Lemur pic, funny jabs
gallery crawl and comedy from a basement boxing gym
Shameful, but after 30 years of visiting New York City, yesterday was the first time I’ve walked around visiting galleries. Jon & Jackie suggested the plan and it was a goddamn pleasure, so thank you Jon & Jackie.
We met up for lunch, then hoofed around white-walled spots looking at paintings, photos, and sculptures. My highlight was the 20th-anniversary exhibition of the tinyvices.com archive at The Hole, a trove of dope stuff to see. Today is the last day it’s on, so if you’re in the city, that's your Sunday plan. I heard an inspiring interview with Brad Phillips recently, and I’ve looked at his painting, Brian De Palma’s Front Door, several times online and was stoked to find the real thing in there, but this Robin Schwartz pic was my favorite of the bunch.
After parting ways with Jon & Jackie, Mal and I went downtown to see Harold Rogers’ comedy night, Knuckle Sandwich, which takes place down, down, down in the basement of the boxing gym where he’s a coach. Truly under-fucking-ground. If you follow my reading recommendations, you know I love Harold’s debut novel, Tropicália. I’ve fanboy’d on him digitally and was happy to meet in person. Harold was all smiles talking about the new comedy series. “You know, trying to start something,” he said. We got there early, the first people in the spattering of folding chairs in front of the tiny makeshift stage, but it filled in nicely by the time the laughs began, and the whole damn thing inspired me.
It’s good I didn’t connect the dots between “we have our car” and “there are lots of bookstores” until after I went to The Strand, because I might have bought crates of stuff knowing I could throw them in the back of the Honda rather than fucking with tucking them into luggage and carry-ons. My moderate haul includes Hamsun, Camus, Mary Shelley, Nabokov, Céline, and Frederick Barthelme.
We’ll start the drive back to Nashville this morning. I’m eager to read Mal some more chapters from my book while we make our way.