tracts

last week i traveled with my art history class to the contemporary museum down the street. the current exhibit at the contemporary, which was mistakenly described to me as some sort of a gardening show, was a collection of entrepreneurial art projects, some involving community. one idea, the tract house, was this off site apartment with a table full of stacks of little sheets of quotes and stories, advice and activist oriented thinking. you could grab as many as you wanted, and most of them had instructions to be folded into little books and pamphlets.

so much to admired about this concept. and there are lots more on their website to look at...

and in the spirit of pamphlets, i found this website the other day that has the complete writings of thomas paine, one and two, for download as a pdf. common sense, here i come.

fun is important

from ali edward's blog way back when. always a good reminder. especially when it's summer.

everything was closed at coney island

the idea with pre-college is that it crams all the activities of a year of art school into four weeks. things like visiting artist lectures, art history, and trips to d.c. and new york. yesterday was the new york trip. same deal as during the school year. four hours on a bus back and forth, and approximately 7 hours in the city. however, this time around i was helping one of the painting teachers who had a decidedly different new york experience in mind. instead of spending the day at the whitney or the like, i found myself at coney island. eating nathan's famous hot dogs (watch out kobiachi) and doling out $7.50 for a freak show. i made sure to rent a camera from av for this one. (because i still have yet to get the ball rolling with camera researching/purchasing...)

and i'm pretty sure that the sky was exactly how i had expected the sky in coney island to be. just this pure solid shade of bright light blue. beautiful. in a bizarre way.

edit: i thought i would clarify after learning of my parent's confusion. coney island was not closed. go listen to some death cab.

the thing with cities, again

"it was only as these old shops began disappearing that i realized how much i counted on them - that this layered, frayed, and quirky beauty underline my own life. new technology is usually pitched to us as an improvement but progress is always an exchange. we gain something. we give something else up. i'm interested in looking at some of what we are loosing."

-zoe leonard discussing her photography project, analogue, in
"block by block: jane jacobs and the future of new york city."


down time during pre-college = time to catch up on thinking about things like cities. i checked out "the life and death of american cities" from the mica library. it was published in the early 60s, so it's pretty crazy how relevant most of it still is today. lots on planning and people, problems and solutions, cities and suburbs. there are three chapters on the subject of sidewalks alone. needless to say, i'm loving it.

jc gift book 2008

just sent this one off to the one and only kadi pojeta. camp is coming super quick... and i'm not completely sure if i'm ready for it this time around. (at least the "head" jc part.) but, hey, that's what the two days in between pre-college and albion are for...