At The Border, Guy

Wow, I am so tired. I walked around the city a bit today. Not in one direction, but rather zig zagging all over Chelsea, checking out various galleries. The day started out ok. Last night was ok. I watched The Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson’s latest. I liked it more than The Life Aquatic, but not as much as Rushmore, and definitely not as much as The Royal Tenenbaums. Then I watched Bill Maher who was just so so. I enjoy watching him with someone else. If not I get easily distracted or annoyed with Bill Maher’s smarmyness. Went to bed after that, with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head.

Woke up and did my Saturday thing, which I also did yesterday. Called up the parents to be, Julio and Stine and asked if they wanted anything from the store. A bagel for Stine was all they needed. I splurged and bought the New York Post for Julio. Had a nice breakfast, did laundry and then sat around the apartment, trying to think of something to do. Thought about going to Burlington Coat Factory, just to see if they had anything new since they redid something and occasionally I can find City of London Ties for $9.99 whereas in the city they’re about $30.00 and up. I also thought about heading into the city to check out some galleries.

I decided to walk up to Washington Street and let fate decide. If there was a bus heading into the city I’d take it, otherwise I’d just walk up to Burlington. That was the plan but what actually happened was I waited for a bus for about a half hour. Just wanted to get out of Hoboken. Don’t get me wrong, I do love Hoboken, but for culture you more or less have to cross the Hudson River, which isn’t so bad. I walked down Ninth Avenue once I got out of the bus terminal. It was more crowded than usual due to the Auto Show at the Javits Center. It’s supposed to be Green themed, as in eco-friendly this year, but I don’t know anything about cars, making it a good thing that I don’t drive.

I made it to Chelsea, retracing my steps from the last time I was there which was January I think. I was underwhelmed by most everything I saw. Nothing reached out and grabbed me, and nothing really made me laugh which I think is the best art out there. Eventually I did find some good art at various galleries, but the majority of what I saw was really boring. Stumbled into an exhibition of Jasper John’s drawings which was fun and also some early Andy Warhol drawings, mainly drawings of men, and one or two of someone sucking a cock which was charming. The gallery area of Chelsea wasn’t too crowded, due to the Easter weekend. Never was a big holiday to me. I did make a joke about the holiday though, and here it is.

Easter is when Jesus comes out of his tomb and if he sees his shadow then it’s six more weeks of Lent.

I like it, it’s mine and it’s funny. I was tuckered out after all the art. A image I saw in a few galleries was of bathtubs. Is there a plumbers movement in the art world afoot? That would be interesting perhaps, or maybe not since it was a rather mediocre day for the galleries today. Walked back to the Path train where it was crowded. They weren’t letting people on or off the train due to the police closing in on some criminal activity at the 33rd Street station. After a few minutes they let people on and off and I stood pressed against the wall as it filled up at every station. Made it back to Hoboken after leaving a few hours earlier. Stopped off at Mision Burrito and now I’m tired and sated.

And here are quite a few pics of the art that I saw today (and liked). Enjoy.

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Russians!
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This guy duplicated the house he grew up in
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Jasper Johns
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Nice space, lousy art
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This guy’s work was cool
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At it again
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Another show
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West 21st Street
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A bath tub on the street
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The Path train. Criminals unknown, unseen
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Potholes In My Lawn

Listening to De la Soul’s classic debut, 3 Feet High and Rising. This record was everywhere almost 20 years ago, now it’s incredibly difficult to get. I was at the Virgin Mega Store on Union Square a few weeks ago, and saw it, but didn’t get it. A few days ago I was in the Virgin Mega Store in Times Square, where they didn’t have it. So today, since I had off, I decided to head into the city and get something for my niece’s birthday at Farfetched and stopped off at the Union Square store again. They had it, but for $27.99. I know I saw it last for about $14.99, and sure enough, after digging through the rack I found one copy at $14.99. Double cd set too. The bonus disc is b-sides and remixes that I used to have in 12” form when I used to DJ.

I also picked up the latest Hot Chip cd, a band that Juan turned me onto which I really liked. Their cd was on sale for $10.00, including a version with a live dvd attached. Not a bad deal all around, though in hindsight I used to buy a lot more for the same price. And the cd’s I bought were both imports from Germany and Holland.

Last night I saw Chaz for a few minutes. Hes flying off to Milan on Tuesday. He won a contest. He’s always entering contests. He gave me a burned copy of Funplex by the B-52’s as well as the remix single of Funplex with remixes by Scissor Sisters, Peaches, and Cansei de Ser Sexy. So far it’s all good. I neglected to mention that at work yesterday I found out they have let go one of the 3 Stooges.

Moe is being let go at the end of the month. I guess he’s leaving with a nice package. I don’t think it has anything to do with the financial markets being shit lately. I think it was his attitude. He was a really off putting cynic. He was the one sitting next to me at the holiday luncheon, not eating just grumbling and drinking black coffee. He was also a fast talker. See ya Moe.

And yesterday on the way to work I gave a cab driver the finger as I walked in front of his car. I felt it was warranted but lacked imagination. You see, as I was waiting for the light to change so I could cross Park Avenue, one cab was partway through a right turn when the light changed. Immediately behind him was another cab, about to follow, going through a red light. I cross in front of him as he crept to a full stop and gave him the finger.

He probably didn’t even know why, since the habit lately for most drivers is to do whatever it is they want to do. So many cars going through red lights to turn. I can see if you can make a right on red, but you can’t in most of Manhattan. There is worse shit than that going on, but it’s a pet peeve and felt I should have given him two fingers instead of one, leaving him to wonder what it meant as I walked away.

Last night I watched Lost and it was, well, just ok. It featured mainly my least favorite character, Michael. I don’t know if it’s the character I don’t like, or the actor Harold Perrineau. First time I saw Harold Perrineau was in the movie Smoke, where he played a creep, so perhaps his performance colors everything I see him in.

Thought he was annoying in Oz as well. It’s sort of like when my brother Frank sees Bob Balaban in something and always remembers him as the guy who gave Jon Voight a blow job in Midnight Cowboy. I guess I would rather have seen Harold Perrineau give head than be a creep to Forrest Whitaker.

I did make a stop at Farfetched where I talked to Susan and manned the register as she was ill and needed to run to the drug store. It was fun talking to her, caught up on a lot of things. Also bought a nice crystal box with a slot for a photograph on top for my niece, Meghan, at a discount yet! Yoinks!