East Coast Recap

Ms. Toybreaker and and I are [reluctantly] back in Detroit from a four and a half day jaunt around the east coast - playing records and visiting family, friends and museums.

Wednesday night's edition of Kiss & Tell was a total blast. [For Detroiters' reference, Kiss & Tell is more or less to Bunker what Les Infants Terribles was to Untitled.] Huge thanks to Seze for inviting us to play records, and huge thanks to Bryan Black for being an integral part of the chaos and totally shaming us with an amazing set. It was great to see Gorrell, Sneak, Plaslaiko, Brian Jackson, Pheonix Perry, Atomly, Bryan Kasenic, Cowboy Mark, Lisa Hsu, Lauren Hill, Mike Schroff, and so many of our good friends there. Official photos from the night can be found here.

Thursday we took advantage of the Megalopolis' excellent rail system and headed down to Philadelphia. Nor'easter-be-damned, we had a spectacular meal at Amada Thursday night, followed by cheesesteaks at Pat's and visits to the Mütter Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art on Friday.

This was my 2nd and [incredibly] Bethany's first time at the Mütter. [19th century vitrines full of human skulls, surgical instruments and wax models of medical anomalies never ever get tired.] This was the first time for both of seeing the Duchamp collection, including The Large Glass and Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas at the Philly museum of art. Wow. I can die now. I remember when I was eight or so [I was really into Dali and Magritte and Escher at the time - I think surrealism appeals to most young boys in the same way sci-fi does] my dad told me how Duchamp's last work took 20 years to complete, and compared it to one of those big sugar easter eggs you peek into to view a diorama. He didn't think that conversation through too hard ahead of time, because when I asked what the diorama was, he uncomfortably skirted the question. Even at 36, I felt dirty looking at it in person - which is impressive after almost three decades of anticipation! [If I believed in an afterlife, the very first person I'd like to meet is Marcel Duchamp. I'm not terribly good at chess, but still... I'd like to think we could have a good conversation about subversion.]