SoHo, September 2006

Cafe Noir is a restaurant on Grand Street in SoHo. I liked the idyllic palm tree paired with the industrial, brutal shadows of the chains for the security gate. Kind of an interesting juxtaposition.

I have palm trees on the brain today because a) it's 37 degrees outside and b) I went to see an exhibit of Brazilian art at the Bronx Museum of the Arts yesterday. The exhibit is called "Tropicalia," after a cultural movement in Brazil in the late '60s and early '70s. It includes elements of music, graphic design, fashion, interactive sculpture and many other artworks. Most surreal is a big Brazil-themed installation featuring tropical plants, beach sand, raffia huts and live parrots! You can take your shoes off and walk through, so picture this: I'm carrying my winter coat, but I'm barefoot, slogging through sand like a castaway on Gilligan's Island. Very strange, but cool.

Anyway, my favorite work was a contemporary psychedelic wall mural done by an artists' collective called "assume vivid astro focus" (a piece of the mural here). The fashions were pretty groovy too, lots of swirling color and interesting cuts. Very sixties.

Last night, my friend Bill took me to see "Spring Awakening" on Broadway. It's an EXCELLENT show, with lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik of "Barely Breathing" fame. (Remember that song?) These two have collaborated before - Sater also co-wrote Sheik's 2001 album "Phantom Moon," which I really like. Anyway, "Spring Awakening" is about adolescent struggles among German youths in the 1890s, but the themes are very contemporary and the cast is terrific. Go see it if you can. Really.