Glocally Newark is a site I stumbled upon after reading an article over at the always-excellent daily newarker. The folks (folk?) over there are doing a stand up job reporting back on various cultural type things happening in Newark. So far there’s a pretty strong slant on the downtown side of things (as is to be expected, downtown Newark is where shit happens), but it seems like the site has nothing but potential.
Just settling in after 5 days in San Juan. The trip was everything I could hope for. I can’t think of any reason to write full paragraphs at the moment so here are my highlights:
This weekend my homey Antoine and I went up to Monticello to visit some friends, reflect on life’s journeys and just chill in the cut. We decided (or I should say, the GPS decided for us) to take the scenic route up around Jersey’s Skylands through High Point State Park and the like. I have a lot of memories of the area from my childhood, whether it be rafting in the Delaware Water Gap, going to see drive-in movies (Copland and Air Force 1 double feature FTW!) at the Fair Oaks theater in Port Jervis, or just the typical summer and winter chaos at Great Gorge/Action Park/Mountain Creek. The area is really special in a backwoods sort of way, especially in the autumn. For some reason there’s a lot of freaky stuff up there, whether it be the numerous Clinton Road Legends, the Albino Village in Clifton, the Gravity Hill in Pompton Lakes, or whatever other hyped up nonsense we’d read about on the internet and decide to drive an hour and a half to check out.
I have a particularly strong set of memories from a pair of trips that my friends and I took to a hokey haunted house in the hamlet of Hamburg (shit, too much alliteration sorry) called the Ginger Dead castle. A quick trip to the site of the castle bought back some serious nostalgia this weekend. Hit the jump for the full story and a few pics.
I’m in Albany, prepping for what is apparently a pretty big couple of days. My mind is cluttered with statutes of limitations, rules against perpetuities, affirmative defenses, provisional remedies, incohate crimes, and so on. In order to try to tame the clutter and break up the monotony of a 3-hour drive, I decided to stop at the Dia:Beacon on the way up from NJ. So i strapped on my headphones, and headed in with the new Nightmares On Wax cd as the soundtrack.
Housed in an old printing factory right on the edge of the hudson river, the place is nothing short of cavernous. It’s filled with phenomenal natural light and huge open spaces which allow the foundation to show off ginormous art installations, some the size of football fields. I don’t claim to know a ton about modern art, but I know what I saw today was both stimulating and challenging. I’ll leave it there.
Richard Serra’s pieces have made their way here, and they’re even more interesting to walk around in an enclosed space versus out in the open. Andy Warhol’s got a room, Fred Sandback’s strings are all over the place, the list goes on and on. What was most interesting to me, though, was the basement of the galleries. Right now, the museum is exhibiting Tacita Dean’s STILLNESS piece. You step downstairs out of the light filled galleries and into a single room the size of half the building. The room is pitch black and completely silent except for the sounds of 6 projectors, each showing a different life-sized shot of choreographer Merce Cunningham performing his interpretation of John Cage’s 4′33. 4′33 is a silent composition. As such, Merce Cunningham doesn’t move. The video itself is nothing special but the presentation is a mindfuck and a half. Highly recommended.
Anyway, I’ve dilly dallied enough. Gotta go back to studying now. Send good vibes my way over the next couple of days, cuz lord knows I’m gonna need them.
Glocally Newark is a site I stumbled upon after reading an article over at the always-excellent daily newarker. The folks (folk?) over there are doing a stand up job reporting back on various cultural type things happening in Newark. So far there’s a pretty strong slant on the downtown side of things (as is to be expected, downtown Newark is where shit happens), but it seems like the site has nothing but potential.
I’m in Albany, prepping for what is apparently a pretty big couple of days. My mind is cluttered with statutes of limitations, rules against perpetuities, affirmative defenses, provisional remedies, incohate crimes, and so on. In order to try to tame the clutter and break up the monotony of a 3-hour drive, I decided to stop at the 
allow the foundation to show off ginormous art installations, some the size of football fields. I don’t claim to know a ton about modern art, but I know what I saw today was both stimulating and challenging. I’ll leave it there.
