Friends visiting NYC and making me stop thinking about home improvement and "get out the house"!
Clip/Stamp/Fold: The radical architecture of little magazines 196x-197x at The Storefront for Art and Architecture (plus the friendly director Yasmeen, who talked to us about this cool show).
Ettore Sotsass' red Olivetti typewriter design.
The way that show overlapped with the independent book fair at the Dia Chelsea 2 weekends ago. Yummy fonts, crude typesetting, rotting pulp paper... mmmmm...
Plus I got to meet and fanboy out on Julie Doucet. I gave her my card, why didn't I try to get her to go out for drinks? (It was Sunday afternoon & I had to be at work in minutes is why. Plus I pussied out.)
David McQueen's great installation show at Cinders Gallery, 103 Havemeyer St. in Williamsburg. (He is a friend, but the work speaks for itself).
"Beer versus Wine with Cheese" at Murray's Cheese 2 weeks ago with Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery versus Paul Grieco of Hearth. 6 great cheeses, 6 great beers, 6 great wines... we got shitfaced. In style. They jousted in medieval style... "Surely we all acknowledge that these wines are magnificent even though they are inferior to beer, gentlemen..."
The "turn at Green Arrow" sign on Allen and Delancey that always makes me think of Neal Adams.
Ugly buildings like that Blue one on the Lower East Side (L.E.S.) that look like they came from Thanagar and Rann. Where is Adam Strange when you need him?
Gus, The Ice Cream Man (memoir for 49 cents at Amazon, go get it today) visiting and observing NYC.
Gus' notion that the doorman concept in fancy-schmancy restaurants be extended to whole streets. Just make the fucking "meatpacking district" a gated community. With a "big, big Monkey Man" (Specials) at the gate.
Gus' idea of Zagat guides for human beings in NYC. ("15 points out of 30 for hospitality, but a '28' for nice shoes.")
My friend Paul visiting and staying at the Chelsea so we could use the elevator and fire escape.
$4.95 Pho Do Bien at the Vietnamese restaurant around the corner while on the TV the singer (Kokei Tatsumi?) does a note for note cover of Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You" in an unidentified Asian language, possibly Vietnamese.
David Allen and Merlin Mann at top speed talking about STUFF.
Finally for today: Ian Dury singing "Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part 3)".
