BlackBook

For most people, simply having a copy of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest—once a cult doorstop of a novel, now a point of honor/contention among readers—on the bookshelf or coffee table is enough to impress. I’ve got two worn copies, just to be on the safe side. That way, when someone asks if I’ve actually read it, trying to get one over on me, I can say: “Yeah, but forever ago. Why, did you just finish?”

Most of us - upon being proved a laughable plagiarist/journalistic fabricator and fired from our staff writer position at the New Yorker - would go ahead and disappear from public life for maybe more than a year. But disgraced hack Jonah Lehrer has bounced back already, it seems, signing a deal with Simon & Schuster to write a book about—I don’t think I can say this with a straight face— the "power of love.” 

We’ve all seen some pretty impressive things done with LEGO® bricks, but New York artist Nathan Sawaya keeps setting the bar higher and higher. He’s done a giant red-tailed hawk, commissioned by skateboarder Tony Hawk. He’s done incredible, sculptural, life-size human figures—one of which is tearing open his own chest, spilling yet more yellow bricks. He’s even done a tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.  

Certain scents—even unpleasant ones—evoke powerful emotions and memories. The first few days of spring weather in New York, when the streets smell like trash, remind me that my birthday is coming up. Walking into the BlackBook editorial offices somehow transports me to my childhood dentist’s office, an odd mix of antiseptic and fluoride. Turns out I’m not the only one affected this way.

"I say that I can't make anything up. I think of myself as a collage artist. I'm cutting and pasting memories of my life," said Spalding Gray, "I have to live a life in order to tell a life. I would prefer to tell it because telling you're always in control, you're like God." And as one of America's most brilliant writers and performers, Gray's life was an open book of stories, weaving from the depths of despair to sheer brilliance with an honesty and openness rarely seen. As a theater/film actor and monologist, Gray's work was an ongoing and ever-evolving narrative that spanned his life's journey from his Christian Scientist childhood in Rhode Island to the harrowing pain of his last days. For me, discovering Gray as an adult was like discovering David Sedaris as a teenager—his candidness so refreshing, his hyperbole so believable that there was never a dull moment. He made you feel like you were understood and that someone knew how you felt and although, no, I have never been a middle-aged man, we all know what it feels like to be haunted by the past and crippled by fear of the future. Nell Casey, editor of The Journals of Spalding Gray has noted, "As much as Gray wrung his hands, calculating and recalculating what he’d sacrificed for fame, he recognized that this was an art form wholly suited to his talents and that he needed the audience. He was a more fulfilled person with this constant and consoling witness to his life." And had be not died all too soon on January 10th, 2004—presumably by throwing himself off the Staten Island Ferry—today would be Gray's 72nd birthday. So in his honor, let's take a look back on some of our favorite moments of his, from bits of his extended monologues to Steven Soderbergh's documentary And Everything is Going Fine, to his 1989 performance in Our Town. Enjoy.

Antony Hegarty is best known for—well, hold on a second. There’s his flat-out incredible and hauntingly fragile falsetto, deployed to great effect on albums like I Am a Bird Now andThe Crying Light. Then there’s his transgender identity, plus other attachments to a faded, androgynous and gritty version of the Lower East Side (Lou Reed guest spots, those stylized cover photos, etc.). So perhaps its not surprising that last year, he crashed the visual art world with a solo show at UCLA’s Hammer Museum. Now he’s bringing work to New York, at Sikkema Jenkins in Chelsea.

Tomorrow, as part of their Art Seen series—a unique monthly art-focused program—Brooklyn's wonderful Nitehawk Cinema will be screening Ben Shapiro's stunning documentary Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters. It's a film as moving and beautiful as its subject, going behind the scenes to illuminate the work and process of one of the world's most acclaimed and beloved photographers Gregory Crewdson. Shapiro's film manages to capture the essence of melting into one of his photographs—and it's an absolute delight. With the film out on DVD next weekend, Nitehawk will be screening the film along with a Q&A with Shapiro tomorrow morning. So in honor of the DVD's release and the showing, we're giving you another look at our interview with Crewdson and Shapiro conducted back in October that dives right into the world beneath the roses. Enjoy.

It's already on the lips of all those who tend to pontificate on such things: the Lower East Side is the new (insert last hot art neighborhood here). Even the French--who have this terrible habit of reminding us that they "invented" modern art (Manet, schmanet)--have gotten wind of it. And so Paris' four-years-young and somewhat surreally-titled cutlog art fair (founded by Bruno Hadjadj and Guy Reziciner) arrives in Gotham this weekend amidst the media-and-celebrity din surrounding Frieze New York.

Up in New England’s storied Berkshire mountains, a lot of art happens. There’s Tanglewood for music, Mass MoCA for visual art, and Jacob’s Pillow for dance. Williamstown Theatre Festival puts up quite a few plays, but they’re mostly geared for the octogenarian set—revivals of Anything Goes, etc. This July, happily, marks the first annual Mass Live Arts Festival, which aims to bring an experimental edge to an otherwise overly safe season.

Sunday may be a "wan, stuff shadow of a robust Saturday" or a day of "forced leisure for folks who have no aptitude for leisure," according to Tom Robbins, but Mondays will always take the cake for the most dismal day of the week. And as we all crawl into the work week, let's at least take comfort in knowing once the end of the day rolls around, there are plenty of fantastic things to do this week in New York to satisfy any interest. From staring wistfully at a collection of melancholic and beautiful photographs by Dennis Hopper to bathing in the sounds of Jim Jarmusch to showing off your Twin Peaks knowledge, this week is packed with pleasures to take part in before Friday even rolls around. Peruse our list and ease into your week a little bit easier with the promise of fun.