Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Clever words, to be sure.

Hola, amigos! Como estan Ustedes? Yo soy bien, gracias! No tengo un novia, y a veces estoy triste. Pero, Time Out New York Dice a yo es muy bueno! Ahora, todos las chicas de el East Village quieren "to bone" yo! Ok, I don't really speak spanish (yet I remain impressed with myself for coming up with that on my own!) and I'm fairly certain that all of the East Village ladies do NOT want to bone me because I was in a tiny back section of a magazine.

Now that we've cleared that up, I am the aforementioned, Chris: an equally excited participant in this lovely little FAB blog/dating experiment. Thought I'd drop a line and check in with you all before I start heading out to FABulous (get it?) dates in the near future.

It's been a week since the magazine with my goofy, incredibly young looking face graced news stands all over the city and I've had scarce response. The day began with a couple of goof e-mails from friends and co-workers suggesting that we date and offering up foot fetish stories. It appeared that this was going to be an embarrassing experience. So I decided to take some action regarding my self-esteem, and reach out to Samantha W. She was also being featured in the article and it seemed to make plenty of sense to share and comiserate with someone. My e-mail read as follows:

Hi Samantha,

I saw your profile in Time Out NY today and thought, "well there's someone I've got quite a bit in common with right there! I should e-mail her."
Then I thought, "Nah, Chris, you're creepy. your profile just went out too. wait until somebody contacts you!"
Then I ate breakfast
After Breakfast I thought, "Just e-mail her. what's the worst that happens? she gets to be a famous actor and holds a mysterious grudge against you, barring your professional career in the process."

So, at the risk of ruining my theatrical career, I reach out to you. Because at the very least, it'd be nice to know how someone else is handling being a famous East Villager for a day. And at the very most, well, I've already shared with you how dangerous my imagination could be.

Coffee?

-Chris D


It went over well! We saw Harry Potter yesterday and had a great time. So at least I won't be offering FABulous (nudge nudge) tickets to Fourth Arts Block performances to strange women on the street all the time. Now, there will be another character in this blog who I didn't make up! Hooray potential companionship!

First couple of shows are coming up in the coming weeks. I'll keep you all posted once they happen. In the meantime, au revoir!

-Chris D

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Something to Look Forward To

This past Wednesday, Time Out New York released their most recent issue that featured a complete guide towards the places to eat, drink, shop, view, and generally "recapture cool" in the East Village. It's about time everyone else knew how great the East Village is and all the hidden wonders it has to offer.

Time Out not only highlighted this vibrant neighborhood, but also chose an artist from East 4th Street as one of their East Villagers to date! That's right, Chris, who is the associate technical director for the New York Neo-Futurists is single and searching with the help of Time Out. Chris will be going out on blind dates, and we thought that it would be great if he kept us in the loop as to how his romantic adventures in the East Village were going by joining our blog.

We are going to find Chris some fun events and performances to see right here on East 4th Street, with the help of our fantastic members. After the date, Chris will write on this very blog all about his date and all about his East 4th Street cultural experience.

We at FAB are really excited that Chris is letting us in on his East Village escapades, and we hope that you all enjoy reading about his adventures. Perhaps he'll give you some good ideas about what you should be coming to the block and seeing. At least you know you can look forward to a new blogger and his clever words right here on the FAB Feed.

Friday, July 17, 2009

PS 122 & DTW Announce Seasons

Our fellow East Villagers, PS122, have announced their upcoming fall line-up and it is sure to be eclectic and interesting. There are definitely some must-see stuff, especially the band LOW who will be collaborating with Morgan Thorson. To see the whole line up, check out PS122's website.

Dance Theater Workshop also announced their full season a couple weeks ago including Tere O'Conner, Anna Halprin (and friends), and Faye Driscoll (go to calendar to see the full line-up and dates). I have to say that I am extremely excited to see that Yasuko Yokoshi will be presenting work there in March 2010. She last showed Reframe the Framework (DDD) at the Kitchen in 2008 and I know she showed in the work in progress performance at BAX, but it'll be nice to see what she has in store for us this time. Definitely worth checking out.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Millenium Film Workshop: a film haven for the LES

Since 1966, Millennium Film Workshop (http://www.millenniumfilm.org/)has opened its doors to non-commercial, "personal cinema" makers, giving them a refuge to learn, craft, edit, and exhibit their work with minimal cost. Millennium had the pleasure of being on the cutting edge of this phenomenon and has not looked back since.

The East Village was an ideal place for something like Millennium in the mid-1960s. The area was the hub of counter-culture life and political activity and a place that would present the highest culmination of art and film would fit right in. The kind of cinema presented would be referred to as "personal cinema", coined by now Executive Director, Howard Guttenplan: "I called it 'personal cinema' early on and I think that might be a better description and a more precise term. It's very personal, usually made by one person, free to investigate a wide range of ideas, subject matter, and forms. This work relates more closely to the art world than to traditional movies."

Millennium has been able to help bring this form of film-making into the foreground. In the 1940s, the concept of personal films was practically unheard of. However, during WWII, hand-held cameras were developed to shoot combat, and after the war people were still embracing 16mm as a way to expres your own personal experience.

After a few moves and directors, Millennium has spent 35 years on East 4th Street with Howard Guttenplan as the executive director. Guttenplan taught himself many of the administrative skills required as well as finding time to make and show his own "diary films", personalized archivings of his days in NYC as well as overseas. These films have been exhibited around the world and the Museum of Modern Art has described Guttenplan's work as "spontaneous, immediate celebrations of color, texture, and design."

MOMA also began showing avant-garde film in 1968 in its Cineprobe series as well as the Whitney Museum, which began showing films in 1970. Until these two leading museums in contemporary and experimental work, Millennium was the only space exclusively devoted to showing new experimental work. Guttenplan still pushes community interaction and keeping Millennium's open-door policy in tact to this day.

This is a prime example of the way East 4th Street Cultural District approaches art cultivation and distribution. We embrace the freedom of creation and are interested in supporting the exhibition of art without censorship. The right to explore, discover, succeed, and fail are respected and buoyed here on this block. It is not an easy thing to make happen, but we believe in safe havens for the arts and wish to continue making that more and more possible so people may make the art they want with positive effects.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Blogs to Blog About

Hey there readers
Here are some blogs that we have enjoyed as of late:

East Village Podcasts

Tenement Museum
JZ Bich

They're great
They're informative
They're fun
They're local
They're blogging!

Check out what they have to say and then come to the LES and
check out what they (and us, of course) have to offer.

Enjoy!