Let's Play Catch-Up

This is the first of what will undoubtedly be MANY "catch-up" posts.

Fabulous Friday began with a phone call from one very elusive scholar
who has been hiding in Russia since the summer. I was lucky enough to
live somewhere almost as interesting as Moscow, so Emily came to visit
for a day. I strolled up to Penn Station, always a nice walk, and caught
her there. We walked back to campus, picked up lunch, booked a bus
ticket to get her home, and headed out for our adventures.


After the wonderful time I had with Hillary at the Chelsea Market, I had
to show Emily. We picked up some sweet bread and chocolate milk for an
impromptu picnic, then left the market. From there, we climbed to the
Highline. We had picked up "Kenny's Window" by Maurice Sendak while
at the dorm, and we read it in the park.
We walked back to campus along
the Hudson, and we made it back just in time for a documentary showing
at- ready for this?- the Kevorkian center. Yup.

The documentary was called "Neyse Halim Ciksin Falim (Coffee Futures)."
It was put together by Zeynep Devrim Gursel, a visual anthropologist. She
brilliantly connected the Turkish tradition of telling fortunes by studying coffee
grinds with the place of Turkey's struggle to join the EU in the daily conversation
of the Turkish people. She mentioned at the end that she just finished putting
French subtitles on the film because it was a hit in the European political
sphere and is gaining a political life... she's hoping that it will open fresh
discussions where things seem to have stalled. Good luck Zeynep!

After that, we met up with Cindy for Ethiopian food before walking back uptown
to catch the bus. Upon our return, we collected friends for tea and a round of
the card-game Munchkin. Cindy and I ended the night watching Private Snafu
videos on YouTube with our friend London, because he asked about Dr. Seuss'
adult-focused work. Sometimes I wonder at how amazing my friends are to do
these things with me.

Repeat that last sentiment. Saturday morning, Cindy came with me to the Martin
Luther King Jr. Day of Service. We were up nice and early! The group that we
worked with went to the BRC Senior Center on Houston. We were met there by
Rick Akin, who gave us some background on BRC and then told us that we would be
painting the center eggshell as soon as he pulled out the paints. Lo and behold, we
opened up the two tubs of paint to find...purple. Sooo purple! We painted everything
anyway, and it looks nice and cheery, but we had quite a laugh about our "eggshell" paint.
We finished fairly quickly and got out around 2. I had noticed on the way there that we passed
a community garden with a "Volunteers Wanted" sign, so I cut off from the group to stop in.

Cindy came with me, and we ended up spending an extra 3 hours working in this garden.
While there, we met Penny, who teaches- I think- at Columbia. We also met a boy who is
a fellow NYU freshman. I remember that he mentioned being an economics major, but I forgot
to ask his name. Next time. And there will be a next time, because we signed an hours log
when we finished that day. If we make it to 20 hours, we get keys. If we make it to 40 hours,
we get a plot. I'm so excited for spring!
After showing the dorm security guard my dirt-and-purple-paint-encrusted knuckles, I
finally returned home to clean up a bit. Cindy went back to her dorm as well, but within
a couple of hours we were re-assembled in Hillary's room, with the addition of Rhoen. Hillary
had found two gallery openings that she wanted to attend, so we headed first to see the work of Sue Scott. I have to admit, I didn't quite get it. The first screen showed sets of pictures similar to those games they used to put into news papers where you had to find all the differences; each frame had two shots of the same location at different times of year. The next screen had headphones available. I didn't listen to the whole thing, but here is what I heard:

"Chicago is very grey. Great for photographers. And there are all these serious businessmen rushing around malcontent with various parts of their lives... I guess they do that everywhere, but they just do it differently in Chicago... I hated it. I went to New York; I love New York. It's a great city of misfits. That's the thing: when you don't fit in anywhere else, go to New York. I'm not saying you'll fit in there, but that's the beauty of it. No one fits in in New York..."


The final screen again had two shots in each frame. On the one side, the lone actress was being very natural, but she was walking through a jungle. Shotgun over her shoulder, she waded through swamps and cut through hanging vegetation. Meanwhile, the same actress was in the other shot, but she was obviously interacting with and posing for a director. She rode her bicycle through a field of daisies and read the paper in her whitewashed house. There was a moment when jungle-woman was sitting on a rock to urinate while actress-woman was untying and peeling off her ballerina-style sandals in as erotic a fashion as she could manage.

The juxtaposition was there... but was it wasted? What does that mean if your art doesn't communicate the message that you put into it? I understand that not all artworks have meaning, but this one obviously did...somewhere. At least the first screen was interesting. It was like looking at a fractal pattern; the differences were slight enough to escape notice but significant enough that you knew they were there.

The next gallery we went to belonged to Collette Blanchard. The artist was Derrick Adams, and this piece I was better able to comprehend. Well... at least the beginning pieces. I looked at the pieces when we first walked in: brick walls dressed in fur coats; brick walls in brown sweatshirts, one with an African statue set wearing the hood; a brick column "carrying" composition books with a transparent black box for a head. A commentary- perhaps- on the state of black youth in New York schools? He says something about dealing with prejudice against blacks; how can the youth achieve when they are expected to be dense or focused on fast-money. I feel, though, that the same could be taken out of the racial context and applied to all students. How can kids be expected to learn if we assume their heads are empty (the transparent box)? They are bombarded with standardized tests. If the one goal is passing the test (as a brick wall's one goal is to remain strong, for reasons of support/defense/decoration/etc.), the students may reach that goal, but what good will that do them? Which has more potential for growth, a brick wall or a tree? Of course, the addition of a plant is my own. The artist continued the exhibit with "brick walls" dedicated to a fur coat and a trophy. There were also several pieces that I don't understand at all, including concrete pots shaped like Darth Vader's head and filled with ash.

We stopped at a cute little restaurant called Bruschetteria on the way home. There were two signs that it would be wonderful. First, it caught Hillary's attention. Second, there was a bright orange Gerber daisy in a wine bottle sitting on the bar. We split a bunch of yummy things, talked about everything under the sun, and strolled back towards the dorm- stopping on the way to try on vintage hats.

Sunday was fairly quiet and unremarkable. Monday (the 25th) I had my first class for Service Learning Through Youth and Community. Orientation for the tutoring/fieldwork component of that class is Thursday. I'm excited to be working with kids, but I have to admit to being a little nervous. What if they want me to teach math?! After Service Learning, I worked in the library until it was time for my Myths and Folktales class- which I love!- and my first Oral Tradition, Culture, and Investigation class. I've been excited for this class for quite some time; oral tradition fits my concentration perfectly. However, the class has a journalism slant that will require my hunting for interviews around the city. Wish me luck!

I got back that night, took a long walk uptown at Rachel's suggestion, then came back for work and bed. Tuesday morning I had Anthropology bright and early, followed by Education as a Social Institution. Afterward, I met up with Alex for lunch. We met Hillary and some of her friends at one of the dining halls, then we went to Murray's to smell the air and pick up some cheese. We also learned that they offer classes there. How wonderful would it be to take mozzarella-making or cheese-and-wine-pairing or even cheese-basics-101 and explore their underground caves or go rock-climbing?!? I didn't know such things were possible. We hung out for a while after, then Alex went to the gym (you go, girl) and I went to do homework.

Doing homework included looking up teaching certification requirements for the city, stressing about getting certified, making peace with not getting certified right away, applying for study abroad in Prague and Berlin, registering for language lectures in French/Czech/Hindi (German was full), and reading Bruno Bettelheim. Yay!

At some point in there I got to speak with Cass, and he put my head back in order. Which I appreciate very much.

Ermmm.... today was a whole 'nother adventure, but I have work to do first. Fill you in later.