Art openings are for pretty people sipping bad wine. It’s not that the wine is always so terrible (though it usually is), and more that the art is meant to elevate you beyond paying attention to whatever is in your hand. The plastic cup full of red is what you carry around the scene playing out in a large space with white walls, soft chatter from those with stylishly shaved sides, and an installation that is, one hopes, original enough to be interesting.
My friend John is a sculptor, and his work uses identical 1 x 2 x 3 blocks of a material arranged or attached in a certain way in a specific place. Last night at his opening was zero state – each morning he will remake this solo show. There were four different materials to navigate between on the gallery floor, and I looked mostly at a stack of plastic polymer that in its foamed resin state is still mostly air. The blocks glowed from one end of the room to the other, scaling down to tiny bricks. I walked out to hold the hours left in the day, as all that was winter melts into spring.
Espressoing
A few more days
A final Hi meeting
The local neighborhood bar has a quiet time between six and nine. It is a place that specializes in coffee, beer and seasonal menus. There is just enough of each for a satisfying snack and effective buzz. After the time when the laptop lids close and before the social gatherings start -- there is a sort of twilight*. Often this time is a fugitive ground rife with creative inspiration and meditative work -- of the kind that results in personal reward.*twilight may refer to civil, nautical or astronomical variety depending on your social or terrestrial condition
A man positions his mouse on the edge of his browser window. He clicks, holds and drags the viewport first left then right. The content of a video game promo micro site responds and adapts to the available space. To the man, this is more delightful than the game itself.
A man laboriously moves his piano down three levels onto the subway platform. Classic vocals and strided chords -- he played so well I swore he was blind. Oblivious to the heat on that August stage, he was most in touch with his audience -- whom he elevated with his music.
A woman should do exactly as she pleases no matter what a man may think.
As the Dalai Lama once said, "It is a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room."
"No one understands me," she said. Her grandmother was silent for a minute. It seemed she was searching for an answer in the star speckled sky. "But no one understands anyone in this world, darling. We are all unique. It is what gives us a sense of wonder."