americana

when i got back from europe (with chad), i had the opportunity to go to the hirshhorn museum with drew and his dad. Realisms was one part of the installation there, which had film, video and digital works, which played with the distinction between fiction and reality.

One of the highlights was one called Lonely Planet, which followed a distinctly stereotypical tourist (think bandana on the head and che guevera tee) through India, only to reveal that he is traveling through a movie set - which in itself is represented quite theatrically, with choreography and compositionally sound camera angles.

Another sweet one was a two-parter by Candice Breitz called Mother Father. The "mother" part was 5 television screens with visually isolated actresses (one per screen) in motherly roles. Playing simultaneously, the characters seemed to dialogue with each other, despite being from different movies, mostly. The statements proved to be of the typical mother-archetype variety, further pushing this persona in a farcical and repetitive way. The presentation was successful, and the "father" installation was similar in its strength and absorbing qualities.

Overall, the installations were intriguing and I wish that we had had more time to peruse them more thoroughly. Although I wouldn't trade having gone to a wonderful Indian buffet, which is always a highlight for me. It didn't hurt, either, that I was with a pretty boy who makes my heart go puh-thumpathump-thump.

over-and-out.

It keeps popping up.

Obviously, since I have been reading Love is a Mixtape... combined with the fact that my observational tendencies mixed with a curiosity make for fine discoveries... i've noticed a song popping into my life repeatedly.

A lovely song beforehand, but now one that is drilling itself into my available head.

First, recently, I heard it on the show How I Met Your Mother. Ted is contemplating the idea of marrying some woman, but all that he can think about is Robyn. Cue a zoom in on her face with the music chanting "... i could never trade you for another girl... "

Cue number two: I'm looking up old photos of Summer Pheonix from SLC Punk and decide to plug in a youtube clip for my further satisfaction. Enter Stevo and Heroin Bob driving in their car... oh wait, what's on the radio?

I'm reading Love is a Mix Tape, and Renee died a little while ago, and Rob and I are still trying to move on from it. He mentions how some mix tapes are just ruined for him, no matter how great the song is. Then he goes about how it doesn't matter how great Roxy Music's "Mother of Pearl is", he can't go back to the time back when he was sixteen when he could still bear to hear it.

Alas.

i didn't walk alone because i wasn't alone

let's catch up, okay? because we haven't talked in a little while.

i went to nyc this past weekend, an event i had been anticipating for several months, with my distinguished majors project classmates. up we go in a van and there we are looking at kara walker's installation at the Whitney. It is just - I recommend it. Her work is really thought out and compelling. it shakes people up and it's great.

more specifically, she takes silhouette cut outs of antebellem-y embellished scenes of slaves and their owners [think 'gone with the wind']. the grotesqueness of the pictures is only made more genius by the juxtaposition with its gorgeousness. she riles up oprah like it's nobody's business.

to the left is an installation where she lit up the silhouettes that were cut out onto the wall with a projector. oh my god. so they are scenes just in front of you, and there are shadows moving about because of the people walking around.

this one is one that is currently at the whitney exhibition. it wasn't one of my favorites overall, but i think it conveys a lot of the notions that kara walker is trying to put forth.

we also saw lawrence weiner's retrospective there. it consists mostly of large texts on the walls conveying artistic ideas. one could think of sol lewitt creating the "floor plan" for an art project, and then presenting that plan as the art itself. so say... lawrence writes on the wall his ethos: "1. The artist may construct the work. 2. The work may be fabricated. 3. The work may not be built." or some such. and that's the piece. i just was spinning. i was pleasantly surprised by how intriguing his exhibition hit me.

we went to the new museum, and there was a sweet wax woman by urs fischer. it was basically a woman candle, and it's been burning/melting down since november-ish. really nice. although my friend saw a kid trip over the arm that melted off of her. it moved and he stuck it back to where it was laying on the floor, blushing. oh kids.

then we went about the chelsea galleries, and i can't say that i saw that much, except for some kiki smith prints in the back of the pace prints gallery. it's always interesting that famous artists have prints that no one ever gets to see because prints don't get famous as often maybe.

my friend adam went to the met and saw a damien hirst piece, and i was jealous.

i'm just not a morning person.

but i am a fan of brunch.

yesterday i woke up sucking a lemon

earlier tonight i went into DC with Paul, Kate, Joey, and Justin, in the hopes of seeing Annie Lebowitz' exhibition at the Corcoran. It ended up being sold out, and it was raining. Most of the restaurants were closed. We had a nice time if only for the fact that we were together.

i went home and fell asleep pretty fast due to my illness, but i was awoken with quite a disturbing dream. some dreams you can see in front of you unfolding with elements of the past few days. i woke up near the climax of the dream, which was in uncharted territory, but had to go "back in" in order to see what was written on a piece of paper. i wonder if perhaps i shouldn't have done so, because it shook me up pretty badly.

when i try to think of how i feel on certain occasions, Radiohead's line "yesterday i woke up sucking a lemon" comes to mind quite often. it's pretty dark, i've come to think, so i usually don't put it on these campy "mood" updates on LJ or such. But i'm really feelin' that line tonight.

and as i have none of my music in sterling, and don't know how to upload it on the site even if i did, i'll just show you a video (they didn't release it as a single). watch for the clip of Richard Serra. (it's the hand part)

I envy you: so much rocking to do

Tonight in Charlottesville there was a Yo La Tengo show at the Satellite Ballroom. Sit-down show, of the intimate variety, taking requests and whatnot. This is coming from a well-seasoned band - they've been together dare I say for two decades... ! Anyway, because I have mono I must admit that after having bought the ticket, I was not able to participate in the FreeWheelin' Bonanza. Bollocks.

In other news, Juno picked my two favorite Belle and Sebastian songs (from two different albums, mind you) and played them one after another in the movie. I just melted in my chair, as if I had a secret that I could tell no one! The rest of the movie followed with music that I used to listen to more, so needless to say, the nostalgia-level was at mid-high. As for the adolescent pregnancy, I can't relate.

there are high schoolers born in the 90s

whether it started out as a joke that just went too far, perhaps because of my post-cougar mind-set, anyway- i seem to have a grievance towards the younger generation.

there's a band that i've taken an interest in, by no fault of my own! the silver jews quote "be careful not to crest too soon" takes relevance, ladies and gentleman.

Bombay Bicycle Club is a group of high schoolers from England. Not anything spectacular at first glance, I was particularly taken aback by the lead singer's voice. he's such a child! and yet it works and feels like it comes out of a different body, i sometimes feel.

http://www.myspace.com/bombaybicycleclub

The Sonic Youth Problem

i was riding in the car with patrick and andy a couple years back. andy asked me a question about thurston moore (of sonic youth) and i didn't have the answer. he said to me, oh i thought you were a sonic youth fan. you just seem like one.

i felt somewhat decisive in telling him that i didn't necessarily like sonic youth, and that i most definitely wasn't a fan. i had bought their album 'daydream nation' a long time ago, when the band first came to my attention. i must say, the album didn't impress me. my memory of the album is a bit foggy now, and i couldn't tell you what turned me off to it. 'teenage riot', you were a jewel, but i never found myself on the floor basking in the glow of a mind-blowing daydream nation experience. i made a snap first impression of that misanthropic band. and it remained that way for a while.

but whenever i would receive the occasional mix tape, the inevitable sonic youth song would be on there; more importantly, it would stand out to me. i fought my urge to like the band, because of my aforementioned decision concerning them. i had moved forward!

whenever i'm at a computer with no music, i have the habit of opening up pandora and putting on the pavement channel that i've created. inevitably bands like guided by voices and dinosaur jr. come on. rarely is there a song on this channel that i dislike. including songs by sonic youth. i was slowly being reared into a different ideological position, musically of course.

the breaking point was when i received a mix cassette in the mail from a good friend, with the s.y. single, "incinerate". it felt like home, it did. there, my friends, is the end of my indignant opposition to sonic youth.

i'm truly sorry, thurston moore. kim too.