The Archive

Start spreading

... the news, what did you think I wanted you to spread? Dirty bastards.

Today Mark and I visited a gallery which was rather disappointing, due to being closed. Still, it worked out pretty well as we jumped a train to Grand Central Station instead.

Wow! How cool is that station? It surely lives up to its name, with huge ceilings and marble everywhere. It's beautiful. And apparently we almost lost it. In 1967 the owners decided to develop the site, but the city of New York stepped in and designated it a historic landmark. A ten year court battle ensued, which the developers lost (ha!) and the station was saved.

This is particularly good as, outside the station they still have those dudes with the shoeshine stands.

So I figured that my poor boots, which have brought me halfway around the world without so much as a single polish, deserved a treat.

And what a treat. As I sat on the pedastel the dude buffed, polished and shined my boots into new life. And whilst he did that, I tried to suppress the urge to offer him money to find out 'the word on the street about the robbery on the corner of 7th and 9th'.

Anyway, the shoe guy did a magnificent job and is my new hero. And if that sounds like an exaggeration, you probably don't know me well enough to know about my shoeshine fetish.

After that, we headed off to Chelsea (trying to avoid making football jokes) where there is a series of streets which have literally hundreds of little galleries located on them. Here I learned

a) there are a lot of people employed in the art scene despite the fact that
b) nobody seems to actually buy any of the art.

This is fair enough actually, because as interesting as it is to look at a six foot diameter dung ball cast from clay, you just wouldn't want it in your living room would you?

How do the artists stay alive? Presumably they get gullible galleries to show their work, then they show up and survive by eating all the nibbles. Maybe it could be a new kind of diet 'eat anything you want, as long as it comes on a cocktail stick'.

So, after that I let Mark go off to his Chinese lesson and I continued to the bar where I had arranged a date with a stripper I met yesterday.

Oh, didn't I mention that before? Sorry.

posted by Peter The Great @ 4:25 PM