Consumer Report: April
What I did, saw, read, watched, listened to and ate in April
Consumer Report: April
What I did, saw, read, watched, listened to and ate in April
The most eventful thing that happened this month is that I lost my job. Now I’m pounding the pavement, trying to returning to freelance (tips and references welcome!) But I am letting myself take some time to rest too. The one great thing about NYC is that even though living here is expensive, participating in culture here doesn’t have to be.
Pom Pom Squad at the Music Hall of Williamsburg: This was a fantastic show which also happened to be the last on the Mirror Ball Tour and Mia Berrin’s hometown shown. Berrin had to cancel the European leg of her tour because of financial limitations and that’s a really sad statement about the current state of the music industry, where artists have to self-finance tours which are also virtually the only way for musicians to make decent income, with streaming services paying such meager returns to the artists that give their services value.
Jacqueline Novak at the Bell House Again: Jacqueline came back so I came back. This time her work in progress started to take a more defined shape and I will always show up to see what she’s working on, unless the show is taking place during my regular book club meetup, like her 3rd show last Sunday. One of my favorite parts of seeing live comedy is getting to watch material develop over time and then see the final special and understand what got left out or refined and why. More on that sometime.
Pete’s Reading Series at Pete’s Candy Store: Now that I’m funemployed, I’m trying to do more of the things I couldn’t do when a corporation owned 100% of my time. So, reading series. I used the live a few doors down from Pete’s, so this one is an old fave. This month, Jeremy Gordon read from See Friendship, Jane Pek read from The Verifiers, Anton Solomnik read from Realistic Fiction and Jeanne Thornton read from A/S/L. The theme of the night was awkward meetups, potentially involving Tinder.
Marie-Helene Bertino at The Center for Fiction: I really loved Beautyland (and got to see Marie-Helene read from it at a Tables of Contents event when it was released) so of course I had to see her in conversation with Vinson Cunningham about her new short story collection Exit Zero. I’m currently reading my galley of the book, so review to come.
Fashioning Wonder at the FIT Museum: This was a delightful exhibit of fashion and accessories inspired by a cabinet of curiosities, featuring some amazing pieces by McQueen, Comme des Garçons and Issey Miyake. The pieces were surrealist and nature-inspired and most of all, surprising, which is what you want from a fashion exhibit.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime at the Whitney Museum: To no one’s surprise, this is an exceptionally good exhibit. I went with a friend during Whitney Free Friday Nights, which was extremely corwded but everyone was dressed extremely well. If you’re a street style photographer, I recommend checking out Free Friday Nights at the Whitney.
Keff Joons by CJ Hendry: Art experiences like this one can be divisive. Purists (snobs) usually see them as lowbrow pandering, but I don’t see any problem with building excitement about contemporary art by creating experiences that broaden its appeal. It was fun, the kids loved it, and I will be here for more CJ Hendry shows. Also: climbing it was more difficult than it looked, and one of the “balloons” had partially deflated by the time we went on the last day of the exhibit making it even more difficult to get around. I was sore for days after.
Debt by David Graeber: I enjoyed Graeber’s “Bull Shit Jobs” concept and the original article more than the full book, which felt a bit thin. Thin this book was not. It was exhaustively researched and took an anthropologist’s view into the history of debt, which is older than the history of money itself. Recommend.
Viagr Aboys by Viagra Boys: Among other things Europe is doing better than the U.S. right now, they’re really excelling at punk. This is the Swedish band Viagra Boys fourth album, and Bog Body and Medicine for Horses are my favorite tracks so far. The commonwealth has abeen giving us great rock and punk offerings over the last few years too, like Amyl and the Sniffers, Lambrini Girls, The Mysterines and Sprints. When will punk rock finally makes a resurgence stateside? Surely our current fascist state will provide plenty of inspiration.
Sinners: I’m not always a huge horror fan, but of course, Sinners is SO MUCH more. There’s music, there’s dancing, there’s comedy, there’s horror, there’s symbolism, there’s biting (heh) cultural and historical commentary. We saw it with the absolute best crowd at BAM, which made the experience just that much better.
Long Way ‘Round and Long Way Down: Apple TV+ will never tell you, but Long Way is coming back soon with a trip through Europe called Long Way Home, so of course we had to do a full rewatch. Long Way Up is next. This show is just such a great hang and makes me want to travel more adventurously.
Dinner at Hart’s in Bed-Stuy: We went to Hart’s for my partner’s birthday day dinner and of course, everything was fantastic. We should go more often, but we are just so rick with great restaurant options, it’s hard to keep up.
And as a treat, my favorite monologue from Everybody’s Live this month: