Rose Parade 2023

Hello, for this latest entry of my non-sequential blog I’d like to show you pictures I took at the Rose Parade this year. It was great to be back for the first time since the pandemic…I think it was my first parade since 2017? Maybe.

The day begins with an early morning walk up to Leslie’s Pool Supply, the spot where we’ve been parking our chairs in collaboration with the McGregors and the Collettes for the last while. The pre-parade excitement along Colorado is one of the best parts of the whole day.

The Stealth Bomber had to take a break this year so instead we had two B-1 Lancers do a flyover…officially this marks the beginning of the parade, but down at our spot we know we’ve still got a good while so we took a little walk to PCC by way of our old parade watching spot at Colorado and Allen, snuck into the Church Institute building to use the bathroom, and moseyed on back to our spot at Leslie’s.

Back at Leslie’s the parade-anticipation begins. One of the McGregor grandchildren turned out to be an old high school friend of Liz’s. And we had other new friends in the bunch. Plus old friend! Soon the official Rose Parade police motorcycles rolled by and it was time to sit down and enjoy the parade!

And here we go! It’s the 134th Tournament of Roses Rose parade!

When the golden band arrived there was some kind of big breakdown somewhere and the parade was held up for quite a long time. So people start drifting out into the street. It proved an excellent opportunity for a picture with La Cañada raccoon float.

Ok! Back to business, everyone sit down and let’s go!

Illinois had a float! IYNYN (If you nose, you nose.)

And then, just like that, the parade was over! What a nice time we all had. Thank you for scrolling all the way to the bottom of this post!

The Rest of the Art I Saw in 2022

So I made that Katz post about my favorite art show of 2022, but now here’s a post about all the other great art I saw in 2022. Every museum or gallery visit I took last year is represented here as briefly as possible. I feel very fortunate to have access to world class art all over the place here in New York, but also saw some real cool stuff in states like Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois this last year. And Mexico, too, of course.

Art #1: The Sacred Feminine in LDS Art & Theology at the Center Gallery

Art #2: An afternoon stop at Christie’s to look at the old art they were auctioning off.

Art #3: A visit to the Met to check out the recently reopened European Paintings galleries

Art #4: Carl Arrington’s Jame Joyce art at the Center Gallery

Art #5: A visit to the Met with Emily

Art #6: Just a little bit of time passed at a few Chelsea galleries

Art #7: The Whitney Biennial!

Art #8: Birthday visit to the Indianapolis Speedway and you know what? I say those race cars are art!

Art #9: Popped into the Larrie Gallery on the LES to check out a little show of Daniel Arnold photographs.

Art #10: On my next Columbus trip, Liz takes me to the Aullwood (All wood?) Audubon Center to see their trolls. Trolls are art! (and you know I can’t resist posting an Eastern Box turtle)

Art #11: a nice Saturday afternoon visit to the Cloisters

Art #12: a quick stop into the New Museum

Art #13: a nice Chelsea gallery walk including a big Barbara Kruger show.

Art #14: Find an opportunity to go back to the Chelsea Galleries to check out a Devon Turnbull sound system. Anyone remember Nom de Guerre, the store that used to be in Noho that you’d go under the sidewalk to get to? Well now the guy that made that store makes these monstrous sound systems.

Art #15: Art Institute of Chicago — took a little Chicago trip, Liz came over too, Mom and Dad took us to the Art Institute.

Art #16: And then Liz and I went up the street to the Museum of Contemporary Art to check on their big Nick Cave show.

Art #17: then a day or two later we all went to Cantigny to see their alebrijes

Art #18: Went to the Columbus Museum of Art to see their show about Raphael tapestries as well as other nice art.

Art #19: Big Chelsea Gallery crawl with Rebecca and Paul

Art #20: And just a few days I went to the overwhelming Wolfgang Tillmans show at the overwhelming Friday night MoMA.

Art #21: There was a new Billy Childish show at the Lehman Maupin gallery in Chelsea. Billy is my #1 favorite punk musician and now he’s an art star. We’ve “met” twice! But it’s been a rather long time.

Art #22: On my way to one of my visits to the Katz show I popped into the UES Gagosian to see the Anna Weyent show. Anna Weyent is a downtown NY art darling AND she’s dating the owner of the Gagosian? Funny how that works out. I enjoyed her paintings and drawings, though.

Art #22: And right before going to a Christmas Party I popped into the new little Kerry James Marshall show at the Jack Shainman gallery (I’ve “worked” there!). Great stuff. I’m nuts for Marshall.

And that’s it! That’s all the art. Although now I realize I should have included Other World in Columbus. Oh well. Nice to always have something else to post about.

OH! You know what? I also went and saw the Edward Hopper show at the Whitney. Hmmm. I wonder where those pictures are?

Ok, found them!

Bonus Art: A December trip to the Hopper in NY exhibit at the Whitney. I had been dragging my feet about getting to this one. I don’t know why! It was a treat! (Also: appearance by hamburger guy statue)

Alex Katz at the Guggenheim

2022 was a great year for art in New York, and probably the number one highlight for me was the Alex Katz retrospective at the Guggenheim (which runs through February 20th so you [and I!] can still go see it [or go back!]). I had become particularly aware of Katz within the last, hmm, 5 years? And by great coincidence I read a whole Katz monograph late last summer (this is an activity I began in 2022: checking out art books about artists that I like and not just looking at the pictures BUT also reading all the words…turns out you can learn a lot!) so I felt really ready and enthused when I heard he was getting a gigantic Guggenheim show. I was able to get tickets opening weekend and met up with Patricia and Derek and was able to share everything I remembered about Katz with them during our visit.

What did I remember? Katz is from Queens, or Brooklyn, and went to Cooper Union. He was a peer to all the abstract expressionists and pop artists but he decided to focus on “realistic” work. He likes his paintings to catch a moment, be fixable in time. His paintings are meant to capture a very quick instant in time, like a camera set to a fast shutter speed. He often paints very quickly. He’s 95…or older? He met his wife Ada at a party in the 50’s, married her a few months later. She has been one of his primary subjects through the years, painting so many portraits of her. They’re both still alive! Katz thinks he is the best artist of his generation and it’s nice when an artist finally believes in themselves instead of being so doubtful or self-effacing.

Ok, pictures from the First Visit, let’s go!

On Visit Two I came with Liz. It was October 29th. Halloween was creeping across New York and into its museums, too. I brought my 90mm lens to get some closer, different-looking pictures of the Katz stuff.

Visit Three : Now here’s a twist…a major Nick Cave show (which Liz and I had seen in Chicago) opened at the Guggenheim in some of its other galleries. So here’s photos from visit three, none of which are of the Katz works but the Katz works were also enjoyed. Of note: I made visit three with Victoria five days before engaging myself to Liz and was trying very hard not to reveal anything of the plans I had.

A note: Cave is a Chicago artist that New York sure seems keen on appropriating, what with the new Cave tunnel between the Times Square Shuttle stop and 6th Avenue subways and his performances at Grand Central a while back. The show was bigger and better in Chicago but, if you hadn’t seen it, this New York one would seem pretty big and good itself.

Also: The Guggenheim show has given the city a touch of Katz fever and I’ve been to two galleries holding Katz exhibitions. One of just a few pictures at a small gallery on the UES and then a fairly large show at the Marlborough gallery in Chelsea. Time to buy a Katz! Or better yet, sell one!