Category: Arts

Sunday Jazz @ MoMA Summergarden

Sunday, July 16th, 2006 | All Things, Arts, Classes, Music

Arrived at The Museum of Modern Art Summergarden just before doors opened at 7:00PM for the 8:00PM concert. By then, there were a couple hundred people ahead in line; luckily, that night the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden was set up to accommodate over 800 people. We ended up with seats between one of the reflecting pools and Donald Judd’s Untitled (1968). Despite the oppressive heat of the waning day, by concert time, the garden was standing room only.

On the program was a jazz performance by Steve Coleman and Five Elements. The alto saxophone, trumpet, trombone, bass, drums and vocal ensemble played an impressive 90-minute suite as night shadows descended upon the space. I would have enjoyed the concert much more had we not been beset by infuriating rudeness on all sides: in front, one man decided to use the Judd sculpture (a series of large, open, painted green rectangles) as his personal shoe rack, until ordered by one of the guards to kindly remove his socks(!) and sneakers from the artwork, thank you; to our right, a pair of eurotrashy women co-opted the section’s one walkway for their personal lounge area, laying fully supine on the marble tile next to the water, while everyone else was forced to navigate precariously around them to pass; and in the row directly behind, a French couple prattled loudly and obliviously through most of the performance with complete lack of regard for those around them who were there to listen to the music. Mon Dieu!

EH was friends with the singer and introduced us to her after the show. After parting ways with the others outside MoMA, we got to introduce AC (aspiring dentist, whom I met that night) to the joys of late night burgers at Burger Joint, one of my favorite no-longer-secret places in New York – now almost entirely ruined, thanks to write-ups like the one in GQ Magazine, naming theirs among one of “The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die.”

MoMA Concert

MoMA Concert

Aristide Maillol’s The River :

Recumbant Nude
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Public Art (but no Music)

Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 | All Things, Arts, Friends

Walked to TriBeCa during lunch to purchase crochet supplies for my first class. On the way I passed through the ”Alexander Calder in New York” exhibit in City Hall Park — five large scale “stabiles” (as Calder called his freestanding, nonmoving sculptures), created between 1957 and 1976 and on loan from the Calder Foundation and the Whitney Museum of American Art through March 2007.

Calder Arches

Jerusalem Stabile

The exhibit includes one of Calder’s signature mobiles — not displayed outdoors, but suspended inside the City Hall rotunda. Made a mental note to check that out sometime soon.

Always enjoy seeing public art in random places. Barrelling through the financial district, head down, in your own world, or talking into a cell phone, and then suddenly — bam! — an unignorable, massive, bright red Calder at your feet.

The first of the two Philharmonic in the Parks concerts in Central Park was canceled due to thundershowers that rolled in, blackening the sky late in the afternoon. By concert time, the skies had actually cleared somewhat, but the grounds would have been wet and muddy and not at all pleasant for lawn lounging. Weather permitting, the orchestra performs Beethoven’s Fifth next Tuesday, in keeping with the tradition for mass appeal.

Which recalls to mind the popular “Beethoven’s Wig” series created by Richard Perlmutter. Simple concept: taking classical melodies and writing — or rewriting — lyrics. So The Fifth Symphony would be sung:

Beethoven’s WIG… is very BIG
Beethoven’s wig is long and curly and it’s white
Beethoven takes his wig off when he sleeps at night
Because it’s big
It’s very big
Beethoven’s WIG… is… BIG!

And so on. I remember engaging similar efforts in preparation for those “Name that tune” exams in high school music class, to less witty and commercially-recognized effect. Almost surprising that these discs didn’t hit the market until 2002, considering the glut of Mozart Effect-fueled “classical music for babies/children” collections in the mid to late 1990s.

Witty stuff, though I think that if I were trying to instill an appreciation for classical music in my children, I’d still be more likely just to play them the originals.

Met BH for drinks in the neighborhood. Now that he’s a father of twins and living in New Jersey, his opportunities for socializing are relegated to late night drives into the city after putting the babies to sleep. Over rounds of rapidly melting — and later, rain spattered — frozen margaritas, he waxed nostalgic about his single days as a Manhattanite, and brought up the subject of Internet dating services. I explained that while I could see how it might be a good way to meet a lot of people, I didn’t think that online dating was really my thing, especially after that little dalliance I had with the Nigerian diplomat ended on such a disappointing note. I’m still waiting for my millions.

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Bodies

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006 | All Things, Arts, Friends

The steaminess set in around 3:00AM, after I shut down the bedroom air conditioning and drifted off to a fitful sleep. Too soon, I was jolted by the rude blaring of my alarm clock. I crawled out of bed reluctantly and spent the better part of the morning in a hazy, pensive state.

Met SN for lunch this afternoon at a Japanese place on William Street. Actually, the spot was only nominally Japanese, as they also prepared Korean chap jae (which I ordered) and Chinese mapo tofu (which he ordered) alongside their sushi and teriyaki items. Despite the popularity of such eateries, I still find the hodgepodge of Asian cuisine offerings a little disconcerting.

After work, CS came downtown to meet me for BODIES…The Exhibition at South Street Seaport.

According to the site:

A human specimen is first preserved according to standard mortuary science. The specimen is then dissected to show whatever it is that someone wants to display. Once dissected, the specimen is immersed in acetone, which eliminates all body water. The specimen is then placed in a large bath of silicone, or polymer, and sealed in a vacuum chamber. Under vacuum, acetone leaves the body in the form of gas and the polymer replaces it, entering each cell and body tissue. A catalyst is then applied to the specimen, hardening it and completing the process.

End results are remarkably vivid and endlessly fascinating. Several of the cadavers were posed to illustrate the interconnections between muscle and bone in action. Referring to one body arranged to mimic a man taking a jumpshot, I remarked to CS that it would have been funny if the basketball in his hand were also dissected to show the peeled back layers of orange and black rubber. She giggled at the idea, earning us a few disapproving glances from the other attendees, who no doubt assumed we were deriving more prurient amusements.

Immaculate and amazing dissections, including one of the entire central nervous system. One gallery exhibited the immensely complex network of arteries, veins and capillaries comprising the circulatory system. The vessels were injected with a coloring polymer that hardens, and the remaining tissue was chemically removed in a process known as “corrosion casting.” What remained behind were the delicate branches, devoid of internal structure and displayed in dramatically spotlit glass cases: organs, limbs and one entire human body. The effect was eerily beautiful.

Bodies

Bodies Tix

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