Strange dreams, powerful imagery – androgyny, private clubs, mansions, Freemasons. The kind of jumbled and vivid dreaming you “remember” from sleep that’s been broken, then reconnected, then broken again.
It was boiling hot yesterday. Around 12:30pm I phoned W. to report that the thermometer on the deck, which is in full sun, read 108ºF. The house’s AC ran all day. Aside from my morning walk, I only went outside to drive to the supermarket and walk its icy aisles, plus through the broiling parking lot. I spent way too much of the day online, reading, reading, reading. I don’t like days like this.
Finished watching HyperNormalisation. Watched / listened to an interview with Adam Curtis. Read reviews. Looked up the Russian sci-fi authors, et al. Exercised. Wrote a short start for a memoir piece. Did laundry. Read more.
At 6pm I left the house and walked, in the still hot early evening, to the library where I returned some books and videos, both unread, unwatched. Continued on to the Larcom Theater, where I met W., to hear Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons. She talked about her work, presented a rather long slide show. Her work is multi-level, multi-faceted, multi-valent; like her, it’s in overdrive in many ways. We had seen her show at the PEM – the room installed with these huge alembic-style glass jars, a strange alchemical theater, sticks in my mind. I didn’t know how rich and varied her overall body of work is – and last night, she essentially released its flood (which is a funny way to put it because one of the many many shows she talked about was “separated by water,” and she talked at length of how the ocean and water is of great aesthetic and symbolic concern to her in her art making).
We were deluged by a seemingly never-ending stream of her work, and although she claimed to be nervous, up there on the stage, behind the podium, in the dark and in front of the illuminations of her slides, she is anything but shy with words. A nonstop talker, Magda began. I sometimes felt she would never stop. Although the event started relatively on time (6:30), with only two very short introductions, we didn’t get out there till 8:15. I think, in a less slide-show-y way and with a more tightened-up verbal presentation, the whole thing could have been better if kept to 50-60 minutes. The Larcom’s seats aren’t that comfortable, either. Although I had to comment again on how remarkable and wonderful it is that B. has these amazing, historical downtown venues within blocks of one another. Last night, there was another event at 9 Wallis – same building, really, as Larcom – and at the Cabot Theater. We walked home in the warm (83ºF) breezy wind – the street was busy with pedestrians, the restaurants all full. A busy little town, lots of seemingly happy campers.
We got home, I made a salad and we ate cold cuts and salad, drank rosé, and went to bed. AC on, it was dry and cool enough, and the AC noise less intrusive than traffic noise or crack-of-dawn sparrows.