#annishades

[jorgeclardiary]

Liberty Floral Countdown to Spring, Part 2.

For the second installment of this series, I am wearing a Maus & Hoffman shirt with my Anni Shades aviator frames, which are handmade from curly maple wood. 

A veritable garden of flowers...what could be more perfect to usher in the new season!

Photo by Goor Studio. 

[jorgeclardiary]

Daylight Savings Writing Time.

On Saturday, Van, Henry and I headed on to Ocean Grove. We stopped at the Malcolm Shabazz Market on 116th Street before going to the parking lot to pick up Helmut (the car), and we bought some African trade bead necklaces and beaded keychains. Van got me a bracelet in red, white and blue beads of ancient Venetian origin.

We went to Ikea in Elizabeth and shared chicken meatballs, smoked salmon, wedge salad and cole slaw for lunch. At the children’s department we picked up some stuffed animals to use as trims for upcoming clothing projects, being specially mesmerized by rats and mice. We also picked up some napkins, bottles, a succulent and a drinking glass.

Back on the turnpike, we made our way to the house and dropped our bags to go to Wegman’s. I was marveling at the seasonal Easter butter lambs and we ended up buying a pernil, salad and veggies, and hamburger meat.

Back at the house, I made burgers and we had them with salad and toppings, going to sleep at around 1:30 a.m. At two in the morning the time sped one hour forward.

I got up early on Sunday to start writing and editing, and work on the poems I am preparing for Joel Handorff’s open studio performance…so looking forward!

I was cozy in a vintage t-shirt Bubi had made and gifted me, which I was inspired to wear with a pair of vintage 501s Tony had given me on Friday, in a well-washed shade of cream. I was also wearing one of the last pairs of Patricia Field Crocs that was sold in her store, and when heading outdoors I would wear a vintage H&M L.O.G.G. twill parka Paul got me when their flagship first opened on Fifth Avenue, as well as an Only NY herringbone bucket hat.

Henry woke up Sunday morning wearing his vintage union suit which has distinctive short sleeves with cuffs, and Van went for a run. Afterwards, we decided to go for a drive to Marshall’s and then back to Wegman’s for a moment. Henry was wearing a wonderful Mary Maxim vintage sweater—he was telling me these sweaters either come already made or in DIY knitting kits—and Unbranded jeans, while Van was wearing a Margiela jacket, Jack Spade shirt and Vivienne Westwood jeans.

We looked around Marshall’s and Van and Henry got t-shirts with quartz crystals drawn on them, a picture frame and baking twine. At Wegman’s, I bought a chocolate chip cookie dipped in chocolate. We also stopped at Costco, where we got bangers, creme brûlées that came in wonderful glass ramekins and a shrimp plate.

Back in the car, we headed back to the house and I proceeded to cook the pernil in the cast iron oven and Van and Henry prepared hors d’ouevres and salads. I was on FaceTime with Bubi for a while and got caught up on the comings and goings of the previous day. I also spoke with Scooter for a while, who was still at the studio working on projects but soon heading home.

We had dinner after having shrimp with cocktail sauce, cheese and cucumber salad. It was a relaxing time full of restorative conversation.

I did some of the dishes and put away some things in the kitchen, and Henry put the creme brûlées in the oven to caramelize. We sat at the table and ate them after, and after we sat in the living room to watch some Lem Lye films the 30s via YouTube on the TV, and marveled at how ahead of their time they are.

[jorgeclardiary]

Mystical Mystery Walk Through The Greenbelt.

It was the eve of the end of my 51st birthday cycle yesterday, and suddenly the weather got warm, going from down jacket to t-shirt climate from one day to the next.

Dominic had returned from Hawaii on Monday, and he had suggested organizing a walk. In the end, it was Molly, Dominic and I who would meet by the Staten Island Ferry in search of adventure.

I had left Brookfield Place at 12:30 and got on the 1 train in a hurry, walking from car to car trying to get to the front, and actually finding the door locked so I took the train to Rector Street and went from one side of the station to the other, heading downtown again.

When I emerged at South Ferry, I waved hello to Dominic, who didn’t recognize me immediately without the beard, the shaving of which was been one of the highlights of this birthday cycle. Molly, who seemed very familiar, turned out to be a work neighbor on the 9th Floor of Brookfield Place, as she works down the hall two weeks of the month.

We headed on to ferry and sat on orange benches by the rail, feeling a slight chill coming from the water.

After landing, we walked looking for something to eat up the hilly streets of Saint George and found a Mexican taquería called El Gallo Azteca. I was thrilled to be eating at a place named after a rooster, earlier Dominic had taken my picture in front of a statue of an owl and owlet at the window of a pizzeria.

Molly went to the bakery across the street and got Linzer tarts. Dominic and I had tacos and quesadillas, some with cactus. With hunger satiated, we reached Silver Lake Park and walked across the bridge of the reservoir.

Back on the pavement, we kept on walking past a cemetery called Greenwood which had tombstones with Masonic signs and was generally enchanted and overrun by vines. There were daffodils sprouting on the ground.

We kept walking past suburbs towards The Greenbelt and saw snowcaps next to advertisements of safety systems as well as round seeds with open beaks of something Molly thought was a rosemary oak, a tree of which kind grew in the farm where she had lived in Ireland as a girl.

Suddenly, after walking under a viaduct, I felt like I was in the 70s Maryland of my childhood and right as I felt a bit cold in the spinal chord, remembering those times, faced with the sight of a modernist high school, I felt like peeing and Molly found a Porta-Potty right there, which was marvelously convenient.

A teenager in a basketball jersey told us the woods were beyond a fence at the end of the grounds, and so were walked into a track and field expanse and there was a set of silver helium letter balloons flying through the air, spelling P-R-O-M. Molly and I looked at them, mesmerized.

Past a police car with a cop looking at his mobile phone, we walked towards the gate of the cyclone fence and opened it enough to walk in thanks to a loosely attached chain. I took off my Anni Shades and put them in their wooden carrying case. Dominic held my bags (I was also carrying my Liberty hat in a plastic 7-Eleven bag as the camera had erased the photos Bubi and I had taken earlier that day to document floral print shirts next week and so I had brought the hat with me from the office) and I squeezed in.

We went up a hill full of dry leaves and because I didn’t have my glasses on, I was suddenly immersed in a chiaroscuro world of grays and silvers. The rustle of the leaves underneath us, we walked mostly in silence, past a derelict sports facility within the trees.

A bit further on, there was a magical tree with a hollow trunk and a pulley and platform inside of it. By its entrance, there was a skull.

We walked to said tree and examined the mechanism and the skull; Dominic put the skull inside of the trunk and lifted the pulley so it would remain hidden.

I asked Dominic to take my picture here. For the occasion, I was wearing my Only NY "NYC Parks" officially licensed cap (which I thought would be perfect for the walk, and indeed it was); and a vintage outfit comprised of a Tokion Jamaican sound system tee in a rare shade of slate, Alife/Levi’s 501 hand-dyed jeans and Adidas Kegler Super sneakers. I also wanted to show my owl and Maltese cross tattoos, which Mad Luellen drew on me during the birthday cycle. 

As we walked, night seemed to be coming alive in distant parts of the forest, frogs singing hypnotically. We walked past swamps and a monastery, and encountered rusted machines and an abandoned car.

There was a sudden rustle and I saw big cottontails of deer rushing through the foliage; Dominic was able to capture them in a live photo. We stood for a bit and saw the deer standing there, looking at us.

The sky grew darker and Dominic had a GPS map of the trails and we decided to walk quicker, as it was the day after the new moon and there was no light to be had after dark.

After walking by a wooden platform next to a pond where teenagers were breakdancing, we kept walking and passed other ponds with ducks making circles in the water.

Molly disappeared for a little while and it was almost dark now; Dominic went to get her and she had slowed down a bit, it turns out, because she had twisted an ankle…but she could still walk.

Finally we got to the entrance of The Greenbelt and exited into a suburban street, where we walked to an intersection by a main road Tony, Dominic and I had walked on before. We called an Uber to go to the ferry terminal.

After a swift ride back to the terminal, I rang Scooter, who had called as we were exiting the car. Dominic and Molly got frozen yogurt from a stand, and it looked good, so I got some as well and asked the attendant to put whipped cream on it, which she piled up, and the dish looked like a mountain of foam.

The ferry arrived and the Statue of Liberty resembled a gigantic quartz. We talked about performance as we sailed the waters and once ashore (a man came to the balcony to remind us we had to disembark) Molly went to see Corey and Dominic and I hugged goodnight. He was going to Victory Gardens near Tony’s for goat milk ice cream and I headed back to the Lower East Side, where I visited Joel. We talked about the upcoming open studio and he gave me a bag with two large boxes of strawberries and six avocados.

I went to Scooter’s and he made dinner—chicken and Brussels sprouts— and I went and got Reddi-Whip for Strawberry Royale to be made with Joel’s gift berries. I spoke with Van on the phone about the nature of facial expressions in photos as I went to Duane Reade to get the topping.

Scooter and I ate and watched the end of Let’s Make a Deal while I worked on my photo gallery for the day, which happened to be on the subject of naked pictures Kim Kardashian had posted on Instagram. Scooter had gotten mentioned in The New York Times within an article on how Howl! Happening keeps the spirit of the East Village alive: Michael Musto had written it and quoted Jane saying Scooter’s work made her feel the excitement of seeing Keith’s or Jean-Michel’s paintings for the first time.

Photos: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. Dominic Vine. 4, 6, 7, 9. Jorge Clar. 

[jorgeclardiary]

Time Travel Leap Day Party.

Michael Fiorentino and Scott Mark celebrated Leap Day with a party where people were to travel from leap years past and future into 2016 and congregate.

It’s always a pleasure to be in their apartment, right in the heart of the West Village. Just being there makes you feel like you’re traveling through time, as you see people walking down the iconic streets out the window. I was greeted by Scott upon walking in, declaring me his “Free Spirit Animal” in customary fashion, which I love.

Because I was born in 1965, I decided to travel from that year, wearing a Pendleton Board Shirt made from a mid 50s archival fabric reproduction (which I thought my persona would have worn a decade later), along with Anni Shades aviator glasses in curly maple wood (thinking someone would have carved them by hand back then) and Jimi’s necklace, which he left at a room in Mike Quashie’s place in 1969.

I saw Runn, who was dressed like 1904 with a vintage oxford. We talked about plans for an upcoming performance and agreed we understand each other at a subconscious level. I also chatted with Blue, who was dressed in garb from leap year 1888 or thereabouts. I was asking him about the mysterious “13” ring he has on display at the window of his Blue Atelier store, which is near my place in the Lower East Side.

I chatted with the lovely Kevin Campos, who was wearing an antique night shirt for a “1904 Bedtime Realness” look, embroidered with a monogram that spelled “AM.” I was mesmerized by the mystery of this inscription.

I sat in the living room with David, and he was also representing 1965 with an iridescent purple paisley jacket and matching pants! It is a rare occasion to see him wearing bifurcated garments, as he is the very emblem of habitual kilt wearing.

Michael was traveling back in time from the future, as a cyborg from the year 2176.

Time being such an illusion, I enjoy observing the peculiarities of our calendar—a framework for the eternal present that life represents.

[jorgeclardiary]

A Circular Dalí Jigsaw Puzzle Gives Focus to Thanksgiving.

Tony, Dominic and I left the city at about 11 in the morning on Wednesday, driving to Sag Harbor in Long Island to celebrate Thanksgiving with his sister Susan.

As we drove, we passed many rural vistas and stopped at the Riverhead Diner, a classic stainless steel building from the 30s, located in the town of the same name.

In keeping with the spirit of the place, I ordered a chopped steak with onions and string beans, Dominic got corned beef hash and Tony had liver and onions…

We went across Main Street to an antique store called Consignment Galore, where Dominic pointed out some lovely plastic jewelry to me and we admired a vintage travel wardrobe and spotted a circular Dalí jigsaw puzzle by Springbok.

I immediately fell in love with the puzzle, and Dominic encouraged me to get it, as assembling puzzles is something he would do with his mom during the holidays back in Indiana.

I thought that was an excellent idea, and Tony suggested I ask the clerk for a discount, as the puzzle was marked $15. He gave it to me for $10, which I thought was perfect. He even thanked me in Spanish after I mentioned how all stores are closed for Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico.

It had been raining during the whole drive, so after taking off my rain poncho and rubber shoes, I met Susan, and her friend Phyllis, who gave us a warm welcome.

After setting our things down and seeing the house and the surroundings, Dominic suggested we open the puzzle and asked Susan if she had a table to assemble it on, as we thought it would take us a couple of days to complete.

Susan had the most perfect round table for the jigsaw and Phyllis, Tony, Dominic and I started tackling the pieces.

The first image that came together, after Tony had put aside the border pieces, Phyllis the white ones and Dominic the segments with insects, was a hand emanating circles with light that I interpreted was a spell being cast or energy being exuded.

We took a break to eat some a rice pasta with marinara Susan had prepared. After, we had a bit of coffee and I settled to write the blog post on gallery visits.

Then it was on to resuming with the puzzle assembly. Tony and Phyllis were already at the table with Dominic. Phyllis retired first and later on, Tony.

Dominic and I worked on the puzzle for a few more hours, until 1 a.m., while listening to The Smiths “Complete” album on Spotify, a compilation of their entire ouevre, on shuffle. I had mentioned to Dominic how on Tuesday I had listened to the Smiths non-stop at work, playing this entire album from beginning to end.

As Dominic would tell anecdotes about some of the songs and sing out loud winsome lyrics like “Cemetery Gates,” I talked about how some of the songs were completely new to me while others I recognized as new wave classics.

Towards the end of the assembly, we realized the puzzle was missing seven pieces, which made me a bit sad on the one hand, but then I thought it was strangely appropriate for a Dalí creation.

Dominic did some research and realized Springbok, the puzzle’s maker, had been around since 1963. Robert and Katie Lewin, the founders of the company, had been inspired by a British maker called Waddington, who manufactured circular puzzles they had bought during a trip to London for their children. Springbok had commissioned a special painting from Dalí in 1965, the year I was born, to produce the puzzle we had just assembled.

On that day, I had been wearing an Only NY wool bucket hat, Kmart acrylic argyle pullover from the L Train Vintage, Scooter’s 514 Levi’s, orange knit socks that David gave me, Gucci rubber loafers, and Anni Shades frames from Artsee. Dominic was wearing a custom made jellaba by Koos.

Dominic mentioned the next morning how assembling the puzzle had been a good way to focus on an activity and be present, rather than stare at our iPhones.

Photos by Dominic Vine and Jorge Clar.