Kitchen Evacuation - Discovering Carol Bove

Paul had rappers in the kitchen this Saturday, which meant a kitchen evacuation for me. Paul is producing Corina Corina’s sophomore album, The Freeway, and she had a rapper come in to record a guest verse. The album is really coming along, but she’s asking for a little financial help through an indiegogo campaign.

It’s hard for artists. It’s not exactly a financially sound career path. But could you imagine a world where no new music or paintings or books were created? It would be horrible! Everyone benefits from artists taking risks and pursuing their passions. Most of my artist friends work several jobs just so they can do what they love. It’s definitely not the easy route. So if you make good money and can afford to invest in an indie artist you admire, do it!

Since I had to clear out of the kitchen for the afternoon, I went with a few friends to the High Line in Manhattan to check out the art walk ‘Caterpillar’. The artist Carol Bove has seven site specific sculptures on view along the last stretch of High Line that is still untouched and overgrown.

The sculptures were made out of I-beams and powder-coated steel. The I-beam sculptures have rusted from exposure and resemble their dilapidated train track environment, while the powder-coated steel ones are a shiny, crisp white that stand in stark contrast to the setting. I liked that Bove included pieces that appear to be relics of the train line, reminding viewers of it’s history, as well as futuristic looking sculptures that address it’s imminent fate as the High Line.

This final section is planned to open in 2014, when it will look like the rest of the well-groomed High Line. So even if you’re not that into the art, it’s still pretty cool to get up and see what the tracks look like after thirty years of neglect. The tours are free. And for that great price, you get an art tour and a sneak peek at NYC's history.

Kitchen Renovations

This past Saturday, Paul and I made the trek to Home Depot to get supplies for some home renovations. Between the wedding gifts, living in a NYC apartment, and me being a quasi-hoarder, it was time to clear out our crowded kitchen and make our closets more efficient.

I should have taken a ‘before’ picture of the closet. It consisted of precariously stacked plastic drawers and milk crates. It was my attempt at makeshift shelving, and it was pretty bootleg. Since we rent, I never wanted to invest much in home improvement projects. But we’ve been here for almost five years, and I don’t see us moving out anytime soon, so I figured it was time to put in a little work.

The curtain to my room.

Honestly, I’m just happy we have closets. My first apartment in Brooklyn was a loft where the previous tenants had unprofessionally installed the bedroom walls. Because of pipes along the ceiling, they didn’t build them all the way up, so we were basically living in cubicles. No doors either, just curtains. And of course, no closets. I built a shelving unit into my wall, but not knowing what I was doing, I didn’t use anchors. The whole thing pulled out and toppled onto my bed while I slept that night. A terrifying way to wake up. So when Paul and I found our current place, the number of closets (there are six!) was one of the selling points.

A thing of beauty!

The closet renovation really is amazing though. It took up our whole Saturday and we joked about how middle-aged we felt, but it was seriously satisfying to declutter and organize. The closet is now a pantry, linen closet, and bathroom vanity all rolled into one. Every time I walk by the closet, I stop to open it and sigh as I admire.

Prem stopped by over the weekend, and I proudly showed him the closet and solicited compliments on how much cleaner the kitchen looked. By default, the kitchen is an improved space for rappers too. If Paul had his way, he would have expanded and turned the closet into a vocal booth, which I think the rappers might have preferred. But I won’t let Paul take any of the closets away from me. They are too precious.

A Rappers in My Kitchen Baked Goods Special

I hosted my annual pumpkin carving party this weekend. I have a childlike love for the holidays and all the cheesy traditions that go along with them. Since Paul has zero interest in holiday activities, I started having friends over several years ago to carve pumpkins with me. He appeases me at Christmas time, but I’m on my own for the minor holidays. It turns out I have enough friends who love holiday traditions too, cause last year I peaked at a dozen people coming over to carve pumpkins.

And, of course, what’s a Halloween party without Fall treats? I always bake and make spiked cider, but everyone brings homemade goodies too. This year there were so many baked desserts that we couldn’t even come close to finishing them all. This means that there is an insane amount of calories sitting on my kitchen table right now. I have so many leftovers, I could have set up a bake sale on my stoop.

So I have a Rappers In My Kitchen special to offer: UNLIMITED access to the baked goods when you book time with Paul this week. You should even take to-go what you can carry. The menu consists of: pumpkin cheesecake, apple cider donuts, apple caramel pie, spice cake, brownies, pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing, apple crisp, and puppy chow. Paul doesn’t actually have too much free time left this week, so act fast! This offer won’t last long! But seriously, if you wanna help me not gain a thousand pounds this week, I implore you to book a session.

Oh and take a look at our pumpkins past and present. They're pretty cute.

2010

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SACOOO!

I was recently at a show where up-and-coming rapper, Milo, performed. He had a nice write-up in LA Weekly over the summer, and I was super surprised to read that he’s originally from Saco, Maine. For years, I went on this annual canoe/camp trip on the Saco River with a group of friends.

I hadn’t been in a while, but my sister, Paul and I decided to revive the Saco trip this past July with fifteen of our more adventurous friends. There were a few semi-seasoned campers, but we had a solid percentage of first-timers. I got many emails before the trip asking me to clarify the ‘bathroom situation’. Our two born-and-bred New Yorkers didn’t even know how to swim! I can’t believe they agreed to be confined to a canoe for two days. I wish I had footage of Keisha wading in the river repeating “I’m in nature, I’m in nature…”.

It really isn’t that strenuous though. We tie our canoes together and float as a giant canoe raft for the first few hours. It’s a nice way to start, and it makes passing beers way easier. The only difficult part of the trip is carrying the canoes around the dam. Incredibly inconvenient, but pretty cute to see all these jaded New Yorkers get their camp counselor on and work together to get it done. Teamwork at its finest. At one point, even our resident smart-ass Matt was clapping his hands and saying motivational stuff like “dig your heels in, we’ve got this!”.

I had also forgotten about the frat party that is Saco. The beaches are lined with flip cup tables, people shout “SACOOOO” at every passerby, and mottos like “drink ‘em and sink ‘em” originated there. The newest bro catchphrase on the river was “dump ‘em out”. Seriously. It took us ladies a minute to figure out what that even meant. Naturally, I googled it when I got home and learned two interesting facts. One: the Saco River is in the Urban Dictionary. Two: that charming catchphrase was another Saco River original.

Since several of our friends that went on the trip are in the rap scene, there were a good number of Saco survivors at this recent show. And we may have all shouted “dump ‘em” when Milo took the stage.

eighteen New Yorkers go camping

hot dog on a stick, it's what's for dinner.

Tasty Keish & Mo Niklz do nature 

Prem does too

Indie Raps in Paradise

I’ve taken a little summer hiatus from my blog. Summer is always too chaotic and busy to have focused on blogging. Plus I started an exciting new job in July at an auction house, so it’s been even crazier. Even though Fall has hit and life’s starting to normalize, we managed to squeeze in one last adventure.

My sister works for a destination club and won ‘hostess of the year’ with her company. The reward was five free nights in any of their properties around the world. So we spent five luxurious days in a ten person villa in Turks and Caicos with our own private pool and beach. I expect her to keep up the good work and win next year as well.

We pretty much spent the entire trip by the pool. With pool floaties and an outdoor grill, fridge, and speaker system, there really was no need to stray too far. The only time we left the villa was to check out da Conch Shack. Apparently white people giggle at anything with "da" in front of it. Paul just shook his head at us. But more importantly, on Sunday afternoons da Conch Shack hosts the Hump and Bump. The Hump and Bump is supposedly a dance party on the beach, but we were disappointed to find no DJ and no humping or bumping. Maybe we were too late in the season for it, but at least we still got to feast on conch and rum punch.

da Conch Shack

Maria gets a little overzealous about planning though (she may or may not have sent us a grocery/booze list for our approval two months before the trip), so she had a playlist ready to go for our poolside listening pleasure. My sister has gotten to know a lot of the rappers Paul works with and has become a fan of their music too, so scattered throughout her playlist were quite a few indie rap joints.

Obviously, she included a number of songs off the Willie Green album, We Live In The Future, but there were also some of her faves from billy woods, Open Mike Eagle, PremRock, Angi3 and Toussaint Morrison. Turns out Prem and Green’s song, Jogger, is perfect to listen to while drinking margaritas in a pool. Who wants to jog when you can float? Our friend Ali was laying in one of the second floor balcony hammocks (yes, we had those too) and yelled down to ask who the artist was cause she liked it so much. Paul was flattered obvs. Another converted indie rap fan!

It's a funny thing to be thousands of miles from home in a tropical island paradise and suddenly have a song bring me right back to my kitchen in Brooklyn.

My Very First Rap Battle

PremRock had his birthday party this past weekend at a friend’s penthouse in South Slope. It was an awesome space, with a balcony that was possibly bigger than my whole apartment and perfect views of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Seriously stunning. I was coveting pretty hard.

Rap Battlin'

Naturally the party was chock full of rappers. But there was this random guy who was going around, cornering people, and then just rapping in their faces. It was bizarre and annoying. Throughout the night, he managed to pester most of the rappers. Until finally something amazing happened. Prem snapped and a real life RAP BATTLE went down!! Really! In real life! It was one of the best things I have ever witnessed. If I hadn't been so enthralled, I would have taken video documentation.

I’ve seen a few rap battles at shows before, but those are usually done in good fun and are prepared in advance. This was spontaneous and basically two dudes fighting via rap. Instead of fists, they used words. Imagine a rap version of the West Side Story. Amazing. Prem crushed the other kid too.

That dude. I'd like to thank the photo
bomber in the center for making my
very first rap battle happen.

I think it’s because I went to an all girls school for middle and high school, but I have actually gone through life without ever witnessing a fight. This is the closest I've come. Based on movies I've seen though, this is exactly how I expected it to look. A group of bystanders all circling the two people beefing, while laughing and prodding them on. Except, of course, this was all very non-violent.

When I mentioned that it was my first rap battle experience, everyone was surprised. Apparently this happens more often than one would think. I don’t know how I've been with Paul for so long without witnessing one yet. 

I’m pretty pleased my first rap battle was on a Brooklyn balcony against a backdrop of the city skyline though. It felt like a very perfect New York moment. I think that one day, when I finally leave this city, most of my favorite memories are going to be of nights on Brooklyn rooftops.

Fireside Raps

Last night my art world and my rap world melded together in the most interesting and bizarre of ways. I went to hear a lecture on the art of the fireplace and see a rap performance all in the same space. I attend lectures and rap shows pretty much on the regular. But I had not yet had the two combined. Until last night.

Last month, Prem told us he was going to be the first rapper to perform at the National Arts Club, a private club in Gramercy Park. Obviously, I was really intrigued. The National Arts Club was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Some of the club’s more famous members over the years have been J. Pierpont Morgan, Frederic Remington, Mark Twain, Robert Redford, three U.S. presidents, the list goes on...

Walking through the doors of this Victorian Gothic Revival building, with all its intricate woodwork, moldings, and beautiful stained glass, I had to wonder how a rapper landed a gig at one of the notable cultural landmarks of NYC. Not because I don’t think rap is culturally significant, but usually the people in charge of such clubs don’t think so. My expectations were confirmed when we entered the room and saw the crowd- a relatively older audience all wearing business attire.

Prem’s childhood friend Christian Herrmann is a stonemason who has been doing renovations at the NAC for the past year. Since he recently restored the chimney, he was asked to give a lecture on the topic of fireplaces. He did a run through on the history and evolution of the fireplace, and then showed some of his own masonry work, including time lapse photography of his restoration of the chimney. He ended with a discussion about the fireplace as a communal space where people have gathered around for hundreds of years to talk, eat, and perform.

And this is when the rap show started. Prem wrote some verses that he delivered alongside a cellist. The setting and the cello made it feel like a poetry reading, but delivered by a rapper. I was pleased to see an older gentleman in a bow tie bobbing his head to the beat. But I loved the moments where the two worlds didn't quite line up.

After he performed, in true rap club fashion, Prem asked everyone to raise their drinks for Christian. I looked around at the slightly confused older folks lifting their champagne glasses in the air, probably wondering why they weren't applauding instead. After the music ended, a member of the NAC took the lectern and clearly a bit flustered, exclaimed “Wow, that was something” before he went on to thank everyone. I’m pretty sure that was his first time seeing a rap performance ever.

It was a bit unconventional, but I actually thought it was lovely, especially in the context of the fireplace. I imagine many a distinguished person has gathered around the fireplace at the NAC to hear musicians sing and play the piano or harp or something charming like that. It’s time to break down some barriers- for both worlds. Getting to hear some fireside raps set to a cello seemed like an oddly fitting tribute to a restored 19th century fireplace in a 21st century world.

Also, I want Christian to build me a fireplace when I have a house one day. Check out his amazing portfolio.