New York is always such a TRIP----full of inspiration and new ideas and faces and equal doses of reality and unreal-ness. I’m so grateful to have had the chance to spend time in this great American city. Here’s what’s been up for the past week, it's so hard to cram it in...:
Staying with Nico in Bushwick, steep narrow stairs up to the second level, neighbors blaring Lil Wayne or the latest hood hit,
Gyptian's "hold yuh". After my late night arrival, we woke to a
blazing 90 degree Wednesday in Brooklyn, fire hydrant gushing out front, kids squealing through the makeshift sprinkler. SUMMERTIME girls in cutoffs, metallic toenail polish, all cleavage and thighs and halter tops; SUMMERTIME guys rocking tank tops, straw hats, flashing their knees and cruising the block, windows down,
love king blasting; SUMMERTIME moms pushing strollers with sticky ice cream kids; SUMMERTIME vendors slanging snow cones, aviators, knockoff Raybans, African beaded anything, straw fedoras, friendship bracelets, sliced mango, those enticingly/painfully aromatic roasted sugary nuts, Puerto Rican flags, empanadas, framed photoshopped posters of the Jonas Brothers, screenplays for Scarface??? SUMMERTIME old folks chillin on porches, stoops, in third-floor open windows, shirtless, on broken chairs on the sidewalk, in front of fans, in slippers, in muumuus, wifebeaters, saggy arms and sweaty foreheads; SUMMERTIME fashion girls behind big shades and baggysaggy pants and croppeder crop tops and laced up espadrilles looking fine and glowing and soooo new york. I LOVE IT ALL!
Nico puts it perfectly: “I’ve never seen so much leg in my life!”
Wednesday was menswear day with Nick and Nico. Down to the Lower East Side to have pants tailored into shorts, new shoes at Muji, hatshopping, ogling at Opening Ceremony, italo-lunch at cafe fiat, back to bushwick for a homemade salad dinner and then off to start our 24-hour museum escapade....
Nico’s expired ID from the Guggenheim got us into every art museum in the city that we could handle. The Whitney Biennial was disappointing and stuffy, even at 2 in the morning (one of the (only good) pieces kept the museum open 24-hours for 3 days). The Marina Abramovic retrospective at MOMA blasted us with revolution and nudity and left us aching to perform something epic, world-changing, body-conscious and together.
The “American Woman” show at the Met was a suffocating cliché and perpetuation of the unfortunate stereotype of the American Woman as tall, wealthy, white, and skinny. Beautiful clothes for a beautifully minor cross-section of this country. Luckily our breeze through the art history in the permanent collections and the incredible Bambu installation by Doug & Mike Starn on the roof garden made it all worthwhile.
A picnic on a rowboat in the park!!! Witnesses to a pondside Jewish wedding- Mazel Tov!
PS1’s The Greater New York showcase of young, local New York artists made us believe in ourselves! And Skin Fruit curated by Jeff Koons at the New Museum was an amalgamation of creepy figural sculptures/pieces that will probably keep me up at night, but the view from the roof deck always provides a great escape from the street.
Also had the pleasure of experiencing the old-as......well.....dirt of Walter De Maria's Earth Room, one step closer to the lightning field which we will see someday...
Much love to NICO, my best friend, for putting me up and putting up with me and showing me his NEW YORK; Olivia for quick bursts of chowin, chillin, dancin!; Weston for always-epic imagination sessions!; Lessa & Hayden for a latenight spaghetti dinner!; Julie for rendezvous in McCarren Park!; Nick & Rachel for jokes and jokes and PROM and dumplings!; Phil for letting me take over the bathroom and cruise Brooklyn on the stingray!
Some other fascinating NY OBSERVATIONS and ENCOUNTERS:
- Chinatown fish in a bucket, so fresh they’re not even dead yet
- kid throws a stick at us in the playground
- breezy branches
- walking walking walking walking walking
- open air chillin in
the woods- "louisvuittonguccichanelprada" violently whispered in your ear on Canal
- unnecessary zombie day in williamsburg
- vice/converse prom party?!!??
- mid-afternoon beers + cocacolas at dives
- sharing a random stoop/ice cream scoop with a fellow northern californian and
folkYEAH dude
- subway argument between bongo drummers accusing general public of refusing to give up seats to their elders + guy at the end of the train car popping out from behind his paper telling drummers to fuck off because they don't know him and he always gives up his seat + Dutch woman in American flag tank top telling everyone to shut up and stop fighting + lose some weight! + i know young girls who have cancer and need a seat too!!!
it never ends........
GOD, I LOVE NEW YORK!
