NYC Day 2

Day 2 in NYC was mindy day. First was a stop into Cutler salon for a cute new do, then noodle bar for lunch, then to the upper west side to meet with an independent curator who was a close friend of Norman Lewis.

Staying in the west village means I get to eat breakfast at my favorite fastest food in the city, bagels on the square on carmine and 6th ave. every time I eat here I get pissed at einsteins, because I can get 2 huge bagels slathered in DELICIOUS homemade cream cheese, and 2 large coffees for less than $10 including a tip. This is one of the few places in the city that the coffee doesn't taste like diesel fuel. At einsteins I get half of that for double the price and a third the quality. The people who work there are friendly and fast and I just love it.

While mindy was getting her hair cut I wandered all around soho looking for more graffiti and freezing my ass off in the process. Looking at all this stuff really makes me want to paint on these walls. A lot of the stuff out there is dogshit, tags and an inundation of stickers that no one even looks at. But then you look up and find katsu's paint hose sprayed 20 feet up the wall. Or a stencil of a machine gun with the words "art is my weapon." There is an early sine tag halfway up the wall of a parking lot on Wooster. The screwsacer and dash snow at the top of a wall on canal. it's amazing to see tags that you know have been there for a decade or two. Then the newer paste-ups that are billboard sized looking like some kind of advertisement for counter culture. And there is of course Shepard fairey everywhere.

After freezing and a new do, we went to have lunch at noodle bar on carmine. We found this little gem last year and for less than $30 we stuffed our faces with deliciousness.

Then we stopped back at the apartment for an hour or so before we hopped the 1 train to the upper west side to meet with Susan Stedman, who is an independent curator and a close friend of Norman Lewis (mindy's dissertation topic).

Her apartment is a sight to behold piled with books and art everywhere, something right out of the movies, the IFC kind of movies though. We sat and picked her brain on everything from art and culture to general living. She told us many wonderful stories of the Spiral Group artists and their successes and struggles in the art world. She was married to Indianapolis born and Herron educated artist, William Majors, who was a member of Spiral and a best friend and confidant of Lewis. We talked about their creating methods and interests and lives. After Majors death in 1982 she married the philosopher Alfred Prettyman and the two often host Sunday philosophy round table discussions in their loft. What a joy and an honor to get to meet with her. We stayed quite late into the evening laughing and telling stories, but still had to leave before Dr. Prettyman arrived home.

After we left her loft we walked up the block a bit and ate a late dinner at a Turkuaz, which you can guess is a Turkish restaurant. We were greeted by a belly dancer and a disgustingly touchy-feely couple at the table adjacent to ours. The food was underwhelming but not too overpriced and we left full. We hopped the train back to the west village and awaited the coming snowfall.