The Zizzler

Living THE life on a shoestring budget. Traveling, DIY projects, general fabulousness.......

Monday, June 26, 2006

Cookies and Octopi

Gallery hopping in New York is one of my favorite free activities. Yea, I love the free booze, but I love having the opportunity to meet artists and spend an evening being inspired by all sorts of different work out of a museum setting. One of my favorite galleries is Jonathan Levine Gallery on West 20th Street. Jonathan used to run a gallery in Philly called Tin Man Alley, where I met him and recruited him to be my personal post college guidance counselor. The pay is shitty, but you get to start with a little lost Zizzler and watch her blossom into a well directed, determined future grad student! Who wouldn't want that job?
The latest show featured paintings by Andrew Brandou, Nouar, and what I came to see- octopus inspired chandeliers by Adam Wallacavage. I would seriously kill for one of these things to call my very own. They remind me of carnival rides meshed with glamour. Adam's also a photographer and founder of Space 1026 art collective in Philly.
The gallery itself was filled with yellow Mylar balloons, and a lot of sweaty people. I was unfamiliar with Brandou. His paintings reminded me of semi morbid Little Golden Book illustrations, on a large scale. Really neat stuff. Shit, I just called art "neat". I'm sorry, Andrew Brandou. I'm not very articulate today. Nouar's stuff was all sweets inspired and featured the cutest little cupcake paintings ever. I wanted the Sweet Tooth one. Toof.

Another favorite cheap New York must for me is going to Pearl River Mart. On Broadway in Soho, this is an Asian supermega store. You can get anything there, some really nice and some just plain bizarre. I picked up a 4 oz. flask (because I'm too poor to buy NYC drinks all night!) for $6. The choices were all very asian: skeleton riding a motorcycle, skull with Born to Ride, Aztec markings, or eagle. I chose the eagle because it looked like the Philly Eagles logo, and I should remember this city everytime I sip moonshine out of my bag. Pearl River sells tons of Asian clothing, shoes, paper goods, decorations (the weirdest kitsch ever), amazing dishes and kitchen stuff, weird placenta facial products, Chinese herbs, parasols, blinds, and my favorite- WEIRD FOOD! I love Pocky ( I wish I'd tried Men's Pocky, whatever that is), cheap noodles, sesame candies, teas and cookies like Yan Yan. Yan Yan are these cookie type strips that you dip into a frosting like substance. Remember Skinny Dippers from the 80s? Its the same thing. Anyway, so I'm eating my Yan Yan (75 cents) when I notice my cookie says "CHICK- LUCKY COLOR: YELLOW" Whaaaa??? The all have some wonderful Engrish printed on them! I LOVE ENGRISH. Does that make me ethnocentric? Or xenophobic? Anyway, Elephant: Biggesy Animal. Starfish= Star+ Fish (that is pure genius)
ps . can you tell who learned how to create links today? I'm such an idiot.