art + fashion

It had been quite some time since I'd splurged on a copy of the Sunday New York Times. As the price of the paper has steadily risen ($4.00 for Sunday alone!), I've become a regular online reader.

But there ain't nothing like a leisurely day off with the Sunday paper spread before me, so I decided to splurge yesterday and buy myself a copy. Also, the magazine section was taking the art world as its focus this week, and this intrigued me.

Ah, the "art world." It's like people who are involved with art live on a different planet...hmmm...

So there was one photo spread in the magazine called Hang Time with which I have some beef. It features nine young art handlers (in their 20s and 30s, I think) who install work in New York galleries and museums, including the New Museum, Matthew Marks Gallery, and John Connelly Presents. All of these real-life "models" are dressed in work clothes - if work clothes mean things like $2,245 Prada jumpsuits. Ummm...

Some of these art handlers are artists themselves, not too far out of art school, working as art handlers to pay the bills (some of which surely include hefty art school student loans, I am guessing). Can they afford these clothes? Do they work in these clothes? Even lounge around in these clothes? Doubtful, I'd say.

I know that a big dose of fashion's appeal is its fantasy aspect - the promise of a better life through better clothes - but I think that this particular fashion spread is perpetuating some myths about what it's really like for many folks in the "art world." I am sure plenty of folks in the land of art can afford these clothes, but it sure ain't the guys doing all the grunt work.

(Update: found a nice little interview on the New York Times online that expanded the story nicely).

The most wonderful time of the year

I finally buckled down and filled out my tax forms tonight. It wasn't too bad...I found the various cross-referenced forms to be a bit annoying, but I was still able to handle it myself without professional help. Had a W-2 and a couple 1099s to deal with this year, as well as my pretty little student loan interest deduction...

So I finished up the federal forms a little while ago. To set a productive scene for myself, I popped the LL Cool J All World CD into my laptop (classics!), and took out my contacts (somehow, being bent over tax forms in the middle of the night looks better to me with glasses resting on the bridge of my nose).

I held my breath as I reached the end of my 1040...I was at the line that reads TOTAL TAX, and I was looking for Box 2 ("Federal income tax withheld") on my solitary 2007 W-2...please, I thought, please let that amount in Box 2 be larger than my TOTAL TAX owed for 2007...

A smile crept upon my face:
I was completely thrilled to find out that, despite a couple worrisome components of my income, I am still due to receive a little refund from the Feds this year. Thank the lordy...I'm getting that form in ASAP now...it always takes Uncle Sam so much more time to issue checks than to cash them, in my experience...

Emboldened, I decided to try to wipe out my New York State tax forms tonight as well. What could possibly follow Cool James in my CD rotation? I chose Fugees The Score CD...it doesn't really compare, but it does have nice college nostalgia associated with certain tracks for me...

I am now *this* close to finishing up the NY forms, but the application displaying the form instructions on my laptop keeps unexpectedly quitting (ack!). I am tired, and I gotta work tomorrow, so New York's gonna wait for now. I'll finish tomorrow. Hell, it's not even April yet, so I'm way ahead of my past years' schedule.

A (sorta) tasty menu option for the lazy and cheap

In my quest to spread my dollars ever further, I have been pondering easy ways to make cheap, tasty-enough entrees that I can stretch (preferably) into several meals.

I am a person who can maybe sometimes really enjoy cooking, but who almost always has a zillion other things that I need or want to do...therefore, I love time-effective meal preparation.

Strolling through the grocery store recently, I came up with the following super-easy yet decently-tasty meal scheme:
-half a box of bow-tie pasta
-two cans of chunk white albacore tuna packed in water
-one can of "Mexican" corn (I dunno, that's what it says on the Green Giant package...it's basically corn with some chopped green and red peppers, and extra sodium)
-one can of dark red kidney beans (preferably Goya, cause Goya is good and easy to locate nearly anywhere)

Cook, drain, and rinse all of the above that needs cooked (pasta), drained (tuna and corn), and rinsed (beans), and toss that shit together...yum, a semi-tasty meal with a respectable amount of protein.
If you've a smallish belly like me, you can refrigerate this dish and spread it out to 4 meals (lunch or dinner)!

Bon Appetit! And happy barely-depleted wallet!

Work

There are soooo many things I've been wanting to write about recently, but I've kinda been living like a robot in auto-mode, trying to get through the days, and I've had such little energy to write.

Let me explain...

I am so very broke right now. The stars converged in such a way this Fall as to bless me with a multitude of debts. The list of costly events in my life includes: moving (and all that entails - broker's fee, security deposit, man with van costs, setting up the new pad, etc...), dental work (oh, will the work -and costs- on my poor, poor crown never end?), computer dying (new Mac laptops ain't cheap), etc, etc, wah wah wah poor me.

Fortunately(?), my past lives include the livelihood that is bartending...I happily left the bar life two years ago, vowing never to return...but, let's face it, desperate times call for desperate measures, and there's no other way I can think of (that I'd actually do at this point) to turn a few quick bucks. Mmm, cold, hard, beer-soaked cash.

So I called up my old bar boss and asked to be put on the list for fill-in work. I've already worked two shifts - two Sunday nights in a row. Sundays are good, 'cause they're six-hour shifts (8pm-2am) instead of eight-hour shifts (8pm-4am), and they're not super-busy (meaning it's easier for now-older me to get back into the bartending swing of things).

All in all, I consider myself lucky to have this bartending option for some extra dough...but, man, I am so beat. See, I work full days Friday through Tuesday at my retail job, which means my schedule the past two weeks has included the following:
1) Sunday, work at store in Manhattan from 11:30am-7:15pm
2) go straight to bar in Brooklyn to work 7:45pm-2:15am
3) get a car service home (goodbye to $20 of the cash I just earned!)
4) get up Monday morning to work at store in Manhattan from 11am-7:15pm
5) go home, crash in the bath Monday night, make sure I get up in the morning to work at the store again all day on Tuesday

The above scenario is my explanation to myself for not writing as much as I'd like these past couple weeks. Yes, there are other days in the week, but, I have a life, too, sometimes (and I've been filling in Thursdays at the store, too).

Wah wah wah. I am hoping for a big tax refund, my light at the end of the too-much-debt, too-much-work tunnel.