Well, I guess I am finished with the timepiece project. I'm not so good with keeping
to a fixed schedule. I missed a couple of days, and I discontinued the project while I
was in Chicago the past couple of days. Now I need to have two rolls of film
developed. What happens then? Do I send them somewhere? Should I hide them somewhere
and let everyone find them? Or mail one photo to everybody on the list?
I saw a screening of Tarkowsky's "The Sacrafice." In it, a line that is of particular
interest to us (and I paraphrase here): "If only a person would perform the same task
at the same time every day, the world would be changed."
While in Chicago, I visited the Contempoary Museum of Art where I went through an
exhibit of works by Tom Friedman. Wow. I won't go into great detail (maybe later, if
anyone is interested), but I was amazed by some (many?) of his works, some of which
seemed to be pure Fluxus anti-art. One piece was called "Curse" and it was an
eleven-inch sphere of air on top a pedestal that was cursed by a witch. Another piece,
displayed on the floor in a glass case, was a piece of paper about 3 foot square in
which (as stated on the title plaque) every word of the English language was written.
There was also a huge exhibit of works by Sol LeWitt, a name I've often read of, but I
have never really seen much of his work. Now I have seen a lot of his work. Huge works
involving geometric shapes and lines that would fill up an entire wall. His works
played with an architectual precision of pure form and shape. I am glad my first
exposure to his work was of so much stuff that would have been missing something if I
had flipped through a book on him (there were also about 2 dozen books of his work on
display under glass).
Other things in Chicago: Harold's Chicken! Fred Anderson! Kevin Drumm! Edith Frost! A
protest march for afforible housing with 5 effigies! Seeing the hatching egg sculpture
in Hyde Park again (I used to walk by it everyday on my way to classes: It is called
"Bird of Peace" or something, but it will always be the hatching egg sculpture to me)!
Being awarded "Dog of the Day" by a homie on the El for lending him my pen (I wore
this honor like a badge)! Searching for a copy of Charlie Christian's "Live at
Carnigie Hall" and not finding it at 4 record stores! Looking for a copy of Nancy
Cunard's biography at 4 bookstores and not finding it! Seeing how much my old
neighborhood has changed in 7 years! Listening to my cousin tell stories of my
grandfather (who died when I was 4 or 5) who owned a fish store in Brooklyn NY! Having
a friend borrow a rare Romanian LP by Iancu Dumitrescu that I was able to tape a copy!
Oh well. I'm back in Texas now.
-Josh Ronsen
http://www.nd.org/jronsen
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