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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The Tides of Provincetown

The Town of Provincetown has lent the following pieces to the "Tides" Exhibition from its extended art collection, which will travel nationwide:


"Provincetown Draggers" by Ciro Cozzi - restaurateur and painter. 



"Boats and Horses" by Richard E. Miller- who came from Giverny, where he worked in proximity to Monet, to Provincetown and was a strong advocate for traditional painting. 

  
"Circus" by William L'Engle, who with his wife Lucy were painters and also involved with Eugene O'Neill and the birth of American drama in Provincetown.  

  

Monday, July 25, 2011

Fishing off MacMillan Pier in Provincetown

I caught my first striped bass off MacMillan Pier in Provincetown. 


I used to go fishing with my grandpa all the time. I loved the time we spent together away from it all in the middle of the nature, but I am ashamed to admit that I've never caught a striped bass in my life. 


...until a few days ago.


Of course, there are plenty of fishing charters in Provincetown, such as Beth Ann, Cee Jay or Ginny G., but one can also do it on their own, off MacMillan Pier, with no license required.


I was still at work the other night when I got a call from a friend saying the tide was perfect and that we should go fishing that night. I was totally unprepared for it, but he was kind enough to provide a pole and lures for me.  


It was late at night (around 11pm) and I was more than reluctant regarding the success of our venture. I was either being too realistic or had little knowledge of all the good signs mother nature was giving us that night: shy breeze, high tide, little activity in the harbor, the quiet hour when fish get hungry (allegedly) and the alignment of the stars (I made this one up).  


There I was, 6, 7 casts in when I felt a strong bite and saw my pole bend. What a feeling that was. I felt like a little kid again, very proud, while looking at my friend to see if he's watching. Then, as my grandpa would always say when I caught a keeper, my buddy acknowledged my achievement with a "Great job!" I don't know if it was beginner's luck, but I was the only one who caught something that night.


Luckily, the brave fish was under the legal limit that allows one to keep it and I let it go back into the ocean where he belonged. It flapped its tail and swam away without looking back. With that image in my mind I realized I should have taken a picture so that I had proof of my deed, but it was too late for that..."There's always next time, I said to myself." 


With Family Week coming up in Provincetown, July 30-Aug 6, fishing is one of the many activities in town that allow parents and children to spend quality time with each other and have a great time in our amazing little town. 


Stay posted for more happy thoughts from Land's End! 
rdl 

Friday, July 22, 2011

Jay Critchley's Deep Bones and Char Person's "A Hero Never Fails" at Freight+Volume

Freight + Volume
530 West 24h St, Chelsea, NYC 
August 4th-September 10th, 2011.
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 4th, 6 – 8 pm



Freight + Volume is very proud to announce the New York debut of two remarkably talented installation artists. As both politically- and ecologically-motivated voices, this pairing will transport the viewer through an unusually provocative and timely dialogue amongst the F+V walls.




O Swallower of Shades…, I have not slain people…, O Breaker of Bones…I have not stolen food…, O He-who-is-Blood who came forth from the place of slaughter, I have not done grain-profiteering.Egyptian Book of the Dead, Chapter 125.


Provincetown artist Jay Critchley’s two-part installation, Deep Bones, mixes basic elements of our voracious energy appetite hydrocarbons and the nuclear atom. Jay writes, “As we race on our journey in our ‘solar barque’ to the Sun God Re, will we make it in time to defy the death-defying carbon kindness we practice? What will the afterlife on earth be like? Have we lost our desire for eternity? Our pilgrimage to the afterlife begins in this earthly place [Hydrocarbons], the place we return to after our spiral journey into the multiverse. But return we must, as we take our prized possessions and techno necessities into the afterglow!” 



 
In the main gallery, the artist’s performance installation will eviscerate the “organs” of a classic MG sports car, ritually wrap each engine part with recycled plastic shopping bags, display them, and finally return them to the corpus vehicle and mummify the car. Above, a lowered, circular ceiling fashioned from recycled plastic shopping bags will hover over the remains.

In the video room, Critchley presents NRC – An Atomic Journey. In 1988 Critchley made a pilgrimage to abandoned, un-built nuclear power sites and facilities across the Mid-West/USA as president of the Nuclear Recycling Consultants (NRC). This video installation documents official visits and ritualized actions that explore our relationship to the atom and our quest for dominance of nature and the future itself. NRC − An Atomic Journey visits sites in Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio and Indiana,exploring links on a proposed Nuclear Heritage Trail.


The video installation will be projected above a trough of consumables immersed in motor oil, with the reflected light dancing upon its petro-surface. 

Please join us for a lively artists’ reception Thursday, August 4th from 6-8pm. On opening night, Jay Critchley will conduct a ceremony at the body of the MG, O Breaker of Bones, at 8:00 pm. During gallery hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 16th and 17th, Critchley will work in the space, returning the wrapped engine viscera into the cavity of the car and the ceremoniously mummifying the MG with recycled shopping bags. The public is welcome. For further information, please contact Nick Lawrence or Kevin Kay @ 212-691-7700, or info@freightandvolume.com.

Critchley’s environmental work dates back to the early 1980s with his sand car series in a waterfront parking lot in Provincetown. Founder of the patriotic, controversial Old Glory Condom Corporation and several corporate personas, his videos and conceptual proposals and projects have won numerous awards, including ones from HBO and the Boston Society of Architects, and he has had residencies at Harvestworks, NYC, Harvard University, AS220 in RI and Milepost 5 in Portland, Oregon. His work has been presented world wide, and recently in Argentina and Colombia.

Chad Person explores the concepts of heroism, manifest destiny, and apathy in a new show titled A Hero Never Fails. Using his signature repertoire techniques of inflatable sculpture, currency collage, and video Person’s objects ask the viewer: what is heroism and why do we care? The centerpiece of the exhibit is Hero, a defeated caricature of the 50’s cartoon character Underdog. The goofball “hero who never fails” has resigned to abject apathy. Hero is rendered as a gigantic inflatable (a la used car dealership gorilla). Strung out on the “super vitamin pills” that provide his super powers, he sits slumped forward, meditating on his iPhone.

Person describes the work as three parts culture, one part self-portrait. “In a political state dominated by an agenda of distract the public and rob what’s left, with two endless wars draining the last of my great grand-children's hope for prosperity, why be anything but apathetic to injustice? ‘Hero’ is a metaphor for my own vocational and economic struggle, my country’s role on the global stage, and whatever is left of my American dream. If creation is thought moved to action and object, then art-making is an incredibly heroic effort (perhaps more so in this economy). Has the time come for heroism? Or should we just give up, sit back, and have a good laugh?”

Person’s work has been exhibited internationally, with his most recent solo show at Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles. His provocative and controversial RECESS project recently led AOL to label Person "the most paranoid man in America." And in 2010, one of his sculptures was seized from Mark Moore Gallery by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives pending allegations that it was an illegally manufactured and trafficked firearm.


posted by rdl 

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Beachin' it in Provincetown

Great piece on a perfect Sunday at the beach in Provincetown

via Mark Skala, All Things Cape Cod, blogs.wickedlocal.com
Nothing like a day at the beach on Cape Cod
2011 July 18
by Mark Skala


The beach was the right place to be yesterday. While it was hot and humid at home, the beach was perfect with breezes and mild water temperatures on the South side.

We escaped to the beach around noon yesterday and spent the entire afternoon lounging by the water or in the water (with a water temperature of 72). Ideal conditions all day. The breezes were a perfect tonic to the humid weather. The ordinarily calm surf had just enough wave action to make it fun and adventurous. All along the shore you could see people flocking to the water for relief from the heat.

Clearly the crowds have picked up. Sunday at the beach was evidence of that. So too was evidence of the people coming over the bridge on Saturday. We headed off Cape Saturday afternoon to go to a concert at the Comcast Center and couldn’t believe the late-afternoon lines trying to get over the Sagamore Bridge. I was glad to see so many people seeking the Cape relief! We need all those people here.

Anyway, as we packed up our beach stuff on Sunday, that sinking feeling many of us get as we prepare for another work week, took over. I commented to a friend how hard it is sometimes to live and work in a resort area where so many are on vacation and they get to play, enjoy and go with the flow. “Yeah, it is a challenge some Sundays,” he said to me.” But would you want it any other way?”

After Sunday’s picture-perfect Cape Cod beach day, I’d have to say no.


posted by rdl 

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Our first post

Welcome to our blog!


This is our first post, so please bear with us.  We'll get better over time and hopefully we'll serve both Provincetown and you, our audience and visitors, as well as possible.  


Speaking of bear(s), Bear Week in Provincetown just ended a few days ago and we already miss the Bears.  This year they stayed in town  for 10 days and, from teddies to grizzlies, they all had fun in the sun. (If you don't believe me, watch this!)


Everybody loves the Bears. They are very polite, cute, affable, they love to eat, party and they genuinely have a great time in Provincetown. We're looking forward to having them over again next year and as Ms. Candy Collins-Boden said: "The only thing the Bears don't do in Provincetown is hibernate." 


As you may already know, every week or weekend has a theme. 


Girl Splash Weekend is coming up starting tomorrow (July 20 thru 24). With a sunny forecast, 5 days of fun and activities and entertainers such as Kate Clinton, Poppy Champlin, Jennie McNulty and Mimi Gonzalez the gals will have a blast. 


Please follow us for more info and happy thoughts from Land's End! 
rdl