lygia clark at Moma
fuzzy on purpose..
The retrospective of Lygia Clark, Brazilian artist opens at Moma. She
says she used the frame to open up the painting allowing the external space to influence the internal composition…my attempts at playing with her Mobius ideas peeks through to a body being touched from her therapy period.
lygia clark at Moma
The retrospective of Lygia Clark, Brazilian artist opens at Moma. She
says she used the frame to open up the painting allowing the external space to influence the internal composition…my attempts at playing with her Mobius ideas peeks through to a body being touched from her therapy period.
Banksy–I’m For Sale
Dear Mr. Banksy,
If you are looking for available canvas for your delightful images that;comment on modern life, what better spot to paint than above my eyes. My forehead I assure you is quite wide and spacious with only a modicum of wrinkle to affect the brush stroke. I walk around all over and go on public transportation, so that a wide viewership is possible. I’m also ready to take a trip if you would like a bi-national tour of my head and promise not to wear hats with visors in even the hottest climes.
Be assured that if someone wants to take my head so that they can own your work, I will put up a very big fight. Since I believe scalping has been outlawed, you should feel confident that your art will stay right where you put it …on my forehead.
If because of the glare of attention, I develop a pimple above my eyebrows, I will make myself available for you to re touch if you feel the aesthetics have been jeopardized by Mother Nature’s participation. And it goes without saying, that I will cut my bangs.
Please let me know your thoughts. My butt cheek was painted for my film on old Malcolm McLaren so you can see that I’m serious when I make this offer. I live to serve art.
Your public servant,
Nancy Cohen=koan
ps. my little dog has also volunteered though her forehead is much smaller and quite fuzzy
Women…just want more than F…un…gathering strength at the UN
ts, Without going into UN-speak and trilling off lots of initials for groups that I’m only just becoming familiar with, let me say that events at the fifty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women this week and next is a welcome energy in our all too male-centered consciousness.
Non-governmental organizations, ok, NGOs, from all regions of the world attend. It is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women.
This year’s main focus is on violence against women and sadly we know this comes in many forms: from control of women’s sexual reproductive rights, to inadequate care of pregnant women, to sexual trafficking of women and children and to prostitution.
The statistics are harrowing, the tales unforgiveable; and yet, they are all out in the open of New York, to be hammered, previsioned and sent back to the world, with new…
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Women…just want more than F…un…gathering strength at the UN
ts, Without going into UN-speak and trilling off lots of initials for groups that I’m only just becoming familiar with, let me say that events at the fifty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women this week and next is a welcome energy in our all too male-centered consciousness.
Non-governmental organizations, ok, NGOs, from all regions of the world attend. It is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women.
This year’s main focus is on violence against women and sadly we know this comes in many forms: from control of women’s sexual reproductive rights, to inadequate care of pregnant women, to sexual trafficking of women and children and to prostitution.
The statistics are harrowing, the tales unforgiveable; and yet, they are all out in the open of New York, to be hammered, previsioned and sent back to the world, with new ideas on how to fix. It will be much harder to ignore the issues when they have been brought so close to all of our lives through NGO’s first hand experiences.
A panel today featured women who had been prostitutes. I will not say worked as prostitutes because they refuse to be identified with the 70’s concept of sexual worker. It is not work. It is a way to make very little money when all other doors are closed. The stories varied, but always they shared the common thread of having no other emotional or physical support. Some had come from an abusive situation and related to their mother’s passivity. Another, at 15 was homeless and fell under the spell of someone who offered her a way out. One woman can’t have children because of the damage to her cervix from ten years of being a prostitute.
Even in this poignant and angry program, there were moments of levity. One woman said it was the (I’ll use my own interpretation here) the religiosity of the precious all important male orgasm that had to be re thought. That the need men think they have to have a sexual release from a woman is so great that the sick institution of exploitation and abuse has continued to serve this biological master.
But there’s good news. The Nordic idea is to criminalize prostitution. But not arresting the women… only the johns. To turn the table on this power game and at the same time, educate men on how to appreciate women and learn to have consensual non-raping sex out of the market place…in intimacy. Because prostitution is rape for hire. It has survived in a market that sells body parts…but these parts come with souls and spirits and hearts that break at every trick. Does this mean another broken wing for Capitalism? Perhaps.
The Finnish delegation led a panel on birth. They have had an extremely good record being one of the first countries to support midwives. When the graph came up of the Western nations with highest rate of teenage pregnancy, guess who was on the top? Ok, easy one. .. The US! Go team.
Finland has sexual education and teaches protection and doesn’t teach shame about the body. The director, who funnily said he’d been interested in sex education ever since he was a teen, pointed out that the only time their excellent record of low birth mortality and little teenage pregnancy was when the economy fell apart, and the needed services to protect the above, were dropped. But as soon as the economy came back, so did high ratings due to education and services.
A young doctor from Mali spoke of the great need for medical support for young mothers, who are socially pushed to have children when they are young, but not given the medical support. One patient died because she had no prenatal and when she finally got to hospital, there was no blood supply for her. She was very, very young and the Dr. said she saw this once a day.
Tomorrow, a group I’m recently involved with, here we go IAWRT, International Association of Women in Radio and Television will sponsor a panel on women and ecology, showing a film made by four different women, around the globe and their own way of handling local environmental issues. Hands On: ClimateWomenChange, Women seeking solutions. One of the women, Jasmine Thomas of First Nation in Canada, Jasmine Thomas has witnessed the devastation from oil spills and leads an effort to prevent pipelines from being laid across her country.
These stories are alarming, yet thoroughly inspiring.
Through examples like e of the women in this film and all the women from the four corners of our beautiful Mother Earth, we may still be able to make something of this planet, preserving its beauty and spreading justice where none had been.
Film event: Friday, March 14, 2014, at the Salvation Army Auditorium, 221 E 52nd Street in Manhattan, from 12:30pm to 2:00pm.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, death not in vain
As the snow fell Monday, I felt the clouds were weeping for Philip Seymour Hoffman; snow tears clinging to the limbs of trees, unwilling to melt away. This man with three names and many more people inside him left too soon. His talent was so bright and his manner known to be so gentle. It’s the Year of the Horse and he died taking ‘horse.’
I had seen him once at Crif Dogs and wanted to engage with him on the merits of a good mustard, but he was danced away by friends. I had often thought of writing something with him in mind, and would attend Labyrinth shows in the hopes of bumping into him.
His death brings up irrational guilt in me. Why am I feeling that I should have been able to save him? I had a similar experience when Heath Ledger overdosed. It’s not narcissism… I know I’m no god… but I think a genuine feeling of humanity… why shouldn’t we be able to help strangers out of the perils of the deep? Sometimes strangers are more effective than family and loved ones for all the obvious reasons. It’s a human right and a responsibility. After all, look at how much they both gave all of us.
What if I had campaigned more vigorously for the legalization of drugs? If heroin had a less vile connotation, would it have been easier for Hoffman to find cleaner, ‘safer’ doses. If he didn’t feel he had to hide behind a wall of shame, would he have been able to balance out his doses until he worked through this round of angst?
I have a friend who is suffering deeply emotionally and it is a type of hell that I have never gone through. I am grateful for her that she has her art to ease some of that pain, as Hoffman must have felt his acting and teaching did for him.
Dr. Andrew Tatarsky is a specialist in Harm Reduction Therapy, a model of treatment that is compassionate and humane. Sometimes cold turkey doesn’t work. Thousands of dollars should be going into setting up centers for HRT all around the country where so many are suffering from addiction. Instead money is going to build up the war effort. There is a great war here against the vulnerable. And with the financial disparity growing wider every nano second, the need to end this war is even greater.
Philip Seymour Hoffman gave our culture a huge bang for our buck with his sublime character interpretations and dedication to his art. Why can’t this country give back to its own with a reformed attitude towards drugs? Why can’t we drop the judgments and at least try to understand the rings of hell that drive an individual to do what they can to alleviate the pain.
Of course, I can’t bring this man back any more than anyone can bring back the dead. But we can honor them by not letting their death be meaningless… we can use this opportunity to liberalize our laws and release the chains on our hearts. It is the only way forward. Giddy up.
BEATLES WEEK-END, OH MY
Of course I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and luckily not long after saw them LIVE in Philadelphia. What a change of atmosphere for America. A moment as important as Woodstock! Been working on a film about John Lennon and his influence on both my romantic life and the lives of others…even including people who channel him. Very interested to hear from folks with personal and powerful tales to share. Please go to http://www.somethingaboutjohn.com and stay in touch. Yea yea yea.
24-hour musicals with no sleep
It was great to take a recess break from Bangladesh and Boston news to see One Night Stand, a documentary about the making of the 24-hour musical. This deeply euphoric film takes us on a back stage journey of this yearly show. It’s scary watching composers and lyricists try and come up with plots and songs in barely eight hours. Watching them sweat the process, hitting creative blocks and then standing up straight is like watching a blind ski team…anything can happen before they reach their six am finishing line.
Then the actors show up… talents like Cheyenne Jackson, Nellie McKay, Richard Kind and Rachel Dratch, getting their scripts, their direction and their choreography together from the morning until their 8pm curtain.
Directors Elizabeth Sperling and Trish Dalton do a great job in building the suspense by ‘dropping in’ on the groups during every stage of the process. Rachel Dratch admits to not having sung in years and watching her big eyes as she tries to squeeze out notes is a really lucky break for the film.
A play about phobias has a song about a disinfectant that is catchy even if the germs aren’t.
The adrenaline rush of the do it yourselfer musicals provides a necessary escape from all the bad news..creator Tina Fallon, says it’s very important for actors to be off book… so you can really feel the tension of them trying not to forget the words.
if a bunch of people can pull so much creativity out of themselves in a day, well what can the rest of us, humanity with thousands of years behinds us, say? At least say it with music.
The film plays at the Quad all weekend, then is on Itunes. And the next 24-hour musical is this Monday in Gramercy Park.
Lotus Eaters are hungry
Alexandra McGuiness’s debut film Lotus Eaters is oddly disturbing. It is shot so beautifully, in an ’80s soft black and white palette, with gorgeous close-ups of perfect young faces, as if torn from a fashion spread. So from the first frame, visual appetite is stirred, but very quickly dissipated by the backbiting, nastiness of this spoiled group of 25-somethings. These young Brits had me yearning for Eliza Doolittle. Who are these kids? Why aren’t they looking for jobs? Or doing their gap year in Tibet? And how can I share some of their lifestyle?
Lotus Eaters follows a group of young Londoners as they struggle to find meaning in their lives, by drinking, drugging and partying in beautiful castles. It seems that everyone is connected to old money, so it’s hard to feel too sympathetic for their plight. Instead of getting it all done and over with at Easter break in Florida they run around in costumes, picking on each other and getting high much too long. Perhaps if they were witty, but mostly they are mean… to each other, and ultimately to themselves. There are no gang rapes, but certainly a type of bullying goes on…feminists don’t exist in this realm.
Two of the leads, however, are so charming and intelligent and I want so see more of their work.Benn Northover, from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2, found a way to make lost Felix attractive, despite his confusion over whom to love. Northover is a thoughtful actor and filmmaker who considers independent filmmaker Jonas Mekas a mentor.
His co-star, delicate Antonia Campbell-Hughes suggested that these characters are incapable of behaving differently from their parents — parents who have either over-indulged or simply disappeared. And her poot Alice, looking for someone to trust, puts her love in singer Charlie, (Johnny Flynn), pretty with giant addiction issues. Ms. Campbell-Hughes has an on screen presence of innocence that belies her fierce intelligence. She has just played the Austrian kidnapping victim, Natascha Kampusch in 3096 and will soon direct her first film.
The film is playing in New York.
notjustaboutsex 