talk about a walking cliche

NYC with Rita and Heather was pretty awesome. Yesterday I went back to the city, this time on a field trip with my "Current Issues in Art" class. It made me think about being "an artist" again. There are actually artists in this world, in New York City, real live actual people who work their asses off making paintings, and ridiculous installations, and political commentary in the form of drawings in plastic bags and so on and so forth.

Our class got a tour from this grad student/art mag writer/curator guy. We went to a few galleries in Williamsburg -- Pierogi, Jack the Pelican, Black and White, and Momenta Art -- and visited a couple of artists in their studios. The curator was funnnny. He said things like, "Weaponize your intentionality!" and "You should live in Williamsburg because, as a curator, I don't feel like taking a train all the way out to Jersey City."

The artists we spoke with were pretty cool. They talked about being assistants and stuff before they got their own shows, etc.

Galleries:

Pierogi - very interesting, jackets with frames and then map-like things painted on them, plus an installation with rubber rats. Why is almost everything contemporary about performance? Or: why does it seem that way to me?

Jack the Pelican - "Artists work in teams, like socialist" something-or-other, says our guide. This way they can pool their skills. Or something. How the hell do you make money off of this? We saw a large ridiculous pseudo-machine made out of garbage, by Matt something and Jesse something. Gives me ideas for the Recycled Art show coming up here. WHERE ARE THE GOOD DUMPSTERS IN SARATOGA?

Black and White - hmmm, freaky. Apparently this guy works with some kind of processed tapioca to make attractive roadkill sculptures. The press release does not describe this well. These things looked like butchered cartoon animals, or like little toy creatures that had been in a horrible nuclear accident and were being eaten by survivors.

Momenta Art - this related to the discussion I'm supposed to lead for the class soon. It made me think, "Wow, I really did pick the right topic." Political art really is more exciting to me than other kinds of art. I am not just making this up, like I made up "I should be an environmental major".

So I stayed in the gallery while everyone else went to Chelsea. (I heard they went through three galleries too fast to appreciate anything.) I took notes, but I might need to go back. Then I headed to the Met and got lost because I didn't know 5th Ave is after Park Ave. At least the subways didn't confuse me.

Almost everyone on the trip seemed to be thinking about their futures as fine artists. I don't know how we are going to put this mess of impressions and advice into our discussion during class. For example, how to broach the issue of, "How the fuck can we afford to live in Williamsburg?" Is this a Current Issue in Art?

At one point while walking around Williamsburg I saw "Shomer Shabbat" spraypainted (in Hebrew) on a dumpster. This made me laugh. Was it graffitti? It looked stenciled. How bizarre. I looked around to see if there was anyone I could ask, but it's possible that no one else in my class is Jewish.

Back on campus, I joined the mainly-first-years crowd grooving out to The Bomb Squad in the student center. That was a lot of fun, and I felt brave instead of dumb for dancing by myself.

Today was the AIDS Walk in Albany. Twenty-six students from Skidmore walked. Skidmore students raised over $1500 for the Saratoga AIDS Coalition!

Fire Safety Meeting, SPA, etc.

Tonight from 9 - 10 pm Tower had its Fire Safety meeting in Aikins. It was so long mostly because of this cop who took up about 30 or 40 minutes of our time trying to be entertaining as he delivered information about DWI and parties in town and so on and so forth ad nauseum. I am a senior and I should be living off campus, because one of the perks of living off campus is that you are not required to attend fire safety meetings. I was trying not to fall asleep.

After the Saratoga cop finally stopped talking, Campus Safety spoke with us. At the end they started talking about sexual assault, and how you should report it to campus safety. The girl next to me whispered something to me like, "Why is it surprising that only 5% of rapes are reported? I wouldn't report anything to him!"

So I stood up and addressed the room (ahh zero to sixty! Sleeping to speech!) and told everyone that they can also come to the Center for Sex and Gender Relations on the third floor of Case to report sexual assault, that we are trying to get people to report there, and that you can also call our hotline on the little red cell phone magnets you see around campus. Did I mention that there were a lot of people, and that I was shaking from the adrenalin rush? That's when Greta chimed in and said that the cell phone is only on weekends. "Oh, only on weekends," I repeated.

Greta had been sitting on the floor by my chair the whole time. I forgot. Weird, I always thought Greta was much more involved in the Center than I am, that she's probably gonna be head PA one of these years. Maybe she just wasn't thinking about it or was planning to speak up in a minute, I don't know. But Campus Safety really needs to mention the Center as part of their talks.

Anyhow, before the fire safety meeting I'd gone to the Skidmore Pride Alliance's first meeting of the year. A lot of people showed up, but unfortunately many left right before or during the ice breaker. (We played the post-it note game.) Overall, Phred and Alex ran a fantastic meeting! There were faculty there, thanks to Mason, including the visiting prof Lettie met the other day. I can't wait to see which first years will really become involved.

GASH is planning a party for this weekend, but I might not be here, because Heather is coming to visit and we're planning to go visit Rita at some point. Bummer. Man, how can I miss the first GASH party of the year?!

Tower 730

This is what my door looks like right now, in case any of you have trouble finding it:


Hot stuff, eh?

The "TFC" stands for "Theme Floor Coordinator". I made that title up to replace the official, yet meaningless, "Floor Leader". A couple days ago I met a "Floor Leader" who didn't even know what floor leaders are supposed to do. Pssh.

kill 'em abroad, kill 'em at home.

Is anyone else here really pissed off about the US govt's utter and complete negligence with regard to the disaster in New Orleans?! A lot of relief is being prevented by "law enforcement" -- for example, the first couple of paragraphs here.

This is besides the general apathy and blatant RACISM displayed by our elected officials. Bush was actually still on vacation as NOLA flooded! We have satellites! We knew this storm was heading for New Orleans for almost a week. Seriously. This is just horrific negligence!

There are a lot of articles about this on Crooks and Liars.

Check out all the stuff about Michael Brown (head of FEMA) being completely unqualified! No wonder things were messed up in FL after Katrina!

I've been so busy with moving in, and doing stuff for the Center, that I haven't been watching the news or anything. But now I'M FUCKING MAD and I have no one to rant to!

There's tons more out there but I'm done for the night.

Edit for one thing: AMERICAblog.com.

I had no idea John Aravosis was doing a blog. I love this man. The first entry up there at the moment is absolutely inspiring. This entire disaster makes me feel like revolution is both necessary and possible.