On Friday April 27th, Trevor and I headed downtown to check out the open studios at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. They offer free studios and a stipend to artists who get accepted into their program. (Trevor recently applied to it and should find out soon). We found time to imitate the golden heads at the subway station before going in the building. The studios are just about a block away from the World Trade Center site and we could watch the construction from out of one studio's window. Trevor got into the construction spirit a little too much:) Actually, one artist had transformed his studio into a construction site - equipped with hard hats and all.
With the weather getting nicer every week, we have had our windows open a lot more and I am growing a little herb garden on the window sill. However, the best window for growing plants/has the most sunlight is also Simon's favorite window. Needless to say, it is a very crowded window with a big orange tabby squeezing himself between several plants... while bird watching! Poor Simon - we realized that while Isabelle has been on airplanes, gone dog modeling, and ridden the subways, he hasn't left our 446 square foot apartment in two years! He did get very brave and venture out onto the outer window edge...thats about as crazy as he gets folks.
The following Saturday night Steven Keene's family invited us to a performance of Streb, www.strebusa.org, in Williamsburg. They are a small dance troupe that was founded in NYC in the 70s(?) by Elizabeth Streb. It is an exciting mix of performance art, modern dance, and circus acrobatics. It was the most amazing show! At the intermission, little Flora Keene (she's 6 years old) performed with her class; she takes lessons there during the week. They ended the show with a pool splash performance outside on the sidewalk. They only perform on Friday/Saturday/Sunday nites for about three months during the year and then they go to tour the country/world for the remainder of the year. How did we not know about his before?!

lovely Barbara

April 15th. It rained all day Sunday but we had to get out of the house, so we went to get the makings of a delicious taco dinner. So here is Rachel with her taco salad, I made regular tacos. That was the highlight of that dreary, rainy weekend so we were definitely ready for the great weather that was on the way.
April 22nd. What a beautiful day! We left the house heading towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the met). We got some slices of tasty pizza in our neighborhood and saw an old car. Then we walked to a nearby thrift store that Rachel spotted from the train one day. Now, I've been in alot of thrift stores in plenty of places and seen lots of junk but nothing could prepare me for this. WHOA!! These pictures don't really convey all the stuff. There was only a narrow trail as though you were between two cliffs. Chairs, mattresses, games, furniture, bicycles, lamps, books, frames, electrical wires, lots of stuff, more stuff, some junk and then more junk just piled high and then a little more on top. Rachel asked how much a bike was and the lady said $160, which was too much. Leading us to the theory that she has a hard time letting this stuff go. She places too much value on it. She thinks if she has a book that someone might pay $5 for then maybe someone else will pay $6 or more. So now it is just out of control. But it sure was entertaining for me.
We walked around Central Park before heading to the Met. Everyone was there, more people than grass. The months of cold make these days extra special. On the side steps of the museum was a puppet show that I had to watch. Two guys had a cardboard castle and would make the puppets "sing' to pop songs. Though we love visiting the Met for nothing in particular we were on a mission that day. Rachel had to find a drawing before 1807 and then copy it for her drawing class. We walked all over realized that this would be harder than previously realized. We even walked though the open storage section, which is where visitors can see the abundance of early colonial American stuff. It was much better organized than the thrift store. She finally decided on some Egyptian artifacts. When we left the museum I got to watch the puppet show more while we ate ice-cream treats. Then on the way to the train station we were able to add one more celebrity to our list. We saw Barbara Walters, which excited Rachel more than I thought it would. You can find her by the large arrow that floats above her head. She was quite wrinkly.

i am NOT who you think i am

This city is full of people re-inventing themselves. You can be anyone here. So while everyone was climbing the corporate ladder, driving cars, eating, meeting friends, doing stuff, etc. I was taking pictures of myself with a mustache. But at least it was a real mustache, and that counts for something.

you want to light what? and stick it where?

The other day I met Rachel at her studio so we could take pictures of her new work. Here is a picture of her sitting in front of her 8'x4' fabric plant wall, quite the undertaking. She is submitting for the Connor Award which is given by her school. If she wins then she will be awarded some money that is applied towards school, possibly $1,500. Though she is good and I believe she should get it we must always be ready for rejection. Speaking of rejection, no Yale for me, maybe next year. But it is not enough to have Rachel and I competing in various activities (jobs, schools, awards) but we have forced Isabelle into it also. No she is not applying to Grad school but she did just get signed up for "Chihuahua Races". That's right, those abnormaly long legs might pay off because if she beats out all those chubby, short chi-chi dogs then we win two human tickets and one dog ticket to San Diego, California. Can you imagine that the ability to finally see the west coast would be granted by a fast dog? Lets hope that we've trained that dog good, but either way the experience should be fun. The race is May 5th. And now that we are on the subject of experiences, this one could have gone bad. I did ear cones! What the heck is an ear cone you may have asked yourself. Well, this slender, pencil shaped cone is about 10" long and made out of wax. Placing the small tip through a paper plate or tin foil for protection you insert it into the ear canal and light the top on fire. BURN BABY BURN! why the heck would someone place a flame near their head is probably your next question. Well, the fire's warmth slowly heats the wax in your ear and the air that is feeding the flame creates a vaccum that sucks the earwax right out. It works. You feel a little warm sensation and hear a slight crackling, 10 to 15 minutes later and you're done. We found a generous dollup of wax at the base of the cone that came from my ear!

I think I wore them out...

old man chicken chest

Isabelle the dog has many nicknames

dork
nerd

goober
pupster dot com
skidway velvet

squeezebox
dirtbike

and she has just acquired a new name on account of the condition of her frontside.
Old Man Chicken Chest

busy times

One of my jobs is working with Steve Keene (www.stevekeene.com) and we finally finished building this huge wave/ramp at his store. Since I only worked on it for 3 hours each week it really made it longer than it should have taken. So last week we painted it. Here is Steve applying the first bit then we left to eat at this place 'Pies and Thighs' under the Williamsburg bridge. The place was closed and Steve was disappointed. After eating hamburgers we went back to put a second coat of paint on the structure. The parts sticking up will be holding his paintings.

Friday morning we woke up early to drive to New Haven. I had an interview with Yale, I'll find out in two weeks. We took a picture of a cemetary nearby that has the inscription "the dead shall be raised". And here is a picture of me

looking 'smart'.

As soon we got back in town we rushed off to meet friends. We went to dinner with Jen and Hooper (they live near us in Queens) and Josh and my good pal Euni (they were visiting from Athens). After dinner we met up with Charlotte (visiting again) to eat some desserts in the West Village. It was good and we talked about stuff. Euni has another year in her MFA program and Charlotte just got offered the job of Rosenquist's studio assistant down in Florida. I had chocolate cheesecake.

Saturday, Rachel's parents arrived for their visit. They stayed until Tuesday. Here are pictures that her mom took on the plane. They did alot of walking and seeing the sites, while I moved out of my studio and

went to work. We did have dinner twice. We ate at Spring Street Natural in Soho, remember that place Elizabeth?

a bevy of beautiful days

In between two snowstorms, we had some nice sunny days of relief, everyone was definitely ready for the change in weather. Saturday included a visit to the cloth washing place and on our walk back home we strolled through a nearby park for some fun. We watched the old greek men play bocce ball, Rachel did some swingin' and I climbed on the stuff.





















Sunday brought an old friend to visit. John Caldwell arrived in New York as one leg of a multi-city trip through America. He spoke excitedly of his plans to buy a van for his move to Portland, Oregon.
While we discussed the endevor we caught the bus into the city to simply walk through Central Park. However when we mis-judged where the bus lets off we ended up with a quick adventure through Harlem. We also got to see the very rocky Marcus Garvey Park on our way down to Central Park. We talked as we walked and felt the temperature drop. Our journey was 66 blocks long (125th street down to 59th street) and we were reduced to eating a lukewarm hotdog and pretzel that even a squirrel would not eat when we offered it. But we did see a cat walking on a leash.

One evening we were treated to a delicious grilled cheese and tomato soup dinner that John made us after returning home from work. But this was no ordinary soup and sandwich but a gourmet re-working that John is currently experimenting with. John also wants to create a food stand that only sells grilled cheese and tomato soup. That's it. You want a tasty sammy and red soup, you see this man.


Here you can see Rachel and Isabelle recharging. Just plug them in.






John took this picture of me with the great "party ball" I found in a shop window. I really liked it and had already inquired about it a few weeks earlier but it cost $45. That is far too much to spend, especially when I don't throw any parties. This picture will have to do.




We hope John had fun because we enjoyed his visit. On his last night we had dessert at a nearby cafe.