9:48 Sunday morning
It looks like it's getting harder for me to write every day like I had hoped to. But in the spirit of blogging, I suppose I should just take it down a notch and write a smaller amount on days when I'm too buys, and days when I have more time, write longer posts like I normally do. If I didn't have to workin the studio, I would devote my days to writing and improving in writing, but alas, I don't have that kind of schedule. I want to again thank Avo for his writing entry on Friday and for his pictures of the Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner home out on Long Island. There are other folks who said they were interested in being a guest writer, but with my move back to the city and losing some emails (such a drag) I don't know any more who is interested, so please email me and we'll schedule you for a day to write, looking forward to it!
First I have to mention that Friday I went over to see my good friend Ruth Root and her new baby who's almost a year old now, James, or 'Baby James' as I like to call him. I was so happy to see Ruth, the baby and Ruth's new, larger paintings. They look incredible. The jump in scale in the paintings was such a good idea. She's doing well with the baby and working in the studio, it's amazing to see, because I don't have a child and I know that if I did, I would disappear into baby land and never come out. It's hard enough to hold a social life a boyfriend and a career together as a single, gay man, I can't imagine what it's like for my friends with children, some how they figure it out and manage to get it all done.
Now that I'm back in the city, I'm hoping to keep a more casual-St. Barth-type-schedule, (good luck) full of doing other things with my days instead of going straight to the studio and working for 10 or 12 hours and then going home at night. I'm hoping to meet more often with friends I often neglect only because I'm working alone in the studio. I hope to spend more time with Ruth and the baby, because that baby James is fun. Ruth and I used to spend more time together, back in the day. I remember she had a studio on Avenue A close to Houston and I lived on West 48th. I used to work in my apartment, which was a studio apartment that didn't have a bedroom and there was one window that if you stuck your head out you could see Broadway. I remember one Thanksgiving being home alone and really really sick with some sort of flu or cold and I wanted to go over to the Thanksgiving day parade and take pictures (with my big, Pentax, 35mm camera, before tiny digital cameras) but I couldn't so I watched the parade on TV. I remember the Garfield float going by, and I stuck my head out the window, looked left towards Broadway and saw it as it floated by at the same time I saw it on my TV. At the time, the Broadway play, "CATS" was still showing and I thought, flu or cold be damned, I have to run out quickly and get a photo of the huge, orange, Garfield float, floating by in front of the "CATS" sign hanging in front of the theater. If I had about five hours, I would go through the boxes of photographs I have to find this picture, scan it, and then post it here. That would make me really happy. Someday I'll hire someone to scan all the boxes of photos that I have, before digital cameras made storage easier.
Yesterday was a beach day. Jonathan and I met our friends Chris (Caccamise) and Christina (Moon)
and we all took the train out to Robert Moses Beach on Long Island, not that far from Fire Island. The beach was nice, but, well, it wasn't St. Barth (boo hoo). Even though the water was cold we swam a lot because the waves were pretty big at times and riding them was great. I think I was in the water for over an hour at one point, waiting for the next wave. Around 4:30 we headed back to the city and the four of us ate seafood at a restaurant in Williamsburgh and chatted late into the evening. I fell asleep on the subway back to Harlem, and I mean totally asleep. When we got home I just couldn't focus to write anything for the blog so I took a shower and went to bed real fast. Nothing like ocean swimming and being battered by waves to make you dead tired.The train ride back to Manhattan rolls through random Long Island towns and you can get some great pictures, like this little, movie theater. The first picture (below) is a broader view of the street, complete with local fire house on the top left, a war memorial or memorial to fallen fire men on the bottom left, a petite parking lot on the bottom right - complete with perfect traffic island that showcases well groomed and very green grass, and an empty store-front to the right of the theater which could make a great studio to work in. It's fun to fantasize about studio space in small towns outside the city and what it would be like to work there. It could be nice, more space and less people, but eventually it would be depressing, I think.
Here's another nice image taken from the train back to the city:
So, it's Sunday. I'm wondering if I should just get to work in the studio as I have so much to do, but it's going to be another nice day, and it is the weekend still. Maybe we'll go for a walk and hang out a bit and then I'll work later and into the night. I know that I have to go to Utrecht (art supply store) and give them more of my money for more of their art supplies. I give them so much money they should give me a huge discount, but instead, you go in their and half the time they are out of stock. It's better than Pearl Paint though, on Canal. I hate that store for one reason alone, and I hope the goddamn owner of the store is reading this which I'm sure they aren't: Pearl Paint has everything, or close to it and they have 4 or 5 floors in an old building in Soho on Canal Street. I've gone there for years, but I stopped going a few years ago because of the simple annoying fact that they make you pay on EACH FLOOR for whatever you find on that floor. For instance, say you need two pencils and an eraser an they are on the second floor, and you also need five pads of paper, and they are on the 5th floor, you have to pay for the pencils and the eraser, before taking them up to the other floor to get the paper - and if you're using a credit care, well, you can see the lame-ass hassle it creates. So, Pearl Paint, since you put your inventory and your organization of the store before the simple convenience of your customers, you don't get any of my hard earned money. And I spend a lot of money at Utrecht, money that you, Pearl Paint, could have. So, anyway, there's that.
On the 4th, last week, I met Jonathan at Union Square (14th Street. 14th Street is the center of the world. I'll have to spend a day writing about why I think 14th street is the center of the world) and he was trying to hide behind his camera to get some snapshots of me before I noticed as I crossed the street towards him. Even though there were hundreds of people siting near him, juggling, skateboarding, smoking, protesting, hanging out, I spotted him first off and right away. There was a woman walking by pushing a wheel-barrow, she seemed very out of place as if walking into a scene of a movie, but she walked onto the wrong set. It was as if David Lynch were just off camera, directing here every movement, like the Log-Lady in Twin Peaks. Here is a progression of zoomed in photos of that moment on 14th Street:
I started writing this moring at 9:48AM. It's now 11:30AM. Have a great Sunday.
