Crabs in a Bucket
April cultural highlights
The lullabies of seagulls and warmth of park crowds are the hug we’ve been craving for so long- it’s officially Spring in New York.
This month’s curiosities amidst the chaos:
Cadbury revealed its largest Creme Egg and I wish any of us could sound as noble as it’s described: “Cadbury proudly states it to be as tall as an emperor penguin, with the poundage of a newborn horse (45kg).”
Was reminded of the “Crabs in a Bucket” phenomenon which states that if multiple crabs are trapped in a bucket and they climb over each other/pull each other down- none will successfully escape.
Squirrels love being brushed with a toothbrush (h/t Sarah)
Luigi the Musical is set for next month and already sold out.
Sunset Park can be 8 degrees hotter than the rest of the city
The Windows 95 Jingle joined the national recording registry
And the joy of hearing our vet call our cat Grandma, “Grandma-MA”
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Shows
Sissy by Celia Rowlson-Hall: In Celia’s first dance show in decades she explores the Sisyphean tasks of being a mom, an artist and a daughter to a father with dementia and embodied by Zoë Winters. The show is framed around a residency showing in a rock quarry but the performance is constantly interrupted by Hollywood stars Lucas Hedges and Marisa Tomei who drop into the show as a quarry worker and hippy geologist. The idea of dance suddenly starts to feel silly even though it inherently also sucks everything around it. Lucas as the quarry worker starts embodying a tree from his past and Marisa Tomei is trying to take advantage of the dancers to prevent Lucas’ character from intervening on the environment. Both Hollywood stars are framed as the headliners, which to be honest, I would disagree with, and the audience was reflective of that. Sofia Coppola and Sarita Choudhury (from Sex and The City remake And Just Like That) were in the audience among others. I wish the dancers were given more visibility and credit, as they carried this gorgeous show. Though Lucas’ Irish step dancing was a moment.
(Photo by Quinn Wharton)
Titanique- This remake of the Titanic featuring Céline Dion recounting her journey as a passenger on the sunken ship is a wild dream and what I wish Broadway was: under 14th street, intimate and more self-deprecating. The musical repertoire and Amber Ardolino as Céline was pure delight. It lays it on pretty heavily in the “we love gays” which is perfect say for family visiting from out of town, or I wish, a national tour- but in these times good heavy hand holding feels precious as well.
Art
Alioune Diagne at Templon: Alioune’s paintings have emerged out of his invented “figuro-abstro” style using abstract symbols to depict daily life in Dakar. Your proximity to the work completely shifts your perspective as the audience- you almost have to squeeze your eyes to witness his full process. I’ve never seen anything like his work.
Che Lovelace at Nicola Vassell
Chrystal invited me to Che’s opening at Nicola Vassell- which is shockingly the first Black woman-owned gallery in Chelsea after Nicola led the New York art world for decades (Pace, Deitch). The artist Che Lovelace began his career in surfing as the president of Trinidad’s surfing association and his almost cubist-like paintings with rich colors reflect that abstraction from the natural and underwater world.
TV/Movie
Sinners: Everyone has probably seen this movie at this point and is still breaking down the symbolism of freedom via a guitar, good vs evil and Black agency and resistance. The beauty and magic of the one scene celebrating Black culture through music and dance across time. And looming is Ryan Coogler’s historic deal, which has been hard to separate from the work- but like Coogler’s entire body of work (Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther)- has been nothing but consistent with the legacy he intends to leave behind- which is more than any of us can probably say.
The Rehearsal Season 2
Nathan Fielder is weird. He’s not for everyone but to me, and many, he’s one of the greatest artists of our time. Watching The Rehearsal, a process that involves breaking down, rehearsing, and being advised on how to handle basic human interactions thanks to entire sets that replicate the real world- paid by HBO- is totally brilliant and bonkers. This season Nathan pivots to what’s been haunting the news for months- plane crashes. And in his Nathan-way, hyper focuses on how he can support the cause through his “Fielder method” involving among other things- sending hundreds of actors to airports to observe and replay real people. His work is almost a satire of itself. A pure horror and delight.
Podcasts
Good Robot- my friend and ex-WNYC colleague Julia Longoria invites us in this series in the world of rationalists, which I first discovered via this piece, whose goal is to fight for AI to be “good”- via a community of Harry Potter fanfic readers who have for some gone to dangerous extremes. But the heart of their mission is one that poses larger more aspirational questions- can we turn AI and robots to do good?
How we talked back then- I relistened to this episode of This American Life from 1997 that’s a town hall about the internet in which Ira invited audience members to talk about things they were doing on the internet that would never happen in real life. Two stories really stood out to me in here- Jennifer Ringley’s, who was the first person to ever go live on a webcam- which she was doing by having it take photos of her in her college dorm room at Dickinson every 5 seconds. At the time this was seen as something radical and artistic to her. To be fully open, in the nude at times for thousands of people she did not know. Jennifer is now completely private and works in IT but hearing her openness about it all at the time, and seeing how much porn, self-exposure on social and the internet are intertwined now is mind boggling. Another beautiful story revolves around two cyber lovers around the tail end of the AIDS crisis and how glimpses of their real lives crept through their online fantasy without ever having seen each other’s faces.
I hope this takes your mind elsewhere and as always- I am always open to your recommendations too.
Be well <3