all the art and stuff I didn't do last week

With my thesis behind me, you'd think I'd have plenty of time and energy to make it to every opening, lecture, presentation, exhibition, etc. A bunch of stuff like that happened on Thursday and Friday last week and yet I didn't make it to a single event. On Thursday and Friday I missed out on Emerson's Mixed Realities opening events and free symposium (I wouldn't mind a teaching gig in their Visual & Media Arts department, if you get my meaning). The exhibition - an International Networked Art Exhibition and Symposium - which I plan to see later this week, ought to get the creative energy flowing in terms of my class and my own work, which, sadly, is only just starting to be produced again following a thesis-induced burn-out. I have no excuse to miss the show. Emerson's right around the corner from the guy who cuts my hair, and I'm in desperate need of a trim.

In addition to missing the symposium on Friday, I was on my way to Connecticut for the weekend when the MFA screened The Gates, complete with the presence of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude and director Albert Maysles (he and his brother, David, who died in '87, have made, I believe, most of the documentaries about the art duo's previous projects, the only way I've experienced their work). HBO will air the documentary this month and presumably a DVD will be released at some point. I would have loved to have been in New York three years ago, though.

Anyway, I have no excuse to miss the art and stuff going on this week, since the instructor I TA for is primarily responsible for bringing Cory Arcangel to SMFA, where he'll give a presentation tomorrow. I really like this guy and some of the work he's done with computers, hacking code, the Internet, etc. And I'm sure it's intentionally like this, but man, I have to say, I'm not such a fan of his website.

Next week, however, it's back to missing out on stuff, namely the College Art Association's annual conference, which this year will be held in Dallas, Texas, whose forecast calls for a balmy 70 next Thursday, when the conference begins. I thought about going but I think I'll be busy enough next academic year, as a post-grad teaching fellow at SMFA and with my other full-time (or so) gig, which should start sometime in June. I hope to go next year, however, when the conference will be held in Los Angeles. With a lot of luck, maybe I can schmooze my way into a west coast visiting faculty position with no benefits or tenure in sight for at least ten years. Wouldn't that just be awesome?!