19th of April

Museum of Modern Art
MoMa! In Queens.
I arrived around three pm when all these highschool kids were swarming the subway station, they were so….cool.And enthusiastically so , all draped over each other like they couldn’t walk.
I went there principally for the fashion photography show and I was so disappointed.It’s like a fashion photography show by people who don’t look at it in magazines. As soon as you walk in its dominated by Cindy Sherman looking, as she does, like a jumble sale. I love most of her work, I see its purpose here and what she explores but its not fashion photography, its props.
Then its Jurgen Teller and those images are really great but I don’t know why, they look somehow really powdery in the way they’ve been printed almost like digital prints on photographic paper, like the resolution is wrong for the scale or something.But anyway, hes made portraits of women who buy couture in situ, at the studios in paris, wearing their buys,and theyre strong images.
Totally the best was Philip-Lorca Dicorcia which was a shoot in Havana called Cuba Libre for W magazine in 2000. These were totally stunning nuanced, strange, odd, same very defined, coiffed girl in all photos, very decadent very crumbling, old grandeur, beautiful colourations, a definite sense of place and having responded to Cuba, so that she , Id say Cuba is a she, is present like another ambient woman in the frame.

In the catalogue they say that 1990s fashion photography was more about lifestyle than garment.This is why they’ve made such a weird show that doesn’t really go anywhere because surely fashion photography did this much earlier…surely people like Guy Bourdin or Helmut Newton were onto this, even in fashion illustration this was happening, its so weird that they’ve swooped on the 90s. In some ways yeah I can see why specifically if you think about what Vogue Italia was doing then with Stephen Meisel, and in fact Meisel is here but it’s a dreadful shoot, horrible reconstructed 1960s Italian happy family scenes.Completely like all the energy has gone into the authentification of the period detail, he’s usually so much more alive than these hideous dioramas.

But mainly i think what happened in the 90s were people like Kate Moss and Corrine Day came along,The main fashion story in the 90s were the new "girls" that broke the mould of what a model was.I was working at KENZO at the time and I remember quite clearly this phenomenon when women were being referred to as "beautiful ugly" and it was considered really ooh la la that Moss was only 5 foot seven.Also the heroin chic thing was coined.It was like they suddenly moved the cameras back a bit to show the edges.
But surely, fashion photography is innately about lifestyle, regardless of how it might be approached.It seems dumb to me to say, well in the 90s they started taking pics of clothes with a heap of stuff in the background to suggest further layer of context. I don’t know. Im really disappointed Corrine Day isnt there.

And Nan Goldin had done a shoot of lingerie for a spread in The Voice way back, and took pics of all her friends wearing underwear at the russian baths in the east village. And that’s REALLY weird, because all these females that you know from Nan Goldin’s body of work are suddenly modelling. Like in a totally mannered self conscious fashion behaviour way.weird.
Obviously at the time, the fashion story was in how Goldin had taken pompadour objects and put them on non models(this would have been pretty radical pre kate moss) in a really dingy decayed environment. But these juxtapositions look so innocent now almost clumsy but without charm. Her real body of work doesn’t atrophy in this way and I think this illustrates the true temporal nature of fashion and fashion photography. It has an alien lifespan, an internal clock,and its purpose is to feed the future of itself.
Its better in the magazines.At the scale and texture of a magazine.At the time of publication. And it can be recommissioned sometimes but usually it only works as a quote, and,or, if enough time has lapsed for it to look NOW again.
I don’t know, I feel so strongly about it, fashion photography is one thing that really stirs me, I do find it strident and alarming and dynamic and blatant and I think its objective is to create internal chasms that need to be filled.But I love the feeling it gives me, it is always slyly opening secret doors.
Its so pleasurable, its so crap. Karl Lagerfield said that designing clothes is like cooking a banquet for a bulemic.
There were two english girls at the show, obviously fashion professionals and they were being sort of fashiony,talking that language about the images.I trailed them for a bit, I was really dying to ask them what they were doing here, scouting, directing,buying, styling, consulting ,it would have been one of those verbs.

Anyway. Then I saw some work from the permanent collection, two Toulouse Lautrec paintings which actually were stronger in fashion terms, in my opinion, than some of the previous photos.
He’s so inspiring to me toulouse lautrec, I totally get crazy about those bustle silhouettes. (And his black iinky outlines.)Like at the Manet show in Edinburgh, same thing.It's a beautiful shape, it makes an S of the body like a swan.

Then, I hadnt even seen it when I was going in but there is a huge Dieter Roth exhibition in there, and it’s the best thing ive seen in a really long time. I don’t know what to say about itI just felt completely emotionally at home with him, I got so much from looking at his work.I bought a book, there were four, I couldn’t make my mind up, in the end I got a book from a specific period when he was collaborating with Richard Hamilton.

He made a series of rings when he lived in Iceland.

I very clearly remember this shoot,the magazinewas lying on Suzannes desk..it was The Face and Kate Moss was on the cover, i think it was 1990, it was the first time I had seen her.

23rd of April

Grace Church,Broadway, NYC 12.20-12.50pm

Free Recital of the following Bach compositions:

Praludium und Fuge in C

Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier

An Wasser flussen Babylon

Fantasie und Fuge in G

played on <---------this most exquisite and sonorous instrument.

25th of april
Sunday. My dad is here for a visit. We went to central park yesterday,watched baseball from the bleachers and lay on the grass iin the sheep meadow with hundreds of other people.it was super hot, the roller disco people were out again, without the vivid astro focus sticker and I sort of liked it better, it was more ad hoc.the speakers were all slung in the centre with bikes and coats it was less presented more present.There was one particular skater I just totally love hes really tall, even more so in his skates and in his late forties and very square looking and he does this sort of insect like very personal type movement and both me and my dad were really into him just doing his own thing and not bothering about anyone else.At first he sort of makes you laugh and then the more you watch him he becomes something else, its really powerful to watch people be oblivious to to the opinion of others whilst doing something unintentionally austentatious.A great thing about this place is that many citizens are really extremely relaxed in public.
We got the bus home down fifth avenue, Saturday late afternoon, that particular bus journey is ultra strong.
Today was open house for this apartment, the scottish arts council are moving because the six floor walk-up presents problems with access.The first "open house" a woman called Rose came, the flat is open for an hour and they advertise it and put a sign up in the street so basically and literally anyone can come up and wander around your house.
So my neighbour from number 14 came up just to be nosey and turns out hes an architect and he was describing the modernisation in the building like the bathrooms all used to be outside the apartments and so on, its so interesting to hear how these buildings evolved from slums basically
The next time, a guy called Martin came, and hes so cool, he’s like a bulky, humane Andy Warhol, he seriously looks like Warhol, but he has longer hair, its dark grey.He really loves this apartment with it’s "real Greenwich Village charm" he sort of doesn’t get into talking to the people that much he looks out the window a lot and that’s great because hes admiring the view.In the gaps between the buzzer going and people coming up stairs, we talk about New York and he gets super enthusiastic about obscure neighbourhoods and areas it would never occur to me might be interesting. So I am going to visit City Island off of Pelham Parkway in the Bronx.
The first week I was here there was a mouse in the kitchen, and I went hysterical. It was a Friday afternoon and the super was saying to me on the phone that I had to wait till Monday but I was so upset and off my head that he sent someone and this guy came with a box of steel wool (it feels like broken glass on their faces he explained) to plug all the orifices of the apartment, like where pipes come through the floorboards and stuff. I didn’t realise that it’s a fact of life in New York that mice are going to appear once in a while. The guy didn’t leave any baited traps because he knew that I wouldn’t be able to cope with the trapped, possibly maimed and still alive animal. I consulted Zeena and this is what she said:

YES-- many NYC apartments have mice--mine does on Ludlow- intermittently--
they come and go-- and basically they are pretty fearless--]
i, am terrified of mice-- i hate them in every way possible-- and have a few
funny stories too--
but-- some practical tips--
1st-- you must absolutely must-- keep all food in the fridge-- and keep all
counters and surfaces crumb free-- dont leave food or drink encrusted dishes
in the sink-- you are going to have to be fairly vigilant-
(where is your place??? is it downtown--- as there seems to be more mice
downtown than uptown-- ) (no kidding!)
ok-- now plug up or have yr super do it-- but plug up any obvious holes
where the floor meets the walls-- generally its good to do it with steel wool--
which you can purchase at a local hardware store---
and
traps-- i have always found these very very icky--- but traps do catch
mice-- so here you have some options --glue traps which keep the little mouse al
ive but stuck or the regular- piece of cheese on a spring trap-- often this
kills 'um---
then you've got to get rid of them-- another perfectly horrible task-- the
end of a broom stick is helpful or a dust bin to sweep it up into-- you can
dump into the toilet or dump into the trash-- ( probably trash is best)
sometimes buildings use poison to get rid of rodents-- in this case the
little mice basically come out of hiding because they are in the process of life
threathening dehydration and they are generally very weak in this state -- they
are dying -- eaiser to catch // a bit less scarey but quite tragic-- stil icky.
i always try and coherce a friend to help me get rid of mice---

<:3 )~

27th of April

At Ground Zero,a black man wearing a denim jacket with Sylvester the cat on the back took out a pritt stick to re-glue some pictures on his visual aids.

“where you from beautiful family?How many buildings came down that day?”
“Two?”
“No, five.”

“IT’S YOUR HISTORY
DON’T LET IT BE A MYSTERY”

More people come.

“when a building comes down it has nowhere to go it has to spread……you see that building there? that building has to be demolished by hand, piece by piece, floor by floor, you see that building there? that building had a copper roof, costs too much to put that back on, so they are going to make a synthetic skin.”
He held up a picture of the architectural aftermath.
“Ok,see these girders here, imagine that’s a clock.So if you look at what time the clock iis at and notice whats happening in the background here and here… “

“what do you see here?”
“The shape of a plane!”
“no.not a plane.”
“a face!”
“no not a face.”
About twenty of us tried to see the shape.

May Day 2004

well, may day in new york isnt about workers solidarity its jay day, its the day that "weed-heads" take to the street and protest the criminalisation of marijuana.As a demo, it was pretty, i dont know what the word would be..un-urgent. visually it was pretty excellent, there were banners in the shape of marijuana leaves and people had hemp leaves made into crowns which looked kind of pagan in keeping with the spirit of may day, and what was really excellent was that in battery park where the rally flopped down on the grass, at one end there was a big cranked up techno sound system and at the other end there was a country and western sort of blue grass band and they managed to co-exist sonically.there was a point in the park where you could happily listen to both. and also it was cool to hear people say, we're protesting but we're not breaking the law so dont light up a joint because THERE'S A LOT OF PLAIN CLOTHES HEAT IN THE PARK TODAY.

!!!!!!!!!undercover heat !!!!!!!!!!

thursday i went up to eyebeam for a screening of new video work by young mexican artists.work from mexico city, oaxaca and guadalajara.

i i had to leave about half way through, there was too much of it and there was something going on with the generic attatchment of music in some works that i found difficult, BUT, there were about three really magnificent little four minute works, my total favourite was a video called

"ensalada de nopal" by isabel rojas

she filmed a woman making cactus salad, pulling out the thorns, peeling and slicing it, boiling it then adding all the other ingredients.

but she had done something really simple with the sound which wasnt directly discernible i think she had amplified and reversed it, so the sounds became like tiny engines, ripping a thorn out was like a mini chainsaw, it was such a tough, eloquent little film.

if you would like to know how to make cactus sald i found a recipe on-line.this is a still from the arizona cactus site.

http://www.arizonacactus.com/nopal.htm

I am totally going to make that when i see those flat leaves somewhere, i saw them down in Houston but i didnt know what they were then.

i am moving house next few days, ill be up in Little Korea for a night tomorrow then down to financial district.im pretty excited about the building but the area will take a bit of examination, i walked past a bar down there today called the blarney stone round the corner and asked a guy about the kentucky derby which was today and he told me he didnt follow rachorses but this was the cheapest bar in the area. i watched the kentucky derby on the tv, the guy whos horse won was 78 and had emphysemia, he honestly looked like he wasnt going to make it.he was standing up out of his wheelchair with oxygen tubes coming out of his nose, and he's 5 million dollars richer today.i looked up the recipe for mint juleps but didnt quite get round to that.