49 state capitols

You should go to Storefront to see the Ramak Fazel show. They have a small triangular space at the corner of Kenmare and Lafayette/Centre, near the Police Building (now condos). Usually the office is in the back (East end). For this show, they added a little room just inside the door that looks like the reception office for the tour and education office of a, duh, state capitol building. The attendant is sitting behind an Early American office desk. The larger gallery space has the photos of the state capitols that vary from something approaching a postcard view to a picture of someone polishing a air duct. All lovely and many evocative of the stereotype of the state. The smaller gallery has the covers of mail from Fazel to Fazel, using a wide variety of stamps. Chronological and thematic variety, arranged sometimes to match the theme. There is text to match, just a little text, mostly a thought show, not a reading show. http://www.storefrontnews.org/

I went on from Storefront to Thrust Projects on the Bowery. "Freeze Frame" includes paintings by several artists including Carrie Moyer who I know from Queer Caucus. Her painting is really wonderful, just enough of the glitter to give it sparkle without going camp. Jane and I talked for a while about the paintings in the office area which play off each other very nicely. http://www.thrustprojects.com/

From Thrust to Canada where they have a David Askevold show. Again, the connections between aspects of life played out. David Askevold died on January 23rd and I updated his NACO record based on a message from Art Metropole to ARLIS-L. I didn't know that the Askevold show was at Canada. The pieces in the outer room were nice but the inner room video was mesmerizing. A contraption with small candles was endlessly spinning as the candles burned down, and then went out, ending in darkness, with mellow saxophone music. Almost Quaker.

On to Ludlow Street for the Ludlow 38, the contemporary outpost of the Goethe Institute of New York. http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/ney/en2970416.htm Nice little show of art and culture magazines. A ways up Ludlow and across the street is the "Pawn Shop" project of Flux. http://e-flux.com/projects/list In the window was a wonderful Simryn Gill necklace composed of some Lenin work from the Foreigh Languages Publishing House. We get tons of their stuff to catalog for Tamiment. Inside an AA Bronson/General Idea multiple of Jockey shorts waistbands in a plastic bag. Not so expensive ($350) but that money isn't available at the moment. Sigh. It invited thoughts, however, of the underwear of famous people or pornstars that you can buy. Is it art? Is it pornography? I know it when I see it. There were quite a few things that I'd be happy to have, at a fairly wide variety of prices.

I had seen a notice for a photo show at LITM in Jersey City. Photos of Radical Faeries. So I hadn't been to Jersey City for a while and figured I'd go take a look. It ends at the end of February and I'm off to Dallas for College Art next week. I walked up to the Christopher Street PATH station but when I got to LITM, it was closed. It's more of a restaurant/bar with art on the walls than a gallery. Oh well. Over to the Jersey City Museum where they had a good show of women artists responding to the Feminine mystique by Betty Friedan which was published 25 years ago. I liked the "Uzi Coozis" by Heather Hart, guns with knit covers and Lorna Simpson's "Cure/heal" especially. They also had a Victorian parlor which was rather nice.

After reading a bit of the paper, I eyed the ad for "I'm not there" and figured I'd go there. It's a wonderful movie in a number of ways, not least of course getting to hear Dylan songs. I wasn't that taken with Cate Blanchett's character but the young black boy was wonderful. It was weird to see Heath Ledger (and Michelle Williams) so soon after his death.

I had been pretty weary last week. The weariness of working in an office that tries the soul, at a range of projects that go on endlessly. Today's art and cinema was a lot but not at all soul weary.

Last night, I went to see "The Cenci" at the Ohio Theatre, staged by John Jahnke's Hotel Savant company. The play by Antonin Artaud hasn't been much produced since its original staging in Paris in 1935, closing after 17 performances. The New York Times has written about it a couple times: pre-review article with lots of facts and interest, review which said it was worth seeing but problematic. Yup. The gallery owner of Postmasters was there too. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/theater/10blank.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=cenci&st=nyt&oref=slogin and the review: http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/theater/reviews/13cenc.html?scp=1&sq=cenci&st=nyt (if those don't link, go the nytimes.com and search "cenci")