Sleepwalkers

Rob P. had an extra ticket so I got to attend a discussion entitled "Transforming New York: Music and Film at Night" between Doug Aitken, the video artist responsible the the projections outside MOMA, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.

We got there ten minutes late but somehow two seats in the first row were available. I was pleasantly surprised with Jim Jarmusch. He was very candid and didn't try to hide his confusion when Aitken asked him a question. Aitken seemed to me like he had written many grant proposals to get his projects funded. He tended to fixate on lofty words and try to pull Thurston and Jarmusch into an intellectual analysis of their respective art forms. Maybe he couldn't feel comfortable in a moderator role.

I liked their discussion of New York in the 70's. They talked of community and being driven by desire and impulse rather than ambitious goals and money. Jarmusch likened New York to a city of hustlers, where a limited amount of resources move around by people getting one over another. I think he's right on a broad scale. Learning so much about real estate at my job, it's amazing how much perceived value exists in NY - Luxury condos, areas known for brand name boutiques, etc. To elaborate his point, he spoke of a trading post at the tip of manhattan where settlers founded new york by offering beads for the entire island.

Jarmusch noted that the benefit of such rampant capitalism is that, as a result, nobody paid attention to creatives who occupied the subterranean level, below the radar of the mainstream. This gave him a sense of freedom and to pursue whatever he wanted. I like how he considered himself an amateur filmmaker, basing his choice of the word "amateur" on the latin definition - lover of something rather than a professional whose job it is to perform. He spoke of a burning desire to express and getting it done without being bogged down by marketing, finding an audience, etc. He'd climb fences to shoot scenes, take a car loan to pay for a film -- classic artistic risk taking.

Jim provided my two favorite stories of the evening:

• When he was in a band, he was riding in a van through the lincoln tunnel to get to a show. It was raining hard and he noticed the driver would turn his windshield wipers on and off erratically. The driver says, "Dude, when it's off it's like pointillism and when the wipers are on, the streaks, they're like impressionism." That's when he realized that his driver was on acid and he kept having to tell him to look through the window and not at the window.
• Middle of a snowstorm. In a taxicab, crossing 23rd and Broadway, in front of the flatiron building. (A block from where I work) The taxi driver stops in the middle of the intersection and they both watch a man cross the street. The man was wearing a coat with his collar up and had a saxophone over his shoulder. The taxi driver says that he thinks the man's Ornette Coleman. Jarmusch amazed, agrees.
  

Jarmusch also ended the night with an optimistic and inspiring comment. Technology is just a tool. There was some discussion earlier of the internet and how being able to influence each other wasn't limited by geography anymore, somehow implying New York isn't an artistic mecca. He dismissed all that geography talk. Art is a journey rather than a series of goals or signposts. Technology is just a tool. If one has something to say, then say it, express it. With the advent of the camera, people said painting was dead. Does that mean nobody paints anymore?, he questioned.

On the subway ride back, I noticed NYC.gov has a new PSA campaign. The top of the banner usually reads "Take care of your baby" and the middle copy will say something like "Don't Shake Your Baby." Another one said something like "Don't Leave Your Baby Unattended in the Bath." Are they serious? Aren't these obvious, instinctual things?