This American Life is truly a god send. and on the top of my reading list is "Nausea" because nothing exists that is greater than ourselves. 

Yo BK You On Kings

Well I guess I have figured out how the Brooklyn Museum is making a little extra cash money during the hard-times, by offering its renovated entrance to network television. It sounds sort of like the Bk museum is selling out, but hardly, the facade of the building located on Eastern Parkway is featured in the new prime-time drama "Kings". The show imagines the city of New York as the capital of a North Atlantic monarch, and the entrance of the Brooklyn Museum is meant to be the king's city palace, which is actually supposed to be situated where the Time Warner building is in Columbus Circle, according to the view from inside the castle, and yes I do have quite a bit of free time and pay attention when shows are filmed on location, support New York.

I have always loved the Bks doors and am proud to see it appear as such an important structure in "Kings". And by the way, its an amazing show, it just aired and already made me sob, plus the first episode is based on the David and Goliath story, how can that go wrong. Check it out on Hulu, thats the only way those of us living in the stone age without televisions can watch it, but I heard it normally airs on sunday nights too. 

In other Brooklyn news, I watched Notorious, the film based on Biggie Smalls life, well the first half... um really? what was that? Although the guy that was supposed to be Puffy had a nice trash stash. 

Blair's Nflick Queue

LIVE FLESH

Heres the trailer for the Pedro Almodovar dvd which arrived from my netflicks queue. its a keeper alright.

More on the movie front.... this Friday, The Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brighton is playing Rocky Horror Picture Show at Midnight! Lets dress up and scream at the screen all night long!

 

I'm Coconutty for Milk

Gus Van Sants' Harvey Milk for Next Prez!

I am very pleased that Sean Penn won best actor at the academy awards for his portrayal of Harvey Milk in Milk this past sunday night. It was one of the best films I have seen in theaters in a while, sorry Benjamin Button n that vampire love flick, you just didn't make my list. I am usually not happy with the acad-awardz but this year they had me covered. I'm also into the fred astaire revival. 

Other things I am currently into: basement shows in Allston, Ninjasonik was a lotta fun, although it smelt like gas and some guy pushed himself against me and rubbed my waist. Yeah, that when I decided to get some air. And Thermaflu, its a wonderful product. 

Disco Biscuts is playing Boston this weekend. Checkz it out. 

Annnnddd amazing news LEONARD COHEN is coming to Boston in May! but the tickets range from 350 to a thousand buck-a-roos, anyone want to get me an early birthday present? please? hes already 74, how many tours does he really have left in him?

The Fine Arts are lacking in my life right now, except that I recently received my February issue of Art In America, I have three midterms coming up wayyy too soon for comfort, but hopefully I will have a moment to spare. My love, Sid Vicious graces the cover, highlighting a review of the Elizabeth Peyton exhibit, previously reviewed by muah. It looks like its gonna be a good time.

Allston Brighton Art Expo -- Be There You Square!

The 23rd Annual Allston-Brighton Art Exposition is coming up and will be on display March 28th through April 25th at the Honan-Allston Branch Library! Gotta represent my Bostonia hood, and if you attend, you will hopefully have the chance to purchase a Blair Spotswood Dowd original at a bargain price, which is worth the trip if you ask me.

Other happenings around town include the anticipated ninjasonik and japanther show tomorrow at le gay gardens, which also happens to be practically across the street from mi casa, i'm ready to throw down

South End Surmise

Apparently the hot hip place for galleries in le Bostonia is the South End, I had heard this before, but never had the chance to check it out, or remember that gallery crawls are the first friday of the month (I always remember on the second friday). Now very exciting news, I may be lending my services, for no price, to a South End contemporary art institution, that for now will remain nameless, in case at the last minute the owner drops me. I am very excited to check out the neighborhood, and my new-- new years eve resolution is to explore Boston more. I hope I'm not just feeling adventurous because we've had such nice weather the past two days.

Talking Bout My Girl

Tracey Emin on the loose! This video is kinda old, but I just can't seem to get enough of it. I want to be free like her and make self expressive art with my vomit

Naive Realism

Ah its that time of year once again. Summer internships. what am I going to do with myself? I am still looking for a job/internship for spring! and all around me people are talking about summer. We spend so much time planning. I am overwhelmed with applications for everything. I want a break, and then I have to realize that once again its valentines day. This time I will let no one ruin the holiday for me. I will ruin it for myself. The plan is a saturday afternoon trip to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (i.e. the ICA). Hopefully the museum will be worth the trek from my Allston apartment, two T trains and the airport shuttle bus. The Shepard Fairey exhibit Supply and Demand recently opened, the ICA was nice enough to send me a poster for the show, now hanging in my bedroom. I will hopefully post a review of the exhibit soon, and I am also hoping to see Milk this weekend. if i can get out of bed.

Get Heated

Anyone suffering from the barren cold, heed my advice:

GO TAKE A HOT YOGA CLASS!

Release those toxins that have been building up all winter, open up your chest and sweat out all that bad energy. Yoga is certainly a living art, so get moving.

My recommended yoga studios:

In New York City my favorites are YogaWorks and Yoga To The People

In Boston try All One Yoga or Back Bay Yoga. Maybe I'll see you there, I try to take a class a day.

The Jan Blues

With school starting again, how could anyone be happier about the continuous snow and slush? I am struggling to write transfer applications, my third year of college applications, in a row. I should be a college advisor, lord knows I have enough experience. I have so much reading this semester I barely have time to check out the current exhibitions in Boston. The only recent news I have of the area is the closing of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, which is strange because I was actually at Brandeis last weekend to visit a friend who goes there. The members of the student population that I met at various frat parties did not have much concern about their artistic community, but it is a great loss to the larger community, setting a horrendous precedent for universities across the country suffering from the poor economy. And they're going to have to sell their works at such low prices! Ah I hate it when art is treated like such a commodity, when the market goes, so does the business belief in art as a worthwhile investment. It makes me want to switch entirely to performance and youtube video art, forget painting, look at how monumental Warhols and Johns get treated when the money trail dries up. And furthermore art has still remained a lot more reliable than stocks. I'd put my money on Burden's smoking gun. 

Everyone Is Missing Something But I Feel Left Out

On my way uptown to my mother's apartment this afternoon, all of these guys started taking off their pants on the R train. I was peacefully listening to Courtney Love and thinking about how much I hate my ex-boyfriend when the first guy removed his pants around canal street, I was shocked, but no one else seemed to notice. Then I looked around me and more and more guys were removing their jeans and getting off the train at the next stop. Then girls started too, I never knew 15 year old girls could have cellulite. I looked out the window at 14th street and at least 15 people standing on the platform were in their underwear. 

I wanted to yell at these people, did they not know it snowing above them? I cannot figure out why these people did this. The only explanation I could get was from a pantless girl, who just shrugged and said "Its New York City". What was going on? Why did I not know what was going on? Was there some massive facebook group or something? I've seen youtube videos of the silent raves in union square and London, could this have been some kind of new performance piece? can someone please tell me what happened? have i just lost it?

What Gives Sally?

Dear Ms. Mann,

       Why did you charge students $18 to see your lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston this fall? Doesn't the museum already give you bank and pay for your plane ticket/hotel? Sally, I really like your work, but please don't be so elitist next time.

Live Forever Peyton, You Go Girl

Elizabeth Peyton at the New Museum:

            I love Peyton's painterly portraits of 90s rock stars. Walking through the exhibit at the New Museum I had so much fun trying to guess which androgynous face belonged to which indie persona with my friend Andrew, especially because he had no idea who anyone was, which set me up as the guardian of knowledge. The facial characteristics in each portrait take on similar attributes which surprisingly resemble Peyton herself. The faces are sharp, pointed and translucent. There is a beautiful melancholy expression to each character, although I could have just wanted to see the vacant faces as introspective, wounded warriors of the pop culture struggle for depth and identity in a superficial world. Were Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain contemporary prophets or lost drug addicts that have been mystified by youth culture's want for meaning? Well, Peyton's water colors, thin acrylics, and color pencil depictions are quite pretty whatever the intended reflection may have been, and its also quite a throw back to 90s indie rock. I am listening to Pulp as I write this and I must admit the show made me smile. 

The Truth About Thursday Night Openings

Chelsea Openings

Thursday December 18th

The truth about Thursday night gallery openings in Chelsea, no one is looking at the art. The attendees of these events are mostly divided into two categories, friends of the artists and the New Yorkers who got hip to the free drinks and artcal. The best part about these nights are the two hours of free wine and conversation with the other characters and assholes that have their list of the openings and their third refill.

On this particular night, my friend Ashley and I showed up on 23rd street at 6 o'clock for the rat race. At the first gallery we met a CUNY professor who recommended books on pagan rituals and herbal spells. We then moved on to 25th street where we ran into Ashley's favorite, Jeffery, who she has run into almost every time she goes to galleries. He is an eccentric old man with a long white beard, sequin scarf and entourage. He introduced us to a man with a hand fetish who offered to massage Ash's hand while we walked around the gallery, he even had lavender scented oil with him. At the next show I met Nina, a 60 year old German woman who had found three digital cameras during the day. I showed her how to work her new gadgets while sipping on free sangria. 

I have gone to gallery openings on thursday night for years not for the art but for the whole spectacle of it. There is nothing better than free drinks while chatting with strangers that you've come to know over the weeks in buildings filled with floors of artwork. To be honest I would not be able to remember a single artist if I had not made it a habit to grab a postcard from each show we go to.

My favorite quote of the night came from a homeless man that passed us on the way out of a show, who said, while holding his mojito, "every time I look in the mirror I see a beautiful young woman, but they tell me I'm crazy, really I am quite beautiful." While there are always trendy 30 year olds and gallery workers, the best people to converse with are the sketchy ones that you know are only there for the drinks. 

Nothing beats the openings, but if you really wanna see the exhibits in Chelsea go during the day on Saturday, all of the galleries are open and its a lot quieter.

EXHIBIT 101 NOW: Introduction

Identity review: I am an 19 year art school drop out from new york city, considering returning to that revered culture and leaving behind my pursuit of a new england liberal arts education. Existential crisis or just confusion? who knows, its probably just the age. 

One thing I am certain of at this point, I go to art shows and leave with at least one thing to say. My mother, who is current starting her own blog concerning menopausal beauty tips convinced me to start my own and channel my criticisms/observations. You have a lot more free time out of art school and in a regular college of arts and sciences, so I figure why not at least give it a shot. 

My hope is that someone might actually read some of my rants, or rather "posts", and check out the shows.