waking life

Cracking jokes and laughing so hard I'm nearly crying isn't the normal way I wake up from a dream. If awoken suddenly from mounting emotional pressure, it is almost never from pure joy. I should like this to be a trend. Tell me what to do to laugh through more dreams. Was it a reward for the day's diligence (oh so many stars on my chart, even my drawers got reorganized)?
It is, I'm certain, another one of those questions to which no one has the answer. We are all better off accepting this truism in so many facets of life. None of us really know what we are doing, some are just examining this gap a little closer.

bean: "I'm all wound up from the movie now"
ez: "Buena Vista Social Club?"

Well, yes. The first tiime I saw it, not so much. I was bothered by traces of Ry Cooder arrogance and didn't indulge in the pura vida of the ninety year old music magicians. Dripping with fire, gardenias, sex, warmth, and comradery. Noticing the differences between Cubans and Puerto Ricans, I cross my fingers for the post-Fidel fate of that charmed island. Of course there are problems with the leader (which we can sympathize with non?), but they are better off for having ousted the culture and economy snatchers (that would be US) out.

All wound up before our early bedtime, what keeps me up at night? Art. Brought on, no doubt, by the opening of the art season- so unavoidable in NYC- or at least if you live in Williamsburg with a Sherry Wong. Whitney Biennial, the Armory (featuring Sherry + 2000 cohorts), SCOPE fest, and late night Friday here in the 'burg. Without spending a breath on what bothers me about most art/artists, I'll share an observation on what turns me on.
Elemental art.

fab 5

The artists who, with raw materials as their seductive devices, have reached in and changed how I rest in the world ever after. Sheer intensity through small movements/alterations. Listing them here reflects little on how I work or who I associate myself with- I just consider it to be a shame to go through this world without having been exposed to their work (those of you already familiar will certainly forgive me?).

James Turrell- who leaped well beyond the Impressionist (and almost everyone else) chase for capturing light by actually working with light.

Bill Viola - video art dissected to a visceral experience (the room of fire + rain comes to mind)

Rothko - the only painter/ 2D / at-all-sellable on this short list- and he works in pure I'll-swallow-you-alive-and-you'll-never-want-to-be-shat color.

Andy Goldsworthy - do wizards count? Send him to the forest and he will rearrange leaves/twigs/stones/ice into a fleeting phenomenon.

and I may have a new edition I must find more of- Olafur Eliasson, clicking on this indoor sun picture will link you to this exhibit at the Tate Modern in London. What could be more pervasive than the topic of the Weather? I'd spend all day lying on the floor watching my peers throw their museum guard down and surrender to the climate.



more pictures on this girl margaret's (have i ever met her?) blog