A day of art...an evening with an adult

Today was really enjoyable. I woke up late and cleaned up after my roommates party. It's not going to become a habit, hope...the cleaning I mean, not the party...but it did give me the excuse to vacuum the place. Running the vacuum is like shaving my legs...soooooo enjoyable, especially when there's lots to get rid of. After enjoying another glorious meal courtesy of Xavier, I caught the bus for a quick ride into the city to meet the boy for an afternoon of art.I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the museum itself, but the show that we went to see was really wonderful (I thought)...albeit short and sweet....one of the things I liked best about the Charley Harper show was the actual way the pieces were displayed. Next to that show was a room of video and assemblage pieces from performance artists, piquing many conversations between the boy and I about what art really was. Surprisingly, he responded to the pieces that I thought were a bit passe...there were whole corners of the room piled high with discarded furniture...as we turned the corner, he said "now, I like this." and I stifled a giggle thinking that I could have saved time and just taken him to ReCycle North, or my apartment. As for the rest of the museum...well...there wasn't much to the rest of the museum. The CAC doesn't have a permanent gallery, and I guess the winter is not the time that the museum packs them in. I did drag him down to the basement to see a few moments of Warhol's film "Empire"...an eight hour single shot of the Empire State Building. We came in during the evening shot, so the only thing visible were the lights...and then every so often some random flashes, like satellites or something. I had heard so much about the film, I was, at first sort of let down by the screening...but then I found myself thinking about what the random lights meant...where were they coming from...and why did Warhol do this in the first place...all the questions Andy wanted me to think about. I wanted to stay longer. I also thought a lot about Tyrone and the rest of the sardines and remembered the Green Door Art Hop installation they did a few years ago. I miss those kids. After the movie, we went to the top floor to the UnMuseum...the interactive kids area, which actually had the coolest piece (I thought)...an elephant made of cloth with all sorts of drawers fit into the side...each drawer housing a unique diorama...right up Martha's alley! Once we had exhausted the contemporary art (it took all of 30 minutes) he suggested that we go to the top of the Carew Tower, the tallest building in Cincinnati, where the following pictures were taken. I used to work in the brown and black striped building...on the 19th floor. We stayed up on the roof for a while, sharing memories of downtown and talking about the past few years...and asking random questions of each other. Actually, he was asking lots of the questions...I was feeling a bit selfish, talking about myself and my past more that I was giving back to him. I must work on that. As we spoke, I noticed that my name had been scratched into the paint on the guardrail (click to enlarge...it's there, I swear.) Once the sun went down, the beautiful day became a beautiful but frosty evening, and we retired to the Palm Court for drinks... and then to a new chinese restaurant for dinner. Over drinks, he and I finally had a conversation about what had gone down between us in the last few months, which (I hope) cleared the air between us...I'm not going into details or anything...nor will I name names...but I think that after tonight, things will be a little easier between us. The thing I like best about this one is that he likes to talk and not just about himself or his feelings...he asks thoughtful questions and random ones as well. Should nuns and priests be allowed to marry? I'm not sure...but it's fun to debate. I suggested to him that we meet weekly just to hang out and talk...he seemed amenable to the suggestion, and we have tentative plans to go to the "regular" art museum next time. I got the feeling that Contemporary Art wasn't really his thing, but that's cool...classic artwork isn't my thing, but it beats sitting on my ass watching TV, which I am about to do tonight. My roommates and I still don't have cable, but they have a great movie selection and tonight I'm screening "V for Vendetta"...or I'll retire to my room and read my Econ. book. It's not as boring as it sounds! We're reading "Nickel and Dimed (On (not) Getting by in America)" and it's really enjoyable. I suggest that y'all read it, although it's depressing...in that it deals with the struggle of the working poor, which I related to, coming from my background in Burlington...no degree and working in high-stress minimum wage jobs...scraping by from paycheck to paycheck. Ugh. One of the other boys from the past just called me (at 12:30 AM) and demanded I come out with them...why couldn't they have called me earlier...when the goddamn bus is running? I can already hear Werner thinking "This is why you should be driving a car!" yeah yeah yeah...but parking is $13 and that's a bitch.