Through the Frosted Glass

When I entered Hiro Ballroom around 11, I wondered what possessed me to spend two hours in line to see Courtney Love. I’m glad I did. I ended up next to a couple of quippy writers; watched a street bartender go by – fully licensed! “Why spend so much in the club when you can get a cosmo from me for five bucks?” Um, because alcohol isn’t permitted on the street, and you’re pushing two Coleman coolers on a luggage cart, and your girlfriend is carrying a large, pink stuffed rabbit. I have to say, the highlight was my first celebrity sighting. No, not Pink, who was inside (though I thought she was Annie Lennox) but Dr. Geek! I got a personalized rap ("Her name is Kate/only one syllable/that's how I operate.") as did my cohorts, and the Hold Steady.

Just before the band came out, the Violent Femmes’ “Add It Up” came over the PA. Man, if you want to get the party started for a bunch of college rock nostalgics, play that song. The lights had dimmed and I honestly thought she was singing, offstage. Her rasp is very Gordon Gano. She was very thin and visibly drunk—I like to think she was just drunk maybe nervous-her hands were pretty shaky. The new stuff sounds like classic Hole: fucked-up love songs with power chords. I love the folkier (if I can call it that) “Pacific Coast Highway.” “How Dirty Girls Get Clean,” is dull and treacly and, were it not the title track from her new record, could be left off. "Miss World" took me back and “Celebrity Skin” was a fine send-off.

Earlier in the day I gallery-hopped in Chelsea, which was exhausting and mercifully quenched by a glass of sangria on the way home. I was most excited to see Postmasters Gallery's “Not Your Parents MTV: Music Videos from Hell.” The highlight, for me, is MTAA’s “23 Concrete Reasons why John Cage is Not Our Father,” featuring deadpan explanations set to Sweet’s “Fox on the Run.” And Katarzyna Kozyra’s video,”Cheerleader,” which begins innocently enough like Europop fluff and turns into an intriguing locker room gender-bender.

I was slayed by Eyebeam’s Source Code, celebrating programming--and not only because the space is ginormous. The first piece you see upon entering is Cory Arcangel’s re-worked 8-bit Nintendo game “I Shot Any Warhol,” which instructs you to shoot the artist while avoiding Flavor Flav and Colonel Sanders.

And David LaChapelle’s “Awakened,” at Tony Shafrazi, was really a treat. The large-scale photographs are inspired by biblical narratives and injected with LaChapelle’s Pop! humor. (See “Deluge”: Image 31)