4 Privet Drive

Have been home at 4 Privet Drive for three days now, and oh, how joyous. No more magic trains or large campuses to navigate, only how to get from my bed to the TV, from the TV to the bathroom, and from the bathroom to my car (incidentally, I suck at driving now). Wednesday night, went to Dublin House for what, in retrospect, can be seen as a Holmdel High School reunion. Some faces I had not seen since hs graduation, crazy. Have done some running, watched Inglourious Basterds and The Hangover, and saw Sherlock Holmes yesterday, which was legit. Nothing too exciting otherwise, shipping off to dat other coast on Tuesday, for 10 days of...SD/LA/VEGAS...what's up?

done (and done)

Just left 9 & 3/4 for winter break. Not going to lie, so happy to be home and out of the city (though I'm going to miss Melvin, Maple, and Sweats more and more each day I don't see their beautiful shining faces; I will see Rufus in a week in San Diago). Finals are done, everything is done. Last night I got to hang with Robin Hood, Maple, Sweats, Gonzo and his girl, A-Krat, and P-Bear. At Heights and 1020, we did some drinking. Merry Christmas to all, see ya on the other coast!

Fanfarlo!

A couple of things: Haven't blogged in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything! Wednesday night was my mom's Christmas party at the Grand Hyatt above Grand Central Terminal. Super nice hotel, Gonzo and I worked the "door" for the first two hours of the four-and-a-half hour open bar fiesta, then we took advantage. Before the party started, we also met a soon-to-be Real Housewife of New York, who has been a friend of my mom's for many years. Not telling who! Dance,dance, dance. P-Bear came to drink and dance a little, too, then we had "a" night.

One Forty Seven [Point] Five

Get to 999 at 930, plug in my pod, have a beer. Horchata, Robin Hood, and EoH meet me a little while later for shots of Jamieson, Ketel One, and beers. Rufus meets us an hour later. Craig's DJing is sick -- every song that plays is what I want to hear. Craig's brother drives me and Craig downtown in his beamer, where unsuccessfully we try to hook up with Craig's nephew outside a club on 21st. Wait five minutes, then get dropped off at subMercer (147 1/2 Mercer St.), a cool spot two stories below the Mercer Hotel in Soho (even a story below Mercer Kitchen). Get there around one...

Hans Breder: INMIXING

Head down to the lower east side with Craig and Coltrane around 730, to the White Box (329 Broome St.), for an opening reception to see a comprehensive survey of early to recent media works by the seminal pioneer of Intermedia art, Hans Breder. Old guy born in Germany, his work has been featured in three Whitney Biennials (1987, 1989, 1991). The title of the show references the Lacanian term of "inmixing," described by Herman Rapaport as the "extradimensionality that is made possible by introducing a lack, break, knot, or fold that is the mark of the subject: its signifer." The shit is crazy, see picture above. Have some wine, mingle for a little, meet the old bastard, and we is out!

Even the Brilliant...

At twenty-six, Leo Tolstoy, one of the most renowned writers of 19th century Russia (and the world)  wrote scathingly,

"I am ugly, awkward, untidy and socially uncouth. I am irritable and tiresome to others; immodest, intolerant and shy as a child. In other words, a boor...I am excessive, vacillating, unstable, stupidly vain and aggressive, like all weaklings. I am not courageous. I am so lazy that idleness has become an ineradicable habit with me. Yet there is one thing I love more than virtue: fame. I am so ambitious, and this craving in me has had so little satisfaction, that if I had to choose between fame and virtue, I am afraid I would very often opt for the former."

Birthday Sex

You say you want passion
I think you found it
Get ready for action
Don't be astounded
We switchin' positions
You feel surrounded
Just tell me where you want
your gift, BOY

HAPPY 22nd, RUFUS!

Biz Markie

Have you ever met a girl that you tried to date
But a year to make love she wanted you to wait
Let me tell ya a story of my situation
I was talkin' to this girl from the U.S. nation
The way that I met her was on tour at a concert
She had long hair and a short miniskirt
I just got onstage drippin', pourin' with sweat
I was walkin' through the crowd and guess who I met
I whispered in her ear, "Come to the picture booth
So I can ask you some questions to see if your hundred proof"
I asked her her name, she said blah-blah-blah
She had 9/10 pants and a very big bra
I took a couple of flicks and she was enthused
I said, "How do you like the show?"
she said, "I was very amused"
I started throwin' bass, she started throwin' back mid-range
But when I sprung the question, she acted kind of strange
Then when I asked, "Do ya have a man?" she tried to pretend
She said, "No I don't, I only have a friend"
Come on, I'm not even goin' for it
This is what I'm goin' sing

Allen Ginsberg, Tribute to the Wise

Lately, as I did this past summer in Portland, I've been combing through Allen Ginsberg's The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice. On May 14, 1943, Allen Ginsberg was accepted at Columbia College in New York City. Sixty-six years later, his erratic and accomplished Columbia career still resonates with, teaches, and impresses me. Nearly three-hundred pages of The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice, a work compiled of poems and journal entries from the earlier part of his life (1937-1952), is dedicated to his time spent at Columbia College. Who he met, what he did, classes he skipped, professors he adored and respected - the journal as a form of writing, in some ways, accurately captures what it meant to be a "Beat": Spontaneity, dreams, insanity, rhythm, flow, restlessness, desire.