Archive for September, 2008
I notice that when I go to describe my days, and I’m not thinking much, I often use the term “odd”. I just stopped myself from doing this in relation to my weekend, when I caught myself and asked what was so odd about it? The answer that surfaced was that it wasn’t very “productive”. Another fuzzy word that says little when I use it. What does a “productive” day look like for me, anyhow? What am I supposedly producing? Truth is it’s a term that implies that there is some other life I’m supposed to be living.
But what about the one I am living? The weekend was filled with time spent in the presence of friends, primarily my friend Judie; stellar painter, wicked commenter, a woman brimming with emotion and honesty. Our mutual history stretches back 24 years. We’ve seen each other through many incarnations and relationships. And this weekend we just naturally fell into a series of conversations that went to the core of who we are and what we think. Those talks contained the shock of recognition and reminder of what a profound thing friendship is. We saw Morandis at the Met, Victorian interior watercolors at the Cooper Hewitt, Had Malaysian Chicken and Pork jerky, sniffed perfume together at Barney’s and marveled at the shoes in Christian Louboutin shoes in his Madison Avenue shop.We were teary at times, and cackling at others. When we said goodbye it was with forgiveness for how little we’d been in touch since the last time, and hopes that we’ll do better this time. I know that even if we don’t, it’ll still be alright.
In the midst of that I saw Chris, and ended up not seeing Thor, in part because I bought a new cellphone and couldn’t quite figure it out. Yesterday I got to spend a lovely while with postmaudlin, who is staying in my neighborhood while visiting from the West Coast. More laughs, more reminiscence and Lehigh received the adoration she deserves.
What does all of this produce? Nothing but feelings of contentment and enthusiasm in me. And that’s the kind of “productive” that I should be valuing more.
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Photogenic…
The Empire State was looking particularly good today.
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Cathy’s opening, and mine…
Last night Thor was gracious enough to accompany me to the opening of Catherine Opie’s exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. The show was a big walk down memory lane, with many images of the the LA and ＳＦ queer scenes of the early 90′s. It’s shocking to think of the way that that time, so casual, so intimate and about its outsiderness, is now heading into history. Museums tend to do that. There were many old friends in attendance as well, notably my CalArts classmate Judie Bamber.
Judie and I got together for some lunch today and then popped in to the opening of a group show I’m in this weekend That’s her in the lower right hand corner of the bottom picture.
Tags: art, daily photo, friendsRelated posts
Catch and release…
Woke up this morning, strolled into my bathroom and found a mouse sitting quietly in the drain. Unnerving. Clearly it had gotten in and could find no egress. Odds are it had been running around in there for most of the night, given the number of turds in the tub.
Clearly it wasn’t going anywhere, so I made myself some coffee and tried to figure out a plan of action. After a couple of sips I was reminded of something from chrisglass‘s website so I got up, emptied my recycling bin and broke off a tiny piece of dog biscuit and dabbed it into some peanut butter. I tossed it into the bin as bait and then put the bin on its side in the tub, while the mouse scrambled around the sloping porcelain walls trying to get away. Then it was waiting time, until the mouse calmed down, overcame its distrust of the bin and went for the snack. Once I knew it was inside I righted the bin and as the mouse leapt again and again for the opening, placed the plastic cover over top and walked downstairs and out to the curb, where I released the vermin into the wild of the city streets. Once out of the bin, It raced for a neighboring apartment building.
I know that the chances are fair that it will find its way back to my apartment, given where I turned it loose, but the alternatives seemed to be either taking it much further away or ending its life. I didn’t have the time for the former, and when I contemplated killing my captive, I found that I didn’t have the belly for the latter.
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If you want to know what I’m up to for the next couple of months…
OK Here it is: the big post on what’s new and upcoming for me in terms of work.
I currently have work on view in:
London: at http://www.isisgallery.org
Los Angeles: as part of this show at LAMoCA.
New York: as part of this group show.
There is also a dialogue between myself and artist Rachel Harrison in the current edition of Bomb Magazine.
This Friday I’ll have work in a group show called BOMB Scare.
Coming up:
Berlin: Penny Arcade organized by god_jr
Berkeley, CA: An event on October 19th.
New York: Brooklyn Museum, October
Group show at http://www.whitecolumns.org/ in November
Linfield College Gallery: Group show October 15th
Interview and Photo Spread in Vice Magazine.
New York: Solo show at Location One in December.
I am also participating in this benefit auction on October 3rd:http://www.artobama.org/
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Hippie Stench…
Yegads – sometimes the left just makes me cringe: I just heard Jackson Browne sing some ludicrous song about going to Cuba on the Colbert Report and it was so laughably simpleminded that I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn’t a parody. Better for him if it was.
Better for us all.
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Handle with care…
Even though the vote was split, I went ahead and picked myself up a mandoline last night. The results? My salad was beautifully sliced, with perfect fennel and pear pieces. I went the cheap plastic route (kinda had to, since the nearest, most sensible place to go for one was Target). It was a breeze to use. Now we’ll see how often I haul it out. On the plus side I also joined Urban Organics this week, so I should be getting a lot of produce to cook on a regular basis.
I’m still a bit in poulet sans tete mode, but things are getting accomplished one way or another and there are some exciting developments. Today I was visited by two of my former students and they both are doing such fantastic things that I was blissed out from talking to them.
I’ll just take a moment to say this: I do love teaching. A big part of that love is seeing the people I’ve worked with accomplish something. There may be difficult times in the classroom, but I genuinely want my students to succeed. When they don’t we need to do some more work. But when they do, it’s wonderful to watch. I’m puzzled by teachers who only speak of their students in dismissive terms and seem to take genuine pleasure in catching them in their failures. It seems to me to be so draining to sit in the class, unhappy to be there. But then, I’ve tried very hard never to take jobs that I hate, or if I find myself hating my job, I’ve left.
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Oh me oh my….
It’s been a full few days, on top of a full week, with another full week to come.
I’m over due on writing up a post on my time at Delta. Hard to believe that I was immersed in that experience just about a week ago.
Today, I finished a piece for the Frieze art fair in London, and one for a benefit auction that coming up in a week and a half or so.
I need to write up a post on everything I have coming up: shows lectures, etc. I think I just committed to another one that would start in December.
Meanwhile I’m obsessed with buying new audio equipment, It’s kinda sick.
I did trade in my years old pillows yesterday for two new supernice down ones. I didn’t quite get how disappointed I was in my pillows. My neurotic shopping habits forced me to try to test out pillows in the middle of Bed Bath and Beyond, basically by propping them upright against walls and leaning into them. I used the display pillows. I know: cootie central. But I had to test them out. Next step: mattress.
My problem in life is that I’m not nearly relentless enough.
Bailout: I don’t understand why these idiots can’t be allowed to fail in their chosen business fields, even though it means that there won’t be hedge fund monkeys running around art galleries with piles of cash to throw at my work. Extending charity to executives is a waste of my tax money. Let’s keep spending it on a failing war, not on a failing economy as well.
Lone Justice just came up on iTunes. There’s a band you never hear about any more. I don’t understand about the algorithms in the program though: I have a ton of Bowie in my music collection, and yet random play seems to pick out “John, I’m Only Dancing Again” with a mystifying frequency.
This weekend I had lovely meals with brat_sheba and the tag team of dominicvine and astromante. But I think I have reel in the dining out. I want to start doing a more home cooking. To that end I picked up stuff for a salad tonight: baby spinach, pears, fennel and aged Gouda. Anyone got any ideas for a simple dressing for all that?
Related culinary question: the fennel made me think I needed a mandolin. Those of you who have thenm, what do you think? Useful, or gadget drawer dust gatherer?
Next time I DJ I’ll play Nirvana’s “Breed”, probably after “20th Century Boy” and before “Deceptacon”
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