East side West side Part dos...

Dang, am I the only one who liked it?


The Cy Twombly show is at The Whitney Stan.

S'tan has a great point about why not fork over 20 million to one of the rotted out NYC public schools. Puff Puff Bloomberg is just an out of touch child with his hand in his own cookie jar. Wait till he rams through that west side stadium for 78,000 rich season ticket holders but not even one single new parking space! Maybe they'll all just doublepark their Peugots.

Daddy, you are not the only one who liked the gates. I saw numerous poochies who took a fancy to them!

if you look at the gates from the perspective of bloomy and the politicos, then s'tan and merlin are right on target.

but here's how i saw it...
"¢ a gorgeous swath of color and patterns running thru a beautiful landscape at a time of year that is otherwise drab (although admittedly lovely for its starkness.)
"¢ it got city residents out into central park in droves at a time of year that many of us avoid going outside for longer than it takes to catch a cab.
"¢ it created random interactions between friends who ran into one another there and perfect strangers drawn by the spectacle.
"¢ it served as a gorgeous backdrop to a date with a CUTE boy on the warmest day of the whole event - that one tuesday when temps were in the 50's.

plus... i ate mushrooms.

That's kinda how I saw it Gobbs but I was totally straight... well, that's what I told the CUTE boy on the warmest day of the whole event!

I'M KIDDING!

I agree with Merlin and S'tan in the sense that the money should have been used elsewhere for a good purpose, however after Mommy and I had a perfumed ciggerette, Daddy and I were forced to take her advice and we walked to the park just as the sunset was about to happen and all that vibrant saffron color mixed with bright white snow and black barren tree branches...Oooohhhh I must say... It was more than I expected. But back to reality. Let's see some of these rich artists donate the same amount to something more tangible like a school or clinic.

Clisto always inspire me for haiku.

Saffron sheets a-swirl-
Waving in the winter breeze-
make me want to pee.

Saw some fantastic graffiti on a bus over an MTA poster advertising The Gates - " The $ Money Gates! Admit it, it was stupid!" love it!

I think Bloombergs involvement was clever, again its what Betty D said, 'Kings new clothes'.. the hype and pomp surrounding what should have been an 'art installation' was enough to make any commercial advertiser drool.. it was a fantastic deflection... sort of a Jessica Lynch type deflection to what really is going on in the city... and all this media fall out about how it benefitted the city... yeah right, cost a fortune was spent advertising it and PR'ing it... thats what folks forget.. would love to see the cost of the promotional campaign P&L against the so called $ made...

I'm sorry but 21 million dollars is not that much money these days. It's an apartment in the East Village. I mean Madonna gave more than that to that stupid Kaballah Center. They raised the money fair and square. Why don't people get down on other things, like The Neverland Ranch, or someone owning three or four 20 million dollar houses. Everyone seems to pick on The Gates as this big waste of money. The Gates was nothing comapred to the uber-waste that goes on.
I liked it.
I just can't believe that I'm so out of touch with popular Motherboards opinion! I'm a freak!

It was eye candy pure and simple. Pilf. Sweet and fluffy. Nothing not to like really Daddy.

Probably that hightens the consternation of the droves who take it to task on the cost issue, the misspent moola. But if you took a vote among the residents of the city as to what they would want a 20 million art budget spent on for the park we would all probably be up there watching a porn film festival. I just hope we now do not have to put up with a huckster like a Koons or a Wegman requisitioning the park for some really vapid, self-absorbed conceit.

Anna brings up a 'hidden' factor though. Not the budget for production and installation but the budget spent on promotion and hype. That part of the equation rounds out the whole episode in to a weird kind of cultural propaganda in which the physical city itself is turned upon all that inhabit it as a kind of cultural vehicle we're all supposed to be intoxicated with civic pride about. I'm still in disagreement too with the idea the city is just another plaything Puff Puff Bloomberg can give away to anyone he feels like. And you can't tell me taxpayers didn't have to foot the bill for extra trash clean up and police overtime in the park. On the other side of all this though, it is good that the city gets distracted and dominated by a piece of art for once rather than the usual prison guard walk-outs, multi-vehicle accidents, ferry crashes, and police station rapes. Now if only you could erect the gates on a pile of gonzopolistic mayhem.

A Porn Film Festival sounds good.

And if said porn festival cost its private investors $28 million to produce & promote, you can sure as hell bet nobody on these Boards would be bitching about the price tag and how the money should've been spent on schools & other charities. Then it would all be tongues wagging and jism spent without a care in the world about taxpayer expense or the AIDS orphans in Somalia. Guess it depends on what "entertainment" or "art" is deemed worthy enough of our attention. Let's check in with the producers of J.T. Leroy's "Heart is Deceitful" film adaptation and see how much that cost. Or for that matter Blondie's next concert tour or the next season of Queer As Folk or the wedding gown for Trump's next floozie.

p.s. 100% of the proceeds of the official 'Gates' t-shirts and hats went to the Central Park Conservatory Fund. 100%. Additionally $3 million of Christo's profits from the sale of lithographs went to the Parks Department, and much of the rest of Christo's profit will go towards repaying his investors. That's in addition to the $253 million in revenue it brought the city. Ask the cafe owner on Columbus Avenue what he thought of the Gates. Anyone poo-poohing the cost is simply being a spoil sport! Get over it.

I'll settle for eye-candy. I think it was nice of them to decorate the park.
BTW, Daddy, I just saw that piece you posted at the MoMA two days ago. I'll have to say this: There was also a dead bunny there.

And don't underestimate the power of my disgust, Lex. I always think of the children. Think of the CHILDREN!!!

You are right Lexx but it is not like any of us have anything like that kind of money to play with ... anyhow!!!
The world is out of balance. This is just part of it.

The triviality of concept is what's most annoying to me. I don't care if it cost 2 cents or 2 billion.

I'm confused Betty.

Its that "purfumed cigarette" you had with Bobby.

Daddy, Damion and I went to the MoMA and saw the Twombly chalkboard piece you posted on the last page. We also saw a dead bunny piece. I guess the best explain myself is by this incident:
D. and I were in a gallery exhibiting photographs. Just pics of people and fairly non-abstract stuff. There was a piece in the very center of the room of over-sized posters of mini-photos of people stacked neatly so they looked like a cube. I joked to D. that I should just strip a poster off the top of the piece, roll it up, and jam it into my back-pack: HI-larious for us, not so funny for the serious folks, which made it even funnier. Wouldn't you know it that we were walking around later and saw droves of people with rolled-up posters in their back-packs? It wasn't ART, it was just enormous fliers. Joke's on us!
Please enjoy a good laugh at our expense, as I still am.

Now, what is art? Why wasn't that pile of paper art, even though it was more interesting than the 12x12 square of tile being exhibited one flight up? Art is so very fickle; that one word in the correct mouth can make art junk or genius, and the only way to judge is to see for yourself if the art truly makes good.

The dead bunny was stuffed, by the way.

Oh, you saw the piece that I posted. (which is in the MOMA) The Cy Twombly show is at The Whitney. OK, I get it now.

As far as the posters on the floor... no, that is art. You're supposed to take them. I've taken many over the years. All different. I have a closet full of them.

And the dead bunny...
Hmmm? A Damian Hurst maybe.
It wasn't Lady Bunny passed out again was it?

See? I have no fucking idea. I just know what I likes.

What happened to the cube in Astor Place? My friend last night told me it's gone!

Oh you New Yorkers..You're so IN TOUCH! It has been taken to the artist' home who made it for refurbishing and will be back better than ever in its cradle on Astor Place in about five weeks. He says it will spin a lot easier too then.

Golly gee, I just posted about that damned Cube on the Anya Phillips thread. I better tell Maripol zee mozzefockers are NOT tearing NY apart!

Thanks Bobby for the update. I walked by there tonight; it is so nice out, a lot of people walking around in the cool, clear air - but no skater kids hanging in that empty Astor space where their cube stands. Don't know what ya got 'til it's gone.

I vote for a new sculpture:
A statue of Allen Ginsberg, also on a pivot, so the skater punks can spin him around all day & night long.

I vote for a whole East Village mock pantheon, Ginsberg, Penny Arcade, anyone who ever performed at PS122, with a looped recording of Reno telling Giuliani jokes. And the pigeon crap should never be cleaned off.

Thought they could have opened a repair shop right there and taken on apprentises. why not dig a huge pit and create stairs down to a windowless museum under that platform about the real east village.

Chinese take out deliveryman found after being stuck in elevator for three days!

NY Times article

I always suspected that delivering food in this town could be dangerous!

The real funny thang about this was I saw the news last night and police commisioners all stowic standing up at press conf. saying 'this housing project has 840 (sic) units in it and we have searched 800 (sic) of them... we will resume searching the remaining 40" it was smth insane like that can't quite remember the EXACT figure but smth daft! Its all rather cop in Simpsons stupidity here.. over 500 apts searched but NOT the lift!!

Better than the major fire in the Gompers Houses the other week. Whole apartment on top floor goes up in huge spectacular conflagration. Lights up the whole area. Helicopters, major stir up in the nabe all night long. Three bodies found. Breaking news on local network teevee. Then no follow up at all because the three bodies were the result of a "family dispute." If it was drugs or some other vice thing there would be coverage through the court sentencing of whoever. But since it is in a city housing block and some bizarre family thing no one is allowed to publicize it beyond the obvious spectacle.

Reviving this topic for local news from all over Manahatta-

This glorious tale in the Post a few days ago-

quote:

HANGY SPANKY

February 9, 2008 -- A leather-loving submissive was clinging to life yesterday after a freak accident at a Midtown bondage club cut off oxygen to his brain, law-enforcement sources said.

A dominatrix at The Nutcracker Suite on East 33rd Street called 911 at about 1:30 a.m. after finding the hooded man turning blue in a dungeon room as he hung by his arms.

He was also wearing nipple clamps, a dog collar and women's high-heeled shoes, and his hands were cuffed behind his back, sources said.

HANGY SPANKY

For our West Village clubbers and residents -

LATE NIGHT MUGGING/ ARMED ROBBERY ALERT

From Gothamist

quote:

Police continue to maintain a heightened presence in the "Wild West Village" as they search for the two muggers responsible for a series of late night robberies and bloody attacks in the area over the last month. The only description of the pair is that they are "dark skinned," possibly so limited because they have been attacking their female victims from behind. Cops had originally said that the muggings were not part of a pattern, but now have confirmed that six are related. All have taken place between 11:30 pm and 2:45 am.

The Post talked to a recent victim who was robbed at Bleecker and West 10th Street. She recounted, "There were two guys - one had a hood on and a bandanna over his face. He grabbed me from behind and put a gun to my head. I was crying. I was agreeing with everything he wanted me to do. He said, 'Don't even think of f- - -ing screaming. Don't f- - -ing scream. Don't f- - -ing scream."

Full text at
http://gothamist.com/2008/12/1...rt_as_muggers_re.php

They caught the two perps yesterday.
One was smart enough to still have stolen property from one of the muggings on his person.

They were also half brothers.

For any other fans of the legendary "carrot peeler man" Joe Ades (the delightfully eccentric Englishman who demonstrated and sold his vegetable peelers at the corner of Union Square for decades), Im planning on stopping by this memorial on Saturday:

quote:

"We will gather at the statue on the south side of Union Square park on Saturday, February 7th, at 1 p.m; and invite everyone to bring memories, anecdotes, and of course, a peeler and carrots or potatoes. As we join together to peel, we will create a temporary vegetable memorial that will incorporate stories and photos that the community brings to share."

Only in New York, kids...

More On Joe Ades Here

aww, man. He died. that sucked.