Tag Archives: Julio + Stine

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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Windowsill

It’s Tuesday and it’s alright. I’m full of love. Not being factitious. Just this afternoon I was listening to Arcade Fire, Neon Bible and it reminded me of the trouble I had been in that night at Radio City last May, and I was overwhelmed by love for my brother Frank. I really hope he gets better, I’ll wait for it. I think the chat I had with my brother Brian last week was founded upon basic worries. I had the same worries for my parents when they were getting up in age. Let’s face it, I’m a worrier. Bill will tell you that. He’ll also tell you it’s part of being a Virgo, which doesn’t mean that much to me, but it works for him so we’ll just let it lie.

And of course I have love for Bill, and the trials and tribulations that he is presently going through. The hospital is ready to discharge his father, but his father is too far gone to go home, so it’s off to the Veteran’s Administration home in St. Albans. Apparently no one told the hospital. And this is all affecting his work. He can’t leave the apartment until the housekeeper shows up to take care of Bill’s mom. And the housekeeper doesn’t show up until 9:30, a half hour after he should be at his desk. Luckily Bill’s boss is going through something similar with his 90 year old mother. Bill is picking up the slack, working later. Tonight he should be at work until 8:15, then it’s home to collect his mother from his cousin, Elsie, to start the same thing all over again tomorrow.

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And I look at the picture I had from December at Bill’s company’s holiday party, the one where he is leaning against the wall, looking into the camera with a look that is childlike, yet masking emotional torment inside. At least that’s what I see, and I was the photographer on that one.

Last night I came home, had some dinner, watched Scrubs, A Daily Show and the Colbert Report, all very funny and all seen before. No surprises there. I then watched the last minutes of A Hard Day’s Night, no longer feeling sad when they fly away at the end. Mike Myers said that when he saw it as a kid he felt the same way. And I thought I was the only one.

Also did some reading on some ecological and political issues written by my nephew Earl. I was mighty impressed by his prose and even sent him a message on his MySpace page. He claimed genetics, since I write this blog everyday. That was a nice thing to say. If he keeps at it, he could be a very good writer, the kind that people will pay money to read, not just turning on a computer and reading something while the porn downloads. I also met up with Julio and Stine. She’s due in about 2 months, and she looks great. Not fat at all, just a basketball under her shirt. I had picked up a Keith Haring print for them at a really good price.

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I was thinking about what to get them for a long time and each time I thought of something I thought, They’re going to have a baby and won’t have time to read the New Yorker, won’t have time to go to the movies, won’t have time for anything really. So a nice print, with two adult figures, holding a child figure under a heart would do. I thought they could probably hang it in the baby’s room when they get a room for the baby. I was able to get a suit that I had ordered online and had delivered to Julio’s place of work since I wasn’t going to be home to sign for it. A nice two button, gray pinstriped (of course) suit that I plan to wear to my cousin Neil’s wedding next month. We hung out in their third floor apartment, talking politics.

Julio expressed surprise that I wasn’t rooting for Obama. I was surprised and it got me thinking. I wasn’t planning on voting today but I thought about it and decided to throw my lot in with Barack Obama. I’m all about changing things up so that was the direction I headed in. I slept in a little later, hitting the snooze button three times before rousing myself to action. Then I was at the polling place, casting my vote and heading to work, winding up sitting outside the Lincoln Tunnel for 45 minutes while I read about Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, and a friend of Barack Obama. So there you have it, my endorsement for the President of the United States, Barack Obama. So there!

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