bethb's Diaryland
Diary
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be careful what you wish for.
Back from chicago. It always sucks to leave. I know i landed in DC pretty much by accident and have stayed here mostly out of laziness.
No, that's not fair. I've stayed here because I've done a lot and made some great friends and done a lot of cool shit. I have a good, strong, network of folks who will let (and help) me put on art shows, rock shows, find spaces for small theatre companies...I'm a hub for the DC art scene and that feels pretty good sometimes.
But there's something about chicago that just feels so....right. Like i belong. Like i would never get tired of looking at that city.
i also got a cool idea for something to make which i am going to try out this weekend i hope.
When i was in chicago i saw audrey niffenegger's 'The Night bookmobile' show which was about 30 lovely (some slightly overworked) plates that will be compiled into a short graphic novel. I'm hoping they'll make giclee prints (um...afordable please?) of some of the plates. There were two i was particularly interested in, although one was because it contained the second completely out of context dead kennedy's reference of my trip. The first happened the prior day when i went to lush to get a bath bomb and was looking at some other stuff and saw some shower-fizzing thing that said "too drunk to #%!@" and i did kind of a double take.
I also went to the newly opened modern wing at the Art Institute. THere was a Cy Twombly show, but for the rest of the wing, i have to give it a shrug. A lot of it seemed like they had a check list- De Kooning? check. Johns? check. Rothko? check. But they were kind of unimpressive works by major players. There were two pollack's one typical one slightly more figurative that I liked a lot. But considering how strong the rest of the museum's collection was, it felt a little lacking. They had some nice Ed Paschke pieces. I don't know if some of the other artists in the wing where his work was, but there were some uh....crappy things. Like the clown video. Which is probably all that needs to be said about that. No, actualy it doesn't. I don't know if it was intentional or ironic or they didn't notice or perhaps intentionally ironic, but the clown video (deliberately scary clown too) is extremely distracting even when you're not in the room with it. It completely takes you out of the moment of looking at other pieces including a room of serene, dull, white pieces. Perhaps that's the intent. That you're not meant to enjoy any of the works within earshot of the scary clown video (which is about 1/4 of the wing). If that is the case, than congrats scary clown video artist. Fait accompli.
Usual trips to Myopic (picked up middlesex since i chowed through the great gatsby on the plane) and quimby's (a few comics- i feel sadly out of the loop lately. I don't think people are writing or publishing singular books anymore. it's all graphic novels)and saw an extremely afordable painting at rotofugi that i am saving up for.
i sent out a mass email yesterday saying i was leaving and I have to say, I'm kind floored by the response. People are sad! i'm saving all the really lovely emails from people. I'm not sure i'll ever be able to cash in on "if the Council can be of any help to you" type emails, but it's nice to know it's there. It's like i have back up. Really slow, wadded in red-tape back-up.
I was at work until 7 yesterday and the ED says you're a good mood- what's up? and i shrugged my shoulders and said "oh...i don't know....4 days left i guess" and she laughed and said she couldn't wait until she could say the same thing.
which....um. huh.
9:26 a.m. - 2009-07-24
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