thursdays with schnabel

for all of the complaining that i do about living in this town, i still really love it.

last night was a great example of why i do.

i went to go see a lecture that the painter julian schnabel was giving at the new york studio school. it was the second one that i attended there, the first being a talk that the super badass james rosenquist (a grand forks, north dakota native!) gave last year.

they are incredibly intimate, interesting things, these talks.

i must say that i have never really been a huge fan of schnabel's work, but i find him to be an interesting guy. he paints, he sculpts, he directs films (basquiat, before night falls) all while looking eerily similar to the big lebowski. in person though, he was totally charming and gave a really personal (if somewhat rambling) two hours and then some talk.




i got a great seat two rows away from him.

even better and waaaaaay more exciting for me though was the fact that i was sitting about three feet from Lou Reed (!) the entire night.


here's Lou! sitting next to him are two of schnabel's sons. about halfway through the talk, his sexy and tremendously good smelling daughter lola sat right next to me.

it was totally great. i wish i could have taken more (and better) pictures, but i felt weird taking the ones that i did. plus i didn't want Lou to start yelling at me.

i came away from it all with a completely different view of schnabel than i did going in. he impressed me.

in honor of my Lou Reed experience, here's one of my favorite songs by him: New York Telephone Conversation.