out on the weekend

i rarely, rarely feel like i have a "weekend," as in that sigh of relief going out big tonight! way (maybe because i work very little to begin with...), so it was a pleasure the past few days to feel it to that beat. first friday was filled with lovely friends and fun and took us to nationale, naau, worksound, no. 2 print shop and holocene. saturday was fleetwood mac weather so we had brunch al fresco with a homemade apple galette and then drove to carlton to wine taste and mcminnville to eat lavishly at thistle. sunday was lazy with lots of coffee, reading, working on new projects, matzo ball soup and at last, TRUE BLOOD.

WE TIGERS

"Norteno is not ingratiating music. In essence, it is Mexicanized polka. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, deposits of iron ore and copper were discovered in the north of Mexico, and Czechs and Germans arrived to work in the mines and in the smelters. They were dust-bowl types who brought the accordion, which fit into their luggage. They also brought the polka. The Mexican version is more exuberant than the European one, and has more flourishes. The Mexicans play it so that is sounds like music from a warm region instead of a cold one.



Norteno is also a little disreputable. According to Chris Strachwitz, the head of Arhoolie Records, who has collected hundreds of thousands of the songs - which are housed in a foundation at U.C.L.A...'Norteno is field-hand music, drunkard's music. Lower-class music... Class isn't so important in the gringo world, but in Mexico it is. Many people in Mexico look down on this music.' Mariachi, which features trumpets and violins and was a favorite of Richard Nixon, is a music of longing for the period of the haciendas, the great estates and plantations. Norteno is the music made by the people who sustained the haciendas with their labor. It began to be recorded in the nineteen-twenties. The modern norteno band, built around the accordian, was established in Monterrey, in the fifties.



The majority of Los Tigres' songs are corridos, a species of compressed ballad characteristic of norteno. Corridos are a form of bulletin. Something of consequence, usually violent, happened somewhere, and the corrido is the medium for broadcasting it. (One could think of the Iliad as a long-form corrido.) Corridos began to appear in Mexico in the eighteen-sixties and have a single reference, the border. They emerged to express the strife that ensued when a remote and unified territory was divided suddenly, following the Mexican War. No corrido has been written that is not somehow in the shadow of this circumstance. Antique corridos had bad men and cattle drives and border disputes as subjects, as did cowboy ballads - the explanation being that the culture of the region was an amalgamation of Mexican and Anglo elements."

-Alex Wilkinson on Los Tigres del Norte, who have been recording since 1972 and are based in San Jose, California, in "Immigration Blues" from the May 24th issue of The New Yorker




My parents' house in Napa is on a hill above the central part of town, not too far from the county fairgrounds. I will never forget falling asleep to the sounds of various fiestas floating above the houses, the relentless step of the amplified accordion preventing my slumber. I don't love the sound of norteno music, but there is something so effortlessly upbeat about it that I admire, seemingly smiling in the face of all subject matter.

MY KIND OF CAMPING

"We went camping in central Oregon this past weekend. The area was very beautiful and inspiring. Every time we leave town we always want to move to where ever it is that we just visited. We bought goat meat at the Madras Farmers Market along with strawberries, flowers for the campsite, radishes and fresh eggs that were mostly yolk. We made paella over the campfire the first night, egg sandwiches with brioche, cheese and egg in the pie irons over the fire. went swimming in the lake with the ducks, had leftover paella chicken sandwiches for lunch, went to town to thrift/antique/market, snacked on radishes and butter, made brisket, cabbage salad with my radish greens chopped up in it, and snap peas, and then the goat..." -G, last year, from an email

I'm not much of a camper, mostly because I am afraid of bears to the point of ridicule, but I think I could do this. I make homemade marshmellows and am good at gathering sticks. Who's in??????

(photo of me by Matt snacking on strawberries after the Tartu Farmer's Market last summer in Estonia.)

"Sssssh! Papa is sleeping!"

For Maggie.

PORT TOWNSEND

OCEAN CITY

We may or may not have eaten here three times this week.

T-MAG ALERT

I've been so crazy the past few weeks - I have the largest stack of unread New Yorkers ever- and I have not been reading the Times. I just realized I missed a T-mag two weeks ago. Gasp and sigh. I am sure it is too late - but does anyone have lying around??????? I will buy you a drink or send you fanmail and definitely be very grateful.

LOUISE

Three things happened today.
1) I decided for some reason to change my list of "interests" on the left hand side of this blog because I am bored with them, yet I erase only one thing, "Louise Bourgeois," and replaced her with "pinatas." (I have since put her back.)
2) I think about this. I tell Matt I have decided I must reinvest myself in my Louise Bourgeois-themed Hansel and Gretel project and propose it to Lewis and Clark as the show I direct in the fall.
3) I find out Louise Bourgeois died today.


In honor of one of my favorite artists, whose prolific and lengthy career outlived Duchamp, Picasso and all the rest of 'em, I will kill no spiders today.

"What did it mean, in 2002, when [Trisha] Donnelly rode unannounced into [the Casey] Kaplan [gallery] on a white horse and gave a speech that concluded 'I am electric?' Who knows, but its impact still resonates. The best art is, on some level, a transmitter of mysteries, and the medium - the artist, her chosen material - is merely a go-between."
-Andrea K. Scott, in The New Yorker, May 29th 2010




Images Børre Sæthre from a PS 1 show we saw last year, stolen without source name (oops) and Goldfrapp - one of my favorite music videos of all times.

100 ACRE (VARIATION) : FALSE FRONT EDITION

We all talked the other day about being "lost" when you are performing, those moments when you forget what you are doing or what you are supposed to do next. Although I think this phenomenon is terrifying when it comes to line readings - what do i say now????? - I'm not sure it's a bad thing, evident perhaps of how engrossed in the specific moment you are, even if it manifests itself as a blank mind.

These photos were taken by Matt Marble. If you click on them they should bring you to the full flickr album from the performance, which is fantastically out of order.

CELOSA

Erin was generously gifted brand new Louboutins and an amazing Jil Sander sweater, as well as Rodarte for Target party dresses (hanging off arm chair), courtesy of Jenny and sent by Kerry Perry. I am pouting.

GOLDEN BIRTHDAY

I turned 25 on the 25th, so we ate 25 things for dinner and then made a golden cake to take to the Langano Lounge, where mass consumption of alcohol was had (by me mostly) and dancing to the hits in sparkly tops ensued. Alex Morris was snapping away there so hopefully pictures of that will come soon. Thanks to all you wonderful people in my life who made my day quite special - I felt quite golden indeed.

100 ACRE (VARIATION) : FALSE FRONT EDITION

Except for the damage we caused to your eardrums during balloon popping (sorry) and twisting my knee, I was very pleased with this unexpected end to our little show's run. It made me see more possibilities and future lives for this saga. Jason and Amber of False Front couldn't be nicer or more helpful, and their space is amazing (as the photos can attest to) - I hope to work there again soon (!!!?????).

Photos by Jason Doize, more here.