hands in the air

I had the pleasure of seeing the now very infamous Girl Talk in Providence tonight.  It was a sold out show so naturally there were a lot of people, many clad in leotards, head bands and neon wayfarers, an homage to Greg Gillis.  The poser factor was off the charts, but this music is so good, I am willing to overlook the silly teenagers that think they look totally awesome at these shows.   

This was a full body contact event...lots of pushing and shoving.  The crowd was super pumped.  Once Girl Talk finally did start, about 200 kids got up on stage and danced, leaving literally enough space for Gillis to manuever his laptops and mix some beats from the floor.  The crowd pulsed around him for the entire hour plus that he performed.  We got caught in a powerful crowd surge that almost knocked us over, so we gave up on the floor and headed to the balcony, where we could watch the mayhem from a safe distance.  No one ever stopped dancing, even when fans fell on the laptops, fell on Gillis, or messed up panels, or got tossed by security.  Easily, this was the craziest show I've ever seen.

truth and beauty.

The Photography of William Eggleston

This weekend, while visiting friends in the city, I had occasion to see the William Eggleston retrospective that is being hosted by the Whitney. Alexander Calder's Circus collection is also on display for the next few month. Both exhibits were outstanding in their own right, but Eggleston's work was stunning. A pioneer in both the use and saturation of color film, his prints are rich, even prismatic, drawing the viewer to look at each print carefully, to pay attention to the precision and detail with which Eggleston has crafted each photo. To be sure, here is a man who has made his life's work out of photographing the everyday, the excess of time and experience in between the fleeting seconds where we rush to snap a photo. He has made these moments that make up our lifetimes feel novel once more. Once again, the ordinary becomes beautiful.

Eggleston's Democratic Camera exhibition shows through mid-January 2009.

have you seen this american life...