Neckface: Closed Casket

I don't know if any of you are fans of street art/ contemporary graffiti like me, but if so you've probably heard of the notorious artist Neckface.
His newest exhibit recently opened at the Dactyl Gallery in Soho so you should take a look.
If you haven't heard of him before, Neckface makes gory, macabre, but fun cartoon-like paintings and sculptures of anthropomorphic figures.

More info, location, times here: http://nyglob.com/?p=292

Graduation Requirements

Here's a link to the site that outlines graduation requirements. You don't really need to worry about it right now, but it's probably a good idea to look them over:

http://www.newschool.edu/lang/academics.aspx?id=508

Jennifer Garner on Broadway

For those who haven't heard yet, Jenifer Garner has just come to Broadway, to star with actor Kevin Kline in the play "Cyrano d Bergerac" (she plays Roxanne, Cyrano's love interest). The play will be opening November 1 at Richard Rodger's Theater, 226 W. 46th STreet; (212) 239-6200.

Where, oh werewolf (as the Post so imaginatively called it)

Werewolf? There wolf-- at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, which is hosting an all-night marathon of werewolf flicks for Halloween.
The frighfest kicks off at 9 Saturday night with Joe Dante's "The Howling" (1981) and shuts down with the 5:40 showing the next morning of an erotic number called "The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman" (1971), starring Spanish horror superstar Paul Naschy, who has appeared in a dozen or so werewolf films.
In between, fans will be treated to Neil Jordan's "The Company of Wolves" (1984); Terence Fisher's "The Curse of the Werewolf" (1961); Mike Nichol's "Wolf" (1994), with Jack Nicholson as a book ediotr turned creature; and Rod Daniel's "Teen Wolf" (1985), in which Michael J. Fox discovers that being a werewolf makes him popular on campus.
"It's a good chance to rediscover some classics, and to have a lot of fun," Pioneer programmer Ray Privett says of the marathon.
The Pioneer is on Third Street at AVenue A, in the East Village; (212) 591-0434.
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This was in the Post last week, and it sounds really cool, especially if you're one of those people who's into old-fashioned horror movies.

Travelling Party this Saturday

Within the Land of Ash

Saturday, October Twenty Seventh
From 8pm through 9am (13 hours)
Starting at 195 Morgan Ave., Brooklyn and continuing
throughout the night at another secret location...

Details: http://www.thedanger.com

The end of October breeds nights made for mischief. This
Saturday we offer an ambitious mixture of the beautiful
and the bizarre with two infamous Brooklyn art spaces
built out into 13 visions of the afterlife. There is a
land just beyond here where surreal shares the stage with
the sublime. This is how we live forever-after within the
land of ash.
---

I've never been to one of these travelling parties, but I hear they're pretty legit. It's $15 if you wear an "inspired" costume (I guess this means dressing in all black with cat ears and painted whiskers doesn't count), $20 if you don't.

It starts @ 3rd Ward Brooklyn
195 Morgan Ave., in the East Williamsburg Industrial Zone
Take the L train to Morgan Ave. and walk four blocks north.

Showcase

For those who weren't there last week, the class decided that for the final showcase they want to do a photo essay of new experiences had since arriving at Lang. It seems like you all still need to work out the details, such as: how many photos per person; size and format of the final photos (I suggest higher quality than digital print outs. You could print your own, if you all know how to do that, or we can get money to have them printed at a photo place); how they'll be arranged and displayed; if you want to include a written accompaniment, etcetera. Some of these details will need to be decided in the next week or so that we can submit our budget to Bertha (remember, no more than $100). Let's talk about it in class, or post on here.

If there's anyone who's not happy with this decision and wants to do a different project, talk to me after class or email me. We can work something out whereby you can do something more independent, but you'll have to tie it into the larger group project.

Cheap copies

Photocopies at the New School cost $.10/page ($.20 for double-sided, I think).

Photocopies at Village Copier, on 13th between 5th ave and University Pl., cost $.07/page, even if it's double-sided.

I just learned that today, but I really wish I'd learned it sooner. With the amount of photocopying you'll be doing at Lang, it's worth walking the extra half block from the library.

(note: I'm talking only B&W copies.)

Plus, I found 5 bucks on the floor there, so it seems like a lucky place.

Lang course catalog

Here's the link to a PDF version:

http://www.newschool.edu/pdf/Lang_Catalog.pdf

I'm still trying to find out where you can get a real-life copy.

See IT

GZA from the Wu Tang Clan is performing his landmark album Liquid Swords at The Knitting Factory on December 15th. I highly recommend.

Call me a dork but...

We're studying pirates. So this kinda counts. I think.

Madame Tussauds Haunted:
See, hear and feel the awakening of spirits trapped at the historic Madame Tussauds. Legendary ghost stories come alive in a month long spine tingling exhibit also featuring Haunted Scavenger Hunts and a Chamber of Horrors LIVE!

Madame Tussauds New York
Telephone:
800-246-8872

Starts: 10/01/07
Ends: 10/30/07

$29

Madame Tussauds is usually pretty cool. Now picture it HAUNTED.

CultureFest NYC 2007

New York City's seventh annual CultureFest takes place both tomorrow and Sunday (Oct. 13-14) at Battery Park, 11:00 a.m.- 5:30 p.m.

More than 125 cultural organizations come together at Battery Park to share the magic of the upcoming season with you. This spectacular festival of music, art, dance, hands-on activities, entertainment and food is your once-a-year opportunity to discover all of New York City culture—and a chance to plan your personal arts calendar for the months ahead.

Sounds entertaining, right?

Want to visit the Whitney for free?

Fridays are pay-what-you-wish admission from 6-9pm.

New exhibit opens tomorrow: installations by Kara Walker, who has a piece in the lobby of the New School building on 13th, near 6th ave. (The New School, as you probably already know, has an amazing art collection. Later in the semester the school sponsors a writing competition in which you can submit an essay or creative piece inspired by one of its pieces. The winner gets money; I forget how much. Keep your eyes out for signs towards the end of the semester.)

Showcase

Tomorrow we'll need to figure out what you all want to do for the showcase, so I can submit our proposal to Bertha.

We should have time tomorrow to talk more and decide what you want to do (we're also having a presentation tomorrow, so it's a particularly important day to come). Remember, although we can use some of our class time for the project, you'll have to work together to complete it mostly on your own time. Also, there's a $100 budget, it's due at the beginning of December (the exact date is on your syllabus) and it's 80% of your semester grade.

Here are the ideas we discussed last week:

How-to video for first years: what not to say in class, what not to do on your first day, etcetera. Use of video and humor seemed popular...

Clay model: everyone make a model of one thing you brought to Lang, or one thing that represents your idea of arrival.

Some sort of parody skit or performance (could film this so it wouldn't have to be preformed).

A video retracing the first day at Lang or first day in New York (i.e. follow one person from the airport, one person from the train station, and their subsequent trip to Lang).

A mix CD with songs about arrival.

A giant mixed-media collage.

Everyone make a small work of art on the theme of arrival and install it in the showcase space, creating a kind of miniature gallery.

Interview the characters around Lang.

Photos of new experiences you've had since coming to Lang.

See you all tomorrow.

Radiohead

So, this doesn't really involve going anywhere outdoors, but it is fairly interesting. You are able to download the new Radiohead album "In Rainbows" for whatever price you want, the most interesting price being $0.00, starting on the 10th. You will be able to buy the actual album come December, I think. This is just one way of Radiohead trying to combat the pirating of their music by leaking it themselves, through this system, beforehand. Just search "radiohead in rainbows" in google and you'll find the link. Enjoy!

Habana Outpost in Fort Greene

If you can afford to eat out and you need a respite from cafeteria food, which it sounds like most of you do...

try Habana Outpost. You'll have to hoof it out to Fort Greene, though. It's not hard - take the L to Lorimer and transfer to the G, then take the G to Fulton. Habana Outpost is at 757 Fulton (go to hopstop.com or Habana's website, ecoeatery.com, if you want more specific directions).

Habana Outpost is an eco-friendly eatery, which means they employ earth friendly products and practices in all aspects of their restaurant (including solar power and a bike pedal powered blender). Entrees range from about $5.00 - 10.00. I haven't actually eaten there because it gets really crowded (beware), but I hear it's amazing. Fort Greene is a nice area to walk around, too, or it seemed like it that one time I walked around there....

Parsons (free) Art Lectures, Wednesdays at 3:15

Some Wednesdays at 3:15, Parsons hosts free art lectures in the Swayduck Auditorium (1st floor of the 5th avenue and 14th st. building, immediately on your left when you enter). Tomorrow's lecture is about 15 female artists who radically impacted the contemporary art scene and about whom a book was recently published. There are other lectures on Nov. 7th, Nov. 14th and Dec. 5th, descriptions of which I've listed below. The document I cite also has information on other art lectures hosted by Parsons.

TOMORROW
"Parsons The New School for Design presents a panel discussion with the co-authors of the new publication After the
Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art, which charts the rise of women artists since the advent of the
feminist movement, from Marina Abramowicz to Nancy Spero. The four co-authors and panelists are Eleanor Heartney,
author of Critical Condition: American Culture at the Crossroads and Movements in Modern Art: Postmodernism; Helaine
Posner, organizer of many exhibitions and author of Kiki Smith; Nancy Princenthal, contributing editor to Art in America and
member of the faculties of Bard College and New York University; and Sue Scott, a curator whose articles have appeared in
ArtNews, Art Papers, and Art and Antiques."
(http://newschool.edu/pressroom/emails/ppad_fall07.pdf)

Nov. 7th:
"FINE ARTS LECTURE SERIES: BECKY SMITH AND ZACH FEUER
The Department of Fine Arts at Parsons The New School for Design presents a dialogue between Chelsea art gallery dealers
Becky Smith and Zach Feuer, both of whom are influential in the international art world.

Nov. 14th
"FINE ARTS LECTURE SERIES: THOMAS NOZKOWSKI
The Department of Fine Arts at Parsons The New School for Design presents Thomas Nozkowski, a painter who has had more
than sixty solo shows since 1979. His most recent exhibitions include an installation of new work at la Biennale di Venezia
(2007), a career survey at the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, Germany (2007), and solo exhibitions at Max Protetch Gallery
and BravinLee Projects, New York (2006)."

Dec.5th
"FINE ARTS LECTURE SERIES: LORNA SIMPSON
The Department of Fine Arts at Parsons The New School for Design presents Lorna Simpson, one of the leading artists of her
generation. Simpson first won acclaim in the mid-1980s with her elegant and subtly provocative large-scale photographs
and text works, which confront and challenge conventional views of gender, identity, culture, history, and memory.

ABC No Rio

Located in the Lower East Side, ABC No Rio is a great place for those who are interested in activist culture.

"ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism. Known internationally as a venue for oppositional culture, ABC No Rio was founded in 1980 by artists committed to political and social engagement and we retain these values to the present.

Over the years ABC No Rio has been host to an incredible range of artistic expression dealing with war, homelessness, drugs, sex, violence, and the politics of housing and real estate, among much else. In the mid-eighties No Rio helped energize the burgeoning East Village performance scene and was instrumental in the resurgence of spoken word and performance poetry. In the late-eighties No Rio became active in the hardcore music scene, instituting a policy of not booking racist, sexist or homophobic bands. ABC No Rio is one of the best-loved punk venues in the world."

They also have free/low cost public use of facilities like a silk-screen room, a dark room, and a computer center.

They also have art shows, concerts, host film & video screenings, performance events, workshops, forums and benefits.

http://www.abcnorio.org

Hot Hot Heat this weekend.

I don't know how many of you are too cool for Hot Hot Heat, but seriously, Steve Bays is my lover. So naturally I'm a little bit upset that I can't see HHH play this Saturday at Webster Hall. Doors are at 6 and the first band takes the stage around 7. Tickets are $20 and worth every single penny, because Hot Hot Heat puts on a ridiculously good show.

I'm vaguely familiar with one of the openers, Bedouin Soundclash. They're not really my style so I can't speak to them too much, but I saw them open for another band a year or so ago and they were enjoyable, if not astounding.

Anyway, as I said, I can't make this show. I'll be in Massachusetts at my boyfriend's cousin's wedding. Instead of spending my Saturday night being wooed musically by Steve Bays & co., I'll instead be spending it at some country club being judged by people who think my boyfriend is too intelligent to be with a girl who goes to a college that doesn't even offer math classes. It's terribly unfair, really. So in order to correct the cosmic balance of the universe, I think at least one of you should be at Webster Hall, experiencing what I so sadly cannot.

Plus, Steve Bays!

Group Sex

October 24th
9pm
Swayduck Auditorium (GF building at 5th ave and 14th St., 1st floor - it's to your left just as you enter)

Clinical sexologist and New School counselor Eric Garrison will be answering all your sex-related questions while saving you the embarassment of asking by letting you write them down on index cards. There'll also be free condoms and probably free food, so how can it get much better?

Oh, yeah, Erik is pretty much the funniest person ever. That's how it gets better.

Ad Hoc Art and The Archive in Bushwick, Bluestockings in LES

Thought you all might want to know about Ad Hoc Art. It's a gallery in Bushwick, about 20 steps from the Morgan L stop, at 49 Bogart St. It's a great place where they host art exhibitions, screen movies and offer classes (i.e., they're offering a screenprinting class Tuesdays in October). You can also volunteer or intern there. Next door is one of my favorite coffee shops, The Archive, open until 11 everyday and a great place to study. They have free wi-fi, good iced tea and a delicious little pasta dish.

www.adhocart.org

Bluestockings Bookstore is also a great place to study and meet people. You may be especially interested in it if you're politically active and/or have radical political interests. They have events every night, many of which are free, and offer a comfortable space for those interested in political activism, writing and literature. It's all volunteer run, too, and I think a number of New School students volunteer there. They're located in the Lower East Side on Allen St., between Rivington and Stanton, just south of Houston (1st Ave. becomes Allen St.). You can take the F/V there (double check that, it may only be one of them that stops there).

www.bluestockings.com

Global Feminisms Remix at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

Over the summer, the Brooklyn Museum of Art opened a feminist art wing. They started with the exhibition "Global Feminisms," which I went to and thought was extremely good. They're now showing a selection of works from that exhibition. Also on display is an exhibiton of contemporary Caribbean art. I highly recommend the Brooklyn Museum. It's a great place and worth the trip. It's out in Park Slope, but you can make a day of it by going to the Botanical Gardens, Prospect Park, and exploring nearby Park Slope, which has lots of restaurants, stores, coffeeshops, etcetera. A New Yorker friend of mine once told me Park Slope is where all the Williamsburg hipsters go once they turn 30, so if that's your thing, enjoy, and if not, beware. You can take the 2 or 3 there. They're closed Mondays and Tuesdays, open 10-5 on weekdays, 11-6 on weekends, and 11-11 on the first Saturday of each month. It's $4 with student ID, and if you want to go to the Botanic Gardens also, you can buy a double ticket for $7.

Description of the exhibition:

"August 3, 2007–February 3, 2008
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th Floor

This exhibition of forty recent works was selected from Global Feminisms, the international survey of contemporary art that inaugurated the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Like its widely praised predecessor, this new presentation seeks to offer an alternative that moves beyond the Western brand of feminism. Many of the artists are from countries that seldom figure in the discourse about contemporary art, such as Guatemala, Kenya, Pakistan, Thailand, Korea, and India. Their works, in a wide range of media, deal with racial and gender identity, politics, and oppression.

In her video White House, for example, Afghan artist Lida Abdul shows herself whitewashing a building in bombed-out Kabul. Similarly, in her performance videotape Who Can Erase the Footprints, made in memory of murdered Guatemalan women, Regina José Galindo leaves a trail of bloody footprints from the Guatemalan Court of Constitutionality to the country's National Palace. Japanese artist Ryoko Suzuki contributes a mural-sized installation of three photographs in which her face is bound by pig intestines and she is bullied into mute, anonymous submission. Australian artist Tracey Moffatt's Love is a twenty-one-minute video montage of brief clips from Hollywood films showing women in encounters with men ranging from the classic kiss to brutal confrontations.

Among the other artists represented are Ghada Amer (Egypt), Arahmaiani (Indonesia), Pilar Albarracín (Spain), Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland), and Adriana Varejão (Brazil).

The specific works have been chosen by Co-Curators Maura Reilly, Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, and Linda Nochlin, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
(http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/global_feminisms_remix/)

Michael Haneke Film exhibition at the MoMA, Oct. 3-15

The MoMA is screening a bunch of films by Michael Haneke this week, and if you show your NewSchool ID, you get in for free! Here's the description from the MoMA's website, and you can go to their website for a list of screenings.

"Michael Haneke is one of contemporary cinema's most provocative and incisive filmmakers. The most comprehensive U.S. presentation to date, this exhibition includes all of Haneke's theatrical features and the North American premieres of eight Austrian-German television productions. Born in 1942 in Germany, and raised in his current home of Austria, Haneke studied philosophy, psychology, and drama at the University of Vienna before becoming a screenwriter and director of opera, theater, and film. Much of his early work—based on his own writing or adapted from modernist and postmodern literature by Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth, Ingeborg Bachmann, Peter Rosei, and others—centers on the historical amnesia of Old Europe and its wartime past, and on the loss of identity and individuality, whether during the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (The Rebellion, 1993), in the decade following World War II (Lemmings - Part 1 - Arcadia [1979] and Fraulein [1986]), or in the present day (Three Paths to the Lake [1976], Lemmings - Part Two - Injuries [1979], Variation [1983], and Who Was Edgar Allan? [1984]).

More recent films, including his masterful collaborations with Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher [2001], Time of the Wolf [2003]), and Juliette Binoche (Code Unknown [2000], Caché [2005]), are elliptical, Rashomon-like narratives, told with exquisite precision and in riveting detail, that shock viewers out of their willful indifference to the suffering of others and challenge their unquestioning acceptance of mediated reality.

In a style at once musical and mathematical, Haneke's films treat themes of alienation and social collapse; the exploitation and consumption of violence; the bourgeois family as the incubator of fascistic impulse; individual responsibility and collective guilt; and the ethics of the photographic image. Haneke will introduce the screenings of Code Unknown on October 13 and Funny Games on October 15. The exhibition is also presented at Harvard Film Archive and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (October 11–November 3). All films directed by Haneke."
(http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_exhibitions.php?id=6152)

Health Services Information

Several of you missed last week's class when we listened to a presentation on drug and alcohol safety. Information about the school's health services can be found at www.newschool.edu/studentservices. They provide a range of services which can be very useful, including counseling (you get 12 free sessions during your Lang career), gynecological exams, immunizations, free HIV and other STD testing, prescriptions and medications, etcetera. It's way (WAY!) cheaper than most medical services.

Women in the class be alerted that they also offer Gardasil, the new vaccine against certain types of HPV, some of which can cause cervical cancer. It's only $20/shot, in contrast to about $200/shot at some medical facilities (there are a total of 3 shots). Considering the fact that the American Social Health Association estimates that about 75% of sexually active women will get HPV in their lifetime (Wikipedia), this is something you should seriously consider.

If you have any medical or psychological concerns, you can call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and speak to a nurse at 212.229.1671.

STS is located in Loeb Hall, 135 E. 12th St., on the first and second floors
The phone number for Medical Services, Counseling Services, Health Education and Student Health Insurance is 212.229.1671. Medical and Insurance Services are open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, and Counseling is open Monday-Thursday until 7pm, and Saturday 9am-1pm. They have walk in hours, but you'll have to call to find out what they are. Note that HIV testing is only available Tuesdays and Thursdays 3-5:30pm.

They also have a program called the "Peer Health Advocate Program," which some of you may be interested in. Here's the description, quoted from the Student Health Services pamphlet which those of you who attended picked up and which I assume is available somewhere on campus (well, on "campus"):

"All degree seeking students are eligible to join the Peer Health Education team as a peer health advocate, either as a volunteer, work-study student or an intern Students will be trained in health education, communication skills and facilitation programming For more information...call 212.229.5687 or stop by the Health Education office located at 55 W 13th Street, First Floor."

The answers to your questions, coming straight to you from Bertha herself

Q. What's the difference between Writing the Essay 1 and Writing the Essay 2 and are both required?
A. Both are required. Writing the Essay 1 focuses on the formal aspects of writing, whereas Writing the Essay 2 focuses on research.

Q. Who do I talk to about IB/AP scores?
A. Brandon Graham. His email is grahamb@newschool.edu and he's located at 64 W. 11th Street, Rm. 106. He's a particularly helpful and friendly person at the school, and much more easily reached in person than via email.

Tips for collegiate reading and writing

We discussed this in class, but here are some general tips:

Read everything more than once.

Ask questions in class.

Talk to the professor outside of class. He/she may be able to give you extra help unpacking a text, such as guiding questions or suggestions as to what to look for while you read, and ideas of what to think about while you're writing.

Draft and edit! Everything you write should go through multiple rewrites. Edit it for clarity, concision, structure, content, grammar, spelling - everything. You may want to have a peer edit your papers, or go to the Writing Center at 65 5th ave., room 105:

"The University Writing Center helps students become better writers through individual tutoring sessions that cover every phase of the writing process. Students meet with tutors to brainstorm ideas for a paper, develop a rough draft, or discuss how to approach and organize an assignment. Students are encouraged to meet with tutors early in their writing process, and are asked to bring to the tutoring session the relevant assignment sheet and syllabus.

Individual conferences with writing tutors support students’ development as writers through critical feedback, guidance, and provision of educational material. Tutors and students work collaboratively to improve student writing and develop academic writing skills. Tutors do not alter students’ work by proofreading or editing."
(http://www.newschool.edu/admin/writingcenter/)

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