Artist Respect

Last week was fair Evann's birthday. She spent an entire two weeks leading up to the big day informing us that she always gets very excited for her birthday, but that every year she is disappointed. Therefore, on the special day, we filled PS 260 with giant mylar balloons and our boss sent out a mass email telling everyone to wish Evann a happy birthday every time we saw her that day.

For her "surprise" cake party, we ended up having a silly string fight.




Oh yeah, and Evann got to wear a tiara all day too.




Ugghhh, birthday hangover.


But at least Evann later told us it was her best birthday ever.


I walked to Evann's b-day fiesta with coworker Michael, who coughed and muttered, "TOURIST' when I took this photo on the way.


After birthday happy hour, I headed over to the Black Keys concert at loathed venue Terminal 5. I met up with Shannon and Mike, and all of their pals, as it was Mike's birthday and they surprised him with a mass concert-going experience.


They were already having a grand ole time, so I joined in.


We realized that Mike, who was super-psyched about the show, had first started listening to the Keys because of Shannon, who started listening to them because of Kerri, who started listening to them because of.... ME! We high-fived the six degrees of music love.


The show began and the Keys were awesome! I knew they would be, as last time I saw them they were equally impressive. It's pretty amazing how powerful this music can be made by just two guys. They create a good mix between rock and good old-fashioned blues.






I decided to break away from the group to get a closer look at the band who, only a few weeks ago, rendered me star-struck and speechless.












I love their combination of mountain man scruffy and lanky dorky.






I sufficiently rocked out in the front pit area then, when I got lonely, went back up to the 3rd floor to watch with the Shannon/Mike group (mostly on TV monitors).


Shannon and I decided we needed to thrash about and show our appreciation for the rockitude of the Keys. So thrash we did.




Soon we were getting everyone into it. This is all I miss about long hair - its swingability.


Whenever I go to live shows I end up becoming enamored of all the cool things the lighting technicians do, and their inevitable side effects on the crowd. Maybe that comes from my days learning lighting design as a theater major. Either way, this time was no different.


The whole fun crowd, and me with my ripped Black Keys poster:


Sunday I went to the Met museum for the Costume Institute's superhero exhibit. It celebrated the fashion and the iconography of superhero costumes, beginning with Superman. They had the actual costumes worn by Christopher Reeve (Superman!), Tobey Maguire (both good and evil from Spiderman 3), Michelle Pfeiffer (Catwoman), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), Christian Bale (Batman) and even Robert Downey Jr. (Ironman), along with designer interpretations and the differences between each kind of hero (born, man-made, and mutant) and their respective costuming. It was sooooo cool. I wish I would have had the bravery to take some illegal photos, but there were guards everywhere.

ANYWAY. I did get some photos from the permanent collection.... this sculpture of Dante's Ugolino moves me. There is so much detail and tension in the muscles of Ugolino and his sons, from every angle, and so much anguish in his face. Beautiful.


I couldn't resist a couple of photos of this Rauschenberg. He died last week, and is probably my favorite artist of all time (well... beside Michaelangelo). He said of his combine "Bed" that he woke up wanting to paint, but had no money for materials... so he just threw together what he had around the house. Now THAT'S an artist. This one is called "Winter Pool."




I left feeling inspired. A good day at the museum will do that to ya.

love,
*jenna*