Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting

The delay on my camera phone made me miss the best shots.

 It was actually late afternoon.  I was at a free punk rock show in Tompkins Square Park (to commemorate the '80s era TSP riots) and some of the street kids turned the ersatz (so much of my life needs this word) "mosh pit" into a boxing/wrestling ring.  Some blood was shed.  Some guy had a seizure, although I don't know if it was related to what happened in front of the stage.  Police finally showed, but long after the fighting was over.  Still, the emotional fall-out from it could be felt no matter what bench you occupied.

Does photographing this so impassively mean I'm old and jaded?

The band played fun, melodic punk rock with nary a negative vibe detected.  So the fighting was completely incongruous.  And really, isn't fighting always incongruous?  Something must have been brewing all day.  Or two many . . . er, brews had been consumed.  It's summer, right?  Still, while things felt like they might get really out of hand for a minute or two, I had a lot of fun photographing the melee.  I like catching odd configurations of bodies.  And I always regret I owned no camera when I was attending all those Utah hardcore shows in the '80s.  

Damn Kids, who seemed a tad shocked they unwittingly stirred things up to such a degree.

So, I guess the point of all of this, is that I'm feeling pretty creative lately.  And I don't know if it's due to the Artist's Way, and/or the fact I just turned another year older (and feel like I'm running out of time).

I still experience jealousy over the successes of others, especially people who are doing the same damn thing I am.  But I'm trying to get over it.  

Two of the people assembled here are members of my immediate family, but when it comes right down to it, don't I love everyone in Tompkins Square Park?

Shake Your Eyes and Devote Them to Your Heart

Hong Young In, b. 1972.  Acrylic, embroidery, scenic fabric

Tonight I had a small job at Carnegie Hall but instead of heading downtown I stayed around in midtown, which I usually avoid if I can. It's way too high rise and corporate and the money is obvious, and it's where tourists with no imagination hang out. Wow, that sounded really mean.

 But there was someone in midtown I wanted to meet up with so I wandered into one of the city's more off-the-radar museums, The Museum of Arts and Design, which happened to be open late (and taking donations for admission).  MAD markets itself as blurring the lines between craft and fine art:  you can see the work of contemporary jewelry artists there, but you can't try anything on.

And it happened to be open late.  And it was pay what you wish!

The exhibit I had been reading about was still being installed, so I saw what was available to be seen and was unexpectedly blown away by the second floor exhibiting the work of Korean artists. I've never thought much about what the contemporary art scene might be in (South) Korea, but it wasn't austere or minimalist, like the Japanese art up on the third-floor of the museum (it was often wry, ironic, and funny--playing with and twisting Asian tropes), and I'm sitting here typing this filled with longing to go to Korea suddenly to find out more--a place that would be usually near the bottom of my list as possible destinations. And there's no good reason for that.

I sat in the lobby, my feet hurting from the brown boots I had chosen to look nice for an earlier event, and leaned my head against the springy wire bars keeping me from tumbling backwards into a stairwell.   Today is Gertrude Stein's birthday, but I'm going to reference and revise one of her hangers-on, Hemingway, when I say that I was grateful to have a free, clean well-lit place to sit.

Other stuff there:  some vintage, downtown arts videos and movies.  They've had all this no wave cinema stuff up here and I didn't even know it.   Midtown's cooler than I thought.  Speaking of which, the review of the Debbie Harry concert will be here tomorrow.   I just have a few things to say.

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"Handle,"  Lee Dong Wook.  Metal, plastic modeling material

"Shake Your Eyes and Devote Them to Your Heart"  Inbai Kim, b. 1978.  Medium-density fiber board, plaster, wood