Although it may not be too obvious, I have been going through a few very hard weeks for several reasons. So someone who knows me well told me I should not be stupid, and should have fun. Let`s be it, then!
As part of their James Bond 50 years celebration, MoMA has been showing some of 007 movies in their collection (the largest by any museum in the world). So yesterday I was invited, and I of course invited Stephanie to be my guest, to the screening of the latest James Bond movie: “007 Skyfall”.
From tilted posts to trees completely gone, after hurricane Sandy there were many signs of destruction around New York.
I had to stay at Stepahnie`s apartment (thank you again!) until Monday, because my building remained without power. And even after the power returned, the telephone and internet took two more days.
Some people were not so lucky, with all hotels fully booked, and had to stay at home for days without power or water.
To go from Baltimore to NY has been a real nightmare. I had a return train ticket for the 29th at night, but that was obviously cancelled. Amtrak then rebooked me on the first train out of Baltimore (at 03:45am on November 1st), and since flights or buses were not operating, I took it.
The nice lady at the travel agency got me a reservation on a flight to La Guardia.
On Wednesday I was invited to the screening of the documentary “Gregory Crewdson Brief Encounters” at the Core Club (that has been called the “Portal of Power” by The New York Times, or “Where the 1 Percent Go to Lunch” by CNBC), with popcorn, M&Ms, wine bar and all.
Both Ben Shapiro and Gregory Crewdson (and his mother) were there introducing the film. But their shyness made them refuse a formal Q&A session, so to talk to them one had to go to the reception area after the film and mingle and chat.
On Tuesday I went to listen to Mitchell J. Feigenbaum and Albert J. Libchaber (mathematical physicists) discuss chaos theory at CUNY Graduate Center.
After that I went to McNally Jackson Books, a great book store in SoHo, and to the opening reception for “Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos", at the New Museum, organized by Massimiliano Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions, and Jenny Moore, Associate Curator, in collaboration with Rosemarie Trockel and Lynne Cooke, chief curator of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (Spain).
Note: Start video on 33:33 (absolutely nothing happening before that, but just people waiting for the panelist to go on stage).
On Friday I was invited to attend Slavoj Žižeks lecture "Conditions of Possibility" with M. Hägglund & A. Johnston at City University of New Yorks Graduate Center.
Martin Hägglund (associate professor of comparative literature and humanities at Yale University) and Adrian Johnston (professor in the department of philosophy at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and a faculty member at the Emory Psychoanalytic Institute in Atlanta) both read legthy and endogamic discourses about Heidegger, classic philosophical concepts, and stubbornly narrow minded “canons”.
A big band of skaters (I only captured a few in my photograph becuase they were left behind in a stoplight, but there were many many more) rolling down south on Broadway. As they passed, people on the side walk greeted and cheered them. More play and less politics, or the return of the playful society, please. [Update.- there is a big story behind it: the Broadway Bomb] Beecher`s Handmade Cheese, where you can sample and purchase artisanal cheese, have some wine and small apetizers in the cellar downstairs, but even more fun to just sit and watch them make cheese live, through a big glass.
