weekend update
By anders pearson 23 Jul 2001
lani came to visit this weekend while she’s between apartments in DC. in an effort to appear like i actually am cool and have a life besides sitting alone in my apartment reading and watching cable, i managed to find a few things to do while she was here.
<p>on saturday afternoon, we went out to queens to go to the <a href="http://www.ps1.org/">ps1</a> <a href="http://www.ps1.org/cut/press/warmup2001.html">warmup</a> with omar and a bunch of his friends. the line was around the block but once we got in, it was a good time. lots of quality dj’s and cheap beer. pretty much everyone at the show was an attractive, hip 20-something. i felt like i must be in the middle of some weird, mtv created fantasy world. the exhibits at the museum were cool. there were sections focused on military uniform fetishes and on japanese consumer culture (the even brought in a live j-pop band). </p>
<p>after that, we went down to brooklyn to check out an underground show that the <a href="http://www.seemen.org/">seemen</a> were putting on. it was way out in the middle of nowhere in a fairly run-down residential neighborhood. we walked around following the directions to the place and eventually found ourselves outside someone’s garage. we were late so the show had already started. since the show was not <em>entirely</em> legal, they were taking some precautions. they would only open the door to quickly let a few people at a time in during quiet parts. during the not so quiet parts, the entire garage door would violently shake accompanied by bright flashes through the cracks and the sounds of explosions coming from inside. once we made it inside, it became pretty clear why it wasn’t a legal show. in a tiny little garage, there were packed about 75 people (significantly more than any sane fire marshall would sanction) standing and watching the <a href="http://www.monkeyview.net/kal%40seemen.org/very_interactice_pieces/revortex_6.vhtml">fire vortex</a>. the room was about 150 degrees and everyone was drenched in sweat. the fire vortex is an arrangement of 4 propane tanks surrounding a volunteer from the audience, each shooting 2 meter jets of flame in a computer controlled rythm. kind of like the <a href="http://www.lhpo.org/">large hot pipe organ</a>, but on a smaller, more personal scale. every time one fired, you could feel the blast of heat from the far end of the room. the part that really made you feel safe in that little enclosed space was that the propane tanks themselves were in the line of fire of the blasts. when one would go off, the flames would curl up around the bottom of another propane tank. by the end of the show, the tanks themselves were blackened from the fire. there were two fire extinguishers on the floor, but they were pretty much for show; i don’t think they’d have helped much if a propane tank exploded. we were late so we only caught the very tail end of the show, but it was definately one of the cooler (not literally) things i’ve seen in quite a while. easily the most dangerous musical instrument i’ve ever seen.</p>