North Adams

WOW! I was not expecting to find awesome barbeque in western Massachusetts but I did! More on that later but yeah, I’m still dreaming about the brisket.

We finally took our MASS MoCA trip at the end of April. It’s been on my to-go list for quite a while and I definitely needed the time off from NYC. I love Mass MoCA, it’s 200,000 square feet of art and barely a soul around. Maybe because we went on a Monday? It just felt like we were alone…and was free to roam the entire museum.

My favorites were James Turrell’s Perfectly Clear and all of Sol LeWitt. I have seen Sol LeWitt at Dia: Beacon but not at this scale. We were treated to 3 whole floors of his work and it was just amazing.

Trenton Hancock

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Ahhhhhhhhh………A-OK Berkshire Barbeque. Another reason to love MASS MoCA, great barbeque. A-OK sits at one of the entrances to the museum. It’s a tiny shack but you can bring your food into the brewery across the driveway. I was super looking forward to this meal, not just for the meat, but also the bread. The owner bakes her own baguette and I strongly recommend getting one. It was crispy, crusty, and soft. Oh the brisket ($13 for half a pound) was amazing. Flavorful, soft, and peppery. It’s up there next to Hometown BBQ as one of my favorites. Another great bite was the mac n’cheese! I ended up dipping the baguette into the cheese. YUM!

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We stayed at Tourists for two nights and really loved it. It was beautiful, cool, and quiet. My favorite part was napping on the window nook daybed after a long drive on our first day. The check-in/out and common space were lovely as well.

Although the food was a hit and miss. We ordered a pizza, salad, potatoes with miso aioli, and a pasta on our first night. The salad was kind of weird and we ended up not eating it. The potatoes were great and the pasta (red sauce with 'nduja and ramps) was fine. The pizza…hmm….I wanted to like it. The crust was nice but there was too much cheese and a little too salty.

But dinner on our second night was great. We had the cheeseburger (delicious), crispy chicken over a bed of barley (it was some time of grain) risotto, and a beet and fennel salad.

For breakfast we shared a rye waffle (SO GOOD!) with sweet ricotta, maple syrup, and sour cherry compote on the side.

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On our way home we stopped at The Clark Art Institute. You can get a combo ticket that gets you into both MASS MoCA and The Clark for $6 less. We didn’t spend too much time at The Clark but we definitely want to come back later in the year to see their Ida O’Keefe exhibition and to hike up to Stone Hill (right behind The Clark).

Kara Walker

Scenes from Kara Walker's "A Subtlety"

Vast Sky And Boundless Sea

Fuji Pro 800Z on Nikon N8008s

So many of you have asked what my new tattoo means. It's a song title (海闊天空) from Beyond, one of my favorite bands from Hong Kong. In a nutshell, the song is about being free, carry on with your dreams and ideals, in this vast sky and boundless sea. I thought it was a good tattoo to get right near my birthday and as I'm really questioning myself about my own future.

To make the tattoo more meaningful, I had my parents right out the song title. So my tattoo is in their handwriting.

I found a pretty good translation of the song here:

Today, I see the swirl of snowflakes in a cold night I (too) swirl afar with a chilled heart I give chase braving wind and rain Unable to make out the shadowy trace in the mist There’s a boundless sky and sea Would you and I change? (Who are not changing?!)

Many times, I face up to cold shoulders and ridicule Never have I given up the ideal inside my mind In a fleeting trance I feel as if something is missing In an unconscious way Love has faded from my heart (Who understands me?!)

Forgive me, I’ve been an unruly, untamed freedom-lover all my life I too fear I might fall down someday Abandoning the ideal -- everyone might do it Don’t worry that only you and I might someday

Still carefree and self-reliant Forever singing aloud my own song Going everywhere

Ann Hamilton The Event Of A Threat

Over the weekend, I went to check out Ann Hamilton's show "The Event of a Thread" at the Park Avenue Armory. I'm not a big arty person (yeah even though I minored in Studio Art in college and went to ITP), I do enjoy the occasional stroll through museums. I find some art a little hard to understand and mostly just a bunch of BS. Then there are art like "The Event of a Thread". My first impressions, magical, fantastical, whimsical and just in awe of the scale. There were aspects of the show which I didn't really get (like the people sitting at the tables writing and reading) but it added a sense of mystery to the piece.

Though the thing I took from this show was the idea of collaboration. The more than a dozen swings were what moved the big piece of white fabric hanging in the middle of the armory. It required all the swings to be in motion to move the piece of fabric. Collaboration, team work, each swing was an important part of the whole piece.

Also it was just fun to swing like a kid again.

The show is up till 1/6/2013