Cultural Explosion

Greetings!

My past three days have been nothing less than a cultural stimulation overload. Let’s break it down:

Monday—Jess and I went to Brooklyn after work to see Grant and three other opera singers perform in Fort Greene Park. Sounds like an easy enough journey, but we accidentally went 15 subway stops in the wrong direction. I am completely embarrassed this happened, and would not like to discuss it further. The important part is that we got to the park just in time to see Grant sing! It was absolutely beautiful. In addition to the singers there was a cellist and a piano. The piano was/is part of the “Play Me I’m Yours” program, where from 9am-10pm each day, 60 pianos are available to play across New York City for any member of the public to play and engage with. One of the performers even sang that annoying Travie McCoy-Billioniare song opera style, which was actually much better than the Travie McCoy version. It was a perfect example of Caitlin’s theory of how certain forms of media or food typically found to be unpleasant are much more enjoyable when presented in an unexpected atmosphere. Ex: I don’t particular care for peanut butter cookies, but if someone were to pass them out in elementary school for someone’s birthday, I would definitely eat them, and like them. Afterwards Grant and his friend walked Jess and I to the subway as we caught up and chitter chattered about this and that.

Tuesday—Jess and I travelled down south yet again, but this time to the East Village to a hipster/indie movie theatre called Landmark Cinema where we watched the Banksy (a very famous, yet mysterious, British graffiti artist) movie called Exit Through the Gift Shop. The movie was surprisingly thought provoking, entertaining, and hilarious. One major theme the movie touched on was the value of art and how deceptive that whole process really is. Essentially if one influential artist or critic labels an unknown newby’s work “brilliant” they can be selling their work for hundreds of thousands in weeks. Afterwards we met up with Kim (another intern biddy who goes to NYU), Juan, Josh, Tasha and 4 other people that aren’t important enough to name off at a hookah bar by the theatre. And at some point between leaving my apartment at 8am and arriving at 11:30pm, my entry card had fallen out of my purse. As I am running low on funds at the moment I have been telling the security guards I left my ID upstairs and they let me go up. Hopefully my card issues will be resolved this afternoon.

Wednesday—Chalk full of artistic discussion. At lunch Jess, Sharrissa, and I went to see 5 artists from the P.S.1 “Greater New York” exhibition speak about their work. David Benjamin Sherry was by far my favorite. He was completely ADD and his photographs were comical and eye catching. After work we travelled to Tribeca to see a live taping of an Art 21 performance entitled “The Present Perfect.” I watch Art21 documentaries all the time on pbs.org so it was so cool to actually see one in real life! Last but not least, when walking to the nearest 6 subway stop we saw....MERYL STREEP! Haha my first official NY celebrity spotting. We (Kristin and I, another intern/ hard core drinker from Milwaukee who I quickly realized will be a great addition to my life) yelled, “Meryl we love you!” She turned around, waved and smiled at us.

Thursday—Goals of today are: resolve financial issues, regain access to building, have a home cooked meal at Granny’s with Erin.

As you all know, US will be playing Ghana this Saturday, so I am working towards a more successful soccer watching experience this weekend.

xx