ten bucks?

Last night, Smacktalk and I went down there and saw The Scarlet Pimpernel, with Leslie Howard as the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney who is leading a double life as The Scarlet Pimpernel, rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine with daring and guile. Merle Oberon plays his unknowing wife, who is blackmailed into betraying the Pimpernel by Raymond Massey's ruthless Citizen Chauvelin. As an added bonus, the show opened with Warner Brothers' send up The Scarlet Pumpernickel, starring Daffy Duck.

The second film in last night's double feature was Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill and Basil Rathbone. This film has everything; rebellion, corruption, torture, escape, piracy, revenge, and true love. It is also Flynn's first feature film, and was clearly a big inspiration for Cary Elwes' portrayal of Westley in The Princess Bride.

Posted in Around New York
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A Rose by Any Other Name
July 29, 2006 | permalink

I went to the DMV this week, to renew and update my ID. It's been expired for the better part of a year, and I never bothered to change my address and the picture is twelve years old, so I thought it was time. I went to the DMV office in Harlem, and let me tell you, Gentle Readers, they have got a hell of a streamlined system down there. It was less than an hour between when I walked in off the street and when I walked out with my new temporary ID card. I was astounded. I figured it would be at least 3.

The first time I tried to get ID was not so easy. And I want to say upfront that as fantastic and unlikely as what I am about to relate to you sounds, it is, in fact, a true story. It's another of those bizarre little things that seems to happen to me. Another part of the backstory- I lived my teen years on a farm, driving the farm truck, for which the operator, as long as he is on farm business, need only be over the age of 16- so there was no need for me to get a license until much later in life than average.

So- I'm twenty, and am trying to get my legal license. I get the forms from the DMV, see what I need, and call my parents to get my birth certificate. They don't have it. Not only do they not have it, but I learn that the name I have been living under is NOT the name I was born with. The Old Man changed his name to distance himself from his abusive family when I was about two. So I need to accquire the birth certificate with the wrong name and the legal papers showing my name change.

Getting the birth certificate wasn't hard. And at first, getting the name change documents from Albany didn't seem like it was going to be too hard either. A couple of phone calls, a letter or two. No problem.

Yeah, right. I get a letter from Albany a few weeks later telling me that they couldn't find the paperwork at first. There didn't seem to be any record of my name change. Then they found the original application from 18 years ago, and realized that it had never been processed, so my name was never changed. The letter went on to say that they were submitting the paperwork now for me, and that I should recieve my copies in four weeks or so. Okay, great. I've been living my whole life on an assumed identity. But it's getting taken care of, so it's okay.

Two months later I still haven't gotten anything, and I start making phone calls. I get the run around for a couple of weeks, and then someone finally admits to me that the paperwork is nowhere to be found: they lost it. So now I'm back to square one. Actually, square minus one. Because now I have to get a lawyer and legally change my name from the name I was born with to the name that I have been living under my whole life. Which was expensive, and a pain in the ass, since it was impossible for me to prove that the name on the birth certificate was me, because every other piece of paperwork I had, including my Social Security card, had the other name on it. Finally it was resolved, and I got all of my documents and my New York ID.

I decided to keep going while my luck held, and went and got my passport as soon as my state ID got to me in the mail. As I'm sure you know, you have to give the passport agency all of your documents for verification. They take them, and mail them back- or at least, they used to. So I handed over my Birth Certificate and ceritfied copies of all of the name change paperwork along with my application. A few weeks later I got my passport. My other documents never came back to me, though- they lost them.

Posted in Around New York & Family Matters & The Home Front & The Past
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MOMA... Dada...
July 25, 2006 | permalink

I began my glorious week of leisure yesterday, Gentle Readers. A couple of stagehand friends of mine came into the city on a day off from working at Summerscape and we went to the MOMA to see the Dada exhibit. I barely remembered what Dada was all about from my Art History classes, but I thought that I had recalled the key concepts: that is was abstract and geometric, and was supposed to have no intrinsic meaning; only that which the viewer imparted to it. I was a little bit right.

I was dead on with the meaningless part, but the rest I was a little off. There is some geometric abstraction, but also surrealism, strange juxtaposition of everyday objects, and a concious effort to present disturbing images. I had completely forgotten about the sculpture and filmmaking that was part of the Dada movement, and that it was a reaction to the rigid, intellectualized, plodding war-machines of early 20th century Europe. It was a really broad exhibit- I walked away feeling like nothing had been left out. I found the films particularly fascinating- think primitive Monty Python and you get a good sense of it.

The rest of the MOMA, if you haven't been since they re-opened, is equally worth the trip. The building itself is stunning, and the collection has a lot of great pieces. My personal highlights were van Gogh's 'Starry Night', the small but excellent collection of Monets, Dali's 'Persistence of Memory', and Hopper's 'Gas'.

Posted in Around New York
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I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry
April 10, 2005 | permalink

I'm on the subway the other night, going home. I have my nose in a book and I am doing a pretty good job of ignoring everyone around me, until the conversation happening next to me breaks through my defenses. Standing next to me are a man and his college- age daughter. This is important- she is at least 18 years old. Dad is talking, and this is what I hear:

'...that's a mis-leading phrase. I hate it when people say that. Because rocket science really isn't that complicated. It's very straightforward. It's only when things go wrong that it gets hard. Brain surgery too.'

'I guess so.'

'No, really, it's true. Look at what happened to make the space shuttle crash when it was trying to land. It was this simple, stupid thing, not anything complicated. They're getting ready to launch another one, you know. I saw a piece on the news about one of the astronauts.'

'You mean people go up in that?'

Staggering, isn't it?

Posted in Around New York & People Are Dumb & Random


Playing is Way Better Than Working
April 6, 2005 | permalink

Spring is HERE, people. I'm a cold weather person by nature, but there is something really amazing about the first really spring-like days of the year; the trees budding, the flowers shooting up, the sun reflecting off of the cars and the glass in the windows, dancing across the sidewalk. It's like magic.

A friend and I met up this morning to go to the Totems to Turquoise exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. It was not what I expected, or maybe not what I hoped is a better phrase. I wanted it to be about the history and symbolism of the totems and fetishes of the Northwestern and Southwestern Native peoples- the Inuit, the Hopi, the Navajo. It touched on this, but mostly it was showing the work of contemporary Native artists, and the way they are adapting and re-interpreting the artistic traditions of their people. Don't get me wrong, it was really cool- just not what I was hoping to see.

Afterward, we grabbed some lunch and took advantage of the gorgeous day by walking through the park. As we passed the lake, I saw the boats were out and suggested that we get one and take a little spin in the water. Turns out she had never been in a rowboat, so that cinched it. We spent an hour or so on the water, rowing and drifting in the breeze by turns. The ducks were foraging and the turtles (DOZENS of them, Turtalia! From four inches across to a twenty inch monster...) were sunning themselves on the rocks. It was quite a lovely afternoon.

Posted in Around New York


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