In Boston...
The Wedstock thing in New York a couple nights ago was really amazing... in addition to the advertised performers like Margaret Cho, Sandra Bernhardt, Bob Mould, Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre, and John Cameron Mitchell, there were surprise appearances by Lou Reed (who read the lyrics of Walk on the Wild Side, having the audience respond like this: Lou: "Hey Babe" Audience: "Take a walk on the wild side." It was like some sort of freak church or something.
Also appearing was Moby, and the wife of the mayor of my adopted hometown, San Francisco.
Thursday I took a bus to Boston. I accidentally put my book and journal in my luggage so I was kind of bored on the bus with only a Village Voice to read and some paper to scribble on. Thursday night I went to a reading -- I read a short piece, and the other readers were interesting. Talked to people during the break and snacked on popcorn. Then I called my friend Paul and went over to his place to crash.
I checked email yesterday and today, and no email back from the guy in Boston I'd been corresponding with for the past month. He's sent email about a week ago saying his computer was messed up, but can't he go to Kinko's like I do? He's scared of meeting up.
This morning I went to the Gauguin exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. It's late period stuff, the Tahiti paintiungs and so on. Really beautiful work, paintings gathered together from all over the world. About 12 years ago I saw another big Gauguin exhibit in Chicago which was from all periods of his work. I remember how overwhelmed I was by that one and I walked back through the exhibit looking at paintings owned by the Hermitage in Russia and thinking I would never see them again. Once again today I was overwhelmed by Gauguin's sense of color -- he sees colors in things that are unexpected -- a white cloth has hints of light greens and other colors, a sunset's hues are reflected in the skin of people in the pictures.
At the same time, the beauty of the work is tempered by some messed up colonial stuff -- for instance, one of the girls he was sleeping with and painting was only 13 years old.
But that aside, I highly recommend the show and those within travel range of Boston should come and see it. You should get tickets in advance (though I was able to just show up and get in.)
Also appearing was Moby, and the wife of the mayor of my adopted hometown, San Francisco.
Thursday I took a bus to Boston. I accidentally put my book and journal in my luggage so I was kind of bored on the bus with only a Village Voice to read and some paper to scribble on. Thursday night I went to a reading -- I read a short piece, and the other readers were interesting. Talked to people during the break and snacked on popcorn. Then I called my friend Paul and went over to his place to crash.
I checked email yesterday and today, and no email back from the guy in Boston I'd been corresponding with for the past month. He's sent email about a week ago saying his computer was messed up, but can't he go to Kinko's like I do? He's scared of meeting up.
This morning I went to the Gauguin exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. It's late period stuff, the Tahiti paintiungs and so on. Really beautiful work, paintings gathered together from all over the world. About 12 years ago I saw another big Gauguin exhibit in Chicago which was from all periods of his work. I remember how overwhelmed I was by that one and I walked back through the exhibit looking at paintings owned by the Hermitage in Russia and thinking I would never see them again. Once again today I was overwhelmed by Gauguin's sense of color -- he sees colors in things that are unexpected -- a white cloth has hints of light greens and other colors, a sunset's hues are reflected in the skin of people in the pictures.
At the same time, the beauty of the work is tempered by some messed up colonial stuff -- for instance, one of the girls he was sleeping with and painting was only 13 years old.
But that aside, I highly recommend the show and those within travel range of Boston should come and see it. You should get tickets in advance (though I was able to just show up and get in.)