What is art?

And other thoughts rattling around in my head

Jun 23, 2023

I had a lovely long weekend thanks to the Juneteenth holiday & did lots of local exploration. However, something that became abundantly clear to me this year is the irony of having Juneteenth off as a white person. Creating a federal holiday is a nice step in the right direction, but seeing it in action feels a bit performative. My egg sandwich Monday morning was delivered by a Black Grubhub courier. I had a delicious lunch at a Caribbean restaurant staffed by Black workers. Service jobs generally aren’t subject to federal holiday closures & this is just another example of systemic inequalities in our country. I don’t have an answer to this because I’m just lil me, but I hope we’re able to find better and more equal ways of commemorating this holiday.

1. Noshing 😋

I took off a few extra days for a long weekend (yet another amazing privilege I’m grateful for!) & had a delicious breakfast at Shopsin’s in Essex Market. Shopsin’s is a weird little place that has a bit of history, and you know I love history….

Shopsin’s began as a corner store owned by Kenny & Eve Shopsin that eventually began serving food. The original menu had something like 900 dishes on it and was printed on a comically large piece of paper - front & back. I had my first Shopsin’s experience when they were in the Old Essex Market and I do not say experience lightly. The Old Essex Market was a cramped maze of vendors selling anything you could imagine & smushed into one corner of the market was Shopsin’s. The place had a bunch of small tables crammed together (they refused to seat parties larger than 4) & the decor was a scattered mish mosh of trinkets & action figures. When I went, Kenny Shopsin was sitting on a stool in front of the counter; he was notorious for refusing service to people he simply didn’t like & for essentially having no filter when it came to yelling obscenities or telling people to hurry the fuck up & order something. I believe that day I ordered the ebelskivers & Lorenzo got the mac & cheese pancakes.

Old Shopsin’s - a beautiful chaotic mish mash

These days, Shopsin’s is located in the new Essex Market, which is described as a place “with direct access to a light-filled mezzanine space where shoppers can enjoy a tasty prepared snack or simply take in the views.” Just as the new Essex Market boasts a shinier vibe, so does the new Shopsin’s. The menu is shorter (though still printed on a piece of paper the size of my torso), the decor is less haphazard, & there’s no one to reprimand me for ordering the same dish as my neighbor since Kenny Shopsin passed away in 2018. However, the food is still delightfully greasy & the hours they’re open are limited, so it feels like a special little treat on a weekday. I ordered the Slutty Stuffed Iran Pancakes & Lorenzo went for a brisket hash - both were excellent.

2. Exploring 🗺️

I made my first trip to the Guggenheim recently & was somewhat underwhelmed, though it got me thinking about what the heck is art anyways? I’m much more of an art history person & love learning about the behind the scenes of the art - how did the piece come to us, what was going on in the world when it was created, etc. The two exhibitions on view - Gego: Measuring Infinity & Sarah Sze: Timelapse - were both quite modern & technical & the little info cards just didn’t offer me the type of information I was interested in. Sure I can appreciate the precision that goes into creating Gego’s wire sculptures, but after a while they all began to blur together. And the Timelapse exhibit almost harkened back to the old Shopsin’s decor - it was piles of things that surely had meaning, just not to me. The best exhibit there was the art that was created by NYC public elementary school kids - I would have killed for a program like this when I was in school!

And that’s really the rub of it - art is super subjective. Because technical wire sculptures & piles of stuff are as much art as Michaelangelo’s David or Warhol’s soup cans. To me, art is the output that is created when someone wants to express something - an idea, an emotion, a story. And since we are all people of different backgrounds & life experiences, of course we can’t all relate to everything. And by this same logic, any interpretation of art can also be valid. I might look at Warhol’s soup & love the tongue in cheek mockery of consumerism, while you may look at it & think ‘mmmmm soup’ - both are correct.

And in what may be a very unpopular opinion - I really did not enjoy the architecture of the Guggenheim when it came to existing within it. Yes it looks cool, but existing on sloped ground for an hour while also trying to read things, I’ve learned, is not my idea of a good time. I enjoyed the Thanhauser Gallery & the Picasso exhibit, both of which were in level-floored galleries separate from the main winding floor. I can’t help but think this building’s architecture is just a bit gimmicky, but again, that’s just my interpretation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3. Watching 🤩

Ok I’m not done being controversial - I saw The Flash over the weekend. Ezra Miller has been in the news the last few years for a variety of alarming things that they’ve claimed were the result of “complex mental health issues.” I’ve seen some folks write that they (Miller) should be in jail, which doesn’t feel completely right because if their actions were the result of mental health issues, shouldn’t we be trying to help them rather than incarcerate them? However, I think it’s also super important to recognize that if a POC were in this exact same position, whether or not to incarcerate them would probably not even be a question. So what I’m saying is….it’s complicated? And regardless of what is going on with Ezra Miller, it would be a disservice to everyone else who worked on this film to simply dismiss it.

I haven’t enjoyed much of anything DC has made but I really enjoyed The Flash. I’ve seen a lot of criticism around this being yet another multiverse story that exists solely to throw a melange of IPs at audiences, but this story isn’t new! Flashpoint was written in 2011 to kick off DC’s New 52, essentially helping to reboot their convoluted comic universe. DC released an animated version of the story in 2013 that is one of their strongest animated films (of which they have surprisingly many). This Flash movie was a very entertaining take on this story - skip to Section 4 if you don’t want mild spoilers!

Ezra Miller’s acting in this was great. They did a very convincing job creating two distinct Barry Allen’s, while also portraying very clear character growth in each. The Flash was always sort of the Spider-Man of DC to me - he was the goofy wisecracking guy. This Flash never fit in with the previous DCEU movies because they were so dark & it was refreshing to see him exist in the world that he belongs in. It allowed for a lot of genuine humor & gags that didn’t feel forced or out of place and that is something that the DCEU is sorely missing - some goddam goofiness! Barry discovering that his powers were gone and running into a wall sounds childish, but it garnered a lot of laughs from the audience (me included).

There’s also the question of “how much fan service is too much?” I say, give me everything. There is nothing more fun than being in on an inside joke & The Flash delivered. Michael Keaton’s Batman quoted some of his famous lines from the 1989 Batman & we saw that in one alternate universe Superman did indeed Live! And as someone who’s favorite Batman film is Batman & Robin, I was not mad at all at that jump scare at the end. I don’t think that George Clooney showing up as Batman is the true end of the film, but rather just where the audience was left. This movie was in many ways meant to be the DCEU’s Flashpoint reset and I think whatever we get next will make it clear that this was just another alternate universe. So calm down ya nerds!

It is, in fact, a crime that Grant Gustin was left out of this movie

All this aside, I have to admit that the CGI was awful, like so so bad (the babies, the chronosphere’s time disco balls). The director claimed it was on purpose, but I think the bad VFX were the result of a larger problem in the industry. VFX artists (and post-production folks in general) very often get the short end of the straw & are stuck working long hours on tight deadlines & the demand for more spectacular “blockbuster” movies is just exacerbating an industry that was already working on thin margins. I really really miss practical effects & while I understand they’re not possible (or safe) in all situations, I wish filmmakers would consider them over using sets that are entirely CG. Ugh, end rant.

4. Learning 🧠

Let’s take it back to the beginning and talk about Essex Market! Old Essex Market opened in 1940 to replace an outdoor market full of pushcart vendors selling everything from oysters to pickles (which garnered the LES the nickname “Pickle Alley”). However, Mayor LaGuardia woke up one day and chose to wage a war on pushcarts, which he saw as “menace[s] to traffic, health and sanitation.” He sought to combine all of these vendors under one roof and the initial iteration of Essex Market housed an impressive 475 vendors!

Unfortunately, the market’s liveliness was short lived as supermarkets in the 1950s became the go-to destination for shopping. The city eventually turned the market over to the vendors in 1966, at which time only 120 remained. Over the years the market continues to struggle & became quite rundown. Vendors blamed low foot traffic, lack of promotion, & a very ugly facade. Some of the outside of the market was painted with murals by Ai Weiwei in 2017, but by then it was too late and the new Essex Crossing development was already well underway.

When the new Essex Market opened in 2019, all but one of the remaining vendors in the old market made the move. In addition to the vendors that moved over (and a few new ones), the market also has a demo kitchen (I took a vegan cheese making class there), attached restaurants, and supports a plant-based community fridge. The new building is really lovely, but the curmudgeon in me has some nostalgia for the old rundown building and I can’t help but wonder if time will come for this new market eventually, too.

5. What’s Good 😎

Bagel fans rejoice - BagelUp is a new trade organization “dedicated to promoting and advancing bagel culture and industry worldwide.” They’re currently looking for bagel enthusiasts to hire as Tour Guides and an Operations Specialist.
Somewhat related - apparently there was some bagel drama on TikTok recently! Abigail shared this link in her newsletter This Needs Hot Sauce & it was a very interesting read about bagels, but also about toxic internet culture. I will admit though, I absolutely love trying to guess where people are in the city by looking at the geographic clues.
If it doesn’t get rained out this weekend, join the Friends of Irving Square Park for a park cleanup! They’ll provide water & trash equipment, you just need to show up. And here’s a hot tip - if you search “Friends of + a park name”, you’re likely to find groups supporting parks all over NYC. If you ever want to volunteer in a park, these are great groups to reach out to!
Aesop’s Queer Library is back! If you head to their Williamsburg location now through June 26, you can select a book from their library for free. “Many of the books in the collection have been banned or challenged across the country, and the brand-sponsored queer library aims to increase access and discussion about these titles while highlighting the necessity of self-expression.”
And finally, I am so freakin happy to tell you that Ample Hills is reopening & the original owners are back babyyyy!!! It’s a comeback story for the ages, the literal cherry on top They’re reopening scoop shops one by one and the Vanderbilt shop just reopened on June 21. Ample enthusiasts should keep an eye on their instagram to see which shop is reopening next. I’m really hoping that their Red Hook Factory reopens because I never got a chance to visit & it’s been on my list for ages! Fans of The Social (me) can expect some Ample flavors to pop up on the menu which only rounds out an already stellar ice cream lineup at the Prospect Heights shop. I hope this news made you as happy as it made me
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By my above logic, all of my pictures of my cats are art. I will not be taking questions at this time.