I had a peaceful holiday staying in New York. I miss my Seattle friends but the time to visit there is summer, not now, and I had fun with Fabian.
On Wednesday 31 December Fabian took me to a party in Bushwick. It was in an abandoned building in a dirty part of one of Bushwick’s many dumpy blocks, but of course Fabian knows what is cool, and inside all the people were very friendly and the music and lights were really cool. It was half gay boys, one quarter straight people, and one quarter other, which is probably the mix that makes me most comfortable.
Thursday New Year’s Day we made tamales, which Fabian says was the new year’s tradition where he grew up in Texas. I had never made them before and it was fun.
Friday I had to work but I did it remotely from Little Skip’s Coffeehouse in Bushwick because I knew that hardly anyone would be at work on 2 January. After work we went to see Citizenfour, the Edward Snowden documentary. It was good as I had heard.
Saturday we went to the Brooklyn Museum. I wanted to see the Judith Scott exhibition. This is a person who wraps objects usually with yarn, and I was doubtful about liking the show, but I had heard that it was cool and it really was impressive. Scott wrapped objects in an interesting way that I could not have imagined without seeing it. There was also a high-heel exhibit and an exhibit featuring art from Bushwick. I was amused to see Bushwick featured because I still am grasping to understand this expensive dirty neighborhood that seems to have lots of artists but to me does not seem as accessible or affordable as some other creative neighborhoods. There was a jazz band, Snarky Puppy, playing at the museum and we heard them that night. It was nice.
Sunday we went to the Museum of the Chinese in America in Chinatown then had tea in the neighborhood. The museum talked repeatedly about Chinese laundry services in North America, which I did not appreciate had a history of at least 150 years and was a point of community pride. I understand better now.