Today's Forecast

Autumn Moon over Lake Dongting

The silhouettes of the buildings are different, but somehow this unidentified 15th c. Korean artist caught the misty weather we are having perfectly.

More on this work here.

Photos from the Halloween Parade

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night

And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night

You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight

 

 

 

 

There were some creative costumes out there, ranging from scary to creative to conceptual art. And then there were the Lady Gaga's. Quite a few Lady Gaga's.

 

 

Governor's Island: The Little Pleasure Island Next to Manhattan

It's not only because its a quirky little green spot of land looking over its sprawling lawns and old buildings toward Manhattan. One free ferry ride over and you arrived at a Pleasure Island, full of people picnicking, riding bikes, eating ice cream, and far stranger things: like dressing up as flappers and dancing to 1920s tunes or even taking trapeze classes.

Last summer's art festival was more prevalent, but this year they still had the artist-designed minigolf course (love) and on the lawn next to it a group of playful installations that adults as much as children seemed to enjoy. I especially loved the bright graphic birds of Flock to Living.

Transitions

Lots of transitions this past week, from flying out of Mexico and landing in New York in the evening to the glimmer of city lights...

To a new (temporary) home by a different ocean in a rather chilly, wet climate....

Interspersed with lots of long subway rides...


Into Manhattan, which hasn't changed a bit.

I'm going through a bit of reverse culture shock. Even now that I've gotten some clothes out of storage and settled into a new space and seen old friends, I still answer people with a "si" instead of a "yes" and am overwhelmed by the subway at rush hour. This week should be a bit easier, so hopefully I can tell you about my (incorrect) assumption that visiting the New Museum's Skin Fruit exhibition would help me ease into things by reminding me how much I love the art scene here.

Empire State of Mind

If all my tweets are about things happening in NYC:

1. Five Art Shows to Catch Before Closing -- New York Magazine http://ht.ly/1HXyt about 15 hours ago via HootSuite
   • Delete
2. RT @artnetdotcom: Today's 1,000-point market plunge may be because Citi trader hit "b" for billion instead of "m" for million... about 17 hours ago via HootSuite
   • Delete
3. RT @MuseumModernArt: RT @JackRicofficial: Lady Gaga was at the MoMa museum today: http://tweetphoto.com/21317606 about 18 hours ago via HootSuite
   • Delete
4. Pitch @Art21 a post on Art&Expereince--maybe web and art? tweet art? : ) http://ht.ly/1HLs7 about 21 hours ago via HootSuite
   • Delete
5. Looks fun! RT@RSHotel: First ever Great Nude Invitational @RSHotel May 13-16, we are SO excited! For info and RSVP http://bit.ly/dssKSL about 22 hours ago via HootSuite

and my favorite things to write about were seen in NYC, hello William Kentridge! and New York art fairs, then maybe it's a sign I should go back soon. Which, conveniently enough, I am. May 17. That is really soon (eep!).



Time to get in an Empire State of mind...

New York Agenda: First Week of March

There is never a bad time to come to New York and look at art. As it happens, my return to New York comes at the same time as the art fairs--what a pleasant coincidence. So many things are happening! This is my personal top 5 drool list;

• Scope and Pulse Art Fairs: Lots of art and people crowded in together in order to completely overwhelm, or something like that. Come highly caffeinated.
• The Armory Show: The prestigious, sprawling, and expensive ($30) forerunner of them all. Tip: start writing an art blog and then ask for a press pass, claiming you are revolutionizing the industry. Maybe someday they will believe you.
  
• Independant: The new art fair that isn't. Called a "hybrid model and temporary exhibition forum," its showing work from some top notch galleries withOUT the lame entry fee. Here here.
• Whitney Biennial: Never been to this historic show and looking forward to seeing the wide mix of artists. Bonus points for being less hectic than the fairs.
• William Kentridge at MoMA: My friend was talking to me about the production Kentridge designed for the Met Opera, the NY Times article on exhibition design touches on it, Art:21 videos remind me of it. The whole world is whispering "go see this show."

Luckily I can! I missed the art scene during this island time. It will be tough to squeeze all this into a week along with more humdrum bits of business. Then I'm off again.

Theater Notes for New Yorkers: Looking Forward and Back

My head is in two places right now. One hemisphere is still in New York City living my bustling, art-centric life. The other is slowly getting used to the sound of the waves. But before I left, I picked up the mail one last time, and some residual impulse made me take fliers for two upcoming plays that look amazing.

The first is Present Laughter starring Victor Garber, which follows on the heels of the delightful Noel Coward revival the Roundabout Theater put on earlier, Blithe Spirit. Coward is light and his humor translates to contemporary thought instantly. The second is A View From the Bridge, an Arthur Miller play starring Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johannson at the Cort Theater. I would be very interested to see how Johannson fares on stage.

As you might have noticed, I love the classics. They're classics for a reason, right? I've seen some great classic plays this past Fall in New York. I reviewed the production of Hamlet with Jude Law, and found it adequate, even good, if stringently traditional. I also saw Jude Law's ex-girlfriend Sienna Miller as Miss Julie in Henrik Ibsen's classic After Miss Julie. That is a great production that reset Ibsen's story of class struggle in post-WWII England. The only weakness was, disappointingly, Miller's acting which seemed to lack range on stage. Her character was high-pitched throughout, without any moments of quiet vulnerability that would make a breakdown more plausible. The set and the rest of the cast was excellent, even if her acting kept the ending from coalescing into a true high point.

I was very lucky to see A Streetcar Named Desire the week before I left. Put on BAM by the Sidney Theater Company, this traditional rendition of Tennesee Williams most famous play rose beyond what you might remember of the Marlon Brando film (though you might remember it to be quite good). I will confess, I admired Cate Blachet, who plays Blanche, unduly before the performance. She lived up to my expectations here, even if her Blanche was more muscular and vivid than I generally give the character credit for. I had wanted to give this excellent production its own review, but by now it's short New York run is over and it is not so fresh in my mind.

But let me just say that Liv Ullman, the director of this production, introduces this stellar production by describing Tennessee William’s state as he wrote his most famous play:

While writing, he thought he was dying, but kept on writing and the song he listened to through those weeks was The Ink Spot’s ‘If I Didn’t Care.’

The show opens with the tune and it wafts back periodically, at once reminding us of romance, New Orleans, and the Blues. Cate Blanchett, known better for her film roles such as Elizabeth, might be expected to show more strength than one is used to, but I was equally delighted to see how she handled the brittle side of her nature. Blanchett’s voice ought to be commended highly here—she maintained a beautiful Southern accent without overplaying it, all the while conveying the hysteria and desperation of her character. She is the star of the play, but Joel Edgerton as Stanley and Robin McLeavy as Stella are the supports that make her performance possible. They do so with a naturalness that is charming. Edergton contends with the overwhelming memory of Marlon Brando very well—by not competing with him. His cry of “Stella” is broken rather than resounding to the roof. Aside from the one moment, I did not compare the two.

On the homefront, the boyfriend sweet talked the woman at the internet company, and a technician came out to the apartment this morning. We should be up and running soon.

FREE Guggenhiem Today

In honor of its 50th anniversary, the Guggenheim New York is free today. Now if this where another major New York institution this would not be as cool, because most museums have free nights once a week. The Guggenheim is free one Saturday a month from 5:45 pm to 7:45 pm (ahem, lame).

A large-scale Kandinsky exhibition is up now, which combined with Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, makes for an excellent museum day.I'm plotting how I can get there and back on my lunch hour.

ADDENDUM: 1:43 pm-I have just returned to my desk from the Guggenheim. The line winds out the door and down the block from 5th Avenue to Madison! No Kandinsky for me today.

Autumn in New York: Plays and Galleries, Oh My

Despite lamenting the shortening days, autumn in New York is lovely...and busy! 'Tis the season, and now there are a hundred and one things cultural offerings on the agenda. This leads to some tough choices. I have to skip a few gallery opening tonight...but I will be seeing the Woodshed Collective's The Confidence Man.

The Woodshed Collective, this genius, only in New York kind of organization, is putting on a free play. All you have to do is reserve a ticket in advance. Last summer they did a really nice job with Twelve Ophelias, a backcountry spin off of Hamlet, at McCarren Pool Park. The group focuses on site-specific installations of original new work. The Confidence Man is being performed on the Decommissioned U.S.C.G. Lilac at Pier 40 on the Hudson. As a spin off of Herman Melville's story about a 19th c. con man on a riverboat, this is more than appropriate.

Here's the kicker: the audience chooses how the performance will go. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure book. To wit:

"The audience will choose what to see and which character’s story to follow just as one selects which newspaper stories to read, which YouTube videos to screen, or which online links to click. By allowing audience members to immerse themselves in the experience, the production seeks to blur the line between performer and patron..."

They warn you not to wear heels--you'll be running all over the old ship. It's all very exciting, and a fun way to kick off a new fall season. Up tomorrow: Johnny Madsen at Denise Bibro, Carla Klein and Rita Lundqvist at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Juergen Teller at Lehman Maupin, Chris Ofili at David Zwirner, a group show at White Columns and the Kitchen and general wandering about Chelsea to see what's happening. 'Tis the season.

Sore, Grumpy, And Not Writing About Art

I was happily, innocently biking home yesterday afternoon, rushing along because of some dark storm clouds in the air. I was in the bike lane going down Avenue A, a relatively calm bit of traffic. I was just thinking I was going to beat the rain home, when a cab door opened in front of me. 3 seconds later I was on the ground. OWW!

So may I suggest, if you are getting out a cab and for some reason get out on the street side rather than the curb, that you look to see if anyone's coming? Lucky for the cab it was just me. If it had been a car instead, it would have knocked the door off. And I may say 'just me', but really I want to let lose a torrential babble about how I could have been seriously injured and how unattractive my bruises are. Anyhow, that's the justified crankiness talking.

Aside from the girl who opened the door (who is probably normal and not a malicious idiot), everyone was so helpful. I'd rather have a bike accident in Manhattan than anywhere else--there's no end of good Samiritans. Out of nowhere a man started yelling at the girl for me , another guy helped pick up my bike, two were giving medical advice, someone else refixed my bike basket onto my bike and squashed it in the back of the cab, and the cabbie took me home.

Now I need to pop up to Union Square for something, but--sigh--I really don't want to take my bike this morning.

I have become a twit...

so now what do I do?

Ravelled Reviews

Paul Cezanne, Still Life with Fruit Dish

In honor of Cubism, Gertrude Stein, and Cezanne, a fractured ravels in review that attempts to document the act of ravelling. (Unfragmented links included).

Yesterday, it was Cubism, Visual and Literal, without Gertrude Stein's mug in the end, before some explicit in odd ways not explicit enough notes on Butt in ASS , dear lord what a title for an exhibition, and horses, really big horses and what glitter at Jack the Pelican and why would they have named the gallery that, whose full name is Jack the Pelican Presents, and then in between is smushed a really great piece written by Richard Serra- Had I dressed it up better, images and all, maybe more people would have read it, my eyes are caked with sleep, before, before is so long ago, and my finger hurts from a paper cut given by a file folder, who knew such barbarities existed, so then here we are, we're reviewing ravels, but what the hell happened this week, do I drink too much that I have the memory of a goldfish, but wait--I'll check, oh dear, I really need a new website. And then i had written about loving my 'hood, which terrible choice of word now strikes me as particularly annoying, and yet we must march on, although to note the accordion shop is choice, and so then- then now my boyfriend came into my room and did a flying ninja pose and told a work story, Gertrude didn't have to deal with this, and so lastly I see I wrote about the High Line, which is nice, as I tell you, but maybe not so special it needs to be written about so much, but then I broke that cardinal.

Pablo Picasso, The Reservoir, Herta de Ebro

Images from the special exhibition on the fifth floor of MoMA, which leads you by the nose over to the room next door, for this savagery, savagery!:

Why I Love My 'Hood

If there is a bumblefuck corner of Manhattan, it's my neighborhood. I never know if I should tell people I live in Chinatown or the lower Lower East Side. I don't really belong here, not being a Chinese immigrant or a Hasidic Jew or even Puerto Rican. (Quite a mix...) And then there's me.



And this is just on one block, not even getting into the offshoots of Chinatown or the galleries down here.

Allen Grubesic's Another Masterpiece at LaViolaBank Gallery

High Line Views

The newly opened High Line in New York is a really nicely-done park that hovers above the city on the sight of old train tracks, which are now interspersed among the wildflowers.


And some sights from it....





It looks like a typical old warehouse building. I never would have known the top of that roof was covered in flowers!

Fire! Goodbye to Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown

View from Henry St. and Pike St.

Last night the smoke I thought was from a neighbor grilling turned out to be from the biggest fire I have ever seen--at the end of my block. I watched for a few hours as Hong Kong Supermarket, a Chinatown landmark, and the apartment building attached to it burned down. It felt surreal, like a film noir movie in color: rain, mist, smoke, fire, trenchcoats and dramatic lighting. The streets were full of Chinese in pajamas and reporters with big cameras standing in the rain.

Unfortunately, the huge fire that drew trucks from across lower Manhattan destroyed these buildings. It was a 4 alarm fire (which is apparently a lot.) If it started in the bottom of the building next door, as the news reports, then my boyfriend and I were right to guess that it started as a kitchen fire in the subterranean Chinese restaurant.



Like a postman, I could carry on through smoke, and rain, and fire to our weekly ravels in review, but that seems decidedly anti-climatic. So let's skip it and get to the photos:

The blaze kept coming back on the roof of Hong Kong Supermarket.

Water pouring out the back door of Hong Kong Supermarket as it is being hosed through the roof on the front.

At the intersection of Allen/Pike St. and East Broadway

Luckily the fire didn't spread to the gas station across the street, or anymore buildings than Hong Kong Supermarket which, stuffed with packaging and boxes in an old warehouse, went up like a tinderbox.

This was taken at about 11:30, when the fire was under control and you could finally see through the smoke.

There were tons of photographers from the news there, and I even ended up on 1010Wins, a local station, myself (you have to listen to the audio to hear me).

I left the scene just before midnight and then couldn't settle down until 2 AM, so I'm exhausted. I still can't believe Hong Kong burned down. While there are no end of fruit and vegetable stands, nothing else in Manhattan's Chinatown has that range of products. They imported all Asian products, so that the ramen you bought there was packaged in Manadarin characters and the soy milk you bought was literally soy+water (not quite to my taste.) It became a staple in the Asian community: I know three different friends whose parents are Asian immigrants and still shop there whenever they get the chance, even after moving to New Jersey or Queens. I hope they rebuild it.

It's Official: I'm lovely

The word 'lovely' begins with an affecting root noun and adds an adverbial -ly to make it a descriptor. It's a generally nice word that I'm rather fond of. All the more so when it is applied to none other than myself. Anna, the around the way girl, an 'editrix' who covers things sartorial and all around the way, plus some great images, gave me my first blog award.

Here are the rules:
1. Add the logo to your blog.
2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.
3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.
4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are One Lovely Blog!


Step 3--oh dear, I read almost a hundred blogs. Obviously, I read them because I like them. They're on hundreds of topics. Should I only mention great art blogs? Should I mention the ones that fit 'lovely' best? I finally chose the blogs written by people I would like to know based on his or her personable, lovely blog (da da dum):

• Boredom's Bounty: For the Love of Pictures takes pictures of her life in NYC and posts them every day. I like pictures, I like her stories. Like real life here, they aren't all of the Empire State building. I see it and I think, 'I should do that.'

• The Blue Lantern: Jane not only works for NPR (cool), she writes arts journalism for the love of it. But she attacks it an a culturally voracious way that will take you from painters and design to hedgehogs. You must see the hedgehog post. Delightful.

• The Age of Uncertainty: A lovely blog by a lovely man in Steerforth, England. You're all free to be madly jealous of him, seeing as he recently took on an amazing job where he gets to sort through old books all day looking for gems.

• Little People: A Tiny Street Art Project: OK, so this isn't a person. The blog is of a series of miniature human figures placed around London in ways that create the most endearing and humorous storylines. It always a pleasure. Scroll down the page a bit to some great images like Crappy Christmas or Last Chance to Impress.

• Wurthering Expectations: A new find, this blog is by a reader whose voraciousness surpasses mine. He is storming the bastions of English literature, and his blog might be a good refresher course for those of you who miss you old Victorian lit class. (Granted, I might be the only one who feels exactly like that.) The blog is lovely for many other reasons, as I'm sure you will see for yourself.

• Under Construction/Art Contemplations: Bill is a blogger who knows about Medieval witch hunts AND art. Quite the combination. An artist himself, he shares his own work on his blog too.

• The Lusty Reader: OK, the girl likes her Romance novels. I like the Romantic movement. So aside from a love of reading in general, we have little in common. Thus it says a lot that I enjoy reading her blog as much as I do.

Aside from my lovely blog award, what's new with Art Ravels you might ask? Actually, let me frame that as a series of questions directed at you, dear Reader.

• Is it true that you have to floss your teeth twice a day to prevent cavities? I floss mine once a day, which seems like more than enough, and my dentist told me I need 4 fillings from not flossing. REALLY?

• How do you keep voracious, herb-eating, pepper-popping, all together EVIL birds out of your container garden? They have nibbled my mint to stubs in a matter of days, the basil looks depressed, and the oregano is diminishing at a rapid rate. I'm afraid the sage and thyme are going to walk out of the planter in protest. And don't even get me started on the topless hot cherry bomb. (a plant, people, a pepper plant.)

• If you are driving a taxi in midtown rush hour traffic and you see a biker in midtown biking in a straight line down the bus lane, do you speedily pull in front of him and stop to pick someone up? NO! No, you do not endanger said biker's life. You take the extra 90 seconds to pull in behind them. May you heed the safety warning before said biker with a lovely blog becomes squashed.

In sum; dentists lie, birds are evil, and bikers must not be driven over. On the upside, Art Ravels is a lovely blog and so is my ride along the East River park before I hit Midtown.

Against Taking Photos in Museums

People should not take photographs in museums. This is me doing a 180 degree revision of my opinion. I mean, I myself take them and show them to you here. I think to limit cultural distribution is silly and that to take a flashless pictures of something in a museum can do nil amount of harm. I now know differently.

I now know that it is a scandalous practice detrimental to museums. On visits to the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday, I wasn't overwhelmed by the crowds so much as blown away by the number of people who only looked at the art through a camera lens. Pause, click, pause, click they walked through the museum documenting their trip meanwhile getting in my way, accidentally taking a photograph with flash, and generally showing little interest in the the art. They were more oblivious to the people around them as they tried to get a good shot.

Really, should photographs be allowed in museums at all? Do you take photographs? Does photography interfere with your enjoyment of art?

Little Boats Sinking

For a great discussion of what is or should be happening in the art world according to Jerry Saltz, check out Hrag Vartanian's coverage of the lecture he delivered entitled "This is the End; The Rising Tide that Floated All Boats has Gone Out and All Boats are in Danger of Sinking."