Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Gym Trials

I've had an interesting couple of weeks checking out the other gyms in my neighborhood. My membership to Dolphin ran out and I thought I'd check out the new landscape in my neighborhood...and the winners are...David Barton Gym offered me a free workout with a trainer, that was an awesome experience but Im afraid it was way to expensive to join there. A free week at crunch was very pleasant, big spacious and airy. Equinox was nice but too many obnoxious members yelling into their cell phones on the floor for my taste, Blink was the winner for sure, cheap lively clean and new!
The NYSC (New York Sports Club) on Mercer steet was the worst Gym Experience of my life, from trainers hijacking and hoarding the equipment, giant dustballs on the machines, vast amounts of non working TVs on the cardio equipment, disgustingly filthy showers and locker room...but the worst was when I wanted to cancel my trial membership and get a refund, which the website stated was an option when I bought it. I was given 3 different answers for how it was done and was made to wait 45 minutes to see a manager.....yuck...never again

Monday, May 28, 2012

Happy Birthday Ai Wei Wei

Happy birthday to Ai Weiwei, born 18 May 1957, who recently made this comment: "The West feels very shy about human rights and the political situation. They’re in need of money. But every penny they borrowed or made from China has really come as a result of how this nation sacrificed everybody’s rights.”

Work In Progress

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

K8 Hardy @ Whitney Museum

K8 hardy takes things from the goodwill and salvation army and cuts and sews and combines and creates new identities. There are bits of Margiela and Comme des garcons there but I like it. This was a fully staged fashion show at the Whitney Museum 5-20-12, 5 pm

Saturday, May 19, 2012

10 Reasons to Date Someone in the Arts

This was from a website called How about we.... May 19, 2012 THE DATE REPORT by Chiara Atik on May 17, 2012 Dating someone in the arts is no cake walk: in general, artists don’t really tend to be “salt of the earth people.” They can be moody and insecure, their work life can be volatile, they stay out late, they often don’t make money, they can be a little eccentric, etc., etc., etc. So why would anyone in their right minds want to date one? Here are ten reasons. 1 They will always have a friend who’s in a show, or having a reading, or playing a gig, or showing in an art gallery. Which means you constantly get to go on cool, interesting dates. 2 Artists often get paid nothing, but the amount of free booze at these things almost makes up for it. And everyone in the arts knows at least one bartender willing to give free drinks. 3 People who work in the arts often have relatively free/strange schedules. Lots of late nights, yes, but also lots of randomly free weekdays for impromptu trips or day dates. 4 Artists are a fairly welcoming, accepting bunch. You think your parents are weird? You haven’t been to arts school. 5 People in the arts are used to partying late into the night after a show or gig, no matter how early they have to get up the next morning. In other words, they’ll never be ready to go home before you are. 6 They’re not repressed. Given that they’ve devoted their entire life to the expression of human imagination, you can be pretty confident that someone in the arts is pretty in touch with their feelings. 7 Isn’t it everyone’s secret wish to inspire a song or a painting or a character in a book? It’s not gonna happen by dating a banker. 8 They tend not to be high maintenance. Someone in the arts is used to long hours and little pay and slices of pizza scarfed down at 1 am and rehearsing in hallways and commuting by bus and doing things on the cheap. And they know how to have fun in otherwise cramped/boring/uncomfortable situations. 9 People in the arts tend to have pretty good taste in music, books, art, etc. So if you’re lacking in the aesthetics department, they can make you (or your apartmen t) look good. 10 Artists lead exciting, passionate lives. And when you date them, you get to be a part of it for a while.
If you've ever wondered what its like to date an artist....I'm available!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Huey Newton’s Thoughts on Gay Rights…In the Wake of Obama’s Endorsement

In a speech given August 15 1970 by Huey Newton co-founder of the Black Panther Party..he addresses the issue of Gay Rights… Its serious food for thought coming in the aftermath of President Obama endorsing Same-sex Message…You can read it here...

MacArthur Park ...

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it. I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it. I will have the things that I desire and my passion flows like rivers through the sky. Oh, and after all the loves of my life, after all the loves of my life, you'll still be the one. And I'll ask myself why...

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Donna Summer Rip

She was an integral part of some of the quirkiest left field pop music to appear in the late '70's. I always thought of these as Giorgio Moroder records and DS as a hired voice but her briliance as a song stylist is clearly evident here as she embodies 4 different charecters

Eldridge Street Art

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Friday, May 11, 2012

Romney: A Gay-Basher In High School

The difference becomes starker still, as this multiple independently sourced story indicates: Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it. “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled. A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors. That's an assault on someone whose only crime was being gay. Then this: In an English class, Gary Hummel, who was a closeted gay student at the time, recalled that his efforts to speak out in class were punctuated with Romney shouting, “Atta girl!” In the culture of that time and place, that was not entirely out of the norm. Hummel recalled some teachers using similar language. Romney says he has no memory of this incident, although five others have not just memories but vivid, guilt-ridden recollections. As for the victim, he did not forget. How could he? Years and years later, one of the bullies Romney rounded up bumped into his victim at an airport and felt the need to apologize: “I’m sorry that I didn’t do more to help in the situation,” he said. Lauber paused, then responded, “It was horrible.” He went on to explain how frightened he was during the incident, and acknowledged to Seed, “It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.” Lauber died in 2004, according to his three sisters. Yesterday was a day for all those who didn't live to see it. Including Romney's young victim. This is from Andrew Sullivan's column on the daily beast

Monday, May 7, 2012

Frieze Art Fair

This was a great experience, a 20 minute ferry ride from 35 st got me there and its in a beautifully designed temporary building on Randall's Island. It felt very open and spacious and Monday turned out to be a good day to go. We ran into tons of people and saw some really good art including (T 2 B) Jim Lambie, Sean Landers, Cildo Meireles, Elizabeth Peyton, Keltie Ferris and Jeppe Hein.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Helmut Lang's Art

HELMUT LANG: SCULPTURES MAY 5 - JUNE 15, 2012 24 WASHINGTON SQUARE NORTH. Co-orgaized by Mark Fletcher, Sadie Coles and Neville Wakefield, the exhibition will be open to the public at 24 Washington Square from Tuesday through Friday, 12PM to 5PM I went to this opening last night with my friend Allen. It was weird, I didn't see a single art world person...it was very much a fashion crowd. These sculptures looked great in the setting. They were nicely designed but they didn't feel very arty or particularly original