NaBloPoMo Day 17: Over at the Whitney with the Mayor
Tom and I decided to pop into the Whitney today. I hadn't been there since they took out the three floors of biennial stuff. Don't get me wrong, I like the biennial. It's one of the Whitney's main schticks. Except it takes over the whole museum. For months. At some point, I'm over it.
On the 8th floor, the Jason Moran show would have lived up to any expectations I may have had. Except I really didn't have any since I didn't check what was showing before we went.
Jason Moran put a piece of paper over his piano keyboard. Then he covered his fingers with graphite. He played some music AND laid down an abstract chalk drawing simultaneously. The whole endeavor was a raging celebration of multi-tasking. I was all over it.
I was all over it even more when I noticed that Jason Moran likes a hole puncher as much as I do. Some of the piano graphite drawings (are they drawings?) had holes punched in them with an old school hand held hole puncher. I'm filthy with hole punchers. I have about eight stashed in a drawer somewhere around here. That I rarely use, but now I'm inspired.
The coolest singular display case was this one:
The deal is this: Rumor has it that my grandfather was a dancer at the Savoy Ballroom. He had a Savoy Ballroom jacket and everything. Once, he danced with Ella Fitzgerald.
I'm not entirely sure what Jason Moran had to do with the Savoy Ballroom other than Jason Moran plays jazz and lots of Jazz was played at the Savoy Ballroom. That's my best guess. Maybe I should have done a better job reading the placards.
After Jason Moran, Tom and I went down the stairs and lo, who do we spy? Why the mayor of Greenwich village of course. Actually I heard him before I saw him.
"Do you know who I am?"
I round the corner and I see the mayor gesturing to two young ladies.
"I'm the Mayor of Greenwich Village."
I see the Mayor 2 out of every 3 times I'm at the Whitney, so at a minimum, he's the Mayor of the Whitney -- since it moved to Greenwich Village anyway. And 2 out of 3 times the Mayor says to me, "Do you know who I am?"
And I say, "You're the Mayor of Greenwich Village!"
Then I bolt in the other direction because similar to the Mayor's fondness for a never-changing opening line, he also has a penchant for the exact same conversation.
The thing about the mayor though is that he gets around to all the exhibitions. Not just the permanent collection either, but also the ones just there for a season.
On the 8th floor, the Jason Moran show would have lived up to any expectations I may have had. Except I really didn't have any since I didn't check what was showing before we went.
Jason Moran put a piece of paper over his piano keyboard. Then he covered his fingers with graphite. He played some music AND laid down an abstract chalk drawing simultaneously. The whole endeavor was a raging celebration of multi-tasking. I was all over it.
I was all over it even more when I noticed that Jason Moran likes a hole puncher as much as I do. Some of the piano graphite drawings (are they drawings?) had holes punched in them with an old school hand held hole puncher. I'm filthy with hole punchers. I have about eight stashed in a drawer somewhere around here. That I rarely use, but now I'm inspired.
The coolest singular display case was this one:
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| Postcard from the Savoy Ballroom |
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| Photo of outside of Savoy Ballroom |
The deal is this: Rumor has it that my grandfather was a dancer at the Savoy Ballroom. He had a Savoy Ballroom jacket and everything. Once, he danced with Ella Fitzgerald.
I'm not entirely sure what Jason Moran had to do with the Savoy Ballroom other than Jason Moran plays jazz and lots of Jazz was played at the Savoy Ballroom. That's my best guess. Maybe I should have done a better job reading the placards.
After Jason Moran, Tom and I went down the stairs and lo, who do we spy? Why the mayor of Greenwich village of course. Actually I heard him before I saw him.
"Do you know who I am?"
I round the corner and I see the mayor gesturing to two young ladies.
 |
| The Mayor of Greenwich Village and some of his constituents. |
I see the Mayor 2 out of every 3 times I'm at the Whitney, so at a minimum, he's the Mayor of the Whitney -- since it moved to Greenwich Village anyway. And 2 out of 3 times the Mayor says to me, "Do you know who I am?"
And I say, "You're the Mayor of Greenwich Village!"
Then I bolt in the other direction because similar to the Mayor's fondness for a never-changing opening line, he also has a penchant for the exact same conversation.
The thing about the mayor though is that he gets around to all the exhibitions. Not just the permanent collection either, but also the ones just there for a season.
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