Eminem Video in Downtown Newark

Gaetano found an Eminem music video ("I'm Not Afraid") that was made in part in Newark, tho it starts and ends in Manhattan. (Warning: There are a lot of instances of the F-word in the video.) When Eminem is seen walking on city streets, those are Newark streets.

I'm not certain, but I think this shows Eminem on the east side of Broad Street, with McDonald's banners to the left rear, and the Four Corners just beyond.

At about the 2:35-2:53 point, the camera stays still long enuf for "Newark" on the marquee of the former Newark Paramount Theater to be read clearly.

Eminem (who would be very goodlooking if it weren't for the tattoos that deface — nay, verily, desecrate his skin) lies down in the middle of Market Street (one of Newark's two most important streets, Broad Street being the other; they cross at "The Four Corners"), apparently very early some morning, perhaps a Sunday, tho the lite seems to come from the west (video magic?).

Eminem is from the Detroit area, so might have felt Newark very similar, and congenial. Both cities had riots in 1967, for instance. Fortunately, Newark is in a lot better shape than Detroit, tho I recently saw a news report that Detroit has fallen so far toward Third World level that it is now beginning to be seen as competitive with China for new businesses!, so starting an as-yet-timid economic rebound.
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The video is very compelling, and Eminem semi-sings; he does not just talk. For reasons I do not understand, he affects the stupid accent I call "Singglish", in which a person who pronounces every R when he speaks drops multitudinous R's when he sings. NJ's own Jon Bon Jovi does the same idiotic thing, and it ticks me off.

The video melds magical scenes that start with this nonexistent chasm in Market Street.

In the video, Eminem leaps, then flies, down into the excavation chasm, which turns into a mountainside of long waterfalls, which turns into the cityscape of Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. And he ends up standing on a ledge high above Downtown Manhattan overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn beyond, where the video started.

I am not a fan of rap, but this is much more than rap. It's an actual song, with many words and minimal repetition. The video adds visual complexity to what is already complex and compelling. I am certainly not a music critic (nor, by the way, an art critic, despite the substantial portion of this blog that I devote to the visual arts in Newark), but I feel (and the song does bring out feelings, even if you don't hear or heed all the lyrics) that this song and video deserve some term like "masterwork". I am very impressed, but would never have watched it were there not a Newark connection.
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I was reminded of this observation attributed to Chris Rock:

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is a Chinese guy, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are name[d] 'Bush,' 'Dick' and 'Colon' [actually 'Colin']."

I actually heard the short form, from, I think, Chris Rock, which spoke only to the best golfer and rapper.
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I was on The Chris Rock Show (HBO) for about 40 seconds once, in a segment about minor political parties (I spoke for the Expansionist Party of the United States), and then Michael J. Fox responded to something I said about people, especially Canadians, staying in this country for decades without taking citizenship. Within about three years of that onscreen retort, Fox had taken U.S. citizenship, even though he hadn't done so in the prior 18 years. I suspect, but do not know, that friends and acquaintances who saw my criticizing him got on his case, to the effect, "You know, Michael, the guy is right. Why AREN'T you a citizen? You married an American. Your children are American. You're never moving back to Canada. What do you have against taking the citizenship of a country you've lived in for almost 20 years?"
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I'd deport every foreigner who stays in this country for more than 8 years without taking U.S. citizenship. William Shatner, another Canadian (among the worst offenders, tho there have of late been prominent Canadians become Americans, like Pamela Anderson and Jim Carrey), has worked and/or lived in the United States since 1958, over 52 years, without ever taking U.S. citizenship! Deport the bastard, and bar him from even overflying the United States for the rest of his miserable life. And we don't need him to fly into NYC via Newark Airport, nor perform his miserable talk-singing at NJPAC. Eminem should perform at The Rock, however. I might even go. Naah. Too expensive for a codger on Social Security.
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The only Newark rapper I'm aware of is Queen Latifah, who also sings. By the way, "Eminem" refers to the two M's of his real name, Marshall Bruce Mathers III, not to the sugar-coated chocolate candy that originated in Newark (something else Gaetano alerted me to) — but that's another interesting Newark-Eminem connection, isn't it?
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I have used screenprints from the video to illustrate this blogpost. If the owners of rights to that video should object to this use, which I regard as covered by the concept of "fair use", I will remove the pictures, and probably the entire post.

Expanding EWR — Intelligently

Gaetano sent me link to an article that says the Regional Plan Association advocates enlarging Newark Airport by adding a third runway, west of the present two.

For years, Newark Liberty International Airport has routinely ranked at or near the bottom in on-time performance among the nation’s busiest airports [See list from AOL Travel.] — in large part because it, along with John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, serve the busiest travel market in the world.

The situation will likely deteriorate, according to a study released today, as demand for travel grows by nearly 50 percent over the next two decades, threatening to make delays even worse if nothing is done. [What could conceivably cause such a phenomenal increase in air travel? I'm extremely skeptical.]

So the study’s authors at the Manhattan-based Regional Plan Association are recommending $15 billion in overhauls at the three major airports, including construction of a third, longer runway at Newark to allow for more takeoffs and landings and, ultimately, to significantly reduce delays. * * *

The new runway would be built just west of the airport’s two existing longer, north-south runways, and replace the shorter, east-west airstrip on the airport’s northern edge. Terminal B would have to be demolished and relocated entirely, while parts of Terminals A and C would have to be moved, at a cost of $5 billion, about a third of the total expansion cost at both airports [EWR and JFK].

I told Gaetano by reply email:

I have a better idea. Just build the new runway over the Turnpike, [EAST of the existing runways, not west] with plenty of room on both sides of that runway deck for planes that don't [stay narrowly on] the runway — tho that's very rare. There's plenty of room over the Turnpike, and cars and trucks can move in an effective tunnel for two miles with no problem. There is no reason to close the east-west runway at all, nor demolish and rebuild any of the terminals. Simple. Cost-effective.

Leaving the existing terminals intact would save $5 billion. Leaving the east-west small-plane airstrip would keep EWR a convenient general-aviation facility, and keep Newark in the minds of rich individuals who ride their own small planes rather than use commercial airlines.
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How could smart people have come up with such a stupid idea as to tear down two terminals at a cost of $5 billion rather than build a deck over the Turnpike? 25 feet up is a simple climb/descent for taxiing aircraft moving from taxiway to runway or from runway to terminals.
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There are plenty of runways built on piers and other artificial decks, all over the world. A runway does NOT have to be on solid land. And as you can see from the screenprint above from the official Newark City Map, there is plenty of room over the Turnpike for a third runway, and there is even room for a fourth full runway to the east of the Turnpike over low portions of Port Newark. Surely if there are any buildings at all in that area of the Port Newark complex, they are not so high nor expensive to demolish and relocate as would be the intricate terminals of one of the world's great airports.

'Outsight Inn' at Rupert Ravens Contemporary

Major post, over 2,700 words, 35 individual fotos, 1 slideshow, and links to 2 of my videos.

As this show title indicates, the current exhibition at Rupert Ravens Contemporary comprises multi-piece individual shows by 28 artists from hither and yon. More exhibition space was opened for this big show, including, for several weeks, the roof, on which appeared a jet-powered whirligig, by Ryan C. Doyle, on which one person at a time could ride. I showed a video of one such ride on October 24th. You can just click this next foto to be taken to it on Blip.tv.

Or you can go to its URL at Blip (http://www.blip.tv/file/4290961). This second foto shows artist Rich Wislocky (with a feather in his hair), on the right, about to push the front of the ride, where the young woman is sitting, to get it started. That ride is no longer part of the show, but the rest of the exhibition, I am told, is still pretty much as I fotograffed it during the opening reception, October 23rd. Not all Newark artists wear feathers in their hair, so we need not rework for Newark the old Scott McKenzie song, "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear, some [feathers] in your hair.") Rich's art, of mirrors and lites, is heavy in feathers. To the extent feathers are heavy. (On the moon they fall as fast as a rock.)

Unfortunately, I don't have artist info for some of the pieces. I can take pictures and meet artists, or take notes while consulting a price list. I can't do both. If someone from RRC would like to send artist info to me (keyed to a foto by its numerical order in this post), I will be happy to add that information.

I'm pretty sure this first artwork, in a front window beside the entrance, is by NYC/Newark artist Gae Savannah. I tried to show that piece and the crowd behind, but my autofocus camera couldn't focus on both, so focused on neither. Good compromise. Silly camera. Actually, my vision is not good at present. I need to get glasses for distance. I already have glasses for near vision, as to my computer monitor from my chair. But my distance vision has deteriorated in the years since I needed only close-vision specs, so it's a good thing my camera is autofocus, because I have no idea what my pix would look like to other people if I adjusted the camera to my focus. They might all turn out Impressionistic.
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Just inside and to the right of the entrance is this conversation pit, with a work by German Pitre on its far wall.

Beyond that is this area, which holds a hanging map of a spatially dis-United States under some straw. (U.S.Hay?) I think it's by Stefanie Nagorka. I saw some very glossy art ceramics of hers in a prior RRC show, so this is quite a departure.

Here is that hanging sculpture from the back.

As I was taking that picture, a young Japanese woman asked if I would take a picture of her by that artwork. I asked if she meant with my camera or hers. She said, both. So I did. She said she hadn't known about this art show, nor about the RRC gallery, but was just walking by when she saw all the people, so came in. I think she said she was from Japan, but for all I know she was born and raised in Bayonne (like Barney Frank), and was just putting me on (as she was putting on her head her plastic drink cup).

Beyond the far wall of that space is this one.

The large painting on the far wall is by Grace Graupe-Pillard, one of my favorite NJ artists, who lives in Keyport (Monmouth County) not far from where I went to high school (Middletown Township High School; MTHS Class of '62 is planning its 50th year reunion, and I'm on the organizing committee).
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Here, Grace poses by her favorite piece in the show. She has several large canvases of this type, with different major colors and colored borders. But she told me that despite her notes, the wrong color borders were put on some of the paintings. I asked her which, for instance, then told her she was wrong and Rupert's staff right. The borders now on them were a good match. What do artists know about their own work? ("Everything, you moron!", some artists reading might say. But a lot of artists learn something from the reaction of visitors. "Maybe I really did mean that but wasn't aware of it." In any case, Rupert's very professional staff fixed the problem the very next day.)

On the other side of the main floor was this assemblage of what appeared to be a shelf or table in someone's garage.

I'm not sure, but it and this next construction may be by Jared Whitham.

That appeared to be a real person sitting inside. And here is Jared Whitham, whom I had met at a prior RRC show. Neither of my pix, flash and ambient lite, turned out well. Sorry, Jared.

Farther back on that side of the first floor was this interesting object.

At the very rear of that side of the first floor was this display of paintings of autograffed baseballs by Mike Howard.

Walking back toward the front, I noted these two puffy maps of the conterminous (Lower 48) United States, seen forward and backward in separate rooms.

This next foto shows part of an assemblage (Tablescape by NYC artist Elizabeth Riley) in the front left window. Under the slanting, blue-edged wooden beam is a tiny projector beaming pictures at a wooden screen on the circle of astroturf.

And this shows the draped cloth wall by, I believe, Bibi Flores beyond that assemblage. The left wall is occupied by another Elizabeth Riley piece, Circle Wall.

The stairways up and down are near the front of the gallery. Here, a neon work by Hungarian Newark artist Kati Vilim britens the stairway to the lower level. This seems a new medium for her. I did an interview with Kati that appeared here on October 7th, 2008, and at that time she was doing very geometrical paintings on canvas over wood.

Part of the lower level (basement) was occupied by these colorful, geometric abstacts by John Mendelsohn.

There is a washed-out area in this next foto (of, I think, a painting by Olu Oguibe, near — in more ways than one — the Mendelsohn paintings). I think it's from my camera's flash. Ignore that. Tho that may sound a little cavalier, the fact is that we actually do filter out things like uneven liting and reflections of overhead lites when we see art in a gallery, without consciously choosing to ignore them. If we see such things captured in a foto, we're annoyed that the camera caut what you'd actually see if you stood where the fotografer stood. Somehow what we can pass over in person, we find irritating in a foto.

At the front of the lower level is a darkened area with this neon array. I don't know if it is also by Kati Vilim. Here, a gent kneels to point his camera up at it. He showed me the picture, but I think it was a bit washed out by the glare. I used flash, having learned from prior experience that a halo from each lited tube would likely wash out its neighbors if I used only ambient lite. Given my knee surgeries, I wasn't even tempted to replicate his foto but with flash.

One of the people beyond the array turned out to be Matt Gosser, who rummaged thru his shirt pocket, then handed me a little slip of paper, one of a number of different versions of what purported to be calling cards. The one I got said "Randy Fingers, Male Prostitute". He's such a card. So to speak.

Up two flites now. A darkened alcove on the second floor contained several large-format fotos of China, by Han Zeng.

I encountered Gae Savannah in another area of the second floor, speaking to a group of what turned out to be participating artists. Bonanza. She introduced me to a number of artists I had not met before. As always, I asked if they'd be willing to pose by the piece of theirs they most like. Here, Richard Iammarino poses by his favorite. I took two fotos of these portraits, one with and one without flash. Sometimes neither turned out well, but I chose what seemed to me better.

Here's Matt Stone by two of his pieces. It definitely does not do him justice, but his works look better than in the non-flash picture, which isn't better of him, so I chose the flash foto.

Christopher Tanner wasn't sure where to stand, and I thought his puffy, colorful works might prove fotogenic, so I took his portrait in more than one place. I show them below in the order in which I took the fotos.

In that first, I moved off to the side to avoid the flash's being bounced off reflective embedded bits of something or other. I didn't realize that a reflective area on his shoes would catch the flash. In this next, several different pieces from his part of the show appear. As do the brite areas of his shoes. Couldn't be helped. The foto taken with only ambient lite wasn't nearly as good.

In the foto below, I risked flash on another large work, because Christopher was in the shadows. The flash brought out the sparkle of parts of the piece, but also of parts of his shoes. Ah, well. I couldn't see that in the little monitor built into the camera, and I didn't want to exhaust his patience asking to try a different tack.
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Christopher is a New York artist. When Gae introduced us, she also introduced his partner / lover / boyfriend (I forget what term she used), and mentioned my having coined the term "Gay Pride" as it is now used. So I recounted in brief how it happened. (We in the organizing committee needed a term to unify a weekend of events around the first annual march to commemorate the Stonewall Riots. The first thought was "Gay Power Weekend", but I didn't care for that, so offered "Gay Pride Weekend". My motion was seconded and adopted instantly, without discussion. I told the artists that it was no big deal at the time, but someone (Christopher?) said it turned out to be a very big deal indeed. Glad to help.

Newark's arts crowd is very open and diverse, congenial to people of many types, including different sexual orientations. I deliberately avoided the now seemingly quaint (at best) or condescending (at worst) term "tolerant". Tolerate this, buddy!
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Here's Katherine Powers by her colorful works made from plastic shopping bags. "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" in artistic action. She's an elegant woman, and it seems a little incongruous for her to be working with plastic shopping bags ("plags", as I call them).

An area that had not been used for previous exhibitions was opened up for a display of moving sculpture and graffiti art by Ryan C. Doyle, the same man as made the jet ride.

This mechanism is a giant puppet dinosaur or dragon, controlled by an operator or puppetmaster in a high seat.

It can move in various directions, and the neck bends.

This other piece also appears to be made to move, but I didn't see anyone operating it.

Returning downstairs, you must be sure to check out a large, enclosed room toward the back of the first floor, given over to a very special exhibit by the artistic genius of Orange, NJ, Rich Wislocky (the feather guy mentioned above). Rich assembles objects, lites, and mirrors in a way that creates a nearly magical environment. That area is titled A Reflective Reductive Lazer Falcon Momentum. It would seem Rich is, like me, a spelling reformer, because the superior spelling "lazer" is not recognized by dictionaries.
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Unfortunately, I didn't have my tripod with me, so the low-lite experience was hard to capture sharply. I present below a slideshow that includes Rich wearing a feathered and mirrored headdress. The clear fotos were taken with flash, to show the host of colorful objects that constitute the hard shapes of his show. They get their magic from the lites and reflections he puts to them. To be in that room is a very special experience, and the fuzziness of my low-lite pictures doesn't really make that much difference in capturing the luminous nature of the room.

Oh, you might not take Rich for a genius if you talk to him. He is unprepossessing and unpretentious, and might come off as a little odd, but otherwise ordinary and unsophisticated. His work suggests otherwise. I did a 10-minute video interview with him that I linked to from my post of January 16th, 2010 that shows his work in another RRC exhibit. You can go to that video on Blip.tv by clicking on its URL here, http://www.blip.tv/file/3095605.
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There's a lot to see. Take your time. You can always rest on Linda Pollack and Kate Brattin's big, red Habeas Lounge.

"Outsight Inn" is on view at 85 Market Street (the old "Furniture King" building), Newark, NJ 07102, Friday and Saturday, 11am-6pm or by appointment, (973) 792-0110 until February 12th, and possibly a bit past then, but don't count on that. I'm advised that Saturday is the best day to visit. If you're not familiar with the area, see the "Directions" page at the RRC website (scroll down past a big blank space). It's in the block of Market Street between University Avenue and Washington Street (closer to Washington).

Snowed Under

We have now had five snowstorms so far this season (one month into the three-month astronomical season winter), and face a sixth this coming week. As a homeowner, I am legally required to clear snow and ice from the sidewalk across my property, 55 feet. I also have a driveway up a slope for the entire 100-foot depth of my property, about 80 feet of which I use to put my car behind the house, so I can carry groceries down 2 steps rather than up 16 steps from the curb, and not worry about getting a ticket if I forget to move the car each Monday for streetcleaning (I have gotten two such tickets in my 7½ years of auto ownership). It's also better to keep the car off the street to avoid damage from careless drivers, etc.
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Today's fotos are all contained within a slideshow of one of my 16 albums on Picasa, embedded toward the end of today's post.
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I'm 66 years old, and tho I'm in good health, I'm still 66, and shoveling snow for 45 minutes or an hour, in the cold, is very wearing. I need to keep active, and am lucky to have a three-story house, with nearly full basement, so am up and down stairs many times a day (usually 10 or more flites a day, and sometimes well more than 20). When I drive to supermarkets (the Bergen Street and/or South Orange Pathmark, and East Orange ShopRite), I park far from the front door, at once so I get exercise walking to and thru the store, and so the chance of somebody parking close to my driver's-side door is low, since knee surgeries have made it between hard and impossible for me to get into the car by standing on only one leg. I need to be able to open the door wide, sit down facing outward, then swing around into position, to drive. I can't jog. It's physically impossible, because one leg has a delay in straightening. And high-impact exercise for fitness is out of the question. So I'm glad to do some snow-shoveling.
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Snow is generally quite lite, but tossing shovelful after shovelful several feet up onto my front yard from the sidewalk, or onto the side yard from the driveway, gives me a good workout. Unfortunately, it can also knock me out rather than invigorate me thereafter, cutting into mental activities for more than a full day. I might be able to do other physical work (laundry, housework), but not writing, fixing fotos, or other mental things.
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Another consequence of aging is a loss of mental concentration and focus. Fortunately, I started losing from a very high place, so still function pretty well. My reflexes, for instance, are substantially faster than most people's, and even now it is rare that anyone starts off from a red lite changing to green faster than I do — even those "creepers" who start to roll beyond the stop line before the lite changes.
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Tie an age-related diminution of things like short-term memory (I have for over a decade realized that I may have to say aloud what I am going into another room for, lest I forget by the time I get there; if I say it aloud, I have the memory of saying and hearing, not just thinking, to fall back on) to physical fatigue, and I usually can't get much done on the computer on days I have to shovel snow, and that can mean one day for the sidewalk and two days for the driveway. Then we have snow again, and I'm back to square one — a snowy, white square one.
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I'm amazed I got as much done in my earlier years as I did, working full-time or nearly full-time for decades (43 years, including the years when I put myself thru college) while writing propaganda for various causes — then hitting the bars after work to drink, see friends, and play pool. I started to play pool in order to find out men's names (from the chalkboard waiting list) and have a topic of conversation (in gay men's bars). Then I became one of what might be called 'table tigers' and had to take it easy on people or they wouldn't play me. Of course, you always run into those people for whom winning a pool game becomes the most important thing on Earth at that moment. That's usually fine. If it's that important to them, and not important to me at all, I can let them win, if I can do so without being too obvious. (And I'm pretty good at seeming to make an effort to make a shot when I really don't care.) But if they're nasty, I am very glad to threaten or defeat them, to teach them some manners and a sense of proportion.
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Some of my friends, and brother Alan, who plays pool very well ("I learned the way I learn everything, from books"), sometimes criticize me for hitting the balls too hard, as tho I'm not taking the game seriously. It's a GAME. You DON'T take games seriously! I can plan ahead and change up the speed, force, and spin I impart to the cue ball, but that's too much like work (and too much like cheating, as well as I play without any such planning). Besides, I get my aggressions out by banging sturdy wood balls around. I like the noise they make, and they never break, no matter how hard I slam them into each other or even bounce them off the table — unlike some people's egos. I bought a training cueball, with markings of where to strike it with the cue to achieve different effects from different spins, but it's still in the packaging.
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I genuinely like the game (pool, or "billiards", which I rarely use, despite its greater specificity, having no mental connection to swimming). It's a real game, not imaginary and falsifiable, like video and computer games. It operates by real forces of nature (physics), like angles, vectors, spins, and momentum. So I bought a 7-foot table (when I was working), to put into my basement here in Newark. Unfortunately, the two friends I'd like to play here are both allergic to cats, and even tho my cats aren't allowed into the basement (there's a small hole in a side wall large enuf for them to get outdoors), there's still cat hair from laundry that bypassed the lint trap in the dryer.
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For decades, I put out my propaganda by letters to the editor (published in places like The New York Times, Washington Post, Toronto Star, and Time Magazine), or printed via mimeograph or xerox and sent out by mail.
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I was very pleased and relieved of many costs, in both money and time, when the Internet made the life of a propagandist much easier. I put up my first webpage in November 1997, then went on to create about 150 more.
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I began my political blog on April 15th, 2004 (1,109 posts to date) and my Newark blog, without pictures, on May 11th, 2004 (1,466 posts to date, after a false start at NJ.com, which insisted on putting a heading on my blog that used the despicable and contemptible term "Jersey" instead of "New Jersey", despite my protests; so I left NJ.com). Pretty much every post here since January 7th, 2006 has had at least one foto (even tho many hundreds of those fotos vanished when AOL closed down subscribers' online-storage spaces on October 31, 2008). One post had over 60 fotos. Since I switched to Picasa for web storage, I have put up another 5,826 fotos, all but about 150 of them mine. I also have a gay blog I rarely update, that has only 49 posts.
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Each of my 5,676 fotos still up in this blog and the hundreds and hundreds deleted by AOL represents a minimum of 6 minutes in fixing, resizing, uploading, and captioning (within Picasa), not to mention reviewing and selecting. 7,500 fotos × 5 minutes represents 37,500 minutes, or 625 hours (89 full workdays, at 7 hours a day), just on the fotos. And that does not speak to the time I took to travel to, attend, take fotos at, and return from the events/locations depicted in the fotos.
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Writing the texts involved an effort I cannot even quantify in hours, nor can I quantify what it took to put together fotos and text, and write foto captions for the blog (not within Picasa alone). You can see the captions in Picasa in a slideshow of my one public Picasa album, below. Some of the fotos won't make very good sense outside the context given in the blogpost in which they appear. For instance, the first six relate to a (successful) court challenge to a summons for supposedly not keeping up my property. Most, however, stand on their own. Warning: there are 498 fotos in this slideshow. There are a few graffics in that album for my political blog, but very few. The time between fotos is defaulted to 3 seconds, which may not be long enuf to read all the captions (if captions are not showing, click on the icon, second from left, that looks like a cartoonist's speech bubble). Since the captions are mostly repeated for groups of fotos, that's not important. Even at 3 seconds each, to see all 498 fotos will take almost 25 minutes. I thought there would be a larger proportion of fotos of art than it turns out there are, but there are hundreds of pictures of artworks.
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I said that one blogpost had more than 60 fotos, but this one grinds that record into the dust, for having, in the embedded slideshow below, 498 fotos. If you have visited this blog regularly since September 2010, you will have seen all of them. If not, here's your chance, in less than half an hour, to catch up with about 4 months of my fotos on this blog. (There have appeared some other fotos as well, taken and supplied by other people.)

All of this is to say that there are reasons I can't get onto this blog, timely, all the things I would like to put up. There are several demands upon my time and energy, and not just on the computer. In addition to shoveling snow, I have to take care of my household, feed my furry little family (kitties, beautiful "domestic shorthair" — cat-mutt — kitties), make my own meals, do laundry, do grocery runs, etc. Without wanting to seem self-important, or disrespectful, I have to wonder how much Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo Buonarroti would have accomplished if they had to do all their own housework and meal preparation themselves.

DTJC and Steiner Art Shows (Index and Kedar)

View of the art and the reception crowd, looking west in IAC.

Last Friday I attended the opening reception for the "DTJC" (Downtown Jersey City) show at Index Art Center and Charles Steiner fotos at Kedar Studio of Art (both on the second floor of 585 Broad Street, opposite Doane Park just north of Trinity & St. Philip's Episcopal Cathedral.)

View looking east.

It should hardly astonish that there seemed to me no significant difference in quality, subject matter, or even media between Newark artists and J.C. artists, tho Index's earlier shows of Newark (and NYC?) artists have included sculpture and more unusual media, such as neon. In the DTJC show, however, appeared this stained-glass work that had a neon-like glow to it.

Still, the rest is there, political, environmental, personal art of high quality. NJ is a pretty sophisticated place, and we get a lot of people from a lot of different places, directly and second-hand, from NYC, as people seek respite from the crush of crowds, traffic, and crime that attends living in NYC.

I liked this treeway.

This next work looks very much like what Kevin Darmanie, principal of Kedar, does, esp. the yellow caption box, but Kevin was not listed among the artists in the Index show.

I'm afraid I don't have ID's for the artist of any of these pieces. I didn't see labels, even numbers, and certainly didn't capture them in my fotos. If Lowell would like to provide that info (by the foto's sequence in this blogpost), I'll be glad to add that info.

This next work reminds me of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines, in which Filipinos gave flowers to soldiers sent to put down demonstrations against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. I have two Filipina former sisters-in-law whom I adore, Connie and Rosan (by two different brothers), and have long favored bringing the Philippines into the Union as three states (Luzon, Mindanao, and the Visayas, for those of you who know Philippine geography). Filipinos' dedication to American-style democracy might revivify our current, intolerantly tendentious, politics.

These precious little birdies look like sparrows to me, and remind me that some sparrows and larger birds have reappeared in my neighborhood to eat birdseed from my birdfeeder. It's costing me more than would a sterile winter environment, but I'm glad of it.

I don't know what the headless man (?) in this painting is supposed to represent, but it may not be as abstract as you think.

Bill in Thailand (formerly of Irvington) pointed out that there is a headless man in the first foto of my blogpost announcing the opening of this show, because someone (in a horizonally striped shirt) moved in low lite and his head was blurred completely out of the picture. Here's that foto again.

I pointed out to Bill, however, that there is in fact a head above those shoulders, albeit in the distance — unless the man in question had a tiny, tiny head. A similar headless man (for leaning forward out of frame) appears in one of the fotos I took last Friday.

In this case too, there is a head beyond. It's facing the wrong way, and is of Joya ("Angola") Thompson of the Newark (mainly women's) art collective Catfish Friday. But perhaps an artist's head facing the wrong way is better than no head at all. I am appalled to have to admit that the Catfish Friday show during Open Doors 2010 is one of the events I have not yet gotten around to, four months later. I'll get to it, if only in a slideshow to accompany a topic for which I have no fotos. I mentioned that a friend of Rupert Ravens asked me during Open Doors if there was really enuf to talk about with Newark to keep a blog going. I told him then, and you now, that there is much more happening in Newark than I alone can cover. I have many hundreds of fotos, already taken, of wonderful things that I have not yet been able to show. I am presently working on a presentation of the wonderful show — of course — at Rupert Ravens Contemporary that opened in October and is scheduled to close February 12th, one day after the shows I speak to today. I may have to put most of my many fotos of that show into a slideshow if I don't have enuf to say about individual fotos (aside from several fotos destined for my Portraits album of artists from, or working in, Newark in this lucky time. Index, Kedar, Solos, Aljira, Robeson, the Newark Public Library, NJIT, and other Newark art venues do very good work, but Rupert is the big kahuna of Newark arts, and he has the space to give artists their due.

This artwork, unlike the rifle and birdies, is wholly black-and-white. I like it but do not pretend to understand it. Is that large mass on the man's head a turban, or hat? Maybe one of those knit caps that Rastafarians conceal very long dreadlocks in? And there's a kitty! I love kitties, tho that one looks to be one of the big cats that aren't always nice. David Letterman held a baby cheetah Tuesday nite, and the microfone picked up purring. Sweet kitty.

This next, britely-colored but tombstone-shaped artwork conveys a mixed message. Instead of "I love [or "heart", as I prefer] Jersey City", the message is confused, in that the heart icon is broken (in a way that would not unite) and there's a chain thru a hole atop. All this means what?

Were I an artist doing a piece like that about Newark, the heart would be whole. There's something about Newark that inspires almost fanatical love — or hate. I have not yet figured out what it is, but I know that I personally love Newark, with a passion. And what's with the chain? I admit that I've had things stolen from me in Newark. Not as many as I had stolen from me when I lived in NYC. But I have done silly things in Newark that I would never have even thought to do when I lived in Manhattan (then affordable for ordinary people), like leave car windows rolled down when I walked away from my parked car in Downtown Newark, or left the keys in my car's trunk for a couple of hours on the street outside my house, or even left the keys in my front-door lock overnite. Those are never good things to do, in a city, in the United States, in the 21st Century. But Newark is a lot safer than people outside Newark might think. Is the Jersey City artist suggesting by his (her?) chain that Jersey City isn't as safe as it should be? I don't know.
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At one point, a group of bizarre young people with ghoulish (Gothic?) eye makeup, and one woman with green hair, came in as a group, walked over to a big foto of two toddlers on the north wall of the main Index gallery, and applauded. I guess they knew the artist. I don't have my own picture of that very large foto. It didn't particularly impress me. In the overall foto of that part of the room above (first foto today), it is the second artwork on the right wall going back, behind the young dark-haired woman. When I exited a little while later, I saw a white stretch limo waiting, presumably for that odd little group. These may be some of the people of whom I say, "They have more dollars than sense."
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My last picture from the DTJC show is this, which I do not even pretend to understand. It shows a white guy with red tears (?) in a field populated by (ads for) Chinese women. It's visually interesting, but I would not even venture a guess as to its meaning.

The second show on view that nite was a group of foto portraits taken by "Charlie Steiner", about whom nothing was stated in an explanatory sign in the Kedar Studio area where the fotos were shown. I didn't get any email from Kedar itself, but the Newark Arts Council sent out an email that included this text about that show.

We are told of how the 60's, a time of great unrest and new found freedoms, influenced our vision of our world today including the way we dress, vote, love, party, escape, create and respond to new ideas and challenges. The 1960's were years of changing values and shifts in power. Its artists and cultural leaders felt a capacity for influencing the world, though also weighted, even overcome, by its demands. Through the lens of Charlie Steiner, the Kedar Studio of Art will take you into the intimate world of some of these individuals as they faced the trials of daily life and the social circus engulfing them. With this in mind, Kedar presents...

HIGHWAY '67 REVISITED
Photographs by Charlie Steiner

Between 1967 and 1969 Photographer Charlie Steiner was documenting the whirlwind of activity that captivated some of the decade's cultural ambassadors. From Frank Zappa to Bob Dylan to Andy Warhol to the Kennedys, Charlie's pictures have captured some of the most iconic personalities of that period, many of whom went on to greatly influence succeeding generations. Over forty years later and for his first showing in Newark, we are pleased to offer original prints of Mr. Steiner's work as part of this exciting exhibition.

The only foto I was much interested in was this one, of Newark's own Allen Ginsberg. The only person in that exhibit whom I have seen in person is Bob Dylan (in Asbury Park Convention Hall), and I mentioned here December 30, 2008 that I almost booed him.

I told Kevin Darmanie, who is mostly concealed in the foto above (you can see his dreads on the right), that he should have had a note at the picture of Allen Ginsberg (the Beat Generation's most important poet) to point out that he was born in Newark (tho raised in Paterson). Kevin didn't know that, but said he'd have liked to put up a note to that effect, had he known it. I told him he could put up a PostIt, but he didn't. Perhaps he didn't have PostIts on premises.
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The colorful Piersanti paintings from Kedar's last show were still on view in the back room. That's appropriate, in that Piersanti is a Jersey City artist.

Above the door from that back room into the main room and on into Index was an interesting painting that seemed to me to suggest, tho it did not actually depict, Jesus's feet before his crucifixion.

Were you to have turned right between Kedar and that main room of Index, you would have entered the Reception Room of the Index Art Center. The announcement I had seen of the shows that nite said there would be fotografs by Matt Gosser, one of my favorite Newark artists, who is most notable for his "Ar+cheology" shows of works created from objects found at old Newark buildings before they were demolished. But when I got there, I saw no fotos at all.

Rather, the walls were covered with crossword puzzles, some with writing on them, and very large painted numbers. I saw Lowell Craig, one of the principals of Index, and said something like, 'I thought there were supposed to be fotografs here by Matt Gosser.' Lowell replied, "I'm as puzzled as you are."
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Matt, who is the nice-looking young man with the neat short hair speaking to a woman at the far wall, said hello, and I asked about the foto display that had been announced. He said he didn't want to show fotos because he has moved on, and fotografy is not something he wants to dwell on. I said something like, "If your fotografy period is over, it's like you died [as a fotografer] so the value of your fotos should go up, up, up" (gesturing), and thus he should display and sell now, [while he is actually alive to benefit]. He wouldn't even have to fake his own death, as artists have been said, at least in fiction, to do. But he said, no, he would return to fotografy someday.
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Then he asked if I had figured out the puzzle. The walls are covered with crossword puzzles. But he said the cipher is in the painted numbers. I said no [in that I hadn't even known there was a puzzle] and asked if he had seen the long wall of figures at Rupert Ravens a couple of shows ago (first foto of my blogpost of February 10, 2010) that looked like a puzzle. He said yes, and he loved it. So now, dear reader, I show you the painted numbers. The room is small, so I couldn't get the whole of the 4 in, but everything else is shown entire. I have no patience with puzzles, but if you do, here's one for you. If you think you have it figured out, let me know (resurgencecity[on]aol.com) and I will check with Matt to see if you're right.

I have one last puzzle for you. Is smoking really permitted in commercial/gallery spaces in Newark? Note the cigarets in the hands of some people in my picture of the crowd in the Reception Room. I had not known that some of the most prominent (young) people in Newark arts are smokers before I saw them in the Reception Room (this show or last), because smoking was banned in the other locations in which I saw them. I lost a lot of respect for them when I saw them smoking. I thought they were smarter than that, and more respectful of themselves.
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The shows described above run until February 11th. 585 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102; www.indexartcenter.org; index.gallery[on]gmail.com; Gallery ph. (862) 218-0278. Gallery hours: Thur: 6-9 pm; Fri: 1-4 pm; Sat: 1-4 pm. Viewing appointments are welcome."