Since You've Missed My Goofy Self-Portraits (New York, June 2008)

Many of you know that I'm now in Champaign, Illinois. After a rough first day, I'm beginning to appreciate this little-but-not-as-little-as-Ithaca town, and I'm feeling incredibly lucky to be participating in SCALI. As it turns out, I am the only person in my course. That's right, I'll be getting eight weeks of private tutoring in Hausa, grace à the federal government and Stanford. Amazing.

My friend Honna just told me that the town of Champaign was originally planned to be similar to military barracks. I'll get pictures of the wonders of such foresightedness to you later, and if you're even more unfortunate, I'll also get pictures of the Champaign Big Box Land to you at some point.

That being said, the campus is lovely, and the classrooms that I've seen are in lovely historic buildings and--they're not over-airconditioned!!! I won't freeze all summer! This is great.

But this blog entry is not about Champaign. This blog entry's subject is New York City, where I passed through on my way here. As usual, I got to see some of my wonderful friends, such as Debbie and Becca:






I also, of course, saw some fabulous art. The things I most wanted to see happened to be spread all over the city, but I made it to three museums and several exhibitions. I started out at the Brooklyn Museum. Everybody is talking about the Takashi Murakami show, of course, and it was really fun and interesting. However, I was there for Ghada Amer's Love Has No End and From the Village to Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith.

Ghada Amer (American, born Egypt, 1963) and Ladan S. Naderi (French, born Iran, 1960).
I ♥ Paris, 1991. Three chromogenic prints from a series of six.

I have quite a few things to say about both shows, but I'm too tired to comment upon them at length right now. I hope that I'll be able to do so for you later, but just in case, you should check them out for yourself if you get a chance!

I then headed up to FLOW at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Another excellent show that I'll have to say more about later...

Dawit L. Petros, Proposition 1: Mountain, 2007

And finally, there was the Met, of course. Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy is just as much fun as it sounds like it would be. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you. I ran into one of my students almost as soon as I entered the Met. She was one of my favorites from the past semester, and she just graduated and started an internship at the Met. We had a pleasant conversation, and she practiced her tour guide skills by directing me to the Superheroes show.




I was pretty entertained that Jeff Koons on the Roof entails a martini bar. And here's where the goofy self-portraits reappear.

Yes, that's me in the red!

There are also two very interesting photography shows up at the Met right now: Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960, and I especially liked Framing a Century: Master Photographers, 1840-1940.

Julia Margaret Cameron (English, 1815–1879) Mrs. Herbert Duckworth, 1867 Albumen silver print from glass negative; 32.8 x 23.7 cm (12 15/16 x 9 5/16 in.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gilman Collection, Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2005 (2005.100.26)

Denise and I had dinner at Westville that night. I've been several times before (usually with Denise), and I love their vegetables! I love brussel sprouts, but it never occurs to me to cook them at home, and Westville is one of the few places that I eat them.


I'll spare you the details of my trip from New York to Champaign, and I'll have an update on the beginnings of my summer in Champaign very soon!