Lux Lotus

Spooky

I can't say that I've ever been much of a Halloween enthusiast (with the exception of the early '90s, rave years of my uber-youth. If I can find that photo of me at 14, with Tammy Faye-esque lashes and blue glitter shadow, I will post it), so this year was a pleasant departure from the ordinary. Last night, I persuaded an always dapper friend to be the nominal Clyde to my Bonnie and then went to a stylish soiree in Soho. From there it was on to a couple of bars to catch up with my boyfriend, who kept texting me to say he had gone somewhere else. Charming.

Lolita, our second stop, was way fab, as Clyde (a different Clyde) was wearing a groovy kilt and we caught up for a bit as I hadn't seen him since his recent vacation. Out and about in the East Village, George and I saw John Waters - easily the ultimate celebrity sighting for a couple of kids from Maryland - just as we caught up with everyone. Of course, Bryan was ever the good sport, playing chaperone, showing the town to a bunch of 22-year-olds (seeing as his younger brother was in town from the West Coast), whose response to our mad giddiness was, "Did he direct Happiness?" I felt rather aggrieved, and it was all I could do to restrain myself from saying, "For fuck's sake, you idiots..." and then rattling off every film he directed. Actually, that's exactly what I did.

It was around 2am (post-daylight savings) by that point, the bar we ended up at was almost empty, and what must have begun as a quartet of girls dressed as the foursome from Heathers had dwindled to a tired-looking pair. It was clearly time to move on. Tonight, I caught the Tiger Lillies for the third year in a row. A little while after I arrived home, a friend who got to the party last night just after I left called to say that she sincerely hopes a photo of her tits doesn't end up on a certain well-read website tomorrow morning.

All in all, good times.

Maudlin Masterpiece Theatre

This Saturday night, there's a special edition of the much-adored off-off Broadway sensation, The Pumpkin Pie Show. Best of all, there's a free screening of Late Bloomer before the show.

Details: Saturday Oct. 30th at 10:30 PM @ The Kraine theatre, 85 E. 4th Street (btn. 2nd/3rd Ave); tickets are $12 ($8 students/seniors): (212) 868-4444 or online.

Praise for Late Bloomer:

"The audience didn't move, except to breathe, laugh and apply bug spray.” – Richmond Times Dispatch

"There were many great short films, but 'Late Bloomer' is the one I would recommend this year!”  – Vegas Arts Corner   

“H.P. Lovecraft goes to 7th grade Sex Ed class...Cute funny film is a treat to horror fans.” – Ain’t it cool news

When Art Bites Back

Check out this amusing short film [via wooster collective].

Protect What You Love

Did I mention that I saw the Great White Shark currently on exhibit at the Monterey Aquarium? Unless you were a friendless loser in Fourth Grade like I was, you may not know much about carcharadon carcharias.  That's okay.

The Great White at the Monterey Aquarium is the first of its kind that has ever been successfully fed in captivity.  Usually they refuse to eat and thrash about until they die or are let go.  A couple of years ago, the aquarium began a project, based in Southern California, to study these mysterious, elusive creatures and to determine whether one could successfully been put on exhibit.  A couple of months ago, a commercial fisherman brought the Great White to the researchers.  She had been caught in a gillnet set out to catch other fish. 

The shark is small -- about four feet long -- and less than a year old.  When she is full-grown, she will be about 21 feet long, which is average for female Great Whites. There is a team assigned to monitor and care for the shark, and when she gets too big for the ""Outer Bay" exhibit (which, by the way, is easily one of the most amazing things I have ever seen), she'll be released into the ocean.

I had always accepted the conventional wisdom that it would be impossible to keep a Great White in captivity, as previous attempts had been such miserable failures.  Certainly, if the shark in question were older or larger, I think that that would likely be true in this case as well. 

When I was a child, I was obsessed with sharks, and particularly inspired by Eugenie Clark and Jacques Cousteau.  I don't eat seafood, just because I was so interested in the ocean and its inhabitants that I never acquired a taste for them.

Related:
-My other favorite sharks are the Greenland Shark, and the Tiger Shark.
-I'm looking forward to The Life Aquatic. 
-Shark conservation, for all species, is of critical importance. 
-If you eat seafood, please do so responsibly.

The Joy of Projecting

Creative Time presents a new project by conceptual artist Jenny Holzer:

Tonight and tomorrow night poetry is projected from Penn Station onto The Hotel Pennsylvania as well as an archetypal NYC building in SoHo (515 Greenwich St @ Spring Street), and tomorrow night at Cooper Union. Projections start at 8pm and run until midnight. The project called For New York City features poetry from Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop and others, about life in New York, as well as internationally acclaimed poets Henri Cole, Yehuda Amichai, and Wislawa Syzmborsa. The idea is to share these beautiful words of beauty, wisdom and reflection on life as we know it.

Ah yes, "beautiful words of beauty;" you can't miss those [via artsy].

School Daze

I once nursed a mild aspiration to pursue a graduate degree in the decorative arts with the specific purpose of studying the use of live insects as a motif in jewelry. Sadly, someone (and likely many others as well) has beaten me to it.

Election Day is Tuesday (Start Looking Forward To It)

If you are like some people, who shall remain nameless, who confessed yesterday that they didn't vote in the last presidential election and don't plan to vote in this one, well, perhaps you need to get inspired.

CJR's CampaignDesk.org has a terrific interview with Stephen Elliott, novelist and author of the new campaign-trail memoir, Looking Forward to It: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the American Electoral Process.

The Burden of the Bride

Right now I am reading a book (c. 1948) on the decorative arts of Sweden that I picked up at The Book Cellar for a dollar. Of particular interest is the effect of weather and climate on the spread and adoption of new motifs (e.g. some medieval woodworking patterns were still being employed as late as the 17th-century by peasants in colder provinces, who, by necessity, didn't get out much).

The best passage that I've read by far is from "Chapter IV: Metal," which made me laugh out loud when I first read it:

Because the peasants were too conservative to discard any old forms of ornaments but simply added the more recent creations to the old, the number of ornaments worn by an 18th-century bride was appalling. Besides the la headband [usually made of cloth, embroidered and then adorned with metal trinkets and bangle-type things; worn by unmarried women, dates from prehistoric times] and her heavy crown she wore the large neck ornament, tied around her throat with a ribbon. In addition to this she usually wore two hanging neck ornaments, the long chain going around her neck many times. One was the gift of the groom, the other a gift from her parents. The hanging ornaments were fastened to either side of her bodice, so that the chains formed a draped pattern over the breast. Her bodice was tightly laced with a chain run through twelve silver lacing-rings, with the chain's needle tucked in her bodice along with two spoons. (The spoons would be used at the wedding feast, one for her and one for the groom). Undergarments beneath the bodice were held fast with silver clasps. Her kerchief was fastened with a larger, heart-shaped clasp. Her ring might be worn on her finger, or on one of the neck chains, or tied into one corner of her kerchief, depending on the custom of the province in which she lived. Large silver buttons hung at her elbows and from the shoulders. The wide red belt with many silver mountings which completed her adornment was next in importance to the crown on her head.

Many legends tell of brides collapsing beneath this burdening wealth of ornaments.

No kidding.

It's a Jungle Out There

Zoo Theatre, a brand-new theater company created by some good friends of mine with the purpose of discovering and cultivating emerging visionary talent in New York's vibrant theater scene, presents the world premiere of DREAMING OF NORTON by Casey McCabe. Directed by Jonathan C. Kaplan and David Mishook, it features Matthew Cavanna, Olivia Horton, Scott David Nogi and Laura Nupponen.

Two insurance claims adjusters follow a vicious Kansas hailstorm to a town twelve miles from the geographical center of the United States. Once alone within the confines of their motel room, one troubled man discovers everything he desires lies out of reach just a few miles away in the city of Norton.

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT OF JUST FOUR PERFORMANCES: Nov. 4,5,6 at 8pm, & Nov. 7 at 3pm @ The Studio Theatre at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street.

For tickets, call 212.239.6200 or visit Telecharge.com.

The Really Small Press

While at the San Jose Museum of Art for the "Nothing Ever Happens" show, I also checked out the "Art of Zines '04" exhibition. The two are shown in adjacent galleries, which makes sense in that they sort of overlap each other in terms of the way that artists define their space within the artistic underground and the stream of subversive commentary that constantly bubbles and flows along with any given moment's dominant youth culture.

The current collection was assembled by Anno Domini, the Cranbrook Art Museum, and the Orange County Museum of Art following a call to the general public for submissions. I recognized a few "major," practically glossy zines that I had seen before, like Hip Mama and Chickfactor, and also discovered some new favorites, such as The Patty Duke Fanzine.

Having erroneously assumed that blogging killed the zine-making star, I was delighted to re-discover the creative, independent perspectives that continue to flourish in the world of micro publishing.