sock

Magnum in May

I love photography. I love paintings too, but I am much more comfortable approaching photographs. With paintings, I always feel like there's something I don't know -- I feel separated from them by a wedge of intimidation. Plus there's something about the documentary impulse of photography that makes it even more poignant - like, this is the world, look how magic.

It's a big month here in New York for picture fans. From Magnum in May:

"MAGNUM IN MAY is a photographic and cultural event taking place throughout New York City in May 2004. Twenty-one museums, galleries and cultural institutions will be participating, mounting exhibitions of work by Magnum photographers."

For example, the Howard Greenberg Gallery is featuring the work of my man, HCB! (who?):

AND my man, BD! (Bruce Davidson, who took the most evocative subway
shots ever):

Take The City Back

This is KINDA interesting for anyone who has been following the SOCK vs. Bloomberg silent, largely imagined, war.

Rheingold Beer has started an ad campaign clearly aimed at Lower East Siders and their ilk regarding some of the Bloomberg administration's crackdowns - smoking, dancing, and my personal fave, sitting on milk crates. Watch them here.

What's noteworthy here is not the ads- which I don't think are that great, really. I HATE the hip-hoppy urban black voiceover (it just seems so sterotypical and disappointing) and I don't find the shots particularly dynamic. They look like someone spent a lot of time watching "Do The Right Thing". No, what's noteworthy is that they were directed by the powerfully-talented and infuriatingly young (28) southern director, David Gordon Green. He's now working on a feature written by the godfather of great cinema, Terrence Malick.

I really have nothing but love and respect and warm southern feelings for Mr. David Gordon Green, but I can't help but feel that these ads might have been better served by hiring a local director....like, say, me. But I guess since Rheingold is no longer a local beer (they left Brooklyn in 1976), there's no need to hire local talent for these VERY LOCAL commercials. Just sayin'.

All I Wanted Was Some Nuggets!!!

Oh, Courtney, you never, ever let us down!

New York Post Online Edition: gossip [via Gawker]

89 Seconds of Velazquez

This past weekend, we went to the Whitney to check out the Biennial. This is the third Biennial I have been to, and I hereby declare it the best. FYI: I am an utter neophyte when it comes to contemporary art, and rely solely on how awestruck I am in evaluating a piece. Very professional, yes?

For me, the highlight of the show was a video by Eve Sussman called "89 Seconds in Alcazar".

FILMMAKER MAGAZINE | BLOG describes it well:

"89 Seconds at Alcazar is a new project by 42-year-old film/video artist Eve Sussman that brings Diego Velasquez's 1656 painting "Las Meninas" ("Maids of Honor") to life in High Definition digital video.

The 12-minute video, which premiered at the 2004 Whitney Biennial (March 11 - May 30), is a 360-degree Steadicam recreation of the salon of the Alcazar (the Palace of the Hapsburgs).

With actors in full costume on a set that reproduces the room in the painting, Sussman imagines the activity -- bristling with the tensions of the royal household, which seem to affect even the long-suffering pet dog -- that might have preceded and followed the split-second arrangement of Velazquez's virtual photograph.

It's a superb concept, one that reflects our hunger for back story and sequel.

The little infanta, Margarita, her attendants and the artist himself, busy at his easel, pause to acknowledge her parents, Spain's Philip IV and Queen Mariana, who have just entered the room and are reflected in the mirror on the far wall in the backdrop. But since the king and queen occupy the position we do -- that is, of observer coming upon the scene -- it's as if Margarita and the court are acknowledging us.

Or maybe not. Perhaps Margarita and company are actually looking in a mirror, and that's what Velazquez is painting, the king and queen being nothing more than an image on the wall. Either way, it's a fabulous conceit."

The original Velazquez:

In addition, the presentation of the video is spectacular - you enter a dark room, and the video is projected onto a 30-foot wall. This enormous scale and the surround sound lend an extraordinary sense of intimacy that makes you feel like a witness in the proceedings. It is a brilliant way not only to connect you with the original Velazquez and the era in which it was painted, but also to how we look at art today. For me, it was an unforgettable experience, and one of the few times I have ever been utterly blown away by the vision and execution of an artist.

other highlights:

Cecily Brown's Black Paintings:

Robert Longo's Untitled series:

Spalding Gray?

A corpse was spotted in the East River right off of Greenpoint last night. According to the Post, "the body was so badly decomposed that the face was unrecognizable, and all police could say for certain is that it was a white man." [they never mince words, do they?]

The clothes on and near the corpse resemble the ones Spalding Gray was last seen in on the Staten Island Ferry January 10.

New York Post Online Edition: news

UPDATE: Sadly, it was Spalding Gray. They identified his body through dental and other x-rays.

CNN.com - Spalding Gray found dead - Mar 8, 2004

Plus a change, plus c'est la meme chose

A few months ago, I featured this lovely picture on sock:

This picture just haunts me. The colors, the style, those mysterious women in their wonderful shoes. I never IMAGINED I might know anything more than just the image itself. But in a delightful bit of serendipity, the New York Times ran an article about the woman in the picture.

Still the M Line for the Woman in Yellow

Proof that there is reason to read the Metro section. Though sometimes it's better to maintain the dream than to know the reality. This might be one of those times.

Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water

Last night, I had dinner at Le Zinc with Agent X and his accountant and frequent dining partner, N. I didn't know this before we went, but Le Zinc is part of Restaurant Week where you can get a three course meal for $30.03.

Two years ago, I went to Brasserie during Restaurant Week and felt like the waiter was snubbing us because we took advantage of the prix fixe deal. Did I feel that way at Le Zinc? HELL NO! Was the food good? HELL YES! I had the monkfish which was soft enough to sleep on while Agent X had the hanger steak. I didn't order the steak because it can so easily become tough and flavorless, but the cut at Le Zinc was tender and rich like Louis XIV velvet.

All I'm sayin' is get yourself out there and have you some grub while the getting is good.

Then I went home and had a weird dream about the moment Paul Simon and Carrie Fisher broke up. They were at some concert at Madison Square Garden and I just happened to be sitting behind them. He was being a real prick about something - I believe the fact that he was mad high on drugs - and she told him she was leaving and never coming back and she stormed off rolling one of those rolling carry-on bags which I don't even think was invented at the time of their breakup.

That's all I remember except I felt sorry for her. If anyone knows any real details about their breakup, I would like to know.

I would also like to know what it says about me that I would have a dream about two total strangers set more than 20 years ago.

Mole People Strike Again

In an earlier post, I wrote about the tunnels under Canal Street and speculated about the inhabitants that live among the knock-off Louis Vuitton bags down there (they can have them for all care - those bags are tacky times ten). Today, straight-doper Cecil Adams backs up my assertion that "mole people" reside under our busy streets.

The Straight Dope: Are there really "Mole People" living under the
streets of New York City?

I gotta know - has anyone SEEN any of these mole people? (And can't they come up with a more flattering name for them?) This topic just BEGS for a documentary, but I sure as heck ain't gonna do it.

I wonder if I should be a mole person.

Design by Committee

The new Freedom Tower (who comes up with these names? It sounds like a porn movie) was just unveiled. This building is JUST AWFUL. Gov. Pataki, at the unveiling on the "Today" show, called it "a melding of two very, very talented creative geniuses."

(What is more tacky - that it was unveiled on the "Today" show, or that it will be 1776 feet tall, to commemerate the date of America's independence?)

from NY Newsday:
"The new plan -- which comes after months of contentious negotiations between designers Daniel Libeskind and David Childs -- retains many elements of Libeskind's original plan but appears to smooth out many of its most angular elements."

Not to worry, though. I have a sense this debacle is not over.

New York City - Architects Release Revised WTC Tower Design

UPDATE: For an excellent and much more articulate review of the proposed building, go here: felixsalmon.com

6 Hostages Held at Gunpoint, and an Angry Cat to the Rescue

Today in the New York Times, this local feel-good story:

"[On Nagle Avenue in upper Manhattan], a man had barged into Apartment 10G, demanding money, and forced six people to strip naked. They were saved, one of the victims said, by a cat named Booboo Kitty.

"I really think that cat saved my life," said Leonard Rzepnicki, 58, who shares the apartment with his wife, Cheryl Walker.

It all began around 7 p.m., when Mr. Rzepnicki, Ms. Walker and three friends were gathered around the kitchen.

"We were just sitting around cooking a pot of neck bones and beans -- you know, a poor man's meal," said Mr. Rzepnicki, who is unemployed.

Suddenly, the attacker was knocking at the door with another man, whom one of Mr. Rzepnicki's friends recognized. Not knowing that the attacker was armed and holding the other man at gunpoint, Mr. Rzepnicki allowed the two into the apartment.

Then the gunman rounded all six people up and demanded money, said Mr. Rzepnicki, who told him he had none to give him.

"Then he said strip and everyone stripped," said Mr. Rzepnicki, who said he had recognized the gunman from the neighborhood. The man ordered Mr. Rzepnicki into his bedroom and pointed the gun at his head, he said. At that moment, Booboo Kitty approached the gunman, Mr. Rzepnicki said.

Mr. Rzepnicki said he asked him not to hurt the cat, but the gunman picked her up, he said. She hissed at him and scratched his hand. He dropped her and then chased her into the living room, at which point Mr. Rzepnicki made his escape, running naked out of the apartment and down to the eighth floor, where he called the police from another apartment, he said."

For those of you who can read the New York Times online, here's the article: 6 Hostages Held at Gunpoint, and an Angry Cat to the Rescue