James Turrell at The Guggenheim
Anyone who can trick the public into standing in line for thirty minutes only to stare dully at a gray canvas in a dark room deserves a spot on this list. James Turrell has been playing with light and space for decades, and he’s developed the ability to find absurd humor in the nature of the universe along the way. There was quite a bit of that in Iltar, the 1976 piece in question, and a whole lot of natural grandiosity and wonder in the rest of the show. This is his first New York show since 1980 and part of a larger nationwide career retrospective (one is at The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the other at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art).
Because it’s hard to tell with Turrell whether you’re in a hallway or an exhibit, I unknowingly stumbled into one, a 1968 installation called Ronin, walked right up to the light and was promptly yelled at by a 250-pound security guard who had a voice like Captain Ahab. “What is this?” my friend asked in an effort at reconciliation. “An exhibit,” the guard deadpanned. He must get it all the time.
Turrell’s exhibit runs through September 25th. Pay the $22 just to see Aten Reign, a fantastical cosmic egg that recasts Guggenheim’s famous rotunda into a spectre of existential wonder.
Chuck Klosterman and Sloane Crosley in Conversation
Pop-culture philosopher Chuck Klosterman reads from his new book I Wear The Black Hat: Grappling With Villains (Real and Imagined) today. Klosterman, who now writes the Ethicist column for The New York Times and is a founding member of Grantland, defines a villain as “someone who knows the most but cares the least”. He’ll discuss his theory along with the nature of villainy in contemporary culture with Sloane Crowsley, the frequent Believer contributor and author of the memoir I Was Told There’d be Cake.
Chuck Klosterman and Sloane Crosley at Bryant Park today 7th August, 12:30PM EDT. Free.
Mac DeMarco @ The East River Waterfront
Mac DeMarco is 23 years old and writes better songs than guys twice his age. His second album, aptly titled 2, managed to stir up the blogosphere and wind up on many year-end lists. The praise is well-earned: the dude throws off dreamy slacker pop tunes like “Freaking Out The Neighborhood” and “Cooking Up Something Good” as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. He’s kinda like Kurt Vile, if Kurt Vile went surfing every day and still lived with his parents.
I could listen to “Ode to Viceroy” and “My Kind of Woman” and stare at the East River all summer long, but I’ll content listening to two free hours of stony slacker rock while the sun sets over Manhattan. His live shows are goofy and laced with irony. A recent gig found them playing a medley of Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. They also closed the show with a Neil Young cover, which should give you a better idea of where this dude is headed.
Mac Demarco at The East River Waterfront. 8/28, 7PM. Free.
