Seeing the work of long dead stone carvers means so much to me, especially when I run into work like this piece on 14th Street, which was carved with surprising delicacy. It reminds me of the show at the Bandshell 2 years ago, when Yo La Tengo played behind a screening of Jean Painlevé's dreamy aquatic footage. I hope this season's offerings will reach those heights, I don't think last year's did. But I suppose it's a matter of taste.
A range of music will be offered, I don't know what they have lined up yet, I'm waiting eagerly to hear. My favorite moment from last year was watching the singer from Malajube perform in a large dog outfit, singing about things rather not fit for my children's ears in his Canadian French.
John Jay's entrance seems to be wearing some kind of outfit which unfortunately it can't take off. It is the most heavy handed carving I've seen around here. The laurel leaves on the left look more animal than vegetable, like amoebas trying to crawl into an unsuspecting student's brain. I'd love to know the story behind this production, it's literally a mess, the pile of books next to that strange boy is worse than something I'd see in my daughter's bedroom. And last week I found an open bag or cornstarch in her drawer. (Double click image for full effect)
There are many good reasons to pass through that overwrought entrance however, one of them being the pool I keep hearing so much about.
3 comments:
I was telling this to my students in the Borough of Manhattan Community College @ Brooklyn College class last Saturday and they found it hard to believe:
Do you know what male students were required to wear in the swimming pool at John Jay High School and other New York City high schools in the 1960s when I was in high school?
Nothing.
I'm finding that hard to believe too. What year did they institute the bathing suit requirment? What kind of events lead to the policy change..I guess I can sort of picture that.
I'm not sure when it ended. I can tell you from personal experience that it was the policy during the 1965-66 school year and had been the policy for some years before that.
It was only the year I graduated from Brooklyn College, 1973, that the college eliminated passage of a swimming test as a graduation requirement for a bachelor's degree.
I recall the Faculty Council meeting at which eliminating the requirement came up for a vote. (I was a student representative on the curriculum committee of Faculty Council.)
The chair of the Women's Health and Physical Education Department argued that it was necessary for Brooklyn College graduates to prove they could swim adeptly because we lived on an island and that in the event of flooding, swimmers could make their way safely to the mainland (New Jersey? The Bronx?) under their own power.
Soon after that, the requirement was voted down.
Male BC students, though, were allowed to wear swimsuits in the pool.
Post a Comment