Under the Bridge

Paper installation at the Dumbo Arts Center.

A lot has happened since I last posted here, starting with last Tuesday when I saw David Byrne of Talking Heads fame speak at Barnes & Noble about bicycles. He was on a panel with a few other urban planning-minded people to discuss ways to change the transit system in New York to be more bicycle friendly. It definitely made me want to get a couple of wheels, if only to hook them up to one of the cool David Byrne designed bike racks. The rest of the week I spent a lot of time at the Dumbo Arts Center helping with the above installation, called “The Experience of Green,” which I can best describe as a forest of paper trees. It was very therapeutic to get away from my computer and the job hunt and just rip and twist paper and then use a staple gun to make crazy, organic patterns. And the gallery space looked eerily like Untitled [ArtSpace], where I used to work in Oklahoma City.

Tunnel of Flowers in Dumbo.

The installation opened on Friday and also marked the start of the Under the Bridge Festival in Dumbo, Brooklyn, where I also volunteered. It’s a huge experimental art festival where you’re as likely to encounter the art on a street corner as in the numerous galleries and studios in the neighborhood. A favorite of mine was the performance art piece of an “Office Werewolf,” who had apparently been found in the basement of Enron and would shred paper for you. His face was made out of shoes, ties, and sharp blood-stained teeth, which horrified some children and delighted others. I also was mesmerized by the above tunnel under the Manhattan Bridge with its morphing flower projections.

Boat at the Manhattan Bridge.

A lot of the art was interactive, including the above boat where you could write a wish on a piece of paper and have it glue to the mast. I wrote one, but will keep it a secret so that it will come true. The first day of the festival I mostly tried to get people to fill out surveys. If anything else, NYC is making me build my confidence in interacting with strangers.

Shape of the Tongue.

The second day of the festival I worked at the information booth and then in the video_dumbo room, where I got to watch several hours of experimental films. Some with high pitched shrieking noises that immediately drove entering visitors away. The weekend of art made me consider how I might be able to use my writing and photography (or creepy drawings) in a more audience-friendly way. I would love to enter work in festivals and exhibitions like this, but writing is so insular and I’m not sure where to start with the printing and framing of photography. I’ll have to think on this. In addition to the arts festival, I also made my first visit to Queens this weekend and ate at a diner in Astoria. It’s kind of a shock to go there and see all the houses and hilly streets, which are non-existent in my corner of Brooklyn.

If you want to see more pictures of the festival, there are numerous photographs by some great photographers on flickr.

Sunset in Brooklyn

Sunset behind the Brooklyn Bridge, seen from DUMBO.

Today is exactly the one-year anniversary of my departure for France. I can’t believe everything that can happen in just 12 months. I made so many new friends, saw places I never dreamed I would, and did things I never thought I would be confident enough to do. In a way, maybe I wish I’d renewed my contract to teach another year, as the job search is such as Sisyphean task. I wondered this morning if that is partly why I can’t seem to fall complete in love with Brooklyn and New York. I guess I’m a little afraid that it’s not going to work out here, and I’m tired of saying goodbye to places and people I love. That’s another thing I did more of this past year than ever before. But I guess the price of satisfying your wanderlust is that you will never be able to completely root as securely as Aspen trees that cling to each other underground and you’ll always have to be ready to plant yourself in some new, loose soil.

A classic car which seemed to be painted the same color as the Manhattan Bridge behind it.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood and volunteering at the Dumbo Arts Center to help with a very cool installation of red paper trees. The gallery oddly looks a lot like Untitled [ArtSpace], where I worked in Oklahoma City. I’m also going to be working at the Under the Bridge Festival this coming weekend and am really looking forward to all the experimental art. The volunteering has been great for meeting people and seeing another part of Brooklyn. I can’t believe how huge and diverse this borough is.

Someone told me this was an art project of an inflatable suit you could wear if you were falling from a building. The fact they were literally emerging from the East River was unsettling. But I love a good unsettling moment.

What keeps New York so engaging for me is that you never know who or what you’re going to run into. I was taking a tour around DUMBO when we spotted these artists emerging from the East River wearing inflatable outfits. Someone in our group said that they were meant to protect you if you fell from high buildings. It seemed like an alien invasion to me. But the most random coincidence of my weekend was when I was waiting on the subway platform and as the train pulled up someone approached me and I realized it was the documentary filmmaker who had taught at Quartz Mountain this summer. I was a little in shock for a few minutes, but it was so awesome to see a familiar Oklahoma face and I went to a party that night for one of his friend’s birthdays. I still can’t believe all the circumstantial details that had to happen so that we were in the same place at the same time.

Another Brooklyn Bridge sunset. I'll never get enough of these.

I feel like I probably talk too much about Oklahoma, but things just keep coming up that remind me of my favorite state. I walked into a gallery the other day and heard The Flaming Lips and saw that a stage version of Rainbow Around the Sun, which I saw at deadCenter, was going to be performed here in October. Rather than make me too homesick, I feel like these coincidences are helping make me feel more like I belong here. Although with all that’s going on every day, in every neighborhood, does anyone not belong here?

Fashionable Sometimes

Praying mantis I saw near my apartment in Brooklyn.

I just got back from my first NYC book club meeting where we discussed Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, which, if you’re interested, is a much easier read than Infinite Jest even if the postmodern footnotes get a bit annoying. I’ve still been applying to at least four jobs a day and seem to have at least three interviews a week. Don’t worry, there have still been adventures. For one, I saw one first bit of Brooklyn wildlife with the above praying mantis that posed for me. Unfortunately, the next day I killed my first cockroach in our kitchen.

Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy.

Last Thursday night, I worked at an art opening and then we consumed much free food and drink as part of Fashion’s Night Out. The idea was to keep all the stores open late and offer glasses of Veuve Clicquot and sugar cookies in order to get people interested in buying new fall clothes. However, I’m not really in the market for thousand dollar dresses, so I just enjoyed seeing the stores in SoHo, sampling Earl Grey ice cream, and savoring each glass of free fancy alcohol. We also walked through the Feast of San Gennaro, taking place on the last street remaining of Little Italy.

Tribute in Light.

It’s hard to articulate what it was like to be in New York this year on September 11. In a way it was like every other day in the city and everything seemed normal despite the relentless rain. Which is expected, of course, as I don’t expect every New Yorker to walk around with a look of horror to mark each anniversary. The only moment I really felt the tragedy was in the morning when I was sitting in the quiet of my apartment and heard church bells tolling. I looked at the clock and felt that the silence wasn’t just in my kitchen anymore, but flooding in from all over the city as people stopped and remembered.

Room Tones was disturbing on many levels.

On Saturday I checked out the Room Tones exhibit in Greenpoint, which is about a 10 minute walk from my apartment. It was four stories of art and installations in a closed and now unused convent, with paint peeling off the walls, stained curtains, and ajar closet doors. This deterioration combined with the often creepy art made me feel like I was in a haunted house, which came also from being the absolute only visitor in the whole place. Imagine watching a grainy experimental film in an old chapel and then going upstairs to see the above scene: a ghost under a black sheet dancing on a TV screen while rain thrashes against the window. Imagine finding a basement full of laser lights and a sculpture made from mangled crutches.

Another installation in Room Tones.

I guess the best art evokes a reaction, it’s negative or positive. So in that way Room Tones was very successful. I’m not sure it’s the best installation art I’ve ever seen, but it’s definitely the first I’ve viewed in a convent.

Manhattan skyline seen from Williamsburg.

That Saturday a friend came up from Yale and we watched the OU football game and then walked along the river to see the city at night. The next day I volunteered again at Housing Works, this time in SoHo and later got a delicious juice made from apple, pear, pineapple, mint, and wheatgrass. I guess I’m working on my Brooklyn image.

Rainbow Space Invader, showing his pride.

On Monday, we went to an opening at the Jewish Museum and Tuesday I saw a bit of the DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn. As you can see, I’m still keeping my eye out for Space Invaders, although I believe Elizabeth spotted this one and I made us cross four lanes of traffic to take a picture.

Yesterday was my one month mark in New York. I can’t believe it.

If you’re interested, I made a post on the Audiography community today about my top five songs at the moment. Check it out here and get some new music.