I had some free time this afternoon, so I went over to Soho to buy some art supplies, and while I was waiting for plexiglass to be cut, I Caught a few shows: Deitch Projects, Spenser brownstone, The Drawing Center, Ronald Feldman. The standouts were Alan Saret and Kirstine Roepstorff at the Drawing Center and Conrad Atkinson at Feldman.

Of course now I’m starting to obsess about my own show, especially after my conversation about contemporary quietism with Ron and my experiences in galleries last week where so much of the work seemed to turn away from our current horrors. When I look at the things I’ve been doing they seem hardly declarative, rather quiet and turned inward. Well, I’ll be puzzling over this for the next few weeks.

At least I picked up a bunch of new materials. And had some good Vietnamese food.

But my decision to walk uptown through Soho to cash out my coin jar (52.00!)and then buy some frames was a bad one: every street was crammed with people, presumably shopping. And I came across a new phenomenon: all those shoe stores along Broadway? None of them sell shoe laces! Am I just an old fool now? When did this happen that places sell you lace up shoes and not laces? Is the idea that you chuck the shoes when the laces go?

The frustration of no laces and the seething crowds added up to unkind feelings on my part for the rest of humanity.