they make me wanna like girls

tegan and sara. never have i regretted not hearing a new album before a show more. L. and i keep saying if only we had started listening two weeks earlier! we would have come and sang along to every word, checked out the hot dykes and hot hair, and considered it the best 13 bucks ever spent.

instead we download every video and sing along and wish we were there. or that we were you.

my new boyfriends

these boys are the ones you don't ever want to let go. so fantastic and charming.

kings of converience - i'd rather dance with you
video

see erlend, be inspired to shake your bum.

greg.org's reel roundtable

i went to the reel roundtable by myself tonight. that's always fun. it helped that most of the people there were on their own, so felt a little sophisticated and loner-esque. it was fairly interesting, he's not the world's best public speaker but he was very likable. can't say as much for the guy in the audience who kept making comments and trying to sound smart.. hell, he probably was smart but i hate people like that, they're just irritating as hell. no one cares who made the esoteric remark you just quoted, alright? new ban on the word esoteric too.

the movies- i mean the FILMS - were a neat spectrum of what influences greg. started off with most boring thing i've ever seen "gerry" by gus van sant. five minutes of my life are gone forever. when even audiences at pretentious film 'roundtables' get bored, it's time to cut it. by a lot. however, the ties greg made with "elephant" (columbine vehicle i'm putting on my netflix queue as i type), "gerry" and "red vs. blue" - sorry i can't do links, my blogger template is all wack. took me ten minutes to figure that out.

anyway, red vs. blue was awesome, then he showed "cremastor 4" (a TV version - unfort. still boring) and an orozco film, a man who i hated in the last post and still can't stand. blah. two crappy points. then came a short film by mr. allen, which was terrible but wasn't that great, and clips from "out of sight" which IS that great and "don't look now" which soderberg's film beat hands down in sexiness but julie christie wins for sexiest. damn, even her itsy-bitsy tits looked not horrid. nic roeg is talented.

then came the musicals - "singin' in the rain", i think, and "moulin rouge" and "south park". now i've never seen "moulin rouge" - it just never interested me, but that cancan song is pretty awesome. i like the guy's part. so maybe someday when i'm baked. oh, how lovely that will be.

so i don't know if tonight counted as art. i guess we'll see if i manage to do anything else this week and that will determine it. right now it's bedtime. goodnight.

Carnegie International 1999/2000

while in pittsburgh, i went to the Carnegie to see the International. I always credit their biennial exhibition as being the impetus for my major in art history, but it's probably more my senior year art history class as a whole. The International that year was pretty amazing, though, and has definitely had a huge influence on my tastes and opinions. Look at these participants:

Franz Ackermann Germany (b. 1963)
Matthew Barney USA (b. 1967) - didn't see Cremaster (sometimes I feel like my life has revolved around not seeing it) but was aware of it - probably a more enjoyable state.
Janet Cardiff Canada (b. 1957) - very cool installation piece. I feel like I actually did it, but maybe I'm making that up.
John Currin USA (b. 1962) - his pieces blew me away. so surreal, creepy, and fascinating. extremely sexy.

Hanne Darboven Germany (b. 1941)
Thomas Demand Germany (b. 1964) - dark and impressive. loved him.
Mark Dion USA (b. 1961)
Willie Doherty Northern Ireland (b. 1959)
Olafur Eliasson Germany (b. 1967, Denmark)
Kendell Geers South Africa (b. 1968) - actually didn't like this one. i haven't seen an artist yet who could properly use the Carnegie's staircase... this year was no exception.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres USA (b. 1957-1996, Cuba) - ehh.
Ann Hamilton USA (b. 1956) - i like her a lot, looking at her picture makes me want to be her friend. this wall impressed me with its technical aspects.
José Antonio Hernández-Diez Venezuela (b. 1964)
Pierre Huyghe France (b. 1962)
Alex Katz USA (b. 1927) - i love Katz's flatness, and i love his works whenever i see them BUT i'm getting over being impressed with his talent. that wasn't the case when i saw them in 99, i'm sure i fell for it immediately..
William Kentridge South Africa (b. 1955) - this piece is at the International Center of Photography now. i skipped it this time (it's pretty heavy and once was enough), but definitely an extremely talented artist. i remember really being wowed by the amount of work that went into it.
Bodys Isek Kingelez Democratic Republic of Congo (b. 1948) - neat, sort of psychedelic, would have been more interesting had i smoked weed back then.
Suchan Kinoshita Netherlands (b. 1960, Japan)
Martin Kippenberger Germany (b. 1953-1997) - i can't believe i don't remember this, because it looks awesome. the plastic chairs look familiar but i think not being allowed to participate with the work inhibits the response.

Kerry James Marshall USA (b. 1955)
Takashi Murakami Japan (b. 1962) - he was about to become a(n almost) household name with his Louis Vuitton purses, and I had read a lot on him around then, but as a hater of anime, his models both irritated and perturbed me.
Shirin Neshat USA (b. 1957, Iran) - blah blah woman walking. the Carnegie loves using that room for that purpose.. but it still gets boring.
Ernesto Neto Brazil (b. 1964) - mmm... so much better than anything else i've seen with nylon (see Sarah Lucas and that shit this year at the International).
Chris Ofili England (b. 1968) - this was seriously exciting, as Sensation happened that year. i remember being shocked at how beautiful his pieces were and that's why i hate Rudy Guiliani. It's so great to have seen Ofili get the recognition he so rightfully deserves, i.e. he's in the MOMA.

Gabriel Orozco USA (b. 1962, Mexico) - barf. i can't stand ping pond table... well, it was fun to play, but i don't like it anyway. it's a very popular piece, unfortunately, so i've seen it in articles about a hundred times.
Markéta Othová Czech Republic (b. 1968)
Laura Owens USA (b. 1970) - lovely lovely stuff. her depth and youth make an interesting contrast with Katz.

Edward Ruscha USA (b. 1937) - blech. i'm 50/50 with Ruscha. this stuff was attractive but i could have done without the text - and so could the paintings. i JUST saw a piece in ArtNEWS yesterday and the difference of text on realism as opposed to plain old figurative work was tremendous. so no to CI99/00, but I won't write off Ruscha yet, esp. since he was picked to represent the good old usa at the Venice Biennial. i'm going to withhold my extremely important judgement till i see the latest.
Gregor Schneider Germany (b. 1969)
Ann-Sofi Sidén Sweden (b. 1962)
Roman Signer Switzerland (b. 1938)
Sarah Sze USA (b. 1969) - delicate pieces that everyone should adore.
Sam Taylor-Wood England (b. 1967) - god, she's so cool and her work is so good and i want to have her life. please. seriously, i think the works in the CI that year justified the White Cube hype.

Nahum Tevet Israel (b. 1946) - looks awesome, don't remember him.
Diana Thater USA (b. 1962)
Luc Tuymans Belgium (b. 1958) - no.
Kara Walker USA (b. 1969) - i remember her a lot of attention being paid to her works. the display of them was very well-done, they circled the upper level of the open space. i spent a lot of time trying to make up stories about the figures - i don't know if she has done this or not, but a picture book of her shadow figures would make my day.
Jeff Wall Canada (b. 1946)
Jane and Louise Wilson England (b. 1967)
Chen Zhen France (b. 1955, China)

[[this killed me, i honestly let out a groan of pain. Dave Hickey, MacArthur fellow and author of Air Guitar, one of my all-time favorite books, gave a talk at the 2000 International and I missed it]] that's almost as painful than missing the Faint by two hours.

i remember coming out of there with a whole new appreciation for contemporary art. it seemed so new and exciting to me at that point. i had never been so interested in any kind of art to that degree - i felt like i had found what made me tick. i'm not so sure that's still the case, but a flood of nostalgia for the way i felt then has just rushed in.

i began this planning on critiquing the current show. another day.

a real new year

i've resolved to write more and do more. a specific goal is to go to a gallery or museum once a week. i've felt that it's been such a waste not using my free admission to its fullest extent, and i know my friends agree.