But with no ticket at all I am still allowed to stand at the base of Frank Lloyd Wright's inverted ziggurat and view, what for this exhibit, is all of his work. Rather than hang the pieces on walls or keep sculptures on the floor Cattelan has chosen to use the negative space of the interior as his canvas and hung all of the work, suspended in time, so to speak, with nothing on the walls or floor at all. That alone is impressive at least. But aside from that are the looks of the kids who are part of a school tour of the facility. They gape wondrously at all the images hung precariously from the ceiling - pigeons, donkeys and carts, a shopping cart that is three times longer than a conventional one, hanging male mannequins, a reclining Pope. Who knows what it's all about. That, I guess, is what one learns when they are able to see the entire show, from top to bottom as gravity will encourage at the Guggenheim - scheduled for another day.
Walking through Central Park afterwards an a Capella group sings in the tunnel of Bethesda fountain. The light there through the archway is magical in the day growing towards noon and the music matches. Out of the park I veer to the west side towards the Apple store on 67th and on the way is Lincoln Center. I can remember the last time I was there in 1991 for the CLIO awards, advertising's version of the Oscars. I had been to Lincoln Center the year before for the same event and our hosts were Barbara Feldon (Agent 99) and Nipsy Russell (unfunny comedian). With that unlikely pair as hosts I should have known things were going south for the show in short order.
The 1991 ceremony is referred as 'The Most Bizarre Event in Advertising History,' because it was a complete debacle. Attendees who had paid the $125 admission price did not have tickets waiting at the door, as promised. Also missing were Clio officials and Clio President, Bill Evans. The event did not start on time; in fact, people stood around drinking, schmoozing and trading rumors about Evans and the Clio organization for over two hours. Finally, the lights dimmed and the band started playing. A man walked up to the microphone and began to speak. He identified himself as the caterer and announced that the master of ceremonies was a no-show, but that he would give it a shot. It started out well, but after being informed that there was no script and no winners list, he gave up and walked off. A second fellow walked onstage and began talking, but was not a polished speaker; it was obvious that he was inebriated. Print ads were the first awards, When the last award in the category was dispensed, the band began playing an interlude, and the emcee began singing. The audience began booing and throwing dinner rolls, and the drunk staggered offstage. Several minutes passed, but no one took his place. As the people began to leave, one man mounted the stage, strode to the table of remaining statuettes, snatched one up, and waved it as he left the stage. Two other individuals claimed their own awards; then suddenly, the stage was stampeded by a feeding frenzy of advertising executives, intent on grabbing the Clios that remained.
Due to the disorganization of the event I have no idea if I won anything or not. I had had five works shortlisted that year - twenty years ago. One has to ask themselves what had gone wrong in the intervening years. As far as the Clios went, owner Bill Evans had allegedly become a coke-head and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1992. I myself missed the drug habit and have yet to file for bankruptcy. For that, one needs to have had at least had enough money to have run up a debt to be forgiven. Still debt free, I am also job free and house free these days, so going into chapter 13 doesn't really seem to be an issue.
I realize that I write this blog always from a point of view that I will not be jobless nor homeless forever. I realize that that belief taints the POV. What if I never rise from this station. What if this is permanent? If you look at the facts and figures regarding poverty in the US the one thing sure is that we are making more poor people and the rich people are getting richer. Thinking positive and being hopeful are always ways we tell ourselves to be - but what if the mathematics just simply don't work? What if it is statistically impossible to beat poverty? I see the way our government and our society are not working at all towards a more equal distribution of wealth - and I protest that fact at OWS - but that job doesn't pay either.
Saturday: D17, Occupy Wall Street's 3rd Anniversary was billed as a grand reoccupation of a not so grand piece of ground - a Trinity Church property adjacent to Duarte Square at Canal and 6th St. Trinity, being both a church and the third largest land holder in NYC had been encouraged by clergy citywide to 'deed' an occupation site to OWS thereby showing their firm commitment to the movement. Trinity has been both praised and derided since the start of Occupy for at once, supporting the movement through their community center, Charlotte's Place whilst secondly, not doing much to help since the early morning police raid of Zuccotti Park on November 15th. In the end, OWS's attempted reoccupation of a private park, against church wishes, didn't do much to help the movement and whilst the day was spirited and fun in many ways, helping to get OWS back together for a public gathering, things ground to a slow trickle by 6pm once the requisite number of arrests had been made, obligatory photographs of supposed police brutality made and a pretty damn fun puppet show featuring mayor Bloomscrooge. "Much ado about nothing in the end", the bard proclaimed.
The day finished out with the first attempt of an OWS film festival at 56 Walker. Having seen literally hundreds of videographers and filmmakers during our occupation of Zucotti Park it was refreshing and enlightening to see the events from distinctly different POVs. My prevailing thoughts during the screenings
were that the world needed to see these images, as mainstream media (MSM) doesn't at all seem to represent the movement at it's finest. These films did. Thanks to all the filmmakers and I hope this library and screenings grows as the movement progresses.
Sunday: Sunday featured an OWS 'unconference' at Pace University where skeletal presentations are featured but the conference grows as participants are encouraged to make spontaneous presentations on whatever they want, time permitting. I had become familiar with the unconference format from the Barcamp tech gatherings in Saigon and thought it was a worthwhile format for OWS - a sort of 'think as you go' format. More of these can certainly work to our advantage.
Monday: Monday ended after I had just cooked dinner at the church and did all the dishes for sixty by being told by one of the mangers that I didn't get a weekly Metrocard. Whilst knowing me as a resident of the church, he was not aware that I had spent 48 days in the park and accumulated all the media you see in the right sidebar (on my blog) under AHBINYC Media for OWS. Now I've been told that only work for official working groups is regarded as work worthy of the organization paying for all my transportation to work I am not paid for. So what I read from the organization is that the work I do individually for them is not valued - nor is the work people do by occupying Zuccotti Park, going on marches or other activities - unless of course, it is sanctioned by an official working group.
Seems oddly like we are moving to a structure much like the one we are protesting - and just like that frog, mentioned at the beginning of this post, we may fail to realize that until we are summarily boiled in our own process - nickel and diming ourselves to death while the rich get richer.
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