What The Thunder Said...

What The Thunder Said, the title of gallery Lu Magnus' current exhibition, comes from T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. As Lu Magnus puts it, "Not only does this fifth and final part of the poem (What The Thunder Said) delve into destruction and rebirth, it also makes us question what we all learned from the proceeding storm."

Starting with the black muff hat, at the opening of the exhibition last Friday the spectators were becoming one with the art.




Lu Magnus arrives on the Lower East Side with a vibrant HELL YES, promising us new talent and a thriving salon. The excitement of such a design brought an energetic coterie, despite the frigid night. We look forward to the future of the program at Lu Magnus.

Shot of the month...Bitch Club!

Bringing in 2011 with some tough soul, deep soul, and The Sweet Divines!

(New Year's Eve Soul party at The Bell House in Gowanus) They say "out with the old, in with the new", but soul never gets old.

Ms. Marva Witney, the headlining act for the evening and the opening act of 2011, brought us into the new year like we were being liberated by the words of a gospel preaching godmother of soul. "If you have trouble in your life, trouble with money, trouble with love, sometimes...you just got to sit down on it!" and sit down on it she did!...

From her throne, Soul Sister told us like it is...

She told us of her trials...

...and tribulations,

...her gratitude and her great, tough love.

Billy Prince (of The Precisions), earlier in the evening charmed the audience with his performance. A bouquet of roses and baby breath dwindled down over the course of a song as Prince, with deep sincerity and a heart melting smile, handed each flower to members of the audience . Another highlight of the evening was Witney and Prince's duet of It's a Man's World. I was gripping the stage!

The Sweet Divines (Below) warmed up this New Year's Night with their sparkle and deep, throaty soul. Keep track of The Sweet Divines! Join their mailing list! Because wherever they are more great soul is sure to follow.

The girl group with likeness to The Supremes and The Shangri-la's, have been the opening act to an impressive roster of soul performers. They open the show and then with their matching dresses (think fringe or sequins!), coordinated dance moves, and vocal brilliance they back up the headliner. Thank God! Because we cannot get enough!

and by the way ...

The Bell House has a great photo booth. Happy 2011 Pearl Divers!

Best Holiday Party of the Season!!!! Lite Brite Neon

We have not yet seen winter's first calendar day, months of darkness and cold stretch out before us with slushy streets and wind howling in the skyscraper canyons. At the Lite Brite Neon party, courtesy of the Brooklyn Guild and Textile Arts Center, the gaieties of the season were on full display. Several artists chiseled ice sculpture out front, a finely detailed owl and a working guitar with strings laid over frets of ice.


Inside, light, precious light. Lite Brite Neon installed neon lights of snowflakes in white and pale blue, and mistletoe. The neon cast a warm, ballroom glow over the wooden floors. Cupcake girls drifted through the crowd with trays of mini cakes in eggnog icing. The bar served a fragrant rum and pomegranate punch.

Then, a chorus swelled in song- the Brooklyn Ladies Choir. No strident glee club, their voices united in soft, clear loveliness. Drifting in their siren hymn, wondering at the impossible beauty of it, I felt this moment of divinity that is a woman's power. They soared through Dear Yoko, S.O.S., and A Place in the Sun.

It is enough to make us stop complaining about winter. Perhaps even for a whole week.

(Above: Ice guitar! complete with string and pick-ups. With the absence of the warm wooden body of a guitar, the sound was in fact icy cold -- like the high pitched sound of a holiday angel!)

Small Faces in Chelsea

On Saturday we strolled Chelsea, the one blessedly Santa-free location in Manhattan on the day of Santacon. On our way to see the Anselm Kiefer show at Gagosian, we ran into the "small faces" guy, Felix Morelo. Felix lives somewhere in that no man's land of East Willamsburg/Bushwick where one us keeps a painting studio. We first made his acquaintance at the Chinese takeout on Bushwick Avenue. A few weeks later the sidewalk in front of the studio had a block's length of small faces, drawn in chalk, greeting me by name.

Felix Morelo- artist, local eccentric, and drawer of small faces. And there he was in Chelsea on Saturday. He drew a line of small faces from 20th to 30th street along 10th Avenue, dragging himself on a milk crate as he drew his way down the street, cold hands covered in chalk. Each face is different, there are distinct characters in the rudimentary chalk visages. Some of them give a talk balloon shout-out to the passers-by who stop and talk to Felix while he works. "Hello, Thinley!", "Hello Heather!", they exclaim. The people we encountered passing the spontaneous exhibit all seemed to smile and wonder at the breadth of the display.

Cary Kwok's Obsession (Curated by Prabal Gurung)

Somewhere between ejaculation and elegance we find "Obsession". Who would have thought Audrey Hepburn's angelic face could so appropriately be paired with a semen splattered scrotum? The consistency in Kwok's style is what allows for such a union.

Attention to detail is a definitive quality of his work. When you go to the exhibit at The Flag Art Foundation look closely at the art and you will see how Kwok has beautifully and meticulously incorporated his signature into each piece of work...

The Factory @Party XPO

The DIY venue, Party XPO, still carries the eyeball scarring party store sign on the marquee, making it was easy to find amid the dark underbelly of the J train. Last night's organizers pulled out all the stops for a recreation of Warhol's Factory- the walls painted silver and black, giant mylar balloons flying overhead, seats for Beautiful People to lounge, a couple of sequined go-go girls, jerky in that 60's way. A giant, mad fish with glowing eye stared unblinking at us behind a staging area for the bands, who were all playing the Velvet Underground. The guests crowded in and completed the scene- the room was filled with bouffants and beatniks, metallic frocks and much eyeliner.

The Factory house band was played by Twin Guns, Madame Robot and the Lust Brigade, LoveStruck and Daddy Longlegs. The highlight for us was Twin Guns, we can't get enough of their 'verb drenched guitar. The Guns struck the perfect pose, deadpan and dark as the Undergound in their sunglasses and leather. They played some of our favorites, All Tomorrow's Parties and Here She Comes Now, with their trademark bad-assedness.

From Sunset Park (Reading by Paul Auster) to Sunset Park

Hosted by Park Slope's Community Bookstore and held at a Community Cultural Center -- a place with no stage; therefor, no stage lights and alas you can see every face in the audience. Minus the baby strollers the room is filled with other Park Slope stereotypes -- a whole lot of couples (young and old), academic, and the arts and crafts enthusiasts.

While waiting for Auster to arrive, I notice a woman knitting up near the front. The mention of her is not an attempt to set the scene, it is to say that I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR HAND CRAFTED HOLIDAY SCARF LOOKS LIKE, LADY! Especially when you continuously drop your knitting needles on the ground while Paul Auster is reading from his latest novel, Sunset Park.

The novel follows a set of characters who are all linked by one man, Miles Heller. Set at the beginning of the economic collapse of 2008, the mood is both contemporary and ghostly. Like a string of coincidences Auster's novels move quickly. His characters who often seem tumbled about by chance, usually end up at a standstill with a great choice to be made, a refreshing change of the novel's fast pace. One of my favorite excerpts Auster reads:

The human body is strange and flawles and unpredictable. The human body has many secrets, and it does not divulge them to anyone, except those who have learned to wait...The human body lives in the mind of one who possesses a human body, and to live inside the human body possessed of the mind that perceives another human body is to live in a world of others.

After the reading I headed over to Sunset Park to meet my sister and friends at a Days Inn where they were filming a short. Auster writes:

"It was a rougher neighborhood, she said, but it wasn't far from where he was living now, and rents were a half or a third of the rents in Park Slope"

...so we figured this would be a cost affordable neighborhood to shoot in. I will update you more on this at a later date. But for now, here are some photos from on the set!

Line Up: Rigging Knots & Glimpses of a Master Class

(Above: Philip Petit in front of his drawings. When I asked him who's idea it was to skew the frame he responded, "Mine, of course!")

The Opening at Clic bookstore and gallery, was a dry one, so the spectators did not have the usual white wine glow, but as if watching the high wire act at a circus their gazes did marvel. On one side of the room we saw Victoria Dearing's black and white prints of Philippe Petit during his master class (taken August of 2010 in Williamsburg) and on the other side of the room was a series of Drawings by Petit of his rigging knots.

Petit, who is known for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers, did b-line around the room in a kind of shuffle which made you imagine lines below his feet. What immediately struck me about his drawings was the significance of the subject. Daring and confident as he may be, a poorly rigged knot would result in Mr. Petit's downfall. So, with delicate detail and pressure on the tip of the pencil the drawings depict a symbol of survival.

As if watching her subject from a nearby building, Dearing's photographs are soft and unimposing.

The Show will be on view at Clic bookstore and gallery until January 16th.

Soul Survivors

The line trailed down the block for Lee Fields and the Expressions and Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band. It took a long time for the crowd to be admitted, but the mood was jubilant for a night of Daptone soul. Charles Bradley, Brooklyn's own "Black Velvet", opened the show with his heartbreaking wail and sultry dance moves. His anguish and redemptive love elicited the stamps and shrieks of an adoring crowd. Bradley performed songs from his upcoming album, "No Time for Dreaming," but his impassioned expressions seemed extemporaneous, conjured just for us in the moment.



Bradley brought such tender meaning to Neil Young's Heart of Gold

I want to live, I want to give. I've been a miner for a heart of gold.

Lee Fields followed immediately with a captivating performance. The highlight of his set was when he came a bit unhinged at screaming end of "Love Comes and Goes".

Cast Your Votes!

Who wins?...

The Wiccan teenager (circa 1996) or

Rhoda from "The Bad Seed" all grown up?

These photos were taken at The Flag Art Foundation (545 W. 25th Street) an exhibition space for contemporary art. The above installation by Damián Ortega is entitled Controller of the Universe. Each object hangs still in space and every sharp tip, blade, or hatchet face away from the participant. Oddly enough, while standing within an orb of deadly weapons I felt safe and focused.

"The dynamic spherical formation of outward facing blades and points evoke connections between power and violence..."


Also on view at The Flag Art Foundation is, Obsession (New Drawings and a Historical Survey) by artist Cary Kwok -- stay tuned for our account.

OCD: The Art of Obsession

Astral Massachusetts, Jesse McCloskey

"Cut and paste, cut and paste, that's all I do all day," muses artist Jesse McCloskey. Then there was Olek, who sits and watches movies while crocheting her pieces for countless hours at a time, a bottle within reach, maybe some snacks and cigarettes. Finally we heard from Florent Morellet, famed not only for his meatpacking district restaurant of a bygone time, but also for his meticulous map renderings. Were we in the dayroom of a madhouse? On the anxiety couch? No! We attended a Dialogue in the Visual Arts Program sponsored by BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center and moderated by gallerist, Christopher Henry.


Empty Lichen, Florent Morellet

Intensity, earnestness have seemingly gone out of style in the age of "idea" art and the coronation of irony and cynicism. But not for these three. It was refreshing to hear artists speak passionately of their unshakeable belief in systems that are eccentric and obsessive. Florent, who has been creating amazingly detailed maps of great cities of his imagination by hand for thirty years, had the audience rapt with a story of a great failure of city planning in the time of aristotle.

Obsession makes for charming discourse. But best of all, is that such work in which skilled hands are evident, speaks for itself.

Above, detail of Olek's work

On the Lam: The Photography of Kelsey Bennett

Pearl Diving Ladies and Gawker Artists (above photo by Kyle Dean Reinford) celebrate Kelsey's opening with decadent head pieces in front of the large flat screen TV's in the Gawker offices. These screens usually stream stats and news, but on this evening they feature Ms. Bennett's Cases series on a slide show surrounded by five other images which narrate a frantic and youthful adventure on the road.



The figures in Bennett's photographs appear suspended in a moment of apprehension and excitement, as though at the very tippy top of the first great hill on a roller coaster, poised to drop or careen through space.



On the Lam represents selected work from two of Bennet's photo series, Cases and Runaway. The people and objects depicted in these deeply personal works capture a sense of escape, the cinematic and gritty allure of life on the road, emblematic of the passage from youth to adulthood.

(Above: Suitcase installation featured at the opening, photo by Kyle Dean Reinford)

These images beamed brightly from large screens on the main wall of Gawker HQ in Nolita, where the smart crowd was dotted with many of the cast of Miss Bennet's glamorous world, enlivening a rainy night with red sequins and champagne fringe, the artist topping her gown with a leopard gladiator helmet. In the presence of Bennet and her work, at a party no less, one feels the excitement of the journey.

Check out GAWKER'S coverage of the show!

...If 300,000 people are willing to rally at the National Mall for a vague purpose than 300,000 people should be willing to rally for a purpose.