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“Bent Arm Violin” by Ken Butler
By William Allen
This group show, called “Wackadoodle,” thumbs its nose at highbrow irony and aesthetics, with seven artists steeped in the traditions of North Brooklyn (conceptual art, action painting, and sculptural collage). By design there is no theme, only fresh, bright painting, drawing, sculptures, video art, and prints.
A disturbing case of political déjà vu looms over the national political landscape. Its origins began here in the Big Apple on November 7, 1989, when New Yorkers elected their first African-American mayor, David Dinkins, in a close and hotly contested campaign with GOP candidate Rudolph Giuliani. Dinkins secured the Democratic nomination after a series of scandals plagued three-term Mayor Edward Koch (D).
Mayor Dinkins laid the groundwork that enabled the Big Apple to become a welcoming city for business, tourists and its citizenry. This included the rehabilitation of housing in Harlem, South Bronx, and Brooklyn, the enactment of polices that decreased the homeless population, support of the Times Square clean-up and revitalization, and significant increased in law enforcement hiring.
Matthew Winn opened Molasses Books in Bushwick, last month. Photo by Allen Ying
To the transplants who’ve lived in Bushwick the longest, the neighborhood’s grit is nothing short of a virtue, and its lack of creature comforts is a source of pride.
It must have something to do with the factories and cement yards, the scrawny trees and parks without pigeons or squirrels.
As a man looking for a haircut in Brooklyn, one faces a quandary: barber or salon? Barbers have been the go-to choice for men’s haircuts since Ancient Rome, and in the Middle Ages, barbers performed major surgeries. Today, they’re dependable for a quick shave and a haircut, often without an appointment, and are cheaper than a salon. However, there’s a tendency for barbers to have only two or three haircuts up their sleeve. And for a person with an oddly shaped head, or a flair for the unique, this just won’t do.
Salons, on the other hand, tend to give more interesting and creative haircuts, and sometimes even a little pre-haircut pampering. But a man is likely to feel a bit out of place at a salon, which tends to be filled with women and cost more than a barber. Your average barbershop cut costs somewhere between $8 and $30, while a salon cut can range from $40 to $500. Masculinity is also a factor. At your average barbershop, one might not feel masculine enough to live up to the often machismo-soaked standards of an old-school barbershop.
Leon Reid IV, “Leon Reid IV’s iPhone 6″, iPhone, cast resin, steel, enamel, 8″ x 3.5″ x 3.5”, edition of 15. Photo courtesy the artist.
Two days before the iPhone 5 was set to land on shelves at Apple Stores, Leon Reid IV preemptively unveiled his “iPhone 6” last night at his studio in Greenpoint. Wearing his Sunday-best charcoal suit and red bowtie, the 33-year-old street artist gave a Steve Jobs–style PowerPoint presentation that revealed all the stats about his new device. For instance, he said, it’s “three-times heavier than the iPhone 5” and “starts at $799.”
So what exactly is this technological breakthrough? It’s a fully nonfunctional sculpture with a real iPhone for a body and cartoonish arms and legs made out of resin. The character cradles a miniature man in its right hand and ominously threatens to poke the poor guy with an extended finger, just as we do to our own phones. “One day, we will live in a world where our smartphones are smarter than us,” Reid explained, “and we will be the devices for our smartphones.”