Ways With Words

Feet and Art in New York

We had two very different art experiences yesterday and both left me baffled, unmoved and uninspired. The New Museum in the Lower East Side (stunning modern building) had an exhibition of young artists’ work – Younger Than Jesus it was called, ie younger than Jesus at his crucifixion, 33. Maybe it’s because I’m much older than Jesus that I found it difficult to engage, or maybe my feet were tired with walking for miles. You never know what shapes your responses and feet, age and how much wine you had at lunch may be factors. After 4 floors of art, that I didn’t bother to struggle with, we arrived at the 5th floor and sat on a very comfortable sofa to watch a 30 minute film with footage on the seminal moments (political, artistic, musical, social) of the last 33 years. I found this fascinating – so, considering the sofa, maybe my feet had influenced my reactions when I was walking around the gallery.

Feet semi-recovered we walked a lot further: into Chinatown, over the Brooklyn Bridge and to BAM - the Brooklyn Academy of Music. We had booked for a performance of modern dance. This isn’t an art form we know much about but we have seen some striking modern dance in New York in the past and pride ourselves on our open minds. As we were early for our show we went into the huge café for refreshments. What a space: lots of red and aluminium, huge arches and white plaster cast bodies hanging from the very high ceiling - an un-childlike mobile. Surprisingly the auditorium was quite traditional, like a West End theatre. The dance show consisted of 4 pieces created by Trisha Brown: one from the 60s, one designed by Robert Rauschenberg, a 2004 piece and the premier of a new opera and dance. I enjoyed it all in a soporific way. (I noticed lots of people were yawning in the interval so maybe I wasn’t alone).Considering that Steve and myself are both uneducated in modern dance I didn’t expect to be able to give an informed critique but we were rather underwhelmed by the experience. At the end Trisha Brown came onstage and got a standing ovation, huge bouquet and lots of woops and cheers. I understood what it means to be illiterate.  

The marvellous subway whisked us from BAM, right up to our door in the Upper West Side in 25 minutes. Obama’s first 100 days were being discussed on TV. The audiences were asked to phone in to give him grades for his achievements in several areas including his response to swine flu. Poor man; swine flu only arrived in America about 2 days ago and all I’ve heard him say is put your hand over your mouth if you cough.

My Grades for Today’s Activities:
Lunch at Freemans – loved its grey walls, purple flowers, stuffed birds – so A for environment, B+ for food.
New Museum – Building A, Art D, film B
Brooklyn Bridge – AAA – fantastic
BAM – Building A, dance C+
Subway home – A
Television coverage of Obama’s 100 days – off the scale; I’m not sure which end.

The debate over what is good art, or what is art, and who decides, has been bubbling for many years. The plastic arts seem to invoke the most ire but not entirely. An elderly relative used to say, “I think a play should have a beginning, a middle and an end.” – usually to express her wrath at Pinter or Beckett.
To engage with the art conundrum come to hear Richard Fox at Ways With Words on Saturday 11 July at 5pm in Dartington Hall’s Barn Theatre.

Enjoying the 3Ls in New York

I read somewhere that visitors to New York should avoid the 3Ls : lingering, loitering and looking – the 3 things we spend all our time doing. No problems so far. Eavesdropping, walking and watching seem a good way to get to know a city and we have spent our days enjoying these pastimes.

Yesterday we set off across Central Park again. Normally we have breakfast on the roof garden but we had run out of bread so we called at Le Pain Quotidian on Amsterdam Avenue and had a big basket full of varied breads to fuel us.

Steve made me offer the Schiffrin’s suggested 2$ as an entry fee to the Met instead of its suggested 20$. I’d have felt better if I could have justified this but the person on the desk just takes your money – no questions asked. It is a spectacular museum. We went up to the roof garden and saw the new roof sculpture: Roxy Paine’s Maelstrom – a huge tangle of steel you are invited to walk amongst ‘to experience the maelstrom’, so we did. I actually felt peaceful. The view across Central Park’s fresh green trees with the sparkling skyscrapers on the horizon was awe-inspiring. We also saw a new exhibition – The Pictures Generation – drawings, photos and prints and a film about one of the contributors, Cindy Sherman, who uses herself, dressed and made-up, to create varied characters as the subject for her photos. Not bad for 2$.

A fast bus ride took us down to the Tribeca Film Festival again. This time we saw a French film called Queen to Play. Slow, quirky, quiet. The director and 2 actors did the Q&A afterwards. Kevin Kline was one of the actors and there was great excitement when he appeared. I realised at the Film Festival what I like about festivals: the queuing before is companionable; there is a supportive atmosphere amongst the audience with applaud after the film and then the Q&A session is unifying – even if the questions are awful. The questions were the mix we get at Ways With Words: some challenging and thoughtful, some quite mad. After this film someone asked why there was no nudity if it was meant to be romantic. Someone else commented that the brushes on the door created an atmospheric swishing sound. The director looked as if she must have lost something in translation as she tried to answer these questions.

Chloe and Videl had recommended a restaurant in the Lower East Side – Supper - so we had supper there. Über cool as the guidebooks said. We loved it: old glass lampshades, velvet curtains, big wooden tables and delicious food. Packed with arty foodies.

Back home to our huge bed and what passes for news. Swine flu taking about 80% of air time. We saw our first swine flu mask in New York today. There is a phone-in to vote about how worried you are about it; we realised that Steve’s mother would be off the scale. Tomorrow is Obama’s 100th day in office. We shall be glued to CNN, when we aren’t engaged with the 3Ls.

Two Countries Separated by the Same Language …….

As a words person I know that language usage is constantly changing but I’m often entertained in New York to see how the English language has developed differently here. Many nouns have been transformed into verbs. Each time we get on a bus we are warned ‘No littering’, on the pavements we are told to curb (kerb) our dogs. Walking in Central Park we were instructed to respect the fence. In England respect is something for parents or teachers. As Steve said, ‘A fence has to earn my respect’. He’s so English.

More striking (and I have to admit shocking at times) are the views expressed. In the New York Times this Sunday there was an interview with Maria Shriver about her father’s Alzheimers. The interviewer, suggesting she was a strong spokesperson for the disease (though he called her a spokeswoman – could have been worse), said, ‘You look like a Wonder Woman with those cheekbones’. I re-read it several times. Was this ironic I wondered? I don’t think so. Where was the editor? On our last visit we watched a television programme that divided a group of men into two groups – Brawn and Brains (though looking at them it wasn’t easy to see the difference) and the viewing women were asked to vote on which group they preferred. We should have clicked on to CNN news of course but I found this so amazing I carried on watching.

But there are also strikingly liberal attitudes. There is widespread support for the disabled. If a wheelchair user wants to get on a bus the driver gets out and helps the person in the wheelchair safely onto the bus. None of the passengers look annoyed at the delay (except me, I’m ashamed to say, after one journey was delayed at almost every stop). Nor do the wheelchair users think that gratitude is required. One person shouted and swore at the driver and the passengers, “Move along, I need more space. Get out of my way”. We use the buses a lot in London and I’ve never known a driver get out to help in this way.

Each nation is full of contradictions, contrasts and great plurality of views. When Hamish was in San Francisco some years ago he was often stopped by people shaking him by the hand and thanking him for Tony Blair’s and Britain’s support of the war in Iraq. It was rarely possible to explain his anti-war position. The titles on the bookshelves here show alternative views: ‘Conglomerates And The Media’, ‘The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism’,‘The War At Home – the domestic costs of Bush’s militarism’.

How are diverse views disseminated to a wider public? Maybe one way is through literature festivals (or film festivals like the Tribeca one we’ve been attending). We constantly need a challenge to our thinking and I’m finding this happens all the time while we are in New York. Travel does indeed broaden the mind.

Ageist attitudes are still widely accepted in Britain so I am glad that Julia Neuberger has tackled this issue in her latest book and will present her ideas at Ways With Words at Dartington on Sunday 19 July.

New York, New York . . .

New York is Indeed a Wonderful Place – even if it is over-consuming:
The night before we flew to New York we went to the cinema to see, The Age of Stupid. “Three years of your carbon footprint allowance is used by one flight from London to New York”, we were informed, as if the film was speaking just to us. Oh help.

However I know that if oil does run out there won’t be Pete Postlethwaite on a tower in the skies telling us where we went wrong. I must go to the Transition Town morning at the festival this July, hear what they have to say and keep quiet about being here. James Lovelock is speaking too and he thinks it’s too late for individual acts. I’ll listen to him too.

Even if refusing a plastic bag and recycling rubbish is a useless gesture I am still shocked by the over-consumption in America. I felt virtuous when I bought some organic tea bags until I discovered that each bag had its own extra polythene bag. Most food seems to be wrapped with many layers. I wanted to rip my purchases open and leave the excessive wrappings at the cash desk, as protesters have done in England, but one look from Steve restrained me. I didn’t even feel I could refuse the double carrier bags the cashier used for my few goods.

In The New York Times travel pages there was an article headed, The Flying Dilemma. “Ah,” I thought, at least here the issue is being addressed. But no: the article was about whether to buy your flights early or late to get cheap deals.

Temperature reaches 90 F
In light of what I’ve said I should be worried about this but instead I loved the joyful atmosphere in Central Park yesterday. The grass was covered in near naked sunbathers; rowing boats full of families were bobbing on the lake; musicians were playing and the crowds were cheering the breakdancers. The brides in flowing white dresses were posing for photographs. Apparently they get into their finery a few days ahead of the wedding to get the photographs done. This worried me; I felt sure the dresses would get dusty, sweaty or be stained with ice cream. Maybe that doesn’t matter – it’s the photos that count. Of course the health conscious were exercising: the fat, the thin, the young, the old were sweating from their many creases as they jogged, cycled, rollerbladed.

We just walked. We strolled around the paths, marvelling at the blossom and Spring flowers then followed our usual Sunday tradition and brunched at The Boathouse Restaurant. We were told there was a 2 hour wait so we got drinks and sat on leather chairs listening to the pianist and admiring the view of water, trees and skyscrapers and felt in no rush. The kind receptionist let us jump the queue and in only 20mins we were sitting at our table on the edge of the lake. Zagat is rude about the food at The Boathouse but we disagree. We had lovely salads, croissants, seed cakes and delicious coffee for under 20$.

We intended going on to the Met and other galleries but instead we found a bench in the shade and read. I’m immersed in the autobiography of Andre Schiffren [publisher and owner of the flat where we are staying] so I’m finding out about New York in the 40s when he and his Jewish family fled here from Paris and their connections with left wing intellectuals from that time on.

The Schiffrin’s lovely Upper West Side penthouse flat has a roof garden, leather sofas and is filled with books – perfect for an excess of reading. This could be considered a busman’s holiday but who wants a holiday from books?

Ways With Words Festival of Words and Ideas takes place at Dartington Hall 10-20 July. Monday 13 July is Transition Town morning with Rob Hopkins and others, while that afternoon James Lovelock will be speaking about his ideas to his biographer, John Gribbin. Programme available online from Tuesday 5 May. Visit wayswithwords.co.uk