Dec 14th me and my pal Aleesa Cohene set off to spend 4 spectacular days in NY. She was gonna stay with her friend Reena , and me with my friend the fantabulous art babe Adina Bier. On the plane we watched the dramatic season finale of Dexter, I also slept alot. Aleesa said in my sleep I omit some chemical that inspires relaxation and that she was able to effortlessly fall asleep for the first time ever on a plane. While we were awake, this is what it was like.
Clouds
Aleesa enjoying her Delta Coffee.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF NEW YORK
Adina Bier, need I say more. 
Learning the definition and difference between
"Leggings", "Jeggings", and "Treggings"
Leggings - stretchy pants
Jeggings- stretchy, but very opaque fabric to resemble jeans
Treggings - stretchy, but very opaque fabric to resemble wool, corduroy, leather or riding pants
I also just found out about "meggings" but I feel like If I go further, I will disappear down the rabbit hole and never return.
Eggs and potatoes and mixed veggies topped with VEGAN hollandaise sause. (yes I know it seems funny to have vegan hollandaise sause with eggs, but it just because someone can do eggs doesn't mean they are cool with milk. It was delicious.
BEFORE AND AFTER
This was at Adinas house. She had a brunch on her lovely Pink table. She has alot of roomates and they are all nice, artistic, and creative types.
Brunch conversation included talks about exhibitions, art, international adventure and the pros and cons of the "loft laws".
Adina took me and Aleesa to this Indian resturant.It was a small place with more christmas lights then I have ever seen in my life. I guess its like this year round. It reminded me of the bar Roses in Berlin, or at least what Roses would be if it was an Indian resturant in New York.
Adina also took us to see
BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND MOTHERFUCKERS.
A christmas special by Jibz Cameron.
(some of you may also know her as the
performance arty homeless-chic fashioned funny and introspective musician
I thought it was pretty good. I was entertained. Jibz played all the charectors ( a brother and sister and mom and grandma) . Most of which were projected on screens that she interacted with.
I saw a review that explains it pretty well here.
I was pretty into it. She has a very unique face and her humor is bizzare and yet strangely honest. The first time I saw her perform was at Homo A GoGO, like a million years ago, and she pretty much blew my mind. I wondered where on earth she came from. She reminded me of Peaches on Crack, but now that I see her, it is clear she is from another dimension entirely.
Another thing we did was go to a lecture about David Wojnarowicz.
I had never heard of him before this trip, but I learned he was a was a queer painter,photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s. He died of aids in 1992.
So fast forward to modern day... there is something happening now I heard one "intellectual" refer to as the "second culture war". I don't know what the first one was, I just know that David Wojnarowicz had a silent video piece called "A FIRE IN MY BELLY" in the Smithsonian in the exhibit "Hide/Seek: Difference and Disire in American Portraiture" at the American Portrait Gallery. After complaints from the Catholic League and Rep. John Boehner it was removed.
In response, The Andy Warhol Foundation, which had co-sponsored the exhibition, announced that it would not fund future Smithsonian projects, then several institutions, including SFMOMA, and ICP (which is where I saw it) scheduled showings of the removed work.
You can see it here.
This is an excerpt of the whole video, that you can see here.
Anyways lots of Queer people, lots of people in general are up in arms about this. Some think that this is an example of censorship and Catholics oppressing queers. Some Catholics see this as anti catholic ( the scene about the ants crawling on Jesus was sited in the complaint)
Me, well, I didn't think this piece depicted much queer representation that I related to.
So the removal doesn't feel oppresive to me.
And I also feel like The Smithsonian is in addition to being a gallery, it is a business. Alot of its contributors are Catholic. If it offends them, why not take it out. I don't feel like the Smithsonian
owes anything to anyone. I don't think I or anyone else should be looking exclusively at the Smithsonian for Queers in Art history. Its not like they are banning the piece from being shown any where else.
Maybe I am stupid, I just can't seem to wrap my head around why this is a big deal.
I don't get it.
I also don't think the Smithsonian is the "authority" on anything relevant to me. Its a bunch of famous artists work who made "art history" , and any one making art knows that for every famous artist, there is a whole movement of people you have never heard of doing equally important and similar things.
So he is not getting the "proper recognition" for his contributions to art history. There is a million artist who will never even see the inside of the Smithsonian ever. If he wasn't famous no one would give a shit.
I think any one upset about this should set up continue to set up their own viewings and stop bitch pissing and moaning about the smithsonian and its responsibilities.
The point is there is just one piece that is not showing in one place.
I have to say if this controversy never happened, I probably would've never heard of him.
Ok, so this part didn't happen in NY but I want to tell you about it anyways cuz its loosely related and it's really cool. Adina and her sister Arielle Bier recently returned from the Miami Art Basel Art Fair (something I saw referred to as one of the most important art fairs in the world) They did an installation / performance where they played the Scream Club song "Keep That Control" ( a collaboration we did with THE SHOES) every hour, on the hour, and on the last day on repeat.
Some photos from the exhibition.
Find out more about them out.
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