First of all, I'm so sorry I didn't notify anyone I would be in town, but I needed a few days of serious lose-myself-in-a-big-city time. The next time you're in SF, the first round's on me.
I was sad to leave, but I'm happy to be home. The ghosts didn't bother me too much, even if I did start to cry in the middle of Janet Cardiff's piece at NYMOMA it was so beautiful. I envy you New Yorkers your fucking fantastic city. I always feel like I'm only barely scratching the surface.
What I can remember through the haze of jet lag:
-Fending off the advances of my SuperShuttle driver.
-The Chelsea Lodge.
-Miso soup + seaweed salad + sushi combo as a temporary stay against jet lag.
-Minus the Bear playing at the Knitting Factory, yay! Minus the Bear totally sold out, boo!
-Brooklyn Lager.
-The play The Lightning Field at the Flea Theater.
-German techno seeping out of the Canal Room.
-Sampling the many varieties of booty buns from the Big Booty Bread Company: Nutella, strawberry and cream cheese, dulce de leche...
-Joan Snyder's paintings at the Jewish Museum.
-Corned beef on rye.
-Greater New York 2005 at P.S. 1: 150 contemporary artists shove art into every single nook and cranny of the 145,000 square foot space. My brain exploded trying to absorb it all.
-Blondie in a cafeteria decorated by Ryan McGinnis.
-The sun on the Chrysler Building.
-Warm (truly warm) weather.
-Meeting Marcel Dzama of Winnipeg.
-Glass of cold sake + exquisite bento + orange-coconut creme brulee.
-Pink lights on the Empire State Building.
-Sleeping with the window open.
-Thinking: I wish these museums were mine and I could visit them all the time.
-The Prague exhibit at the Met. Those fourteenth-century nuns did embroidery that puts my kitty cross-stitch to shame.
-Smoked turkey sandwich with brie and pears.
-Epic installations by Christina Iglesias at Marian Goodman.
-A movie at Paris: Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, and Rupert Everett in Separate Lies. Plus a free popcorn and soda.
-The current rotation of art from the contemporary collection on the second floor of NYMOMA, including Janet Cardiff's aforementioned crushingly gorgeous 40 Part Motet.
-Muji goodies from the NYMOMA store.
-Latin-Asian sushi rolls.
-Getting caught in a thunderstorm.
-Lucy McKenzie's comic-inspired art at Metro Pictures.
-Laurie Anderson's dreams at Sean Kelly.
-Split pea soup with double-smoked bacon.
-Depression-era and WWII-era portraits by Arkansas photo studio owner Mike Disfarmer at Edwynn Houk.
-Sasha Frere-Jones conversing with Ric Ocasek, Ani DiFranco, the RZA, and Steve Albini in Times Square Studios.
-Seared tuna with crispy wonton strips.
-Bagel, plain.
-Dutch pancake with bacon and syrup.
-Walking everywhere but no blisters and no knee trouble.
-Frilly underthings.