william kentridge and hikes

the past week or so has been very busy, but not too much that it keeps me from fun times with good friends. south african artist, william kentridge, known for his spectacular charcoal drawings / animations and video work is all over new york city right now. most notably, he has designed the set and produced shostakovich's opera, "the nose" at the metropolitan opera and has a retrospective exhibition at MoMA. he gave a public lecture at the new york public library a week ago, i and a couple of great mfa friends were lucky enough to hear him speak and talk with him personally afterwards. he gave a brilliant lecture, and said many things about making art that i was in position of needing to hear. the link below is a short video of the lecture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NgB_IkPTjw

the weather has turned on long island for the better. according to the locals, this winter was atypical. much snow and ice. with the warmer weather i've been able to learn about some of the parks and preserves that are close by. kathryn, kristine, julianne and i went for a walk at avalon park in stony brook, and yesterday i went with julianne, jeremy, and kristine to the weld nature preserve in smithtown. there was a beautiful phosphurescent green bog with hundreds of croaking frogs. the sound was so surreal and unlike anything i've ever heard. the part leads up the the beach were we stood in the frigid sound for a few minutes and basked in the warm sun. two great parks to escape to before getting started on a busy day at school.