Documentation

I began around 8pm on September 22.  Well, actually, it all started in June, but the assignment of this evening was to record all that came before.  To resurrect notebook scrawls and gather up the photos and write a synposis for everything created each day this summer.  The target time was 5:04am EDT, the time of the autumnal equinox, on September 23, the day of my birth.

Instead, I made from the 21st of June through the mid-August, typing summaries and assigning plausible but invented times for each entry.  I love a good equinox but I went to bed at 2am without finishing.  Then I made it to work.

Tap dance

After our phone and computer network was disrupted in the office, Jennie Wasserman showed me a tap dance move called trenches, and Genevieve Stewart taught me a shuffle-ball-change combination.

Characters

I made a mad-dash effort to capture the man on 60th street with the handful of balloons.

I encoded and decoded a message using the rail fence method learned in cryptography class last week.

Ambuchy

I learned my grandmother was in the hospital.  While she's ok, I made a plan to see her.  That's my lady.

Light

I made an important, long overdue purchase that will hopefully fill my living room with the light of the blazing sun.

With Rebecca Bliss, we made a rueda and danced Cuban-style salsa.  Because everything is better in a circle.

In the City

I made a New York day for my Jersey-based mother.  Lunch at 'wichcraft, rehearsal with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and a grocery expedition to Zabar's and Fairway.

Cooking

I took a cooking class at Astor Center downtown and left having chopped celery with optimal knife motions, dissected a raw pepper, trussed a chicken, cut up its limbs, assembled a strata, and made a pan sauce.

Mommy

I transcribed a voice-mail from my mother.

Hi kid.

I’m so excited, I went to that Trader Joe’s on Route 17.  

I had to go through the tolls and everything because it’s a big store. 

And I was so excited, I was so nervous coming back I thought I’d lose my way but it was FINE.

I spent about 89, 90 dollars there.  Ooh, I almost bought the whole shop. 

It’s a nice shop – big -  but I LOVE  the Brooklyn one, the people there are KYOO-ter. 

Ok, bye.

Let It Go

Koko taught me how to say "let it go and it will come back to you" in Armenian.  While the context was around a waitress bringing dessert, it has profound implications.

Phonetically butchered:
torgh gana, yev hed gaga.

Cryptography

I began a 3-part cryptography class at the Brooklyn Brainery and had my first lesson in code-making and -breaking.

Urban Path

I made a new home for a little plant.

Then I forged a path and made notes (first mental, then digital), especially on places to return.
       
I walked east along 10th St., starting on 7th Ave.  Two rules: no photos, so as not to simply capture and scurry on, as I tend to do; second, no purchases.

This is what I saw:
- Jefferson Market Garden - open all days except Monday, from 12-6pm
- children playing in a schoolyard - one with a mohawk, another with a suitcase
- my old NYU dorm Rubin Hall and its cafeteria marketing campaign whose posters allude to its unique ambience
- Brooke Shields and 2 children
- exquisite wooden carvings on the facade of NYU's Center for Jewish Life
- a 1940s reenactment being filmed for a Capital One commerical
- a leafy plant whose foliage was green on top and purple on its belly
- Quintessence raw food restaurant
- La Plaza Cultural, another fenced-in garden on Ave C just below 9th St - open 12-5pm on weekend April - end of October

Didgeridoo

Nancy-Laurel Pettersen taught me how to get sound from a didgeridoo.

Monica Williams led us all in a reading of Chekov's Three Sisters.

Football

Calvin O. Butts V, my godson, taught me how to throw a football.

Collection

I went to Kimberly Faulkner's house; she was watching Project Runway.  I sketched an imaginary collection of dresses, 4 seasons.

5 Sculptures

I began with the intention of making "5 sculptures inspired by modern artists" within a shoebox diorama, but when my first (a Giocametti tribute) wouldn't stand, I shifted to "5 sculptures that might have been run over by a car."

From top to bottom,
in homage to Alberto Giacometti, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, and Auguste Rodin.

T-shirts

We took an office field trip to the US Open and watched Nadal and Muller play for 15 minutes until a rain delay stopped them.  We spent the rest of the day on the grounds eating mediocre food until the match was officially cancelled, 6 hours later.  Sopheap Theam, cousin of Van Monak Chhun, taught me a t-shirt folding method (2 fingers, 3 moves) in the stadium restaurant.

How to Cut a Pineapple

With the help of YouTube, I learned how to cut a pineapple using an Asian spiral technique.

Dressing

I made cucumber dill dressing, as Stanzi Allan Pouthier described in her recipe book.  It was thick and more cucumber soupy than dressing-y, so I drank it and went to work.

Fried chicken

Aleesha Taylor taught me how to fry chicken.

Head and Shoulders

Kimberly Faulkner taught me the children's song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" in English and in French.

Guacamole

That is what I made today.

Negotiation

Anna Roberts asked on Facebook: "Anyone enjoy negotiation and want to brainstorm with me about how to get to yes in a little situation I'm having?"  And so we did.  I drafted an email for her consideration.  Not sure how helpful it was, but I do love writing difficult emails and wish it was a profession.

Bellydancing

I took a bellydancing class.

Polyrhythms

Our Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis was doing a series of check-in meetings with JALC directors.  After ours, I asked him to teach me the most complicated rhythm he's learned recently.  He taught me a simple one instead.

Out

I made my way outside, after the hurricane.

Inevitability

What is inevitable mustn't pause
mustn't confer with others
mustn't refrain
mustn't reflect on protecting itself
mustn't try not to call
mustn't maintain forced distance
mustn't measure its reach
mustn't think before doing.
What is inevitable goes in, on, through, or just passes by, because it must.

What is inevitable does not look both ways
does not mind the gap
does not shhh when baby is sleeping
...
(to be continued)

Irene

I made the last of my hurricane preparations; the raspberry-chocolate in the foreground didn't survive.

Idyll

I made a utopian daily schedule that includes nap time and 2.5 hours to read newspapers.

Bavarder

I made conversation in French, with a Parisian friend of my friend.

Borders

Borders bookstore is closing and wants us to buy everything from its fixtures to its more questionable book titles.  I made a photo essay of what remains.

Setlist

I made a setlist for someone I haven't met yet.

Basisk

I made a floor lamp from assorted parts as the Ikea instructions told me to do.

Mardy Bum

I made a music video treatment for the Arctic Monkeys' Mardy Bum.

5 identically played out scenes of varying couples - splice between each:

- Alex Lastnameforgotten and Alexa Chung
- Napoleon and Josephine
- Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas
- Henry XIII and Anne Boleyn (but Anne is the evicted despite male vocals)
- Hitler and Eva Braun

A. Kitchen discussion - subtitled in appropriate language (French, German, regional UK accent phonetically spelled) - with black title cards.  Setting/dialogue differs in each scene -- written for each couple, but gestures are identical in each case.

B. Cresendoes into argument (and subtitles vary with each couple) during lyric "I'm sorry I was late...", e.g. "I'm sorry I was late, I was at war and traffic was a state..."

C. Each evictee settles in with bedding onto a living room couch or equivalent

10 Questions for an Interview

I've always wanted to interview people in some forum.  This is what I might ask:

1. Who are you?

2. Describe a single moment (or recurring situation) when you have understood exactly who you are.

3.  How many true friends do you have?

4.  Describe your parents and how you are or are not like them.

5.  Are you doing what you would like to be doing on this planet?  If not, what is that?

6.  Name 6 seminal books/works of art that have been essential to your humanity.  For each, explain why.

7.  Do you believe in monogomy?

8.  What have you known of love?

9.  Describe the afterlife.

10.  Einstein once said the single most important decision any of us will have to make is whether or not the universe is friendly.  Describe your position. 

Flying Kiwi Juice

Made to the specifications of Stanzi Allan Pouthier.

Pina Colada

I made it.  Once again, a Stanzi Pouthier recipe.

Seven Settings

I made a list of seven settings for future immersion:
- India, the mother country of my mothers
- Cuba
- New Orleans
- the gray and green highlands of Scotland or Ireland
- the utopian civility of Australia /New Zealand
- somewhere where the ocean is part of my life
- Morocco or another Francophone country

Illumination

I transcribed a Paramhansa Yogananda poem and tried to make it look like an illuminated manuscript when all I really wanted to do was make my way to bed.

BCT

I made an open-faced sandwich of basil, cheese, and tomato and ate it before it could be documented.

Schedule

With sage counsel, I made a schedule for a week in Charleston, SC.

Crossword

I made a crossword puzzle for Marina Thomas.

Fork Sculptures

Seth Johnson taught me how to make fork sculptures.  His is on the right and might be nicer.

Ode to a Dead Bumblebee

Did your heart stop or feet plop,
did you just have enough
of flowers and hours of
sameness, was it tough?

Did your shoulders stoop, wings droop,
was it all just too much
of lawn tours, then screen doors
locked in my Brooklyn hutch?

If only I knew you, kept honey or a tree,
A flower, grass tower, or something you would see
and realize that outside could be inside too
and fly by the window and out would go you.

[There was a dead bumblebee on my living room floor this morning, so I quickly wrote a children's song about it before going to work. Still feels corny on the re-read and I do cringe and I don't like children's songs, but I needed a day where I wasn't racing the clock to create before midnight.  So there it is.  I wanted to write a children's book about a little cocooned caterpillar who couldn't handle it anymore and commits suicide, and the next day all of its friends become butterflies.  If properly written, it'll be more positive than macabre, I swear.]

Welcome Home Vanessa

Vanessa Raymond came back to us briefly from Bulgaria, and we made her sit and answer these questions in our office:

1. What have you craved?
2.  What will you bring back in your suitcase?
3.  Do you still like Nat?
4a. How is the food?
4b. How is the bread?
5.  How was it studying Bulgarian?
6.  How does Nat know Turkish?

Mobius Strip

I took a ribbon and some tape and made a mobius strip and thought about it and infinity until I couldn't think anymore.

Exit

I inadvertently made someone leave my house.  I'm still unclear about this.

Bloodlines

With my mother, in my New Jersey hometown, I made inquiries about our people and learned more in one evening about my ancestors than I could have dreamed.

Gazpacho

That's what I made.  Stanzi Pouthier recipe.

Reviewed

I stood in the very long line at the Metropolitan Museum and then took exuberant notes on the Alexander McQueen exhibit.  Later, I wrote a movie review of Miranda July's The Future, with a goal of 250 words or less.

One was in my notebook, and one was not. 

What I found:

AMcQ:
Ah, the seams and the exquisite hand + the materials (red tinted medical slides) + the [exhibit] names (Nihilism, Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims, Highland Rape [alluding to England's rape of Scotland], Banshee, The Girl Who Lived in a Tree) + the revolution --

"I want to empower women.  I want people to be afraid of the women I dress." --

all emanating like flames from a masterful base of line + seam + quality, quality, quality craftsmanship where the tailor becomes visionary becomes icon becomes iconoclast. 

"I think everyone has a deep sexuality and sometimes it's good to use a little of it -- and sometimes a lot of it -- as a masquerade." 

Wood fan as skirt. 
The staging of shows: rain, holograms, underwater.

Hats: butterflies; wooden Japanese houses; peacock in branches; vertabrae back, shoulderpiece in metal.  He does not neglect the head and shoulders.  Most everyone has face-masks in leather or durian-like bronze + always the cut + draping + shaping + filigree of it all makes you ache.