back in business

I have been a very, very bad little blogger lately. Actually, I've been an absent blogger, really. Working on the thesis and being out of town took serious priority. But grad school is officially over, I'm back in NYC, and it's time to return to this poor, neglected blog.

First, a short recap of my time spent at the Haystack Arts Camp in Deer Isle, ME. I was there for two weeks, met some really nice people, and got to do lots of art. Also, the food was shockingly good. I expected it to be gross vegan tofu nonsense every day, but there was a huge variety, and LOTS of yummy baked goods for dessert at lunch and dinner. I learned lithography, and made three sets of prints during the first week. I pretty much just took it easy and hung out during the second week, instead of doing more lithos. I needed a vacation. Plus there was only one printing press and eight students, and everybody snatched up the time slots before I could sign up for any, unless I wanted to do it at 3 in the morning (no thanks).

Lithography, by the way, is done by taking a flat limestone, and drawing on it with grease-based pencils or ink. Then you coat the whole thing in gum arabic and do some stuff with caustic chemicals (like lithotine, acetone, and my personal favorite, nitric acid!). You eventually roll grease-based ink onto the stone. The places you drew absorb the ink, and the rest of it absorbs water. So you coat the stone with a thin film of water when you're ready to print, and roll grease-based ink over the entire stone's surface. The drawing absorbs the ink, and the naked parts repel the ink ('cuz it's oil and water--get it?), then you run it through the press and the image goes onto a piece of paper. FUN!!

Here are the three lithos I made and the photos they're based on:

This photo was taken in the print studio at Haystack,
using my Mac's built-in camera set to "comic book effect."

Here is the actual print. I painted the eyes blue
with watercolor and acrylic paint.


This one was printed on this sheer cream paper called
chin colle, which is then affixed to the white paper.


This is Joe's cat, Clark. The photo was taken by a friend of his
who I do not know, but is a super talented photographer.


This paper is dark tan in real life, but my scanner didn't really do it justice.


This is a photo of Joe from a year ago, of which I fiddled with the contrast.



This one was printed on really lovely light blue paper, but again, the scanner didn't pick it up so well. Also, the margins are way bigger in real life, but my scanner can only do eight and a half by 11 inch-size paper.

Since getting back, I've been attending my usual galleries and art activities. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which was surprisingly good. It got pretty bad reviews as I recall, but I thought it was way better than number two. It was a bit confusing, what with all the new characters who were only in it for a few minutes, and three hours was too long, but in general it was still really enjoyable. Johnny Depp was as fantastic as always, and Keith Richards was a nice addition.

I saw the Simpsons movie on its opening night as well, which was awsome. Honestly, I was really expecting it to be lame. The show itself is nowhere near as good as it was a decade ago. A couple peple I know complained that it was just an hour and a half long episode, but to that I say, then it's the best episode they've made in years. Seriously. The whole theatre was laughing out loud through the whole thing. It had just the right amount of classic Simpsons silliness and jabs at pop culture and politics.

I also went to the Rubin Museum Friday night, which I'd never even heard of before Joe pointed it out to me. It focuses on Himalayan art. It's got six floors of art and a swanky bar on the first floor. On Fridays it's free after 7 p.m. and open until 10. And if you buy a drink (of any price), you can see their Friday night movie for free. It currently houses three exhibits: "What is it?" on the second floor (through Oct. 28), "Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain" on the third (through Oct. 16), and "The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama" on the fourth and fifth (through Sept. 3).

"What is it?" was separated into four sections covering "Where is it made?", "Why is it made?", "How is it made?", and "What is going on?". The art on display was all kinds of stuff--sculpture, paintings, embroidery--that mostly consisted of large scenes and/or minute detail. Then all the pieces had long explanations that answered the question of whichever section it was in. I got kind of tired of reading so much text after a while because it was making me pay less attention to the art itself. So I eventually just stopped reading and spent my time staring up close at each piece. Everything was stunningly beautiful. The colors in the paintings on fabric were shockingly bright and the statues and sculptures had some of the most impressively minute detail I've ever seen. And of the text that I did read (which was a lot), it was really fascinating. It explained the roles of the deities pictured, and the symbolism of repeated imagery, and the process that goes into some of the common mediums and processes.

"Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain" wasn't nearly as interesting. It focused on Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom, who lives on Mount Wutaishan. Joe and I kind of breezed through this part to get to "The Missing Peace," which was fantastic! It consisted of art inspired by or featuring the Dalai Lama, created by people all over the world. It covered pretty much every genre of art: photography, painting, video, installation, ceramics, sculpture... And there was a really wide variation in genders and nationalities among the artists, which is unusual (but much-welcomed) for contemporary art in a museum setting. One of my favorite pieces was this small participatory installation of a shelf holding a number of spools of golden thread. Museum-goers are instructed to stand in front of the shelf and pull the thread out to arm's length, then let it drop to the floor. One and a half spools were empty and there was a big pile of the thread clustered in one spot. I wish I'd written down the piece's explanation (and its title and author for that matter) because I'm gong to bastardize it really horribly here, but the idea is that the many arms' lengths of thread represent, like, joining hands all across the world. I think I'm inadvertently trivializing it with my crummy explanation, but I assure you, it was moving.

As for the overall feel, The Rubin is one of the best organized museums I've ever been to. The pieces on the walls are sufficiently spread out that you never feel overwhelmed, but close enough that the place hardly feels empty. Floating columns and display cases are placed so that they don't obstruct your walking path. The whole place was really clean and displays looked consistent throughout. The lighting was perfect, the air-conditioning was comfortable, the crowds were minimal (it is in a pretty off-the-beaten-path location), I could go on for a while here. Plus--hello!--open till 10 on Fridays with free admission and a free movie? I will definitely be going back in the near future.

new computer!

So my computer decided to completely die on me a few days ago. In hysterics, I called my parents and my mother suggested that I come home and use our computer here, and we would either take mine to get fixed or get a new one. Considering that my computer was five years old, it was pointless to pump more money into getting it fixed (remember the internet connection [or should I say lack thereof] fiasco that cost me $250?). So today we traipsed on over to the Apple store and they bought me my graduation present early. I am now the proud owner of a Macbook Pro! Hooray! I am a Mac virgin no longer. It's so lovely and functional. So I took a bunch of creeeeepy photos of myself in the lovely glaring glow of the screen with its built-in camera. Enjoy the slide show!

sucks

Kurt Vonnegut died.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/books/12vonnegut.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp

I am more upset by this than I would have expected.

Why is it so upsetting when someone you admire dies, even when you're completely removed from his realm of existence? I don't know. I need to go to the library right now and read some more of his books.

P.S. http://www.qwantz.com/index.pl?comic=973 (People familiar with either his work or the NYT article will get it.)

Ireland in photos

The tattoo! I love it I love it I love it!

So lush! This is in Konnemara.

A cemetary on Inis More.

The (sort of) mystery fortress on Inis More (note the beautiful weather).

Me standing atop the 300 foot cliff at the fortress.

The pathway of the solitary hike I took at Coole Lake (so beautiful).

Cool chandelier in Dublin Castle.

Cool floor in Saint Patrick's Cathedral.

My first Guinness (but not my last!).

The pre-St. Paddy's Day percussion band.

here comes a long one!

Ireland Spring Break part deux:

So "Julius Caesar" was okay. The acting left a little to be desired, but not because it was "bad," it just didn't fit the characters quite right. Brutus, for example, seemed too defeatist. It was like "You want me to kill Caesar, Cassius? You mean my best friend in the world, that Caesar? Oh, um... okay. Why not?" Blah. The costumes and sets were mesmerizing, though. The costumes culled from all different eras, which I read as representing a number of different war eras. WWI helmets, Greco-Roman armor, samurai armor, etc. And somehow it all mixed together cohesively.

Wednesday we went to Trinity College, where we saw the Book of Kells. I didn't find it terribly fascinating, actually. The campus was lovely, though. We also went to Dublin Castle, which was interesting because it's still used for meetings and dinners with politicians now. I took a short look in the Chester Beatty Library, which had Catholic, Islamic, and Hindu and Buddhist art on display. I only had time to see a little of it, though, as we had to move on to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. The cathedral's stained glass windows were less than impressive, but it had some really lovely patterns on the floor tiles to make up for that.

Thursday was the Dublin Writers' Museum, which was a snorefest unless you're really into your Irish literature, which I confess I've read very little of. In the afternoon we went to Kilmainham Jail, which I found absolutely fascinating. For one thing, I instantly recognized the big hall from pictures in books on Foucault, who I love. It was a panopticon, which is when the guards can see all the prisoners at all times, but the prisoners can't see them, so they never know if they're being watched or not. The jail was also fascinating because that's where the course of Irish history completely changed. They executed the leaders of the 1916 rebellion (against the British), which rallied the rest of Ireland to the rebellion's cause. Nearby the jail was the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which was kind of disappointing. It was a really dinky collection.

Friday had a lecture with a Californian woman, Karen Fricker, who moved to Ireland to write about theatre. I'm so jealous of her bravery. I love traveling, and would never turn down an oppurtunity to go abroad for a month (or two or three...), but I don't think I could just pick up and move permanently. Later I took a meandering walk around by myself, and checked out the George's Street Arcade and whatever other quirky shops I chanced upon. I found a percussion band made up of handicapped people, which I really enjoyed. Then that afternoon, I got my tattoo! It is beautiful. It came out perfect. I really couldn't be happier with it. See the next entry for photos. I just love it! The travel tattoos are officially underway. And I'll be in France in July for my cousin's wedding, so I'll finally be able to get the swirly fleur de lis that I've wanted for a while now.

Saturday was probably the most fun-filled day of the trip, as it was Saint Patrick's Day! A bunch of us watched the parade in the morning. It was weird. It was more like a Mardi Gras parade, with dragons and animals and other non-Irish-themed floats. In the afternoon, some of us went to a pub to watch the Six Nations rugby tournament, which was fantastic! Picture this: drinking Guinness in a pub in Ireland, while watching rugby, surrounded by tipsy, boisterous (oftentimes singing) natives, on St. Patrick's Day. So much fun!

Hooray Ireland!

Change of subject: Today in NYC was ansolutely gorgeous. Rachel, Marta, and I went to "Indwelling," the women-centric photography show Marta was part of. The theme of the exhibit was women's bodies, and how they see themselves. Some of the stuff was a tad amateurish (a photo of a chubby girl's back with sharpie writing on it saying stuff like "love handles"), but most of it was gorgeous and extremely professional. Marta's photo was actually probably my favorite. It was a sepia-toned 24x20 Polaroid of a naked girl sitting in profile with her knees up to her chest, with lilies sitting on her lap and lilies and almonds placed at her feet. It was really delicate and beautiful-looking.

After the show, the three of us went to "Fabulous Fannie's," a vintage eyeglass frame shop. They had TONS of frames to choose from, but I still couldn't quite find what I wanted. I want a big old black plastic really nerdy-looking pair. But my head is tiny, so it's a struggle to find ones that actually look right.

It was such a nice day that I decided to walk nearly all the way home. I went from the East Village, to the Williamsburg Bridge, then crossed the bridge and walked about half of the rest of the way back to my place, then hopped on the subway once I got to the stop I wanted. It was probably about four miles in all. And I took lots of pictures of quirky stuff on the way. God, I love weekends in the city.

spring break!

So I'm in Dublin, in an internet cafe. We arrived in Galway Saturday, 8 a.m. Irish time. I spent the day wandering around town seeing what was what. At night we saw the play, ''Leaves.'' I thought it was okay, but everyone else seemed to think it was great. It was about a family whose daughter tried to commit suicide. She was sent to a hospital of sorts, and the play focuses on her return home, and the effects on the rest of the family. I thought the end wrapped up too neatly. The mother and suicidal daughter had a breakthrough one night, and in the next scene it's a few months later, the daughter is leaving for college, and everyone is happy and back to normal. Sure.

On Sunday we took a bus tour of what I presume was the ''countryside'' on a windy, rainy day. The weather was totally tolerable, though, as the scenery was beautiful. We had dinner in a quasi-French restaurant, the highlight of which was the raspberry tart I had for dessert. Yum.

Yesterday (Monday) was incredible. We went to the Aran Islands, and took a ferry to Inis More, the biggest island. Though I thought I was going to die of seasickness on the boat ride over, it was well worth it. The weather was impeccably gorgeous, and the island was absolutely stunning. We hiked up to this fort that overlooked a 300-foot cliff. What a view. The water was bright green and the cliffs on either side of us were sheer drops. Some of us braved the height and lay down right at the edge to peer over, myself included. And, again, I can't even begin to describe how impeccable the weather was. Blue sky, sun, and zero clouds for the majority of the day. We were so lucky. I also bought a really cute hand-made knit hat. At night some of us went to a pub-ish restaurant, then followed that up with an hour or so of traditional Irish folk music in another pub. What a great end to a superb day.

Today we drove to Dublin, stopping on the way at Coole Park, where I took a solitary hike through the woods. This was definitely the most gorgeous forest I've ever seen. There were old stone walls all over the place. Trees were covered in ivy, and everything was covered in bright green moss. It was serene.

Tonight we're going to see Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar'' at the Abbey Theatre. It should be good. We have to review it, though, so that means I can't go out tonight. Damn. I'm really looking forward to some serious nightlife now that my jet lag is finally all worn off.

Oh yeah, last thing: I set up an appointment today to get another tattoo! My quest to get tattooed in every foreign country I visit (not counting Canada) is on its way! So exciting!

wha-huh?

I just saw a commercial for a new show on Court TV called "Till Death Do Us Part." It's about marriages that end badly, like with one spouse murdering the other. And it's hosted by John Waters.

wtf?! Who comes up with this stuff?

Anyhoo, I saw The Thermals at Studio B in Brooklyn last night. I was introduced to them about a week ago, so I'd only listened to three or four songs before the show. They're pretty much your standard indie-punk, but are really catchy and fun. Plus they were so good live. People in the crowd were really into it, with singing along and stage diving even though it was a small indoor place and the audience was really only thick enough for diving in a radius of ten feet from the stage. The band was all smiles; they seemed really happy to be there, which makes concerts so much more enjoyable. Also the bassist was totally darling. She was wearing a white eyelet babydoll dress and her curly hair was all flopping in her eyes. So cute.

Here are their websites:
http://myspace.com/thethermals
http://www.subpop.com/artists/the_thermals

it's about damn time

Readers may have noticed an usually large gap in time between the last entry and this one. It's not because I'm not going to lots of galleries and events (au contraire! I've done more in two months of NYC life than I did all last semester in The 'Cuse.), it's not because I'm too busy, it's not even because I'm too lazy... It's because my wireless internet simply refused to work in my apartment (though my room mates have no trouble connecting and I have no trouble connecting everywhere else other than my own home). So I've gone without a regular internet diet for nearly two months now. Marta (the Hungarian room mate) allows me the use of her computer anytime I want, but I try not to take advantage of her kindness, so all computer activity has been reduced to the bare minimum. Today it occured to me that the semester is nearly half over and I'm nowhere near halfway done with the research and work required of the numerous papers that must be finished within mere months. So I sucked it up and called 1-800-geek-squad. It took five hours to figure out the problem and fix it. And that's at a rate of $98 an hour. So let me say this:

I highly, highly recommend 1-800-geek-squad. The guy was very professional, really nice, and extremely polite (he asked permission to use the bathroom like three times). I didn't feel at all skeeved out by letting this stranger into my home. He explained what he was doing periodically, so I know he wasn't just fooling around to charge me more. And then he only charged me for two and a half hours' worth of work. I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown, because I was thinking I would have to pay $500 just to get my internet working. That amount of money could pay for half a new computer! But no, I only had to pay $250. Plus he fixed my spyware detector and ended up cleaning up the whole computer, so now it runs faster too. $250 is a whole lotta money for me, but compared to the potential $500, I feel like it was totally worth it. I feel so much less stressed out now that I have internet. I can finally really get serious with my schoolwork. There's also a 100% guarantee, so if the internet somehow craps out again, Geek Squad will come right back and re-do it for free.

On to the art! I've been attending so much stuff lately that I don't even remember it all. But here are some highlights:

Kai Kuhne show during fashion week. Hugely fat fur mini-dresses, a knit one-piece bodysuit with jodhpurs, and a fat feathered mini-dress that made the model look like a slutty Big Bird. Scary.

Many, many art galleries in SoHo and Chelsea, including free brunch at Max Protetch last weekend. I was actually less than impressed by the gallery space itself (or even the current artwork), but far be it for me to complain about free food and art. I also followed it up with a trip to the Chelsea Art Museum, whose "The Food Show: The Hungry Eye" and "Dangerous Beauty" were deliciously clever (a floor made of scales in front of a CGI video of a scary-skinny runway model strutting her stuff, par example; or the bulimic family of dollhouse toys all vomiting into little toilets with the baby barfing into a training potty). P.S. They carried zingmagazine in their gift shop!

The Fountain Art Fair. A two dollar donation got you free drinks, a decent DJ, and a one-inch button featuring an illustration of-what else?-Duchamp's groundbreaking piece, "The Fountain." I fell in love with these pictures that were harsh black outlines of a mushroom cloud over top of a delicate pencil drawing of a big old rose. The flowers were so subtle that you didn't even notice it's a rose until you took a really good look. But they were so skillfully drawn that at first I thought it was a very light black and white photo. And the nuclear bomb over a rose? I know it's a bit of a cliche, but the mushroom cloud was very graphic and cool looking and that image is totally appropriate for the current political climate.

The zingmagazine release party! So much fun! To read about all the specific preparations I took part in, you'll have to mosy on over to the anonymous intern blog, but the party itself was fantastic. Trendy people + musical chairs + pinatas filled with condoms featuring photos of art on their wrappers + more pinatas filled with artist-related candy (paintbrushes, crayons, and cigarettes-so cute, no?) = a rolicking good time. Hopefully photos of the event will be up on the website soon. I can't wait for the new issue to finally get to the U.S. (it's being printed in Singapore currently). I love my internship.

Assuming my computer feels like behaving itself from now on, many more entries are on their way!

P.S. Ireland in a week!!

it's been a while

So many changes in the past few weeks!

I moved into my new apartment in Queens. It is awsome. The rooms are big and airy and my two room mates are extremely nice. I started my internship with zingmagazine as well, which I'm loving. I'm mostly doing secretarial things, like googling phone numbers, but I also get to do some fun stuff, such as play with Photoshop and InDesign all day. I've spent a lot of time finding articles online about zing, which I then lay out in InDesign all pretty-like. They keep copies of all the articles they find to show to potential advertisers and stuff, to demonstrate that they have a lot of circulation, I guess.

We're also getting ready for the release party that's happening February 25, as the next issue comes out in March, so I've been helping with some of the preparations. There's going to be a pinata filled with condoms at the party (along with a bunch of other silly stuff--I can't wait!), and we're going to put pictures of some artists and/or their art on the wrappers. So I spent the better part of one day googling the artists and making little pictures in Photoshop to put on the wrappers. That was really fun. I'm so glad I took magazine editing last semester, 'cuz I've been using my newfound Photoshop and InDesign skills left and right (and apparently I'm the only intern who knows how to use them--go me!).

This past Friday, Anna (the very sweet and totally adorable managing editor) and I took off early to go gallery-hopping in Chelsea. We saw some fantastic photography in one gallery (that I of course failed to write down the name of, I have got to work on that). There were a whole bunch of bright, colorful portraits (about 10 by 10 inches) of children, but none of the kids were looking directly at the camera, and most weren't centered either. I thought the off-centeredness made the pictures look more natural and spontaneous. I also have a thing for off-kilter stuff in pretty much any visual art (drawings, paintings, prints, what have you). Also in the same gallery were some larger photos (like three by five feet?) of messy tables after people had finished eating. Each photo centered on a section of a table, most covered in a white or cream tablecloth, upon which might be a dessert plate with remnants of cake, or a couple pieces of silverware, some crumbs spread around or a round wine stain, etc. They were sort of voyeuristic, but lovely in their simplicity, and somehow comforting and cozy (particularly one that featured a saucer with what looked like a half-eaten slice of wedding cake left on it... so sweet).

Check out zingmagazine.blogspot.com for the anonymous intern blog.

Also! My Monday class was cancelled for the semester, so now I'm taking an art history independent study focusing on censorship in art. So now I only have to be in class in Syracuse on Wednesdays and sometimes have meetings on Tuesdays. So now I get to stay in NYC five or six days a week, instead of only four. It's wonderful. I love this city so much. I think my favorite part of the day is the subway ride into Soho from Queens, and back again. I get to watch all the neighborhoods and graffiti go by since the train is above ground. And crossing the Williamsburg Bridge feels like going home no matter which direction I'm going, whether toward the city or toward my apartment.

I feel like I'm finally doing something with my life.

immersion trip photos

A poster in the little museum in the Performing Arts Library. This picture's a bit small to really see it, but it's absolutely beautiful and kind of goth looking.


Another theatre poster. It's so pretty... God, I love art nouveau.


Some random graffiti in Chelsea that I liked. It looks like the skeleton guy is trying to escape from the wall. Cute!


This is a painting by Cecily Kahn (from the day spent gallery hopping in Chelsea) that I really loved. I think the white splatter looks like a person falling head first. But the pastel colors in the background are serene, giving the sense that the "person" is floating, not falling. Yet the black splatter is violent and forceful. So I think the "person" is dead. The whole thing feels conflicted: is it peaceful or disturbing? I'm leaning toward both. Death is a sad thing to have to deal with and accept, but it's still a natural part of life.


This is the hallway leading to the bathrooms in the Studio Museum in Harlem. How unusual. I've always loved bright red walls for some reason.


A car in desperate need of a good washing in a parking garage in Harlem. I adjusted it for the new year.


And last, but most certainly not least, me at The Daily Show!

JOY!

I got an apartment in Brooklyn! And it's beautiful! I move in Wednesday night! I still have class in Syracuse on Wednesdays, so I'll be commuting back and forth, but it's totally worth it.

I love New York City so much! I can't believe I'm finally going to be living there!

Pictures will come once I'm settled and it's decorated, etc.

still NY

I actually returned from NYC a few days ago, but here is the wrap-up anyways:

Tuesday we spent the morning workshopping, and had lunch at the Algonquin again. We didn't have anything in the afternoon, so Erica and I did some window shopping on the upper west side. I found a pair of pointy-toed flats in bright yellow for only $20, but they only came in size seven. Sad.

In the evening we went to "The Daily Show"! Jon Stewart is a tiny, tiny man. But still awsome. I was surprised that every segment was done in only one take. I figured they would stop and do stuff over if someone stumbled over their words or anything. Also, they read from a teleprompter, which I was also surprised by, since Jon Stewart seems so natural when you watch it on TV, like he's just talking straight from his head. After the show, us SU'ers were herded into a separate room to wait for Steve Bodow, the head writer we were to have dinner with. And when Steve came down to meet us, he brought Jon Stewart with him! So we got to meet him en masse. We couldn't take any pictures or get autographs or anything, which was really disappointing, but I still got be in the same room as him, so hooray! nonetheless.

Wednesday was our last day. I walked to The Strand, where I picked up a copy of the complete "Little Nemo" comics. I also stumbled upon an organic farmer's market in Union Square, and got some hot garlic jelly and jalapeno sauerkraut for my father. I also went back to the Studio Museum in Harlem to get a copy of the Africa Comics catalogue.

We returned to Syracuse around 10 p.m., to find a few inches of snow on the ground! Finally! I was so happy to finally see snow. Unfortunately it rained today and washed away any remnants of winter prettiness.

In other news, zingmagazine finally called and now I have an internship! Next weekend I'm going back to NY to check out some apartments that I found on good ole' Craig's List, then the fillowing week I'm moving there! I'll still be returning to Syracuse Mondays through Wednesdays for my two classes a week, but I'll be living in NY four days a week. Hooray hooray horray hooray!!!

I'm so happy I'm finally moving to NY.

Last review of the trip

Here is the official review I wrote about the Museum of Sex's exhibit on Japanese comics:

Working Title:
When Worlds Collide: Porn in the museum

A dark room with black walls, small windows cut into each at varying heights so that one must stand on toe or crouch down, face pressed to the hole, to see inside. A peep show? Not quite, though a look within does reveal nudity, prostitution, and all manner of graphic sexual behavior. Set a few inches into the windows of the walls are Japanese prints and drawings detailing sexual escapades dating from the Edo Period (1603-1867) all the way up to modern day’s pornographic manga (comics).

On display through March 6 at New York’s Museum of Sex, Peeping, Probing & Porn: Four Centuries of Graphic Sex in Japan provides an intimate glimpse into the evolution of sex trade and gender roles in Japan, and chronicles the country’s relationship with the western world and its own rapid modernization.

The Edo-era woodblock prints that begin the exhibit feature prostitutes in action within the brothel district. Most include startlingly detailed depictions of colorful engorged genitalia, the artists not shying away from bodily fluids and closeups of penetration. By the time Commodore Perry arrived to force the opening of Japan’s ports in 1854, scenes of rape and sex with demons and animals appeared, a reflection of the West’s invasion. Then western-style clothing shows up and women’s roles appear less victimized, the notes accompanying the pictures pointing out joyful facial expressions and consensual relationships.

Manga exploded after a WWII ban was lifted. Hentai (pornographic manga) now depicts every type of sexual activity and relationship imaginable, signaling a less repressive society in which women are no longer submissive slaves. Wide age gaps, bestiality, and gay relationships are common themes.

The exhibit’s dark walls and bright red floor, small viewing windows, and fabric screens hanging from the ceiling to divide the room into chronological sections all add up to a sense that visitors are participants in a peep show. The copious number of written explanations, however, also provide ample historical context. This mix of sexuality and intellectualism almost desexualizes the pornography, yet the graphic nature of the images keeps it firmly entrenched in masturbatory fodder, making for a uniquely paradoxical museum show.

The end is near...

Only one and a half days left of the NY trip! So sad...
Here is today's recap:

We started out workshopping our reviews. I was with Michael Kimmelman, the chief art critic for the NY Times. Crazy, right? He was fantastic. He pointed out all this stuff that needed to be tweaked in our reviews, while still somehow making me feel like I'm a halfway decent writer. And I agreed with everything he suggested. I suppose that's what happens when you spend a couple decades honing your craft: you end up knowing your shit. Hopefully I will find time to fiddle with the Kimsooja review and post it here again.

We had lunch with the critics (the other two were Alex Ross, chief music critic for The New Yorker, and Megan O'Rourke, culture editor for Slate.com). Lunch was also great, as conversation with Kimmelman came easily and we all found plenty to say. It's really inspiring to meet all these prolific people in my own field. It really gives me hope that I will one day end up with a career that I adore, though I do recognize that getting to that place will take a lot of time and hard work and putting myself out there.

After lunch we had almost an hour and a half to kill, so I got to take a much-needed nap. Then we went to the Studio Museum in Harlem, which was having an exhibit on African comics. I was actually going to check out the exhibit last time I was in the city (about four weeks ago), but didn't have time. I also read an article about African comics in the most recent issue of Zink Magazine, which made me want to see it even more. The museum is actually closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but they opened up just for our class for two hours today, and gave us a discussion with the director, Thelma Golden, who was wonderfully articulate and had so much to say. I only wish we'd had more time, because I wanted to read all the comics and there were a ton. Also, most of them are in French, which I can read, but it takes about three times longer than reading the same thing in English. I may actually go back Wednesday just to buy the catalogue of the comics, even though the book is ridiculously expensive. I love comics so much, and these African ones are something totally new and unique for me, so I have to have them. It's a compulsion.

We had dinner at "Sylvia's Restaurant," which is apparently a famous institution. It was certainly the best soul food I've ever had. And there was so much! It was unlimited cornbread, fried chicken, fried fish, barbeque ribs, collard greens, spicy rice, potato salad, and then banana pudding with crumbly stuff for dessert. It was SO GOOD. I definitely gorged myself silly on cornbread.

Tomorrow is our last workshop and then in the evening, WE GET TO ATTEND A TAPING OF THE DAILY SHOW!!! I am beyond excited. I adore Jon Stewart and want to marry him. Also, we get to have dinner with one of the writers. SQUEEEEEEEEE!!! So exciting!

I am going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming back to Syracuse. Yes, I love my home; yes, I love my parents; yes, I love school. But being in NY just makes everything so much easier. There is a larger variety of more art here, and being so immersed in culture makes writing about the arts come so naturally. It just flows out of me with nowhere near the amount of struggling I experience in Syracuse. I wish zing and ArtNews would hurry up and get back to me so that I'd know whether I'll be spending next semester here...

Working title: Life in Progress: Kimsooja’s fleeting photos.

Becoming a star of the art world is no easy task. One must have the right style at the right moment, and even then, fame is most often a fleeting fad. How appropriate, then, that Korean artist Kimsooja’s current photography exhibition, at the Peter Blum Gallery in Chelsea, discusses the passage of time.

A Wind Woman, on display through Jan. 13, consists of a group of large-scale color photographs (roughly three feet wide by two feet high) that are stills from her 2003 video of the same name. Kimsooja shot the video while driving in Hawaii, with the camera shutter open at length so as to capture the movement of the landscape as she passed by.

Most of the photographs have placid clouds in the background, while glimpses of what are presumably foliage and contours of the land blur horizontally in the foreground. Dark lines trespass across each photo, exposing the photographer’s movement.

While standing in front of the photos, there is a distinctive sense that the scene is passing you by, not that you’re moving past it. The pictures urge the viewer to hurry, as though time is running by. Since the movement is already captured on film, however, forever sealing it in constant motion, attempts to catch up are a waste of time.

The very first photo in the array is nearly all white, with only very pale grey blobs. The last one is all black. The white evokes birth, with the following photographs life, and the stark black presumably death. It’s a seemingly heartless way of looking at the world. You’re born, life passes you by in an instant, and then it’s over. But within each fast-paced photo, the clouds in the background remain still. The static clouds are the moments that matter enough to stick with you.

Human existence is comparative to a drop in the ocean of time. Kimsooja’s photographs resonate with this short history, and the even shorter life span of each individual. Yet they’re also optimistic, reminding us that to cherish and remember something is to keep it still despite time’s attempts to steal it away.

more NY

Time for another NYC update:

Friday we started out with a tour of the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library. Since my focus is visual arts, this resource may come in less handy for me than for some of my compatriots. It was, however, still amazing. They have archives of everything. They have newspaper clippings from what appeared to be every play that's ever been performed in the U.S. There were filmed stage shows that you could watch, all kinds of photographs and documents, costume and set notes (including fabric swatches! Be still my fabric-loving heart...). It was incredible. Unfortunately, you're only allowed to use their resources if you're doing legitimate research. So I couldn't go there just to look at costume sketches all day or watch different adaptations of Shakespeare just for fun. Sad...

We had lunch with John Rockwell, who has been a music critic, dance critic, NY Times editor, among other things in a number of fields. He was very nice, and what I could manage to overhear was interesting, but for the most part, I couldn't hear anything he was saying because the seating was all spread out. Also, the waiter was hilarious. He kept interrupting us mid-sentence when he brought out food. And when dessert came, he walked over and positively yelled "Key lime tart!" out of nowhere, with no warning. Kathleen and I cracked up.

Next we attended the ballet rehearsal (which turned out to be of "Sleeping Beauty," not "Swan Lake"). It was so neat. We got to see the director actually stop the dancers and make comments and changes. We got to see mistakes, which you never see when you attend a performance (how do they do that?). I wish we could have seen the actual performance too, though, as a comparison would have been appreciated. (Plus I love ballet.)

At night we saw part one of "The Coast of Utopia" (there are three parts). It was so good. It starred Ethan Hawke (lovely) as a pretentious philosophy (aka bullshit)-spouting Russian. I'm a bit hazy on the details, as it jumped around in time and there were a ton of characters, but I think the general gist of the plot is Ethan Hawke's character (Michael) sympathizes with the Decembrists (or maybe he is one, I'm not entirely sure...), and he wants Russia to modernize after the western world's example. At the end of the first part, he gets banished to Siberia for his "anti-government" activity. The costumes, the acting, the lighting, the set and scene changes... they were all superb. Seriously. Go see this play. All three parts if you can.

Yesterday we explored galleries in Chelsea, which made me oh so very happy. We started with Kimsooja's photographs, which I reviewed. (See above to read it, it should be the next blog post after this one.) We also saw Cecily Kahn's super bright abstract paintings, which I fell in love with, and Edgar Martins' absolutely beautiful, haunting photographs of a Portuguese beach at night. Lastly, we saw Janis Kounellis' sculptures, which I wasn't really that into. I don't know what the artist's intention was, but they all reminded me of torture chambers. There were these wire beds wrapped in strips of fabric, with the surface painted a rust color... they looked bloody to me, like someone had chopped people up on top of them. Scary.

(I'll post photos of this stuff and further comments when I get back to Syracuse. I don't have the right cord with me, so I can't transfer my pics to the computer while I'm here.)

We also had a studio visit with painter Pat Lipsky, but I wasn't that into the paintings she showed us either. I did get a look at a book of some more of her work, though, and I liked some of the stuff in the book a lot. Pat herself, however, was fantastic. I wish I could do studio visits all the time. It's fascinating to listen to artists talk about the mental and physical processes that go into creating a piece of work. I'm also a firm believer that knowing what goes into a piece of art informs your criticism by leagues. I guess as a bit of an artist myself, I just don't see how you can grasp an art form without experiencing its creation to a certain extent yourself. I don't believe that people with no artistic experience can't be critics, I just think that making art helps you appreciate it in a way that non-artists can't quite understand.

At night we attended the NY Philharmonic, which was thankfully a short performance, because I was very tired by this point. They played Beethoven's violin concerto first, with soloist Pinchas Zukerman. He was incredible. Who knew the violin could make such crazy, high pitched (yet somehow pleasing) squeals. The second piece was Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, which was absolutely phenomenal. This is the piece of music that accompanies the dinosaurs in "Fantasia." It is so chaotic, and loud, and brash, and awsome. It was just the thing to wake me up enough to go out for some chow with classmates. We ended up at a Mexaican place called Cosmic Cantina, which had yummy, but unfortunately very small, quesadillas. And then bed at about 2 a.m.

Today was our one and only free day, so I slept super late and it was glorious. I didn't do much, started out wandering around Chinatown for a bit in search of this underground mall that I went to with other people once years ago, but I couldn't find it. Lappy told me what street it was on (even which block), but after walking back and forth down the one little block, I still couldn't figure out where the hell its entrance was. It's either totally inconspicuous, or I'm just blind (or both!).

I met up with Andre and we got lunch and wandered around for a while. We eventually split, and I went to the Museum of Sex. Their exhibit on Japanese comics was really good. There was lots to read and they had a vast, vast array of pornographic Ukiyo-e (woodblock) prints and some manga. The ukiyo-e prints were really creepy. Japanese artists used to depict genitalia (especially penises) as really scary-looking. I noticed that the comics really outlined Japanese history, though, with the earliest prints picturing brothels and the sex trade, then a lot of sex with animals and demons and rape when the western world exerted its influence just before and then after Commodore Perry's arrival. Then all the characters started wearing western clothes and women's roles became less submissive and victimized

Manga was banned in WWII, so you next saw crude homemade drawings, and then post WWII saw the development of manga as we now know it. And by now manga tackles every aspect of "liberated," "deviant," or "perverse" sexuality that you can imagine. Bestiality, boys' love (yaoi), underage activity... Japanese comics have it all. I see it as a result of a much less repressive society, though the lack of repression is still debatable compared to the west, I think. But regardless, it's obviously far less repressive than the Edo Period. Manga also depicts women and men in all different societal relationships now (dominant vs. submissive, old age with a young'un etc.), which is pretty revolutionary compared to the always dominant (and often domineering) role of the man in both art and society in the past.

Okay, it is definitely time for sleep. Workshop tomorrow.

in NY once again

I've been back in NYC since last Saturday. Saturday through Tuesday morning I was just here for fun and to celebrate New Years (which was fantastic, by the way). I have been far too occupied with school stuff since meeting up with my arts journalism classmates Tuesday, so this is going to be a long entry recapping what I've done thus far. Enjoy.

Saturday I met Lappy in the city and we got dinner at a small, cute place that I can't remember the name of. The tables were chalkboards, though, so we could draw while we waited for our food. Perfect for us art kids. I hadn't seen her since I graduated, so it was wonderful to see a familiar face and catch up on our lives, etc. We walked around the city for a couple hours after that, ate some Cold Stone, then spent the night at her place in Westchester.

Sunday we slept ridiculously late and went to the city again, but split up to go to different parties. I met up with Jon and that whole crew from undergrad, and we went to a party at their friend Ann's beautiful apartment in Brooklyn. I miss those guys something awful and it was spectacular to hang out with all the people I used to see every day. I also chatted it up with some new kids, a couple of whom I exchanged e-mail addresses with. This was by far the best New Years I've ever had.

Monday evening Lappy and I returned to her house, where I read scanlations of Nana (it's a manga by Ai Yazawa) all night. The scanlations picked up about one chapter after the last chapter I'd read in Shojo Beat Magazine, so I missed a key part of the story, but everything that happened after that key point was the opposite of what I was hoping would happen. It was horribly depressing. Yazawa is a manga goddess. I find myself completely emotionally invested in her comics, even though when you get right down to it, they're basically just soap operas. Her talent for drawing expressive faces and for writing believable dialogue suck me right in.

Tuesday I went to the new MoMA (finally). I was kind of disappointed, actually. They have an incredible collection, and it's all organized on the walls really well, and I like the high ceilings. But I didn't like the floor layout at all. Instead of each floor being one meandering loop so that you can walk straight from one end to the other without missing anything, it had offshoots of rooms all over the place so that you had to retrace your steps much of the time to see everything.

In the evening, I met up with the rest of my arts journalism program and we saw the Broadway musical, "The Drowsy Chaperone." It's a play within a play. A guy talks to the audience about how much he loves this musical ("The Drowsy Chaperone") from the 30s, and when he puts the soundtrack on, the musical comes to life in his living room for the audience to see. The mini-musical was really doofy, though. It was about a famous Broadway star questioning whether she really wanted to get married (leaving her fame behind in the process) on the eve of her wedding. The "chaperone" was her consistently drunk maid of honor. Other cheesy characters are involved in the preparations, and "hilarity" ensues. The costumes and the set were gorgeous, and the "man in chair" character was amusing, but overall the whole thing was just too silly for my taste.

Yesterday we toured the New York Times offices, which was really cool. It makes me wonder if I'll ever see the inside again (from a desk, perhaps??). Lunch was spent with Jared Hohlt, culture editor at New York Magazine. He was very nice, though I must add that NY Mag never responded when I applied for an internship. Not even a polite rejection. Boo. (Not that it has anything to do with Hohlt, he was great.)

We next went to the Morgan Library & Museum, where I saw "Bob Dylan's American Journey," Saul Steinberg illustrations, and drawings by Fragonard and his contemporaries. The Dylan exhibit was so-so. It was a ton of stuff in a small, cramped area. It was interactive, in that you could listen to all his records from 1956-66 in their entirety, so that was a plus. And there were a lot of handwritten documents, including song lyrics, which was pretty amazing to see. The Steinberg stuff was pretty good, but not fantastic. The explanation printed on the wall claimed that he did set design, but there weren't any sketches or props from his designs on display. I did enjoy the drawings that were there, though. There was the classic New Yorker cover of the view of the rest of the world from NYC's perspective, and some collages he made out of self-designed rubber stamps, which I liked a lot. The Fragonard drawings were absolutely beautiful. I reviewed them for Wednesday's assignment, and will post my review after some more editing.

Then at night we saw "A Chorus Line." Most of the other AJ kids didn't seem too crazy about it, but I enjoyed it. I hadn't known anything about it ahead of time, though, and had only heard one song beforehand ("One Singular Sensation," which I didn't even know was from this show), so I think it helped that I went in with so few expectations.

Wow. Long day. Today I was exhausted.

Today we workshopped our reviews. My group was with Robert Ivy, an editor from Architectural Record Magazine. He was really helpful and encouraging. Lunch was spent with him and Eric Grode, a theatre critic at the New York Sun, copy editor at the New York Times, and an SU alumni. (Talk about accomplished.)

In the evening we had a networking party, which didn't turn out to be too successful for me. I talked to a number of people, but no visual arts people showed up, not even the couple who'd RSVP'ed. I was really hoping to meet this one woman from Phaidon Press, which is probably my favorite publisher. They put out a lot of art books, especially some absolutely beautiful collections of photography. But she didn't come.

Lastly, we went to Jazz at Lincoln Center (which is actually located at Columbus Circle), and this was incredible. The venue was gorgeous. It was a smallish club full of small tables that each had these really cool lamps that were basically gigantic eggs made of fogged glass with a lightbulb inside. I really want one. I'll have to check ebay. The ceiling had a dropped lip where it met the wall, which snaked all around the room in a wiggling shape. Then one wall was just a giant window with the most spectacular view I've ever seen inside the city, especially at night. There weren't any buildings obstructing the immediate view, but there was a wide cluster of skyscrapers further in the distance that had plenty of lights on. And I hate to admit it, but the glow around the buildings (caused by light pollution) just added to the scene. It was classic NY. Oh yeah, and the jazz was pretty good too (a quintet called "Horizon") considering I'm not much of a jazz person, but I was definitely paying more attention to the view and people watching.

And once again I am going to bed far later than I would prefer after a ridiculously busy day. Tomorrow will be a tour of the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library, a visit to "Swan Lake" rehearsal (which I am very excited about), and another play (Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia: The Voyage"), but that last event will be after getting FOUR WHOLE HOURS OF FREE TIME. Finally! I'm either going to go to the Museum of Sex, which is currently showing an exhibit on Japanese comics, will head down to St. Mark's to do some window shopping in the punk shops, or may seek out a decent tattoo shop, as I'd like to get one done while I'm here if I have time.

I heart NY

Why I Love New York City:

There are the usual reasons: the great shopping, the "melting pot" factor, it's the cultural mecca of the U.S., there is always something to do at all hours of the day and night... But the number one reason is that there is art everywhere. Literally, everywhere you look, there is either graffiti, a museum or gallery, a piece of sculpture, etc. etc. I was in NY for some internship interviews Monday through Wednesday and managed to remember to bring my camera for once. Check it out:

This is the view from inside the shops at Columbus Circle. So pretty. Also, they changed color. Here it is in green:

Then outside Columbus Circle, I found an outdoor market where people were selling mostly homemade stuff, like knitwear, jewelry, soaps; and if it wasn't handmade, it was quirky and cool in some other way. Take for instance...

THE WALL OF PUPPETS! These were so cool. They looked like the puppets from the TV show, Crank Yankers. I bought the little boy with blue skin and yellow hair (bottom center, between a black boy in a blue outfit and a white girl in a pink dress) for my young cousin.

When I finally headed back to Grand Central, they were playing xmas music and a kaleidoscope of images of the city was being projected onto the walls and ceiling. I definitely stood there gawking for a good eight minutes. I wish I'd been quicker with my camera because one of the photographs was of lots of taxis, and it looked really cool, but I did manage to capture some of the Chrysler Building:

Oh, how I love this city. Although Syracuse has its charms, and the art scene here is growing by leaps and bounds, I still can't wait to move to New York. No other place in the world can compare to it.

P.S. I went to the Brooklyn Museum Wednesday, and fell absolutely in love with these two paintings: (Of course I was dumb and neglected to write down their titles or artists, though.)

Just look at the expression and body position of the one up top. Though her face is definitely out of proportion, it's still somehow lovely in its fright. And the fabric? The skirt portion is amazing. The talent it requires to paint transparent fabric and with appropriate folds and wrinkles is just mind-boggling.

As for the guy at the bottom, I suppose I would say that I understand how he feels as of late. Something invisible pushing him down, but still struggling to stay up, though mostly in vain. He just looks... broken.

Last paper of the semester

For my magazine editing class, I had to write an extra paper since I was taking it as an independent study, since it was technically an undergrad level class. It's a magazine critique for three consecutive issues of the publication of my choice, and it had to be about eight pages long. I thought I would have trouble filling up that many pages, but I turned out to have more to say than even fit on eight pages. I chose Marie Claire, which has a new editor in chief that I think is doing great things. Pictures of the issues are to the left and here is my (very long) critique:


Marie Claire: September-November 2006

Overview

As a reader of Marie Claire for the past eight or so years of my life, I’ve seen a lot of changes within this magazine. For a while I didn’t really pay that much attention to the publication, though; I just read it when my mother happened to pick up a copy when she bought groceries. That changed in March 2001, when Marie Claire started their V Day campaign to end violence against women. One article in this issue changed my opinion on the magazine and probably my entire perspective on the world.

Sandwiched between “I’m Proud to be overtly sexy/ high maintenance/ materialistic/ ambitious/ selfish” and “Which outfit costs $300 vs. $3000?” is an article about a group of Bosnian women who’d been raped and tortured by soldiers every day for months. They were trying to get rape classified as a war crime so that their torturers could be prosecuted. It was disturbing, shocking, and totally unknown to me before reading this article.

This was the first time I noticed that Marie Claire has articles on more important things than makeup, clothes, and sex; and I have actually kept this issue all the way to now. Since 2001, Marie Claire has waffled between focusing on real issues that affect women and the vapid material we’ve come to expect from most women’s magazines. The September-November issues at hand are a giant leap in the “real issues” direction. The magazine is now wildly different than its 2001 incarnation. It barely resembles its contemporaries anymore. It has far fewer articles on makeup and clothes, but the ones that are left make use of stunning artwork and interesting angles (such as “Morning After Hair” in Oct [about how to tame your tresses after spending the night in someone else’s bed]).

Marie Claire’s new look and features are fantastic in so many ways. The only problem is, I would worry that people who liked all their fashion and beauty content may stop reading it. I suppose it’ll have to be a work in progress.

Design/Art

September’s issue was the first one I noticed as being extremely different. It has actress Maggie Gyllenhaal on the cover. This picture is totally unexpected and unique for a woman’s magazine. First of all, the background is black; it almost blends into her dark brown hair. Then she has heavy black eye makeup and a black dress. It’s almost goth. What a contrast to the perkiness and neon colors of its shelf neighbors. The only bits of color are her lovely light blue eyes (most likely airbrushed to be that color, but it looks fantastic), red lips, and a bright green apple she’s holding up to her face. This photo is leagues ahead of the smiley, cleavage-in-your-face girls that make up more typical cover fodder. It is art; and it would definitely draw the attention of a newsstand shopper, which I gather was the point.

The contents page that follows is located a mere page after the cover, instead of shoving 80 pages of advertisements in between. Plus it looks simple and clean, which makes it much easier to find the page for whatever article you may want to browse. In addition, the rest of the magazine doesn’t stray far from the contents page’s style, giving the entire thing a sense of cohesion and organization. For some reason, September doesn’t appear to have a contributing writers’ page, but October and November do, and it looks great. Each contributor has a different size photo with all of them joined in the center of the page. Then instead of having a third-person description, they each have a mini Q & A session. It’s all very clever.

From there we hit a few snags. The magazine starts out with a “shopping” section that’s rather ugly. You almost miss it at first because there’s no introduction. The first page looks like an ad and the next 10 or so consist of a mish-mash of photos of pieces of clothing. It’s completely stepped away from the organized simple look we started with.

Moving on, the photography that accompanies the “real” articles has turned into something truly incredible. September’s story on designer shopping in Dubai opens with a two-page spread of a woman in black head scarf and robe perusing a rack of Technicolor robes. It’s colorful, visually appetizing, and captures the spirit of the entire story. In the same issue, a story on illegal immigrants opens with another two-page spread, this time of a crosswalk covered in people, shot from above. Small labels point to some of the crossers, describing the person’s immigrant status in just a few words. It’s clever and appropriate to the story.

The fashion shoots have become quite lovely and artistic as well, and the “101 Ideas” section has taken a turn for the much, much better. It used to be just a bunch of squares on a page, each encapsulating an outfit in roughly the same color and style. Now there are fewer outfits with more white space between them. It’s less confusing to look at, and the larger photos allow the reader to actually get a decent look at the clothing. The best art by far, though, is found in the magazine’s photo essays. September has a montage of close-ups of the unusual looking body parts that play a role in a number of women’s careers. A firewoman’s arm, a ballerina’s feet, a violinist’s hands. These photographs tell far more about the women’s lives than the ensuing first-person blurbs.

November also has a photo essay whose pictures are worth innumerable words. “Love is a Battlefield” consists of blurry, grainy, and hazy photographs of women who live on a Marine Corps base, whose husbands (or fathers, brothers, etc.) are currently serving duty overseas. Most of the women aren’t looking at the camera, but their eyes still loudly tell the reader how sad or worried or hopeful they are. This is the kind of feature one would expect to find in Newsweek or Time, but the fact that it focuses on women makes it fit in just right with the new Marie Claire.

Editorial

I personally could not be happier that Marie Claire is focusing so much more on real issues. It appears to be a result of the backlash against the Ashlee Simpson article in which she insisted over and over that girls should be happy with how they look, then got a nose job right around the same time the issue hit the newsstand. I’m also impressed that the magazine kept some of the features they used to have, but improved upon them.

“10 Best to Do,” for example, has always been a really informative little feature; it describes in a few well-chosen words ten upcoming books, movies, and bands or CDs. An addition to the “10 Best” feature is the new “Culture” section, in which the magazine does more in-depth reviews of new books, film, and music. Within the same feature, they also list a few similar companions that have already been available for a while.

Marie Claire has also maintained some of the lighthearted, but slightly less superficial, articles, allowing the magazine to stay safely rooted in the “women’s magazine” category. September’s “The Ex Files” chronicles four women’s ex-boyfriends (and girlfriends). It’s not anything revelatory, but makes for some good vicarious fun. Pitting one lifestyle choice against another has also been a staple for as long as I can remember, and the new version does not disappoint. October has a story in which one woman could only communicate through computers and text messages and one through face-to-face interaction for a week. Whose week will go worse? This type of story is usually funny and allows the reader to compare the lifestyles in the article to her own.

Hands down, the best new part of this magazine is the “What I Love About Me” feature. This includes page after page of close-ups of everyday women who then explain their “beauty statement.” They choose things such as their large nose, weird hairstyle, makeup choices, or facial piercings. It’s so refreshing to see such a variety of non-modelesque smiling women who are happy with themselves and know how beautiful they are.

As for the articles on “real” issues, Marie Claire seems to have always had a knack for finding stories on issues around the world that are pertinent to women, and that no one knows about. I call it the “Who knew?” factor. September’s issue includes “Crime & Beauty,” a story about beauty pageants held in a Siberian prison, in which the winner oftentimes gets early release. October includes a story on female rescue squads in Islamic countries. These squads are necessary in natural disaster-prone countries where women are forbidden to be touched by men outside their families. November has an article on female journalists in the Middle East that is incredibly engrossing. All of these stories are on topics that just aren’t reported on in traditional news outlets, but they’re absolutely fascinating.

One aspect of Marie Claire that is really impressive is their ability to get interviews with seemingly untouchable people. November includes a lengthy article and interview with Lynndie England, the woman in the torture photographs from Abu Ghraib. This was the first interview she gave since being put in prison. The article covers her relationship with her former boyfriend and “ringleader” of the prison scandal, as well as her interactions with her infant son. It humanizes her without placing blame squarely on someone else. It’s very well-written overall, and is missing the annoying “cheerleader” voice that has permeated Marie Claire’s writing in the past.

September featured a wealth of similarly serious articles, including a fashion photo spread in which the model posed amid politicians, joined by snippets about each one. One story is about National Public Radio’s Baghdad bureau chief, Jamie Tarabay. Unfortunately, this one falls prey to the cheerleader intonation mentioned above, as one of its line breaks has the title “Craving a Miniskirt.” I realize that she has to wear certain clothing to avoid standing out too much, but did they really need to focus on something as trivial as a miniskirt? They could have used sunglasses, because Tarabay mentions that Iraqis like to be able to look you in the eye; or perhaps the food she says she misses, since food is a universal tie to home, unlike a miniskirt. It’s just too cutesy for the material at hand.

This “cheerleader” voice should really stay with clothing, makeup, and fluffy feature articles, and nothing else. It almost mocks the seriousness of the bigger issues. The editor’s letter has really unpleasant little catch phrases. In the November letter’s mention of its interview with actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, editor Joanna Coles writes, “Sounds like a script for a happy home life to us!” with regard to Gellar’s marriage. It made me want to gag. I suppose it could be argued that the magazine is just trying to talk to women in their own language, but I think that idea just doesn’t give women enough credit.

Speaking of celebrities, the articles on them could really use some work. The Gellar feature is just a page of questions and answers with no real writing. There isn’t even an introduction. It’s literally just a big letter “Q” and a colon. September’s story on Maggie Gyllenhaal is a bit better since it involves actual writing, but it’s just not that interesting. It doesn’t tell anything new or unusual about her. October’s cover story on Sarah Jessica Parker is far better; it focuses on the success of the launch of her first perfume and the work she’s putting in on her next scent. Although designing perfume may not be the most important decision she ever makes, it’s a side of the actress that you don’t see through television shows and the red carpet. Having a real focus created an actual story; and its length of a page and a half is just right.

Overall Impression

Marie Claire’s new look, simply put, is fantastic. Its articles and even small features are all very clever, sometimes witty, and mostly intelligently written. It has whittled down its fashion and beauty departments to shorter pieces that get to the point quickly and feature absolutely gorgeous photography. I especially love the close-ups of faces and makeup (a 12-inch vibrant red chunk of lipstick looks sparkly and delicious on a stark white background).

The magazine as a whole still seems to be a bit schizophrenic, though. The covers, for example, vary wildly from month to month. September was the goth Gyllenhaal/apple photo, October featured a more traditional laughing toothy-grinned Parker with windblown hair, and November a somewhat dull black and white close-up of a non-smiling Gellar. The Gyllenhaal photography inside is almost too edgy for this publication (she’s wearing crazy pouffy hair and the backdrop consists of a room covered in every inch by greenish-tinged grimy newspaper), while Parker’s is again traditional (just pretty shots of her in the perfume lab).

Then you have November’s article on the fact that women lag behind men when it comes to managing money—it’s immediately followed by “20 Things to Get Before You’re 40.” Not 20 things to do, 20 things to get, i.e. buy. And it includes things like “a big-ass TV” and “a serious ride” (luxury car, that is). These articles should not be in the same issue, much less separated by a mere page of ads. They stand in complete contrast to one another.

Despite the kinks that still need to be ironed out, however, Marie Claire’s changes are a welcome addition. I would still worry that some readers won’t like the fact that there are so many fewer makeup and clothing features, but the occasional special section would make up for that. If you flip over the October issue, in fact, you’ll find 78 pages of just beauty advice and articles. So long as Marie Claire keeps going in this same direction, I think it’ll do nothing but improve. The schizophrenia will probably work itself out as the new editor sinks into her position more.

Suggestions

Cut the cutesy stuff. Save it for superficial topics and purely entertainment articles. When it comes to the editor’s letter, leave the exclamation marks out. This is the very first thing readers will see after the table of contents, and it should speak for the rest of the issue.

Perhaps introduce some new subjects beyond clothes, makeup, and world issues. There’s more to being a woman than appearance and current events. There needs to be more about women’s health. Where is the article on the HPV vaccine? This is exactly the kind of topic Marie Claire should be writing on.

How about food and exercise? Recipes for tasty snacks that cover a gamut of fat and calories would be good. It could be set up like a timeline, with more fat on the left and less on the right. An article on “before bedtime” exercises that you can do on your floor (or even on the bed! That would be different.) would also be useful. These wouldn’t have to be monthly features, but there should definitely be more on these topics.

Lastly, the celebrity features either need to be more interesting, or need to go. Most of the writing in this publication is stellar, but the celebrity stories are dull thus far. If there isn’t anything particularly intriguing or news-worthy about the woman, just make it be a photo essay. The photography has proven to be more telling than some of the articles. So as long as it’s done well with a decent introduction, I don’t think anything would be lost.

winter fun

It was snowing the other day, and it was really pretty, so I took a picture. The photo uploader thingy didn't feel like working that day, so I'm trying to post again now. Here is my street:

Those would be my tire tracks. So pretty. But look how unfestive my street is--there is only one house with xmas lights (on the right).

Here are the pumpkins my parents grew at our cabin. Cute!

Too bad they're frozen now. So much for homemade pumpkin pie...


And here are Jon, Raquel, and Dante doing the Carl dance at the ice skating rink in Clinton Square:


Unfortunately the rink closed at 8 p.m., not 10, so we couldn't actually ice skate (hence our footware of sneakers and boots instead of skates). But I'm really adoring Clinton Square lately. The buildings surrounding it are all made of brick and stone and the rink is all lit up for Christmas. So lovely. I am loving winter this year.