Wonder Weekend

Had a total blast this weekend. The highlights:

-Friday night, dinner with Caitlin et al at Schiller's in the Lower East Side, a couple of blocks from both Brad's place and from my future apartment. Schiller's is really famous because it's about a zillion years old, and while I liked the food and the atmosphere, I felt like the menu should have had more in the way of light options appropriate for summer. Oh well, when you've been around a zillion years, I guess you do what you want. Brad's boyfriend Walter, who is much older, was visiting from Austin and he was nice enough to pick up the tab for all of us, which he frequently does. He has a gruff air about him, but he's actually a sweetie.

After Schillers we headed to this cute underground bar I've been to before, which doesn't really have much in the way of a sign, so I'm not sure of the name. Bar 151 or something. When that place proved kind of dead, Brad was at a loss (he mostly goes to gay bars) and nobody else knew the neighborhood. I'd been to one nearby bar a couple of weeks before and remembered that it had good dance music --not so much clubby, just eclectic, more old-school -- so we headed over there and sure enough, the music was rockin'. It was mostly 50s and 60s soul, which reminded me of Sock Hop music, and is about my favorite for dancing. After a few vodka and red bulls, we were all boogying along with the hipster-y crowd.

-Saturday, I straightened up a bit and worked a little on this important project I'm doing (more on that later) and then in the late afternoon Lariss and I headed to the Warmup party at P.S.1, the contemporary art museum in Long Island City, Queens that's housed in a former school. The party was fun - music, beer, lots of pretty people - but what impressed me most was the museum itself. At most museums I get the feeling that I'm a spectator merely taking everything in, a very one-sided relationship, but somehow these exhibits engaged viewers more deeply. It wasn't anything gimmicky and self-consciously "interactive," either, it was just that we were asked to more than just look. In one mostly dark room, six diver suits hung from the ceiling, ominous and larger than actual people. They were holding large wrenches and other scary-looking metal implements and occasionally a light would flicker on above one of them. Sound effects included much creaking and groaning, and a strange smell filled the air that was probably compressed oxygen. It was eerie and weird and nightmare-ish.
I liked many of the other exhibits, too, but what I appreciated overall was their variety. Different media - film, hanging things, a room with all the walls painted like a Utopic brookside scene with big fluffy beanbag chairs to recline in. It was (in my inexpert opinion) contemporary art at its best: not towering, abstract, and impenetrable, but designed to engage the viewer in varied and surprising ways.

Saturday night we were out with the girls in what has become a typical night for us: Dinner at Employees Only, dancing at Tenjune, and then a nightcap at Employees Only. Irish knows everyone there, so we sat with the employees in the garden and ate late-night snacks and some people smoked. Then Lariss and I shared a cab back to the Upper West Side.

Today Irish and I had an amazing time at the free Yo La Tengo show at McCarren Park Pool. It was the last of the legendary Jelly NYC shows, and was bittersweet because after this they're closing the pool as a concert venue and turning it back into a pool. Right now it's an enormous shell where a public pool used to be, and it's perfect for all of the varied activities they had today: the show, dodge ball, four square, lots of booths giving things away and signing people up to vote, etc., and Irish's and my favorite: the slip n' slide. We spent hours slip n' sliding, and made friends with two little girls, sisters who were 5 and 8. They were so darling and sweet, and liked to hold our hands and we hung out with them all afternoon. It was an adorable family, actually. The parents were young and good-looking and (evidently) French, because the little girls started speaking it with their cousin, to our surprise. It was really a wonderful time - relaxed and carefree and a perfect way to spend one of the last summer Sundays.