This is a pretty introspective post.
I had a free day before the Governors Ball Music Festival started. After checking with my friend E., who kindly let me stay at her apartment in Brooklyn while I was in New York, I decided to travel a day early so I could be in New York for a day. Although I grew up in New Jersey, I grew up far enough from New York (state AND city) that I had only been there a few times. I've spent plenty of time in Philadelphia though! (Insert Philly jokes here.) I am a big art fan, and New York is one of the greatest cities on earth for that.
But in addition, I was interested in seeing the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I was a sophomore in high school on 9/11, and it's something that anyone over the age of...13 (holy whoa) has in common. We were all here, we know what happened. This museum has been a long time coming, and I wanted to see long wrought conclusion. It had just opened a couple of weeks before I visited New York, and I felt that if I didn't go then, I probably never would.
No day shall erase you from the memory of time. --Virgil
This is the only photo I took in the museum. I sat in front of it a lot.
I reserved my ticket online, then arrived at the museum a couple minutes after 11am, when I was scheduled to enter. I went through the metal detector and had my bag checked, then descended into the museum proper. I had to check my bookbag (which I later did at the Museum of Modern Art as well), and at first, I was all right. There's a hallway to enter into the museum that projects photographs on columns in the hallway, along with a map of the east coast spread across a wall, which lit up during the narration that played overhead explaining what happened that day. I pushed past the crowd gathered around the map--I saw the photos and I know play by play what happened on September 11th, and I don't need a recap.
The hallway opens into what used to be one of the lower floors of one of the towers. (I can't remember specifics of numbers and which tower was which because at this point things get blurry.) There's actually a balcony that overlooks a large two story room, which includes the uncovered foundation of one of the towers, and that was the point where things began to travel rapidly downhill for me. I started crying, which I didn't expect--I hadn't brought tissues, and I was paranoid about the hundreds of people around me who were snapping photos and reading the map and talking and laughing and whatever the hell else was going on at that moment. The only way to go was down, further into the large room, which led visitors through the construction of the towers. The escalator was aligned with the survivors' staircase, and I was deposited at the bottom next to the mural above, which is compiled of thousands of tiles made to depict the colour of the sky on September 11th. (Blue. Very blue.) Benches lined the wall opposite the mural.
I attempted to push forward through more of the museum, since I had just entered, after all, and maybe it got better! But it didn't. I couldn't stop crying. I got more and more emotional the deeper in I went, which was really not deep at all--I only got as far as that one room, which has smaller areas dedicated to the victims and some of the artifacts saved from the day. I imagine the museum is in roughly chronological order, since it started with the history of the construction, but between that and the Pentagon and the planes themselves and the vast amount of aftermath...I can't imagine how large the museum actually is. Obviously, I didn't make it through the entire building. I had to sit at one of the benches across from the blue sky mural multiple times, and eventually I had the wherewithal to ask a security guard to help me get out of the building. He walked me back to the main doors. I felt like I had been trapped in there for hours, but I only stuck it out for twenty minutes.
My saving grace was that no one stared at me, and no one behaved as though my actions were abnormal. On the way out, the guard handed me a tissue, but other than that, no one acknowledged that I was upset. And I think that was the healthiest thing for me, and the wisest choice for everyone involved. I spent the rest of the day eating French comfort food and absorbing everything at the Museum of Modern Art, which ended up being far more my speed.
I've been to two Holocaust museums, the one in Washington and the one in New York, and for some reason a lot of arguments surrounding 9/11 call upon the Holocaust in comparison. I was not emotionally moved at either Holocaust museum in the way that I was at the 9/11 Museum. I'm usually not really emotionally moved at all--I have a tendency to internalize, which I understand is not healthy, but that's how I react to most things. But for some reason, the 9/11 Museum was different. I wasn't personally invested in 9/11 in any way--no family members died or were even in New York; all of my family lives in south Jersey, and has for a long time. I have no attachment to New York and have actually always kind of hated it (too loud, too dirty, too crowded, etc.), and no friends were affected by the events of September 11th.
There has been a significant amount of discussion about the 9/11 Museum and the thousands of details regarding its existence, from the location of the museum and its very existence to the fact that it has a gift shop. For what little it's worth, I think that overall, the museum (what of it I saw) is well done. It's hard to make a museum about a topic like this, and it's hard to make money to keep it running (the reason for the gift shop, and the reason for charging admission). It's an essential museum for the people who will live in America and in the world in the future, because otherwise, the memory will weaken. It won't disappear, but consider the emotion of someone who lived through Pearl Harbor versus those of us who were born long after that. There's a detachment. And while the detachment will be there in the future, having a visual reminder in concrete will help others understand.
That said: I don't think I'll never set foot in the museum again. The memorial was beautiful and perfect and I wouldn't mind if I ended up back on the property again. And maybe I'll change my mind someday, but as of right now, I can't envision ever going back in. I had a headache the size of Brooklyn after crying so much, and there's so much I never saw. That I'll never see. And I think it's best that way. The museum exists for a purpose, and it's very important for people to go, people who otherwise have no comprehension of what happened that day. But it isn't the museum for me.
At least no one can say I didn't try.
Governor's Ball Music Festival
June 6-8, 2014
Randall's Island, New York City, NY
I have wanted to go to a music fest for a very, very long time, and living where I do, options for music festivals are few and far between. I could drive to Bonnaroo and deal with tents and hippies and mud and no showers and sitting in a car for ages just to get in and out, or I could fly elsewhere and throw down a lot of money for a hotel, a ticket, and travel.
welllllllllll
This year, Outkast reunited. It's kind of a big deal. And while coachella got the first big OMG WE HAVE OUTKAST announcement, the group also announced on their website that they would be headlining at the 2014 Governor's Ball Music Festival. This was a new fest that I hadn't heard of before, and with somewhat good reason--it's only been around for four years. So I started doing research. The fest was three days, on Randall's Island, plum between Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. It also took place on my birthday weekend, June 6th through 8th. Whoa. Did stars just align? And then they announced the lineup, which included Jack White, Vampire Weekend, Janelle Monae, Outkast (obv) and about a billion other bands that would be ridiculous for me to list but let me tell you I was stoked just reading the list.
It seemed like mostly a pipe dream, because Gov Ball took place at the same time as the start of summer reading at work, but I was APPROVED for time off for the fest and I sprung into action, grabbing a 3 day ticket and emailing my friend E., who lives with her husband in Park Slope, & who was deeply kind to offer to let me stay with them for free while I was in the city. It came together! I got a ticket for the shuttle, planned my flight so I'd have one free day before the fest to do with what I pleased, and started saving money. I had to buy some shorts because most of my shorts are officially barn shorts now, but here's what I wore on all three days. (I was probably the least hip person there. I don't care.)
Day 1 (June 6)
Top: J. Crew | Shorts: Walmart | Shoes: Toms
Bands: Outkast, TV on the Radio, Phoenix, La Roux, Bastille, Janelle Monae, Little Daylight
Food: mac and cheese (Beecher's), cheesesteak (Carl's)
Day 2 (June 7)
Top: Boden | Shorts: Boden | Shoes: Toms
Bands: Jack White, Sleigh Bells, The Strokes, Broken Bells, Fitz and the Tantrums, Classixx
Food: risotto ball (Arancini Bros), chopped beef sandwich (Mile End Deli)
Day 3 (June 8)
Top: Target | Shorts: Boden | Shoes: Toms
Bands: Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, The Kills, The Head and the Heart, Tyler the Creator, Frank Turner
Food: lobster roll (Luke's Lobster)
I have spared you all a shot of the aggressive Toms tan that I received while at the festival. But here's a look at what my poor Toms look like now that they've been through the ringer:
Gross.
Gov Ball was wild. I will say that going alone probably wasn't AS good as going with someone, simply because I didn't want to make friends with groups of people, but it also allowed me to do whatever the hell I wanted, which was awesome. That's one of my favourite parts of traveling alone--you do you the whole time. It's pretty fantastic. One day I brought a book with me to help pass time between bands, and I found myself more than once by someone else reading a book. It's like a secret handshake for bookworms...except it's blatantly obvious. Whatever, you get the point.
I took my trusty green Jansport bookbag with me, and that thing more than paid its dues (I also used it when I was driving across America, so it's been all over). I was able to haul my camera (which stayed home after day one because security deemed it "professional camera equipment" which isn't allowed), a towel, sunblock, a book, my phone, my charger, a bottle of water, and anything else I wanted to lug with me.
I had a really awesome time at Gov Ball. I might go back someday. I have many tiny stories that I can tell--about charging my phone, about the people I met, the food I ate, and the bands I saw--but they're not interesting when they're all rolled into one. They might leak out bit by bit. But at least there's this post with all my clothes so I can remember it! (I will be writing an additional post about my free day in Manhattan, which...will be much different.) But for now...I'm glad to be home!
Top: Boden | Skirt: Target | Belt: Target | Wedges: Target
I had to take two flights each way to get from Cardiganland to Vancouver last week. I like flying--a lot--but it always seems to give me a headache. I have a larger bubble of personal space than most people, and it is very aggressively violated on a plane and in the airport. Anyway, I met a couple of Mormon missionaries while I was walking home from dinner one evening. I'm mostly irreligious (I was raised without structured religion but I was baptized as an Episcopalian after my grandmother got mad at the Pope & I go to mass on Christmas Eve for funsies...and if you want to talk sometime about being irreligious in the Bible Belt, let me know), but I respect everyone for believing what they believe, and Mormons are no different. In fact, I think I have even more respect for the missionaries because they do some really tough work. And the ones I encountered were quite funny! I chatted with one of them for about 20 minutes, and he asked if I would be all right with him saying a prayer for me. I said that was fine, and then they prayed for me to have a safe flight back to Charlotte.
And then the seat next to me was empty on both flights back home.
Those guys...they did me a solid! And I have a really cool picture of them on the street (I promised them I wouldn't put it all over the internet) and most importantly, I'm going to have a great memory. I might not believe the same thing that they do, but I appreciate their making an effort!
Luggage Barcode Sunset No. 4, by Douglas Coupland
Acrylic on canvas, 2012
To explain my absence over the last couple of weeks--I was rather abruptly sent to Vancouver for work! It was quite unexpected but I'm very lucky I had this opportunity, both professionally and personally--I've had a passport for the last five years but wasn't expecting to use it before I had to renew it, and my being picked to go to Vancouver, of the 200 people in our system, was a huge honour. I had training every day from 9-4, but my evenings were free, so one evening I rode the AirTrain into Vancouver proper from my hotel in Richmond and hiked down to the ocean. I walked by the Vancouver Art Gallery, which I desperately wished was open, but it closed at 5 everyday. The gallery was showing an exhibition on Douglas Coupland, an artist and prolific author from Vancouver, and Coupland has installed artwork all over the city. I sadly didn't see any while I was in Vancouver, but I wanted to highlight Coupland, so I found Luggage Barcode Sunset No. 4 for SIA this week! Send me your photos by Monday, June 30th (!!!!!) and I'll post the roundup that night. I can't wait to see how you all interpret this one! Plenty of pattern to play with.
Bonus: here's a photo of a real Vancouver sunset!
Sea by Richard Schallert
Serigraph, 1976
This is exceptionally short notice (New York, crazy work, exhausted, etc.--I'll explain in more detail in my next post!) but here is this week's pick by Jen for Style Imitating Art! Jen actually owns this serigraph, which both makes me jealous (it's so beautiful!) and makes me think omg what a good idea. I might have to wheel out some of the art I own too someday. Jen has a certificate of authenticity, which will be awesome if she ever takes it to Antiques Roadshow. More importantly, it has great colours that match this time of the year so well.
Send Jen your outfits by Monday night, June 16th! Enjoy the beauty of this one!
