Healthy Drinking, the Gates, and Aztecs
Sorry it's been a while since I posted, it's just that I really haven't been going out much the past week. HA HA HA...yeah, didn't think I could say that with a straight face...without further ado...
Thursday, February 10th - Straddling the line between health and debilitating physical states caused by drinking and a lack of sleep can be hard on even the best of us. To keep my body in shape enough to keep going, I find it helpful to make drinking plans for after a little time at the gym. Now, this can have varying results. Sometimes you're fine, but others, like the time I skipped dinner on Zander and Jess's request, and ended up sending angry hate messages from my phone, you're not. So after a good bit at the gym, I met up with Zander, Ryan, and Steven over in Chelsea. We first went to this bar xes, which was having a gay skier night. Ryan was convinced there would be nobody there, but I was pretty sure that because a) gay people do all sorts of random shit, and b) they especially like to do things that are expensive, there would be a slew of them, which there were. Keep in mind, I've never been skiing, so this wasn't exactly my crowd. There's apparently this group called Ski Bums that takes trips together all over the place - feel free to insert a lame jokes involving poles anywhere you'd liked, for now I'm refraining. Anyway, so after mocking and/or insulting about half the room, chatting up the head of the group and telling him that I think that the fact that they all do the AIDS walk in May (their off season) is great, but I just can't see myself ever doing it because it involves getting up early on a Sunday morning, we figured it was best to go to another bar. Now, the problem with going to the gym and then drinking is you can get tired. The problem when I get tired is basically that I stop thinking before speaking, and heaven knows what'll come out of my mouth. For two of the somewhat out of context, but definitely representative comments, go check out Zander's blog from last week. You'll see his link in my Friends listing.
Friday, February 11th - I'll keep this one brief. Basically just met up with Gabby for drinks (this time after a yoga class, a delicate balance, very delicate), vegetarian food and drinking in Williamsburg. I'm actually hating Williamsburg less than I used to...I may owe it a letter of apology.
Sunday, February 13th - What happened to Saturday, you ask? Well, I generally allow myself one day of rest, which is usually Sunday, but this week I took it on Saturday after a friend (not naming names, Lauren) decided she was too tired to go out. But, it was good to rest and save money, so that I could get out on Sunday afternoon.
Which quite a lot of New Yorkers were doing this weekend as it was the first weekend that the Gates were up in Central Park.
Here's the description of the Gates off of Christo and Jean-Claude's website:
"The 16 day duration work of art, free to all, will be a long-to-be-remembered joyous experience for every New Yorker, as a democratic expression that Olmsted invoked when he conceived a “central” park. The luminous moving fabric will underline the organic design of the park, while the rectangular poles will be a reminder fo the geometric grid pattern of the city blocks around the park. The Gates will harmonize with the beauty of Central Park."
Now, I hate to be a spoilsport (ha ha, okay couldn't say that with a straight face either!), but I wasn't really that excited by the whole thing. I mean, in theory it sounds good. It's fun, pointless, just-for-the-hell-of-it art, which is kind of refreshing, right? Well...but in the cynical, marketable Bloomberg NY of the day, it just seems like a tourism drive designed to get people out of their apartments in the middle of February. It's up through February 27, 2005.
So after traipsing about the park, I went up to the Guggenheim to catch their Aztec Empire exhibit on its last day. I wasn't expecting to like the show as much as I did, so you can call this one of those "pleasant surprise" situations. There seemed to have been some debate over the effectiveness of the presentation. Here's the catalogue description of the installation:
"An undulating ribbon wall, evocative of the body of a symbolic serpent, winds its way around the curves of the entire structure, encircling the 435 master artworks of the pre-Hispanic and early colonial periods...Through its design, the exhibition metaphorically brings to life the figure of the Mesoamerican civilizing deity Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent."
Now I have to say that, for me, this whole set up really worked. It has a flow to it that you don't often get from art exhibitions, and the black ribbon wall worked well with the objects. I also really appreciated the focus of the objects as "art" and not just historical relics that are supposed to "teach you something." It fit suprisingly well in the Guggenheim, though I'm sure any number of people will disagree with me, and have.
Fun tour guide info: the Aztecs believe that the liver was the repository of the soul, unlike the imperial Westerners in us who prefer the heart. Apparently, and I don't know how advanced their medical knowledge was to determine links between alcohol consumption and the liver, drunkenness was also severely frowned upon in Aztec society. It could even result in having you sacrificed to the gods. Hmmm...sacrifice a few drunks and ward off the end of civilization (well...until the Spanish come along naturally), not a bad idea. Any volunteers?
Thursday, February 10th - Straddling the line between health and debilitating physical states caused by drinking and a lack of sleep can be hard on even the best of us. To keep my body in shape enough to keep going, I find it helpful to make drinking plans for after a little time at the gym. Now, this can have varying results. Sometimes you're fine, but others, like the time I skipped dinner on Zander and Jess's request, and ended up sending angry hate messages from my phone, you're not. So after a good bit at the gym, I met up with Zander, Ryan, and Steven over in Chelsea. We first went to this bar xes, which was having a gay skier night. Ryan was convinced there would be nobody there, but I was pretty sure that because a) gay people do all sorts of random shit, and b) they especially like to do things that are expensive, there would be a slew of them, which there were. Keep in mind, I've never been skiing, so this wasn't exactly my crowd. There's apparently this group called Ski Bums that takes trips together all over the place - feel free to insert a lame jokes involving poles anywhere you'd liked, for now I'm refraining. Anyway, so after mocking and/or insulting about half the room, chatting up the head of the group and telling him that I think that the fact that they all do the AIDS walk in May (their off season) is great, but I just can't see myself ever doing it because it involves getting up early on a Sunday morning, we figured it was best to go to another bar. Now, the problem with going to the gym and then drinking is you can get tired. The problem when I get tired is basically that I stop thinking before speaking, and heaven knows what'll come out of my mouth. For two of the somewhat out of context, but definitely representative comments, go check out Zander's blog from last week. You'll see his link in my Friends listing.
Friday, February 11th - I'll keep this one brief. Basically just met up with Gabby for drinks (this time after a yoga class, a delicate balance, very delicate), vegetarian food and drinking in Williamsburg. I'm actually hating Williamsburg less than I used to...I may owe it a letter of apology.
Sunday, February 13th - What happened to Saturday, you ask? Well, I generally allow myself one day of rest, which is usually Sunday, but this week I took it on Saturday after a friend (not naming names, Lauren) decided she was too tired to go out. But, it was good to rest and save money, so that I could get out on Sunday afternoon.
Which quite a lot of New Yorkers were doing this weekend as it was the first weekend that the Gates were up in Central Park.
Here's the description of the Gates off of Christo and Jean-Claude's website:
"The 16 day duration work of art, free to all, will be a long-to-be-remembered joyous experience for every New Yorker, as a democratic expression that Olmsted invoked when he conceived a “central” park. The luminous moving fabric will underline the organic design of the park, while the rectangular poles will be a reminder fo the geometric grid pattern of the city blocks around the park. The Gates will harmonize with the beauty of Central Park."
Now, I hate to be a spoilsport (ha ha, okay couldn't say that with a straight face either!), but I wasn't really that excited by the whole thing. I mean, in theory it sounds good. It's fun, pointless, just-for-the-hell-of-it art, which is kind of refreshing, right? Well...but in the cynical, marketable Bloomberg NY of the day, it just seems like a tourism drive designed to get people out of their apartments in the middle of February. It's up through February 27, 2005.
So after traipsing about the park, I went up to the Guggenheim to catch their Aztec Empire exhibit on its last day. I wasn't expecting to like the show as much as I did, so you can call this one of those "pleasant surprise" situations. There seemed to have been some debate over the effectiveness of the presentation. Here's the catalogue description of the installation:
"An undulating ribbon wall, evocative of the body of a symbolic serpent, winds its way around the curves of the entire structure, encircling the 435 master artworks of the pre-Hispanic and early colonial periods...Through its design, the exhibition metaphorically brings to life the figure of the Mesoamerican civilizing deity Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent."
Now I have to say that, for me, this whole set up really worked. It has a flow to it that you don't often get from art exhibitions, and the black ribbon wall worked well with the objects. I also really appreciated the focus of the objects as "art" and not just historical relics that are supposed to "teach you something." It fit suprisingly well in the Guggenheim, though I'm sure any number of people will disagree with me, and have.
Fun tour guide info: the Aztecs believe that the liver was the repository of the soul, unlike the imperial Westerners in us who prefer the heart. Apparently, and I don't know how advanced their medical knowledge was to determine links between alcohol consumption and the liver, drunkenness was also severely frowned upon in Aztec society. It could even result in having you sacrificed to the gods. Hmmm...sacrifice a few drunks and ward off the end of civilization (well...until the Spanish come along naturally), not a bad idea. Any volunteers?
posted by Phil at
10:59 AM
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