Hell of Day in Kip’s Bay
Today was one of the more memorable Memorial Days I have had in a few years. The big thing, was that the weather was fantastic. I can’t remember a Memorial Day weekend where the weather was that nice…..the past few years have been rainy and craptastic. The second thing was that I spent the day in New York City with my good friend Luise. We toured the Washington Square Arts & Crafts show, which was a lot of fun and later saw Indiana Jones.
The craft show cemented a thought I have been having lately…present your stuff in the right location and everyone will have to look at your work, whether it’s shit or not. There was a fair amount of shit, too. The best work that I saw; and this is after about 3 blocks worth of art and craft booths were a linocut artist, 3 ceramicists, a watercolorist, and a woman who made these great artist puns (An Example was Van Go, a yellow van driving through an Arles-like landscape painted ala Vincent). Luise and I also discovered that the city of NY is renovating Washington Square - it had ripped out the fountain, leaving a giant ass hole in the middle of the park. Luise and I were also apparently looking like we needed a lot of ganja, because that’s what the weed dealer at the front of the park kept telling us. “You know you need the good weed, my friend, I can tell”. Funny, I have never done that and I am pretty sure it’s been well over a decade since Luise did….yeah, we are high on the hemp.
The show was a lot of fun - all over the square there were booths, but the ceramics dudes were the best - one guy was a Nicaraguan who was hand painting beautiful Mestizo and central American patterns on his pottery - it was really gorgeous stuff. Another guy from Paramus by way of Brazil used the patterns of his tribal ancestors the Marajoara to make some really impressive pieces. Technically, the glaze work and patterning were fantastic. He had pieces that were glazed to look like wood; you wouldn’t know the difference until you felt them.
The Indiana Jones movie was largely mediocre. The script was shit - thanks, George Lucas..next time you can’t find a decent script in over 10 years, leave a good franchise alone and don’t fucking write anything. The movie does have some very good stunt scenes - that I will vouch for; but it still doesn’t warrant going to see this in the theatre. The film was a pastiche of tired clichés and bad characters. Harrison Ford looks pretty spry for a man his age, but he’s old and there’s no two ways around it. When the plot starts to unfurl, you also start asking yourself; if I was Indy would I be down with this shit? Shia LeBeouff plays Indy’s son, he has no personality and couldn’t convince me he could run a CVS let alone act his way out of a cardboard box. Kate Allen was such a waste; they could have done so much more with her in the story but they really only use her as a visual tie to Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Allen’s character could have been so much more to the story than it was - they completely misuse and neglect all of the great pathos and back story that was developed in the Nepal bar fight from the first movie. Marion Ravenwood goes out making high school lovey-eyes at Indy and completely abandons her independent, spitfire, feminist with a score to settle personality…yes, she’s aged wonderfully and looks great…but that’s about it for her in the film and it’s very sad. Cate Blanchett is the only redeemable character in the whole movie, her campy Stalin dominatrix was hot and well acted. She is absolutely filthy, and she needs to come over for a proper bath, macht schnell.
After the movie, Luise and I went to the Waterfront Ale House, in Kip’s Bay: a legit restaurant which was delicious. I had some buffalo ribs that were amazing with sweet potato fries….oh, that was tasty. The waiter was fast, efficient and polite…he even recommended a beer for Luise that didn’t taste like that typical New York IPA hipster treebark passing for beer ( it was called Anchor Liberty and it was very good). The Waterfront was such an enjoyable experience I am seriously going to write a letter thanking them because it was one of the most pleasant dinners I have ever had.
Luise had been telling me about a new city park that they had opened directly under the Manhattan bridge between Front and Washington Streets. I have to go back there, it had some of the prettiest views of the city I have ever seen. Well, tomorrow is the official last day of classes - my last full day teaching was last Friday, tomorrow will be the last day of teaching - period. Going to be weird.
The craft show cemented a thought I have been having lately…present your stuff in the right location and everyone will have to look at your work, whether it’s shit or not. There was a fair amount of shit, too. The best work that I saw; and this is after about 3 blocks worth of art and craft booths were a linocut artist, 3 ceramicists, a watercolorist, and a woman who made these great artist puns (An Example was Van Go, a yellow van driving through an Arles-like landscape painted ala Vincent). Luise and I also discovered that the city of NY is renovating Washington Square - it had ripped out the fountain, leaving a giant ass hole in the middle of the park. Luise and I were also apparently looking like we needed a lot of ganja, because that’s what the weed dealer at the front of the park kept telling us. “You know you need the good weed, my friend, I can tell”. Funny, I have never done that and I am pretty sure it’s been well over a decade since Luise did….yeah, we are high on the hemp.
The show was a lot of fun - all over the square there were booths, but the ceramics dudes were the best - one guy was a Nicaraguan who was hand painting beautiful Mestizo and central American patterns on his pottery - it was really gorgeous stuff. Another guy from Paramus by way of Brazil used the patterns of his tribal ancestors the Marajoara to make some really impressive pieces. Technically, the glaze work and patterning were fantastic. He had pieces that were glazed to look like wood; you wouldn’t know the difference until you felt them.
The Indiana Jones movie was largely mediocre. The script was shit - thanks, George Lucas..next time you can’t find a decent script in over 10 years, leave a good franchise alone and don’t fucking write anything. The movie does have some very good stunt scenes - that I will vouch for; but it still doesn’t warrant going to see this in the theatre. The film was a pastiche of tired clichés and bad characters. Harrison Ford looks pretty spry for a man his age, but he’s old and there’s no two ways around it. When the plot starts to unfurl, you also start asking yourself; if I was Indy would I be down with this shit? Shia LeBeouff plays Indy’s son, he has no personality and couldn’t convince me he could run a CVS let alone act his way out of a cardboard box. Kate Allen was such a waste; they could have done so much more with her in the story but they really only use her as a visual tie to Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Allen’s character could have been so much more to the story than it was - they completely misuse and neglect all of the great pathos and back story that was developed in the Nepal bar fight from the first movie. Marion Ravenwood goes out making high school lovey-eyes at Indy and completely abandons her independent, spitfire, feminist with a score to settle personality…yes, she’s aged wonderfully and looks great…but that’s about it for her in the film and it’s very sad. Cate Blanchett is the only redeemable character in the whole movie, her campy Stalin dominatrix was hot and well acted. She is absolutely filthy, and she needs to come over for a proper bath, macht schnell.
After the movie, Luise and I went to the Waterfront Ale House, in Kip’s Bay: a legit restaurant which was delicious. I had some buffalo ribs that were amazing with sweet potato fries….oh, that was tasty. The waiter was fast, efficient and polite…he even recommended a beer for Luise that didn’t taste like that typical New York IPA hipster treebark passing for beer ( it was called Anchor Liberty and it was very good). The Waterfront was such an enjoyable experience I am seriously going to write a letter thanking them because it was one of the most pleasant dinners I have ever had.
Luise had been telling me about a new city park that they had opened directly under the Manhattan bridge between Front and Washington Streets. I have to go back there, it had some of the prettiest views of the city I have ever seen. Well, tomorrow is the official last day of classes - my last full day teaching was last Friday, tomorrow will be the last day of teaching - period. Going to be weird.