Phish at Darian Lake

I am not a Phish Phan but I love going to Phish shows. So you see it’s not a concert it’s a show. My love also stems from how happy it makes Dr. J, who in his hippy days went on several tours and around 200 shows. In 2000 Phish took a hiatus and Dr. J and I did too. Some members of the band went to rehab and many of their phans went on with their lives.
So eight years later and with slightly more lucid vision we went to see Phish. We arrived on site five hours before the show was scheduled to start and took a walk down to Shakedown Street. Shakedown, a Grateful Dead verbiage, is the area where Phish Tour people sell the things they sell, to get the phunds they need to get to the next show. Phans back their vans and set up tents making walkways of Phish inspired tee shirts, ganja goo balls, glass art, crystals, jewelry, sweaters, stained glass, patch work clothes, grill cheese sandwiches, fajitas, pizzas and lots of ice cold beer and water. We set up our LL Bean Sleeping bag and watched the madness unfold.

The line in Dazed and Confused “I get older, they stay the same age” could not be more spot on to describe the scene. Nothing has changed, the dynamics are the same, the interactions, the spirit but with different people and different distractions. There were still hacky sacks (back to the 90’s much) and I saw some devil sticks but to my great amusement a prop that is becoming popular at my local gym was a major presence, hoola hoops! Ribbony psychedelic ones. The fairy winged girls were all about the hoolahoop tricks, still wearing their knee high rainbow colored or argyle socks and barely anything else. I was mesmerized by one gorgeous nymph with bare pert breasts and a loin cloth tirelessly hoolahooping in the lot.

The first show I ever ‘got taken to’ was in 2000 at Radio City Music Hall. In retrospect that is an amazing first show experience venue. Not all venues are created equal and not all sites are as clean as Radio City Music Hall. Darien Lake in Buffalo is a dirty show, can’t be clean after that one. Luckily I already knew I was going to have a blast and knew my limitations on how to have a good time.

So this is my theory on how to have an awesome time at a Phish show. Just dance. Seriously.

I don’t know all the songs, I don't know the story behind the story or what they covered, I have no idea why one of them wears a dress, why they sometimes play a vacuum (yeah as if it's an instrument!) or why there are trampolines on stage at some shows. When they start playing some long 'hippy jam' I feel like scratching my actual brain out, sometimes.

Dancing like a wet noodle is fun. I had a fantastic show. Great experience. The band was more sober and even though it took about 48 hours to feel normal again I can’t wait to go to some of their West Coast shows in the fall.

Here is a link to Dr. J’s favorite Phish blogger about the show at Darien Lake- This guy knows the story behind the story.

http://phishthoughts.com/2009/08/14/lighting-the-fuse/

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is a fantastic writer. He introduces ideas that I have never pondered and explains them in a conversational style which ultimately leaves me feeling that I just spent a lovely mind stimulating evening with an old friend. The only problem with his books is that I am so eager to talk about them with others that it is hard not to, until they too have finished it.

Born in England and raised in Ontario, Canada, Mr. Gladwell lives in New York City, where he has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He is well known as the author of the books The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), and Outliers: The Story of Success (2008).

In his latest book Outliers: The Story of Success, Mr. Gladwell examines “Why do some people succeed far more than others?” He observes as most would that success is a combination of intelligence and ambition but takes this hypothesis several steps further. I thoroughly enjoyed his theories based on the agricultural methods employed in the middle ages by Asian vs. European peasants and the implications this has on the mathematical prowess of their respective ancestors. Chapter Two of his book The 10,000- Hour Rule, is another wonderful supposition that states “you will only reach a level of mastery if you are willing to devote essentially 10 years to a particular discipline”. Mr. Gladwell goes on to give unique examples of this theory using the paradigms of The Beatles, Bill Gates, Bill Joy and Mozart.

Mr. Gladwell is now working on another book which he describes as being about teachers and quarterbacks. I am anxiously awaiting the next batch of ideas while practicing my 10,000 hours to mastery, in various fields.

His Official Website

http://www.gladwell.com/

About his latest book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book)

Artist: Jorge Villalba

White Squares Gallery in Las Vegas is where I first saw Jorge Villalba's work.

His painting The Kidnapping of Ganymedes I, 2004 is thrilling with its darkness and photo realism. Many of Villalba’s paintings are reminiscent of beautiful and perfect children, often in chilling poses or situations. Villalba’s work suggests an intentional instigation but of what is often disputed. When I went back there today to visit my friend C. The Kidnapping of Ganymedes I again beckoned my attention. I told C. how wonderful I thought it was and she said that the reaction of many visitors is one of outrage at Villalba's painting, which they view as child pornography?!?!

I think his paintings are brilliant, not lewd. To me the paintings speak more of dichotomies between naiveté and death or innocence and evil. Villalba’s paintings often depict children with faces that are perfectly angelic and totally realistic. The coloring of the children is almost always cast in a natural glow, with the backdrop often sparse and dark. Common in his paintings are brightly colored toys that are recognizable as contemporary.

Born in Spain in 1975, Villalba’s painting style and technique are clearly recognizable and defined. He is able to created works that are reminiscent of portraits or depict characters and events in times past, yet with an indisputable presence in this moment.

The Picnic (2008)

Hansel and Gretel (2007)

Here is the link for White Square Gallery in Las Vegas.

Originally founded in Berlin in 2008, WHITE SQUARE GALLERY is the first European gallery to open showrooms in Las Vegas, USA.


http://www.whitesquaregallery.com/las-vegas/artists/reminisce/jorge-villalba/works.html

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEME
WE LOVE YOU!!!




some photos of the flowers I brought indoors.

Artist: Cornelia Parker

Cornelia Parker (1956) is a British artist who originally trained as a painter but is known for her sculptures and installation pieces. In 1997 she was short listed for the Turner Prize which is named for the artist J.M.W. Turner and is awarded annually by the Tate institute to a visual artist under the age of fifty. Ms. Parker is recognized for her large scale installations where she suspends destroyed or altered found objects, as three dimensional art.

Ms. Parker’s work ‘Mass’ (1997) is part of the Phoenix Art Museums permanent collection and in my opinion one of the Museums best pieces.

The room which contains the installation could be larger and one is not able to walk around the piece, taking away from the installations full potential, yet hardly challenging its beauty. ‘Mass’ is made up of several pieces of charcoal suspended on transparent threads. The hanging parts are larger and denser in the middle and expand to smaller and more widely spaced periphery of a cube shape. It is actually the seemingly flawless shape of the cube produced, by fragmented pieces, which impressed me. The parts of the whole seem to be suspended not only in air but in time. There is the sense of an explosion contained within the invisible limitations of a box. The work is lit from above which further creates an airy atmosphere.

The plaque describes the work as coming from the fragments retrieved from a church struck by lightening and burnt to the ground in Lytle, Texas.
There is more to Ms. Parker’s artist mission statement in relation to ‘Mass’ namely that it is made by remnants of a Caucasian congregation which can be juxtaposed with a subsequent work titled ‘Mass (Colder Darker Matter)’ (1998) made from pieces scavenged from an African American church destroyed by arsonists.
Ms. Parker’s work has been described as 'Found Art' as well as 'Art Intervention', both categories of art that suggest the creation of a new art using previously existing art work.

Here is an interesting article about Ms. Parker:
http://www.damelioterras.com/MEDIA/01088.pdf

Textiles

I took these yesterday because the things around my house make me happy.

I love the colors of this pattern and also the hidden images.